Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

BINGO 2017
Completed: 25/25

✘ B1: Written by Nobel Laureate Ernest Hemingway
✘ B2: Classic Comedy or Satire An Ideal Husband
✘ B3: Classic Tragedy King Lear
✘ B4: Classic Made into a Film/TV The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
✘ B5: Winner of a Foreign Literary Prize Beloved



✘ I1: 20th Century Classic The House of Mirth
✘ I2: New-to-You Author Nikesh Shukla
✘ I3: Classic Play Creditors
✘ I4: Classic of More than 500 Pages The Three Musketeers
✘I5: 18th Century or Earlier Classic The Canterbury Tales



✘ N1: South American Classic Ficciones
✘ N2: Short Story Classic Dubliners
✘ N3: FREE SPACE Excellent Women
✘ N4: Poetry Collection Stung With Love: Poems and Fragments
✘ N5: European Classic Swann's Way



✘ G1: 19th Century Classic Hard Times
✘ G2: Bokklubben (Norwegian Book Club) World Library List Book Dead Souls
✘ G3: Classic Non-fiction Homage to Catalonia
✘ G4: Group Read Villette
✘ G5: Classic Recommended by a Friend A Tree Grows in Brooklyn



✘ O1: Literary Prize of Your Country/Region The Passion
✘ O2: Classic Folklore or Mythology The Epic of Gilgamesh
✘ O3: Asian Classic Tao Te Ching
✘ O4: Classic Romance A Room with a View
✘ O5: Prize-Winning Female Author Ali Smith

Ideas!!

B1: Written by Nobel Laureate - Hermann Hesse, Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison

B2: Classic Comedy or Satire - The Master and Margarita, Vanity Fair, The Canterbury Tales, A Confederacy of Dunces, Three Men in a Boat

B3: Classic Tragedy - King Lear, Macbeth

B4: Classic Made into a Film/TV - Schindler's List, Doctor Zhivago, The English Patient

B5: Winner of a Foreign Literary Prize - The Hours, Beloved, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, Vera (All Pulitzer Prize winners)

I1: 20th Century Classic - Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf

I2: New-to-You Author - Alexandre Dumas

I3: Classic Play - A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, No Exit

I4: Classic of More than 500 Pages - Anna Karenina, Les Misérables

I5: 18th Century or Earlier Classic - Paradise Lost, Lovers' Vows

N1: South American Classic - Love in the Time of Cholera

N2: Short Story Classic - Dubliners, Nine Stories, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Bartleby the Scrivener, Ethan Frome

N3: FREE SPACE

N4: Poetry Collection - Pablo Neruda, John Keats, John Milton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge

N5: European Classic - Fathers and Sons, Dead Souls, Eugene Onegin, Swann's Way, Hunger

G1: 19th Century Classic - The Count of Monte Cristo

G2: Bokklubben (Norwegian Book Club) World Library List Book - The Divine Comedy, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Tale of Genji

G3: Classic Non-fiction - The Interpretation of Dreams, The Origin of Species, The Republic

G4: Group Read - Tess of the D'Urbervilles, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

G5: Classic Recommended by a Friend - The Member of the Wedding, Dust Tracks on a Road

O1: Literary Prize of Your Country/Region - A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing

O2: Classic Folklore or Mythology - The Iliad, Aesop's Fables

O3: Asian Classic - Rashomon, The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights, Volume 1, Midnight's Children

O4: Classic Romance - A Room with a View, The Age of Innocence, Women in Love

O5: Prize-Winning Female Author - Donna Tartt, Christa Wolf, Muriel Spark

You got me into it. Happy to buddy read with you on some of the selections.

Definitely Brina! It will be interesting for me to see how many of my ideas actually make it onto my final bingo board!

If anyone wants to buddy read anything with me next year, I'm sure we'll be able to schedule something. I expect there will be a lot of crossover on everyone's challenge lists!

