Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
Personal Challenges
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April's To Be Read Challenges 2025
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1. Kafka: The Complete Stories:Completed: 41/?78
Two Introductory Parables-
✔1Before the Law 1915
✔2An Imperial Message written 1917, published 1930
The Longer Stories-
✔? 3Description of a Struggle 4/25
4Wedding Preparations in the Country
✔ 5The Judgment 3/2025
✔ 6The Metamorphosis 3/7/2025 unrated
✔ 7In the Penal Colony 3/11/2025 unrated (mixed feelings)
8The Village Schoolmaster [The Giant Mole](view spoiler)
2. Short Stories- Kafka AND Others (continued from Buffet): Read 50? 60? to complete.
Completed: 41+1, 45/50?
Franz Kafka
✔1Before the Law 1915
✔2An Imperial Message written 1917, published 1930
✔? 3Description of a Struggle 4/25
✔ 5The Judgment 3/2025
✔ 6The Metamorphosis 3/7/2025 unrated
✔ 7In the Penal Colony 3/11/2025 unrated (mixed feelings)
✔ 11A Country Doctor ?(need a reread)
✔ 16A Report to an Academy
✔ 17A Report to an Academy: Two Fragments
✔ 19A Hunger Artist 1924 3/12/2025
✔ 21A Little Woman 3/12/2025
✔ 22The Burrow 4/2025 stars?
✔ 23Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk (3/14/2025)
1904-1912
✔ 1Children on a Country Road 2/2025
✔ 2The Trees 2/2025
✔ 3Clothes 2/2025
✔ 4Excursion into the Mountains 2/2025
✔ 5Rejection 2/2025
✔ 6The Street Window 2/2025
✔ 7The Tradesman 2/2025
✔ 8Absent-minded Window-gazing 2/2025
✔ 9The Way Home 2/2025
✔ 10Passers-by 2/2025(view spoiler)
3. Classics New to Me: Reduce your personal TBR, Classics Edition. 12? 24? 20? books read is a complete challenge.Six?/Eight+Two? of the 12?/24?/20? books must be pre-chosen/from this list.
Completed: 14/8+2+...
Required:
1. R✔ Frankenstein Shelley, Mary* 10/2024
2. R✔ The Fall of the House of Usher and by Poe* 1/2025
3. R✔ The Picture of Dorian Gray Wilde, Oscar* 2/2025
4. R✔ The Metamorphosis Kafka, Franz* 3/2025
5. R✔ To the Lighthouse Woolf, Virginia 1927*
6. R✔ Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 1973*
7. +Moonstone*
8. Dracula Stoker, Bram*
Add Two More: (pick at least 2? of these)
9. Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury, Ray*
10. The Lottery Jackson, Shirley*
11. Paradise Lost Milton, John*
12. The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso Alighieri, Dante*
13. +The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers James, Henry*
14. +Confessions of an English Opium Eater De Quincey, Thomas*
15. R✔ ?The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror Stevenson, Robert Louis*
Any Choice:
16. R✔ Rappacini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 1844 (3/25
17. R✔ The Complete Stories Kafka by Franz Kafka* (3/14/2025
18. R✔ Persuasion by Jane Austen 5/2025 ⭐⭐⭐
19. R✔ Goodbye, Mr. Chips
20. R✔ 1984
21. R✔ Glimpses of the Moon
22. R✔ The Once and Future King ⭐⭐⭐⭐
23. R✔ King Solomon's Mines (Allan Quatermain, #1) H. Rider Haggard*⭐⭐⭐
24. R✔ Frenchmans Creek⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ideas
. The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky, Fyodor*(view spoiler)
?3. 100 Years Before Me (possible challenge idea)
As it turns out, Kafka lived exactly 100 years before me, so perhaps there is something to this fact that I have just been introduced to him this year. 🤔😅
1883
1884
1885 R✔ King Solomon's Mines (Allan Quatermain, #1) H. Rider Haggard*⭐⭐⭐
1886 (The Death of Ivan Ilyich)*
7
8
1889 R✔ A Lost Opportunity*
1890 R✔ The Picture of Dorian Gray
91
92
93
94
1895 R✔ The Seagull
...
