Please link your reviews for your Classic That Scares You here. This is only for the Classic That Scares You category. And please tell us why it scared you and if you were pleasantly surprised -- I'm sure we all have books that intimidate us!
If you do not have a blog, or somewhere public on the internet where you post book reviews, please write your mini-review/thoughts in the comments section. If you like, you can include the name of your blog and/or the title of the book in your link, like this: "Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate (The Grapes of Wrath). "
If you do not have a blog, or somewhere public on the internet where you post book reviews, please write your mini-review/thoughts in the comments section. If you like, you can include the name of your blog and/or the title of the book in your link, like this: "Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate (The Grapes of Wrath). "
I read Dracula for Classic that Scares You. (It wasn't scary :D lol)
ReplyDeleteI chose this because it was for some reason an intimidating title. I'd never even picked it up before so it simply must have been the idea of the "original" vampire story that was 'scary'.
I finally tacked Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1,168 pages long). It took me a few weeks, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Rand developed some strong characters (most notably, Dagny Taggart, one of the strongest women characters I've discovered in literature). Even though this is a philosophical/political book, the underlying story is great!
ReplyDeleteI LOVED Atlas Shrugged. Yes Dagny is indeed one of the strongest female characters in lit. It is a bit daunting to start...but I breezed through it. (other works by Ayn Rand...not so much)
DeleteI read Atlas Shrugged too! We have different perspectives, though, because I didn't enjoy the book at all. I look forward to reading your review.
DeleteA Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell: Nearly 3,000 pages should explain why it scared me. But I did it and I think I should get extra credit; it's actually 12 novels, published in four volumes - ONE STORY. I couldn't recommend any of them on their own, but I don't really recommend the WHOLE either...just too much of an investment. Bucket List - moving on.
ReplyDeleteI read Atlas Shrugged for this category. I did not like it very much...
ReplyDeleteI've wanted to read War and Peace forever, but had been intimidated by its length and the assumption that it would be difficult to understand. It wasn't! I was surprised how much I liked this one - at first. The second half was not nearly as good as the first half and I hated the ending!
ReplyDeleteScared of Russian writers so picked The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. Took forever (6 months!) but finally picked up in the second half. Lots of brilliance but just sooo long and detailed. It is a book to be savored and one day when I'm not running around caring for 4 kids and homeschooling, I'll go back over it and savor it but for now I'm just glad to finish it. LOL
ReplyDeleteHopefully you found it more accessible than you thought. I was intimidated by the Russian writers, but I've come to really enjoy them.
DeleteI chose Moby Dick for this category, and it turns out I was right to be intimidated! Glad I've read it though.
ReplyDeleteI read Don QUixote - I was scared because of its length (just under 1000 pages), and the fact that it's 16th century Spanish literature. I expected it to be either hard to read or just extremely boring. But I loved it so much! It's now one of my favourite books. I am so glad this challenge finally made me pick it up and read it.
ReplyDeleteI went with Dracula, too. I guess it's not that scary, though scary enough for me...but maybe compared to all those movies I'm too scared to watch...and the suspense definitely kept me going. Good read!
ReplyDeleteThe Inferno was more readable than I feared. But I didn't enjoy it and didn't expect to. There's a reason it was my pick for this category!
ReplyDelete1,100 pages in the print version, 3,100+ on my iPad, but I finished it and liked it!! Rebecca West's Black Sheep Grey Falcon, a book I had owned without reading for years, was challenging to read but worth it. Thank you Karen for giving me an incentive to finally read it.
ReplyDeleteI finally found something for this category! Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem. 2 categories to go...
ReplyDeleteI might put Thomas Hardy on my list for next year. Not sure whether to go with Jude the Obscure or Tess of the D'Ubervilles.
Just finished The Count of Monte Cristo. It was a slog, and I'm glad it's over.
ReplyDeleteThe Grapes of Wrath was not as intimidating as I had feared. Sad story, but very relevant to today's world of migrant crises. Well written, too.
ReplyDeleteJust finished Anna Karenina & LOVED it!
ReplyDeleteI read Brave New World....I didn't like it. Too relevant to our world today....and depressing.
ReplyDeleteI don't see my review for Les Miserables in this list... but when I try to add it, it says that I can't... because it is already in the list? Not sure why it won't show up though. If you can fix the problem, here is my review for Classic that Scares You:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2504446171
I read Kristin Lavransdatter.
ReplyDelete