Mike’s Comments (group member since Oct 28, 2021)

Mike’s comments from the Never too Late to Read Classics group.

This is the first time I've voted so please let me know if I haven't followed the rules. I surmise them as casting a vote for nominations in each category that you haven't nominated yourself.

For biographies I'll vote for Alan Turing: The Enigma, his research is still relevant to the work I do to this day. In histories I'll pick History of the Russian Revolution on the grounds that it's history not written by the victor.

To my shame I have read none though I'm 100 pages from the end of Gaskell's North & South. Several titles have long been on the to read pile. I've even got as far as buying the Wordsworth Classic box sets of Jane Austen & the Brontë sisters earlier this year. Of course being Canadian I have read Anne of Green Gables but it hasn't made the list.

I read both War and Peace and Crime and Punishment this year and realised that I don't have a good understanding of either Napoleon or Russia. Two books that I thought might help are Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts and Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes.

I read The Meek One by Fyodor Dostoevsky earlier this year, 60ish pages. It's also in the collection of short stories The Gambler and Other Stories so will be my suggestion.

This was very enjoyable, all the more so for the humour. I too won't spoil the enjoyment for others but have captured some thoughts in my review.

Thank you, so many books and authors I've not come across before. I read Of Mice and Men for the first time in April and now wonder how I got away without reading Steinbeck for so long.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again was first read to me over many, many nights by my father when I was around 7 or 8 and I have many fond memories from it.

I bought this in the summer along with Once There Was a War. I've finished the non-fiction I had in flight tonight so will make a start on this tomorrow.

These are great, thank you - more authors I've not read! I think an exception can be made for The Master and Margarita, I've enjoyed Russian literature to date.

I had two more modern suggestions on Twitter too, one that fit the rule, Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, and one that didn't, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Pulitzer winner in 2001). Added them both to the wishlist as they do look interesting.

I've been to Shaw's birthplace in Dublin but have yet to read him!

Perhaps I'll take up Janet and John with my next child to learn to read, take a break from Read With Biff,Chip And Kipper Levels 1 2 3 4 5 6 Oxford Reading Tree Read At Home 50 Books.

I came across one more myself, Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer. This edition is in modern English, I remember fighting middle English in high school trying to understand The Canterbury Tales.

I read War and Peace earlier this year and thought it would be fun to follow with Crime and Punishment. I realised I could keep this pattern going with a few books I already had and a few more that I could get reasonably cheaply. I canvased Twitter for some more suggestions and the current list (updated as suggestions appear below), goes:


✅ War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - Review
✅ Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky - Review
✅ Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - Review
✅ Works and Days by Hesiod - Review
✅ Pleasures and Days by Marcel Proust - Review
✅ North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - Review
✅ Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens - Review
✅ Hautot and Son from A Parisian Affair and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant
✅ Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev - Review
✅ Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence - Review
✅ Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell - Review
✅ Timaeus and Critias by Plato - Review
✅ Gold-tree and Silver-tree from Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales: From Burns to Buchan
✅ Daphnis and Chloe by Longus from Greek Fiction
✅ Layli and Majnun by Nizami Ganjavi - Review
✅ Pierre and Luce by Romain Rolland - Review
✅ Pierre and Jean by Guy de Maupassant
✅ Zadig and L'Ingénu by Voltaire - Review
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Vis and Ramin by Fakhraddin Gorgani
Tristan and Isolade
✅ - Retold by Béroul in The Romance of Tristan - Review
- Retold by Gottfried von Straßburg in Tristan with the 'Tristan' of Thomas
- Retold by Joseph Bédier in The Romance of Tristan and Iseult
Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer
Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare
Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
Ruslan and Ludmila by Alexander Pushkin
Paul and Virginia by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
✅ Anna and Harland by Samuel Taylor Coleridge from The Complete Poems
Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius
Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare
Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
Protagoras and Meno by Plato
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
💬Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
Fortunata and Jacinta by Benito Pérez Galdós
Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy
✅ Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw - Review
Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins
Crack and Crook from Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino
Pome and Peel from Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino
Belmiele and Belsole from Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino
Nero and Bertha from Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino
✅ Fat and Skinny from Fifty-Two Stories by Anton Chekhov
Night and Day & Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf


💬 In Progress: 1/51
✅ Completed: 22/51
Pages read: 6637

I figure I end with a double book with the second breaking me free from the pattern and back to other fiction. While this started simply as a way to work through my bookshelf it's expanded to include books and authors I've not come across before. Austen, Lawrence & Woolf I've heard of but never read, and Turgenev, Gaskell, Waugh & Hesse are all new to me.

