Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

In November 2015 I started a personal A-Z Author Challenge with the idea of only reading authors starting with A for a month, then moving on to B etc. This turned out to be highly constraining and impractical. Let's face it, not all my whims turn out to be good ideas.

I modified my idea to "one letter, one (sur)name, one month" (but not one title), which is working somewhat better. It also quickly turned into an A-Z of English-language Classics. Hopefully I'll be done at the end of 2017, at which point I'll move on to non-English-language classics.

2017 Edit:
As part of my "get ready for the 40s" self-help program, I have decided to make sure that I have read at least one significant work of literature (fiction) for each of the 40 years I have soon been alive. (Significant either to myself or to the world of literature in general.) I turn 40 in February 2018, but I'm giving my self to the end of 2018 to complete the list of books that covers 1978 -2017.

✔1978 - Iris Murdoch: The Sea, the Sea
✔1979 - Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
✔1980 - Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
1981 - Salman Rushdie: Midnight's Children
1982 - Alice Walker: The Color Purple or Thomas Keneally: Schindler's Ark or Isabel Allende: The House of the Spirits
✔1983 - J.M. Coetzee: Life and Times of Michael K
✔1984 - Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus, - David Gemmell: Legend
✔1985 - Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale
✔1986 - Diana Wynne Jones: Howl's Moving Castle, Lois McMaster Bujold: Shards of Honor
1987 - Toni Morrison: Beloved or Wallace Stegner: Crossing to Safety or Haruki Murakami: Norwegian Wood
✔1988 - Roald Dahl: Matilda
✔1989 - Katherine Dunn: Geek Love & John Irving: A Prayer For Owen Meany
✔1990 - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
✔1991 - Lawrence Norfolk: Lempriere's Dictionary
✔1992 - Michael Ondaatje: The English Patient or Connie Willis: Doomsday Book
✔1993 - Annie Prolux: The Shipping News , Kim Stanley Robinson: Red Mars
1994 - Louis de Bernières: Captain Corelli's Mandolin or Haruki Murakami: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
✔1995 - Philip Pullman: The Golden Compass
✔1996 - David Foster Wallace: Infinite Jest or George R.R. Martin: A Game of Thrones
✔1997 - J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
1998 - Edwidge Danticat: The Farming of Bones
1999 - Jhumpa Lahiri: Interpreter of Maladies or Tracy Chevalier: Girl with a Pearl Earring or J. M. Coetzee: Disgrace or Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon
✓2000 - Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
✔2001 - Neil Gaiman: American Gods
2002 - Siri Hustvedt: What I Loved or Haruki Murakami: Kafka on the Shore
✔2003 - Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
✔2004 - Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
✔2005 - Stieg Larsson: Menn som hater kvinner
2006 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun
✔2007 - Patrick Rothfus: The Name of the Wind or Sherman Alexi: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
✔2008 - Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games
✔2009 - Karl Ove Knausgård: Min kamp 1
2010 - Project Itoh: Harmony
2011 - Elena Ferrante: My Brilliant Friend
✔2012 - Benjamin Alire Sáenz: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
✔2013 - Donna Tartt: The Goldfinch or John Lewis: March: Book One or Joseph Boyden: The Orenda
✔2014 - Anthony Doerr: All the Light We Cannot See or Marlon James: A Brief History of Seven Killings
✔2015 - N. K. Jemisin: The Fifth Season
✔2016 - The Last Days of New Paris
✔2017 - Moshin Hamid: Exit West

