Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

How are you, NTLTRC members?

Have you visited our bookshelves? I hope you have or I will be very sad. If you don't know how to find them just follow the road of the yellow brick roads. The road starts in the Bookshelves link in the right superior corner of the page. There you will find the books that our group have read and the books that we intend to read in the future.

By the way, I am very curious about how do you interact with the Bookshelves. And, because of my curiosity I have some questions.

1 - How many books from the ones in the read shelf have you read? Why so few?
2 - Do you know french literature? Oui or non? What books from our french shelf (#1) have you read? What have you learned about France and about the french culture from these books?
3 - You have decided to cross the English Channel, as William did, and land on the British Isles. How many books from the british shelf (#2) have you read?
4 - Now, you have crossed the sea and landed on the other side of the Atlantic Sea, United States. How many books from the american shelf (#3) have you read? If you are born outside US, what have you learned about US from the books?
5 - Now you have traveled through the Rio Grande heading south. Which classics from the Latin America, and the Iberian countries Portugal and Spain that colonized most of them, (shelf #4) have you read? Which one was the most remarkable?
6 - You decide go back to US, northwards reaching Alaska, former russian territory, there you decided to cross the Bering Sea to visit the mainland Russia, there you decided to read the local classics. How many books from Russia (shelf#5) have you read?
7 - Now you are eager of an warmer weather, no more russian winter, as Napoleon would say, you want the Mediterranean Sea and you reach the Italy. How many italian classics (shelf #6) have you read?
8 - Do you want to explore Europe and decided to visit the place in Europe where the first book was printed and go northwards to Germany. How many germanic classics (shelf #7: austrian, belgian, dutch, german and swiss) have you read?
9 - Now you miss the cold, but you are enjoying the sound of germanic languages, so you want to visit the Nordic countries. First, go through Denmark, then reach the Norway, then Sweden and seize the opportunity to visit an Scandinavian country with no germanic roots, Finland. How many books from the scandinavian countries (do not forget Iceland) have you read (shelf #8)?
10 - You noticed that you visited Russia but forgot to visit the countries from the former URSS and the ones from the Eastern Europe so you go southwards and visit Poland, Hungary and so on. How many books from the shelf #9 have you read?
11 - Now you have visited all Europe but decided to know the world outside Europe and America so you go to where the sun rises and reach Japan. Then cross the sea to reach the Middle Kingdom and visit China, then go west to visit the future most populated country in the world, India, (edited to say that India is now the most populated country) and so on. How many books from the "shelf a" (asian classics) have you read?
12 - You have had so much to do that you remembered that you have crossed one country to go from US to US, how this is possible? Well, if you go from US to Alaska you have to cross Canada. There you enjoyed the politeness from the people, there you felt like you was in home. How many classics from canadian (shelf b1) and greenlandic (b2) authors have you read?
13 - You decided to stop to daydream and want to visit the older Old World, where the humankind rose: Africa. From India you go through Middle East, crossing Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Israel, and Turkey. How many classics from Middle and Near East (shelf f) have you read?
14 - From Turkey you crossed the sea and reached Egypt and went eastward and then southward, doing so you ended up visiting the whole continent. How many african classics (shelf c) have you read?
14 - Now you have only one piece of land to visit: the Oceania. A continent with uncountable islands, the biggest one is, actually, the biggest one in the world. How many australian, kiwi and so on classics have you read from the shelf d?
15 - There're some countries in Europe that you have forgotten to visit, shelf g. How many classics from the Basque Country, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Monaco have you read?
16 - It's time to go back home. Your journey reached the end.

This really made me think! I have not read many Classics at all. So looking at the Shelves here is totals for what I have read so far 2014-2022 (22) 2023 (3)

2022...........................................2023
1 African...........................................0
1 Central Europe (Hungary).........0
3 French...........................................0
1 German.........................................1
2 Italian............................................0
1 Mexican........................................0
1 New Zealand...............................0
5 Russian.........................................1
3 Scandinavian...............................1
4 South American..........................0

Working on expanding my world a little every year!

I have done best with the French, U.K, American, Canadian and German shelves, and not too bad with the Russians.
I am working on the others.

I've long decided Russian is out for me! I tried I really tried and just can't get into Russian.

# 3 I've read Sherlock Holmes, Shakespeare at lest for now. add later.

From the "Read" shelf: 52

Shelf #1 (French literature): 3
I hope to read The Stranger and Eugénie Grandet in 2018

Shelf #2 (England/UK/Scotland/Ireland): 42
I knew I'd have a lot here. Reading The Woman in White soon.

Shelf #3 (US): 53 or 63
not sure if my count went off by ten!

