Lifetime Classics Challenge discussion

Books I've Read in my Lifetime (Books read before 2013)

In no particular order.

✔ Read due to school classes (high school and community college)

1. Persuasion (1818) by Jane Austen 5★♥
2. Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen 5★ ✔
3. Northanger Abbey (1817) by Jane Austen 5★♥
4. Mansfield Park (1814) by Jane Austen 5★
5. Lady Susan (1794 w/out conclusion); The Watsons (1804 not finished); Sanditon (1817 not finished) - (collective work) by Jane Austen 5★
(I love Austen's books. Now I just need to read Emma and Sense and Sensibility.)

6. The Romance of Tristan and Iseult (1900) by Joseph Bedier 5★♥ (Love this romance story)
7. The Halloween Tree (1972) by Ray Bradbury 5★♥
8. Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë 5★♥
9. Heart of Darkness (1902) by Joseph Conrad 4.5★ ✔

10. The Three Musketeers (book 1) (1844) by Alexandre Dumas, père 5★♥
11. Twenty Years After (book 2) (1845) by Alexandre Dumas, père 5★
12. The Vicomte de Bragelonne (book 3) (1854) by Alexandre Dumas, père 5★
13. Louise de la Vallière (book 4) (1857) by Alexandre Dumas, père 5★
14. The Man in the Iron Mask (book 5) (1850) by Alexandre Dumas, père 5★♥
15. The Count of Monte Cristo (1846) by Alexandre Dumas, père 5★♥
(My Dumas phase during my early 20's)

16. The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) by Anne Frank 4.5★ ✔
17. Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding 5★ ✔
18. Nancy Drew Mystery Stories: Book 1 The Secret of the Old Clock (1930) by Carolyn Keene 5★
19. To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee 5★♥ ✔
20. The Phantom of the Opera (1910) by Gaston Leroux 5★♥ (love this!!!)

21. Anne of Green Gables: Book 1 Anne of Green Gables (1908) by L. M. Montgomery 4★
22. Bridge to Terabithia (1977) by Katherine Paterson 5★♥
23. The Bell Jar (1963) by Sylvia Plath 5★♥
24. The Italian, or the Confessional of the Black Penitents (1797) by Ann Radcliffe 5★♥♥
25. Twelve Angry Men (1955) by Reginald Rose 4★ ✔
26. Romeo and Juliet (1599) by William Shakespeare 5★ ✔
27. Frankenstein (1818) or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley 5★ ✔
28. The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck 4.5★ ✔

29. The Lord of the Rings: Book 0 The Hobbit (1937) by J. R. R. Tolkien 5★♥♥
30. The Lord of the Rings: Book 1 The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) by J. R. R. Tolkien 5★♥
31. The Lord of the Rings: Book 2 The Two Towers (1954) by J. R. R. Tolkien 5★♥
32. The Lord of the Rings: Book 3 The Return of the King (1955) by J. R. R. Tolkien 5★♥♥
(My first fantasy fiction book and I love them)

33. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) by Mark Twain 4★ ✔
34. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain 4.5★ ✔
35. Charlotte's Web (1952) by E. B. White 4.5★
36. Beowulf by unknown (dated between the 8th and the early 11th century) 4★ ✔

Reading Challenge From: July 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013

37. The Princess Bride by William Goldman 5★♥♥
38. Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) by A. A. Milne 5★♥
39. Dracula by Bram Stoker 4.5★♥
40. An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving (1881) by Louisa May Alcott 5★♥
41. Miracle on 34th Street (1947) by Valentine Davies 5★♥♥♥
42. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 5★♥
43. The Gift of the Magi (1906) by O. Henry 5★♥

Reading Challenge From: January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014

44. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Novella) by James Thurber 5★♥
45. Animal Farm by George Orwell 5★
46. It's Not the End of the World (1972) by Judy Blume 5★
(A reread. I read this when I was in my pre-teens, so I didn't remember much of it. This time I liked it. Just didn't think the main character acted like a 12 y.o. really. But then I'm not a middle child like Karen. And she was 12 y.o. in 6th grade, while I was like her friend Val Lewis in 7th grade. And Karen still had a bit of a whiny attitude, not like a 12 y.o.)
47. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (1970) by Judy Blume 5★
"We must, we must, we must increase our breasts."
48. ✔ Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 5★♥
(from July. Still love Jane Austen)
49. ✔ The Secret of the Old Clock (1930) (Nancy Drew Mystery Series, Book 1) by Carolyn Keene 5★♥
50. ✔ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) by Douglas Adams (kindle own w/ iTunes audio) 5★♥♥

51. ✔ Wagner the Werewolf (1847) by George W. M. Reynolds 4★

(AKA Wagner the Weir-Wolf or Wehr-Wolf)

So far it's a very gothic horror type. Not so scary type, just dark and very descriptive about the settings and characters. Although I've already wanted to tell one character to run for her life! lol

And there's a lot more going on than just Wagner being a werewolf. The main thought throughout the tale is seduction from love, money, politics, and religion (or knowledge) - which is also the things that the mysterious man seduced Wagner with to transform into a werewolf. A Jewish man is arrested on just seeing dried blood stain on the floor, along with superstition and prejudice. Men who have affairs aren't punished, but rather it's the women who are sent to religious Inquisitions (or even murdered) - for it is always the women who are the seducers. Men only get a bad reputation if they've gambled all their money away (and even became indebted to others).

The interesting thing is that this is written through what seems like the author's point of view. And whenever women are wrongfully sent of to the Inquisition (in this case the Carmelite Nuns), it's plain that the author disagrees and thinks that men are no longer chivalrous (save for a few)...

"Yes, man demands that woman should dishonor herself for his sake; but he will not allow a speck to appear upon what he calls his good name—no, not to save that poor, confiding, lost creature from the lowest depths and dregs of penury into which her frailty may have plunged her! Such is the selfishness of man! Where is his chivalry?"


.

http://www.shelfari.com/books/3542250...

It was the month of January, 1516. The night was dark and tempestuous; the thunder growled around; the lightning flashed at short intervals: and the wind swept furiously along in sudden and fitful gusts.

52: ✔ Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 5★♥

Reading Challenge From: January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015

53. ✔ North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell 4.5★♥
54. ✔ The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide, 2) by Douglas Adams (library audio) (kindle reading) 5★♥
55. ✔ Gidget by Frederick Kohner 5★♥
56. ✔ Emma by Jane Austen (kindle/ paper and iTunes audio ♪) 5★♥

57: ✔ Life, the Universe and Everything (1979) by Douglas Adams (kindle own w/ library audio) 5★♥♥
58: ✔ Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) by A. A. Milne 5★♥ (reread)