(1900 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
1901 (R✔ The Angel at the Grave)*
03
1910 R✔ The Phantom of the Opera
...
1922 R✔ The Glimpses of the Moon*
1924 (so sad a thought, he died at like my age now! 😢)
4. The Used Challenge - (books read by or recommended by the band The Used): 12? ALL 19? books read is a complete challenge.Completed: 1/?
R✔ 1. The Metamorphosis Kafka, Franz*
2. Sharp Objects Flynn, Gillian*
3. Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury, Ray
4. The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky, Fyodor
5. Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West McCarthy, Cormac
6. Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008 Payne, Chris*
7. A Box Full of Murders Hallett, Janice*
8. Paradise Lost Milton, John*
9. The Dark Tower King, Stephen*
10. The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) King, Stephen*
R✔ 11. To the Lighthouse Woolf, Virginia*
12. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Harari, Yuval Noah https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
13. The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso Alighieri, Dante(view spoiler)
5. Shelley's World: 12? ALL 14? books read is a complete challenge.
Completed: 4?/?
R✔ 1. The Picture of Dorian Gray Wilde, Oscar*
R✔ 2. Frankenstein Shelley, Mary* 10/2024
3. Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (Raffles, #1) Hornung, E.W.
4. Complete Shorter Fiction Wilde, Oscar*
5. The Woman in White Collins, Wilkie
6. The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers James, Henry*
R✔? 7. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror Stevenson, Robert Louis*
8. Dracula Stoker, Bram*
R✔ 9. The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales Poe, Edgar Allan* 1/2025(view spoiler)
6. Recommendations - 2? 12? books read is a complete challenge.
Completed: 1/?
1. The Dark Tower King, Stephen *
2. The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) King, Stephen *
3. The Outsider by Stephen King*
4. Mr. Mercedes of Bill Hodges Trilogy*
5. R✔ Long Live Evil ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
6
7. Tommyknockers*
8. Langoliers*
9. The Secret Window*
10. Short Stories books King
7. New Authors (continued from Buffet): 9? 10? 13? 15? 20? books read is a complete challenge.Completed: 22/13? 15? 20?
1. Holly Jackson -Good Girls Guide to Murder*
2. +Katie MacAlister -You Slay Me 2004*
3. Wilkie Collins The Moonstone*
4. +J.D. Robb -Naked in Death 1995*
5. R✔ Virginia Woolf -To The Lighthouse*
6. Leigh Bardugo -Shadow and Bone 2012*
7. Anthony Horowitz -Magpie Murders*
8. R✔ Chuck Palahniuk -Fight Club 1996*
9. R✔ Riley Sager -The Only One Left 2023*
10. R✔ Amy Tintera -Listen for the Lie*
11. R✔ Franz Kafka -Meditation*
13. R✔ Anton Chekhov -The Seagull*
14. R✔ Oscar Wilde -The Picture of Dorian Gray 1890*
15. R✔ Sarah Rees Brennan -Long Live Evil 5stars
16. R✔ Chelsea Abdullah -The Stardust Thief ⭐⭐⭐⭐
17. R✔ Patricia Highsmith -The Talented Mr. Ripley 5/2025 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
18. R✔ PS -Bandit Queens 5/2025
19. R✔ Isabel Ibanez -What The River Knows 5/2025 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
20. R✔ James Hilton -Goodby
+ R✔ Hafsah Faisal -A Tempest of Tea
+ R✔ Parini Schroff (sp?) -Bandit Queens
+ R✔ Firooza Dumas-Funny in Farsi
+R✔ Gareth Brown-The Book of Doors
+R✔ Blake Crouch-Pines
+R✔ -Not Another Love Song
+ R✔ -The Assistant to The Villain ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
+R✔ Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes ⭐⭐⭐
+R✔ Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier 1941⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
+R✔ J.D. Robb-Time of Death
+R✔ Yangszee Choo -The Ghost Bride ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8. Romance or Genre Challenge (Em Hen, Abby Jim, Ashley Poston...): 7? 8? books read is a complete challenge.
