Coffee & Books discussion

For this challenge, challenge yourself to read old classics. There are different stages for the Classic's challenge:

Stage One
Read 1-5 classic books

Stage Two
Read 6-10 classic books

Stage Three
Read 11-15 classic books

Stage Four
Read 16- 20 classic books

Stage Five
Read 21-25 classic books

Stage Six
Read 26-30 classic books

Stage Seven
Read 30 books and more.


Duration
Until December 31st 2013

Enjoy xx

I'll do this again. I'll aim for Stage 3 (11-15 classics).


1. Infinite Jest (Mar 15)
2. Phantastes (Mar 27)
3. Our Man in Havana (Apr. 12)
4. Islands in the Stream (June 22)
5. The Big Rock Candy Mountain (July 15)
6. Slaughterhouse-Five (Aug 22)
7. The Iceman Cometh (Aug 26)
8. Catch-22 (Sept 8)
9. Address Unknown (Sept 18)
10.This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (Sept 24)
11.North and South (Oct 16)
12.The Divine Comedy (Nov 23)
13.Don Quixote (Dec 7)

I made my goal! Thanks for this Challenge. I hope there's another one next year.

i would like to join, going with stage 1...trying to incorporate contemporary works into my literature, so i'll be spending the majority of my year ready those. For this challenge i'll be reading:

1. Atonement
2. Little Women

I'll add other classics as I go throughout the year cuz I just downloaded a bunch of free classics on my new Kindle Fire!

I'll do this ... defining "classic" as a work that was published at least 50 years ago.

Stage 2 - 6-10 classics

1. I Capture the Castle ✔ 07Jan13 - 4****
2. North and South ✔ 11Feb13 - 3.5***
3. The Painted Veil ✔ 06April13 - 5*****
4. The Good Earth ✔ 13April13 - 5*****
5. The Grapes of Wrath ✔ 31May13 - 5*****
6. Love in a Fallen City ✔ – 12June13
7. To Kill a Mockingbird ✔ – 06July13
8. The Scarlet Letter ✔ – 14Aug13
9. For Whom the Bell Tolls ✔ – 04Sept13
10. Cannery Row ✔ – 26Sep13

What exactly is deemed a classic is really confusing me, because there are so many different definitions, depending on the person, or discipline of literature the person is from. So, I’m going to use the classic list from here:

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/c...

1. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
2. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
3. Sense and Sensibililty by Jane Austen
4. Dracula by Bram Stoker
5. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
6. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
7. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
8. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
9. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
10. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
11. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
12. The Little Prince by Antoine de Daint-Exupéry
13. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
14. The Three Muskateers by Alexandre Dumas
15. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
16. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
17. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
18. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
19. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
20. The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins
21. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
22. King Lear by William Shakespeare
23. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
24. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
25. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
26. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
27. Ulysses by James Joyce
28. The God of Small Things by Roy Arundhati
29. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
30. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

I'll join in on this one! I've been meaning to read more classics lately.

Stage One
1. Anna Karenina
2. Love in the Time of Cholera

I'll try Stage 1 to start with, and see how I go.

1. Pride And Prejudice 11/5/13
2. Angela's Ashes 31/8/13
3. Sense and Sensibility 16/9/13

I'm going to try for Stage 7.

1. Treasure Island 10/01/13 2 stars
2. A Wrinkle in Time 28/01/13 4 stars
3. The Yellow Wallpaper 31/01/13 4 stars
4. Northanger Abbey 12/02/13 4 stars
5. The Lost World 09/03/13 4 stars
6. All Creatures Great and Small 14/03/13 4 stars
7. Casino Royale 11/05/13 2 stars

I am joining in. I am gonna shoot to read 25 so stage 5!

1. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
2. Uncle Toms Cabin
3. The House of the Seven Gables
4. The Pioneers
5. The Merchant of Venice
6. King Lear
7. Hobomok & Other Writings on Indians by Lydia Maria Child
8. Edgar Huntly or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker

I'm in starting with stage 1

Anna Karenina (reading now)
Pride and Prejudice

amber wrote: "I'm in starting with stage 1

Anna Karenina (reading now)"

Let me know how it goes. I'm starting it once I finish the quick read that I'm on now.

