Play Book Tag discussion

The voting was very tight, but there was a definitive winner at the end of the day, and that was:

classics

Please share your reading plans and recommendations below.

Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as "classics" on Goodreads, or be a book that is not yet shelved that way but you feel should be.

One way to find books to read for this tag is to please visit:

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

We encourage people to link to additional lists below if they find them.

Happy Reading!!!

Awesome! I'm guessing the runner up was North America.

Classics seems like a solid tag! Unfortunately nothing I have planned to read in March will fit.
Maybe my unofficial trim 🤞

I’m going with Master and Margherita! And it’s sitting in my house out from the library! So perfect!

Not excited but I have options. I just haven't been in a classics mood lately.

The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

I thought this might win. I have Sense and Sensibility and Middlemarch which I can read.

Just wanted to remind people that many "modern" and genre books are considered "classics", for example I, Robot, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, or anything from Agatha Christie. It doesn't have to be something you were forced to read in English class.

Here are some lists to other classics - the genre ones - as classics are not just those from lit courses in school:

Crime fiction:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Fantasy:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Sci Fi:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Historical Fiction:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Non-fiction:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Contemporary Classics:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Modern Classics:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

You could also check for language/country i.e Canadian Classics or French Classics.

Also a lot of retellings have been tagged Classics.

I'm thinking I might go with a retelling, maybe A Thousand Ships or something like that.

Most of my upcoming book club reads fit north america, but classics is a great tag.

Karin wrote: "Awesome! I'm guessing the runner up was North America."

Actually nature beat out North America for second by ONE point . . .

I think I'm going to read The Death of Ivan Ilych. Regina gave it 5 stars, and I haven't had a chance to read a book in her honor yet.

My other idea is Cannery Row. I'm batting 1000 with Steinbeck so far, and would love to read more from him.

I've read slews of classics, so it's hard to narrow down recommendations, but I can highly recommend:

East of Eden

to almost anyone.

Flowers for Algernon and Watership Down are super readable and just great books.

I personally loved Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but I think that one will be more controversial in terms of love/hate.

Anita wrote: "Karin wrote: "Awesome! I'm guessing the runner up was North America."

Actually nature beat out North America for second by ONE point . . ."

I would have thrown down points for nature.

North America seem to encompass everything so I was afraid it might win.

At one time, I read a ton of classics and still have some on my tbr, so I am good with that.

I thought this month was a win-win, because I had quite a few on all the list.

Anita wrote: "I think I'm going to read The Death of Ivan Ilych. Regina gave it 5 stars, and I haven't had a chance to read a book in her honor yet.

My other idea is Cannery Row. I'm ba..."

The Death of Ivan Ilych - This book was mentioned near the beginning of Being Mortal.

NancyJ wrote: ".The Death of Ivan Ilych - This book was mentioned near the beginning of Being Mortal.
"

It was?? I didn't remember that . . .makes me want to read it more. I loved Being Mortal.

Anita wrote: "Karin wrote: "Awesome! I'm guessing the runner up was North America."

Actually nature beat out North America for second by ONE point . . ."

That's interesting. I read a lot of nature/environmental books in January and February, and I still have more.

For those interested in Nature, many of those books have Thought Provoking tags (if you want to fit them in this week), and some even have Classics tags. Orxy and Crake has more than 100 Classics tags.

Anita wrote: "NancyJ wrote: ".The Death of Ivan Ilych - This book was mentioned near the beginning of Being Mortal.
"

It was?? I didn't remember that . . .makes me want to read it more. I loved Being Mortal."

It was a book assigned when he was in medical school to help make them more aware of how patients might feel.

I will be going the classic fantasy route-Thanks for the list Theresa-have a lot of those on the blanker chest

I would like to recommend Watership Down by Richard Adams. I read it for the first time last year and was totally surprised at how meaningful this "childrens" classic is. It should be required reading for anyone in a leadership or management position IMO. And has so much to say about courage and the importance of every individual in a community. I could go on and on about this book!

Charlotte wrote: "Not excited but I have options. I just haven't been in a classics mood lately.

The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton"

The Stranger is a good and quick read.

Sigh... this was the one I didn't want.

Joanne wrote: "I will be going the classic fantasy route-Thanks for the list Theresa-have a lot of those on the blanker chest"

I had you in mind when I went looking...

