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I have a total of zero bingos so far. Terrible job, me!(ETA: oh! Diagonal! Whee!)
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Alex wrote: "I have a total of zero bingos so far. Terrible job, me!(ETA: oh! Diagonal! Whee!)"
Lol!!!
He joins, he BINGOs and he even puts the book covers in the squares. I'm so jealous. You're making us other newbees look bad : / Congrats Alex!
Haha, yes well done already! Your book choices look great, congrats on getting bingo! Any favourites yet?
Good question, Pink. There have been a lot of five-star books but no amazing, change-my-life favorites here. A bunch of books that do a great job of being what they are:- Rendezvous With Rama is great at being pulpy, nerdy sci fi;
- Sport and a Pastime is a great entry in the huge canon of "men writing about their penises" - smarter than I thought it'd be;
- Fire Next Time is brilliant in the tradition of nonfiction by & about African-Americans, from The Souls of Black Folk to Between the World and Me;
- Fight Club is great at being Fight Club.
And there are a bunch that are wonderful, but not my favorite by that author:
- Austen never misses, but Emma is my favorite; S&S was the last of Austen's I hadn't read, so I can check her off the ol' list. (J/K actually I'm just going to go back and re-read Persuasion.)
- The Mayor of Casterbridge is very good but my favorites are still Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure;
- I've been reading my way through Roald Dahl for about a year, and Matilda is my favorite;
- The Waves is maybe Woolf's most difficult book, which is really saying something, and Mrs. Dalloway is my favorite.
That was probably more of an answer than anyone needed.
Alex wrote: "That was probably more of an answer than anyone needed..."But a very interesting answer! Now I'll bore you with my thoughts on them!
I haven't read your first 3 choices, but do enjoy Baldwin's writing, so I'll probably pick that up at some point.
Fight Club is good, but in some ways I preferred the film.
Emma is my least favourite Austen! I think S&S and P&P are mid range, but my favourites are Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (even though it's the least accomplished)
Those are 3 Hardy books I haven't read and I'm looking forward to them all, so it's good to hear that they're among your favourites. I've only read a couple of his books, Far from the Madding Crowd and Return of the Native and I'm yet to be blown away, although I still consider myself a Hardy fan.
I haven't read Roald Dahl since my childhood, but I liked Matilda too.
Woolf is just generally difficult, I've read Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse and have mixed feelings about them both. I think I'll try Orlando next and probably save The Waves until last, as I keep hearing it's the most difficult!
Pink wrote: "I've read Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse and have mixed feelings about them both. I think I'll try Orlando next and probably save The Waves until last"Those are the four Woolfs I've read, and of them Orlando is (by a looooong shot) the most fun. Whenever I say Dalloway's my favorite, part of my brain goes "Bullshit, you like Orlando."
Whaaaaat, Emma's your least favorite? Even less than Mansfield Park?! I dig Northanger Abbey too - that's probably Austen at her most fun, right? I honestly like every one of them, but if I had to pick a least favorite it would be S&S, which sortof doesn't have anything that makes it stand out.
Austen in order*
Emma
Persuasion
Pride & Prejudice
Northanger Abbey
Mansfield Park
Sense & Sensibility
* order that I just made up like a minute ago
I haven't yet read Return of the Native. Tess & Jude pack the biggest punches, for me. I don't think Hardy does "fun," does he?
...well, he can be funny - that whole swordplay-in-the-ferny-grove scene in Madding Crowd, Troy's all "It will not take five minutes" and you can practically hear Hardy snickering in the background. But, I mean, it's basically a dark world.
Thank you for your own interesting answer!
I'm hoping that Orlando will be fun, at least in a Virginia Woolf way, so it's good to hear that you enjoyed it. Yep, Emma is my least favourite. Mansfield Park had such promise in the first half and I really enjoyed it, but it took a nose dive by being too long and having a love interest that didn't work for me. I was irritated by Emma the whole way through and I thought it was the least subtle of her books. I still like them all though.
My order -
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
S&S
P&P
Mansfield Park
Emma
Nope Hardy does not do fun, but I like depressing books so that suits me. I think it's taken me a little while to get used to his writing and pacing, but now I know what to expect I'm ready for some more.
Depressing books are my jam too! I definitely recommend Jude the Obscure for your next one.
Oh thanks for the tip. I don't think I have that one on my shelf. I know I have a copy of Tess somewhere and also The Mayor of Casterbridge, so I might read them first, unless you really recommend I find a copy of Jude the Obscure to read first...I could be persuaded!
Hey Alex! You're over here! I have been wandering through the Bingo threads to get good ideas (what a great game!), but mostly I joined the group because they are reading The Merchant of Venice this month, and I swore to myself that I would start reading some Shakespeare this year... maybe at least one a year if this goes well. They also have some good group reads archived.You Bingo'd already! And then you posted an illustrated board. You're such an achiever, did you chase A's in school? I don't know if I'm going to get to the game this year, but you have inspired me to think more seriously about it.
Pink wrote: "unless you really recommend I find a copy of Jude the Obscure to read first...I could be persuaded! "Oh, no, read Tess, that book is great.
JG! Sup buddy? Nice to see you! JG and I (and some others) spent all last year reading Michael Schmidt's mammoth The Novel: A Biography and many of the books discussed in it. We are now siblings-in-lit forever.
Y'know, I was sortof an underachiever in high school. I should go back now, I'd do way better.
Good to know, I think Tess will be my next Hardy read. Aw that's great that you're siblings-in-lit now! That book looks epic, but a fun buddy read.
I'd like to have enjoyed school reading as much as I do now, but I don't want to go back!