Great list Pink!!! And that's a really smart way of writing it up - with your ideas separated from your completed list. I just may have to make a few changes to mine. Thanks!!! ;-)

No problem, I was getting my inspiration from you and everyone else who's already been planning! I think it helps to keep some loose ideas where I can see them, without actually filling in my bingo board :)

Pink wrote: "No problem, I was getting my inspiration from you and everyone else who's already been planning! I think it helps to keep some loose ideas where I can see them, without actually filling in my bingo..."

Great list Pink! Many that you don't have on my list are ones that could still end up there.

For Play's you can't go wrong with Streetcar Named Desire or Death of a Salesman. I've read both, seen the film of both and seen live play adaptations of both and love all versions (though the films aren't as good as the plays). I'm Not familiar with No Exit.

I'm reading The Age of Innocence in January with my 3-D life book club if that works for a buddy read.

Oh and Pink, I loved What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. I read it on Kindle. The one I got (for 99cents) has both versions. It was interesting to read Beginners. I would have stopped there, but thought the final version (which I read first) was superior, I think? I thought they were both great.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Sue, thanks for the tips about the plays and short story. No exit is by Jean-Paul Sartre, whose work I've been meaning to read for ages.

I might join you for a January read of The Age of Innocence, but I might not want to read it that soon. I'll wait and see how I feel once the new year starts :)

You are always a great planner Pink. Welcome to the challenge. I may need to steal of few of your ideas.

Steal away Kathy! I love planning, but I also love that I don't have to stick to it with bingo and will probably change at least half of these when it actually comes to it! It's good to give myself some ideas before I start though!

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is brilliant.

Love a lot of your possible choices!

Thanks for the list, Pink! :)

Great ideas Pink!

One of the fun aspects of this challenge is all the nice buddy reads that spring from it. Lots of potential in your list!

I agree, it's wonderful to see who's choosing the same books and getting inspiration for other choices. I expect lots of buddy reads next year again!

So far I like how by looking at other people's' boards I get inspired for my own choices. I also sense many buddy reads.

A lot of inspiration. Good luck. Also The Count of Monte Cristo is probably one of my favourite novels of all time! In fact I'm due a re-read.

Wonderful ideas. You're really hitting the big ones with your non-fiction pics! Fathers and Sons is great. I read it this year and think you'd like it. I have high hopes for Doctor Zhivago and Ethan Frome!

They are big ones for my non-fiction choice. I'm reading The Republic starting in Jan with another group here, so I'll get through that slowly at least.

Good to hear you liked Fathers and Sons, I feel a bit daunted about it at the moment, but it seems like a book I should read.

I also have high hopes for Doctor Zhivago and Ethan Frome....and for all of them really!

Fathers and Sons is one I need to get to as well. Zhivago was a bit of a disappointment for me, but that was because I have always loved the movie so. So many good reads to try to get to!

I didn't really care for Ethan Frome when I listened to it a couple of years ago but I've loved everything else I've read by Wharton, so I'm really tempted to re-read it and see if perhaps I just was in a bad mood or got the wrong audio edition.

Doctor Zhivago is one I put on my Old & New challenge this year - I even bought a copy of it! But I've completely failed in my plans to read it.

I didn't realize Donna Tart has won an award. I have her Secret History on my TBR.

Midnight's Children is my favorite by Rushdie so far.

Sara, I'm so lacking in all russian lit, I need to correct that! I loved the movie of Doctor Zhivago too, but haven't seen it for quite a few years now. Hopefully the book won't disappoint.

Melanti, the only Wharton I've read is Xingu, so I'm planning to try a couple of her books in 2017.

Donna Tartt has won a few prizes, including The Pulitzer, although not for The Secret History!

Oh and I haven't read anything by Rushdie, time to correct that!

I really liked Dr. Zhivago but I've never seen the movie. I hope you like it as well.

