Classics for Beginners discussion

You can sign up to the challenge on the group home page and create a separate shelf for your books of the challenge. In this threads you can discuss about your books or the challenge itself. All classic books count, not only the ones we read together.

Whoo hoo, hope i read 60+ books this year!!!!!!!!

Wow, that's great! All classics?

Nina wrote: "Wow, that's great! All classics?"

Probobly not, I'll try to make at least 10 of them classics though.

This was a great challengefor me in 2015, as I had read few, if any classics since college.
I originally committed to reading 7, then upped it to 10, and ended up reading 11!

2016 I will challenge myself to read 15 classics, so it's on!

Susie wrote: "This was a great challengefor me in 2015, as I had read few, if any classics since college.
I originally committed to reading 7, then upped it to 10, and ended up reading 11!

2016 I will challen..."

U go Susie, you have a bigger classics goal than me!!!

This year my goal was 12 classics and I ended up reading 13, now on my 14th, we'll see whether I finish before the end of the year. I think for 2016 I'll set myself the goal of 10 classics but add the following conditions: at least
2 that have been lying around unread for too long
2 rereads
2 new ones


Update on my entry, 01 August, goal changed to 12 books sometime in the beginning of the year, challenge completed now. Will continue reading of classics of course :-), though won't increase my goal.

Books that have been lying around unread for too long:
Crime and Punishment
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Dud Avocado
Every Man Dies Alone

I'm glad I made some progress on this this year. I believe though that I bought at least as many new books that I haven't read yet, so my net count on my owned but unread shelf is probably the same :-/

Books I reread:
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Breakfast at Tiffany's

New books:
Treasure Island
The Metamorphosis
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories
The Old Man and the Sea

Made some new and interesting discoveries here!

Overall, enjoyed it a lot and am also glad I set myself these categories.


Additional classics I read this year after having finished the challenge:
What Katy Did (new)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (new)
Butcher's Crossing (unread for too long)
The Stranger (unread for too long)
The Jungle Books (unread for too long)

Well done! Sounds like a plan to add those conditions, and makes it a little more interesting.

I'm not sure how many I'll read this year. At least 10. Three of them will be:

To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville (a reread)

I want to read at least 4 but one of them has to be one of my HUGE ones so either War and Peace or Three Musketeers...

I'm hoping to read at least 10.

My goal is 12, but I'm really hoping to knock out Anna Karenina because I've been saying I'll read it for years and always manage to skip it.

Meghan wrote: "My goal is 12, but I'm really hoping to knock out Anna Karenina because I've been saying I'll read it for years and always manage to skip it."

Anna Karenina is a really great book, it's definitely one of my Top 3. But I was also hesitant for quite a while to read it because I assume it a difficult book. Which in the end it wasn't for me. I really enjoyed it a lot!

I also want to read that one soon (Anna Karenina), but don't think I'll get to it for awhile.

I haven't calculated it yet, but I plan on reading 50% more books next year as I did this year.

I will try for 10 with one of them being The Iliad. I also would like to read Anna Karenina, but that might be too optimistic for me.

Nina wrote: "Meghan wrote: "My goal is 12, but I'm really hoping to knock out Anna Karenina because I've been saying I'll read it for years and always manage to skip it."

Anna Karenina is a rea..."

Thanks! Everyone I know who has read it has loved it. I'm about 50 pages in so far and it's much easier reading than I expected.

I'm going to aim for 7 this year.

I'll start with 10 classics this year.

Tried to read 50 books in 2015 and made it to 31. Trying again in 2016. Almost everything I read anymore is classics. Just finished The House of Mirth... such a great story! Moving on to A Town Like Alice and The Age of Innocence.

I probably was far fetched again with 100, but I've sold more than 500 gs cookies for the past 4 years so.....

I read 18 in 2015, so I think I'll aim for 30 in 2016.

I think I'll aim for five this year.

I'm aiming for 12 because that averages nicely at one a month, but hoping to do more. Also hoping to finally tackle Don Quixote as one of them.

I'm 'lucky' at the moment in that I have a roughly 50 minute public transport commute to and from work. And my tube is normally empty, so I get most of my reading done then. Love public transport for sitting and absorbing myself in a book.

You are lucky if you can read in a moving vehicle. I can't!

☯Emily wrote: "You are lucky if you can read in a moving vehicle. I can't!"

I have no difficulty reading in a moving vehicle, either. I was actually a bit irritated with people on the bus last week, who sat on the side with running lights at night and then slept. I ended up on the "dark" side of the bus, so could not read on my way home. A half hour of reading lost -- which may not seem like much, but my reading time was already drastically reduced last month due to working extra holiday hours. There were days when my only reading time was on the bus and during my lunch break.

As for the challenge, I had a personal goal of 12 classics last year and actually read 18. While I hope I can at least make 12 this year, circumstances have changed enough that I'm going to start out with 10, and increase the goal if applicable. I'm also not officially entering the challenge on the group home page, as I already have a "2016" shelf, I'm not creating a separate one for 2016 classics.

Heather L wrote: "I'm also not officially entering the challenge on the group home page, as I already have a "2016" shelf, I'm not creating a separate one for 2016 classics.."

I just use my generic 'Classics' shelf, it only counts the ones with a 'finished reading' date in 2016, so no need to create a whole new challenge shelf.

As for commuter reading: I always get really annoyed on the odd occasion where one of my tubes is standing room only and too tightly packed to pull out my book. Or when irritating men start trying to talk to me when I am clearly reading and not interested in their conversation.

Ugh, I always hated that Louise. One of the reasons I took books while on the bus or the vanpool or at lunch is so I wouldn't have to talk to iffy or sketchy people.