Completed: 4/4? 5? 6? 7? 8?
1. The Love Wager (#2) by Lynn Painter*
2. Mr. Wrong Number #1 by Lynn Painter
3. Happy Place by Emily Henry*
4. People We Meet on Vacation Emily Henry
(view spoiler)
9. Mysteries and Thrillers Challenge (Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew,...): 7? 10? All 11? books read is a complete challenge.
Completed: 5/?
1. Sharp Objects Flynn, Gillian *
2. Nancy Drew...Lilac by Carolyn Keene*
3. You'd look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace*
4. R✔ The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
5. R✔ The Housemaid's Secret (The Housemaid #2) by Freida McFadden*
6. R✔ The Maid by Nita Prose(view spoiler)
10. Stephen King: 1? books read is a complete challenge.Completed: 0/1?
1. The Dark Tower King, Stephen *
2. The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) King, Stephen *
3. The Outsider
4. Tommyknockers
5. The Langoliers
6. The Secret Window
7. Mr. Mercedes
8. Salem's Lot
11. J.D. Robb In Death Series: 1? 2? books read is a complete challenge.
Completed: 2/60+?
1. Naked in Death (1995)*
2. Glory in Death (1995)(view spoiler)
12. Series Challenge (continued from Buffet): 9? 10? 12? books read is a complete challenge.
Completed: 9/9? 10? 12?
New/Continued/Finished Series
Secrets of the Nile
1. R✔ What the River Knows 5/2025 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. R✔ Where the Library Hides ⭐⭐⭐⭐
In Death by J.D. Robb
1. Naked in Death 1995*
Percy Jackson
1. R✔ The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
2. The Sea of Monsters
Poet Anderson
1. R✔ ...Of Nightmares* 3/2025
2. ...Of Darkness
The Maze Cutter
1. R✔ The Maze Cutter* 3/16/2025
2. the-godhead-complex
Molly the Maid
1. R✔ The Maid by Nita Prose
2. The Mystery Guest (#2) 2023*
Threads of Power
1. R✔ The Fragile Threads of Power by VE Schwab*⭐⭐⭐⭐
Nancy Drew
1. R✔ The Bungalow Mystery (#3) by Carolyn Keene 3/2025
(view spoiler)
13. Pick a Year -2023 (continued from Buffet): 10? 11? 12? books read is a complete challenge.
Completed: 6/6? 10? 11? 12?
10 Books of Interest for 2023
1. Happy Place by Emily Henry*
2. *In the Lives of Puppets
3. *Sword Catcher by CC
4. R✔Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer*⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5. *My Roommate is a Vampire
6. The Love Wager (#2) by Lynn Painter*
7. R✔ Fragile Threads of Power by VE Schwab* ⭐⭐⭐⭐
8. You'd look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace*
9. R✔ The Housemaid's Secret (#2) by Freida McFadden*
10. *The Mystery Guest (#2) by Nita Prose*
+11. R✔ The Only One Left by Riley Sager 2023*
+12. R✔ What the River Knows 5/2025 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
+13. R✔ Bandit Queens by Parini Schoff 5/2025
Mod
Katy wrote: "Have a great year of reading, April."Thanks!
Ok, while this is still a bit of a work in progress and may have to go into next year or longer, it is getting close and I am updating.Tonight I finished this one, and I highly recommend it!
The Only One Left by Riley Sager 2023
Adding a new (but old/forgotten challenge) -
14. 50 Life's Must Reads
Completed: 11/50
1 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien
2✔ 1984 by George Orwell
3✔ Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
5✔ To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6✔ Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
7 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
9✔ The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
10✔ Hamlet by William Shakespeare
11 A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul
12✔ The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
13✔ The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
14 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
15 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
16✔ The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
17 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes(view spoiler)
Hmm, maybe some of them i dont personally care to read though, but its a start!
