My 2013 Challenge

[issybird]

The Great Gatsby is a masterpiece. If Huckleberry Finn is the great American novel, Great Gatsby is the great 20th century American novel.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I didn't really enjoy Huckleberry Finn.

I'll third Steinbeck. I'll add Faulkner. I'll add Kafka's The Trial as a great read.

For more modern classics, read John Updike's Rabbit Run.

I did something from every decade this year and found that I got a much better appreciation for how much stuff is out there to read. I loved my selections from the 1960s: John Updike, Ray Bradbury, Kenzaburo Oe, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick. There's so much goodness out there to read from those not quite old enough to be classic decades.

[caleb72]

If you're looking for more classics to put on the list. There's a few I've come across in my challenges - either I've read them or I've put them on my list to read them.

I loved
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
The Outsider by Albert Camus,
1984 by George Orwell,
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Some of these are modern classics I guess as they aren't quite as old. But I'm happy to include them on the list.

This year I'm hoping to read:
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens
The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald
War of the Worlds by H G Wells
and maybe a Kurt Vonnegut - not sure which one yet.

Other than that there are others I want to read. The list really does go on...

[stop__dreaming]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I didn't really enjoy Huckleberry Finn.

I'll third Steinbeck. I'll add Faulkner. I'll add Kafka's The Trial as a great read.

For more modern classics, read John Updike's Rabbit Run.

I did something from every decade this year and found that I got a much better appreciation for how much stuff is out there to read. I loved my selections from the 1960s: John Updike, Ray Bradbury, Kenzaburo Oe, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick. There's so much goodness out there to read from those not quite old enough to be classic decades.

Thanks for the recommendations.

Just looking at your signature, I'm like you, I keep track of what I've read annually in a spreadsheet rated from 1-10, haha.

[stop__dreaming]

Originally Posted by caleb72

If you're looking for more classics to put on the list. There's a few I've come across in my challenges - either I've read them or I've put them on my list to read them.

I loved
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
The Outsider by Albert Camus,
1984 by George Orwell,
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Some of these are modern classics I guess as they aren't quite as old. But I'm happy to include them on the list.

This year I'm hoping to read:
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens
The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald
War of the Worlds by H G Wells
and maybe a Kurt Vonnegut - not sure which one yet.

Other than that there are others I want to read. The list really does go on...

Same here. My TBR list is quite long, but I'll get there eventually

Of Vonnegut, I've read Slaughterhouse 5, Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, Mother Night, Welcome to the Monkey-House and God Bless You Dr. Kevorkian. His other works are on my TBR list.

As much as people big up S5, I wasn't all that impressed. Will need to read Cat's Cradle again, because again, wasn't struck on it. Mother Night and Breakfast of Champions are good and his short stories in WTTM-H, notably, All The King's Horses, Harrison Bergeron, Who Am I This Time, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and The Euphio Question are brilliant.

[elemenoP]

As for defining a classic: I think the test of "will people still be reading this in 100 years?" is a good one. Of course, for books less than 100 years old, it's a judgement call.

One of my reasons for getting an ereader is to read more classics (the kind that are over 100 years old). Because they are free, and because I don't have to put up with the bad type that some classics are set in (or rather, not set in: where they re-print a book by photographing* an older edition instead of re-setting the type).

I absolutely love One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I have read it twice and I plan to read it again.

I just read Pride and Prejudice for the first time last month. I did enjoy it (and laughed at parts) and I was glad I read it, but I think I would have liked it better if I read it when I was younger. I found the leisure class annoying: I wanted to yell at them to just get jobs. I don't think I would have had that reaction as a teenager. As a teenager, I would have related better to these young women who just want to talk about the next ball.

eP

*I'm sure that photograph is the wrong word, but I don't know what the actual process is. Someone will understand what I'm saying, I hope.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

*I'm sure that photograph is the wrong word, but I don't know what the actual process is. Someone will understand what I'm saying, I hope.

