Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

books read in 2024 start with message 35.

Here goes :)

Good luck trying. You can do it, there are some great classics.

Katy wrote: "Good luck trying. You can do it, there are some great classics."

oh thank you - last year, crumbs!!! - but yes many great classics and I'm certainly going to try :)

oh my, I'm 4 books behind - it's a dramatic moment - will I catch up?

Hmmm ... Well, I've almost wrapped up with my current classic by H G Wells but I will know soon :)

Hi Inkspill. I too have started a Personal Challenges list. Itnis a work in progress too. . . . Looking forward to watching your challenge develop. Enjoy.

Cynda wrote: "Hi Inkspill. I too have started a Personal Challenges list. Itnis a work in progress too. . . . Looking forward to watching your challenge develop. Enjoy."

hey Cynda, I'll look that up - right now, (and I say this as I'm laughing) my challenge is feeling more like a footnote than a page :)

The Sorrows of Young Werther - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The Mysteries of Udolpho, - Ann Radcliffe

Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

The Tale of Genji

In a Lonely Place - Dorothy Hughes

The Regency Revolution: Jane Austen, Napoleon, Lord Byron and the Making of the Modern World-- Robert J. H. Morrison



These are a rough outline of some books I'm hoping to get to this year :)

Classics READ IN 2021

last updated: 24th Feb 2021 target to read: 70 non-classic books read: 2


5 stars


4 stars

oh Jan - what fun I had planning my reads for this year, not foreseeing the impact of the vaccines 🙄, yep 😀 my reading plan has gone off-track but I've stumbled on writers and works new to me, so that's neat.

And looking through the group pages I see I've missed loads of brill reads - hopefully I can do this more soon. For now I'm going to spend the remaining 3 months to try and get to my target of 70 books, how the last few months have gone, well there's a 😀😀 challenge for me.

This year I'm just going to see how the first few months go.

I finally got round to Agnes Grey (audiobook, Naxos) , and reading and better understanding of Henry VI, Part I ( Penguin Shakespeare) turned into an exciting adventure with the su[pport of other texts :)

Inkspill wrote: "I finally got round to Agnes Grey (audiobook, Naxos) , and reading and better understanding of [book: Henry VI, Part I..."

I enjoy reading a little Shakespeare at the beginning of the year. I reread The Tempest and The Tragedy of Julius Caesar yesterday. Amazing how your attitude toward the plays changes with the decades. I applaude you reading Henry VI, Part 1. Good play.

Linda R, wrote: "Inkspill wrote: "I finally got round to Agnes Grey (audiobook, Naxos) , and reading and better understanding of [book: Henry VI, Part I..."

I enjoy reading a little Shakespeare at..."

Thank you!!! And I'm completely there with you, it is amazing how our reading changes of these plays - there would have been a time I would not have ever thought about reading Henry VI -- what completely surpised me was how much I enjoyed it.

So, I am just catching up with myself – I mean, really, really, really catching up with myself, where I've finally set myself a book challenge (yeyyy!!!!)

So far, it looks like my focus maybe The Brontes and The Shelleys – but time will tell, which will be mixed with other classic and contemporary reads – fiction and non-fiction, in other words, my reading plans are free flowing and just seeing – ha ha – where this goes for a few months :)

update:

about a quater way in in of The Brontës: Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of a Literary Family and also listened to Charlotte Bronte's first novel The Professor.

Also finished this month Five Old Friends and a Young Prince by the daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray

Still reading: The World’s Wife (Carol Ann Duffy)

And have started The Second Sex (Vintage Classics) and In A Lonely Place .

update:
Still reading The Brontës: Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of a Literary Family and The Second Sex (Vintage Classics)

Finished In A Lonely Place - a crime thriller (Film Noir style) written by a woman. Edge of the seat stuff worth its 5*.

And finally reading Good Omens that kind of (in a rough way) comes across as Milton's Paradise Lost.

Inskspill, I have the Bronte book waiting and I have passed it over several times because it is so hefty. I'll be excited to see what you think of it.

Since you liked In a Lonely Place, her The Expendable Man is also good. (I love crime noir.)

