Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

I am personally focusing on authors this year. I hope to find new authors I love or read more selections from authors I have discovered. Pick 3 or 4 authors that you would love to read for the first time, or read another selection by that author. Is there a particular book or short story that inspires you to choose each author?

This is a question from 2023, but with the dates on the New School and Old School categories changing some, does this change who you pick? I know I am reading very different authors than I read 2 years ago.

John Steinbeck - I have read three of his novels, but after reading Cannery Row this year I realized how much I enjoy his writing style. I read The Grapes of Wrath in high school which was 40 years ago, so I plan to read it again (finally) in 2025. I also hope to read The Winter of Our Discontent.

Rumer Godden - I haven't read any books by Godden, but she is well regarded in this group and by other readers I respect. I own In This House of Brede, and I hope to fit it in in the next year.

Anthony Trollope - Trollope has become a real favorite after reading the Chronicles of Barsetshire series. I look forward to starting the Palliser series or reading a stand-alone in the next year.

My choices this year are very different from 2024. I am mostly thinking of new authors I first read last year.

Edmond Hamilton He is a Science fiction writer I first read last year and I purchased The Best of Edmond Hamilton so I could read more.

Jacques Futrelle who wrote short story mysteries.

and

Ernest Hemingway who I have already read and I have admired for years. I bought a short story collection of his works too for 2025.

I read so many 5 star novels this year, it’s hard to choose.

Ian McEwan - I loved Atonement; ending my 2024 with such a good book was great. On Chesil Beach is on standby.

Ken Kesey - Two books down, but unfortunately not very many to go. Sometimes a Great Notion (read in 2022) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (read this year) were brilliant.

John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany: what can I say, unbelievably good! I hope to read Cider House Rules this year.

Jane Austen. I have only read one of her novels (Mansfield Park) and it's her 250th birthday this year.

Percival Everett. Read James in 2024 and now I need to read everything by him.

Joanna Russ. Have only read a couple of her short stories. Going to be reading The Female Man and Picnic on Paradise to start with and hopefully more if I can.

I am excited to get to George Gissing this year. I keep running into great praise for his books and I have had him on my radar for a long, long time.

I have plans to read more of Dorothy Whipple, Elizabeth Howard and E.H. Young.

What I am really hoping for is that I find some authors I adore in the scores of books I have lining my bookshelves and populating my Kindle. I suspect I will.

I agree with a lot of these, and could easily just copy Laurie's choices. :-) It's very hard to pick, so I'm going to narrow it down to three authors new-to-me in 2024 that I'm particularly excited to read more of:

Marcel Proust. I finally read Swann’s Way, and plan to read Within a Budding Grove soon and eventually finish In Search of Lost Time.

Chaim Potok. I read My Name Is Asher Lev, but missed the buddy read of The Chosen, so plan to get to that and then join in with The Promise.

For the third, I'm going to say Maggie O'Farrell. I keep thinking about Hamnet, since reading it earlier this year, and feeling like I'm really missing out not having read her other work.

I'll agree with Chaim Potok. I read The Chosen and really liked it, 5 stars all the way, so I'm looking forward to reading the second book and maybe more.

Also, I've read Mary Stewart twice (Nine Coaches Waiting and The Crystal Cave), and have enjoyed her novels so far, so I'm looking forward to more.

I would also like to read more of Pearl S. Buck since I really enjoyed our read of The Good Earth earlier.

I'm going back over works by Jane Austen and Euripides, and quite a few this year I've lined up are rereads, incl African Myths of Origin (Unknown; Stephen Belcher)

I have quite a few authors where I have read 20+ books or are more or less systematically read all the major works... or even everything that has been published.

Feynman: "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" is for me probable the second most important book in my life, and the book I have gifted most times.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Lois McMaster Bujold: As far I as know, I have read all her science fiction (except the newest), including all-the-way-down-on-page-3 The Flowers of Vashnoi)

Edgar Allan Poe: I think I have read all the short stories, but I plan to read everything again systematically, just to be sure.

Astrid Lindgren: In particular Pippi Longstocking. This one is on the World library top 100 list. I have read 6 of her books, but have had read more aloud as a child.

John Steinbeck


I have not read that much. But what I have read was excellent, and I mean to read more:
Svetlana Alexievich
Inger Christensen
Frank Herbert I have read Dune twice and two other books and one short story. The collection of short stories are high on my wish list.
Bertrand Russell

I have read most of Michael Crichton books. The Andromeda Strain I have read 2 times, and might read it again.