Shelf #4 (Brazil/Columbia/Mexico/Portugal/Spain): 1
Don Quixote - back in high school. I have my eye on The Hour of the Star for 2018

Shelf #5 (Russia): 2
I'm reading The Captain's Daughter by Alexander Pushkin right now. Should he be on this shelf?
Also read Eugene Onegin

Shelf #6 (Italy): 0

Shelf #7 (austrian, belgian, dutch, german and swiss): 5

Shelf #8 (Scandinavia): 2
I may read Independent People by Halldór Laxness someday. He's from Iceland and not on the list.

Shelf #9 (Hungary): 0

Shelves a1, a2, a3 (Japan, India, Bengali) - 0

Shelf b1 (Canada): 5

Shelves c1-c6 (Africa) - 1
I've read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Shelf d1 - d3 (Australia and New Zealand): - 1

Shelf e1 and e2: 3

That was fun and enlightening. Thanks, Rafael!

Thank you Kathy! It was exciting to read your hopes for this year. Some interesting books!

Kathy, if you have any suggestions for our bookshelf, there is a thread to do it called Classic Suggstions for our Bookshelf.

I agree with you that The Captain's Daughter is a good choice for our bookshelf.

I have a used copy of Independent People sitting on my shelf and will eventually get around to it, especially since I have not read any books by Icelandic authors yet.

The "read" shelf: 51

There were a number of books listed on this shelf that I simply have never been able to finish. Like I breezed through Of Mice and Men but for me, The Grapes of Wrath is unreadable. I've never been able to get passed page 5 and I've tried at least a half dozen times. And while Of Mice and Men was an easy read, let's just say Steinbeck really, really doesn't do it for me. So I will eventually try East of Eden, but it's definitely not at the front of the queue.

It's the same way with just about everything Jack London ever wrote (talk about reliving middle school nightmares) and Erich Maria Remarque. I will never pick up All Quiet on the Western Front again for as long as I live.

Which is really, really weird because I absolutely love certain authors, like, say, Victor Hugo. He can digress about the Girondins and Waterloo for a hundred pages and I'm as happy as a lark. Or Herman Melville. Discussions about 19th century whaling in biblical English? No problem. But one paragraph of Remarque describing the trenches of No Man's Land and I was done.

Lesle wrote: "To be honest Rafael, I have NOT traveled the world very well. "

:(

Kathy wrote: "That was fun and enlightening. Thanks, Rafael!"

Thanks and you're welcome. Good choices of books!

WONDERFUL!!!
This thread I mean to say.
Never ever have thought this way..never have looked towards reading in such a way. It could be so expansive, that one can really travel through the world JUST by means of reading.
Until now I just have picked a book and enjoyed the content without really minding the genre or even if that was the work of fiction or nonfiction or the nationality and the background of the writer at the same time while that's a big reason behind the geographical landscape and socio-political setting of the story.
The best I can say is that I am accustomed with British and American style of writing. A bit of Portuguese but translated into English. Few books on the cultural upheaval from the wartorn Afghanistan and of course the Indian literature.

Will try my best to incorporate as much of the worldview as I can manage into my reading from now on.

Great, Rachana!

I hope you might travel around the world riding on the books pages.

Rachana, your comment is uplifting and just how NTLTRC tries to look at the Classics. Not to read just the normal well know (those too, do not get me wrong) but the diversity of Classics from all over the world.

Reading and sharing is a great way to connect with others. NTLTRC's Members are throughout the world, that allows us to share your Classics from your homeland and your traditions. It is exciting!

Shelf 1 = 10 French Classics
i read many short book of guy de mau passant https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Shelf 2 = 6 british Classics i had read https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Shelf 3 = 5 american classics
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Shelf 4 = 1 Brazilian Classic
Shelf 5= 2 Russian Classics .i will make my list .i had read
SHELF 6 : 1 roman( Berber) classics The Golden Ass
by Apuleius, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...

Total : 71 (not so bad!)
French: 13
English: 19
Scottish: 3
Irish: 7
Welsh: 1
American: 19
Spanish: 1
Italian: 1 (currently reading)
German: 5
Danish: 1
Canadian: 1

rachid and martin, you both have pretty diverse reads in your counts! Great!

Thanks Lesle! I already knew my «weaknesses». I studied French, and Anglo Saxon literature so I knew that I would not have much reads in Hispanic or Russian or African or Arabic literature. But I'm working on it!

Don't feel bad I am on the same boat with you martin!

oh, I don't feel bad. I feel excited: new books, new cultures, new writing styles to discover! love that!

That is true!

