2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s book, The Great Gatsby.


***Please remember to mark spoilers.***

Participants: Ilona, Lisa, Lindsay, Joan, Suzy, Dina, Eileen

Suggested break down of reading so that you can check in and let us know how you're doing. The following breakdown is purely a suggestion and is therefore not set in stone.

Rather than putting dates for each section I've done it so that it takes into account that not everybody will necessarily have the book at the same time.

Week 1: 45
Week 2: 45
Week 3: 45
Week 4: 45

Hi everyone, I am looking forward to reading this book, finally!
I was planning to start right away, but then I started reading The Court of Thorns and Roses series. And now I probably have to read all three before starting The Great Gatsby... :)

When are you all planning to start reading?

Since I'm not participating in any monthlies in June, I have nothing planned out, so I was thinking I would start right away. Not sure it it'll be tomorrow or the weekend though :)

I wil participate. An opportunity to take it off of my shelf, been sitting there for a while :-)

I actually read the first chapter already. I have it out as a library book. I have others to read so I can stagger it and there isn't a wait list for the book or anything.

Starting somewhere this week I think.

Starting next week ;-)

I'll be reading it with you too ;) I'll start around June 15th when I'll be done with my finals

Depending on how bored I am today, or in actuality, how lazy I am, (because there are some things I should be doing) I will start tonight before bed or tomorrow.

So far Tom Buchanan seems like a jerk. It is written well and flows easily. I'll probably finish it this weekend. I'm through chapter 2.

Has anyone seen any of the movie adaptations? I've seen the 1974 one with Robert Redford and the most recent one with Leonardo Dicaprio.
It'll be interesting to see how they differ from the book :)

Anyone not reading it for the first time?
This is another one of those novels, that I'm sure I've been forced to read at some point in school but don't remember what I thought of it at the time.

I haven't seen either movie adaptation. I'm planning to watch them when I get done reading. This is my first time reading it.

I would've loved to see the first adaption from 1926. Think the black and white, silent film would've been a really interesting aspect.
I liked them both, but preferred the 2013 version, simply because of Leonardo Dicaprio :D

And yeah, from what I remember of the plot, calling Tom Buchanan is an (arrogant) jerk is a bit of an understatement :)

Saw the one with Leonardo but don't remember much to be honest. Never had a very good memory but since 2012/2013 I just seem unable to remember anything... Have to write everything down and could re-read almost everything (which I'm not going to do seeing my endless TBR list lol)

I have also seen the 2013 version, probably two times, but I do not remember every detail. Tom is Daisies husband, right?

I guess I will know as soon as I start, hopefully this weekend :)

I'm at the part where Nick is having lunch with Gatsby and Wolfsheim. The word gonnegation was used and I had to look it up. The definition was a term used in the novel The Great Gatsby. Misspelling of the word connection in order to emphasize Mr. Wolfsheim's pronunciation. I thought that was humorous. I thought I was learning a new word.

I ended up finishing the book yesterday. I rented the Leonardo DiCaprio movie. Man was that weird. I fell asleep halfway through and not expecting to bother to watch what I missed. I'll probably watch the Robert Redford one this week. The book took a different turn than I was expecting it to take. I did like the book a lot though.

Wow, that was a fast read Joan! I'm at chapter 6.
I remember not particularly liking the movie and I'm not disliking the book, but I'm not a big fan either (so far).
Someone mentioned not liking Tom but I think I don't like any of the characters except for Nick....they're all so over the top (as I think they're meant to be).
It is an easy read though, except for some of the words used that is, since English is not my native language, so I have to look up words quite often, although I often don't bother to do so, too lazy hahaha....

Dina, finally added you to the list of participants!

Eileen, I added you to the list of participants!

The characters were deplorable. I'll be interested to see what you think of the end and how much more deplorable they are. There is a little lesson in there about how people use others for their money.

Joan wrote: "I ended up finishing the book yesterday. I rented the Leonardo DiCaprio movie. Man was that weird. I fell asleep halfway through and not expecting to bother to watch what I missed. I'll probably wa..."

Weird how?

I guess it was more like a Moulin Rouge or something. Have you seen it? The cinematography was really pretty but it just didn't seem like it fit with the book. I like Leonardo in it but it was just a little too weird for me.

I'm having the weirdest experience with this book. The main reason, is that I've been feeling a bit down so I haven't been in the mindset to read more than a chapter per day, which, weirdly enough, has been working well for me.
The other thing is, that even though I haven't watched any of the adaptations in years, I'm having a very filmographic style memory. Like every passage in the book, I remember a scene-by-scene of the 2013 movie.

I'm on chapter 5 so far, and I have so many points I want to make on themes and setting and characters .... but I think I'll wait until I'm done reading instead and gather my thoughts into one post instead of spamming messages on here :D

Joan wrote: "I guess it was more like a Moulin Rouge or something. Have you seen it? The cinematography was really pretty but it just didn't seem like it fit with the book. I like Leonardo in it but it was just..."

Yeah seen it (and loved it) :)
Interesting that you thought that though. I thought the opposite. I actually felt that the cinematography captured the over-the-top feel of the 1920's pretty well, which also goes through in the writing of the novel. It's a fine line between realistic and exaggerated.

Mary Pat wrote: "Dina, finally added you to the list of participants!"

Thank you! Didn't start it yet, but I will do it this week.

Mmm, not sure yet how I liked it. I definitely didn't like any of the characters (except for Nick). Not particularly fan of the writing style either. Everything just seems so over the top. Glad I read it but certainly not a favorite of mine.

Joan wrote: "I'm at the part where Nick is having lunch with Gatsby and Wolfsheim. The word gonnegation was used and I had to look it up. The definition was a term used in the novel The Great Gatsby. Misspellin..."

Haha Joan, that would've been cool :) Much like Oggsford College being "one of the most famous colleges in the world"? :D

I'm almost finished and I can't stop feeling sorry for Jay Gatsby, he could have all but he's so obsessed by the dream of being someone he's not to win the girl he obsessively want. I see the big parties, the drunkeness, the selfish people and it looks like life is an endless party but I feel like there's an impending doom around the characters.

Finished last night and loved it! Although it's full of big parties, selfish and self-centred people I did like Gatsby and Nick. Gatsby was a good man with integrity, who was able to reinvented himself and leave poverty behind but was defeated by a snobby society. Nick was the only one who really knew and understood him, accepting him for what we was. It was quite a read.

It won't go down as one of my absolute favorites but I liked that the book brought up the fact that you can have a lot of money and be surrounded by people all of the time and not truly be happy. One thing I wanted from the book was (view spoiler)[ I wanted everyone to know that it was Daisy that was driving. I just wanted everyone to feel badly for letting Gatsby go down without recognition even though he was sort of deplorable for carrying on an affair. Daisy was deplorable for not speaking up. I guess I wanted a confrontation at least between her and Nick. (hide spoiler)]

I just finished it and am now left trying to make up my mind. I did not particularly enjoy reading this book. However, I do think that the writing style is really good, rapid, and a bit vague at times. But vague in a good way.

This book gives an interesting insight in life for the rich people in the 20s, an age that I really want to read about more often!
I find most of the characters kind of flat, but what we do know about them is that they are careless and irresponsible, which makes them highly unlikeable as some of you already pointed out.

I think that one of the stronger points of this book is how this carelessness is discussed between Nick and Jordan, how a bad driver is only dangerous if they meet another bad driver. This principle is introduced in one of the first chapters, and "evaluated" in their final conversation. But it is also what happens with Daisy, careless person + the situation with Tom and Gatsby = trouble.