Brian’s Comments (group member since Aug 19, 2012)

Brian’s comments from the Reading the Classics group.

Armin wrote: "Finished it years later, with a little Help from youtube. Glad I made it, but the Group seems dead. AAT and Don Quixote seemed to be too much."

An American Tragedy indeed...

Sunny wrote: "don’t be scared to immolate yourself children now the fire is what will bring you home yes you must die to be reborn children of god you must die again and again and when you set yourself on fire y..."

You're a tool.

Discussion thread for W18 of DQ. There was no discussion last week. Can I get a check-in from those still reading?

7/22-7/28 is an off-week for Robinson Crusoe. Use this week to catch up on RC or on DQ, or read something else, or take a break. And on 7/29...

... we begin Crusoe again with C12-15. This is the discussion thread for that.

Discussion thread for W17 of Don Quixote. Hope everybody is caught up or close!

Linda_G wrote: "Opps, I just realized I put my DQ comments in the wrong place.

I don’t know an easy way to fix it, so I may just leave it."

Where are they?

Some ideas for our next reads:


The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
Great Expectations - Dickens (or anything by Dickens)
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins (first modern mystery?)
Les Liaisons Dangereuse - Choderlos de Laclos
Madame Bovary - Flaubert
Something by Agatha Christie?
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
The Plague - Camus
Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury
Mrs. Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel - William Trevor
Lord of the Rings trilogy (long-term Doorstopper)
The Ides of March - Thornton Wilder


Feel free to comment on any of these, or to add your own suggestions.

The shackles are off! This time you don't have to worry about how long the book is. As you have noticed, we are more flexible in terms of how long we take to read a selection, relating the schedule to the length of the book. We will stick (for now) with 3 weeks on/1 week off, and we will stagger those weeks so they are different for each selection.

Let's hear your ideas for a 'Monthly' September read, and for our next Doorstopper (long books). We can either start them both in September, or take a month off from the Doorstopper, and begin that one in October. I lean toward taking a break on that until October, but let's hear your thoughts on the subject.

>Maybe it is time for a more modern Classic for the August or September read.

I'm going to leave this thread visible and active, because there are good ideas here. But I will also start a new thread for our September read. We are finishing with both Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe at the end of August, so it's time to start thinking about a new monthly and doorstopper read.

I agree something more modern is probably a good idea, and also that we could stand to drift toward more worldly selections.

Lorri wrote: "Not sure where to put this, but I thought some members of this group might be interested. Tomorrow I plan to start reading [book:The Female Quixote or, the Adventures of Arabella in Two Volumes|33

Quixote is a parody itself, so a parody of a parody is interesting!

Lorri wrote: "Classics I read in June:

- A Doll’s House 1879 Henrik Ibsen (Norwegian)
- Wake Not the Dead 1823 Ludwig Tieck (German)
- Clermont, A Tale Regina Maria Roche (Irish)
- Orphan of the Rhine Eleanor S..."

Heck of a list, Lorri!

We're in our next week off, as we speak. Let's all catch up :)

Linda_G wrote: "Well, I am catching up again. I extended my week off more than a bit.

And once again I am confused about chapters.

Brian, what chapter number do you have for the incident with the lions?

And th..."


C17 for the incident with the lions, and C16 for the man in green.

Discussion thread for Robinson Crusoe, w3. Next week is our week off.
Who's reading with us?

Please join me in welcoming L_Gail as a new moderator. Linda will help to keep us on track, and minimize the impact of my own distractions. This should mean less falling behind going forward. Welcome Linda!

Discussion thread for week 2 of Robinson Crusoe. The calendar is updated with the schedule, which is set for 3 weeks on/3 weeks off.

Good news/bad news... the bad news? Life is interfering and am having trouble keeping up. Good news? We have a new admin, and next week is a week off. Meanwhile, please try to catch up. Let's hear where you are in Cervantes, and what you're thinking!

I think Sancho Panza is the only character trying to keep one foot in the real world, and one in the fantasy. That has annoyed me, too... but it feels as though by design.

Quixote did what we all aspire to do, but none of us does: put everything on the line for what we most believe in and want to do with our lives. That's a crazy thing to do right there. It can be mad and it can be sane... but if it's madness, it's the best kind. I think the central conflict in the novel might be: who is mad? Quixote, the others, or the reader.

But if he'd wised up, we wouldn't have a story to read! :)