Shelf 1 = 10 French Classics
i read many short book of guy de mau passant https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China by Jules Verne
Existentialism Is a Humanismby Jean-Paul Sartre
The Amethyst Ring (A Chronicle of Our Own Times #3)
by Anatole France

Shelf 2 = 6 british Classics i had read The Scapegoat
by Daphne du Maurier
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
i will read the ABC murders agatha christie
Precious Bane by Mary Webb

Shelf 3 = 5 american classics
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
i had read The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Shelf 4 = 1 Brazilian Classic
Shelf 5= 2 Russian Classics .i will make my list .i had read
SHELF 6 : 1 roman( Berber) classics The Golden Ass
by Apuleius, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
SHELF 7 : Czech Republic The Good Soldier Švejk https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
SHELF_8 : Greek Alexis Zorba
by Nikos Kazantzakis
SHELF 9 Switzerland Heidi (Heidi #1-2)
by Johanna Spyri,

thank you my friend Lesle

rachid! You have read Scapegoat?
I have that book and am trying to figure how to fit it in!
What did you think about it?

You are so welcome my dear!
Take care!

Scapegoat is amazing and exciting book . i enjoyed it . i suggest you to read it as soon as possible

Shelf 1: 1
Shelf 2: 37
Shelf 3: 60
Shelf 4: 1
Shelf 6: 1
Shelf 7: 2
Shelf 8: 5
Shelf E1: 1
Shelf Z: 14

Not bad Blueberry! Some diversity is always good!
Nordic/Scandinavian areas, awesome job all around!

I have read quiet a few, but some categories better than others. And most of them are not marked as read as I have read them 40 years ago. So rereading is in order.
Shelf 1:12
Shelf 2:42
Shelf 3: 50
Shelf 4: 6
Shelf 5: 3
Shelf 6:4
Shelf 7: 20
Shelf 8: 6
Shelf E1: 12

Claire, congratulations on such a diverse list! Something to admire for sure! :)

Claire, there are some books that I read 40 years ago too and am rereading them slowly. I am afraid to revisit some books that I really liked in case I am disappointed.
On the other hand, I have reread books that I didn't like the first time and enjoyed them a lot more the second time around-Emma by Jane Austen and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Wow. I learned so much just from clicking through all the nationality bookshelves. By chance, I discovered 3 books I have read are classics, and I did not even know it. Tons of classics from multiple countries are on my TBR list or mentally on it. My very sad breakdown of classics as of early February 2018:

From NTLTRC Read List: Read – 10 / Reading – 1 / TBR – 15

Shelf 1 – French – 0
Shelf 2 – British Isles (England/Scotland/Wales/Ireland) – 9
Shelf 3 – USA – 11
Shelf 4 – Latin American/Iberian Peninsula (Brazil/Columbia/Mexico/Portugal/Spain) – 0
Shelf 5 – Russian – 0
Shelf 6 – Italy – 0
Shelf 7 – Germanic (Austrian/Belgian/Dutch/German/Swiss) – 0 Steadily & slowly working on Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales
Shelf 8 – Scandinavian – 0
Shelf 9 – Eastern Europe (Hungary/Poland) – 0
Shelf A – Asian (Japanese/Bengali/India) – 0
Shelf B – Canadian – 1
Shelf C – African – 0
Shelf D – Australian/New Zealander/Pacific Islander – 0
Shelf E – Greek & Roman – 0 Waiting to finish current books to begin Aesop's Illustrated Fables
Shelf F – Middle & Near East – 0

For Scandinavian, does anyone know of the most complete edition of Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales? I am stuck currently between getting the Canterbury Classics leather-bound edition or the Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions leather-bound. There is a couple hundred page difference between the two, from what I have learned. Both are beautiful volumes.

That is a very interesting thread.

What surprised me the most is that I read only 2 Canadian's classics since I am Canadian.

Here's only the list of what I read.

Shelf 1 – French – 6
Shelf 2 – British Isles – 21
Shelf 3 – USA – 13
Shelf 5 – Russian – 1
Shelf 7 – Germany – 1
Shelf B – Canadian – 2

It is kind of shocking to see it in reality, Fannie!