A is for Jane Austen: Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility (read Nov. -15) and Mansfield Park (read Oct.-17)
B is for the Brontë sisters, Charlotte: Jane Eyre, Emily: Wuthering Heights, (read Dec. -15) and Anne: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (read Jan. -16)
C is for Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone and The Woman in White (read Jan. -16) and Armadale (read Oct.-17)
D is for Lord Dunsany: The King of Elfland's Daughter (read April -16)
E is for George Eliot:Middlemarch (read: Feb-April -16) and The Mill on the Floss (read: March-17)
F is for E.M. Forster: A Room with a View and Where Angels Fear To Tread (read May-June -16)
G is for Elizabeth Gaskell: North and South (read April-May -16)
H is for Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd (read June -16)
I is for Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day (read July -16)
J is for James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist аs a Young Man (read Jan.-16)
and Dubliners (read Aug.-Sep.-16)
K is for Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (read Sep.-16)
and Kim (read Oct.-16)
L is for D.H. Lawrence: Lady Chatterley's Lover (read Feb.-17) and The Fox (read April -17) and Sons and Lovers (read July-Aug.-17)
M is for Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (read April -17), Frenchman's Creek and Jamaica Inn (read May-17)
N is for Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita and The Luzhin Defense (read June -17)
O is for O'Brien, Edna: The Country Girls Trilogy (read July-Aug -17) and Flann: The Third Policeman and The Dalkey Archive (read July -17)
P is for Plath, Sylvia: The Bell Jar (read Sep. -17)
Q is for De Quincey, Thomas: Confessions of an English Opium Eater (read Nov.-17) and Miscellaneous Essays (read Dec.-17)
R is for Radcliffe, Ann: The Mysteries of Udolpho (read Oct.-Nov.-17)
S is for Stevenson, Robert L.: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (read Oct.-17) and Treasure Island and The Ebb-Tide (read Dec.-17)

Reviews

A
Ooops, I didn't review these? It's Austen. I couldn't write a review without ending up with a 2000+ word essay.

B
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

And my view of the Brontë-sisters is nicely summarised by this cartoon. I am so in camp Anne!
http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=202

C
The Moonstone
The Woman in White

D
The King of Elfland's Daughter

E
Middlemarch

F
A Room With a View
Where Angels Fear to Tread

G
North and South

H
Far From the Madding Crowd

I
Never Let Me Go
The Remains of the Day

J
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

K
The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story
Kim

L
Lady Chatterly's Lover
The Fox

M
Rebecca
Frenchman's Creek
Jamaica Inn

N
Nabokov... yes, I should review these. One day.

O
The Third Policeman
The Dalkey Archive

I like this idea Leni! And your choices are excellent. I look forward to seeing which Forster you choose.

Really Cool Leni!!! And great books too!! I look forward to seeing what you have lined up for the rest of the alphabet. ;-)

Impressive. Looking forward to your progress.

by "English" do you mean English-Language?

I do indeed, Darren! That was lazy of me. Fixed now. (I am aware that Lord Dunsany was Irish.) I admit that the focus will probably be on British authors, simply because there are so many there that I've been meaning/wanting to read, with some Irish and American thrown in. But I don't think I could do A-Z with only English authors! Certain letters become impossible.

Kathleen wrote: "I like this idea Leni! And your choices are excellent. I look forward to seeing which Forster you choose."

I have and on loan from the library and will probably read them both (though the cover with cursive writing on "A room With a View" is distressing me).

Leni wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "I like this idea Leni! And your choices are excellent. I look forward to seeing which Forster you choose."

I have and [bookcover:A R..."

Great! I haven't read the first yet but loved the second. But how much less like the book could a cover be? Slap a nice image of Florence over that and enjoy your reading!

Leni wrote: " A is for Jane Austen: Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility (read Nov. -15)
B is for the Brontë sisters, Charlotte: Jane Eyre, Emily: [book:Wuthering Heights|6..."

Wow, these certainly are some great English classics. The only one I haven't read is The King of Elfland's daughter. I know you loved it, but it isn't my usual type of book. Maybe I should look into it some more.

I also need to read more Forster. I've only read A Passage to India, which was slow going, but I loved it more with every page. I haven't read anything by him since, which is shameful.

I have just started A Room with a View....

Alright. Things were getting a bit chaotic for a while. I snuck in three different authors under B, started E before D and still haven't finished E though I have started G before F. And I wanted to read more than one book for D, but I need to move on. I'm looking more or less on track, and as long as I've completed up to and including 'N' at the end of the year, all is good.

Looking at my ABC, I sort of feel like my D should have been for Dickens. But I don't want to chain myself to the 19th century, so it was probably good that I broke the pattern when I did.

For F I was torn between Forster and Fitzgerald. But I also have an Across America challenge going on elsewhere (that I really should devote some time to soon), and there will be some Fitzgerald there.

