Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

2016 Classic Bingo Challenge
Progress: 8/25

B1: Written by Nobel Laureate: Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
B2: Classic Comedy or Satire: Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
B3: Classic Tragedy
B4: Classic Made into a Film/TV: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
B5: Winner of a Foreign Literary Prize: Home by Marilynne Robinson

I1: 20th Century Classic: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I2: New-to-You Author: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
I3: Classic Play
I4: Classic of More than 500 Pages
I5: 18th Century or Earlier Classic

N1: South American Classic: Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
N2: Short Story Classic: The Pearl by John Steinbeck
N3: FREE SPACE: The Buried Book by D.M. Pulley
N4: Poetry Collection: The Road Not Taken and Other Poems: by Robert Frost
N5: European Classic: Being Dead by Jim Crace

G1: 19th Century Classic
G2: Bokklubben (Norwegian Book Club) World Library List Book
G3: Classic Non-fiction: Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
G4: Group Read
G5: Classic Recommended by a Friend: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

O1: Literary Prize of Your Country/Region: The Second Coming by Walker Percy (PEN/Faulkner Award 1981)
O2: Classic Folklore or Mythology
O3: Asian Classic
O4: Classic Romance: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
O5: Prize-Winning Female Author: Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (Baileys/Kafka/PEN)

Will probably be shooting for a blackout again, though I'm still finishing 2016 up. I like some of the new categories but I miss the short story collection.

edit: nevermind, I see the short story category was noted as:
a short story or a collection of short stories.

Glad to see you're doing it again Chris. Can't wait to see what you pick

Welcome to the challenge Chris. And glad you found your short story square.

Good luck with your 2017 challenge, I'm glad you're joining in again!

Good luck!

Good luck and have fun with this challenge, Chris!

Thanks everyone! Just finished 2016 last night. Looking forward to 2017. My wife may be tagging along on some of these with me so that will add a new element to the challenge.

I read The Buried Book for the start of the year. Definitely not a classic, but had wanted to read it and needed a break from the 2016 challenge. I'm counting it for N3. Many don't even read anything for N3.

It was a fun read but nothing really memorable about it. I fear that when you spend most of your time with great books like those from these challenges, your criteria for good books goes up. I might've enjoyed this a lot more about a year and a half ago.

Good luck with your challenge! You have some great choices. I may have to read Brideshead Revisited too.

Thanks Tara! I am looking forward to Brideshead Revisited and may start it after I finish The Great Gatsby which will probably be this week.

Finished The Great Gatsby. I really enjoyed it. It reminded me, at times, of The Lost Estate though they are still quite different. Both are sort of coming of age stories but they diverge in the stories they tell. Meaulnes and Gatsby have similarities in what they are after, but it felt like Gatsby was his own enemy whereas Meaulnes kind of comes to grips with reality (kind of) and at least tries to right something that was wrong though he leaves a mess in the process.

Chris wrote: "Finished The Great Gatsby. I really enjoyed it. It reminded me, at times, of The Lost Estate though they are still quite different. Both are sort of coming of age stories ..."

I may have to re-read Gatsby. I read it back in high school and don't remember much about it. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

Tara wrote: "Chris wrote: "Finished The Great Gatsby. I really enjoyed it. It reminded me, at times, of The Lost Estate though they are still quite different. Both are sort of coming o..."

I think that's one that's worth re-reading from time to time. Really enjoyed it. There's a reason it's so revered.

I finished The Pearl. That was my first time reading it. I didn't know anything about it going in. It's also my 2nd Steinbeck. Really great short story with a gripping ending. I gave it 4 stars.

Finished Angle of Repose last night. Very good 5-star read for me. I counted it as I2 - New to You Author. Glad to have found Wallace Stegner and am really looking forward to his other books.

Last year Ancestral Voices was my find of the year. It became one of my favorite books and I can't wait to read it again. That's how I'm feeling about Angle of Repose. It's that good.

Congratulations on your progress. I recently read The Great Gatsby for the first time and really enjoyed it, too. Hope you enjoy Theodore Rex. I read it last year and just recently finished the trilogy with Colonel Roosevelt. I thought it was excellent.

Chris you're doing great. I keep hearing great things about Ann Patchett but haven't read her yet

Brina wrote: "Chris you're doing great. I keep hearing great things about Ann Patchett but haven't read her yet"

Thanks Brina! I am looking forward to Commonwealth. My wife and I will be reading that one together which we may start any time now.

Susan wrote: "Congratulations on your progress. I recently read The Great Gatsby for the first time and really enjoyed it, too. Hope you enjoy Theodore Rex. I read it last year and just recently finished the trilogy with Colonel Roosevelt. I thought it was excellent. "

The Great Gatsby was indeed a good read and a perfect start to this year's challenge.

I read The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt for last years Bingo challenge. I've always been fascinated by TR and loved the biography. I also ended up stumbling on a handful of old Scribner's Magazine issues that he had some articles in a few months back and have really enjoyed reading his own writing.

