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Melanti's Challenges& Reading lists
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2017 Old & New School
Old School (1899 and earlier):
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866, 565 pgs, no audio)
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (1862, 1463, ~70 hrs)
Middlemarch by George Eliot (1871, 904 pgs)
New School (1900-1999):
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez - 4 Stars
Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor - 4 Stars
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (1928, 414 pgs, 16 hrs)
Wild Cards:
Spells of Enchantment: the Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture, edited by by Jack D. Zipes - (1991, 814 pgs, no audio)
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson *** - Abandoned after 2 pages read and 2 chapters skimmed
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (1938, 250 pgs, 10 hrs)
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin - 5 Stars!
The Vagabond by Colette 2 Stars
July's People by Nadine Gordimer - 2 Stars
Alternates:
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster - 4 Stars
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges - Abandoned.
2017 Classic Bingo
_ X X X _
X X X X _
_ X X _ _
X _ X X X
_ X _ X X
B1: Written by Nobel Laureate: Toni Morrison? Steinbeck? Doctor Faustus Kim
B3: Classic Tragedy: Shakespeare? Titus Andronicus, Coriolanus
B5: Winner of a Foreign Literary Prize
I4: Classic of More than 500 Pages
N5: European Classic: Brighton Rock? Doctor Faustus , The Path to the Spiders' Nests
G3: Classic Non-fiction: Black Like Me? Silent Spring?
O1: Literary Prize of Your Country/Region
O2: Classic Folklore or Mythology: The Arabian Nights II: Sinbad and Other Popular Stories? Spells of Enchantment: the Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture? Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
O3: Asian Classic: The Art of War?
O5: Prize-Winning Female Author - July's People by Nadine Gordimer - 6/23
Links & Details
Here's a list of all of the books that this group has read. This is copied over from the Catching Up Challange thread. I want to at least TRY all of this group's selections unless I already know I don't like that particular author or book.
Current & Upcoming Group Reads:
221. 05/18 The Mill on the Floss by Eliot, George
226. 06/18 Ten Days in a Mad-House by Bly, Nellie
2018 Old & New Challenge:
41. 06/12 The Caine Mutiny by Wouk, Herman
42. 06/12 The Good Soldier Švejk by Hašek, Jaroslav
52. 02/13 Snow Falling on Cedars by Guterson, David
77. 01/14 War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo
169. 12/16 Ivanhoe by Scott, Walter
Will probably try to read at some point in my life:
(view spoiler)
Will never, ever read these (18):
(view spoiler)
Mod
I've got Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World sitting on my shelf here at home, what group will be reading it for February? I might have to join in.
Mod
I confess a curiousness about the seven you never plan to read, some of them are highly regarded. On a side note the books removed from the shelf were dated after 1999, the threads still exist.
Kathy wrote: "I've got Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World sitting on my shelf here at home, what group will be reading it for February?..."Short & Sweet Treats, though technically the poll isn't closed yet. But it has a big enough lead that it's really likely to win with how small the group is.
To be honest, S&STs is one group that I'm staying in/participating in out of guilt, at this point... Group participation has really tapered off and several people that I used to have good conversations with left the group for various reasons. And it's been quite a while (almost a year!) since something I was really enthusiastic about won the group reading polls. I ended up enjoying quite a few of the books, but I wasn't really jumping up and down at the thought of reading them.
But since it's such a small group that I feel bad about considering dropping out because I know that'll just make the issue worse.
Bob wrote: "Thanks for the list Melanti, I had forgotten that MK had made this list, if that is where you got it. One of my longest goals is to read the groups bookshelf. Of course like you there are some that..."Yes, it comes from the thread that MK started back in 2013, and I've kept it up to date - more or less, at least. I update it every couple of months.
For the ones on the "Refuse to read" portion, It's a mix of reasons...
Emma and Mrs. Dalloway - tried them during the group reads and just couldn't get into them.
The Stand - I've tried a couple of Stephen King's other books and didn't care for either one. I've declared at least a decade long hiatus before trying a third. It'll probably be The Stand when I try him again, but that's at least 7 years away still.