I was equally torn for G. Gissing or Gaskell? Then a group read in the 'Victorians!' made the decision for me, and Gaskell it is. But I still need to find the occasion for reading Gissing at some point.

H is another of those luxury problems. Modern classic Catch 22 by Joseph Heller? Or old school adventure with Henry Rider Haggard? Or do I force myself to face my dread of Thomas Hardy? Tune in in June to find out!

I had never heard of Thomas Hardy before coming in this group where he's nominated a lot, it feels like the one classic I need to catch up with absolutely so why' the dread? Something I need to watch out for?

siriusedward wrote: "I have just started A Room with a View...."

I'm planning on reading at least one of the Forster books during the read-a-thon next weekend.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

Emerson wrote: "I had never heard of Thomas Hardy before coming in this group where he's nominated a lot, it feels like the one classic I need to catch up with absolutely so why' the dread? Something I need to wat..."

Good question.
-I think it is in part that I understand his books to be rather dreary. Then again, I like Dickens and various other authors whose stories aren't exactly a bundle of fun.

-I read some of Hardy's poetry in university, and I'm not really a poetry person. It's a failing of mine. I can only get into prose poem, and the occasional free form. So I associate him with poetry. But that doesn't mean that I won't enjoy his prose.

-I somehow got Hardy mixed up with Henry James in my head, which doesn't make much sense as James is American (though they were at least contemporaries). And I really disliked James' 'Daisy Miller', and couldn't muster the will to finish 'The Golden Bowl'. So Hardy suffers unfairly by random association.

Maybe I really should overcome my aversion and give Hardy a chance. I don't seem to have any coherent argument against him. (But J will definitely not be for James.)

On the other hand I've been meaning to read Catch-22 for so long! I guess I could use it for the 'Banned Book' square in Classics Bingo. I think we can use just about any book for that square, come to think of it. With pretty much any book there's bound to be at least one school board somewhere in the USA that has banned it.

Hardy is always worth a chance, I enjoy reading his books, even though I don't always enjoy his writing!

I love Catch 22 and think it's one of the best books I've ever read....but it does take some effort at first and lots of people hate it.

Leni
This is a really cool challenge. And great selection of books read also. I'll be sure to follow your challenge.

Thank you all for the great support! :D

I've discovered that I put Catch-22 down on my Old and New challenge, so I've got that one covered and have to read it anyway. lol

There's also a Thomas Hardy group read coming up in a months' time in Victorians! Hm... is this a sign?

have you decided which Forster you'll be going for?
I'll be reading Howards End soon as it's in the "Film" section of my current Personal Challenge

Darren wrote: "have you decided which Forster you'll be going for?
I'll be reading Howards End soon as it's in the "Film" section of my current Personal Challenge"

I think I'll probably start with A Room with a View, in spite of the dreadful cover. It's one of those titles that everyone knows. If I enjoy that I'll read more Forster.

I've seen Howards End many years ago, but all I can remember is that it had Anthony Hopkins.

Howards End is one of my fave movies (which is how it made my list!) - superb acting from Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham-Carter, Vanessa Redgrave - can't say any more without plot spoiling - really looking forward to seeing how the book compares...

will keep an eye out for how you get on with Room With A View...

I'm just a stick in the mud for offering any help, both are solid good reads. If choosing between the two was ever an issue all I can recommend is a coin toss. Heads or tails, Room or View you can't lose.

The great thing about this challenge is that I'm not limited to one book, just one name. Forester's books are short, or at least the two I have acquired are, so I should easily find time for both. :)

Darren wrote: "Howards End is one of my fave movies (which is how it made my list!) - superb acting from Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham-Carter, Vanessa Redgrave - can't say any more wit..."

I'd forgotten that Helena Bonham-Carter was in both movies! I'm going out on a limb here, since it's been a while since I read both, but I'm going to say that as much as I enjoyed the movies, both of the books are much better.

Finally read both the Forster books I had in mind. I sort of want to go on a Forster film spree now. His books should be seen and heard, I think.

I have also started the letter H, and yes I am reading the dreaded Hardy! Thanks to a Victorians! group read of Far from the Madding Crowd, I decided to take the leap. Well... I'm sort of hopping along rather than leaping. Turns out that this book at least is nothing to be afraid of, it is written with a lot more humour than I expected.

