Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Bingo challenge: 23/25 read

B1 A book set in an Old or Ancient Empire. Untraceable by Sergei Lebedev (The Soviet Union must be an old empire by now?)
B2 A book from our Old School Bookshelf Sult (Hunger)
B3 A book in translation Severina by Rodrigo Rey Rosa (Guatemala)
B4 A book you read for another Challenge Chaka by Thomas Mofolo [LAST country - I've now read all of Africa!]
B5 A book with a Goodreads rating of 4.0 or better Geography III by Elizabeth Bishop (4.27 rating)

I1 A story from our Short Story Group Shelf The Lover by Marguerite Duras
I2 A book from your Personal Bookshelf Klæbemonstre III by John Kenn Mortensen
I3 A Historical Fiction or a Nonfiction History Empusion by Olga Tokarczuk
I4 A book by a new-to-you author En oplagt sag by Leonardo Sciascia
I5 A book one of our Group members read in 2024 Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

N1 A book by a male prize winning author: Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov (International Booker Prize 2023)
N2 A book by a female prize winning author: Den anden datter by Annie Ernaux (Nobel 2022)
N3 Free Space 50 Contemporary Artists You Should Know
N4 A book written by an author born during the 19th Century (1800s) The Wolf by Guy de Maupassant
N5 A book found by using Literature-map.com

G1 A book by one of your favorite authors. Play Boy by Constance Debré
G2 A book by an author found on our Group Bookshelf A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir
G3 A book with an imaginary setting (not a real place on Earth).
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (going a bit literal here about the "not on earth" :) )
G4 A book by an author who was born during the 20th Century (1900s)
The Artificial Silk Girl by by Irmgard Keun (born 1905)
G5 Three short stories by the same author. So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan

O1 A Mystery, Suspense, or Thriller We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
O2 A book about a journey Eurotrash by Christian Kracht
O3 A book written by Anonymous or Author Unknown.
O4 A book from our New School Group Shelf The Trolley by Claude Simon (Nobel 1985)
O5 A book you would recommend to others Spænd by Dorthe Nors

I'll give this a go as there seems to be enough wiggle room to fit in things I like. I'm not a fan of genre fiction unless it's crime, so G3 may need a creative interpretation, but we'll see. Also History/ic is not really my thing, so we'll see about the old empire in B1 and I3 - though I am currently reading Empusion, which is historic, so I'll probably manage :)
Looking forward to this!

Ideas for books:
B1 A book set in an Old or Ancient Empire. - Something russian set during Tzarist Russia, could be Chekhov or Dostoevsky...
B2 A book from our Old School Bookshelf -
B3 A book in translation - I read a lot of these, so whatever doesn't fit in other categories...
B4 A book you read for another Challenge - probably something African from my group https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
B5 A book with a Goodreads rating of 4.0 or better - I like prize winners, so fairly easy I guess?

I1 A story from our Short Story Group Shelf - Maybe re-reading some Jorge Luis Borges?
I2 A book from your Personal Bookshelf
I3 A Historical Fiction or a Nonfiction History - Brrrr. unless I leave the last pages of Olga Tokarczuk's Empusion for 2025 :)
I4 A book by a new-to-you author - easy I read a lot of those
I5 A book one of our Group members read in 2024 -

N1 A book by a male prize winning author - a Nobel Author
N2 A book by a female prize winning author - will have to be something more recent, I've read most of the nobel women (few and far between as they are...)
N3 Free Space
N4 A book written by an author born during the 19th Century - one of the older Nobel Prize winners I'm missing in my ongoing Nobel challence should do it: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
N5 A book found by using Literature-map.com (looks fun!)

G1 A book by one of your favorite authors. I still have som unread Deborah Levy
G2 A book by an author found on our Group Bookshelf
G3 A book with an imaginary setting (not a real place on Earth). - We'll see...
G4 A book by an author who was born during the 20th Century
G5 Three short stories by the same author. - mmm I like. Maybe some more Jane Mansfield or more Deborah Levy :)

O1 A Mystery, Suspense, or Thriller - One of Doug Johnstones latest in the Skelfs series?
O2 A book about a journey
O3 A book written by Anonymous or Author Unknown.
O4 A book from our New School Group Shelf -
O5 A book you would recommend to others

I was wondering about B1 also, and then noticed that it could also include:
"- Old could be the British Empire period of Indian or Tsarist Russia, etc."

So I'm reading Chekhov short stories, set during Tzarist Russia.

Klowey wrote: "I was wondering about B1 also, and then noticed that it could also include:
"- Old could be the British Empire period of Indian or Tsarist Russia, etc."

So I'm reading Chekhov short stories, set d..."
Good pick, that's more up my alley, I like Russian literature (and have no particular interest in anicient Rome and the like) - I'll join you there!

Welcome to Bingo. Have fun with your planning!

I hope you enjoy this challenge, Anetq! I always enjoy it because a lot of the books I read anyway seem to fit (if sometimes loosely!) into many of the categories. I bet you'll find that, too.

Happy Reading in 2025! :)

The categories can be loosely interpreted and no one is policing, so read what you enjoy and have a great time. You might be surprised how easily things fall into place. Always nice to follow your choices, Anetq.

Sara wrote: "The categories can be loosely interpreted and no one is policing, so read what you enjoy and have a great time. You might be surprised how easily things fall into place. Always nice to follow your ..."
Thanks Sara, I know, and have already claimed the Soviet Union as an old empire ...it's been gone for 34 going on 35 years, that's pretty old :)

Wow, you've made so much progress already! And congrats on completing your Africa challenge too.

Wobbley wrote: "Wow, you've made so much progress already! And congrats on completing your Africa challenge too."
Thanks! It' been a long time coming :)

In other news: I've got a row: B1-B5 completed!

Woo hoo! Congrats on getting a bingo!

That didn't take long! Congrats.

Congrats on bingo. And you've read all of Africa now! Good for you. I'll get there someday but I've stalled in my effort, and I have quite a few countries to go.

Laurie wrote: "Congrats on bingo. And you've read all of Africa now! Good for you. I'll get there someday but I've stalled in my effort, and I have quite a few countries to go."

I think I did it over 8 or 9 years? It is 55 countries in total and some of them have little choice, so taking ones time is the way to go I think - but I must say it's expanded my horizons greatly in unexpected ways - so highly recommend to keep going :)
Anyone is welcome to join some reads over in the https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... group

What a marvelous project, Anetq. Congratulations!

Recommended read:
Anything by Dorthe Nors! The new novel Spænd is only out in Danish so far - but a lot (if not all) of her stuff is published in English (and in The New Yorker) I highly recommend reading her books.

Also I enjoyed reading A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir - Spoiler: It's not an easy death, but it's a great book!

As well as this 'between the wars, roaring Berlin 1931', classic:
The Artificial Silk Girl by by Irmgard Keun

So I am missing 5 categories:
I5 A book one of our Group members read in 2024 (whatever)
N5 A book found by using Literature-map.com
G5 Three short stories by the same author.
O3 A book written by Anonymous or Author Unknown.
O4 A book from our New School Group Shelf

And even though I'm more of a new-school reader the bookshelf is just sooo male (and canon "English language canon" classics) I know this is a classics group - but I've read the women (and pretty much the males I want to read as well - I do love Calvino <3) I was gonna call it "Penguin classics - but I just looked their modern classics series up, and there are so many (more diverse) read on that, that I'd love to read, so I may just pick something off that, as I am all for making my own reading challenge rules :D

For inspiration: https://www.penguin.co.uk/series/PENM...

Wow, only 5 categories left is amazing! It's only March!

I'm with Wobbley...WOW.