Sara wrote: "Inskspill, I have the Bronte book waiting and I have passed it over several times because it is so hefty. I'll be excited to see what you think of it."

Hi Sara, if your interested to know more about the Brontes, it's not a disappointing read, or at least I'm not finding it so.

Juliet Barker gives more space to the other Brontes, she also doesn't always show Charlotte Bronte in a flattering light. Juliet Barker also tries to debunk some popular myths.

What's also making this a fascinating read for me is how it contrasts with Claire Harman's biography.

Marilyn wrote: "Since you liked In a Lonely Place, her The Expendable Man is also good. (I love crime noir.)"

thanks!!! I also love crime noir.

whilst reading The Second Sex (Vintage Classics) I'm listening to A Room of One’s Own (Penguin audio) - loving the stereophonic effect :)

Inkspill, In June I will be retarting from where I left off in The Second Sex. I am getting a similar stereophonic effect from All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister. I am excited to see where this will go. . . . I am glad your stereophonic book is A Room of One's Own. Great book.

Cynda wrote: "Inkspill, In June I will be retarting from where I left off in The Second Sex. I am getting a similar stereophonic effect from [book:All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Indepe..."

I liked your review and sorry for late reply Cynda, I've been away for months and this is the first month I'm back.

During that time I got v v little reading done, so I had - ha ha - quite a bit to catch up on - which has been brilliant as I've been missing my books.

I am glad you are back, Inkspill and that all is well/settled enough for reading.

I am now to going to be taking a break from classics for 2023. I will be back in 2024 to do a Borges study with another here. I hope you will think about joining us then.

I hope you still check in with us, have a great year.

Cynda wrote: "I am glad you are back, Inkspill and that all is well/settled enough for reading.

I am now to going to be taking a break from classics for 2023. I will be back in 2024 to do a Borges study with an..."

Right now I can only think a few weeks ahead - if I can I will be there - enjoy!!! your non-classic reads :)

Katy wrote: "I hope you still check in with us, have a great year."

Unfortunately, for months it was just - impossible - as I was battling to findany any time that was related to reading.

And just fortunate that I had made enough notes where I was able to continuing reading The Second Sex (Vintage Classics) after a long break, mind you I can see myself reading this again.

Things are a little less crazy so (hopefully, fingers crossed) I should be able to check-in more often now :)

with it being almost the end of 2022, i wanted to share some of the Classic reads I've read this year:


The Selfish Giant - Oscar Wilde
The Crucible - Arthur Miller
The Second Sex (Vintage Classics) - Simone de Beauvoir
To Sir, With Love - E.R. Braithwaite
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo - Unknown
The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe - Agatha Christie
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands - Mary Seacole
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Brontës
A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
In a Lonely Place - Dorothy B. Hughes
The Professor - Charlotte Brontës
Cyrano de Bergerac - Edmond Rostand
The Second Part of King Henry VI - William Shakespeare
Henry VI Part One - William Shakespeare
Agnes Grey - Anne Brontës

Inkspill wrote: "with it being almost the end of 2022, i wanted to share some of the Classic reads I've read this year:


The Selfish Giant - Oscar Wilde
The Crucible - Arthur Miller
The Second Sex (Vintage Classic..."

Well done Inkspill and congrats! That is an impressive list there!

Franky wrote: "Inkspill wrote: "with it being almost the end of 2022, i wanted to share some of the Classic reads I've read this year:


The Selfish Giant - Oscar Wilde
The Crucible - Arthur Miller
The Second Sex..."


Thank you!!! Franky :)

2023, so far, these are the classics I’ve read:

, 4* I liked the first half better than the second half.

, 3* more for the abridged audiobook (roughly calculated is 25% of the original story) – it felt fragmented and will come back to this one later.

, 3.5* retelling of Medusa and Perseus’s story showing some women in a better light. Not my favourite of Natalie hayne’s books, though she is wonderful.



And books related to classic reads:

, 4* but more for James Essinger’s defence of Ada Lovelace’s contribution to the digital age. Ada Lovelace is one of Lord Byron’s daughters.

, 4* an inspiring audiobook, reminding me how easy it is to overlook women like Caroline Norton and the difference they have made.

