Classics for Beginners discussion

I just set up a 2017 Classics Challenge as it seems that challenges are much loved, by some of us at least. The challenge runs from 01 January - 31 December 2017. You define which shelf will count towards your challenge, all books that are shelved as read on this shelf between those dates count towards the challenge. I, for example, have a general 'classics' shelf where all my read classics books are shelved. All books I add during 2017 will count towards my 2017 challenge.

In this thread you can keep track of your reads or plans for the challenge, you can share with others your thoughts or anything else related to the challenge.

Happy reading!

Thanks Nina!

I am ambitiously going to attempt 25 classics for this year. We'll see how it goes. First up will be Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway, the last novel published in his lifetime that I have yet to read.

I definitely want to read more classics. For me it is an unexplored world.

I read only 5 classics last year and want to read more this year. So, I set my goal at 12 (hoping to read one per month).

I couldn't see Classics challenge on homepage like the previous year's. I had to go to challenges page to find it, but it was easier if it was on homepage.

Moderators, Can you please get it displayed on homepage, if it is possible?

I am sure this was asked alot of times before, how old is a book(copywrite) when it is considered a classic?

Rev wrote: "I am sure this was asked alot of times before, how old is a book(copywrite) when it is considered a classic?"

It must be over 50yrs old

Priya wrote: "I couldn't see Classics challenge on homepage like the previous year's. I had to go to challenges page to find it, but it was easier if it was on homepage.

Moderators, Can you please get it displ..."

We'll see if we can do that for you.

Nina wrote: "I just set up a 2017 Classics Challenge as it seems that challenges are much loved, by some of us at least. The challenge runs from 01 January - 31 December 2017. You define which shelf will count ..."

Priya wrote: "I couldn't see Classics challenge on homepage like the previous year's. I had to go to challenges page to find it, but it was easier if it was on homepage.

Moderators, Can you please get it displ..."

Nina, do you know how to put the challenge on the home page? Nicolle has always done it before.

Nina, I don't know what I did, but the challenge is now on the home page!

Thank you!

I didn't officially join last year but my goal is to get through 12 again. :)

Thank you Nina and Emily!

I am challenging myself to read 6 again this year. I almost made it last year. My reading tastes are so varied that I have a total goal of 24 books for the year splitting that goal into 6's across the board.

Emily, it should have shown up on the page automatically on Jan 01, did it not? I'm visiting family abroad at the moment and don't have my laptop with my. The app doesn't include the challenge unfortunately. I'm back home on Sunday and will fix it then. Sorry eveyone that this is not going smoothly!!

Haha, sorry, Emily, I immediately reacted to your first message without reading it all. But anyhow, good it's fixed!! Thanks a lot!

I challenge myself to read 12 classics this year. From my Classics bookshelf. Time to get started!

I'll do 12 as well. There are some classics I finally want to read this year, will make a list of those to definitely include them in this challenge!

Setting mine at 12 again too. I think I can average one classic a month between all my other reading. There's probably at least that many sitting on my shelf.

Most of my reading this year will constitute of classics, aim is to read at least 15, have added a shelf for the same purpose. Starting with The Trial by Kafka.

I'm putting The Cornerstone on my classics list for this year. It's a book I discovered in my grandmother's collection I inherited when she passed away in 1993. I've been meaning to read it for some time.

So far I have only read one out of my goal of 12 (though, thanks Goodreads for encouraging me that I am on track..) but that was War and Peace, which I had been meaning to read for years but also always dreaded because it is so long. So, quite happy with this start of the 2017 Classics (and it was a surprisingly easy read, so much for the perceptions we have).

The next one - equally long on my TBR shelf and equally dreaded - is The Scarlet Letter. It was encouraging though to read all the positive and enthusiastic comments in the earlier group thread for this book. Just kinda worry about the language... Middle Ages English is not my strongest point ... :-/

Then there are two more that I definitely want to read this year: The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk / Palace of Desire / Sugar Street and Heren van de thee. If I get all those off my TBR list this year I would be quite happy :-)

War and Peace!
Well done that has to be worth at least five books on the reading challenge to my mind. I don't think that I will be attempting that one for a good while yet.

Nina wrote: "So far I have only read one out of my goal of 12 (though, thanks Goodreads for encouraging me that I am on track..) but that was War and Peace, which I had been meaning to read for years..."