I can go many ways - will see where mood takes me.

Of course, we finish A Game of Thrones in March which is a modern fantasy classic.

Anita wrote: "Actually nature beat out North America for second by ONE point . . ."

I was really hoping for nature!

Doughgirl5562 wrote: "I would like to recommend Watership Down by Richard Adams. I read it for the first time last year and was totally surprised at how meaningful this "childrens" classic is. It should be ..."

I agree with you. I read it years ago but have thought I need to revisit it.

And my complaint being made, as usual, I do have options. Here are some:

- All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- Blue Meridian: The Search for the Great White Shark by Peter Matthiessen
- The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowat
- Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

LibraryCin wrote: "Anita wrote: "Actually nature beat out North America for second by ONE point . . ."

I was really hoping for nature!"

Me, too! I figured that was what you would want as well.

For those interested in Nature, here are a few with Classics tags:

A Walk in the woods (and probably many other Bryson books)
Walden
Silent Spring
Hidden Life of Trees
Overstory
Margaret Atwood's trilogy:
Oryx and Crake
The Year of the Flood
Maddaddam
Barbara Kingsolver - Poisonwood Bible, Bean Trees, Prodigal Summer, Animal Dreams, maybe more.

Also - as doughgirl mentioned - Watership Down

Best Nature Books - Many of these have lots of classics tags
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

Many of the newer nature books (e.g. The Botany of Desire) have "thought-provoking" tags if you need something else for this month.

Booknblues wrote: "LibraryCin wrote: "Anita wrote: "Actually nature beat out North America for second by ONE point . . ."

I was really hoping for nature!"

Me, too! I figured that was what you would want as well."

I also threw points at Nature. Ah well.

Looking at the list, I've read quite a number of classics, more so pre-Goodreads even. Will be leaning more towards the more modern classics this month. Thinking that my flight home will be an excellent chance to finally start and dig into Dune.

LibraryCin wrote: "And my complaint being made, as usual, I do have options. Here are some:

- All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- Blue Meridian: The Search for the Great W..."

We like Farley Mowat in this house. Too bad we have mostly paperbacks with tiny print.

Doughgirl5562 wrote: "I would like to recommend Watership Down by Richard Adams. I read it for the first time last year and was totally surprised at how meaningful this "childrens" classic is. It should be ..."

That's definitely on my agenda for this month. Thanks!

For our author challenge, can we make a list of books that have at least 5 classics tags? I know some are obvious, but there might be some surprises too. I wouldn't have guessed that Oryx and Crake had 100+ classics tags.

Goodreads readers are pretty generous with their classics tags - and give them to modern literary fiction novels, as well as genre classics (as Theresa pointed out).

Jane Austen - All? Maybe even the "new" unfinished ones (which I haven't read yet)
Agatha Christie - All or most I would guess.
Tolkien - I might finally read The Hobbit (only 45 years after my high school boyfriend suggested it).
Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake Trilogy, Handmaid's Tale, maybe others
Amor Towles - Gentleman in Moscow (I just read)
Bryson - A Walk in the Woods
Kingsolver - Poisonwood Bible, Bean Trees, Prodigal Summer, Animal Dreams, and maybe others
Nevil Shute - A Town Called Alice, and maybe others
Ruth Ozeki - Tale for the Time Being
Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow, maybe others
I'll check more later...

*Toni Morrison - Beloved, Jazz, Song of Solomon, Bluest Eye, Sula all have hundreds of tags.

* Which Toni Morrison book should I start with? (I started one when I was on maternity leave - but it was bad timing. (view spoiler)[I'm not sure which one it was, but the plot involved a baby that died. I can handle that now.) (hide spoiler)]

Amy wrote: "I’m going with Master and Margherita! And it’s sitting in my house out from the library! So perfect!"

Nice!
Can't wait to hear what you think.
I loved it.

Theresa wrote: "Here are some lists to other classics - the genre ones - as classics are not just those from lit courses in school:

Crime fiction:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https..."

Great lists. Thanks, I plan to use them!

Excellent classics shelf. I think I'll try reading Peter Pan for March. I loved that show as a child.

Glad classics won! Definitely reading Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon and I'm helping host a buddy read for North and South chapter a day on Litsy but unsure I'll finish in time.

Also The Other Bennet Sister is tagged classics 23 times, which is another book on March's TBR list.

