Reading the Classics discussion

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message 1101: by Phil (last edited Feb 14, 2014 03:07AM) (new)

Phil (lanark) Good for you, Nathania. The Three Musketeers (and the other 4 novels that follow) is one of my favourite books of all time - I'd LOVE to be able to get the group to read it, but I fear it's too much fun ;)


message 1102: by Phil (new)

Phil (lanark) Still on Little Dorritt ...


message 1103: by [deleted user] (new)

The Complete Stories of Truman Capote


Ashley Vargas-Butler | 1 comments I'm reading the Sun also Rises


message 1105: by Sumikko (new)

Sumikko Almost done with Little Dorrit...


message 1106: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Finishing up the Introduction to Heart of Darkness and the Congo Diary. You have to leave the Intro to last because it contains spoilers.


message 1107: by [deleted user] (new)

I recently started The Woman in White and love it so far. Not quite 100 pages in. I'm also about half way done with The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, but, in typical Hugo style, it does seem to drag a little bit in the boring parts and the fun parts seem to go by too quickly. Still, I love it so far.


message 1108: by Sheryl (new)

Sheryl | 99 comments Just re-read Katherine Paterson's Jacob Have I Loved, a Newbery winner I've been craving for a while. Still excellent. :D


message 1109: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Janet wrote: "After this I've got 2 Inspector Morse books to read by Colin Dexter."

I'm reading through all the Morse books. I think I might have 4-5 left.

I'm halfway through From the Terrace by John O'Hara. 981 pages...


message 1110: by [deleted user] (new)

Ijust got done with The Lottery by Shirley Jackson


message 1111: by Michael (new)

Michael Thimsen New to the group and reading Lolita


message 1112: by [deleted user] (new)

Janet wrote: "The Woman in White is on my list about 2 books down the line.

I am about 12% into Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Supposed to be one of the earliest detec..."


I loved Bleak House! I could not put it down for the last three hundred pages or so. Definitely my favorite novel by Dickens and probably in my top five favorite novels overall.


message 1113: by [deleted user] (new)

I am reading outer dark


message 1114: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl The Charterhouse of Parma. It is so boring....I'm lucky if I get through 10 pages per day. I will finish though, if it takes me the REST OF MY NATURAL LIFE.


message 1115: by Denisse (new)

Denisse i'm reading fahrenheit 451 :)


message 1116: by Hilary (new)

Hilary (agapoyesoun) I'm just a few pages into 'To a Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf on recommendation by a GR member. The style and language are different from anything I've ever read before. Perhaps this is why I'm struggling to understand it. I reread a few pages and understood a little better, I think! I do hope that it becomes clearer as I don't want to give up on it. Thankful for the recommendation as I don't like to get stuck in a rut with reading the same types of books; always my default position.


message 1117: by Samantha (new)

Samantha Brown | 3 comments Just started Wuthering Heights.


message 1118: by Mariya (new)

Mariya | 9 comments Samantha wrote: "Just started Wuthering Heights."

It's a great book, Samantha! I loved it! :-)


message 1119: by Tracey (new)

Tracey (traceypb) Nearly finished Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. loving the last part.


message 1120: by Samantha (new)

Samantha Brown | 3 comments Masha wrote: "Samantha wrote: "Just started Wuthering Heights."

It's a great book, Samantha! I loved it! :-)"


I am enjoying it so far :)


message 1121: by Kathy (new)

Kathy Chumley (kathleenchumley) Hi all. I've been in the group for a few months but have been quiet. I've enjoyed reading the discussions.

I'm reading Les Miserables for the Reading the Chunksters group. I recently finished Nicholas Nickleby for my IRL book club. On my own I'm reading Americanah and enjoying it very much.

My current non-fiction books are Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole and Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief.


message 1122: by Sheryl (new)

Sheryl | 99 comments Started I, Claudius this week and am enjoying it muchly. It's slow going, though, because I want to have my teenagers read it with me so I keep stopping to look up things or write down notes!

Still haven't finished Fitzgerald's translation of The Aeneid -- I keep reading books I own instead of getting back to the library. May have to buy the thing to get it done!


message 1123: by Tracey (new)

Tracey (traceypb) I finished Oliver Twist yesterday and am reading Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and wow this lady can write.


message 1124: by Donna (new)

Donna | 1 comments I finished reading 1984 a couple of days ago, now I'm reading The Iliad. I just joined this group last week.


message 1125: by Brian (new)

Brian Martin | 4 comments I'm reading Gravity's Rainbow


message 1126: by Henry (new)

Henry Birnbaum Sheryl wrote: "Started I, Claudius this week and am enjoying it muchly. It's slow going, though, because I want to have my teenagers read it with me so I keep stopping to look up things or write down notes!

I'm currently reading that
too. It is one of my first steps into Roman history and I really like it. It's well written and not nearly as annoying as other history fiction I read.


message 1127: by [deleted user] (new)

I debating on to build a fire or the happy prince to read next?
what do people think of these books?


message 1128: by Phil (new)

Phil (lanark) The Happy Prince is beautiful, but WILL make you cry.


message 1129: by Phil (new)

Phil (lanark) Actually, I was thinking of The Little Prince - but it doesn't matter, the Oscar Wilde stories will make you cry too (especially, for me, The Selfish Giant)


message 1130: by Henry (last edited Mar 17, 2014 05:33PM) (new)

Henry Avila (henryavila) | 41 comments Tess of the D'Urbervilles


message 1131: by [deleted user] (new)

thanks for the imput


message 1132: by Sheryl (new)

Sheryl | 99 comments Regarding I, Claudius, Henry said:

It's well written and not nearly as annoying as other history fiction I read.