15. 100 Books Challenge-from 50 books to read before you die discussion-Our 100 List
Completed: 12/100
1 We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver.
2 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith.
3 Mossflower - Brian Jacques.
4 The New Jim Crowe Laws - Michelle Alexander
5 A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini.
6✔ Little Women - Louisa May Alcott.
7 Middlemarch - George Elliot.
8 The Discworld Series - Terry Pratchett.
9 The Collected Works - EE Cummings
10 The Thirteenth Tale. - Dianne Setterfield
11 The Book Thief. - Markus Zusak.
12 I am the Messenger. - Markus Zusak.
13 A Bell for Adano. - John Hersey
14 East of Eden. - John Steinbeck.
15 Of Mice and Men. - John Steinbeck.
16✔ A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway.
17 The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
18 Tess of the D'urbavilles - Thomas Hardy.
19 The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. - Jonas Jonasson.
20 Crime and Punishment. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
21 The Alchemist. - Paulo Coelho.
22 The Shining. - Steven King.
23 The Shack - W Young
24 The Last Man - Mary Shelly
25 Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
26 My First White Friend - Patricia Raybon
27✔ Persuasion. - Jane Austin.(view spoiler)
I see you've picked up a bit of challenge fever, April, like many of us have! Enjoy your planning and reading!
Kathleen wrote: "I see you've picked up a bit of challenge fever, April, like many of us have! Enjoy your planning and reading!"Ah yes! It is actually a bit embarrassing how much time I have spent on these, creating them, although this one has gone a bit faster than the Buffet did. Hopefully it will all be easier next year though...should I do it again. (I probably will. Lol)
Ok, couldn't use this read for my Buffet Challenge, but added it here to New Authors and Recommendations. Was amazing! Loved it!R✔ Sarah Rees Brennan -Long Live Evil 5stars
Another one not applicable for the Buffet Challenge now, but works for #12 and 13 here! (I still need to set the challenges 😅🤷♀️)R✔Fragile Threads of Power by VE Schwab* ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I finished The Talented Mr Ripley, Persuasion, 1984, and The Bandit Queens. Do they fit anywhere? 😅 Oh, i used 1984 already in my Buffet, but the others? ...Oh, also finished What the River Knows. That was a good one! Did I use Ripley already? Because i definitely talked about it a lot. Thats another good one!
Oh and a couple more Kafka, did i ever update? And the Tolstoy-surely i did those, because one was a 2025 group read...
April wrote: "Ok, while this is still a bit of a work in progress and may have to go into next year or longer, it is getting close and I am updating.Tonight I finished this one, and I highly recommend it!
The..."
Oh, on the second list -The Fault in Our Stars; i just watched the movie! Does that count? Lol I also watched _ (something else, ive already forgotten it) recently. If this was a movie list... Just kidding!
By the wy, i finished The Assistant to the Villain tonight and used it in FOUR challenges here! Lol Actually, these are less challenges and more just lists, but 🤷♀️
Edit: the other movie was for Revolutionary Road. The movie was painful, so im not sure i want to read the book. 😕
At this point, I haven't settled on a goal count yet for some of these, and I seem to be adding ideas too, so it's still a work in progress, but it also helps me keep track and organized. 👍
1. Kafka Challenge
2. Short Stories (continued from Buffet)
3. Classics New to Me
?3. 100 Years Before Me
4. The Used Challenge - (books read by or recommended by the band The Used)
5. Shelley's World:
6. Recommendations -
7. New Authors (continued from Buffet)
8. Romance and/or Genre Challenge (Emily Henry, Ashley Poston, Abby Jimenez,...)
9. Mysteries and Thrillers Challenge (Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew, ...)
10. Stephen King
11. J.D. Robb
12. Series Challenge (continued from Buffet)
13. Pick a Year -2023 (continued from Buffet)
+14. 50 Life's Must Reads Challenge (message 9)
+15. 100 List (message 9)