Classics for Beginners discussion

Duration: January 1 to December 31, 2015

You may sign up on the home page and create a shelf to keep track of your challenges. This thread is for discussion and if you want to list your reads here.

Official sign up page: https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/...

JANUARY


The Tale of the Heike *****
The Man Who Loved Children *****

FEBRUARY

Wuthering Heights *****

MAY

The Tale of Genji, Royall Tyler translator *****

JUNE

Pride and Prejudice ***
The Sun Also Rises: The Hemingway Library Edition*****

JULY

The Power and the Glory *****

SEPTEMBER

The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan

OCTOBER

The Tale of Genji, Arthur Waley translator *****


Currently reading:

Bleak House

I just finished Pride and Prejudice, marked it read and it is not showing up on my Challenge tracker. What shelf does it need to be on? Does it matter if it is not an edition (audiobook) listed on the group's bookshelf?

1. Wuthering Heights (2/2015)
2. Pride and Prejudice (2/26/15)
3. The Scarlet Pimpernel (3/15/15)
4. Mrs. Dalloway (4/2/15)
5. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (5/18/15)
6. A Study In Scarlet (6/28/15)

Susie wrote: "I just finished Pride and Prejudice, marked it read and it is not showing up on my Challenge tracker. What shelf does it need to be on? Does it matter if it is not an edition (audiobook) listed on ..."

Hi Susie, it looks like Pride and Prejudice doesn't have a 'date read', only 'date added'. Try setting the date read and see if that works :)

I want to read 5 classics this year. The ones I'm planning are:

1. The Hobbit (READ)
2. The Bell Jar (READ!)
3. Jane Eyre (been on my bookshelf for ages! the small print always makes it seem so daunting though xD)
4. Wuthering Heights (there's so many references to this book all the time, it feels weird to not have read it)
5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Seems like such an interesting book)

Thanks RitaSkeeter! I thought I had marked it,and was confused between the print version and the audio, but now I'm straight! 2 down, 3 to go...for my challenge!

I want to read 6 classics this year (1/1/15 - 12/31/15). I don't have any books picked out for sure, but will pick as I go along.

1. Their Eyes Were Watching God 1/27/15 (4*)
2. The Plague
3.
4.
5.
6.

Alice wrote: "I want to read 5 classics this year. The ones I'm planning are:

1. The Hobbit (READ)
2. The Bell Jar (currently reading!)
3. Jane Eyre (been on my bookshelf fo..."

That's how I felt about Wuthering Heights, which is why it was my first 'read'(audio) when I joined this group in January!

Karen wrote: "For a couple of years now I've done the classics challenge, choosing 5 of the monthly titles. I do read a lot of classics though, but have only counted the actual monthly challenge titles towards ..."

I want to know too, because if it's only group books I'll have to revise my list a bit :)

Alice wrote: "Karen wrote: "For a couple of years now I've done the classics challenge, choosing 5 of the monthly titles. I do read a lot of classics though, but have only counted the actual monthly challenge t..."

Karen wrote: "For a couple of years now I've done the classics challenge, choosing 5 of the monthly titles. I do read a lot of classics though, but have only counted the actual monthly challenge titles towards ..."

My understanding is that it is any classic book you read during 2015. At least that's how I've always done it! :)

If I can read 5 before the end of the year that would be great but although I enjoy them much like my Historical Fiction reads they get put to the side for easier reading. :( Anywho here are the 5 I hope to get to this year. I own them all.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

If I happen to read those or DNF any of those I have more.:)






I tried to find all my editions.

I am struggling a bit with the definition of a classic. I just started reading And Then There Were None and I am not sure whether I can actually include it into my list of 2015 classics. If we go strictly by when it was written yes, it was first published in 1939. Agatha Christie would certainly quality for a writer that is still remembered and read today. I don't know whether this is so much the case for this book though. And I wonder whether a crime story would qualify for being a classic (except for maybe the likes of Sherlock Holmes). On the other hand it's number 128 on the Best books of all times-list. That's sort of an achievement I guess? Any opinions on this?

It's definitely a classic of the crime genre, I would say it qualifies as a classic work. I would also put Murder on the Orient Express in that category also.

I'd count it.

I'd also include The Murder of Roger Ackroyd as a classic.

It gets a little sticky with "works by a classic author" as opposed to an actual classic, but I'd still count the work.

But I would still include something like The Garden of Eden in a claasics challenge.

You can always refer to the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die list: http://www.listchallenges.com/1001-bo...

Thanks for your comments, everyone, I've decided to include it :)

I want to read five classics.Does it have to be on the bookshelf to count for the classic challenge?

Kjs wrote: "I want to read five classics.Does it have to be on the bookshelf to count for the classic challenge?"

It's a personal challenge so you can choose any classics you want :)

Thank you!

I'm only reading four this year.

1.
2.
3.
4.

I have challenged myself to read 10 classics this year.

Completed to date: 7/10



In progress:

You're nearly done Lisa. Great job!

Thanks Nicolle for your kind thoughts and for making this challenge available for group members. I appreciate that we can all set an individual reading goal versus a predetermined number of classic books. :)

Reading more classics during 2015 was also a personal goal I set for myself, so I have been working on it all along. It looks as though some other group members are making good progress too!

I completed my challenge of reading 10 clasics for the year!

My bookshelf of classics read...perfect challenge for getting me back into reading this genre...


https://www.goodreads.com/user_challe...

YaaY, goal reached! :-)

1. Love in the Time of Cholera
2. The Master and Margarita
3. Wuthering Heights
4. And Then There Were None
5. The Grapes of Wrath
6. The Best of Everything
7. Of Mice and Men
8. Little Women
9. The Waves
10. Lady Chatterley's Lover
11. Vanity Fair
12. The Canterville Ghost

Actually, looking at the list now I think it's a pretty nice mixture of times, genres, countries etc. Quite happy it worked out like that.

Congrats Nina!! Do you have a favourite out of those you read this year?

RitaSkeeter wrote: "Congrats Nina!! Do you have a favourite out of those you read this year?"

Hmm, good question. I don't think I have ONE favourite, I definitely liked Love in the Time of Cholera a LOT, also Wuthering Heights and The Grapes of Wrath. I reread The Master and Margarita and The Canterville Ghost and discovered that they are great books contrary to when I read them for the first time. And Then There Were None and The Best of Everything were nice but rather entertaining reads. Though the second made me also a little sad as it has its depressive sides. The Waves certainly needs a reread, it was interesting but also difficult. Lady Chatterley's Lover was ok but not as great as I expected, same for Vanity Fair. :)

I read 18 classics last year.

Though I didn't officially join the challenge for this group, I had a goal of 12 classics for 2015 and read 18:


01. Elusive Isabel by Jacques Futrelle
02. The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood
03. Lady Susan by Jane Austen
04. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
05. The After House by Mary Roberts Rinehart
06. R. Holmes & Co by John Kendrick Bangs
07. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
08. The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
09. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
10. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

11. The Gnomobile by Upton Sinclair
12. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
13. The Waves by Virginia Woolf
14. The Island of Dr. Moreau by HG Wells
15. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
16. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
17. Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence
18. Villette by Charlotte Bronte