Category Archives: Classics

The Classics Club: The Classics Spin #21

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The Classics Club
2019-2024

The Classics Spin #21

Time for a new spin!

At your blog, before next Monday, Monday 23, create a post to list your choice of any twenty books that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list.

This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the year. Try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five Classics Club books you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, re-reads, ancients — whatever you choose.)

On Monday September 23, we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by October 21, 2019.

I have just started my 2nd list of 50 classics, so I’m just picking the 20 oldest books on my list.
Some are quite long, like #1, some short:

1 Laurence Sterne The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1767)
2 Xavier de Maistre Voyage Autour de Ma Chambre (1794)
3 Edgar Allan Poe The Masque of the Red Death (1842)
4 Henry David Thoreau Civil Disobedience (1849)
5 Nikolai Leskov On the Edge of the World (1875)
6 Robert Louis Stevenson Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879)
7 Fergus Hume The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886)
8 Edmond Rostand Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) = reread
9 Machado de Assi Dom Casmurro (1899)
10 Marcel Proust Days of Reading (1905)
11 Natsume Soseki Kusamakura (1906)
12 Kakuzo Okakura The Book of Tea (1906)
13 Natsume Soseki Sanshirō (1908)
14 Natsume Soseki The Miner (1908)
15 Robert Walser Jakob von Gunten (1909)
16 Natsume Soseki To the Spring Equinox and Beyond (1910)
17 Natsume Soseki The Gate (1910)
18 Marie Belloc Lowndes The Lodger (1913)
19 Christopher Morley Parnassus on Wheels (1917)
20 Jun’ichiro Tanizaki Devils in Daylight (1918)

COME BACK ON SEPTEMBER 23
TO SEE WHICH BOOK I HAVE TO READ SOON.
HOW MANY HAVE YOU READ?
WHICH ONE IS YOUR FAVORITE?

MY FULL LIST IS HERE

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WWW Wednesday September 18, 2019

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  WWW Wednesdays 2

 WWW Wednesdays

Wow, I haven’t done this for a while. I plan to do it again, at least mid-month

BOOKS JUST READ

click on the covers to know more about them

FICTION

Quichotte

MANGA

Spirited Away 3

CLASSIC/AUDIO

Childhoods End

Quichotte: superb, come back tomorrow to read my review!

Spirited Away: I just fell in love with the work of Hayao Miyazaki. I recently read:
– The Secret World of Arrietty ( 2 volumes), sad, but gorgeous art, so detailed, so good with nature, colors. Totally my cup of tea!
– Spirited Away (3 volumes so far) – not sure I like the way the story is evolving, we’ll see
– My Neighbor Totoro (1 volume so far). I am curious to see where this is going!
This artist knows how to draw/paint, it’s really gorgeous. Technically, these are more film comic adaptations than manga, and they are all in color.

Childhood’s End:
I listened to it – found on youtube! Fascinating, though I want to read more about it, to get more to the message. And I definitely want to read more by this author!
Incidentally, this is my first classic towards my 2nd list of 50 classics!

CURRENTLY READING

FICTION

Civilizations

MYSTERY

Into The Night

CLASSIC/AUDIO

Tender is the Night

Civilizations: 
I usually really enjoy this French author. I am at 20% so far, and it’s dragging, but sounds like things are soon going to make more sense. I hope.

Into the Night:
I recently discovered Sarah Bailey and her Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock. I like her style, so I decided to jump right away in book 2. And book 3 is coming soon!

Tender is the Night:
Another audio classic I found on youtube.
So far, I really like Fitzgerald’s style. I hate The Great Gatsby, but this is very good, so far, about 1 hour into the book.

BOOKS UP NEXT

FICTION

La grande escapade

HISTFIC

The Vexations

MYST/AUDIO

Avalanche hotel

La grande escapade
The latest novel by a French author I like a lot.

The Vexations
Recent historical novel on Erik Satie! Lent to me by a friend. It sounds really good.

Avalanche hôtel
I’m curious to try this big name of French thrillers, that will be my first book by him.

GIVEAWAYS

There are several giveaways featured
on the homepage

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And I have books available for swap!

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WHAT ABOUT YOUR READING?

 

Mailbox Monday September 16, 2019

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Mailbox Monday

BOOK RECEIVED THIS PAST WEEK

Some Prefer Nettles

Some Prefer Nettles:
Japanese Classic first published in 1928
I received it as a gift from Lucy, at The Fictional 100 – thank you Lucy!
While you are here, why don’t you have a look at her fantastic reference book on the classics?

Lucy offered it to me, as she knows my love for Japanese Literature and the classics. I have not yet read any book by this author.
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

Junichiro Tanizaki’s Some Prefer Nettles is an exquisitely nuanced exploration of the allure of ancient Japanese tradition—and the profound disquiet that accompanied its passing.
It is the 1920s in Tokyo, and Kaname and his wife Misako are trapped in a parody of a progressive Western marriage. No longer attracted to one another, they have long since stopped sleeping together and Kaname has sanctioned his wife’s liaisons with another man. But at the heart of their arrangement lies a sadness that impels Kaname to take refuge in the past, in the serene rituals of the classical puppet theater—and in a growing fixation with his father-in-law’s mistress. Some Prefer Nettles is an ethereally suggestive, psychologically complex exploration of the crisis every culture faces as it hurtles headfirst into modernity.

WHAT BOOK(S) DID YOU RECEIVE?