Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

As we enter the last quarter of 2019, it's time to share your October reading plans!

I'll be reading these -

Group reads
The Dead by James Joyce 2 stars

To finish from September
On the Road by Jack Kerouac 2 stars
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Challenge books
The Longest Journey by E.M. Forster
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence

I'll mix this up with some newer fiction, but I'll pick these as I go.

My aim for October is:

Group reads
I need to focus on finishing my Old/New challenge so this month I am only reading The Dead by James Joyce 15/10/19

carried over from September
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Challenge books
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The End We Start From by Megan Hunter

Group reads:
The Valley of Fear READ
A Pair of Blue Eyes READ
David Copperfield READING

Plus:
Sylter Affären READ
Dünengeister: Nordsee-Krimi READ
And two books on the history, myths & legends of Sylt, which is Germany’s most northern island and the place where I‘ve just spent a couple of days. READ 2 of 2

Aside from the planned books above I also read the following:
Russian Dolls (spontaneous re-read) READ
Letters from Skye (from my to-read pile) READ
Vindolanda (from my to-read pile) READ
Sylter Intrigen (from my to-read pile) READ
The Shape of Night (new release) READ

I will again be carrying over a couple from the previous month, so will commit to
Ten For October :
Quarterly Long-Read:
1) Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1973 (to page 300)
Four Main Challenge:
2) Play It As It Lays Didion, Joan 1970
3) Middlesex Eugenides, Jeffrey 2002
4) Pather Panchali Bandyopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan 1929
5) Gargantua And Pantagruel Rabelais, Francois 1532
Old & New Challenge:
6) 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea Verne, Jules 1870
Group Read:
7) A Pair Of Blue Eyes Hardy, Thomas 1873
"Author More" non-challenge:
8) About A Boy Hornby, Nick 1998
CarryOver from 2018(!):
9) The Tartar Steppe Buzzati, Dino 1940
Queue-Jumper:
10) The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break Sherrill, Steven 2000

Being a bit ambitious next month:
A Feast for Crows
Wanderers
Rising Sun
The Subtle Knife
Emily of New Moon
The Complete Plays
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Gonna try to take it easy this month (hopefully) by having just one focus (October is Queer History Month) and leaving the rest of my options open.

Queer History Month
Call Me By Your Name - André Aciman (completed 10/9/19)
The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later - Moisés Kaufman (completed 10/10/19)
Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America - Rachel Hope Cleves (completed 10/18/19)
Her - Cherry Muhanji (completed 10/15/19)
The Sand Child - Tahar Ben Jelloun (completed 10/16/19)
Disobedience - Naomi Alderman (completed 10/25/19)
Angels in America - Tony Kushner (Currently Reading)
Slammerkin - Emma Donoghue (Currently Reading)

Free-for-all
The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino (Currently Reading)
Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur (Currently Reading)

Last Month's Leftovers
The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters - Charlotte Mosley (completed 10/21/19)
The Cooked Seed: A Memoir - Anchee Min (completed 10/7/19)

Here's my October reads (includes some that are not yet classics and some that, let's face it, will never be classics):

Should Finish:


For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor


Cari Mora by Thomas Harris


The Best American Mystery Stories 2018 edited by Louise Penny


We Can Build You by Philip K. Dick


The Hour of the Dragon by Robert E. Howard
(NOTE: this full length novel is included as part of the collection The Bloody Crown of Conan - I should finish the novel but I'm not sure if I will finish the entire collection this month)

Might Finish:


A Quest for Simbilis by Michael Shea


Arthur & George by Julian Barnes


The Bloody Crown of Conan by Robert E. Howard

Will Be Working On, But Probably Will Not Finish:


The Terror by Dan Simmons


The Innocents Abroad: Or the New Pilgrim's Progress by Mark Twain


Best Horror of the Year Volume 10 edited by Ellen Datlow


Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy


Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, Email, Text, and Cold Calling by Jeb Blount

I need to read three for my Old and New Challenge. So I will try to read two this month:
The Catcher in the Rye by J, D. Salinger
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Other books I would like to read are:
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle


I might reread:
The Dead by James Joyce (last read in 1981!)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (last read in 1980)

Finally, I checked out a library book The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway The titular story was so good, I would like to complete this short collection.