Good Choice EMR~ And welcome!

I'd never heard of Master and Margherita but it sounds interesting, maybe a bit Gaiman-like? I'll have to check the library for a possible audio.

For recommendations, I loved these:
Flowers for Algernon
Watership Down
Prodigal Summer
The Bean Trees also Kingsolver and a quick read.
A Gentleman in Moscow

As for me:
I'll definitely read an Agatha Christie
Anne of the Island I loved Anne of Avonlea!
Possibly The Magician's Nephew
The Wise Man's Fear - I read the 1st in the Kingkiller series just a year or so ago.
Then I'm thinking of some classic mystery/detectives such as P. D. James' Dalgliesh, McDonald's Travis McGee, and Sayers' Peter Wimsey.

For all you new fans of His Majesty's Dragon-the books on the classic fantasy list Theresa shared!

The Master and Margarita is a brilliant humorous satire of Stalinist Russia that was written in the 30s, suppressed until the 60s and then only a highly censored edition allowed. More recently various uncensored versions have surfaced and the story of the different translations and which is considered best and why is almost as good as the satire itself. This is a book where you will want to read all tge afterwards and forwards once read the book.

It really is comedic. I highly recommend.

Anita wrote: "The voting was very tight, but there was a definitive winner at the end of the day, and that was:

classics

I am planning to read In Patagonia -> it is a classic and it is on my TBR list. Bonus!

Theresa wrote: "The Master and Margarita is a brilliant humorous satire of Stalinist Russia that was written in the 30s, suppressed until the 60s and then only a highly censored edition allowed. More..."

I agree this is a humorous satire about the devil running amok in Moscow.

For anyone considering reading it, there are different translations from the Russian. I recommend the one translated by Mirra Ginsburg. I read this as part of a group, and we compared translations (other versions may be good as well, but this is the one I read and enjoyed):

Joy D wrote: "Theresa wrote: "The Master and Margarita is a brilliant humorous satire of Stalinist Russia that was written in the 30s, suppressed until the 60s and then only a highly censored editi..."

This is the one I read and so enjoyed: - different translation. I actually have the Ginsburg translation stacked up here to read and compare at one point. My copy of is autographed by the editor of this special edition (50th anniversary maybe?). I ended up with the translation I have because a friend, who claims this as the funniest book she ever read and one of her favorite books of all time (especially the Ginsberg translation which is the first she read back in late 1960s), went to a discussion and signing when this edition was published, held in a fab bookstore in DUMBO area of Brooklyn and she got it for me.

It was her way of finally having someone she knew to discuss it with! We discuss books all the time.

Very cool, Theresa!

I have a couple of classics I am planning to read for this, and perhaps more depending on how the month goes.

Anita wrote: "I think I'm going to read The Death of Ivan Ilych. Regina gave it 5 stars, and I haven't had a chance to read a book in her honor yet.

My other idea is Cannery Row. I'm ba..."

Cannery Row is short enough that you could also fit in a couple of more classics. I think you may prefer Steinbeck's Travels with Charley: In Search of America though, if you have haven't read it.

NancyJ wrote: "We like Farley Mowat in this house. Too bad we have mostly paperbacks with tiny print. ..."

I don't own many of his. And I haven't checked yet on this one, whether or not my library has it, but hopefully.

Possibly not this one, but many of his would also fit "nature". :-)

Barbara M wrote: "Anne of the Island I loved Anne of Avonlea! ..."

I didn't think of this until now, but I've been wanting to reread the AoGG series!

LibraryCin wrote: "And my complaint being made, as usual, I do have options. Here are some:

- All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- Blue Meridian: The Search for the Great W..."

LibraryCin wrote: "And my complaint being made, as usual, I do have options. Here are some:

- All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- Blue Meridian: The Search for the Great W..."
I recommend The Road.

Barbara M wrote: "I'd never heard of Master and Margherita but it sounds interesting, maybe a bit Gaiman-like? I'll have to check the library for a possible audio.

For recommendations, I loved these:
[book:Flowers ..."

Peter Wimsey is a great character. I recently started to reread those books.

Eccentricmoodreader wrote: "Excellent classics shelf. I think I'll try reading Peter Pan for March. I loved that show as a child."

The original Peter Pan is pretty dark, I think. You won't find so much of the show you loved there.