Thankfully it doesn't happen too often but I swear they have an uncanny ability for only striking on my return commute after a 12 hour day/night shift.

Louise wrote: "Heather L wrote: "I'm also not officially entering the challenge on the group home page, as I already have a "2016" shelf, I'm not creating a separate one for 2016 classics.."

I just use my generi..."


Thanks for the tip about the "classics" shelf -- I do have one of those. I also get annoyed when sketchy people on the bus interrupt me while reading. If I wanted to talk to you, I wouldn't have a book in my hand. ;-)

Funny. I used to get asked questions as well, until I switched to my Kindle.

As its the same size as a mini iPad - no more questions. They cant tell if I am surfing the web or reading.

Good point about the classics shelf, I never knew that!

@Rainey: you mean, they would not interrupt you surfing the web but would do so when you're reading a book? That's weird!!!

Arlene wrote: "I have a Kindle and it has not stopped anyone from asking me what I'm reading or is it good etc. I now get questions about what type of Kindle is it, do I like it etc. (I have a paper white so I ca..."

I have a paperwhite too. Thank heavens I don't get asked about that.

I changed from my yearly classics shelves to just one classic shelf. So much easier, thanks for the tip, Louise! :-)

Luxury problem that came up now: I read Crime & Punishment over the holidays, probably 80% of the book in 2015 and 20% in 2016. I didn't feel it would be ok to count it as one of my 2016 classics, that's an easy score. So, I upped my entry to 11 instead of 10 classics for 2016.

And Emily, I also plan to read War & Peace some time this year, if you want to join forces, let me know. Vaguely remember that RitaSkeeter also mentioned at some point that she might be interested in reading it. (Do I remember right?)

Nina wrote: "I changed from my yearly classics shelves to just one classic shelf. So much easier, thanks for the tip, Louise! :-)

Luxury problem that came up now: I read Crime & Punishment over the holidays, p..."

I've read W&P a couple of years ago and not feeling like I need a re-read as yet :) I'm going to tackle Tolstoy again with Anna K later in the year which is what you may have been thinking of?

Oh yes, maybe I confused, sorry in that case. Enjoy Anna K., it's a fantastic book!! One of my all time Top 3.

Nina wrote: "Oh yes, maybe I confused, sorry in that case. Enjoy Anna K., it's a fantastic book!! One of my all time Top 3."

Good to know! This year I'm trying to clear the decks of books I've meant to read for ages!

RitaSkeeter wrote: "Nina wrote: "Oh yes, maybe I confused, sorry in that case. Enjoy Anna K., it's a fantastic book!! One of my all time Top 3."

Good to know! This year I'm trying to clear the decks of books I've mea..."

Good luck with that! W&P falls into that category for me, let's see what the book year will bring.

I have just 4 for my classics challenge. I'm not really a classics reader, although I have read some. I lived in Austria for a while and the only reasonably priced English books were classics, so I read Lorna Doon, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Woman in White, The Old Curiosity Shop and a few more)

I'm hoping for some inspiration!!

My 2016 overall challenge is for 76 books, so more classics are possible if I'm on a roll... plus I'm doing a challenge with some cool categories too!

So - A classic classics beginner for you!?!

I think I'll add The Grapes of Wrath to my classics list this year. I didn't care for it when I read it for my "Decades of the 30's" class in high school. It probably deserves a revisit.

And I'm not getting any younger.

Squire wrote: "I think I'll add The Grapes of Wrath to my classics list this year. I didn't care for it when I read it for my "Decades of the 30's" class in high school. It probably deserves a revisit..."

I read it in 2008 or 2009, right after the economy tanked. I found it timeless and current.

Well, I wasn't in a "classics" kinda mood in 1980; I was more about rebellion, so I might never have given it a chance.

I do find it significant that I have never been able to sit through the whole movie before (and I love movies). But I'll give it a whirl.

Squire wrote: "I think I'll add The Grapes of Wrath to my classics list this year. I didn't care for it when I read it for my "Decades of the 30's" class in high school. It probably deserves a revisit..."

We read it last year in spring as a group read and I really enjoyed it. As Emily says: to me so much of it applies also to our times. Check out the thread if you like, if I remember we had some interesting discussions on this. If I remember well, it was in May.

That is so true, Nina. I read it in high school and was bored silly. But that was in the 1980s. Read it again, in 2008, so much more meaningful!

If you'd like a companion to it, read Sanora Babb's book Whose Names Are Unknown. She let Steinbeck look at her notes - she was a journalist at the time - and he got his book to his publisher first. So, she didn't get hers published for decades later. Sad, but she never blamed Steinbeck.

It's a moving book and she actually met some of those that suffered.

I'm thinking a Charles Dickens book will be on my list again this year. I'm leaning towards The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

I just set up this challenge. My 2016 reading goal is 36 books, so I set up my classics goal as 24.

I just completed a 2-week voyage on the Pequod. I enjoyed Moby Dick more the fourth time around than I did the previous three times combined. I'm a lot grimmer, grayer, and more grizzled than when I started, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

And I think I'll keep the beard for a bit!

;>D

I'm glad to hear that, Squire. I've always wanted to pay the Pequod a visit but everyone seems to not enjoy it at all. But maybe it just takes 4 trials, so I might start the first voyage soon :-p

It doesn't take 4 times through to enjoy Moby Dick. I've just enjoyed it differently each time because I was looking at through different eyes each time (20, 34, 41, and now 50 years old). I've enjoyed it each time--enough to keep it on my favorites list for 30 years. I just REALLY enjoyed it this time through.

Do read it. In fact, I'll leave you with the secret to enjoying the book:

"But in a matter like this, subtlety appeals to subtlety, and without imagination no man can follow another into these halls."