Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Hi! I'm not sure how this works, but I would like to make a buddy read request.
It looks like Hunger by Knut Hamsun (1890) (134 pages) won't win our June Old School Classics book selection.
My friend Carol and I would still like to read it in June. Also, we would be delighted if other interested readers join us for a more insightful discussion.
Can we please schedule Hunger as a buddy read for June? Thank you :)

Yes sure, that's fine. I'll add Hunger to the schedule list for June. You can set up a discussion thread yourself, or I can do it for you, when it's nearer the time. I'll see if I have time to join it too :)

I read it already, but will happily revisit it! It's a great book

I have Hunger slated for later in the year, but can swap things around and bring in forward to June no probs :o)

@ Pink: So original version it is :D
I'll try to join in, but I won't know till the end of next week how tight my schedule really is, and if I can keep up with you folks ...

Lilly, I have to wait for my library copy to arrive yet. I think Finnegans Wake is quite long and if we're reading at a rate of a couple of chapters a week, hopefully they'll be time to catch up and we can take it slow. Though I have no idea how many chapters are in the book as a whole.

The book is said to have 17 chapters - so if we read about one per week, as was proposed, the whole novel will really take a while. :D
But I guess that's rather an advantage for such a complex work ...

I'm going to order my copy later tonight. - And then I'll just see how it goes ... ;)

Pink wrote: "Lilly, I have to wait for my library copy to arrive yet. I think Finnegans Wake is quite long and if we're reading at a rate of a couple of chapters a week, hopefully they'll be time to catch up an..."

I've got the Penguin Modern Classics edition (stamped by Shakespeare and Co where I got it, one of Joyce's Parisian stomping grounds) which is printed from the First Edition. It has 17 chapters of varying lengths and in my edition is about 630 pages long so 2 chapters a week would average about 80 pages a week. I think we will need the time though because just skimming it, I'm gonna be spending a lot of time with the cliff notes and sounding out some of Joyce's juicier puns.

Right, it was two chapters per week ... ^^
Might be going a little more slowly myself - but I've always been ok with spoilers ... :P

Sounds like a good reading rate to me.

Pink wrote: "Yes sure, that's fine. I'll add Hunger to the schedule list for June. You can set up a discussion thread yourself, or I can do it for you, when it's nearer the time. I'll see if I have time to join..."

Thank you so much Pink. I will set up the discussion thread in June :) Everybody is welcome to join the Hunger buddy read!

Missy J wrote: "Hi! I'm not sure how this works, but I would like to make a buddy read request.
It looks like Hunger by Knut Hamsun (1890) (134 pages) won't win our June Old School Cla..."

Yes, yes, yes! Count me in for Hunger. \o/

Lilly wrote: "Right, it was two chapters per week ... ^^
Might be going a little more slowly myself - but I've always been ok with spoilers ... :P"

From the background reading on the Wake so far, critics can't even agree on the basics of what is happening in a lot of the book. I think it may be unspoilable.

I know that I proposed/planned to participate in a lot of the buddy reads these past couple months (Mort d'Arthur, Dr. Zhivago, Don Quixote) but have really gotten behind. I was pleased to see that, last I checked, Dr. Zhivago was at the top of the polls for June, but it is still early.

I'm planning to start Quixote this coming Sunday, the 401st anniversary of Cervantes' death (and Shakespeare's too, coincidentally). I see from my feed that Darren is already working on it (though not liking it much...)

I got my copy of Finnegans Wake from the library today. Daunted by it already! This is the edition I'll be reading and it looks like a good layout, so I've also ordered myself a second hand copy, as I think I'll want my own edition to take time my over and possibly annotate.

Pink wrote: "I got my copy of Finnegans Wake from the library today. ..."

When are we starting?

For anyone who's interested, I (sort of) started Le Morte d'Arthur today. It's another huge book, but it has short "chapters," so I'm planning to take it in small bites. Is anyone still interested? If so, I can start a thread.

Ellen wrote: "For anyone who's interested, I (sort of) started Le Morte d'Arthur today. It's another huge book, but it has short "chapters," so I'm planning to take it in small bites. Is anyone still interested?..."

I'm still interested! I'm behind schedule (story of my life lately, seriously), but I could start late next week.

Katy wrote: "Pink wrote: "I got my copy of Finnegans Wake from the library today. ..."

When are we starting?"

I think Jon said next week. Though I might wait another week and start in May. I'll play catch up if others have already started.

Sarah wrote: "Ellen wrote: "For anyone who's interested, I (sort of) started Le Morte d'Arthur today. It's another huge book, but it has short "chapters," so I'm planning to take it in small bites. Is anyone sti..."

I'm sort of interested. I mean, I have the book, I want to read it, and it's calling to me from the shelf, "come read me, look at my pretty illustrations". So if you set up a thread I'll try to join in a bit here and there. But I feel like I'm currently reading ALL THE BOOKZ so I'll probably fall off the wayside after a couple of stories, or at least take the rest of the year to get through the whole thing.

Haha, Leni, I completely understand. I'm not in a big hurry to finish it either (though it does seem more interesting than my other current reads at the moment.) I'll start the thread in a bit here. :)

Jon wrote: "From the background reading on the Wake so far, critics can't even agree on the basics of what is happening in a lot of the book. I think it may be unspoilable."