What I've got so far for October:

Group Reads

Adam Bede by George Eliot 4 stars
The Beetle by Richard Marsh 3 stars
11/22/63 by Stephen King <--4 stars. Can't argue with a pageturner that keeps me up till 3:00 am when I have to get up at 5:00.
Girl with Green Eyes by Edna O'Brien
Deuteronomy

Buddy Read

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin <--4 Stars

Reading for pleasure

The Soldier's Art by Anthony Powell (#8 in The Dance to the Music of Time series) <--3.5 bumped to 4 Stars
Aeschylus: A Collection of Critical Essays
Aeschylus II edited by Grene and Lattimore The Suppliant Maidens, The Persians, Prometheus Bound, Seven Against Thebes <--3 stars
A Shortened History of England by George Macaulay Trevelyan <--3 stars
A Casebook of Gulliver Among the Houyhnhnms edited by Milton P. Foster 5 stars
The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien 4 stars
Don Quixote, part II, by Cervantes

Totally unreasonable, but I'll probably still add a few things to it before I'm done and see what's left over for November.

Late Editions to the TBR

Metamorphoses by Ovid <--4 Stars
I Was Jack Mortimer by Alexander Lernet-Holenia
Stoner by John Williams 5 stars
The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, and Environment by Richard C. Lewontin
Les Prétoriens by Jean Lartéguy 4 stars

I’ve lined up to read

this month, and if it’s possible I will try to fit in others

I didn't make it through my full list last month (because I kept going off list). So Tom Jones is back on the list. I'm hopeful that I will finish Cloud Atlas today, but it could be tomorrow.

Darren...Gravity's Rainbow makes Infinite Jest seem like a walk in the park. Good luck, man! It's a whopper of a read. On a positive note, I really dig your Didion pick.

Bryan, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Edna O'Brien books. I haven't tried her yet, but she will be on my master list next year.

1) Timbuktu CURRENTLY READING
2) Mao II
3) Blue Highways: A Journey into America
4) Birdy
5) The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
6) The Price of Salt
7) The Adventures of Augie March
8) Cheri and The Last of Cheri
9) Deep River
10) Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine
11) Dandelion Wine
12) Clock Without Hands
13) The Vicar of Wakefield 3.75 Stars
14) Enduring Love 4 Stars
15) Lord Jim 4 Stars
16) Tree of Smoke 4.5 Stars
17) The Alice Network 3.25 Stars
18) Mad About the Boy 3 Stars

Tammy wrote: "Bryan, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Edna O'Brien books. I haven't tried her yet, but she will be on my master list next year..."

I haven't read her either, but somehow the second part of the trilogy ended up as one of my group reads, so I've added the first to my list as well. I just hope I haven't overloaded myself and can get to them both this month.

I have only about 100 pages left of Midnight's Children so should be finishing that up this week. My book club meets in two weeks for Housekeeping although I'm still waiting on this one from my library, but that'll be up next.

After those two, I'm going to start in on Middlemarch and David Copperfield. Those will be multi-month reads. Towards the end of the month, I'll start my next book club read, When Breath Becomes Air.

David Copperfield for this group.
A Pair of Blue Eyes for this group.
Never Let Me Go for fun.
My Brilliant Friend for Book club (I have started again).

And then I probably need to get back to some of my other challenges, which I have not been attending, and the year is slipping by.

Right now I'm reading a 600~ page dissertation on Ancient Roman beliefs in the afterlife as research for a podcast I'm going to be a guest on next week (it's not on GR, or I would link it). Add in a few dozen articles on the topic and maaaaaaybe a re-read of Ovid's Metamorphoses or Marcus Tullius Cicero's relevant works, if I have time. Sometimes it's easier to just read someone else's analysis of classic works when I'm in a time crunch.

Hopefully I'll get to Thus Spoke Zarathustra sometime this month, as well finally finishing my copy (and horrific translation) of the Meditations.

An ambitious month, but I hope to get to all of them!

Audio books:
Oscar and Lucinda for my Bingo Challenge
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch because it's been on my list for a long time!
My Sister, the Serial Killer because it's new and looks interesting
Call Me By Your Name for LGBT History month

Print books:
The Dollhouse for book club and because I like Fiona Davis
Dodsworth for my Bingo challenge and because I love Sinclair Lewis and I haven't read one of his in a long time
The Valley of Fear for this group
The Custom of the Country for my Old/New challenge
This House is Haunted for October/Halloween
The Mars Room just for fun
Dunnard's Pearl just because I've been into sci-fi a little more lately and this one looks interesting
Loving I've heard good things about this one!

My plans are also very ambitious...

Carried over from September
Midnight's Children (39%)
The Broken Eye (30%)
Candide (16%)

Books I'll start in October
Group Reads
David Copperfield (audio)
A Pair of Blue Eyes or Gulliver's Travels

Other books
The Joy Luck Club
Huis clos, suivi de Les mouches
The Blood Mirror
(Year One)

My plans are:
Love Medicine Women's challenge
The Mill on the Floss George Eliot challenge
Autumn LGBTQ history month
Where'd You Go, Bernadette fun airplane read
The Leavers another group read
The Boat People current audio book

Oh, Love Medicine! That's on my list too, Laurie.

