John’s Comments (group member since Aug 23, 2012)

John’s comments from the Read a Classic Challenge group.

The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang(Editor), 1889, 721 pages. (Location: New York State).

I liked this book, some of the stories were more enjoyable than others, but I found that I enjoyed the diversity of cultures and settings contained within the volume (even if a few kingdoms seemed to change geographical location mid story). I will post more about this story in the book group pages.

Slight Spoiler Alert:

And seriously, I wouldn't ever talk to wolves if I read their version as a kid.

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I am finding that I am appreciating the undercurrent of humor in the narration of many of the tales contained within the book. For instance, in The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, Charming responds to the giant Galifron's rhyme with one of his own. The narrator notes:

"The rhymes were not very correct, but you see he had made them up so quickly that it is a miracle that they were not worse; especially as he was horribly frightened all the time." (pg 368, Kindle version).

That is a great point, Crystal. The books that make you feel, think, or reflect beyond their pages demonstrate the powerful influence of the written word, especially when it was written in a different century.

Inkmesh.com can direct you to several sites that have free copies of the Grey Fairy Book or the other books. The Amazon links don't seem to be accurate there though.

http://inkmesh.com/ebooks/grey-fairy-...

Goodluck with your challenge Jill. I don't know that I would have read half the books I did last year without the Read a Classic Challenge and the Goodreads Challenge.

Here is a link I have found which may help. If anyone else finds some additional analyis, feel free to post it.

Moral Lessons of Each Tale:
http://www.mugglenet.com/booktrolley/...

Welcome to our reading group for The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (Editor). I am already a few tales into the book and one thing I have noticed is that fairy tale characters should definitely heed the advice of any random old women they meet along the way.

Please feel free to post any reflections or thoughts you have about any of the stories contained within the collection in this discussion or in our Facebook Event (Link)

Here is the table of contents according to Wikipedia (Link)

• The Bronze Ring
• Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess
• East of the Sun and West of the Moon
• The Yellow Dwarf
• Little Red Riding Hood
• The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
• Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper
• Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp
• The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was
• Rumpelstiltskin
• Beauty and the Beast
• The Master Maid
• Why the Sea Is Salt
• The Master Cat or Puss in Boots
• Felicia and the Pot of Pinks
• The White Cat
• The Water-lily. The Gold-spinners
• The Terrible Head
• The Story of Pretty Goldilocks
• The History of Whittington
• The Wonderful Sheep
• Little Thumb
• The Forty Thieves
• Hansel and Gretel
• Snow-White and Rose-Red
• The Goose-girl
• Toads and Diamonds
• Prince Darling
• Blue Beard
• Trusty John
• The Brave Little Tailor
• A Voyage to Lilliput
• The Princess on the Glass Hill
• The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou
• The History of Jack the Giant-killer
• The Black Bull of Norroway
• The Red Etin

January Group 2: The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkein
Discussion Leader: Scott

The Silmarillion is the posthumously published mythological history of Tolkien's Middle-earth, beginning with a creation myth and chronicling events until the end of the First Age of Middle-earth. For those familiar with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, these stories take place in the Third Age, and make frequent reference to songs and legends found in The Silmarillion.

This book is pretty common so you may be able to find it at your local bookseller or used bookstore, but here are some online options for those that use ebooks.

• Kindle $7.69 (link)
• Nook $7.69 (link)
• Other Formats (link)

Anyone is welcome to read along and participate in the discussion (Please try to include a warning if you are posting spoilers).

Group 1: The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (editor)
Discussion Leader: John

Andrew Lang was one of the first editors to compile, with the help of his wife and other translators, collections of fairy tales (Wikipedia). This is the first volume in his series which contains many well-known fairy tales.

The e-book length varies between 300-700 pages depending on the font and how the pages are calculated, but don’t be put off by it, as the writing is very accessible and the collections allow for you to read it in stages.

The ebook is available for free in different formats:
• Various Sites: (link)
• Various Formats: (link)
• Amazon Kindle: (link)

Anyone is welcome to read along and participate in the discussion (Please try to include a warning if you are posting spoilers).

Optional Monthly Themes:

These are optional suggestions to provide some fun to this year’s challenge. Any classic can be logged at any time. If you have a specific classic in mind, you’re a ‘one classic a year’ kind of participant, or you're an ‘I’m going to read every book from a single author this year’ kind of participant, then bravo, carry on. But if you like some variety and are not adverse to suggestions, please feel free to participate.