Haha, unspoilable might be a good term for Joyce in general. :D

Katy wrote: "When are we starting?"

Pink wrote: "I think Jon said next week. Though I might wait another week and start in May. I'll play catch up if others have already started."

My copy supposedly arrived yesterday. Though, as it was deposited at a neighbour's and they haven't been home so far (I meant for the package to go to the post-station instead), I'm feeling rather irritated. :S
Guess I'll be able to hunt my copy down till sunday evening - so I might start monday morning on the train. :)

Pink wrote: "I think Jon said next week. Though I might wait another week and start in May."

I'm gonna be reading the first two chapters this week, so I guess discussion can start next week?

I'll follow your lead. Do you want to create a discussion thread ready for it?

For those still interested in Quixote, I just started on Sunday. I'll find the discussion thread(s) soon.

Here's a link to the Don Quixote discussion threads https://www.goodreads.com/group/comme...

Thanks, Pink. :)

Pink wrote: "I'll follow your lead. Do you want to create a discussion thread ready for it?"

Done.

Great, I'll add a link to the schedule list for May/ June. We can always extend it later, depending on how we get on!

I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo starting sometime in May. Would anybody be interested in buddy reading it?

Hailee wrote: "I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo starting sometime in May. Would anybody be interested in buddy reading it?"

I'd be up for that! I've been meaning to re-read The Count of Monte Cristo for awhile, but always skip to shorter books... When were you thinking of starting?

Francisca wrote: "Hailee wrote: "I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo starting sometime in May. Would anybody be interested in buddy reading it?"

I'd be up for that! I've been meaning to re-read [bo..."

Great! Anytime in the first two weeks of May is fine with me, personally I'm ready to start it on the 1st but I'm prepared to go with the majority if people need a couple of weeks to finish other books off etc. Do you have preference?

Hailee wrote: "Anytime in the first two weeks of May is fine with me, personally I'm ready to start it on the 1st but I'm prepared to go with the majority if people need a couple of weeks to finish other books off etc. Do you have preference? "

May 1st works for me! Nothing like a holiday to start a new book :) But if any one else joining prefers later that's fine to.

Francisca wrote: "May 1st works for me! Nothing like a holiday to start a new book :) But if any one else joining prefers later that's fine to."

Sounds good! Ok so we'll set a tentative date of May 1st. People can always join in at a later date anyway as it'll take me a few months to read it anyway as I'll have other books on the go at the same time :-).

I'm really looking forward to it, I've had my copy since 2010 and have yet to get around to it. So many people have told me how much they loved it so I have high expectations!

Excellent! I'll also be reading other books in parallel, so that sounds perfect. I think first read it maybe about 15 years ago (!!) and don't really remember, well, anything except the basic premise and that I stayed up all night to finish! :-)

Would I be able to join in your Count Of Monte Cridto buddy read?

Holly wrote: "Would I be able to join in your Count Of Monte Cridto buddy read?"

Absolutely, the more the merrier. We are planning to start it on the 1st May and we'll be reading it over a few months. Is that ok with you?

Hailee wrote: "Holly wrote: "Would I be able to join in your Count Of Monte Cridto buddy read?"

Absolutely, the more the merrier. We are planning to start it on the 1st May and we'll be reading it over a few mon..."

Hailee took the words out of my mouth (well, keyboard)! :)

@Hailee: as said before, I'm still interested. ;)

I don't know how much I can read right now, rl problems are getting in the way - but I'll join you as soon as possible. It's a long-time read anyhow, making it easier for me to drop in. :)

Lilly wrote: "@Hailee: as said before, I'm still interested. ;)

I don't know how much I can read right now, rl problems are getting in the way - but I'll join you as soon as possible. It's a long-time read any..."

That's absolutely fine. As I indicated I'll definately be taking my time with it. I've waited so long to read it that I want to take my time and savour it, so join in when you have the time :-)

Yes, that's perfect! Thanks so much for letting me join with you guys!

How would somebody feel about Buddy Reading Midnight's Children some time this summer? I think maybe it's already been a group read, and maybe I'll try nominating it for reread the shelf, but I'm hedging my bets.

I don't believe that anything by Rushdie has ever been picked for a group read. He's fair game for New School, if you want to try to get it as a group read.

I checked after and saw! So I'll definitely be nominating him for New School.

Nicole-- Madame Bovary some time in summer even if it doesn't win??? You got me curious about it.

Nicole wrote: "How would somebody feel about Buddy Reading Midnight's Children some time this summer? I think maybe it's already been a group read, and maybe I'll try nominating it for reread the shelf, but I'm h..."

Hi Nicole. Count me in for Midnight's Children. What month precisely do you have in mind?

I would be interested in both Madame Bovary and Midnight's Children...any time

Ooooh! Count me in for Madame Bovary!

Hailee wrote: "Holly wrote: "Would I be able to join in your Count Of Monte Cridto buddy read?"

Absolutely, the more the merrier. We are planning to start it on the 1st May and we'll be reading it over a few mon..."

I will probably join you guys later in May in reading The Count of Monte Cristo. It is on my Challenge list(s), but I would like to get a couple others finished/read before starting another long read :)