I don't remember The Scarlet Letter being written in Middle Ages English. It takes place in the colonial period of the US.

Darren, thanks for that! :D It really was much easier than I had thought! It helped though that I read it during the Christmas break and had enough time to read it in one go.

Emily, yes, it was written in the 19th century but takes place in the 17th. I didn't mean Middle Ages in the literal sense of the word but as in 'pretty old'. I don't think my 17th century English is much better than my Middles Ages English ; -)

I've set myself up for only five books on this challenge as I only have seven on my bookshelf at the moment that I haven't read, and those include The Odyssey and The Iliad.

On a side note if The Hobbit is a classic why is The Lord of the Rings not a classic also?

To me it doesn't matter so much how many classics, so I don't go for a particularly high number either, as I also don't want to 'consume' but also take time to maybe read ome stuff about them, watch a movie adaptation, read related books or whatever. Iliad and Odyssee, that sounds rather brave to me!!

About Lord of the Rings: I would totally consider it a classic. I mean, there is no official definition of that. In this group we say older than 50 years and still being read to this day, implying there is sth to it that lasts longer than the perio when it was written, some broader topic or idea that people are interested it, touched by, can identify with independent of when it was written. But there are many more definitions of course and I agree that even the 50 years can be somewhat arbitrary.

I have a goal of 8 for this year, one more than I read in 2016. I haven't read anything this year yet though and am a bit stuck for inspiration.

I've scheduled in the Hunchback for March...

Annerlee wrote: "I have a goal of 8 for this year, one more than I read in 2016. I haven't read anything this year yet though and am a bit stuck for inspiration.

I've scheduled in the Hunchback for March..."

Hi Annerlee, what sort of inspiration are you looking for? What type of classcics, others, topics are you interested in? I often also browse through old polls and nominations (especially nominations are an endless source of inspiration for me :D) or read threads of older group reads. For example, today I will start reading The Scarlet Letter, I was kind of dreading to read it because it seems so heady. But some days ago I read the comments in an old thread and most people were very enthusiastic and that motivated and inspired me a lot!

My experience of classics is fairly limited and I'm conscious that I don't really know where to start. I suppose I'm interested in classics that have stood the test of time and remained influential e.g. inspired more modern writers / films. Or classic authors that were ground breaking / ahead of their time, like Jules Verne.

I'm thinking on my feet here. I haven't really thought about it before.

Classics that give insight into a way of life or the thinking of an era are also attractive. Dickins springs to mind. I enjoyed Far from the Madding Crowd for the same reason.

Looking at nominations is a good idea. Thanks Nina.

Annerlee wrote: "My experience of classics is fairly limited and I'm conscious that I don't really know where to start. I suppose I'm interested in classics that have stood the test of time and remained influential..."

Based off your shelves I'd say keep working on horror classics.

So:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Haunting of Hill House
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
The Divine Comedy (hell was the most interesting section for many)
The Invisible Man
The Island of Dr. Moreau
The Vampyre; A Tale
The Phantom of the Opera
Other Bram Stokers. None are as good as Dracula though.
The Canterville Ghost

Jules Verne is quite readable for classics, and fairly easy to acquire.
I highly recommend The Count of Monte Cristo. It's long, but action packed.

And join in on group reads. Occasionally the comments of other users are what push you to want to find out what happens later.

If you still don't know where to start, why not try some children's classics. They're generally short so it's harder to get stuck in them.

Wow! Thank you Myst. You've definitely done your homework.. Horror classics is something I hadn't really thought about, not consciously anyway, but you're right, they would be an excellent place to start. I'm feeling inspired already.

Wow, that is quite a list indeed! We read The Island of Doctor Moreau as a group read a while ago. And if I remember correctly some people buddy read The Count of Monte Christo. You could check the old threads for their thoughts if you like. I sometimes even add my thoughts to old threads.

Annerlee wrote: "Wow! Thank you Myst. You've definitely done your homework.. Horror classics is something I hadn't really thought about, not consciously anyway, but you're right, they would be an excellent place to..."

Oh and how could I forget this 'modern classic' of the horror genre!
The Exorcist

I've heard that Legion is a good read too, but I haven't read it yet.

With your interest in horror, may I suggest a GR horror group?
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/108 There is a group read every month, a group listen, and a very active buddy read section. There's a mix of classic horror vs modern.