Here's my ridiculous list:
I'm almost done with Poetics, and will be continuing with Calypso and Adam Bede

Meanwhile, it's on to:
A Fine Balance (Group read. Actually already started--amazing!)
The Dead (Group read)
De Profundis (buddy read)
The Wife (challenges)
Dialog of the Dogs (challenges)

Hopefully:
A Pair of Blue Eyes (group read)
Misc George Eliot Essays (for her 100th bday challenge)

Maybe:
Love Medicine (challenges)
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (challenges)
The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories (challenges)

I'm glad I'm not the only one with ambitious lists. I'll be gone from home till the last of October, so I threw all my TBR books in a bag, but couldn't resist throwing in a few extras. (Like I'll even get done with what I set out for the month in the first place. I guess I'm an optimist). Anyway--I'll append my extras to my TBR list if I get to them.

Oh, am I silly?! No idea, but I enjoy the process of planning...

I don't know that I'll get through all of these, some are roll-overs, but here's my list, in reading order.

The Valley of Fear - Doyle, Arthur Conan - 194 pp - 1915 (READ)
The Dead - Joyce, James - 88 pp - 1914 (READ)
Gulliver's Travels - Swift, Jonathan - 352 pp - 1726 (Reading)
The Well of Loneliness - Hall, Radclyffe - 414 pp - 1928
David Copperfield - Dickens, Charles - 729 pp - 1849
Under the Udala Trees - Okparanta, Chinelo - 328 pp - 2015
A Pair of Blue Eyes -Hardy, Thomas - 306 pp - 1873
Wild Seed -Butler, Octavia E. - 306 pp - 1980
A Simple Story - Inchbald, Elizabeth - 384 pp - 1791
Rowankind - Bedford, Jacey - 473 pp - 2019
The Sealed Letter - Donoghue, Emma - 398 pp - 2008
The Tombs of Atuan - Le Guin, Ursula K. - 187 pp - 1970
The Name of the Rose - Eco, Umberto - 536 pp - 1980
Daggerspell - Kerr, Katharine - 480 pp - 1986
People of the Wolf - Gear, W. Michael - 448 pp - 1990

Group read: David Copperfield - Dickens (Oct - Dec read)

Library book: I am Malala - Malala Yousafzia

Epic read: Gone with the wind - Margaret Mitchell

eBook read: The Promise - Sally Jenkins

I am so far behind on the supposed "plans" I had for August which bulldozed straight through September like an armored tank that I'm not even going to pretend that I have any organized reading arrangement for October.

But there's a title that I'm desperate to finish:


Last Letters: The Prison Correspondence, 1944-1945 by Helmuth James von Moltke and Freya von Moltke

And several I can't wait to start:



The Word of the Speechless: Selected Stories by Julio Ramón Ribeyro
Telescope: Selected Poems of Michael Heller
Images and Shadows: Part of a Life by Iris Origo
I Used to Be Charming: The Rest of Eve Babitz
Ecstasy and Terror: From the Greeks to Game of Thrones by Daniel Mendelsohn
Out of My Head: On the Trail of Consciousness by Tim Parks
The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner

And lastly, but most importantly, my gorgeous man:


Algerian Chronicles by Albert Camus, tr. Arthur Goldhammer & ed. Alice Kaplan

All of his writings about his native Algeria, including those he wrote as a very young journalist well before he moved to Paris, published during his lifetime up until his very prescient, and very justified, silence.

half way through month
and of my declared 10
1 Finished
5 In Progress
so all a bit "up in the air" atm... :o/

Daz's October Ten (full details in Message#4 above)

1) Gravity's Rainbow (to page 330) - In Progress...
2) Play It As It Lays
3) Middlesex
4) Pather Panchali - In Progress...
5) Gargantua And Pantagruel - In Progress...
6) 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - In Progress...
7) A Pair Of Blue Eyes - In Progress...
8) About A Boy
9) The Tartar Steppe
10) The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break - Finished - Amazing - 4.5 Stars

I'm actually done with five, but I haven't gotten a chance to get my penned reviews online yet. I'm hoping to finish a sixth tomorrow, but this week has been such a doozy that I might need to sleep in for once in order to survive (hosting my first library program Saturday!).

Tammy wrote: "Bryan, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Edna O'Brien books. I haven't tried her yet, but she will be on my master list next year...."

