Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Matt wrote: "I’m also planning to get back into the A-Z Author Challenge next year. We’ll see what happens. : ) The planning is half the fun for me."

I agree, I love the planning.

Katy wrote: "Matt wrote: "I’m also planning to get back into the A-Z Author Challenge next year. We’ll see what happens. : ) The planning is half the fun for me."

I agree, I love the planning."

Me too, I can't wait to see what other challenges this group thinks up

Isn't it fun that we have this to look forward to every year?! I love it! Have fun planning! And I will too ;)

Enjoy your planning, Matt. Oh, and your reading too!

Welcome to the challenge, Matt The board is posted.

Planning and re-planning is a pleasure. Enjoy!

Matt, that was so quick! The list does look great. Good luck with your Bingo.

Great list, Matt!

Haha, looks like I'm not the only quick planner, Matt. We'll just have to see how ours play out.

Great list Matt, I thought about Midnight's Children for the Booker too, but went for a shorter one as I had so many chunky books!

Wow--great list, Matt. I loved Portrait of the Artist, and oh my gosh, Rosemary's Baby is a great idea!

Matt wrote: "Yay! Thanks Katy."

You are welcome.

Looks like I won't be reading the Remarque alone. Have you read any Woolf prior to this, Matt? The Dalloway's a pleasure, but it's also a decent introduction to her compositional style.

Wow, you are ready to go, Matt. Looking forward to tracking your progress.

Great options here. I enjoyed The Alienist but haven't read The Angel of Darkness yet. Have a great Bingo year!

Great list, Matt! I think you're going to have a great year of reading ahead of you! Enjoy :)

Matt wrote: "Terris wrote: "Great list, Matt! I think you're going to have a great year of reading ahead of you! Enjoy :)"

Thanks Terris! I’m very excited about my list. I plan to really concentrate on this ch..."

That sounds great! I know "quantity" sometimes wins the upper hand. But I'm rooting for "quality" this year! And you absolutely do have some great quality on your list. I especially want to root for All Quiet on the Western Front! It is one that has really stayed with me. Hope you get as much out of it as I did!

Once again, you've got some great books on your list, Matt. Some I've read and loved and can highly recommend. I remember reading Ira Levin years ago... he was quite the horror king in his day. I agree with Terris... All Quiet on the Western Front was a thought-provoking, great read. I'm sure you'll have another great year!

Great list, Matt!

Good luck on your next year’s bingo. Dune is a book I was aware of for not years but decades. I’m happy I finely read it, it’s great. Another surprise for me just this year was A Paradise Lost, not the easiest read for me, but a truly good book. You have several others I could talk about, but you have one of the best I’ve ever read on your list and that is All Quiet on the Western Front. I’ll never forget this one. Enjoy!

Great List Matt! We have the same choice for N1 The Winter of Our Discontent.

Great list here, Matt! The talk of All Quiet on the Western Front has enticed me to consider it as well! Happy reading!

Well done, Matt! I enjoyed your review of The Secret Garden. I am finishing it up myself and this is a first time read for me. I'm glad to see you are having a great start to your challenge! I'm not sure Dune is for me either. My son and husband really enjoyed it though.

You are doing great, Matt! Wonderful books so far. I look forward to your thoughts on The Beautiful and Damned.

I kept reading Dune to the end thinking the good part must be coming. Never found it.

Matt wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "You are doing great, Matt! Wonderful books so far. I look forward to your thoughts on The Beautiful and Damned."

Thanks Kathleen!

[book:The Beautiful and the Damned|..."

Intriguing, Matt! I like his style, and look forward to this one.

Good job, Matt. You are cruising.

You are off to a great start. I enjoyed your reviews, sorry Dune was a flop.

Nice beginning, Matt. I also found Dune fell flat. I think it would have had a greater impact if I had read it when it was written. Too many superior Sci-Fi stories since then!

Great start, Matt. I will be reading The Winter of our Discontent soon. Thanks for posting your ratings. You have two good books in hand now!

I'd count Sense and Sensibility and All Quiet on the Western Front among the best! Anxious to see what you think.

Matt, time has dulled my memory of Sense and Sensibility, but All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the best. Looking forward to your thoughts.

Sense and Sensibility is a favourite of mine too :O)

Nice reviews! The Secret Garden - more tempted than ever to read it - and Paradise Lost (still haven’t got the nerve to try that one, yet).

Oooh, All Quiet is such a marvelous novel. Enjoy.

I love your idea to randomly select your squares, Matt. I just fill in whatever fits at this stage, later I will have to read specifically to fill a space. I keep trying to read from books I already own, but it is just too easy to get sidetracked, so bully for you!

Sorry Poisonwood isn't more to your liking. I will have to go check out History of Conquest of Mexico.

I fear that I won't like The Poisonwood Bible either Matt. I had tried one of her other books and abandoned it. I know many love this one so I may try it at some point, especially since I own it.

I've been trying to not buy new ones but it's not going very well. At least I'm mostly buying used ones.

Congratulations on your progress!

Well done on more completions, Matt! I remember The Poisonwood Bible and liking that one. The Bean Trees not as much. Kingsolver grew up in my home state of Kentucky but I've not read much by her.

I hope your next random choice is a good one!

You’ve almost got a Bingo if you read N3. But I know how choosing what to read goes. It’s never about what one should do, is it?

Sorry you didn’t care for Poisonwood Bible. I remember it fondly.

Matt wrote: "Thanks Lori and Terry!

The Poisonwood Bible will probably end up a 3 star rating for me. It’s not bad for me but also not stellar.

Although I’m choosing squares randomly, I might ju..."

I loved The Labyrinth of the Spirits Matt. I hope you do too.

Matt, I agree with you about Poisonwood. I found it to be a solid 3 star read, but it didn’t grab me in any positive way. I have avoided Kingsolver ever since. I have a copy of The Bean Trees, maybe someday I will give it a try.

You just need the center free space, and you have your first Bingo. I started Tarzan of the Apes for my O1 Classic of Africa yesterday, so far, it’s great.

I just ordered Tarzan of the Apes. I am going to read it this year!

Bob wrote: "You just need the center free space, and you have your first Bingo. I started Tarzan of the Apes for my O1 Classic of Africa yesterday, so far, it’s great."

Oh that's brilliant. I love Edgar Rice Burroughs and got the entire Tarzan series for some ridiculous price like 99Cents on my Kindle a few years back. I never did read any of it. although I did see every Johnny Wiesmuller film probably more than once!

Matt, you are doing great. I remember laughing out loud at Gulliver's fire fighting skills.

Congratulations on your bingo.

Congrats, Matt! 🎉

Congratulations on your bingo, Matt!

Congrats on the bingo :O)
Always wanted to try Tarzan. Thanks for reminding me.

Congrats, Matt. It is lovely when the plan works!

Matt wrote: "I just finished my year and a half re-read of the Shannara series I had started back in 2020 (34 book series, 11,922 pages of reading) and am ready to get back to BINGO! I'm going to catch my breat..."

That was an epic project, Mark. Congratulations on completing it!