David Copperfield - I just don't like Charles Dickens. I have no idea why. Everyone else loves him, I know, but I don't. The Dickens books on my list of read books were ones I had to read for High School. If Bleak House gets picked this for March, it's going straight onto this list too.
Hemmingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald - I had a really, really awful teacher in Jr. High during the year we covered American Literature. Unfortunately, several authors she taught just remind me of how much I despised her.
I attempted to read The Sound and the Fury last time it came up for the group read, and got less than a page read before visions of her waving around some lit crit book and pointing to some passage while saying "Of course xxxx symbolizes yyyy. It says so right here!" floated through my mind. I did manage to force my way through The Old Man and the Sea a couple years ago, despite a similar response, but only because it was so short.
This is the woman who called a parent-teacher conference to tell my parents I was reading "trash". In other circles, known as science fiction and fantasy... She even banned me from bringing non-classics into her classroom (even if I wasn't reading them during class, I couldn't even leave them with the rest of my textbooks under my desk), and banned me from mentioning anything fantasy & sci-fi related during any creative writing assignment- and failed me on every single assignment thereafter where I so much as mentioned a ghost or a space ship.
This was over 20 years ago, and you'd think I'd eventually forget how awful that woman was, but not so far!
Mod
As for Stephen King, I stayed away from all his books from day one. Horror was just not my thing. A friend loaned me a copy of 11/22/63 and asked me to read it, I liked it, mostly because I like the idea of time travel. Since then I have read two more, The Stand and Salem’s Lot, I liked them both. There are plenty of his books that I do not intend to ever try.
Mr. Charles Dickens is an author I have only been acquainted with on three occasions. I have read Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and A Christmas Carol. Of the three, Christmas Carol was the most enjoyed. I liked the descriptions of Marley and the ghosts very much. However, while I have ended up satisfied with my Dickens reads I find him to be somewhat rambling and wordy. I don’t see myself reading either David Copperfield or Bleak House any time soon. I’d much rather read Wilkie Collins or Elisabeth Gaskell.
Hemmingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald, good lord where do I start, I’m not a scholar, barely make it out of high school and managed to acquire an AA degree from my local community college. These guys are at the top of the pyramid when it comes to 20th century American authors. For the life of me I have never understood why Hemmingway and Faulkner are held in such prestige. As for Fitzgerald, I’ve only read The Great Gatsby and have been unable to get into anything else. I liked Gatsby mostly because I could understand Gatsby’s desire to recapture the past. I could feel his yearning as he stood at the end of the dock looking across the bay at the green light on Daisy’s dock. I will attempt to read all three of these authors in the future, but I confess they are difficult for me.
For King - I do like horror in general, as long as it's not a gore-fest, but I didn't like the couple by him that I've read. I read The Gunslinger, which I found to be really dull. Then I read The Shining, which I thought was... well, not misogynistic, exactly, but it certainly didn't acknowledge that Jack's behavior wasn't entirely due to the hotel. And it was rather dull on top of that. It's not entirely definitive, but it's certainly enough for me to give him a long break before trying him again.I didn't think I'd like Austin at all, but once I tried it, I thought Pride and Prejudice was very witty. Northanger Abbey is hilarious if you've read a lot of classic gothic books. But the characters in Emma were too vapid for my tastes.
Dickens - I really can't say what it is I don't like about him. Yeah, he's rambling and wordy - but so are other authors I don't mind. He's melodramatic, sensationalist, and overly sentimental - but again, I don't necessarily mind those. I even like other writers that ape Dickens' style. Just, for whatever reason, I don't like him. The thing I remember most from A Tale of Two Cities was that I figured out how it was going to end two or three chapters in, and spent the rest of the book waiting to be proven right.
Virginia Woolf - I made it through maybe 20 pages of Mrs. Dalloway before giving up, so that's progress. I only made it through about 2 pages of The Waves. I"m not a big fan of the stream-of-consciousness style, I guess.