, 3* interesting for someone who knows very little about the poet John Donne, but I didn’t walk away with a clear picture of him.

Just about on track - my reads have been kind of a 50-50 split between classic reads and non.

Some of these classic reads are ones I just came across that aren't normally mentioned.

Three are:

The Life and Death of Jason (epic poem by William Morris, 1867)

Proserpine and Midas (two unperformed stage plays by Mary Shelley)

Wit Without Money (John Fletcher, comedy first performed for the stage 1648)

I'm on the last lap with 10 books shy of meeting this year's Reading challenge.

Of the 62 I've read, I've given some higher ratings than others but, for different reasons, I've enjoyed reading each one

Below are some of the books I've read this year.


A Defense of Poetry Percy Bysshe Shelley
Winnie-the-Pooh --- A.A. Milne
Herland --- Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Seven Against Thebes --- Aeschylus
The Fellowship of the Ring --- J.R.R. Tolkien
The Phoenissae --- Euripides
The Lottery --- Maria Edgeworth
Looking Backward: 2000 to 1887 --- Edward Bellamy
Flush --- Virginia Woolf
The Silmarillion --- J.R.R. Tolkien
Bliss, and Other Stories --- Katherine Mansfield
Aurora Leigh --- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Tales of Ancient Egypt --- Roger Lancelyn Green
The Two Towers --- J.R.R. Tolkien
Mansfield Park --- Jane Austen
The Life and Death of Jason: A Poem --- William Morris
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (biography) --- Margaret Forster
Antigone --- Sophocles
Metamorphoses (New Translation) --- Ovid
Medea --- Euripides

3 books left.

This year I have finally read The Oresteia, I liked the translation by David Mulroy for its poetry.

A couple of week's earlier I listened to The Argonautika by
Apollonius of Rhodes, translated by Peter Green. Another one that's been on my tbr for ages. I enjoyed it but next time I would read it.

My favourite thing this year was revisiting a read.

2023 ends with The Time Machine (H G Wells) , which is brilliant as this is a book I;ve been meaning to read for a long time.

I'm already looking forward to 2024.

Hello 2024!!!!

seatbelts on and ready to go, I think.

Reading 72 books - some of these will be classic reads, but hoping to read

The War of the Worlds by H G Wells
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery - and see that's a group read this month, if I can I will try and join

end of Feb and 18 books read.

I just finished

This is my third read connected with Sylvia Plath, and hoping to read a couple more by end of June.

21 books read so far, seems I'm storming ahead but I have a few long reads lined up.

This is some reads from Jan and Feb, 3 are rereads:

Oooh. Some good reading here! Good luck with your long reads. :-)

Kathleen wrote: "Oooh. Some good reading here! Good luck with your long reads. :-)"

Thank you :)

I'm really looking forward to those.

I finally got my list together of Classic Reads for 2023.

For the first time I read works by John Fletcher, Ann Radcliffe, Maria Edgeworth, Daphne du Maurier, William Makepeace Thackeray, Edward Bellamy and Roger Lancelyn Green.

My Goodreads challenge is to read 72 books this year, I'm slightly ahead but I have some long reads ahead.

Here's how the last 3 months looked, reorganising them by month:



read in Jan 2024
Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery) --- What a surprise, it was good to finally meet Anne Shirley. 3*
Cannery Row (John Steinbeck) --- A fantastic read, earthy and profound in the same breath. 5*
The Children of Jocasta (Natalie Haynes) --- In Natalie Hayne’s retelling Jocasta is put back into centre stage of her own story. 4*
How to Read Oceanic Art (Eric Kjellgren) --- I’m new to this subject, an interesting read. 4*
The Complete Ripley Radio Mysteries (Stephen Wyatt; Patricia Highsmith) --- An audio drama adaptation of all Ripley novels. 3*
The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas) --- I didn’t like most of the characters but its exploration of some interesting social issues kept me reading. 2*
Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries (Alan Rickman) --- Interesting but didn’t say as much as I hoped about the working process of a movie or theatre. 2*
The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath) --- The Bell Jar’s crisp writing, and its modest telling of a heroic tale, is what keeps bringing me back to read this again. 4*
Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1) (Hilary Mantel) --- I like the writing more than its portrait of Anne Boleyn.
Electra (Euripides; Janet Lempke; Kenneth J Reckford) --- Not a leisurely read but interesting in one of the things that happen after the Trojan War. 3*

