The Next Best Book Club discussion

I loved that one as well, although it's been quite a while since I read it.

Next up, Emma. I'm taking it with me to the DMV to make the inevitable wait tolerable.

Melissa wrote: "Lots! The first that come to mind are:

everything by Sigrid Undset..."

I haven't read Kristin Lavransdatter but my best friend says it's the best YA book she has ever read.

My grandmother gave me those boooks a while back! Tragically, they are still in the own-to-be-read pile.

These are the top ten classics I would like to read:

1. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
2. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
3. Candide by Voltaire
4. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
5. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
6. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
7. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
8. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
9. Germinal by Emile Zola
10. The Trial by Franz Kafka

Hayes wrote: "Melissa wrote: "Lots! The first that come to mind are: everything by Sigrid Undset..."

I haven't read Kristin Lavransdatter but my best friend says it's the best YA book she has ever..."

Hi Hayes and Melissa.

I feel oddly shamed to admit this, but I JUST (seriously, it was yesterday!!) learned about Sigrid Undset and her trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter . It won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928. I have no clue how it took me this long to learn of her works. :P

I want to try Remembrances Of Things Past-Marcel Proust again. I started it and never finished.

The ones I can think of off the top of my head:

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. The Arabian Nights Tales from a Thousand and One Nights
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

My short list includes:

The Brother's Karamazov
The Count of Monte Cristo
Anna Karenina
The Woman in White
Rebecca
East of Eden

and everything Dickens, especially Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, and David Copperfield.

At the beginning of the year I went through my TBR pile and made a list of all the classics I've acquired (bought or received) over the years waiting to be read. I have a LOT more than suspected. So far this year I've only read...two. So many books, so little time!


* Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
(I have read four others, all of which I liked except Emma--that one is not among my favorite reads)
* Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
* Summer and The Age Of Innocence by Edith Wharton
(Have since read Summer, which I enjoyed)
* The Moonstone and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
(I started Moonstone many years ago, but was unable to finish, so would like to re-read it.)
* Daisy Miller by Henry James
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
(Read LES MIS on my own in HS, but not this one)
* The Member of the Wedding and The Ballad of Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers
* The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
(Have read his collected short stories, and The Scarlet Letter, but not this one)
* Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
* White Fang/Call of the Wild by Jack London
(These are in a 2-in-1 collection)
* The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
* 1984 by George Orwell
(In HS freshman English, you either read this--as my sister's class did--or you read Animal Farm, as my class did. Reading 1984 now.)
* Dracula by Bram Stoker
* Swann's Way: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
* The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
* Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare
(There are others I have not read, but these are the only one on my TBR pile...for now.)
* A Tale of Two Cities and Hard Times by Charles Dickens
* Notes From Underground by Dostoevsky
* To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
* Treasure Islandby Robert Louis Stevenson
* Terre Des Hommes by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
(Yes, in French...sometimes I'm a glutton for punishment.)
* Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
* The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer
* A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
* Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
* Complete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allen Poe
(My sister recently gave this one to me. I have read a few short stories by him previously--some more than others--but there is A LOT in this book I'd not heard of.)

These are just the ones I could unearth. There may be more lurking in boxes somewhere.

I want to read Wuthering Heights. I had read it 4 pages and gave up. The language is difficult to me. I'm not from English-using country. But someday I'll read it to the end. LOL

Oh Sai, I hated that book. I kept reading and kept reading, thinking it had to get better, and it just didnt. For me, at least.

Lori, you're not alone! I've tried to get through Wuthering Heights twice, and have yet to succeed. I really wanted to enjoy it, and have seen the old movie version a couple of times, but the book? I just can't seem to force myself to plow through it.

Man - there are so many classics that I want to read. I have actually managed to read about 6 so far this year, but there are many more: The top of my list would be:

East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Tale of Two Cities by Dickens
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stephenson
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Middlemarch by George Eliot
All of the Issac Asimov Robot and Foundation books
The Time Machine by H G Wells
Around the World in 80 days by Jules Verne

I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones that I can think of for now.