I am not as diverse as I had hope.

good morning this is my list for this year

Shelf 1 = 12 French Classics
Boule de Suif by Guy de Maupassant
The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China by Jules Verne
Existentialism Is a Humanismby Jean-Paul Sartre
The Amethyst Ring (A Chronicle of Our Own Times #3)
by Anatole France
Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
The Duel by Guy de Maupassant
Le Lit 29 by Guy de Maupassant
The Hairpin and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant
The Dowry by Guy de Maupassant

Shelf 2 = 6 british Classics
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
the ABC murders agatha christie
Precious Bane by Mary Webb
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
As You Like It by William Shakespeare

Shelf 3 = 5 american classics
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz #1) by L. Frank Baum,
Shelf 4 = 1 Brazilian Classic
Shelf 5= 2 Russian Classics
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
SHELF 6 : 1 roman( Berber) classics The Golden Ass
by Apuleius,
SHELF 7 : Czech Republic
The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek
SHELF_8 : Greek
Alexis Zorba by Nikos Kazantzakis
SHELF 9 Switzerland
Heidi (Heidi #1-2)by Johanna Spyri,
SHELF 10 African 4 books
L'écrivain by Yasmina Khadra
SHELF 11 Irish
Quentinsby Maeve Binchy

That is a great list, Rachid.

rachid
Some wonderful reads on your list. Some I will need to look into myself.

thank you my friends Rosemarie and Lesle i will add The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie to my list

good morning this is my list for this year

Shelf 1 = 12 French Classics
Boule de Suif by Guy de Maupassant
The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China by Jules Verne
Existentialism Is a Humanismby Jean-Paul Sartre
The Amethyst Ring (A Chronicle of Our Own Times #3)
by Anatole France
Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
The Duel by Guy de Maupassant
Le Lit 29 by Guy de Maupassant
The Hairpin and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant
The Dowry by Guy de Maupassant

Shelf 2 = 6 british Classics
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
the ABC murders agatha christie
Precious Bane by Mary Webb
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
As You Like It by William Shakespeare
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

Shelf 3 = 5 american classics
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz #1) by L. Frank Baum,
Shelf 4 = 1 Brazilian Classic
Shelf 5= 2 Russian Classics
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
SHELF 6 : 1 roman( Berber) classics The Golden Ass
by Apuleius,
SHELF 7 : Czech Republic
The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek
SHELF_8 : Greek
Alexis Zorba by Nikos Kazantzakis
SHELF 9 Switzerland
Heidi (Heidi #1-2)by Johanna Spyri,
SHELF 10 African 4 books
L'écrivain by Yasmina Khadra
SHELF 11 Irish
Quentinsby Maeve Binchy

I found I have a lot of English, French, German, Russian, and American classics and only a few Spanish. I have no South American classics or Asian (except for a few kids books).

Rafael wrote: "How are you, NTLTRC members?

Do you have visited our bookshelves? I hope you do or I will be very sad. If you don't know how to find them just follow the road of the yellow brick roads. The road s..."

Sorry to be nitpicking, but you should really rename shelf 8 - as Scandinavia consists of only the people who can understand each other (Denmark, Sweden & Norway) - when you include Finland and Iceland, the region is "The Nordic Countries" not Scandinavia :)

Thank you for the tip. Edited.

Rafael wrote: "Thank you for the tip. Edited."
:)

How is everyone doing on their trip around the world?

Lesle wrote: "How is everyone doing on their trip around the world?"
Always working on it, if slowly :)
But I should probably look at how I'm doing, so thanks for the heads up!

Your more than welcome!

I think I have added quite a few this year and I do not think I have updated my comment either! oops!

If you want to suggest a book to be read by the group it's recommended that you ask to it be added in our bookshelf (in this thread) too. In the bookshelf you can look if a book was read or if it was already added to it. If it was not feel free to suggest it to be added.

There you can look for themes to suggest books to the group reads. If you are in a browser you can look for the specific theme (Chrome, for example, is ctrl+F) or you can go direct to the z shelf. In this shelf there are some themes, they are listed in alphabetical order.

I saw the themes on the bookshelf recently, Rafael, and I love that feature. When I studied the shelf earlier this year, I only remember the books being sorted by regions & authors. If the themes were there all along, I overlooked them before. Either way, awesome job on the group bookshelf!!

The Group Bookshelf is a wonderful tool for the group to utilize.
Rafael is working on it constantly.

What a great place to find an interesting read, so many different Countries, Authors, Genres, Themes and all in one location!

Samantha wrote: "I saw the themes on the bookshelf recently, Rafael, and I love that feature. When I studied the shelf earlier this year, I only remember the books being sorted by regions & authors. If the themes w..."

I sort it by region. The shelves 1, 2 and 3 was there, in their current way, before me, so they continued there, but I segmented the shelf 2 by British (British Isles not just political Britain) region (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales), and each one of them has their authors. The same for all shelves, 4 for Latin America (actually the American continent without Canada and EUA) and Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain) and so on as there is in the first comment in this thread. Almost all shelves has subdivisions by region. You can always ask or search using your browser search tool for a country, actually by demonym (nigerian, japanese, papuan etc).

The members, of course, can make suggestions too. If I had forgot to add a specific book to the shelves that you think that it should be at I will look for information to consider add it. The same for a new shelf.