I am planning to start Theodore Rex sometime in March and will likely add Colonel Roosevelt for the same category next year to complete it.

Finished up Brideshead Revisited on Saturday. Unfortunately this didn't really resonate with me in the way I had hoped. Everything about the book seems like it's just the kind of book I really enjoy but I just couldn't seem to get into it.

But part of that may have been the main character, Charles. I really did not like him. The plot worked well but I find it harder to enjoy a book when the primary character is so unlikeable, and in this case he's the one telling the story.

The ending is what redeems itself. I'm glad to have read the book and Evelyn Waugh himself, in the end, seems not to have thought very highly of this particular one so I will likely try him again sometime.

I started Nostromo last night and while I'm only about 30 pages in I'm really enjoying it.

Chris wrote: "Finished up Brideshead Revisited on Saturday. Unfortunately this didn't really resonate with me in the way I had hoped. Everything about the book seems like it's just the kind of book ..."

That's a shame about Brideshead Revisited. I'll hold off on that one for the time being. I read A Handful of Dust by Waugh awhile back, and thought it was quite funny. If you give him a try in the future, you may find that book more enjoyable.

Tara wrote: "That's a shame about Brideshead Revisited. I'll hold off on that one for the time being. I read A Handful of Dust by Waugh awhile back, and thought it was quite funny. If you give him a try in the future, you may find that book more enjoyable. "

Thanks for the recommendation, Tara. Funny I just read another article about Waugh and I thought I really need to read some more of his work because everything I read about him seems to resonate with me in some way.

I finished Nostromo last night. This one had its ups and downs. The first half of it was sort of all over the place. Joseph Conrad writes in a manner that can be somewhat sporadic; not in a Faulkner kind of way, it's much more subtle. But you have to pay close attention because he will end up in back story stuff without any sort of warning. There were many times I had to stop and go back a bit because, little did I realize, he had just time traveled some 20 years to talk about a character's experience some more. This happened frequently in the first half.

I think that was really the foundational stuff to the book. The plot doesn't really start to develop until you get about halfway through. And even then it can be slow going. All that said the story is great. The characters are really well developed and memorable. I think this is one I need to reread to really enjoy more. For now I give it 3 stars (I'd do 3.5 if I could). I have a feeling a reread would bump it up to 4 but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

I'm not sure what I'm going to start next. My mother-in-law wants me to read A Man Called Ove which won't fit on the challenge. My wife wants to read Excellent Women which we've wanted to read together and may fit somewhere on the challenge. And I'm in a toss up between wanting to start Home and Commonwealth. Commonwealth is another that my wife and I want to read together. Decisions...

I chose to read A Man Called Ove after completing Nostromo. That was a nice break from the heavier Nostromo although I am not counting it as part of the challenge since it really isn't a classic in any sense that I can think of nor does it fit any of the categories.

At any rate I listened to Breakfast at Tiffany's yesterday and am counting that as a friend recommendation. It was fantastic. I've never seen the movie (and don't really care to) but have heard they are a bit different. After listening to this I am really interested in reading/listening to some other Truman Capote books. I really enjoyed it and can understand quite easily why this book has come to the status it has.

I've started Marilynne Robinson's Home and so far it's a great 'sequel' to Gilead. I put sequel in quotes because it's not so much a sequel as it is a contemporary story with overlap to the Gilead story.

Always nice to have a break from heavier books. Glad to see that you are enjoying your reading.

I loved Breakfast at Tiffany's too, Chris, and hope to read Home soon. Enjoy!

Finished Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety.

I've noticed that the two books (Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety) I've read of Stegner's have the narrator coming to some major realizations about himself, his life, his character, and an effort that he will need to make to change. Both instances have change coming as a result of learning from their primary subjects (the characters in the book).

This works well. He's so great with his writing. He's one that could write about anything and it'll be hard to put down. I'm looking forward to reading his other books. He is fast becoming a favorite of mine. There's a lot to chew on, lot's to learn. You finish a book of his and you know there is more there that he wants you to pry out.

I counted this one as O4: Classic Romance. It's more a friendship between two couples who share their lives together. Both couples are in love, raise families, grow old and begin experiencing the end of life together. So a little different than what a lot of romance would be thought of but it does get tagged as romance still. So I think it counts well and I'm glad I put it there.

I absolutely loved Breakfast at Tiffany's too! People have very strong options of it and it seems more likely that someone won't like it if they had seen the film and loved it.

I also liked the Great Gatsby and The Pearl Quite a bit too.

I hope to read Dr. Zhivago this year.

Chris wrote: "Finished Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety.

I've noticed that the two books (Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety) I've read of Stegner's have the narrator coming to some major re..."

Nice to see this review...it is on my list to read this year. I bounced Breakfast at Tiffany's for this year, but it's going in next year's pile!

You are making good progress!

I thought Crossing to Safety was an amazing piece of literature and immediately put Stegner in my "favorite authors" category. I loved Angle of Repose as well. You have had some great choices for this challenge.