I've seen a lot of people with Beloved and The Count of Monte Cristo on their lists, including me! I think Beloved should be a massive buddy read. The Count I'm going to Serial - and thank you guys so much for clueing me on to that.

Perhaps we'll manage get either of them to win a poll in 2017...if not a buddy read it is!

Oooo, you have lots of good ideas percolating. I like how you've given yourself numerous choices in each category. I might have to do some planning myself. Paradise Lost and Three Men in a Boat would definitely be among my tops choices. Have a great Bingo challenge!

I also do like your ideas. I'd be up for Beloved too...
Gosh, you're all making it very difficult to resist!!!! :0)

Good luck!

Looks like you already have a lot of inspiration, Pink. Good luck with next year's challenge!

Love your list of books. Will be quite some reading though:-)
I can recommend D.H. Lawrence. Read several of his books and allways enjoyed them.
We share some books on our lists. Curious to hear your opinion on them.
Good luck and enjoy!

Thanks everyone :)

Good luck Pink! Coming up with ideas is half the fun, I think.

I have no idea where to place it, but I've finished The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I guess it could fit, 20th century, new to me author, European classic, prize winning female author...but for now I'll put it in the classic made into a film/tv square.

Second book complete and using for the 20th century classic square, The House of Mirth which was great.

You're on to a great start Pink.

Great ideas! D.H. Lawrence has been on my radar for awhile, so I may read him too. Good luck on your challenge :)

Pink wrote: "Second book complete and using for the 20th century classic square, The House of Mirth which was great."

On my challenge list, so good to hear!

Some more categories crossed off my list -

New to you author - The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla

20th century classic - Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Nobel laureate - To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

Prize winning female author - Autumn by Ali Smith

Did you like Autumn? I read one of her other books just a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty awful - but that might have just been that series.

By any chance was it Girl Meets Boy? I thought that was pretty bad, but so were others in that series.

I've read a few of her other books with mixed results. Autumn was by far my favourite, though I also enjoyed How to Be Both.

Pink wrote: "By any chance was it Girl Meets Boy? I thought that was pretty bad, but so were others in that series.

I've read a few of her other books with mixed results. Autumn..."

Yep, I was referring to Girl Meets Boy.. I really liked the first few in the myths series and decided to collect them.. Unfortunately, that series has as many duds as it does great books. Some of the authors they've recruited haven't been a good fit for the premise of the series, IMO.

Good to hear that other books by Smith are better!

How did you find the Proust? He's someone I keep eyeing up but avoiding out of fear I will get all completionist about him and be trapped reading the whole series.

Jon wrote: "How did you find the Proust? He's someone I keep eyeing up but avoiding out of fear I will get all completionist about him and be trapped reading the whole series."

I found it hit and miss. I really enjoyed the first part, but started to lose interest about half way through as it was so slow and a lot of effort for little reward. I'm reading all 7? books with another group over this year, but at the moment I'm not sure how far I'll continue with it. I know what you mean about wanting to complete it, but so far that's not enough reason to commit to more of the same, especially as I've heard the first book is the best.

7. Short story classic - Dubliners by James Joyce. I had mixed feelings about this. Most of the stories ended so abruptly that I thought I'd missed something. They were also pessimistic and focused on failure, which was okay, but it stood out. Some were better than others, but I'm glad that I read it.

What did you think of The Dead, Pink? (I've heard it's one of the best short stories ever.) I read Araby and really enjoyed it, but none of the others yet.

Yes, I was going to mention that The Dead was one of the better stories, not quite my favourite one, but worth reading. Wouldn't call if the best ever short story though!

I am tabling Dubliners for later but through three stories I felt similarly that Joyce could not tie up ends. It is tough to read depressing stories so kudos for getting through it.

Can you tell me how you add the pictures?

Do you mean the pictures of the book covers? To do this, just click on 'add book/author' above the text box and then select 'cover' instead of 'link'. Hope that helps :)