And it's time to consider the letter I for July! That's just not a good letter for classics! For the longest while all I could think of was John Irving. Which is okay, I've already read a couple of his books, but there's plenty to choose from. But then I stumbled across a reference to Kazuo Ishiguro, and I haven't read any of his books. That seems like an oversight that needs to be remedied.

I liked "Madding Crowd" when I read it last year.

I read my first Irving this year (Garp) and have my first Ishiguro slated for 2017 - I dithered for ages picking which title to start with though - will be interested which one you pick/what you think...

Garp was my first Irving too. I was 16 at the time, and had finished reading the novel my English teacher had chosen for the whole class to read (Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett). The teacher told me that as we had scheduled reading time in school I could go to the school library and pick out something else. I returned with Garp and got a raised eyebrow and a nod of respect from the teacher.

As for Ishiguro, my local library has The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go and The Buried Giant, and two of those are also on the 1001 Books to read before you die list. (Incidentally they have no John Irving whatsoever in any of the county libraries!) Choices, choices. Which one did you decide on?

Oohh Remains of the Day is lovely but then I do want to try the others too.

Do tell what you think of the movies - either (both were made by Merchant Ivory anyway so both brilliant) :0)

Yes! I'm looking forward to your thoughts on the movies too. And speaking of movies, I remember the John Irving movies so well I can't really remember which books I've read ...

But The Remains of the Day is a must on my TBR list. Can't wait to read that one.

Leni wrote: "...Which one did you decide on? ..."
nice try, but you won't get me that easily! ;o)
(and no cheating by looking at my Books!)
I will give one clue in saying that it's not Remains Of The Day, because I know the film so well (Hopkins & Thompson again!)

Darren: Well! I guess you're not interested in a reading buddy, then! ;)


It seems I might have to do a Hopkins&Thompson marathon! That will cut into my reading time. And I'm afraid it will inevitably lead to an inability to tell the various characters apart, though hopefully I might finally be able to think of Anthony Hopkins as something other than Hannibal Lecter...

oh, now you're just tempting me!
...no, no, I swore I wouldn't change my mind (again)...
OK you've worn me down, I have lined up An Artist of the Floating World which apparently is similar to RotD but I won't have the film connotations going round in my head
oh, and I have Red Dragon on my TBR list too ;o)

I've read quite a few Ishiguro and I find him very difficult to pin down. I loved the Remains of the Day, Artist of the Floating World and Never Let Me Go, I like We Were Orphans and the Unconsoled much less. I really wanted to like the Buried Giant, particularly because I found the patronising, sneering tone of a lot of the reporting (UK) on his foray into "fantasy/genre" fiction particularly unfair but it just didn't work for me.

I'm getting quite excited about picking Ishiguro over Irwing now! I just need to get through all my June reading first.

Darren: An Artist of the Floating World looks very interesting! I might have to lodge a complaint with my library! I'll see how I get on with the Ishiguro books they do have first though.

I've read a couple of books by Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go but I'm not a fan, although I'm definitely in the minority! I hope you have better luck :)

There are a few days left of the month, and for the first time in this challenge I am exactly where I planned to be! I've finished H, I'm not reading any letters out of turn, and I have a couple of days before starting the next letter. Whew. Head above water! Wonder how long that will last.

Now that I've taken the time to actually look, I'm also doing pretty well in Bingo and the century of Women. New and Old Classics... erm... yeah, not too bad. My geographical challenges in another group have, however, suffered under my current classics mania, so I'll try to get in a couple of books there now.

It's funny. I set my reading goal at 42 books, because.... well, if you've read Douglas Adams you know why. I fully expected to exceed 42 books somewhat, especially since I also add some of the books I read with my children (not the picture books). But here I am, and it looks like I'll get to 42 with only half the year gone. And yet I have almost as many books still in my tbr-2016! Clearly something has gone awry in planning. Or rather, I might have been a bit too enthusiastic in the amount of challenges I have joined. 8 in total, I think, including this one. So there's the reason why I'm not joining a lot of group reads! Also the reason why I don't have time for all those Hopkins&Thompson movies! Not to mention Netflix and chill. lol

Nice! And I hope you've enjoyed your reading ventures so far. Now you've got me curious about Douglas Adams haha, I've seen the titles of his books pop up a bit, I'm hoping to check one of them out soon.

