Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

I joined Catching up on Classics on the 16th March 2025 and I have been mulling over which of these delicious offerings I can manage. I've decided help myself to two portions: challenges 2 and 3. Since I need to reduce my TBR (don't we all?), I am going to try to complete the challenges from my TBR books. I would have tried challenge number one, but committing to read books in advance blows my mind, maybe next year. I'm going to start once I've finished the book I'm currently reading, which'll probably be Monday or Tuesday next week.

Challenge #2 - Members Choice Challenge Choose one book per category/genre for a total of 9 books.

1. 19th Century or Older - The Haunted Hotel
2. 20th Century - The Towers of Trebizond
3. 21st Century - The Girls
4. Nonfiction - The Number Mysteries
5. An Author never read before - Edwin A. Abbott (Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions)
6. Diversity, read a book from a religion, culture, country, or race different than yours - Harraga by Boualem Sansal
7. Members Choice Genre - Wicked Lovely (YA)
8. Members Choice Genre - Wrong About Japan (Non fiction: travel)
9. Members Choice Genre - Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Literary fiction)

Science Fiction. Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Suspense, Young Adult, Nonfiction, Poetry, Romance, etc

Challenge #3 - Expand Your Horizon with New Authors

Seek out at least six (6) authors that you have never previously read, from any genre or era you want.

1. Frank Muir - A Kentish Lad: The Autobiography of Frank Muir
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Welcome to the challenge, KeenReader. If you complete these two challenges early, you can always add others. Hope you have fun.

Welcome. I like the two that you have chosen and try to complete them myself. You have variety and a little exploration in the choices.

Thanks for your welcome Sarah and Lynn. I'm looking forward to finding books for these challenges and checking out everyone else's selections for inspiration, of course.

Welcome to the group! This is my first year doing these challenges too, and it has been loads of fun! 😁

Welcome to the Buffet! I hope you'll enjoy your reading. :)

Phew! Just finished challenge number 2. If I get my skates on, I might finish number 3 too.

Fantastic! I hope you had some good finds in your reading. :)

Great progress! You still have time. Since you have read a number of books that I haven’t even heard of, I was wondering which ones you liked and which ones you didn’t care as much for. The first two books sounded interesting.

Congratulations on the finish, Keenreader. I'll be watching your progress on #3.

Terry wrote: "Great progress! You still have time. Since you have read a number of books that I haven’t even heard of, I was wondering which ones you liked and which ones you didn’t care as much for. The first t..."

Sorry, I've just remembered I needed to reply to your comment.

I rated The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice 4 stars. If you've not read WIlkie Collins before it might seem attractive because it's short, but I thought it took a while to really get going. It takes place in London and Venice. The Venice part of the story is great, but I thought the London part wasn't as engaging as WIlkie Collins usually is.

The Towers of Trebizond: I rated this two stars, but a friend who has read it and knows me well was amazed that I rated it so low. I wasn't feeling well when I read it, so maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind. So take my rating with a pinch of salt. I don't often re-read but I'm thinking of making an exception for this book.

The Girls : I gave it three stars but that was with rounding up. It was interesting, but the main writing style was pretty plodding. What I mainly remember is the effort needed to get through it.

The Number Mysteries: Four stars. I enjoyed it, but I am a maths geek. I don't remember much about it now though.

Flatland: 5 stars. This was exploring aspects of Victorian society through describing an imaginary geometric country. The edition I read (the one I've linked to) had really good notes so you understood the points the author was making. It was also interesting to reflect on current society. Some of the authors comments still find targets today.

Harraga: three stars. This described the life of a female doctor in Algiers. "She" (really the author of course) was very critical of many aspects of life in Algeria, but at the same time, loved their country deeply. I loved that aspect of the book. I was less enamoured of the plot, especially the ending which I thought was somewhat cliched. I still think it's worth reading and I may read it again.

Wicked Lovely: 2 stars. I got this because I quite like fairy tale re-tellings, especially if the author plays with the motifs. This could have been gripping but it became a standard YA "Teenage girl turns out to be super special". But as it was a YA book, that was the risk I took.

Wrong About Japan: 3 stars. Peter Carey had a holiday in Japan with his son and interviewed a few people so he could make some money from it. That may be being a bit cruel, but although I enjoyed this it was more for the father-son dynamic. There was a very poignant account of the Tokyo fire bombing in the second world war, which was hard to read, but which raised the rating by about a star. Without it, this would have been pretty superficial.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen 3 stars. I really enjoyed the first third of this book, which was poking fun at the British civil service, although I think most of the fun probably works for any bureaucratic service. After that the tone of the book abruptly shifted and although I still enjoyed it, it never recaptured the brilliance of the first third.

A Kentish Lad: The Autobiography of Frank Muir : 3 stars. Frank Muir was a comedy writer in the early days of UK TV. In the first part of this book he wrote about his childhood and it was incredibly evocative. I remembered escapades from my childhood while reading about his. For me, he had captured many of the feelings of childhood. The curiosity, the fears, the sense that summer days lasted forever. I adored the first book of this book. It was still interesting when he grew up until he got involved with TV. I think the problem is that when he got established, many of the people he was writing about were famous, so he didn't describe them. I could vaguely remember some of them, but without knowing what the people were like, his anecdotes about them fell flat. I've kept it because I definitely want to read his account of his childhood again, but I'll bail out of the rest of the book.