Current authors where I am ready to preorder what ever comes next:
Andy Weir
Giuliano da Empoli
Benjamín Labatut

Alexandre Dumas--Lawrence Ellsworth has newly translated the 7 tales of Dumas' Musketeer cycle (the final one comes out in April 2025).

Walter Isaacson--After Elon Musk, I want to read more from him--maybe one of his bios of someone not living.

Ian Fleming--I've been thinking of books I read growing up and I got a complete set of his James Bond paperbacks for my birthday.

Wow, so many to choose from, but I'll try to narrow it down to a few authors where I'm going out of my way to read their books this year because of my success with them so far. A lot of my challenge categories for 2025 have been filled in with book recommendations from others in the group, but my wish to continue on with the authors below kind of ended up defining the structure of my challenges (which decade I chose for the decade challenge, etc.).

Stephen Becker -- After what can only be described as a magnificent experience reading A Covenant With Death, I've added a couple more of his books to my challenges this year.

Ray Bradbury -- I loved The Martian Chronicles, as well as a number of his short stories (All Summer in a Day, R is for Rocket, The Sound of Summer Running, etc.). This year I'm continuing my way through his oeuvre with The Illustrated Man.

A.A. Milne -- I love the Winnie The Pooh books, but also his books for adults (Four Days' Wonder, The Red House Mystery, etc.). Before becoming famous for Winnie the Pooh, he was best known as a writer of witty plays, and I will read at least one of his plays for my challenges this year.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. -- I've really enjoyed 3 of the 4 books I've read by him (Timequake, Cat’s Cradle, and Slaughterhouse-Five), and in 2025 plan to read Mother Night.

A few that I read for the first time in 2024 and would definitely like to read something more:

Since I've only read one book by each, I don't know if I will love everything by them or not, but I'm eager to try more.

⚜️Anna Metcalfe:

she's the German author of Chrysalis, which I found fascinating. People I buddy-read with told me that the structure was similar to the structure of The Vegetarian, where it pieces together a portrait from other perspectives. But the most interesting thing about Chrysalis is the strongly ambivalent feelings that it provoked in me toward the protagonist. She's a very curious figure.

⚜️Arundhati Roy:

I read The God of Small Things about a thousand years after everyone else, having just gotten to it this year. I found it profoundly moving as well as quite beautiful. I gather that this author hasn't written a huge number of books since then, but I definitely want to try something more.

⚜️Benjamín Labatut:

The story of the life of Henry von Neumann, from the birth of Quantum Mechanics to the first Atomic Bomb to the burgeoning of AI, was both fascinating and beautifully written. I liked the unconventional story structure. And I want to try his When We Cease to Understand the World next.

Also, there's one author that I read and loved one book by years ago that I somehow never followed up on:

⚜️Michel Faber:

I'm a sucker for stories about forgiveness, but I loved The Book of Strange New Things when I read it. Probably my favorite book of the year back then. But somehow, I never read anything else by him. I've seen book-friends reading and highly rating others of his books this year, and I think it's time to try a second book. I feel a little worried about whether I'll like Under the Skin, despite several friends' recommendations. Maybe I'll give it a try anyway? Or maybe I'll try something else. Either way, I want to try something.

I'm really enjoying ECR Lorac's mysteries, she also wrote as Carol Carnac, and I'm reading whatever of hers I can get my hands on right now.

The same for Dan Jones' history books. After Powers and Thrones, I got The Plantagenets and can hardly wait until Henry V comes out in pb so I can mark it up as I read.

It's been ages since I read any Dickens other than Christmas Carol, but I really loved Our Mutual Friend last year so I'm reading Little Dorrit now. Had forgotten how much I like his writing!

And Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin books have been so good I read three since Dec. 15, and have the next one ready to go, so he definitely counts.

I really enjoyed reading works of Mark Twain. I can read them again. Here are my reviews on them:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - https://youtu.be/otN0bZMOvUQ

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - https://youtube.com/shorts/UZewHoIG560

The Prince and the Pauper - https://youtube.com/shorts/oV2-kcBlVic

Sanchita wrote: "I really enjoyed reading works of Mark Twain. I can read them again. Here are my reviews on them:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - https://youtu.be/otN0bZMOvUQ

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - ..."



Mark Twain is a good pick, Sanchita. I really liked his short story The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg.