Classics book club??

[mbrogier]

I have been reading all those books I kept meaning to read but never got to. Somehow, I missed The Wind in the Willows as a child. :rolleyes: I am halfway done. The book right before that was Watership Down. Someone just posted on Catch-22 which is on my list...

Does anyone else have a list of must-read classics? Wanna have a "club" where we read the books and say whether we liked them or not, what was interesting, etc. It doesn't have to be in depth or anything. I would one day like to read new books, but all those old classics keep calling me... "how can you read that when you haven't read all these...??"

We don't all have to read the same book at the same time, either...

Any takers??

[MISSINDI]

Count me in! Anything to keep me on the reading track. :D

I loved Watership Down as a child.

Another classic suggestion ... Old Man and the Sea. I've been meaning to reread that one.

:)

[Meganator]

Great idea! My reading goes in fits and starts, and I have less time during the summer weeks. But I was thinking just the other day that I should read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe before the movie comes out.

[Peggy]

I love reading the classics! Some of my favorite are Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Steinbeck and Hemmingway. Finding time to read is a problem though.:( I'd be interested in participating in what you all decide on.

Peggy

[Lighthouselover]

Please count me in. I love Jane Austin, Hemmingway, etc. I agree with the other poster, find the time can be a problem, but maybe this will encourage me to make the time.

[mbrogier]

All you have to do is get a book. Whatever you want, old classic/new classic and start reading. I just thought it would be a good reminder to keep reading.

I figure I could probably carry my book with me and find 5-10 minutes here and there to read.

I had a list of the 100 most important books. I'll try to find that and post it for inspiration.

[cminmd]

I would love to re read Austin with a group of people to discuss the books with. Last time was college where half the group watched the movie and the other half didnt bother showing up. I also read the book about the Austin book club and it got me thinking about my favorites. Emma or P&P?

[hlao23]

Sounds good to me. I pick of those sorts of books just by chance (I got Catch 22 at a garage sale). There are tons of classics I mean to read but I've never kept much of a list...I just grab what occurs to me.

[colleency]

You might look at Project Guttenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/). They have many of the classics for free online, including Jane Austen.

[Grace]

For anyone who might be interested, Oprah's book club has been doing classics for awhile. I'm really enjoying it. Last year she did Anna Karenina (a terrific book that really surprised me - I thought it was going to be heavy and dry and boring - no way!), and then she did "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck. That might just be one of my most favorite books ever! SO good!!

She just unveiled her new selection(s) today, and she's doing Faulkner this summer. She chose three shorter books (that are being packaged and sold as a set for her) - "As I Lay Dying", "The Sound and the Fury" and "Light in August". She has a read-along schedule set so that you read one each month - As I Lay Dying in June, The Sound and the Fury in July and Light in August in August.

I'm planning to read along since I enjoyed the last two so much, and because I like her study guides, her reading schedule (doesn't let me get too far behind), and this time she's got online classes (videos)on her website - famous lecturers are going to speak about Faulkner and the books. Sounds interesting to me! I'm really enjoying the classics and since I didn't take much in the way of literature at school I haven't read many of the classics at all. And now I'm old enough and wise enough to really understand these books (which is why I'm enjoying them so much I think!).

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled thread.....just throwing in an FYI for anyone who might be interested! :D

[mbrogier]

Thanks Grace!

The thing for me is that I am a really fast reader. If I had to wait a month to read a book...

If anyone wants to read Austen and discuss it, go for it. I just wanted some camraderie, not be leader of a book club. Go at whatever pace you want. For me, I'm not a huge Austen fan.

We can all post and say what we're reading, whether it was interesting, etc. If you want to discuss, fine.

The Good Earth was a great book. It really gave me an idea of what these women's lives in China were really like.

[Peggy]

Good information, Grace! Thanks for letting us know what is available. I had no idea Oprah was up to all of this. Will have to check it out!:)

Peggy

[Jazzmatazz49]

Oprah is trying to give me nightmares with her newest book club choice. I had to read a couple of things by Faulkner in college, and it was even worse than Moby Dick. I know it's great literature, but it was difficult to read with all those long sentences and not-so-nice characters.
I've never been a fan of many of Oprah's picks, so the latest is no surprise to me.

[Grace]

Oh no - I hope I don't hate these books! I never read Faulkner before.....

I hated her old book club - all the new fiction she chose. Yuck, yuck, yuck. So I gave up. But I got very interested when she decided to choose only classics, and I have to say I was so pleasantly surprised by Anna Karenina last year, and I'm completely crazy about The Good Earth, so I figured she was on a good roll! :rolleyes: Now I'm scared she's gone back to her old ways...

[Jazzmatazz49]

Pay no attention to me. I have terrible taste in books.:cool:

[ChristieinMB]

I recommend Wuthering Heights. I remember it as a very special favorite. I wonder if I would enjoy reading it today.
Christie

[mbrogier]

You'd probably still like Wuthering Heights, Christine. I've found that I still like the books I enjoyed when I was younger. Books I didn't like or didn't "get" sometimes were easier when I was older but not always.

If you haven't read Jane Eyre, I recommend that one. I've read most of the Bronte sisters' works, and I preferred Jane Eyre over Wuthering Heights...but both were very good.

Grace, after the Good Earth, Faulkner might not be that bad... you may want something a bit lighter for a break. It depends on how your mood changes when you read a book. I can't read two very dark serious books in a row. I loved the Good Earth, but I was melancholy for a week. ;)

[Kathy B]

The other day I watched part of "The Grapes of Wrath" (with Henry Fonda) while I was exercising, and it really made me want to read the book. I never knew what it was about, just that it was a classic, and the title certainly didn't grab me. I was telling DS (14) about the plot in the part of the movie that I watched, and he thought it sounded like a good story, too!

[Peggy]

Kathy,

I love The Grapes of Wrath! An incredible book for you or your DS to read. My DD read it when she was 13 and loved it. Lots of good US history in it too!

Peggy

[hlao23]

Happened to be at another yardsale and bought The Brothers Karamazov. Guess I'll work my way around to it eventually.

Wonder if Wuthering Heights is a "love it or hate it" thing for everyone. I really dislike it just because I don't find the characters sympathetic at all. Maybe I'll give it another shot but I just remember thinking "personality disorder" about both Heathcliff and Catherine.

[Escher]

Other than "the classics" I don't read much fiction at all... so this is right up my alley.

You name it, and I'll read (or re-read) it.

[mbrogier]

Ok, I was out of commission last week and haven't finished my last book yet.

Has anyone finished a book recently? Started one??

I did update my library card, that's progress.

Escher, in this club, you can read whatever classic you want at your own pace, and comment on it or not, whatever. I figured it would be more fun to read together.

Hlao--I definitely thing Wuthering Heights is a love-hate relationship. I really didn't like it that much. Of course, I don't have patience for men like Heathcliff, but then I wasn't a lonly girl writing on the moors of England, either. ;)

[colleency]

I'm reading a book that's not a "classic," but it's by a classic author: "Travels with Charlie," by John Steinbeck. It's a little slow.

[Schmee]

Originally posted by hlao23
Happened to be at another yardsale and bought The Brothers Karamazov. Guess I'll work my way around to it eventually.
We read this in HS English and I just kind of skimmed it. I have always meant to really read it someday.

I just bought a copy of Great Expectations at my favorite used bookstore. I love Dickens and this is one that I have never gotten around to.
I read The Grapes of Wrath a few months ago and I enjoyed it, but not as much as East of Eden , FWIW.

[mbrogier]

I looked around for the top 100 classic English literature works. A lot of different sources had different ideas, etc.

I bookmarked this one and decided it would be what my goal would be. The fact that it was from a British source did factor into my choosing it. I did enjoy British Literature in high school, and I think they have a good handle on what classics stand the test of time.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1061037,00.html

I don't think I'm going to read them in order...I have read several already.

I hated that movie The Hours--Am I going to hate Mrs. Dalloworthy?? It was so bleak.

[Schmee]

I checked out that list today. There are some books on there that I swore I would never go near (or just never looked interesting to me). But I printed out a copy so I could try to take a crack at it! Tons of ones that I have always meant to read too.

[Meganator]

As I left the Farmer's Market last week, I was handed a flyer to a charity used book sale near where I had parked. So I went in and looked around, and spied The Good Earth, which I wouldn't have thought to pick up except for all the good words about it on this thread and some others.

So I have read about a third of it, and so far it is great!