Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Hi there. Thought it might be fun to get to know each other a bit more. Use this thread to introduce yourself.

What books do you like to read, and what other hobbies/work take up your time.

Anything else that you'd like to add.

Hi, I'm Katy from Idaho. I just recently started helping Trisha as a moderator so hopefully you've gotten a message from me to vote in a poll.

I love to read: history, science, classics, science fiction, fantasy, biographies and much more.

I love to bike, sew, quilt, knit, garden, and do things with my family. I am retired and all of our children are grown.

I am riding in RideIdaho this year, and am training for that adventure.
http://www.rideidaho.org

Glad to see you all here.

Hello! I'm Corinne(coreen)from Guam. I have three kids aged 17 and up, a husband and two dogs. I love to read fantasy, sci-fi,and spiritual, not religious, books. I'm a former teacher(Yes! I escaped!)and now I have lots of time to read.

Welcome Corinne, glad to have you here! Looking forward to seeing what books you read.

Hi!

Nice to meet you all. I'm Audrey and I live in Canada. I love reading classics, especially French or Russian ones. My guilty pleasure is reading Dan Brown every now and then.
I sometimes write short stories and I'm currently working on a book. I have a blog, as well. My dream is to one day have a house in a forest where I can read or write all day long! I love the greenery!

I'm Aprilleigh. I'm a college biology professor with a husband, a 7yo son who I currently homeschool (don't get me started on the state of education today), two cats, and over 200 gallons worth of aquarium populated with fish, aquatic invertebrates and live plants.

As far as reading goes, I'll read just about anything, but I'm not particularly fond of comic books, graphic novels, manga, and non-fiction books about sports or hobbies I don't follow (biographies are different because they tend to be more about the person and their life with the sport or hobby just having a central role).

Hello! I'm Leslie from Indiana. Enjoying being a part of this group. Especially the challenges and the monthly three books. I seem to always have a hard time deciding what to read so it has been great having a steady stream of suggestions. I have 7yo and a 3yo boys. My maternity leave allowed me the chance to read 10k pages in 6 weeks which I loved! Looking fwd to reading many more pages w you all.

Welcome Audrey, Aprilleigh, & Leslie. So glad to have you join us.

Hi

I'm Humaira from Little Rock, AR. I love reading and perhaps the only thing I enjoy more than that is writing.

My favorite books among the classics are Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.

Hi, I am Tanmoy from Kolkata, India. I am an Engineering student and love reading. Its one of my favorite pastime.

History, fiction and classics are what I like the most.

Welcome to Goodreads.

Welcome Humaira and Tanmoy. So nice to have you here.

Hi there, I'm Antonio from Burgos, Spain. I'm working as a french teacher in a secondary school quite civilised so I can't complain. I love my job as much as I love reading. Sure it's a great way of improving a foreign language (I'm passionate about languages, too), but most of the time I just want to forget about the world around and get myself into a good story. I'd love science fiction, thriller, humour...everything (well, to be honest, not everything but you know what I mean)

Welcome Antonio, glad to have you here.

Hi, I'm Bob, an avid reader of novels, short stories, history, science (& history of science), philosophy, etc. I've recently begun to try and catch up on some classics.

Bob, so glad you found us. Welcome to the group.

You are such a wonderful hostess Kathy! I feel inspired to offer everyone a refreshing beverage as they join our group :-)

Trisha wrote: "You are such a wonderful hostess Kathy! I feel inspired to offer everyone a refreshing beverage as they join our group :-)"

How fun!

Hi Everyone,
I'm Sarah. I am a mother of a eleven and seven year old. I just graduated from my second nursing program. Life feels stressful at times but reading a good book always makes me feel better. I read all kinds of different books and love the classics. I just realized this month I am rather busy since I am in the middle of job hunting and both kids are out of school. Perhaps I should have signed up next month or so. I will try to keep up with everyone!

Sarah, so glad you are here. This is a no stress group.

Hello, my name is Jade. I am 22 years old. I am currently a student finishing my bachelors degree, my focus is English/Literature. My focus has led me to enjoy classic literature, including novels, short stories and poetry of all types. I believe it is incredibly important for reading to remain relevant especially to younger generations.