I'm sure one of these decades, I'll be able to read all those American authors again. Luckily, she didn't cover Edgar Allan Poe or Mark Twain or Kurt Vonnegut. I've found I like all of those guys, and it would have been a shame to have had her ruin them before I knew what I was missing.
Mod
Possibly! Or you can pretend to yourself that you don't know how it's going to end. That might help.
Great organising and list of books! I read your comment above about your lack of group participation and guilt. Don't feel guilty we all engage more or less with different groups, depending on time commitments and what we get out of it. I'm glad that you've stuck around and still comment. I've noticed your absence before and wondered about it, but I know that the group membership has changed quite a bit over time. We have a lot of new members now and some of them will hopefully become regular contributors. As for group reads, in all honesty I've been disappointed by the winning books at times. I like the diversity of nominations, but it's seldom that my preferred book actually gets picked for the group read, or I've often read it before. Sometimes I feel that I don't participate in the discussions as much as I should, especially since I've taken over as Old School moderator, but I try to read what interests me and stay true to my own interests. This year I'm hoping that we'll have an increase of buddy reads within this group, so that some of us can read and discuss classics outside of the winning books. I hope that you continue to participate in a way that suits you.In regards to your book thoughts above - I don't like Dickens either, though I've never given him much of a chance. I have mixed feelings about Woolf and I was also surprised to enjoy Austen quite so much. The wit done it more than the romance. It's a shame your teacher put you off those American authors. I didn't read any of them at school and so didn't discover Fitzgerald until my twenties and Hemingway just a couple of years ago. I loved A farewell to arms, so that was a nice discovery for me.
Anyway, sorry for the long message and good luck with your next books.
Interesting to notice several books/authors in your list that I don´t care for either, even I have the feeling that everybody else values them highly. I had difficulties with Mrs. Dalloway and I didn´t like Gatsby. I read David Copperfield last year and I was glad I made it (I have also read the Christmas Carol, didn´t like it). Austen I do like but I consider Emma one the not so good ones. I really don´t understand why Hemingway is so popular ( I have read couple books and then short story collection and didn´t like any and now I give up).From King I did like the Green Mile even I usually don´t do horror.
I hope you like Dumas (when you get to the Three Musketeers), one of my favourite authors :)
Pink wrote: "I read your comment above about your lack of group participation and guilt...."Oh, I was talking about a different group with that comment about lack of group participation - Short & Sweet Treats. This group's participation level has been just fine!
In S&ST, there used to be several of us that liked classics. But now the group reads are down to just three or four people with an occasional drive-by comment by a lurker. Not really enough to hold a good conversation which is sort of why I worry about not participating any more. They'd be down to just two or three people if I weren't there.
But then, if I did quit that group, there'd be more time for this group, which I enjoy far more these days. There's no Dewey, the Library Cat in this group at least! (Sorry, Kathy, I don't want to insult your TBR pile but I'm not looking forward to that book at all!)
Plus, we now have the Short story category in this group, which more or less covers the novellas I used to nominate for S&ST's group reads.
Pink wrote: "I've noticed your absence before and wondered about it, but I know that the group membership has changed quite a bit over time. We have a lot of new members now and some of them will hopefully become regular contributors...."
Even if I haven't been commenting much in this group, I've been lurking . The last few months, I haven't had much time to read the longer books I haven't read (Like Middlemarch and Don Quixote) and the shorter books, I've mostly already read. I don't participate nearly as much when we're discussing a book I read years ago compared to a book I've recently read.
And we've had a lot of kids' books nominated lately. They're just not the best things to promote discussion - especially when it was a book I wasn't overly fond of in the first place.
In general, though, I moved a couple of months ago and the amount of time I've had available to read has tanked. I've been really busy with the new house and just haven't got much read.
For instance, this weekend I read a whole 5 pages. All the rest of my time went to rewiring electrical outlets and light switches, repairing my clothes dryer, raking fallen leaves, pruning back bushes, trying to figure out where the big puddles of standing water in my yard are coming from, things like that. I might have bit off a bit more than I could chew by buying an older house with a huge yard - especially since I don't have anyone to share the time consuming outdoor chores with!
