Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Yay, it's challenge planning time of year! These are the challenges I'm hoping to do for the 2024 Buffet (although I'll reserve a post for all of them, in case I decide to add more):

✅Challenge #2 - Second Place or Worse
✅Challenge #3 - Decade
✅Challenge #3 - Century
✅Challenge #4 - Members Choice
✅Challenge #5 - Short Story Challenge
✅Challenge #7 - Expand Your Horizon with New Authors
✅Challenge #10 - The Half a Millennium Challenge with a Sour Lemon Twist of Difficult
✅Challenge #11 - Old and New Linked Categories
✅Challenge #12 - Series Books – Start, Continue, Complete
✅Challenge #13 - Travel the World One Continent at a Time
✅Challenge #14 - Rereading Some do Some don't

Bonus Challenges:
✅Challenge #15 - A-Z Author
✅Challenge #16 - A-Z Title

Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR (I probably won't do this one)

Challenge #2 - Second Place or Worse

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

New School
✅1. Season of Migration to the North - July, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Old School
✅1. The Comedy of Errors - March, ⭐️⭐️

Short Story/Novella
✅1. All Summer in a Day - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅2. The Invention of Morel - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Quarterly Long Read
✅1. East Lynne - September, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Challenge #3.i - Decade

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

✅1860 - Paul Revere's Ride - October, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1861 - East Lynne - September, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1862 - Fast in the Ice - September, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1863 - Count Kostia - September, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅1864 - Cousin Phillis - August, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1865 - From the Earth to the Moon - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1866 - Ours, from Plays by Tom Robertson - September, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅1867 take 2 - No Thoroughfare - April, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ (❌1867 - Little Women - DNF)
✅1868 - The Moonstone - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1869 - The Eternal Husband - September, ⭐️½

Challenge #3.ii - Century

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

✅1840s - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - April, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅1850s - North and South - June, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1860s - The Moonstone - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1870s - Under the Greenwood Tree - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1880s - A Tale of Three Lions - March, ⭐️⭐️
✅1890s - The Importance of Being Earnest - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅1900s - The Grand Babylon Hotel - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅1910s - Wurzel-Flummery - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1920s - Leave It to Psmith - July, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1930s - Greenbanks - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Challenge #3.iii - Millennium (I probably won't do this one)

Challenge #4 - Members Choice

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

✅1. 19th Century - The Moonstone - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅2. 20th Century - Wurzel-Flummery - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅3. 21st Century - Yotsuba&!, Vol. 1 - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅4. Originally written in a language other than your own - The Invention of Morel - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅5. An Author never read before - Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅6. Diversity Classic - The Whale Rider - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅7. Science Fiction/Fantasy - R is for Rocket - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅8. Action/Adventure - From the Earth to the Moon - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅9. Childrens/Young Adult - Tell Me Three Things - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅10. Nonfiction Memoir/Biography - Timequake - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅11. Mystery/Thriller - The Grand Babylon Hotel - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅12. Horror or Humor - The Importance of Being Earnest - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Challenge #5 - Short Story Challenge

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

1-16 are from R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury:

✅1. R Is for Rocket - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅2. The End of the Beginning - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅3. The Fog Horn - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅4. The Rocket - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐
✅5. The Rocket Man - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐⭐
✅6. The Golden Apples of the Sun - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐
✅7. A Sound of Thunder - January, ⭐️⭐️½
✅8. The Long Rain - January, ⭐️⭐️½
✅9. The Exiles - January, ⭐️⭐️
✅10. Here There Be Tygers - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐
✅11. The Strawberry Window - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅12. The Dragon - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅13. Frost and Fire - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅14. Uncle Einar - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅15 The Time Machine - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅16. The Sound of Summer Running - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅17. All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅18. A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅19. The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅20. A Tale of Three Lions - March, ⭐️⭐️
✅21. The Star - April, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅22. The Canterville Ghost - April, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅23. Antaeus - August, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅24. Title story from Exhalation - September, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Challenge 6 - Group Reads and/or Buddy Reads Challenge (I may do this one, but I might start out by trying to use the group reads in my Bingo Challenge instead)