Kathy-- how fun for your bike ride! My friend did the tour de Tucson last year and now wants me to ride down the California with a bunch of us next summer. I guess I will be listening to a lot of books while I train for that adventure:)

Hello! I am Tracy. I live in sunny Arizona. My life is very quiet and simple now that I only have one child left at home and she is 16 years old and now seems to have a life of her own without her mom. The other three are also very productive so I can not complain. Luckily, I am still very much in love with my wonderful husband. I spend most of my time quilting and listening to books. I am very active in my Latter-day Saint church group. Between quilting, church, and family adventures my days are very full and happy. :)

A warm welcome to Jade, Tracy, and Desiree! Hope you enjoy the reads and posts here.

Hi! I’m Miriam and I love reading classic literature, painting, and knitting. I hope to join in on lots of reads in the group, for it looks like a great group!

Welcome, Miriam. I do think this is a fun group. Glad to have you here.

Hi, I'm Ron. I've been focused on the classics for only a year or so now. I found out how much I was missing when I read Middlemarch last year. Kind of hooked on Emile Zola right now. I was attracted to this group by not only the name, but also your low stress attitude. I read for fun.

Hi Ron! I am just starting Middlemarch this month for my Local Meet in Person Bookclub. I read too many books at a time, and haven't really gotten into it yet. But the goal is to have it read by the 18th of this month.

I too really like the low stress of the group. All of our threads remain open, so really you can add your comments to a book at any time.

Glad to have you aboard.

by George Eliot

Émile Zola

Hi. My name is Sara and I'm from Ohio. I like reading fantasy, sci-fi, and period pieces. I have read some classics in the past since I did major in English lit, but I'm excited to expand my horizons. My favorite author right now is Kevin Hearne wit his iron Druid chronicles.

Sara, I too love the Iron Druid Chronicles. They are so fun. I haven't read them all yet -- but just picked up a copy of Hunted the other day. I too love to read all sorts of genres.


by Kevin Hearne

Warmest greetings to all of you from the sunny Bulgarian seaside! Kathy, thanks for the welcoming message!

I am fond of classic literature, especially European. I love the humble Tolstoy, who draws worlds, Dickens's sense of humor, and Dostoyevsky's journeys to the human soul that give tingles. Yet my dearest is the Bulgarian literature.

Tuatha, do you know of any favorite Bulgarian literature that has been translated into English? I would love to try something you could recommend.

The other authors you mention are classics! Perfect for this group.

Leo Tolstoy
Charles Dickens
Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Hello folks!

I enjoyed reading the threads of introductions. What a diverse group of people from all parts of the world!

I'm Betsy residing in Jersey City, NJ. I work in IT for a NYC financial firm. I look forward to nights when I can curl up to a book, ok... "Kindle". I enjoy reading classics to complement current best sellers.

For now, my favorite classic authors are Austen, Steinbeck and Camus. And my favorite contemporary authors are Nesbø and Follett. I enjoy this Goodreads book club for real feedback and grounded opinions of these historical works.

When I'm not working or reading; i enjoy photography, films and traveling.

Betsy, what a nice compliment for the group. We are happy to have you share here too! It is fun to get to know each other a bit using the introductions.

This looks like a GREAT group and I'm glad to have found it. Thanks for letting me join.

I'm Lisa in Washington (now Vancouver, moved recently from Seattle area; I grew up on a Nebraska dairy farm). I have a BA in English/journalism and work in PR/communications. I was about 8 years old when I fell in love with books -- Ribsy by Beverly Cleary, then Misty by Marguerite Henry and then read everything voraciously and decided to write for a living.

My husband and I are both avid readers - half of our storage is books. Most are his as I pick up whatever looks interesting at the library. I love audio books - a very different mode of digestion that has made me like books I would not have liked had I read them with my own interpretation (e.g., Lovely Bones). I gravitate to classics, spy thrillers, "easy listening" (e.g., Mitford series), historical novels and nonfiction.

We like the outdoors and I love photography. We have one son graduating HS next year so close to an empty nest and today, my husband starts the 365-day countdown to my turning a half-century. :) Life is good.

Kathy wrote: "Tuatha, do you know of any favorite Bulgarian literature that has been translated into English? I would love to try something you could recommend.