I am joining in - I'm using some classics to help me with my A-Z challenge, and going with stage 1 I think. With everyone listing Anna Karenina, and the movie - that's sounding like it needs to be 1 of my 5!

Ashley wrote: "amber wrote: "I'm in starting with stage 1

Anna Karenina (reading now)"

Let me know how it goes. I'm starting it once I finish the quick read that I'm on now."

I'm not very far into Anna because I do most of my reading on the bus and I'm only reading Anna at home. I'm about fifty pages in and so far I like the writing style and while it is long the chapters are short so it's a much easier read then I thought it would be. Let me know how it goes for you.

I'll do this one...I never made it to my classics last year :( so I am goig to put forth that extra effort this year!

I will start out at stage 1...but may upgrade :)


1. Anna Karenina..Leo Tolstoy
2. Madame Bovary..Gustave Flaubert
3. Les Misérables..Victor Hugo
4. The Brothers Karamazov..Fyodor Dostoevsky

I was thinking of making 2013 the year I read more classics. I'm going to aim for Stage 2, but I might change that depending on my progress!

1. Howard's End
2. The Last of the Mohicans
3. The Count of Monte Cristo
4. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
5. Plato's Republic
6. Gone With the Wind
7. The Lord of the Rings
8. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
9. Catch-22
10. The Art of War

There are so many Classics I want to read...

I'm starting with Stage Two

1. The Old Man and the Sea
2. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
4. The Marvelous Land of Oz
5. The Giver
6. The Invisible Man
7. The Valley of Fear
8. The Unbearable Lightness of Being

I am going to go with stage VII
Completed: 7/17/13

01. The Millionaire Baby - Anna Katharine Green
02. The Bobbsey Twins - Laura Lee Hope
03. Monday Or Tuesday - Virginia Woolf
04. The Blue Lagoon - Henry de Vere Stacpoole
05. Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
06. Utopia - Thomas More
07. Ozma Of Oz - L. Frank Baum
08. The Railway Children - E. Nesbit
09. Jacob's Room - Virginia Woolf
10. Heart of the World - H. Rider Haggard
11. Uneasy Money - P.G. Wodehouse
12. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
13. The Winter's Tale - William Shakespeare
14. The Taming of the Shrew - William Shakespeare
15. Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare
16. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
17. As You Like It - William Shakespeare
18. The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare
19. All's Well That Ends Well - William Shakespeare
20. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
21. The Comedy of Errors - William Shakespeare
22. Cymbeline - William Shakespeare
23. Sherlock: The Memoirs Of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
24. Love's Labor's Lost - William Shakespeare
25. The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis
26. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
27. Death Comes for the Archbishop - Willa Cather
28. The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
29. Measure for Measure - William Shakespeare
30. The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
31. Betsy-Tacy Treasury - Maud Hart Lovelace
32. Sherlock: A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle
33. Sherlock: Sign of Four - Arthur Conan Doyle
34. Emily of New Moon - L.M. Montgomery
35. All-of-a-Kind Family - Sydney Taylor
36. The Princess and the Goblin - George MacDonald
37. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
38. The Jungle - Upton Sinclair

I am going to try for Stage 3

1. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

Are there any classics recommendations?

Danielle, you could try this site: http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/c... It has some excellent recommendations.

Danielle wrote: "Are there any classics recommendations?"

Some classics I really liked are The House of Mirth, Vanity Fair, Moll Flanders, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, The Mill on the Floss, Evelina, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

1. Anna Karenina - January
2. Dracula - March
3. Rebecca - currently reading

The Turn of the Screw
The Time Machine
Lady into Fox
The Importance of Being Ernest
Ethan Frome
Candide
Beowulf
The Scarlet Letter
The Stranger
Pride and Prejudice
The Jungle
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
The Wind in the Willows
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life
The English Governess at the Siamese Court: The True Story Behind 'The King and I'
Lady into Fox
Great Expectations
The Age of InnocenceThe Divine Comedy
Crime and Punishment
Les Misérables
The Mill on the Floss
Uncle Tom's CabinThe Turn of the Screw

Linda wrote: "I finished Anna Karenina in January.