Hi Tammy--I finally got to the first of O'Brien's trilogy, The Country Girls. I thought it was great--a high 4 stars, close to 5. I was looking through the reviews, and it seems as though people either really like this, or they think it's boring. I can see their point--there isn't much action in this one, but I still really enjoyed it. I didn't really expect to--coming of age stories are not usually something I like. I like O'Brien's spare way of telling things though.

Hope you enjoy her writing as much as I did. I'm looking forward to the next installment which I've heard is even better, now that the stage has been set.

Bryan wrote: "Tammy wrote: "Bryan, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Edna O'Brien books. I haven't tried her yet, but she will be on my master list next year...."

Hi Tammy--I finally got to the first of O'B..."

I'm glad to hear your good opinion of this book. I've had it on my list for a long time. I think I might move it up the list :)

Bryan wrote: "Tammy wrote: "Bryan, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Edna O'Brien books. I haven't tried her yet, but she will be on my master list next year...."

Hi Tammy--I finally got to the first of O'B..."

That is good to hear. I've slowed down considerably on my reading this month, but just got through a long one and am ready to attack some new books. I have no problem with books that don't have a lot of stuff going on. I like a nice, quiet book.

October finishes up this week. I'd like to fit in another one, maybe two works, but I'm thinking more about next month's plans. Nonfiction November and Novella November are both things, in addition to National Novel Writing Month, but I'd also like to focus on poetry. We shall see.

I didn't have a concrete plan this month. But I ended up enjoying some great books like An Ermine in Czernopol, Christodora, Los pazos de Ulloa, and just yesterday Our Town. Notes from underground and Going after Cacciato were regrettably, major disappointments.

I will most likely finish One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and make progress on The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition. That's one book better taken in small doses to protect one from going completely insane

Looks like I'm going to have some leftovers this month. Still, not too bad--there were a couple on my list that took more time than usual, but I'm glad I read them. My list this month was entirely too optimistic.

Is the monthly reading plan board tradition still going? I've grown fond of them.

Ila wrote: "I will most likely finish One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and make progress on The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition. That's one book better taken in small doses to protect one from going completely insane"

I did not enjoy that edition. Like, at all. It doesn't come close to the quality of Richard Zenith's translation.

Unfortunately, The Book of Disquiet was never completed by its author (imaginary or otherwise), so advertising it as "The Complete Edition" is misleading in a way because there is no complete manuscript. Calling it a 'more complete edition' would have been more accurate, but that doesn't make it a better translation. In fact, it only makes it more dull and confusing.

There's a reason Pessoa discarded the entries of Vicente Guedes and had that 'heteronym' completely absorbed and subsumed by Bernardo Soares.

Zenith's translation may be less 'complete' because he follows Pessoa's lead and doesn't include them either, but his edition of The Book of Disquiet is all the more coherent and eloquent for it. The New Directions/Jull Costa edition inadvertently proves just how true the adage 'less is more' can be.

But the Zenith translation is one of my most favorite books that I've ever read, so I'm biased. However, I feel blessed that that was the edition I was privileged to read first, because I don't think I would have finished "The Complete Edition" if it was my introduction to Pessoa's masterpiece. I had to force myself to finish it when I did read it and I've been obsessed with Pessoa for years (which, admittedly, started with Zenith's translation of The Book of Disquiet, so again, I'm biased).

I did not read much for pleasure this month at all. Work has been demanding. I read mostly short stories, because when my mind is preoccupied, I have trouble concentrating on a longer work.

1. "A Clean Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway
2. "A Day's Wait" by Ernest Hemingway
3. "The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio" by Ernest Hemingway
4. Planet of Exile by Ursula Le Guin
5. "Fifty Grand" by Ernest Hemingway
6. "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber" by Ernest Hemingway
7. "The Disappearance of Mr. Davensheim: Hercule Poirot" by Agatha Christie
8. "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell
9. The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
10. Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain–for Life by David Perlmutter
11. The Book of Kells: Selected Plates in Full Color

12. I read half of Gulliver's Travels

I really need to pay attention to my two unfinished challenges!!

Still reading —

David Copperfield
Joan of Arc
A Pair of Blue Eyes
My Brilliant Friend

Slow going this month.

Terry wrote: "Still reading —

David Copperfield
Joan of Arc
A Pair of Blue Eyes
My Brilliant Friend

Slow going this month."

What do you think of My Brilliant Friend? I read the whole series last year.

Pillsonista wrote: "Ila wrote: "I will most likely finish One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and make progress on The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition. That's one book better taken in small doses to protect one fro..."

I actually have the Zenith translation. Somehow whenever I add the link, Goodreads presents the Complete edition instead.