Wow, that is a lot of challenges :) but you're going well so far. Head way above water!

Ps missing your presence in the group threads then! Chilling sounds good though, can't argue with that :)

Doing great, Leni! Yes, I'm new at this, but I get the feeling that this is the time of year when we have to make some difficult choices. In the spring, it all still seems so possible! But I'm not doing as well as you on my challenges, and they are kind of carefully knitted together so if I miss a few threads the whole plan could fall apart. :-)

I guess I can't do all the group reads and buddy reads and read all the fabulous books I see everyone reading and get to my own lists too. Not all at once anyway!

It reminds me of what happened to my brother when he was a young teenager. He had a realization one day that, unlike what he always thought as a kid, he really wouldn't be able to read every book in the library.

But it sure if fun trying!

Yes. I had that realisation too at some point in my childhood. Not enough time to read them all. I think that's when I decided that I had to be more selective in what I was reading.

I'm still not quite willing to make any tough choices this year. Other than "If it doesn't fit a challenge, it doesn't get read." Fortunately not all of my challenges are time sensitive, but that also means that they end up receiving the least attention.

But we're still on for The Second Sex towards the end of the year, right Nargus? (And The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books are sort of an institution in literature and popular culture. They need to be read. They're also quite fun, though when you look past the puns and all the crazy they are also quite bleak. Not much hope for humankind.)

Yes, Leni, I'm still in! :) It takes two for a buddy read, but I can post in that thread to ask if other peeps wanted to join our foray into feminism and philosophy as told by Simone De Beavoir. The Second Sex is among the 20 most influential academic books in the West (a list I'd like to read most of - because it looked like a nice list - here it is) plus you get to learn about the ideas held by a female philosopher about a topic that interests me. Let's see what she has to say! :)

And thanks for highly recommending the Hitchhiker's series :) sounds like a curious set of books! I'm very much intrigued.

I'm interested in that list, Nargus, and I've read The Second Sex and I've read and own L'invitée. It's been awhile, though. I think some of The Second Sex went over my head. Not sure if I want to squeeze that in this year or not, but it'd be awesome if you guys did a buddy read here, that way if any of the rest of us want to read it at some point in the future, we can read your discussion of it and contribute, too. :)

Kim wrote: "I'm interested in that list, Nargus, and I've read The Second Sex and I've read and own L'invitée. It's been awhile, though. I think some of The Second Sex went over my head. Not sure..."

Hey Kim, I've updated my post above now and you can find the link to the list :) I haven't heard of that title, but it would be cool if the Second Sex sparks my interest in more of SDB's writing. I could imagine it being difficult, I'm sure being able to discuss it will help :)

So many pros to buddy reads! You are tres right :)

Thanks for the list! I've actually read 5 of those plus parts of 5 or 6 more. I smell a long term challenge here. One book a year.

Thanks, Nargus. :) I've read some or all of 5.

Yes, group discussion would be helpful for The Second Sex, I think, as well as some or all of the books in this list I bet! Any professors (of philosophy, economics, physics, etc.) hanging around here, too? :p

Lol, you guys put anyone to shame! Hehe, I can say I've only read one and part of one.

Lol Kim, that'd definitely be handy :D

Nargus wrote: "Lol, you guys put anyone to shame! Hehe, I can say I've only read one and part of one.
"

I've got a few years on you Nargus. You can still catch up after I'm dead.
Erm... that didn't come out quite right.

Yikes. Umm, let's just focus on the present ...plus we don't know how long we're going to live, regardless of age. I like Gandhi's quote - which sort of balances this with reading and learning - "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." - in a sense, it also captures the impossibility of learning everything (or reading in our case), but nonetheless striving to learn/read as much as you want :)

Nargus wrote: "Yikes. Umm, let's just focus on the present ...plus we don't know how long we're going to live, regardless of age. I like Gandhi's quote - which sort of balances this with reading and learning - "L..."

Love that Nargus! Thanks for the reminder. I am certainly adding books to read as if I was going to live forever ...