Here's what I'd like to read during the rest of this year:

1. Dracula
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Uncle Tom's Cabin
4. The Scarlet Letter

I will add to this la..."

I have Dracula sitting on the table to finish next. Let me know how you like it :)

Let me know how you like it :)

I'll do that. I started reading it a few years ago and didn't finish. I hope I will this time.

UPDATE: I am LOVING Dracula this time around. Last time, I listened to an audio version and got confused when the old sailor started talking in his dialect. This time I am reading on Kindle and breezed through that, and am enjoying the story. Today: March 18.

I want to go for Stage 3, here are some I've already read this year and some on my tbr list.

✓Great Expectations
✓Hamlet
✓The Hobbit
Atonement
The Catcher in the Rye
Les Misérables
The Great Gatsby
A Tale of Two Cities
Pride and Prejudice
Treasure Island
Jane Eyre
Animal Farm
Lord of the Flies
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Linda wrote: "UPDATE: I am LOVING Dracula this time around. Last time, I listened to an audio version and got confused when the old sailor started talking in his dialect. This time I am reading on Kindle and breezed through that, and am enjoying the story. Today: March 18. ..."

I listened to an abridged audio version of Dracula to refresh my memory for a discussion. I do not recommend an abridged version if you're reading it for the first time. The story became choppy and in a couple of places the transitions were confusing because of things left out. It was a great refresher choice but would not have been a good first-time choice.

I would like to do this, it'll give me a push to read the classics I have sitting around! I'm going to start with Stage 1.

1. Lolita
2. Anna Karenina

I'll start with stage 1
1. Anna Karenina (reading now)

I've read one of the Classics on my list! Working away on Stage One, just finished Lolita

I'm shooting for Stage 2!

1.

UPDATE to Message 4

I've read 6 classics so far.
A word about #6 on my list
Love in a Fallen City is a collection of short stories translated into English and published in the US in 1995. However, the original stories were published in the mid-20th century.

UPDATE to Message 4

My 7th Classic:

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
5***** and a ❤

I’ve read and re-read this book so many times since I was first introduced to it when I was 13. Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to snag a first edition from our Friends of the Library sale. It’s too precious for me to read … and I have three other editions, including the paperback I got all those years ago.

Here are a few passages that remain with me:
Somehow it was hotter then... Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.

Miss Maudie tries to explain Atticus to Scout:
“There are some men in this world you are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them.”

Sheriff Tate on Bob Ewell:
“Mr. Finch, there’s just some kind of men you have to shoot before you can say hidy to ‘em. Even then, they ain’t worth the bullet it takes to shoot ‘em.”

On sibling relations:
Jem was twelve. He was difficult to live with, inconsistent, moody. His appetite was appalling, and he told me so many times to stop pestering him I consulted Atticus: “Reckon he’s got a tapeworm?”

Link to my full review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

UPDATE Message #4 - CHALLENGE COMPLETED - 26Sept13

I'll do this ... defining "classic" as a work that was published at least 50 years ago.

Stage 2 - 6-10 classics

1. I Capture the Castle ✔ 07Jan13 - 4****
2. North and South ✔ 11Feb13 - 3.5***
3. The Painted Veil ✔ 06April13 - 5*****
4. The Good Earth ✔ 13April13 - 5*****
5. The Grapes of Wrath ✔ 31May13 - 5*****
6. Love in a Fallen City ✔ – 12June13
7. To Kill a Mockingbird ✔ – 06July13
8. The Scarlet Letter ✔ – 14Aug13
9. For Whom the Bell Tolls ✔ – 04Sept13
10. Cannery Row ✔ – 26Sep13

Since I join late I'll go for stage 1
I'll do better next year!

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Kamouraska by Anne Hébert
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Le joueur d'échecs by Stefan Zweig