I found that I am literally incapable of reading it more than a few hours in the day. Literary analysis, philosophy, travails of daily life, and its extrapolations make it bizarre to say the least. Yet, a lot of it rings so true that you wonder if Pessoa is spying on you.

I accomplished my goal of finishing 3 books for my Old & New Challenge: The 39 Steps, The Godfather, and A Dark-Adapted Eye.

Marilyn wrote: "I accomplished my goal of finishing 3 books for my Old & New Challenge: The 39 Steps, The Godfather, and A Dark-Adapted Eye."

Great progress Marilyn!

Philinia, I am enjoying My Brilliant Friend, but the pace seems a bit slow. I think all of my books seem slow this month. Maybe I am ready for a thriller or a crime novel — under the influence of Halloween!

I am not quite half way through it. I understand that the TV Series is quite good, so I may check that out after I finish this first book. I don’t know if I will read the whole series, yet. I will wait and see how this one goes.

Productive October
Buddy Reads:
1. Poetics Aristotle my review
2. De Profundis by Oscar Wildemy review
Group Reads
1. Gulliver's Travels by Johnathan Swiftmy review
2. The Dead by James Joyce my review
Old & New
1. Persuasion by Jane Austen my review
2. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie my review
Readathon
1. In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield my review
2. The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear illustrated by Stephane Jorisch my review
3. Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll illustrated by Stephane Jorisch my review

This was my October plan:
Audio books:
✔Oscar and Lucinda(Carey) for my Bingo Challenge★★★
✔Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (Pratchett/Gaiman) because it's been on my list for a long time!★★★★
✔My Sister, the Serial Killer (Braithwaite) because it's new and looks interesting★★★★
Call Me By Your Name for LGBT History month (just started this one & will finish in November)

Print books:
✔The Dollhouse (Davis) for book club and because I like Fiona Davis★★★★
Dodsworth for my Bingo challenge and because I love Sinclair Lewis and I haven't read one of his in a long time (will read this in November)
✔The Valley of Fear (Doyle) for this group★★★
✔The Custom of the Country (Wharton) for my Old/New challenge★★★★
✔This House is Haunted (Boyne) for October/Halloween (finishing this one tomorrow!)★★★★
✔The Mars Room (Kushner) just for fun★★★★
Dunnard's Pearl just because I've been into sci-fi a little more lately and this one looks interesting (will have to get to this one later)
✔Loving (Green) I've heard good things about this one! ★★★
And I added:
✔The Confession Club (Berg)★★★★
✔Suggested Reading (Connis)★★★★

I ended up finishing pretty well!

Ila wrote: "I found that I am literally incapable of reading it more than a few hours in the day. Literary analysis, philosophy, travails of daily life, and its extrapolations make it bizarre to say the least. Yet, a lot of it rings so true that you wonder if Pessoa is spying on you. "

I found that I could only read several entries a day, because they were so deceptively profound that I could only absorb them little by little. Then I would go back and reread them for the sheer enjoyment of the prose.

And then when I read the poetry for the first time, that was such a trip. Obviously verse is always going to be very different to prose, but the variety of his poetic voices were so different and unrecognizable, not only from one another but also from The Book of Disquiet, that it's all but inconceivable it was all the creation of one person.

8 out of 10 ain't bad?

Daz's October Ten (full details in Message#4 above)

1) Gravity's Rainbow (to page 330) - Achieved - 3.5 so far...
2) Play It As It Lays - Not Started.
3) Middlesex - DNF - so drafted in an "Author-More" reserve...
3a) Flaubert's Parrot - Finished - 4
4) Pather Panchali - Finished - 4.5
5) Gargantua And Pantagruel - Finished - 2.5
6) 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - Finished - 3.5
7) A Pair Of Blue Eyes - Finished - 3.5
8) About A Boy - In Progress...
9) The Tartar Steppe - Finished - 5
10) The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break - Finished - 4.5

My plan for October was to finally finish Middlemarch, and I did that. Feeling very accomplished.

Well, in case a November reading plans board doesn't get made, I'll go ahead and set up here. There's Nonfiction November, Novellas in November, and NaNoWriMo going on, plus my own desire to read some poetry, so I have a lot to choose from.

Nonfiction

Novellas


Poetry
Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur (Currently Reading)

Last Month's Leftovers
Slammerkin - Emma Donoghue (Currently Reading)

I've just opened a thread for our November reading plans ;-).

Sorry everyone for not setting up the November thread ahead of time and thanks for going ahead and creating it Philina!

Milena wrote: "My plan for October was to finally finish Middlemarch, and I did that. Feeling very accomplished."

Congratulations, that is quite an accomplishment.