Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2024!

Happy New Year! A rough sketch of what January will look like for me, alongside their corresponding challenges if applicable:

- Dr. No by Percival Everett (Bingo, Buffet)
- The Lover by Marguerite Duras (Bingo)
-Confessions by Augustine of Hippo (Buffet, January Old School)
- Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf
- Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein

Longer Works

- The Recognitions by William Gaddis (Buffet Challenge, re-reading with a group of friends set to finish in June)
- Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman (Bingo, chapter-a-day read along with group)

Wahey! here we go again :oD

my "Core 6" for January:
Satanic Verses, The Rushdie, Salman 1988
Elmer Gantry Lewis, Sinclair 1927
Pilgrim's Progress Bunyan 1678
Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne, The Moore, Brian 1955
Going After Cacciato O'Brien, Tim 1978
253 Ryman, Geoff 1996

Gerard - if you enjoy Life And Fate half as much as I did you're in for a treat!

I started two books in December, knowing I would not finish them until 2024. The first one is David Copperfield, which I am really enjoying. I am about 30% in. The second one is The Complete Essays, which I am not. Luckily, it seems short.

As usual, I have more books planned than I can possibly read.

Continuing
The Battle of Life by Charles Dickens
This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley

Starting but won't finish:
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Group/Buddy reads:
Quicksand by Nella Larsen
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
China Court: The Hours of a Country House by Rumer Godden
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro

I have more on my list, but who am I kidding?

I am reading The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. I did not complete it in December.

Other books to read are:

1. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1601)
2. Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde (1892)
3. With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 A.D. by Rudyard Kipling (1909) 58 pages

Les Miserables and Don Quixote are coming up, but I hope I can finish these other 4 books first before starting one of the big ones.

January Reads

Book I Own:
The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner

Group/Buddy Reads:
Quicksand by Nella Larsen
The Reef by Edith Wharton
Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes

Local Mystery Group:
The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne

Continue Reading:
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

RJs JANUARY 2024 READS

Will Finish
This Immortal by Roger Zelazny
The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two A edited by Ben Bova
The Cool Cottontail by John Dudley Ball
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

Will Read But Won't Finish
The Signet Classic Book of Mark Twain's Short Stories by Mark Twain
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Moonraker by Ian Fleming
Basin and Range by John McPhee
The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe (NOTE: I have finished all the prose stories and I am about to read the final essay, which leaves only his poems and an unfinished play)
The Fall of Babel by Josiah Bancroft
Adulthood Rites BY Octavia E. Butler
The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor
Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume II B edited by Ben Bova
Asimov's Chronology of the World: The History of the World From the Big Bang to Modern Times by Isaac Asimov

Well, I originally had big plans for January reading, involving making progress on the challenges I've set up. But honestly, at the moment I'm feeling some post-vacation laziness, and I haven't read in a few weeks. So I'm mostly just hoping to generally get back into reading over the course of the month, and then get really on track with my challenges in February. We'll see how it goes!

I'm starting the year with some of the longer books that I want to read this year, so this list is crazily ambitious. Here are my January aspirations:

✔️Aristophanes: Clouds (-423)
✔️Sextus Empiricus: How to Keep an Open Mind: An Ancient Guide to Thinking Like a Skeptic (200)
✔️Unknown, tr. Sayers: The Song of Roland (1115)
✔️Kant: An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment? (1784)
✔️Darwin: On the Origin of Species (1859)
✔️Alcott: Behind a Mask, Or, a Woman's Power (1866)
✔️Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (1908)
✔️Hamilton: Hamilton: The Greek Way (1930)
✔️Wodehouse: Summer Moonshine (1937)
✔️Williams: The Night of the Iguana (1961)
✔️Lindsay: Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967)
✔️Morrison: Recitatif (1983)
✔️Pratchett: Hogfather (1996)

Long Reads
Montaigne: The Complete Essays (1580) - finish in March
Cervantes: Don Quixote (1605) - finish in February
Eliot: Daniel Deronda (1876) - finish in March
Pask: Magnificent Principia: Exploring Isaac Newton's Masterpiece (2013) - finish in February

Added Later
✔️Plato: Apology (-400) from The Last Days Of Socrates: Phaedo

Update (1/30): I did it! I'm looking forward to finishing a couple of the long reads in February, though.

Challenge Completions this Month
Challenge 7 - Expand Your Horizons with New Authors

LOL I read such different things from what I listed at the beginning of the month.

I did read one thing planned:

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969) Jan 20, 2024 5* (reread)

and another Science Fiction novel

The City At Worlds End by Edmond Hamilton (1951) Jan 28, 2024 4*

plus these short stories

The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges (1941) Jan 16, 2024 4*
Winter's King by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969) 34 pages Jan 20, 2024 5*
The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith (1955) Jan 23, 2024 4*
The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal by Cordwainer Smith (1964) Jan 27, 2024 4*
The Burning of the Brain by Cordwainer Smith (1958) Jan 27, 2024 4*

and one children's book

Mama, I'll Give You the World by Roni Schotter (2006) Jan 24, 2024 4*

my "Core 6" for January went pretty smoothly:
Satanic Verses, The Rushdie, Salman - 3.5 Stars
Elmer Gantry Lewis, Sinclair - DNF
Pilgrim's Progress Bunyan - 2.5
Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne, The Moore, Brian - 4
Going After Cacciato O'Brien, Tim - 3.5
253 Ryman, Geoff - 3.5

Reading Books I Own
Total for the Year: 2
January: Hideous Kinky and The Shadow of the Wind