Book Nerd’s Comments (group member since Dec 20, 2018)

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

I'm thinking about getting serious about this next year too and maybe squeeze in a couple this year.
I've read 18/37 so far, mostly the tragedies.
I'd like to watch them all too. Hopefully there are performances of them all on youtube.

She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith


121 pages

Group Total: 524,934

I'm behind in this.

Carrie by Stephen King

199 pages

Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

228 pages

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

117 pages

Group Total: 524,514

Nancy wrote: "I’ve not read much sci-fi because I never saw the value in it. Now, after years avoiding it I met Ursula LeGuin. She made sense in my opininon. Since then I’m more open to this genre. It took a woman to change my mind! That is a major leap for me! As I look back on my month’s reading…hours, and hours immersed in a Victorian woman’s (Hester) world…did it make me think more deeply? NO. But this book did. So three cheers for sci-fi and I hope more people give it a chance and join #SciFiMonth2024 in November..and not only read novellas."
Exactly. Sci-fi makes you think.

What Ursula K LeGuin have you read? We read The Left Hand of Darkness and The Word for World Is Forest last year but you can support or suggest some others in the nominations thread.

Cleo wrote: "I'm glad to hear that you're reading this! I've read the trilogy a couple of times. I think That Hideous Strength was considered the best of the three but I've always liked Out of the Silent Planet with the theme of primitive vs. science/technology/advancement. I'm just reading The Dark Is Rising series now and am on book 3."
I like Narnia and I've wanted to read this for a while now, just had to get to it.
I liked Out of the Silent Planet a lot too. It was very unique.
How are you liking The Dark is Rising?

Nancy wrote: "The Cosmic Trilogy this would be a real challenge for me in 2025.
But...I'll try."
Nancy wrote: "So I don't have to read them chronologically?"
I would read them in order, though Lewis says at the beginning of each book that you don't have to have read the previous ones.
To me Out of the Silent Planet was the quickest read, Perelandra was quite a slog, and I'm enjoying That Hideous Strength but it's the longesr of the books so it's best to start at the beginning.

I really enjoyed this. I liked City a lot too so I should read more by Simak.

Never trust an organization called NICE.

I'm reading That Hideous Strength now. Liking it better than Perelandra. The whole book happens on Earth. I read the kid's series The Dark Is Rising series a while ago and this reminds me of that, mixing Christian themes and Arthurian elements.

Those Vegans are nuts. (view spoiler)[One of their people died on your planet. "Just do whatever you usually do. Keep all his stuff. Oh yeah, and guard the body FOREVER!" (hide spoiler)]

Welcome to the group Nusrat!

Jen wrote: "That is funny. I would not have caught it but that seems pretty bad that editors didn't catch it."
Yeah I was flipping back and forth wondering if I missed something but that's what it said.

Internet Archive is still down. I hope it comes back. I've watched a bunch of movies there.

I'm about fifty pages in. It's a really interesting idea.

I really enjoyed rereading this.
Chris and Billy were major stereotypes but that made the story fun.
There was one odd mistake that made me flip back and forth a lot:
(view spoiler)[When Carrie was a baby and made something float it said that Margaret wanted to kill her but Ralph stopped her.
But Ralph died before she was born.<.spoiler>

Samantha wrote: "I've read a handful of Stephen King's books so far, none of his really long stuff yet. Last yr I listened to the audiobook of Carrie with narration by Sissy Spacek, after listening to a YA retelling, The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson. Carrie wasn't as scary as I expected, but I had seen the latest movie adaptation before. I enjoyed the news interlayed with the story. The Weight of Blood is modernized with a very different reason for her classmates to bully her and has great themes and characterization. I highly recommend reading it. If you enjoy podcasts woven into an audio, listen to it."
That does sound interesting. (hide spoiler)]

Lesle wrote: "1912 - Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (I think we read this one recently actually)"
Yeah, we read it in 2022. We could read the sequel, The Rainbow Trail.

I have The Lonestar Ranger and The Mysterious Rider by Zane Grey here I'd like to read.

I read Carrie in high school but it's all coming back to me. This isn't his best story but definitely a great start to his career.

Steven wrote: "I was wondering how others feel about the structure of the book. Would it be better if the story flowed along without the inserts by the commission. Often, I found these distracting me from the story rather than adding to it."
Yeah, it is pretty distracting. I think it's mostly to show things that happened in the past.

Pam wrote: "I just put a hold on it. I used to read King in the late '80s and '90s but haven't read too much in the 2000s. I saw the movie in 1976 and then again in 1977, dubbed in Spanish (which was weird). It should be interesting to see how his writing style has changed over the decades, this being his first published novel. I noticed a big difference, in his writing (dialogue in particular), between The Dead Zone (1979) and his later works. I hope my copy comes in soon!"
Yeah, his writing has changed a lot over fifty years. Especially in the last decade it's changed for the worse IMO but pre2000 I thought he could do no wrong.

City was great. I'm looking forward to this one.

I really hope this stays up this time!!!!!

Enoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he has done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars.

More than a hundred years before, an alien named Ulysses had recruited Enoch as the keeper of Earth's only galactic transfer station. Now, as Enoch studies the progress of Earth and tends the tanks where the aliens appear, the charts he made indicate his world is doomed to destruction. His alien friends can only offer help that seems worse than the dreaded disaster. Then he discovers the horror that lies across the galaxy...

Jen wrote: "Oh yay. I hope to get to this later in the month. I definitely want to read the edition that has an introduction by Margaret Atwood- I’m curious what she has to say about it."
Interesting. I just read The Handmaid's Tale and loved it. I don't have that edition so let me know.

Kathy wrote: "This will be the first Stephen King book I’ve ever read."
Awesome. I've read most of his books.