They're generally called "facsimile editions". It is some type of photographic process, I believe.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by HarryT

P&P is hilariously funny, it really is. Don't judge it from the film and TV adaptations which generally remove most of the humour from it.

I wouldn't go quite that far, but it is a very readable and engaging book, which is certainly not true of all classics.

I have a particular problem with Dickens, myself. I've only made it through Christmas Carol, which is mercifully short. Most of his are excessively long and the language is awkward.

A few classics I am hoping to read eventually: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Time Machine by H G Wells, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace was very good, and doesn't deserve its reputation as hard work), Moby Dick by Herman Melville (I expect to struggle with that one), Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, The Woman in White and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

I can't think of any others right now, but note how I won't commit to reading them next year. Although I will undoubtedly read some books that might count as modern classics. When I think of classics, I tend to be thinking of stuff that is easily old enough to be on Project Gutenberg, or MR, and ideally is also actually out of copyright in the UK (of the list above, I think The Time Machine is still in copyright here.)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I have a particular problem with Dickens, myself. I've only made it through Christmas Carol, which is mercifully short. Most of his are excessively long and the language is awkward.

That's a pity. I adore Dickens. A master of the English language, and the creator of innumerable truly memorable characters.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I wouldn't go quite that far, but it is a very readable and engaging book, which is certainly not true of all classics.

Not really laugh-out-loud humor but more of a gentle humor.

Originally Posted by HarryT

P&P is hilariously funny, it really is. Don't judge it from the film and TV adaptations which generally remove most of the humour from it.

[JSWolf]

My goal for 2013 is currently undecided. My 2012 goal is on track to have read 75 books in 2012.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by stop__dreaming

Same here. My TBR list is quite long, but I'll get there eventually

Of Vonnegut, I've read Slaughterhouse 5, Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, Mother Night, Welcome to the Monkey-House and God Bless You Dr. Kevorkian. His other works are on my TBR list.

As much as people big up S5, I wasn't all that impressed. Will need to read Cat's Cradle again, because again, wasn't struck on it. Mother Night and Breakfast of Champions are good and his short stories in WTTM-H, notably, All The King's Horses, Harrison Bergeron, Who Am I This Time, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and The Euphio Question are brilliant.

I loved Monkey-House (Who Am I this Time was probably my favourite), Cat's Cradle, Breakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse 5. I really enjoyed Rosewater and have Galapagos, Mother Night and Player Piano on my potential reading list. I would say ignore Hocus Pocus. I found it tedious, but maybe I've read enough Vonnegut now.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by stop__dreaming

Next year I am going to educate myself further in issuing a 'Classic A Month' challenge. Now, I haven't read that many 'classics'. Ones off the top of my head include Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm (which happens to be my favourite book of all-time), 1984 and The Count of Monte Cristo to name just a few.

So I ask, what denotes as a 'classic' in your eyes?

So far I have The Great Gatsby and A Clockwork Orange.

For moi a Classic is a book that I can 'enter into' as if I was there. It's beautifully written and executed and crosses barriers of culture and time.

Don't know if you were really asking for author/book ideas, so ignore if you're not interested.

Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway

The Outsider, Albert Camus

Maybe Somerset Maugham, and Graham Green ....

So many authors and books out there, eh!!

[BenBanned]

Im sure as a classic its debatable.
Autobiography of Malcom X

Young men the world over would benifit their fellow man if only they would read this.
It was actually dictated by Malcom and written by Alex Haley of Roots fame.


Read this one for yourself:
As Man Thinketh
Its only 30 pages which is good because youll want to read it again, and again.

[Quexos]

I will guard myself from setting goals as reading is a recreational activity to me rather than an obligation. Besides I read rather slowly. I'll just hope to read 15 to 20 books this new year. Which ones, I will decide as I go ...

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My goal for 2013 is currently undecided. My 2012 goal is on track to have read 75 books in 2012.