Technically, I'm on a blogging break. But I really, really loved The Classics Spin from a couple a months ago, and I adore making lists. Also, I'm really, really trying to read books off my own shelves. So I am going to let the nice people at the Classics Club choose my next classic read off the following list from my own shelves, and complete it before July 1. Hopefully by July 1 I'll be inspired to write something about what I'm reading.
Anyway, here's my second Classics Spin List:
Five books I really want to read:
1. Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
2. The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West
3. The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola
4. Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton
5. Theater by W. Somerset Maugham
Five books I'm sort of dreading:
6. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
7. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
8. The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hacek
9. Nana by Emile Zola
10. Giants of the Earth by A. E. Rolvaag
Five books I'm neutral about:
11. Sentimental Education by Gustav Flaubert
12. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
13. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
14. New Grub Street by George Gissing
15. I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Five books by Anthony Trollope (I still have eight books by Trollope on my list!):
16. Rachel Ray
17. Miss Mackenzie
18. Orley Farm
19. Ayala's Angel
20. He Knew He Was Right
16. Rachel Ray
17. Miss Mackenzie
18. Orley Farm
19. Ayala's Angel
20. He Knew He Was Right
Bloggers, which of these have you read? Loved them or hated them? I'm really looking forward to Monday to see what number comes up!
Updated: The Classics Spin number was . . . 6!! So I'll be reading (or attempting to read) Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence, also one of the books on my TBR Pile Challenge List. This might just be the push I need to give it a try. Who knows, maybe I'll like it. I was expecting to hate Sons and Lovers and I really liked it.
Hah! Classics Spin is so awesome it brings people out of hiatus ;) I read Lady Chatterley's Lover earlier this year and it was certainly an... interesting experience. I can see how this book may seem a bit dread-worthy.
ReplyDeleteOo and another Moby Dick! Good luck for the spin, Karen!
Thanks !! I read Sons and Lovers a few years ago and liked it very much, to my great surprise, so I'm willing to give Chatterley a try. I got a free copy a few years ago which is the only reason it's on the list. Moby Dick was a freebie as well.
DeleteI really enjoyed The Ladies' Paradise... am surprised Zola is also on your dread list. I want to read Nana eventually, and Giants of the Earth, too. Hope a 'good' number comes up on Monday!
ReplyDeleteIt's on the dread list just because it's about a prostitute, which sounds depressing. Last year I read L'Assommoir which is about Nana's mother and it was both wonderful and depressing at the same time. I nearly always love Zola so I'm sure it'll be fine.
DeleteYay, Karen! I'm glad you're joining us, even though you're on a break. :) Your list is interesting - I recently added a biography of Vita Sackville-West to my "to buy" list, after reading Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. You've got a lot of authors I love on here, but mostly more obscure works from them, which is neat. Moby-Dick is brilliant but I'm not sure I could finish it in a short amount of time... it took me a while when I first read it. I am due for a re-read, though! Good luck with the Spin, hope you get something you're really hoping for!
ReplyDeleteNow that I think about it, Moby-Dick may have been a bad choice since it should be finished by July 1! I'm actually going to New England in June so it might be appropriate to read it, whaling and fishing and all that.
DeleteIt seems like people either love MD or hate it. I hope I'm not one of the haters!
My Trollope list is still onger than yours, if that helps :) I'm hoping you get one of those. It's such fun seeing everyone's lists!
ReplyDeleteThose are just the Trollopes on that list!! I just counted and I have NINTEEN owned and unread. I was at the Half-Price Books a few weeks ago and found six OWC editions that I didn't own already and I couldn't resist. It's a sickness.
DeleteGlad you're joining in! I haven't read that Cather, but I love some of her other work!
ReplyDeleteI'm about half and half with Cather. I loved O Pioneers! and My Antonia, and about half of The Song of the Lark, but I was underwhelmed by Death Comes for the Archbishop and The Professor's House. Shadows on a Rock is a historical which is intriguing. I have a bunch of her other books on the TBR shelf as well that I picked up when Borders closed.