• JAN: Fables, Fairytales, Myths, and Legends
• FEB: Black Authors (for Black History Month)
• MAR: Women Authors (for Women’s History Month)
• APR: Science Fiction/Fantasy
• MAY: Nonfiction/Autobiography/Biography
• JUNE: Comedy/Satire
• JULY: Victorian
• AUG: International Authors (Limited American/British authors, except for books that focus on international travel/cultures.)
• SEPT: Banned or Challenged Books (for Banned Books Week)
• OCT: Revenge/Obsession
• NOV: Little Known Works from Famous Authors
• DEC: Children's Classics

Reading Groups / Events - NEW THIS YEAR!

We will be will be offering one or more reading groups each month centered around books related to the monthly themes. We will offer them as events on Facebook and discussion threads on Goodreads to allow for discussions from anyone who wishes to participate on either social network (Note that you can log into Goodreads with Facebook). Anyone is welcome to read along and participate in the discussion (Please try to include a warning if you are posting spoilers).

We will start out leading the discussions for January, but we know that there are many of you who are also qualified as avid readers. If you are interested in leading a discussion about a certain book or theme, please let the moderators know your interest and what books you might suggest. We will use the suggestions to help select the reading groups each month.

We plan to start small with one or two groups, but if there is demand we can open it up for more in the future. During the selection process we hope to include a more in-depth book as well as a more accessible book, with some consideration of availability/cost. Inkmesh (Link) is a good site to find free/cheap ebooks for various ereaders although not all links work properly).

January Reading Groups

Group 1: The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (editor)
Discussion Leader: John

Group 2: The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkein
Discussion Leader: Scott

Angelique and Lesley:

We'll be unveiling optional monthly themes tomorrow and are suggesting fairy-tales, myths, legends, and fables for January.

We're also going to offer reading groups (like online book clubs) for The Silmarillion and The Blue Fairy Book. The later is available free for most ereaders including Kindle www.inkmesh.com

The results of the 2013 challenge are in! You can access them by clicking on the 2013 Challenge Results in the 2013 Challenge Archive thread or by clicking the link below.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Congratulations to everyone on a very successful challenge! I had fun with it and have enjoyed chatting with all of you on here and Facebook as well! I am looking forward to next year.
- Best, John

Scott's Post:

Here’s the moment that you’ve all been waiting for, the data from the 2013 challenge: We had 154 active participants, logged 728 books, and read 208,893 pages! That’s a huge jump from last year when we read 227 books and logged 77,500 pages. You folks have been an inspiration and I love the passion and excitement for literature that we've generated together. I look forward to another great year in 2014.

The top five readers by number of books were:
John Sauter: 50 (wow!)
Brian Stone: 35
Aaron Meyer: 33
Liz Holmes: 28
Martha Smith: 27
Scott Howard: 27

The top five readers by number of pages were:
Brian Stone: 9,380
Martha Smith: 9,374
John Sauter: 9,374 (I don’t know how they tied, but they did)
Liz Holmes: 9,250
Scott Howard: 7,294

The top five authors read by number of books were:
William Shakespeare: 30
C.S. Lewis: 27
F. Scott Fitzgerald: 21
Edgar Allen Poe: 19
J.R.R. Tolkien: 19

The top five most read books were:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: 11
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: 9
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien: 9
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: 8
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: 6

Book formats read by number of books looked like this:
Print: 500
E-reader: 174
Audio books: 54

For a bit of personal interest, I had 95 books logged by my former students, 93 logged by my teaching colleagues, 79 logged by my family members, and 384 logged by some very well-read people that I don't know personally.

Finally, I'd like to give a shoutout to Brian Stone and declare him the boss of this year's challenge. We're pretty lenient here on what constitutes a "classic," but as we all know, some classics are more classic than others (yeah, that makes sense). He's read some very daunting tomes this past year. So, here's Brian's list (there isn't a typo--yes, he read The Song of Roland twice--two different translators):

The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Faust Part One by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dune by Frank Herbert
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner
The Aleph and Other Short Stories by Jorge Luis Borges
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Categories by Aristotle
Diamond Sutra by anonymous
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Don Juan in Hell by George Bernard Shaw
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw
The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion by George Bernard Shaw
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Their Eyes are Watching God by Nora Neale Hurston
Aesop's Illustrated Fables by anonymous
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The Arthurian Romances by Chretien De Troyes
The Song of Roland by anonymous
The Song of Roland by anonymous
Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephriam Lessing
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
Peter Pan by James Barrie
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare
Ralph Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall
All's Well that End's Well by William Shakespeare
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

John's Addenda:

Here are some more stats from the 2013 data.