The other authors you mention are classics! Perfe..."
Hi, Kathy, and thank you for this question! What I found translated is Yordan Yovkov's Short stories. He is a master of the short story. Thomas Mann included one of his works in his anthology The Most Beautiful Stories in the World (1956). As I can see this book is hard to find. Here's what I found in the State Library in Sydney but I have no idea how accessible this is for you. I'd be thrilled to bits if s'o here has ever read Bulgarian literature, and comments it.
http://library.sl.nsw.gov.au/search~S...

Lisa, so glad you found us here. You sound like a perfect fit for this group. We are so happy to have you as a member.

Tuatha, I am going to do some research here on my end too! That would be fun to try some Bulgarian literature.

Hello everyone,

Since this seems like an incredibly friendly group maybe it’s time to introduce myself as well. I’m Kara, a student from London, UK. In between studying lengthy case reports two of the best pass times imaginable are reading in a bathtub (a matter of spiritual hygiene as my family calls it) or long walks with an audiobook as a guide through central London. I haven’t tried any of the monthly challenges yet, specifically because of school work, but since its summer why not give it a go?
Hopefully you all are doing fine finding enough time for you reading, take care.

Kara

P.S. Varna is such a lovely place!

It's great to see that more friends have joined our group and I am so glad to see that the low-stress atmosphere is encouraging more people to give classics a try! Just like Kathy said, all of our threads remain open, so you can either jump in with our monthly reads, or cruise through our bookshelves and add comments to past reads. Enjoy the group!

Hello everyone,

I'm Laurel from San Jose, CA. I'm about to begin my last semester in college studying communication and business. Over the last several years I have been so busy with classwork I haven't had much reading time, but I've decided since this is going to be a light semester it's time to incorporate books back into my life!
When I'm not in school I'm usually job searching, reading, hiking, traveling or spending time with friends.
I enjoy reading books based in countries or cities I have or am traveling to (such as I'm currently in Nashville, on business with my dad, reading a book set in Nashville)and other novels. I'm looking forward to being a part of this group as I have missed out on several of the classics for one reason or another and I look forward to reading them with the group.

Looking forward to getting to know you all, Laurel

Welcome Laurel. Glad you found some time to join us. It is so fun to meet some new readers here.

Joud wrote: "Hello everyone,

I'm Joud from Amman, Jordan. I study Economics and Politics at SOAS in London. My favourite books so far are Eleven Minutes and Angels and Demons. Loved The Perks of Being a Wallfl..."

Joud, we are so glad to have you here. Hope that we have some classics that will interest you. I look forward to your comments. I am going to add Eleven Minutes to my TBR list. It looks good. Thanks for the tip.

by Paulo Coelho

Lisa. So glad to have you here. I love your post. I look forward to discussing Gulliver's Travels with you. I've actually never read it, so it should be fun. I too relate to "there's just not enough time left."

Hi everyone! I'm Kate. I live in the great state of Alaska and am currently a senior at Thunder Mountain High.My favorite subjects are history and science.

Before I started reading the classics I mostly read historical fiction and fantasy.I would have to say my favorite author in J.R.R Tolkien.

Kate wrote: "Hi everyone! I'm Kate. I live in the great state of Alaska and am currently a freshman at Thunder Mountain High.My favorite subjects are history and science.

Before I started reading the classics ..."

Kate, I'm so glad to have your here. I too love fantasy and historical fiction. And I have to say that J.R.R. Tolkien is considered a classic at my house. :)

J.R.R. Tolkien

Hey, everyone! I'm Larissa. I live in Ohio, I'm married, and have 3 children. I look forward to discovering (and rediscovering) the classics with all of you. I'm new to GoodReads, and I'm so happy to have found this group! :)

Larissa, so glad to have you join us. This is a relaxed and fun group. We've got nominations for October reads up now -- so if you have a classic that you've always wanted to read let us know.

Hello, everyone! I’m Anna from Poland. I’m 26, majored in Japanese language and now I’m working in a big company as an interpreter (I hope to aim at literary translation one day :).

I was always very fond of reading, but most of the classics I’ve read, I’ve read still in high school. I’m hoping to encounter more titles thanks to your support and suggestions.

PS: I can never make up my mind on what to read next.

Anna, loved your line, "I can never make up my mind on what to read next." So true!

Welcome to the group. Glad to have you here.