DeleteI'm a little sad you are underwhelmed by my favorite Cather of all time, The Professor's House. :( I think Shadows is quite different than her other works. It feels more like a junvenile book (in a good way). Like something I would have enjoyed when I was 12.
DeleteI liked it but I just didn't love it like I did My Antonia and O Pioneers! (which I've just scheduled for a reread in a few months with my library's book group, so I'm looking forward to that). I think I didn't like it as much because it almost seemed like two separate stories: one about the Professor, and then Tom's diary. I didn't get enough of either one -- I wished it had been longer, or maybe more about one or the other.
DeleteGood luck with the spin, it's my first time for me. I have not read anything on your list, but I dread Moby Dick for you. I hear there is a read-along somewhere for it though if you do get that one. Here's my Classics Club Spin list if you'd like to stop by.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on Monday. I hope you get a book you enjoy! I love Trollope too, though I haven't put any of his books on my own spin list this time. I read The Ladies' Paradise recently and enjoyed it, but I haven't read Nana yet.
ReplyDeleteI probably shouldn't have put the long Trollopes on the list!! But I'm not ready to start the Pallisers series, I want to read some stand-alone novels first. I read The American Senator a couple of months ago and loved it.
DeleteDon't dread Nana - I loved it! I have a Vita Sackville-West on my list too - All Passion Spent. Good luck with the spin.
ReplyDeleteI love Zola but that one sounds a little dreary -- parts of L'Assommoir were kind of rough. I did love it though, more than The Masterpiece. Not many happy endings in Zola!
DeleteI have Nana on my list, too, and now I'm afraid...should I pray I don't get it? I don't know much about it so I just threw it in. I should have added a Trollope darn it! Next time.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it's not that bad -- the last two Zolas I read were sort of depressing, so I may just need a Zola break. Of course Germinal and La Bete Humaine were pretty bleak and they're my two favorites!
DeleteI wonder if we'll both get Nana!!
I would be rooting for number 15. I love all Graves' work, but especially dear old Claudius.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has had three years of Latin so she's always talking about the Romans and the classics, so I thought it would be fun to read something related to what she's studying. Plus it's on the Modern Library Top 100 list and I haven't read any more of those in forever.
DeleteI'm really getting excited about the spin, can't wait to see what number comes up!
I've been meaning to read Trollope for a long time. Have a book or 2 in the TBR piles somewhere around the house...maybe I should have added him to my list too :-)
ReplyDeleteGood luck
I haven't read a Trollope yet I didn't like! My first was The Way We Live Now which is long but many people consider it his masterpiece. It's about 800 pages but I could hardly put it down, I've never read a long book as fast as that one.
DeleteYou are right to dread Melville and Lawrence. The former I have never been able to get into and I have read three by the latter and decided life was too short to read another one.
ReplyDeleteYou are also right to be excited about Shadows on th Rock. I loved that book.
And right again to be neutral about the Amis. I can see why people like it, but I think it is overrated.
You are wrong, however, about The Return of the Solider. I have discovered I don't like all (or even half) of her novels, but this one is really good.
Good news about Return of the Soldier! The only other book I've read by her so far was The Fountain Overflows which I liked very much.
DeleteI knew someone was raving about Shadows on the Rock!! It must have been you. I'm going to give Moby-Dick a shot. It was a free book, so if I hate it, I'll just give it away. Same with Chatterley.
Many people tell me Amis is hilarious. I have an old copy from the 60s that was donated to the library (employees get first pick before they go into the book sales). My manager loves this book so I'll give it a try.
I had a curious reaction to LCL. I thoroughly enjoyed it in my early twenties. I even saw an open air performance in the grounds of a gorgeous old homestead in Melbourne years ago with full nudity!
ReplyDeleteI reread about 10 years ago and hated it! I was bored stiff!
I haven't been back to it since :-)
Good luck
I've never read Lady Chatterley's Lover either, and it's not even on one of my copious reading lists. Hope it turns out to be an unexpected treat!
ReplyDelete