Average Book Length - 287 pages
Average Pages/Reader - 1356 pages
Earliest Book - Epic of Gilgamesh -1300 BC

Longest Books:
Anna Karenina - 1816 pages
The Count of Monte Cristo -1462 pages
War and Peace - 1315 pages
The Stand - 1153 pages
The Complete Sherlock Holmes - 1077 pages

Highest number of books read by publication years:
16 books - 1954
13 books - 1953, 1952, 1951
10 books - 1920, 1950, 1959
9 books - 1847, 1911, 1925, 1939, 1938, 1960, 1961, 1963
8 books - 1798, 1897, 1922, 1929, 1932, 1962

Number of books read by century:
1900s - 445
1800s - 176
1700s - 18
1600s - 20
1500s - 18
1400s - 1
1300s - 10
1200s - 1
1100s - 1
0-1000s - 10
BC - 16

Uncertain (Logged as 2000s but published earlier) - 11

Scott has been busy logging the books from 2013, so we haven't put that together yet. I have offered to help with the themes and will post it as soon as possible. Any suggestions for fun themes this year?

Martha and Terry,

We are just logging the completed books, so make sure to log them in the 2014 challenge when you finish them. I am also in the middle of one with my daughter that didn't make the cut off.

Welcome to the 2014 Read A Classic Challenge!

When you finish a classic book, please post the following information to the feed: Title, Author, Translator (if applicable), Year of (initial) Publication, Number of Pages, and Format (print, e-reader, audiobook, etc.). You may also post analysis, critique, or questions about the book if you wish. Classics can be posted at anytime and are open to interpretation.

You can also participate in the challenge on Facebook by joining the Read a Classic Challenge Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/60542...

This is a grassroots group so feel free to participate as much or as little as you have time for. Just make sure to try to log at least one book this year.

- John, Scott, David (Moderators)

ONE DAY TO GO! MAKE SURE TO LOG ANY ADDITIONAL BOOKS BY THE END OF THE DAY ON JANUARY 1ST. According to Scott, we are at 649 books right now!

Here are a few more for me.

My daughter and I finally finished the last of The Borrowers Books:

The Borrowers Avenged by Mary Norton, 1982, 312 pages, Hardcover.

A satisfying ending to a great series for children. Highly recommend the series for anyone with children.

The Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1916, 108 pages, Ereader/TTS.

This was very standard Burroughs work, not much else to say.

The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, 1872, 273 pages pages, ereader/TTS.

This was better than I expected. The ethereal grandmother was an excellent character with interesting insights into the human condition that still seem relevant today. The princess and Curdie were both strong and well developed characters.

The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald, 1883, 177 pages, Ereader/TTS.

Despite the title, the princess is barely in this. There are some great insights from the grandmother and Curdie's interaction, but like a few other goodreads reviewers I found the epilogue to be a bit strange.


The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison, 1961, 137 pages, Ereader,TTS.

This was an enjoyable science fiction tale. It is full of humor, action, adventure, and intrigue. The main action all centers around the main character who is far more developed than any of the secondary characters.

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Stowaway To Mars by John Wyndham, 1933, 189 pages, Ereader/TTS.

Over the past year I have become a fan of John Wyndham's books. This was not one of his better ones. It seemed to have tried to hard to copy the style of Burroughs with alpha/viking males and rampant sexism.

The Norby Chronicles(books 1-2) by Isaac Asimov, Janet Asimov, 1986, 185 pages, Ereader/TTS/Paperback.

This contained two reasonably enjoyable tales for a young audience. Written primarily by Janet Asimov, it lacked some of the depth of Isaac Asimov's solo works, but contained a bit more humor. Fans of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, or Piers Anthony might enjoy reading it to their kids.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken, 1962, 192 pages, Ereader/TTS.

This was a decent children's book set on an English estate similar to A Secret Garden, but written more simply. The beginning of the book built up some foreboding that was thoroughly lacking in the neatly packaged last half.

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde, 1887, 38 pages, Ereader/TTS.

I needed a quick book to listen to while working on my wife's Christmas present this fit the bill. The American/British juxtaposition was interesting.

The Colors of Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley, 1963, 141 pages, Ereader/TTS.

This was an excellent science fiction book for a younger audience. If they would let me, I would definitely either read or recommend this book to my kids as they got older. It is a classic tale of someone caught up in circumstances and I quite enjoyed the ending, without giving anything away.

I read several short stories by John Wyndhamcontained within the Best of John Wyndham books. The clever ideas seem to reveal themselves in the last few paragraphs of the short stories, some worked some didn't.

- The Emptiness of Space (1960), 23 pages.
This was my favorite. What happens when you are placed in cold storage for too long?

- The Man from Beyond (1934), 49 pages.
What happens when you get trapped in time?

- Adaptation (1949) 25 pages.
This was ok, but I wasn't blown away by it.

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