Just finished All the King's Men; moving on to The Canterbury Tales.

Been munching on The Scarlet Letter for quite a while (given it's not a very long book). But actually it was only the introduction that was quite a hurdle to get over with. Once I was done with that it was quite an enjoyable read, I was very positively surprised. After that I took up some reading speed again and finished Oeroeg. I was in Indonesia last week and it did put me in a fitting mood. It was definitely an interesting read and I got motivated to also read her two other books on that period (though they will not count as classics, they are quite recent). That makes me have 3 classics read so far out of my goal of 12, which means I am well on track :-)
Not sure yet what to read next.

When I read the introduction, I also found it rally dry and difficult to get through and I generally tend to like the background to classics. In the end the book was ok, but because it gets so much mention everywhere I had expected a lot more. Glad I read it though.

Gisela wrote: "When I read the introduction, I also found it rally dry and difficult to get through and I generally tend to like the background to classics. In the end the book was ok, but because it gets so much..."

Gisela, do you actually think that the introduction is the real background to the novel? I mean, do you think this really happened to Hawthorne and then he decided to write the book? I took it for part of the fiction but maybe I'm wrong?

It sounded to me like a fitting background story. Something an american publisher would think would entice especially americans in. Didn't feel part of the fiction to me, but I couldn't quite see why it had to be so long to introduce the writer and the book.

That's an interesting thought! And fully agree: it just went on and on and on...

Update on my progress:
I've read 7 (out of 12 planned) classics so far, now on my 8th.
Compared to last year I feel like a read fewer of 'the big classics'. not sure whether that's necessarily a bad thing but although I'm quite well on track with the challenge I feel like I haven't read enough classics this year. So, I might to want try and read more of those that 'one should have read'...



Given we're (almost) halfway down this year: How is everyone else doing?

I'm slightly behind, 7 of 18, I', reading War and Peace at the moment for a read-along, and getting through Barcester Towers. I'm sure I'll catch up soon.

I'm 80% done (20/25), but two of my remaining five are 1000+ page monsters (The Faerie Queene and The Tale of Genji).

I finished 7/12 and I have started reading my 8th book recently (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood). I hope to finish the challenge in time.

Squire wrote: "I'm 80% done (20/25), but two of my remaining five are 1000+ page monsters (The Faerie Queene and The Tale of Genji)."

Pretty good job, Squire! Tale of Genji, yes, that one I want to read some day as well. Some day...

I just finished my 10th for this year (10/12) and not unhappy with what I've read so far. I read War and Peace and The Scarlett Letter, both of them had been on my list for really long and I really enjoyed them both. I finished the second book of the Cairo Trilogy and will start the third this weekend, so I should also finish this this year, which also had been on the list (and dreaded) for long. I plan to join the September group read and have another 3 lying around at home that I want to finally read this year (Irish Journal, The Travels and The Dirty Dust).

I read my 12th classic and thus have finished my challenge. These are the books I read this year:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Oeroeg by Hella S. Haasse
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
Schloß Gripsholm by Kurt Tucholsky
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
The Sandcastle by Iris Murdoch
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz
Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz
Irish Journal by Heinrich Böll

It was definitely a very interesting list and I am very glad I got War & Peace and The Cairo Trilogy finally off the list. Iris Murdoch was a new discovery for me and I liked the book quite a bit, will certainly read more of her. And then Boell as the grand finale. Being a German I of course knew his name and I am sure at (more than) one time in school we read stuff by him but I didn't have any memory of him. I LOVED this tiny little book, I loved how he jiggles with words, paint images with them, I was fascinated by the atmosphere he created with actually very little. Certainly worth digging into more!

(Being at the end of the challenge of course won't stop me from reading classics this year. There are at least 3 more on my list for 2017: A Wrinkle in Time, The Dirty Dust: Cré na Cille and The Travels.)

Nina wrote: "I read my 12th classic and thus have finished my challenge. These are the books I read this year:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Scarlet Letter by [author..."

Congratulations on finishing your challenge.

I thought I signed on for this challenge but apparently only wrote it in my bullet journal. I want to try to read ten this year. I am a seven currently so am on target but that will slow down with back to work (teacher) and the holidays looming.

Blueberry, you can still sign onto it. GR will automatically count the books on your shelf since the beginning of the year, it also works retroactively. So, feel free to sign on if you still want to!