Heather, I did finish it, though I am wishing that I hadnt... that was two weeks of my life I will NEVER get back!

Lori wrote: "Heather, I did finish it, though I am wishing that I hadnt... that was two weeks of my life I will NEVER get back!"

Come on girls I will re-read it with you. we can get the cliff notes if you want. I did enjoy the book. I was very young I might have a different opinion now.

I'm inclined to side with Lori on this one, about reading WH being weeks of your life you can never get back, LOL.

Seriously, The first time I tried to read it was in HS, and I did consider that maybe I just wasn't ready/old enough for it. The second attempt was five or six years later in a college Vic Lit class. Loved that class, and I think WH was the only reading I didn't finish. I think I still have the book, but it is packed away somewhere.

Here is my short list (haha!):

Les Misérables
The Count of Monte Cristo
Middlemarch
The Woman in White
East of Eden
The Last of the Mohicans
Wuthering Heights
Madame Bovary
Jane Eyre
The Hound of the Baskervilles Chapter XI
Pride and Prejudice
The Thorn Birds
Emma
Anna Karenina
The Picture of Dorian Gray

There are so many amazing classics out there...The Taming of the Shrew, Gone With the Wind, To Kill A Mockingbird, Phantom of the Opera, and everything by Poe. I'm reading Rebecca again right now for the second time--it's so good! The Woman in White is next. So many books, so little time... :)

Lori wrote: "Oh Sai, I hated that book. I kept reading and kept reading, thinking it had to get better, and it just didnt. For me, at least."

Ow, I have to think again to read that :)

There are a lot of classics I want to have under my belt. I have tasted some of the major ones so some others are.......

Gulliver's Travels - Swift
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy - Sterne
Swann's Way - Proust
Paradise Lost - Milton
Crime and Punishment - Dostoysvsky
Anna Karenia - Tolstoy
The Master and the Margarita - Bulgakov
Heart of Darkness - Conrad
Metamorphosis - Kafka
Grapes of Wrath -Steinbeck

Oh and I will finish Satanic Verses by Rushdi that book will not beat me!
Though I'm I don't think that is a classic yet.

Lindsay,
Master and Margarita was a good book. So was Metamorphosis and Grapes and Wrath.

I loathed Heart of Darkness(the writing was just god-awful for me), and Gullivers Travels was so dry and painful to read, however, I liked the IDEAS he was trying to convey.

I would be interested to know what you think of those when you do get around to reading them!

Kimberly wrote: "Here is my short list (haha!):

Les Misérables
The Count of Monte Cristo
Middlemarch
The Woman in White
East of Eden
[book:The Last of ..."

Kimberly.... The COunt of Monte Cristo was such a wonderful novel! Its huge, and takes awhile, but wow... Such a creative tale of revenge!!

Kimberly wrote: "Here is my short list (haha!):

Les Misérables
The Count of Monte Cristo
Middlemarch
The Woman in White
East of Eden
[book:The Last of ..."


Kimberly Les Miserable is a very good book. Did you know Victor Hugo was a strong Advocate for women's rights?

So - I have got to add Les Miserables and The Count of Monte Cristo to my list I think. Unfortunately, Metamorphosis is the week of my life that I will never get back. Lindsay, I hope you like it more than I did. (I'm sure you will). Maybe I will back burner Wuthering Heights for a while.

Lyn wrote: "So - I have got to add Les Miserables and The Count of Monte Cristo to my list I think. Unfortunately, Metamorphosis is the week of my life that I will never get back. Lindsay, I hope you like it ..."

Some others don't want to read Wuthering Heights either. But it is a very good book. Maybe we can read a chapter at a time. It is a bit daunting, with the language and style of writing. After you have read a few books from that era you get familiar with the language and you can understand faster.

I would be willing to do a buddy read/mimi group read sometime after the holidays (got a lot on my plate currently). I have been wanting to read it for a while, but have become apprehensive.

Lyn wrote: "I would be willing to do a buddy read/mimi group read sometime after the holidays (got a lot on my plate currently). I have been wanting to read it for a while, but have become apprehensive. "

Iguess we would need to open another thread and invite people. I would be willing also. After the holidays would work fine for me too.