Challenge #7 - Expand Your Horizon With New Authors

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

✅1. Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅2. The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅3. A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅4. The Star by Arthur C. Clarke - April, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅5. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn - July, ⭐️½
✅6. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston - July, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Challenge #8 –Most Popular Goodreads Books Listed by Year (I probably won't do this one)

Challenge #9 – Fiction/Non-Fiction (I probably won't do this one)

Challenge #10 - The Half a Millennium Challenge with a Sour Lemon Twist of Difficult

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

✅1590s - The Comedy of Errors - March, ⭐️⭐️
✅1690s - Narrow Road To The Deep North - September, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅1790s - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - September, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅1890s - The Importance of Being Earnest - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅1990s - Timequake - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Challenge #11 - Old and New Linked Categories

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

An author I've never read:
✅Old - T.W. Robertson (book: Ours, from Plays by Tom Robertson) - September, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅New - Dorothy Whipple (book: Greenbanks) - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A book I've never read by an author I've loved in the past:
✅Old - North and South - June, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅New - Wurzel-Flummery - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In translation:
✅Old - Narrow Road To The Deep North - September, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅New - Season of Migration to the North - July, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sci-fi:
✅Old - From the Earth to the Moon - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅New - R is for Rocket - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Authors who are recommended to you if you love Jane Austen:
✅Old - Anne Brontë (book: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) - April, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅New - Georgette Heyer (book: The Grand Sophy) - March, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Challenge #12 - Series Books – Start, Continue, Complete

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

I'm going to read the Yotsuba&! series of graphic novels by Kiyohiko Azuma (translated into English by Stephen Paul and Amy Forsyth). I've read them before, and they are all in the ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ range. Fun, happy books.

✅1. Yotsuba&! Vol. 1
✅2. Yotsuba&! Vol. 2
✅3. Yotsuba&! Vol. 3
✅4. Yotsuba&! Vol. 4
✅5. Yotsuba&! Vol. 5
✅6. Yotsuba&! Vol. 6
✅7. Yotsuba&! Vol. 7
✅8. Yotsuba&! Vol. 8
✅9. Yotsuba&! Vol. 9
✅10. Yotsuba&! Vol. 10
✅11. Yotsuba&! Vol. 11
✅12. Yotsuba&! Vol. 12
✅13. Yotsuba&! Vol. 13
✅14. Yotsuba&! Vol. 14
✅15. Yotsuba&! Vol. 15

Challenge #13 - Travel the World One Continent at a Time

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

✅Africa - A Tale of Three Lions - March, ⭐️⭐️
✅Asia - Yotsuba&!, Vol. 1 - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅Australia - The Whale Rider - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅Europe - The Moonstone - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅North America - R is for Rocket - January, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
✅South America - The Invention of Morel - February, ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Challenge 14 - Rereading - Some do. Some don't

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

1. No Great Mischief
✅2. Season of Migration to the North - July, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅3. The Ten Thousand Doors of January - August, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. The Life of an Unknown Man
5. Four Days' Wonder

Challenge #15 - A-Z Title Challenge

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

A - All Summer in a Day - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
B - The Beauties - ⭐️⭐️½
C - China Court - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
D - Dash & Lily's Book of Dares - ⭐️½
E - East Lynne - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
F - From the Earth to the Moon - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
G - The Grand Sophy - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
H - Here There Be Tygers - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I - The Importance of Being Earnest - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
J - A Jury of Her Peers - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
K - Kabuliwala - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
L - Leave It to Psmith - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
M - The Moonstone - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
N - North and South - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
O - Ours, from Plays by Tom Robertson - ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
P - Paul Revere's Ride - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
*Q
R - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
S - The Star - ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
T - Timequake - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
U - Under the Greenwood Tree - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
V - Vaster Than Empires and More Slow - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
W - Wurzel-Flummery - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
*X
*Y - Yotsuba&!, Vol. 1 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
*Z

