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| Classics Club |
Make a list of 20 classic books you want to read and number them. Then wait for the announcement of the winning number on August 24th. Check your list and that number is the book you commit to read for the next two months, by October 23rd. (Feel free to borrow my list, if you don't have time to make one yourself.)
Number, Title, Author
1. Little Women by Alcott, Louisa May
2. Henderson The Rain King by Bellow, Saul
3. If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Calvino, Italo
4. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Cather, Willa
5. Great Expectations by Dickens, Charles
6. The Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, Charles
7. The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
8. The Count of Monte Carlo by Dumas, Alexandre
9. The Name of the Rose by Eco, Umberto
10. Middlemarch by Eliot, George
11. Invisible Man by Ellison, Ralph
12. As I Lay Dying by Faulkner, William
13. Dune by Herbert, Frank
14. Suite Français by Nimerovsky, Irene
15. The Trial by Kafka, Franz
16. On the Road by Kerouac, Jack
17. Midnight's Children by Rushdie, Salmon
18. The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, John
19. Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke, Rainier Maria/ plus anything by Agatha Christie
20. Wild Sargasso Sea by Rhys, Jean
We are told to add books we REALLY hope are picked as well as those we rather dread. For me it is the same book, for some weird reason: Middlemarch. I really want to read it but dread it at the same time. We'll see if it is picked.
I dreaded reading Middlemarch, because of its length and I'm not usually a big fan of older Brit Lit...BUT, it really surprised me! I ended up loving it - George Eliot was very clever and funny, and a lot of her wry observations of society are still accurate today! Here's my review (no spoilers!) that includes some quotes that show her dry wit:
ReplyDeletehttp://bookbybook.blogspot.com/2012/12/fiction-review-middlemarch.html
Now, you don't have to be so afraid if #10 comes up!
Sue
I really want to read Middlemarch but keep putting it off. The BBC adaption is EXCELLENT. I hope you get #1. :)
ReplyDeleteI loved Middlemarch! The beginning was a little dry, but I'm so glad I stuck with it! I'm actually thinking about starting a reread, or maybe listening to the audiobook. There's an audio version narrated by Kate Reading which I've heard is excellent.
ReplyDeleteI also loved Suite Francaise, Great Expectations, and Wide Sargasso Sea. Good luck with your spin pick!
I have a huge fear of commitment, especially with school starting. Perhaps some day, dear Anne!!
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ReplyDeleteWow! Dune!
ReplyDeleteNow there's a chunkster of a book of I haven't thought about in years.
I surprised myself by how much I got sucked into that world. I read several books in the series before my interest petered out. All I can remember now are sandworms :-)
Happy Spin
Ooo, you have two of my nemesis on your list: If On A Winter's Night and The Name of the Rose. I plan to try again someday but they were frustrating on the first go round. I read Kerouac's On The Road and I wanted to smack him, but his The Dharma Bums is just wonderful, so if you find that you don't like OtR, please don't give up on him.
ReplyDeleteI hope that you have a great spin!!
Such a great idea! Wish I had time to do this. You've got a few I've read on your list. Hope you get a good one!
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