On top of all the chores, I used to commute via bus, so I had a enforced daily reading time. But now I'm commuting by car since the bus doesn't run near the new house. I'm trying to switch over to audio, but that's slow going... What I used to be able to read in a couple of days in print takes a couple of weeks of audio listening in bits and pieces. But this is why I tried to make my Classics challenge books things I either have in audio already or can get in audio fairly cheaply.
Desertorum wrote: "Interesting to notice several books/authors in your list that I don´t care for either, even I have the feeling that everybody else values them highly. I had difficulties with Mrs. Dalloway and I di..."I don't get the hype about Hemingway either, really. Everyone talks about how sparse and poetical his language is, but it reads like a Dick & Jane primer to me. But, I admit I'm prejudiced due to my former American Lit teacher.
I'm really looking forward to The Three Musketeers! I loved The Count of Monte Cristo last year, so I have high hopes.
Mod
Hahaha -- an acquaintance gave me the book, & I've felt guilty about not reading it -- but seriously it may just end up in the "Donate to the Library Pile."
:)
And The Three Musketeers is very good also.
Ah okay, I see now you were talking about another group. I've had to cut my membership for most other groups I've joined as they end up with real participation problems. Sometimes they have barely one comment a week and seem to have lapsed. I'm glad we don't have that problem here. Oh and we've noticed the voting for children's classics each month. I don't have a problem with them, but they do rather dominate New School lately, which means other 20th century classics don't get a look in. I'm glad you're getting on with audiobooks, I found that it took practice and a routine to get into them myself. I have trouble listening while driving, but I love to listen while doing housework. I especially love listening to long Victorian novels that seem much easier to tackle in this format.
I used to listen to audiobooks while I was going for walks - which I did often in my old neighborhood. The new neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks, though, nor does it have places within walking distance to walk to. Listening while driving is taking some getting used to. It's hit or miss depending on how complicated the book is and how bad traffic is.
I keep meaning to listen while doing chores but it seems like half my chores involve power tools (leaf blowers, mowers, etc) and the other half involve turning the power to the house off. (Been doing a lot of electrical work lately.) I've listened while painting a few times and that was really great.
I solved my problem of noisy chores and audiobooks by using earphones and listening on my phone (which I then stick down my bra!)
I'd need some really good noise canceling headphones for that. Right now, I just have some simple, loose earbuds that let all the ambient noise in - which is safer for things like walking/biking in places where you need to hear traffic but really sucks when it comes to drowning out leaf blowers and lawn mowers.Come to think of it, though, I remember someone giving me a pair of big earphones with noise reduction built in but I never used them cause they aren't very portable. Hmm. Wonder what box I packed those in and if they're any good?
Melanti, I was just checking other challenges and noticed yours. I have to agree on Emma-I read it but hated it.As for King, I read a lot of his in my younger days, but as I got older wasn't into those scary stories. The Stand, however, is my all time favorite book of his and is not as scary or gory. I really grew attached to the characters in that story. I would probably read it again. Hope that helps!
I'll probably read The Stand someday since everyone talks about it so much. Truthfully, I didn't find The Shining the least bit scary, and I doubt The Stand would be scarier than that, so I'm not too worried... I tend to like horror that's closer to the gothic side of the spectrum with lots of loom, gloom and doom but not much action. From my admittedly limited experience, King seems more at the thriller end of the spectrum and I don't like that nearly as much.
Spring Cleaning ChallengeThe original rules for this one said that books had to be finished...
I own several books that I've been putting off forever because I think I'll dislike (if not outright hate) them. To try to encourage myself to clear out a couple of those, (it's the spring cleaning challenge, after all) I unilaterally changed the rules so that if I I make a legitimate attempt to read one of these books but end up abandoning it, I'm still going to count it.
1. Read the book that has been on your "to be read" list for the longest time.
Book: Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint
3. Read the first book you shelved featuring a woman author.
Book: Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
9. Read the shortest book on your "to be read" list.
Book:
11. Read book 2 or 3 from a series you have started but not continued.
Book: The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart? Or Linger?