It is much better written than I expected. Going on the bits of the TV series I saw back in the day, I guess I expected it to have more of a "best seller" prose style, which I hate. Which maybe set my sights pretty low, but so far I think Graves' prose is lovely.

I read Genevieve Foster's Augustus Ceasar's World recently, which is an excellent history for older elementary or Jr. High kids; she was apparently not the Tacitus/rumor monger fan Graves was and it's hilarious to compare the two versions of the same events.


message 1133: by Phil (new)

Phil (lanark) I'm currently about 25% through Flaubert's, "Bouvard and Pecuchet" and it's great. Like if Rabelais had written Waiting for Godot.


message 1134: by Renate (new)

Renate | 10 comments Currently reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South again. Watched the 2004 BBC series last weekend and thought I should take it up again. It's been a few years since I've last read it, but it is as beautiful as I remember.


message 1135: by Trudy (new)

Trudy Brasure | 28 comments Renate wrote: "Currently reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South again. Watched the 2004 BBC series last weekend and thought I should take it up again. It's been a few years since I've last read it, but it is a..."
My favorite novel. You learn more in every re-read. There are so many inter-woven subjects, and the character develop can be subtle to grasp the first time around. So much is going on without direct narrative explanation or dialogue between the main characters. You have to be alert to every act and blush to see what's really going on.


message 1136: by Elsa (new)

Elsa | 20 comments Renate wrote: "Currently reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South again. Watched the 2004 BBC series last weekend and thought I should take it up again. It's been a few years since I've last read it, but it is a..." Amazing book! One of my favorites. It keeps getting better with every new read. I love the romantic story between Margaret and John, but I also adore the social background of the book: Industrial revolution, strikes, South Vs North, employers Vs workers. I just wish there were a little less deaths in the book, but…oh well we can’t have it all! :)


message 1137: by Renate (new)

Renate | 10 comments Elsa wrote: "I love the romantic story between Margaret and John, but I also adore the social background of the book: Industrial revolution, strikes, South Vs North, employers Vs workers."

Yes, this novel has it all! You can learn so much from it. I think history-education should make more use of literature ;)

Trudy wrote: "You learn more in every re-read. There are so many inter-woven subjects, and the character develop can be subtle to grasp the first time around."

I absolutely agree! It's one of the things I love most about reading books in general.


message 1138: by [deleted user] (new)

build a fire


message 1139: by Hilary (new)

Hilary (agapoyesoun) I have just begun 'Barchester Towers' by Trollope on a GR member's recommendation. Having watched 'Barchester Chronicles' as a TV series I was looking forward to this book. Trollope's writing is delicious!


message 1140: by Hilary (new)

Hilary (agapoyesoun) I have now added 'Barnaby Rudge' by Dickens for the Pickwickian Club.


message 1142: by Hilary (new)

Hilary (agapoyesoun) Dracula, Jude the Obscure, Martin Chuzzlewit and the 'not Victorian' Don Quixote. Also Wodehouse's Summer Lightning.


message 1143: by Akylina (new)

Akylina | 1 comments I finished Waterland by Graham Swift today and started Breakfast at Tiffany's, which I've been wanting to read for quite a long time.


message 1144: by Sheryl (last edited May 23, 2014 05:00PM) (new)

Sheryl | 99 comments Jessica said:
I'm also reading Dante's Inferno, but its a modern translation so it is a bit dry, although the story is engrossing nonetheless.

Which translation did you read, Jessica? I just finished Robert Fitzgerald's Aeneid, which I enjoyed considerable, and I'm hoping to get to Dante sometime this year as well, but haven't picked a translator yet.

Currently reading I, Claudius, which is entertaining thus far (I'm four or five chapters in).


message 1145: by Trudy (new)

Trudy Brasure | 28 comments Jessica wrote: "Renate wrote: "Elsa wrote: "I love the romantic story between Margaret and John, but I also adore the social background of the book: Industrial revolution, strikes, South Vs North, employers Vs wor..."

Silas Marner? I don't recall the Industrial Revolution even being a part of the plot, themes, or characters' lives.
North and South deftly combines an intelligent look at the social and economic turmoil of the advancing Industrial Age, while at the same time telling a poignant love story. It's my favorite romance AND my favorite voice of hope for civilization from a Victorian author. :)


message 1146: by Connie (new)

Connie (proseandconnie) Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1) by Sarah J. Maas and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (both not classics, haha) as well as attempting Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck . Hopefully Of Mice and Men is better than the Grapes of Wrath, which I didn't enjoy very much :P


message 1147: by Charlotte (last edited Jun 23, 2014 06:36AM) (new)

Charlotte (caelestial) | 5 comments I'm reading The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien for this group. The Call of the Wild by Jack London and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson for myself.

Connie wrote: "Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1) by Sarah J. Maas and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (both not classics, haha) as well as attempting Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Hopefully Of Mice and Men is better than..."

I loved Of Mice and Men! I first read it back in my sophomore year of high school and because of that, didn't enjoy it as much but after a quick re-read I fell in love. It's probably just because I'm an over-emotional teenager, but I honestly cry each time I read it.


message 1148: by Bill (new)

Bill Kupersmith | 125 comments Starting listening to Rebecca today.


message 1149: by Anne (new)

Anne | 8 comments Bleak House by Charles Dickens. I have so much trouble focusing!


message 1150: by Som (new)


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