read in Feb 2024
Sylvia Plath: A Dramatic Portrait: conceived and adapted from her writing (Barry Kyle) --- A drama written as a companion piece to Sylvia Plath’s poem Three Women 2*
Three Women: A Poem for Three Voices (Sylvia Plath) --- A long poem of 3 monologues by Sylvia Plath that was broadcasted as an audio drama. 4*
Kindred (Olivia Butler) --- I liked this more for Alice’s story than Dana’s experience when she travels back in time. 2*
The Design of Books: An Explainer for Authors, Editors, Agents, and Other Curious Readers Revealed (Debbie Berne) --- An ARC read that highlighted how much goes into a the design of books. 4*
Sylvia Plath: A Biography (Linda Wagner-Martin) --- One of the two biographies I read this year about Sylvia Plath. 4*
Mayo Clinic Guide to Pain Relief: How to Better Manage Pain and Regain Function (third edition) (Bruce Sutor; Wesley P. Gilliam) --- ARC read, shows medical pathways in the US for management of chronic pain. 3*
Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston) --- I've listened to this several times now and each time I discover something new. 5*
Art and Perspective (Trevor A White) --- An ARC read with a generous number of examples to get a better handle on perspective in art. 4*
War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad (Christopher Logue) --- Good to finally read Christopher Logue’s adaptation of parts of Homer’s The Iliad. 4*


read in Mar 2024
The Hollywood Behind the Lens: Treasures From the Bison Archives (Marc Wanamaker; Steven Bingen) --- An ARC read loaded with photos that give a flavour of the old Hollywood studios. 4*
Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth (Natalie Haynes) --- This is the book wish I had to hand when reading Homer, Ovid and Euripides was daunting. 4*
Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics) (John Milton) --- More fascinating than enjoyable and I would read again. 4*
Reading Lessons: The books We Read at School, the Conversations They Spark and Why They Matter (Carol Atherton) --- An ARC read showing why books and literature still matter. 4*
Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath's Art of the Visual (Kathleen Connors; Sally Bayley) --- Discusses and includes the art by Sylvia Plath. 4*
The Elements of Art: Ten Ways to Decode the Masterpieces (Susie Hodge) --- An ARC read that I would have found handy 10 years ago when I was still trying to make sense of art. 4*
The Epic of Gilgamesh (Anonymous; N.K. Sandars) --- A more accessible translation of Gilgamesh in Prose form. 4*
The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man: An Opera (John Dryden) --- Just different to John Milton’s Paradise Lost and available in the public domain. 3*






Lined up next:

Books read from April to June

read in April 2024
R.U.R (Karel Čapek) --- Second read, I enjoyed this the last time but not as much as this time. 4*
Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City (Gwendolyn Leick) --- I expected this to be a tough read but found it to be an enjoyable read. 5*
Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1) (Chinua Achebe) --- The second read is as sharp and punchy as the first. 5*


read in May 2024
Orestes (Euripides; Frank Nisetich; John Peck) --- The violence and rage in this revenge tragedy still catches me out. 3*
The Spoken Word: Sylvia Plath (British Library) (Sylvia Plath) --- I loved hearing Sylvia Plath reading her own poems, chatting and laughing. 5*
We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (Philip K. Dick) --- I love the movie, not the recent one, and have been meaning to read this for ages. It didn’t disappoint. 4*
Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath (Heather Clark) --- My focus this year was Sylvia Plath and this is one of the biographies I had lined up. It’s over a 1000 pages and what comes through is staying impartial and the care it took in its research. 5*
The Princess and the Goblin (Princess Irene and Curdie #1) (George MacDonald) --- When I was reading about JRR Tolkien there was a mention of George MacDonald and his Curdie series. 3*
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Hunter S Thompson) --- I enjoyed this more for its style and innovative use of form.
The History of Colour: A Universe of Chromatic Phenomena (Neil Parkinson) --- Book about books but books that look at colour theory. 5*