Either would help me finish an omnibus
7. Read an historical fiction book that has gathered dust.
Book: The Innamorati is the historical fiction that's been on my shelves the second longest
4. Read a book from a reading challenge you didn't complete.
Book: I had a "doorstoper" reading contest that many of my dreaded books will fit, or the classics challenge from last year
5. Read a children's book that has been lingering on your shelves.
Book: The Painted Boy has been on my shelves the longest; Or Linger/Forever to finish off that trilogy & omnibus
8. Read any book from your shelves that you added from over a year ago.
Book:
2. Read a book from the first shelf you created. (Probably ebook)
Book:
6. Read a book from the shelf that contains the most books. (Again, ebook)
Book: The Melancholy of Mechagirl by Catherynne M. Valente - In Progress
10. Read a book on your bookshelf that was a friend's recommendation.
Book:
Wish List to attempt to read:
Finish at least one omnibus
Cryptonomicon
Anathem
The Way of Shadows
Mod
Challenge planning: Classics currently on my bookshelves:
New School:
Doctor Faustus
The Path to the Spiders' Nests
Sophie's Choice
Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
The Caine Mutiny
Doctor Zhivago
Nights at the Circus
Wise Children
The Passion of New Eve
The Temple of My Familiar
The Violent Bear It Away
The Portable Dorothy Parker
Old School:
Kim
Vanity Fair
Beauties, Beasts and Enchantments: Classic French Fairy Tales
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
The Arabian Nights II: Sinbad and Other Popular Stories
Neither:
Spells of Enchantment: the Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture
Shakespeare:
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Comedies:
Cymbeline
Love's Labor's Lost
Measure for Measure
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Tragedies:
Coriolanus
Titus Andronicus
Histories:
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry VI, Part 1
Henry VI, Part 2
Henry VI, Part 3
Henry VIII
Richard II
That's quite a list you have amassed but classics aren't going anywhere so you can take your time and savor them. I haven't heard of Sophie's Choice and am adding it. Many of the other new school choices are on my to read list as well.
That looks like a great list of books to choose from. I'm scared to start a personal challenge at the moment as I think I might get too carried away and end up listing everything I want to read! I'm definitely looking forward to tackling some Shakespearean histories in 2017.
Brina wrote: "That's quite a list you have amassed but classics aren't going anywhere so you can take your time and savor them. I haven't heard of Sophie's Choice and am adding it. Many of the other new school c..."I like having a big TBR but I'm always trying to whittle it down. The more I read from my paid TBR, the less guilty I feel about buying more books.
And this isn't even all the classics I WANT to read! These are just the ones I already own copies of. This doesn't list library books or out-of-copyright books I know I can get for free, or others I am waiting for a good sale on. This is part of why my Old School list is so small - those are just the ones where I wanted particular translations/editions or was given a free Audible audiobook. I don't generally list public domain ebooks unless I've paid money for them.
I actually made a mistake in buying Sophie's Choice. I thought I was buying Sophie's World, which a friend had recommended to me. I'd forgotten the title and author, other than it was a simple 2 word title that started with "Sophie's." I was in a hurry, saw "Sophie's Choice" on sale and thought the author sounded vaguely familiar, so I didn't look at it that closely before grabbing it, and it wasn't until several days later that I realized it didn't sound anything like what my friend had described. But, hey, it's a classic in its own right, and it does sound good, so I'm sure I'll read it one of these days!
Sophie's choice is supposed to be a great book (and film) but harrowing and I haven't attempted it yet...one day! I also like having a big tbr pile to choose from, both on my bookshelf at home, with access to free online books and then with my library waiting list. I feel more conflicted writing down a list of books that I intend to read, as I usually end each year reading totally different books to what I planned and then I feel a bit like I've failed on my personal goals! I'm in two minds whether to start a personal challenge for 2017 or not.
Pink wrote: "That looks like a great list of books to choose from. I'm scared to start a personal challenge at the moment as I think I might get too carried away and end up listing everything I want to read! ..."