I'll open a thread if you want.

Lori - would I put it in the Anyone want to discuss this book thread?

That would be fine, just say when. Might be just you and I Lyn. hehe

What are we considering a classic anyway? (just thought I'd ask...) date of publication and/or popularity? other criteria?

Recently read Classics (i.e., first published before 1930):

Jane Eyre
The Secret Garden
The Lost World (Conan Doyle's)
Little Women
The Enchanted April
The Three Musketeers

Fiona wrote: "I'd say that a classic is anything you'd find in the classics section of the bookshop and then you have the modern classics as well I suppose which is a confusion. Anything old but still relevant I..."

Sounds about right. I think the genre is sometimes broken up to differentiate between pre-20th century and books after the 19th century

Sounds like a good definition to me Fiona. I have sometimes laughed at what my son considers a classic when it is a book I read when it first came out! Guess I am getting old.

Lyn wrote: "I'll open a thread if you want.

Lori - would I put it in the Anyone want to discuss this book thread?"

Yup, that would be the place :)

Thanks Lori

Lori wrote: "Lindsay,
Master and Margarita was a good book. So was Metamorphosis and Grapes and Wrath.

I loathed Heart of Darkness(the writing was just god-awful for me), and Gullivers Travels was so dry a..."

Thanks I will let you know. That is what I like about the classics, is reading them and trying to work out why certian books are still much loved and still in print

*congratulates self* cool I didn't know I had read so many classics that I seem to have judging by the lists going around.

My TBR is *shepish* not so long right now,

I would like to read

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
A Woman in White
Jamaica Inn - Daphne duMaurier
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

I love to be scandalized (by the classics) !!

Jane Eyre
Dracula
Frankenstein
Gulliver's Travels
The Three Musketeers
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The Secret Garden
The Count of Monte Christo
The Enchanted April
A Woman in White
Little Women
Treasure Island
Robinson Crusoe
Gone with the Wind
Rebecca
Wuthering Heights

Just finished Lolita

I have just got a copy of Canterbury Tales and Paradise Lost. V excited, its going to be my big challenge of 2010, which is going to be a poetry year :).

The Adventures of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Count of Monte Cristo
Les Miserables
Peter Pan
Wuthering Heights

These classics are on my shelf, but there are many more that I want to read.

I'm about 30 pages from the end of Les Miserables and I don't want it to end!!

In terms of classics I want to read:

To Kill a Mockingbird
Tess of the Durbervilles
The Brothers Karamazov
Jane Eyre
East of Eden
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

The responses to Wuthering Heights tend to be really polarized. Some people really love it.

I'd like to get to Don Quioxte, Madame Bovary, The Pickwick Papers, Mystery of Edwin Drood, The lady in White

The Lady In White
Don Quioxte
The Man In The Iron Mask

I love the classics, and there are still way too many I need to get to, but on the top of my list is any Jane Austen novel. I've never read any of hers!

A few others:
War and Peace
Ulysses
The Divine Comedy (I only made it through Inferno... not a good place to stop)
Les Miserables
and in general more Americans (i.e. Hemingway-era) and Russians. I love Russian authors.

What I have waiting to be read soon are:

A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens. I'm reading this one now. I've read A Christmas Carol before, but not the other stories in the book.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

As these go, others will tumble onto the list.

I love ,love ,love, The Count. I have never read Don Quixote either. Maybe later we should see if others would be interested in a group read.

I'd be interested in a Don Quixote group, if one gets started. I'd like to read Wuthering Heights next, though. So, if a group is started for DQ, perhaps it could be in the late spring, if that's okay???

I have heard that DQ is not about windmills, but that is all I know :)

I just started Don Quixote (pg 52) and am really surprised! I don't know what I expected...maybe a serious, gripping novel about romance, dueling, and travel I guess. But it's really humorous! I'm not laughing out loud but a little chuckle or twitch of the lips happens every now and then. I can't wait to see what happens!
If a DQ group gets started, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts. I feel a little out of my element reading it alone. It's a daunting task...