I'm currently reading North and South and really enjoying it, more than I did Sense and Sensibility - which I did enjoy! In some ways North and South is a semi-sequel to Sense and Sensibility, the married sisters are now the mothers if you ignore the names and focus on the roles of their husbands.

I wonder what suggestions this group may make to extend this list further? The rule is that the title consists of three words, the second being "and".

I made the mistake of ignoring short stories for a long time simply because I figured investing the time in something that would be read in one sitting wasn't worthwhile. A few years ago I went into a bookstore and picked up The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster on a whim, a £1 gamble. Containing two stories, I was blown away!

I've since read Perchance to Dream: Selected Stories by Charles Beaumont, five of which had been adapted for The Twilight Zone. I also really enjoyed The Meek One, my first Fyodor Dostoevsky despite my love of long books. I plan to read a volume of Anton Chekhov's stories next year (Ward No. 6 and Other Stories, 1892-1895) having read his A Life in Letters this year.

I read Peter Pan in January and was taken by how melodic the writing was, prose that read like verse. It wasn't sustained throughout, but I noticed it in a few lengthy passages early on but I think it's occurences become infrequent if not absent by the end.

I was surprised by the darker elements too, but all credit to Disney who certainly did a good job brightening the story up, much like their adaptations of Grimm fairy tales. Personally I prefer the darker versions!

I read The Sword in the Stone when I was younger as part of The Once and Future King but I suspect what I remember is largely from the Disney adapation, especially as I watched it recently with my children. The copy I read was my father's from when he was a teen and is now being read by my teenage daughter. A well loved & read copy!

I've read 11 of the men's and 9 of the women's, counting North & South as read as I'm currently reading it. Perhaps more telling is that I have already purchased 18 more of the men's and 14 of the women's but not read them yet. There are several more on each list that have previously caught my eye but I'm trying not to buy more books until I read several of the already purchased.

Thanks Samantha! The lesser-knowns and those from around the world are the ones I'm really on the look out for as I think I'd probably miss them otherwise.

I really enjoyed the imagery that Dante manages to conjure with his words. I hope you find time soon!

Dune is my favourite book and I'm looking forward to seeing the movie but have been trying not to get my hopes up. The trailer did get me pretty excited though, the characters largely looked how I imagined them and the music was from my favourite album, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon". Now I'm hearing good reviews and that the second part has been confirmed. Must not get hopes up!

Thank you Rosemarie, glad to be here!

O. Kindle or Book? Book
U. Tea or coffee? Coffee
R. Favorite color? Blue
B. Author you love? Frank Herbert
O. Book you just finished reading? Sense and Sensibility
O. Can't live without? Coffee!
K. Dream job? Software R&D
C. Vanilla or Chocolate? Chocolate
L. Your favorite book? Dune
U. Favorite past-time? Reading
B. You are....? Thankful

Hi, I'm Mike! I'm from Canada but have lived in the UK since my teens. I have always loved reading, and as a teen I devoured anything by Tom Clancy, J.R.R. Tolkien & Frank Herbert. Other memorable books include War and Peace, The Neverending Story & The Chrysalids.

I've always taken great delight in reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner over and over again. Something about it caught my imagination and it's still got me captive to this day. Other poetry that I found at the time, and especially what was studied in school, didn't bring any enjoyment. (That said, I do now remember enjoying War Poetry, particularly "In Flanders Fields", so maybe it's time to revisit...)

Through my 20s and early 30s I read very little fiction focusing on technology realted books to assist my career. As I began to travel and stay away from home more for work, I had a lot more spare time on my hands. I bought Moby-Dick or, the Whale while waiting for a train and muscled through. It's strange mixture of story and whaling lessons was disorienting at first but gradually I was absorbed. I had forgotten how captivating and stimulating a good book can really be!

In a visit to another bookstore I found a hardcover version of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner complete with illustrations by Gustave Doré. In some ways it was almost like I was reading Ancient Mariner with fresh eyes. I went hunting for other tales Doré had illustrated and found Doré's Illustrations for "Paradise Lost" and The Doré Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy.

Much like you shouldn't watch a movie before reading the book, I didn't look at the illustrations first either and instead worked my way through Paradise Lost, Inferno, Purgatorio & Paradiso. This was poetry I could really enjoy and thus was born a love of epics.

I'm on a mission to make up for lost time (I may search for it next year as a long read) and already have a "to read" list longer than my arm. I look forward to sharing and learning from this community.