This isn't meant to be a personal challenge list...
This is just a list of books I already own that will (hopefully) help me figure out what I want to read in the Old & New challenge for next year. And the Bingo challenge, of course.
For Shakespeare - About a year ago, I got this idea into my head to build up a collection of the Folger Library editions, (the abstract, mottled covers, so they match) so every time I go into the used book stores, I always check out their selection to see if they have something I don't own yet. I think I have eight or nine left to find? I'm down to the more obscure ones.
Unfortunately, though I like Shakespeare, I only read a couple of his plays a year - so I have a feeling it's going to take a LONG, LONG time before I read all of these!
Pink wrote: "I feel more conflicted writing down a list of books that I intend to read, as I usually end each year reading totally different books to what I planned and then I feel a bit like I've failed on my personal goals!..."Oh, yes!
I agree, this is why I only add books to my Goodreads TBR if I pay money for them. I have separate lists for Library books and public domain classics, but I don't pay too much attention to those... Those can get so lengthy that it's overwhelming.
My main goal every year is that I need to end the year with the same number (or fewer - though that rarely happens) of books on my TBR than I had when the year started.
Basically, that means for every book I buy, I must read a book I've bought.
I've managed to hold steady at around 250 unread books for a couple of years in a row.
You're doing better than me with your tbr shelves. I have about 50-100 books on my physical shelves that I intend to read one day, some next year, some maybe they'll take another 10 years or more. I culled my GR shelf not long ago, getting rid of almost half the books I want to read and now I try to cap things at 500 tbr books which seems more than enough, though I can never seem to get much lower than that.
Challenge pre-planning (again.)Kind of sad how many books from last year's pre-planning list are still on here.
Classics currently on my bookshelves:
New School:
East of Eden
The Caine Mutiny
The Leopard
Doctor Faustus
Sophie's Choice
Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
Nights at the Circus
Wise Children
The Passion of New Eve
The Temple of My Familiar
The Violent Bear It Away
The Portable Dorothy Parker
Lud-in-the-Mist
The Power and the Glory
Cannery Row
Frenchman's Creek
Brideshead Revisited
Loser Takes All
Travels With My Aunt
Eva Luna: A Novel
I, Claudius
Silent Spring
Old School:
Vanity Fair
Anna Karenina
Middlemarch
Kim
Beauties, Beasts and Enchantments: Classic French Fairy Tales
The Arabian Nights II: Sinbad and Other Popular Stories
The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
Neither:
Spells of Enchantment: the Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture
An Artist of the Floating World
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
The Enchantress of Florence
Fury
Shakespeare:
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Comedies:
Cymbeline
Love's Labor's Lost
Measure for Measure
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Tragedies:
Coriolanus
Titus Andronicus
Histories:
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry VI, Part 1
Henry VI, Part 2
Henry VI, Part 3
Henry VIII
Richard II
King John
I'm the same with lots to carry over to next year. I have a few of the same titles too. Good luck with all of them :)
At the moment I'm just trying to decide what to put my challenge lists for next year. I own enough books to do Old & New based on previous group reads. Or, I've got a ton of WWII books I've been meaning to get around to, so perhaps some sort of war related theme.
Or I could just stick a bunch of Shakespeare's histories on there to prompt myself to get around to reading them.
I totally feel your pain! My lists/reading themes could go so many different ways -- what to do! what to read! ;)
Mod
Melanti wrote: "Challenge pre-planning (again.)Kind of sad how many books from last year's pre-planning list are still on here."
I know what you mean. In fact I've kind of made that the theme of my Old and New Challenge. All of them on there are books/series I planned on reading/finishing in 2017. I started planning this a few weeks ago so my list is actually pretty complete now.
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
Books mentioned in this topic
Vanity Fair (other topics)Demons (other topics)
Ten Days in a Mad-House (other topics)
The Once and Future King (other topics)
Giovanni’s Room (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Edgar Allan Poe (other topics)Mark Twain (other topics)
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (other topics)
Second Quarter:
Vanity Fair - Finished!