read in June 2024
We ((Momentum Classic Science Fiction)) (Yevgeny Zamyatin) --- I enjoyed this classic, it was an impulsive buy where I knew nothing about the author or book. 4*
The Iliad: A New Translation by Peter Green (Homer; Peter Green) --- It’s been an amazing journey reading this, and with each read it’s getting easier. 4*
Paradise Lost: A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation (John Milton) --- An audio dramatisation of John Milton’s Paradise Lost starring Ian McKellen. 4*
The History of Titus Groan (Mervyn Peake; Brian Sibley) --- A Dama adaptation of a trilogy by Brian Sibley. 4*
Shady Characters: Ampersands, Interrobangs and other Typographical Curiosities (Kieth Houston) --- Just fascinating, the how an why some of the punctuation we use came about. 4*
Life for Sale (Yukio Mishima; Stephen Dodd) --- Minus its view of women, it’s clever in how it delivers big ideas through comedy.
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: and other prose writings (Sylvia Plath) --- Interesting to read works by Sylvia Plath that are other than The Bell Jar or her poetry. 4*


42 of 72 books read so far.

Anisha Inkspill wrote: "Books read from April to June


We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (a translation). 4*
The Iliad by Homer. Peter Green translation. 4*
Paradise Lost: A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of John Milton, adapted by Mich..."

Great job ! Happy reading!

Franky wrote: "Great job ! Happy reading!"

Thanks Franky, I've been v lucky to find some amazing reads 😊

These are the books I’ve read between July and September 2024, the ones not without a star rating I am leaving open to back to down the line.

And added v v brief info to each and adding the goodreads links


read in July 2024:
The Silence of the Girls (Pat Barker) -- adaptation of Homer’s Iliad, this didn’t work for me
The Myth of Sisyphus (Albert Camus; Justin O'Brien) -- philosophical essays, fantastic read and want to read again
The Vampyre (Polidori John William) 3.5* -- short story
A Dog's Heart (Mikhail Bulgakov; Antonina W. Bouis) -- novel, science fiction, and want to read again
Biographical Stories (Nathaniel Hawthorne) – moral tale for young people, enjoyable read
Vincent: A Graphic Biography (Simon Elliot) -- ARC read 4*, I liked it for how it put Johanna van Gogh-Bonger and her husband, who was Vincent’s brother in the foreground.

read in Aug 2024:
Les Misérables (Donougher Christine; Victor Hugo) -- novel, historical, French revolution, I enjoyed reading it, I want to come back to it
Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life (Anna Funder) -- faction with biographical details, not v objective but interesting

read in Sept 2024:
Circe (Madeline Miller) 1* -- adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey
The Florentines (Paul Strathern) 4* -- nonfiction, covers the many Florentines including Dante
Lavinia (Ursula K. Le Guin) 3*-- novel, adaptation of Virgil’s Aeneid
Not I (Samuel Beckett) 4* -- drama
The Aeneid (Virgil; Bernard Knox; Robert Fagles) – 4* -- epic poetry
A Hunger-Artist: Four Stories (Franz Kafka; Michael Hofmann) 4* -- collection of short stories
The Labours of Hercules (Poirot) (Agatha Christie) 4* -- collection of short stories

I changed the topic name, as this fits me better, I love reading and I read to discover.

Last month ended with discovering that Republic was easier to read then I wthought it would be, I mean it was still tough but I was amazed that it was not as tough as I had always thought.

Discovering this was nice.

I love the new name of your challenge. What a wonderful reading philosophy.

Anisha Inkspill wrote: "I changed the topic name, as this fits me better, I love reading and I read to discover.

Last month ended with discovering that Republic was easier to read then I wthought it would ..."

I love your attitude! Reading is a chance to try new ideas, and not all of them may work for us, but even that is a discovery.

Anisha Inkspill wrote: "I changed the topic name, as this fits me better, I love reading and I read to discover.

Last month ended with discovering that Republic was easier to read then I wthought it would ..."

I think that's a fitting title for all of us. I love that philosophy! Nice title for your focus!

Katy wrote: "I love the new name of your challenge. What a wonderful reading philosophy."

Thank you!!!! :)