* you only need to use one

Challenge #16 - A-Z Author Challenge

✅ Challenge Complete ✅

A - Kiyohiko Azuma
B - Arnold Bennett
C - Wilkie Collins
D - Monica Dickens
E - Tan Twan Eng
F - Fyodor Dostoevsky
G - Elizabeth Gaskell
H - Georgette Heyer
I - Washington Irving
J - James Joyce
K - Guy Gavriel Kay
L - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
M - A.A. Milne
N - Nobuyuki Yuasa
O - Daniel O'Connor
P - Grace Paley
*Q
R - T.W. Robertson
S - William Shakespeare
T - Rabindranath Tagore
U - Ursula K. Le Guin
V - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
W - Oscar Wilde
*X
*Y - Banana Yoshimoto
*Z

* you only need to use one

reserved

reserved

Challenge planning time is always awesome. All the best, Wobbley!

Thanks Ila and Matt! I think I'm probably biting off more than I can chew, but it's so fun to get carried away with the planning!

Good luck Wobbley! Enjoy your planning!

Love your planning, Wobbley! Some great variety here, and my eye went right to your translations, because I loved both Don Quixote and The Wreath. Have fun!

Good luck Wobbley! Looks like a great year of reading :)

Thanks so much for the encouragement Lori, Kathleen and Gerard! Kathleen, I'm always happy to hear that someone enjoyed books I'm planning to read -- especially for really long ones that are a bit intimidating!

Nice job Wobbley. I hope you have a lot of fun with the reading.

Thanks very much, Lynn -- I hope so too!

Nice lists, Wobbley! I read "Lorna Doone" last year (after putting it off for many years!!) and enjoyed it much more than I expected to! That's always good ;)

I have been looking at "Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings" and I see it on your list. I may have to add it to one of my buffet challenges.

Happy Reading in 2024!

Thanks Terris! It's so fun to look at what everyone is planning, isn't it?

I like your old and new linked categories, Wobbley, I may steal them!

All the best, Wobbley! I like your Century challenge list. I hope you enjoy The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It's one of my favourite books.

I haven't read many Georgette Heyer books however, I really enjoyed the first one I read The Grand Sophy.

Janelle wrote: "I like your old and new linked categories, Wobbley, I may steal them!"

Ha ha, thanks Janelle, you're welcome to them! I was actually planning on having a category there for rereading old favourites, but thanks to the new Challenge 14 there was no need. :)

Shaina wrote: "All the best, Wobbley! I like your Century challenge list. I hope you enjoy The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It's one of my favourite books..."

Thanks for the suggestion for Georgette Heyer, Shaina. I know what you mean about my Century Challenge -- I feel like if I just did that one challenge and nothing else, it would still be an epic year of reading!

Had a lot of fun just reading your lists, Wobbley. You have included so many books I'm not familiar with...and, of course, I am required to check each of them out.

I hope you like Dorothy Whipple. I read my first of her books this year and she is on my challenge list for another!

Sara wrote: "Had a lot of fun just reading your lists, Wobbley. You have included so many books I'm not familiar with...and, of course, I am required to check each of them out."

Thanks Sara! I always find a lot of fodder on other people's lists. I'm glad my list can provide too!

Good luck Wobbley! Some great books on here, especially those great 19th century classics.

It looks like you’ve got some interesting reading coming up. Good luck!

Thanks so much, Pamela and Regina! Yes, there are so many great classics to read!

Good luck Wobbley!

Thanks very much, Mia!

I've added Challenge #2 - Second Place or Worse. I wasn't sure whether I would add this one; it depended on whether I could find a non-winning Quarterly Long Read that I wanted to tackle in 2024. But, with the conclusion of the polls for January, I've now got one!

You have picked a lot of good books! I'd love to read Lorna Doone myself, but I don't know if I'll have time next year...

You'll get lots of different votes for Heyer. I love her humorous romances, like The Grand Sophy, Frederica and The Unknown Ajax. Not as good as Austen, but fun to read. I also enjoy most of her mysteries, but they really aren't anything like Austen. lol

Thanks Teri-K, I appreciate the suggestions!

Good Luck with your buffet, Wobbley!

Good luck with your buffet, Wobbley!

Thanks so much, Nike and Veronica! Good luck with your reading too.

Looks like you are set for a really good year, enjoy!

Thanks Bob, I hope so!