Pink wrote: "Good to know, I think Tess will be my next Hardy read. Aw that's great that you're siblings-in-lit now! That book looks epic, but a fun buddy read.
I'd like to have enjoyed school reading as mu..."
I'm with you Pink! I don't want to go back either!
Update: Finished I, Robot (pretty good) and Herzog (sorta not my thing) for three bingos!
Alex wrote: "Update: Finished I, Robot (pretty good) and Herzog (sorta not my thing) for three bingos!"Excellent Alex!
Alex wrote: "When do I win a car?"Haha....:)
I finished the The Bhagavad Gita, which is a lovely poem about standing around. And I realized that it looks like you're actually supposed to pick a book for that free space, huh? So I picked the book I'd be most likely to recommend to someone this year: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. A future classic? Sure, I don't see why not.
19 of 25 books finished.
Congrats on finishing more books. They're both on my tbr list, though I don't know when I'll get to either of them!
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How about this one?
Kathy wrote: "How about this one? "Can I have one that looks a little less like I'm having a mid-life crisis and considering piercing my ear?
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Can I have one that looks a little less like I'm having a mid-life crisis and considering piercing my ear?"
LOL
Alex wrote: "Kathy wrote: "How about this one? "Can I have one that looks a little less like I'm having a mid-life crisis and considering piercing my ear?"
What?! You haven't pierced your ear yet?! But I'll bet you have at least one tattoo...
Janice(JG) wrote: "What?! You haven't pierced your ear yet?! But I'll bet you have at least one tattoo... "I CERTAINLY DO NOT
oh wait
yes I do
In my defense, I got it in high school back in like 91 when having one tattoo definitely made me a badass. That's correct, right? A small tattoo of Tigger on my shoulder makes me look like a badass? Yes, it certainly does. I'm a badass.
Alex wrote: "In my defense, I got it in high school back in like 91 when having one tattoo definitely made me a badass. That's correct, right? A small tattoo of Tigger on my shoulder makes me look like a badass..."LOL! :)
Alex wrote: "In my defense, I got it in high school back in like 91 when having one tattoo definitely made me a badass. That's correct, right? A small tattoo of Tigger on my shoulder makes me look like a badass..."Well sign me up to your badass club! I had a dolphin tattooed on my shoulder back in the nineties before I left school....oh why I don't know!
We should totally have a club for people with one tattoo that they got as teenagers.
I've finished a few more:- Elektra by Sophocles for the play, which I enjoyed and might not have gotten around to if it weren't for this challenge;
- A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes for crime, classic African American noir that's excellent
- Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Peacock for Gothic, another one that I fit in specifically for this challenge.
Three more to go, and I'm altering my reading plans to make sure I (hopefully) hit them all.
Alex wrote: "I've finished a few more:- Elektra by Sophocles for the play, which I enjoyed and might not have gotten around to if it weren't for this challenge;
- A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes for crime, ..."
Of course you'll hit them all! Enjoyed your review of Nightmare Abbey--I'm really excited about reading that one.
I read Shakespeare's Winter's Tale last week, and that's the final book on my bingo card; I've filled the whole thing in. This has been so much fun! I hope to participate again next year. Thanks all!
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Well done Alex! Like that you linked to your reviews in your list.
Your bingo board looks great, what a wonderful selection of books to complete the year's challenge.
Congrats Alex!Linking your reviews is really cool!
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
Books mentioned in this topic
Northanger Abbey (other topics)A Rage in Harlem (other topics)
The Novel: A Biography (other topics)
The Merchant of Venice (other topics)
Matilda (other topics)
More...
B1:Written by Nobel Laureate - Herzog by Saul Bellow, who won in 1976B2:Sci-fi or Fantasy Classic - Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. ClarkeB3:Classic of Africa - Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (one of the ASC's top 12 African books of the 20th centuryB4:Children's Classic - James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, as tempted as I was to use The Monster at the End of This BookB5:Winner of a Foreign Literary Prize - The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu - this was hard to track down! I'm mostly sticking with classic classics here, but I understand we're allowed to use a few more recent books? Please correct me if I'm wrong! This one won the Chinese Science Fiction Galaxy Award in 2006.I1:Published/Written Before 1600’s -The Bhagavad Gita, composed somewhere between the 5th and 2nd centuries BCEI2:New-to-You Author - A Sport and a Pastime by James SalterI3:Classic Play - Elektra by SophoclesI4:Banned Book - Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (banned!)I5:Published in the 1700's - The Sorrows of Young Werther (1776) by GoetheN1:Classic of the Americas - Rabbit, Run by John UpdikeN2:Short Story Collection - I, Robot by Isaac AsimovN3:FREE SPACE - Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (I decided to fill this space with the book I'd be most likely to recommend to someone, and here it is.)N4:Poetry Collection - If Not, Winter by SapphoN5:Classic of Europe - Sense & Sensibility by my buddy Jane AustenG1:Published in the 1600's - The Winter's Tale by Shakespeare, 1623 (written probably around 1610)G2:Book from Le Monde’s 100 Books of the Century - Swann's Way and Within a Budding Grove by Marcel ProustG3:Classic Non-fiction - The Fire Next Time by James BaldwinG4:Classic from School - The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas HardyG5:Published in the 1800's - Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth BraddonO1:Literary Prize of Your Country/Region - Love Medicine by Louse Erdrich, which won the 1984 National Book Critics Circle AwardO2:Gothic Classic - Nightmare Abbey by Thomas PeacockO3:Classic of Asia or Oceania - A Suitable Boy by Vikram SethO4:Mystery or Crime Classic - A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes, landmark African American noirO5:Prize-Winning Female Author - Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, who won the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994.Bonus: actual board:
And we're done! Whee.