I love 2024 your year of reading classics! I love Cold Comfort Farm, and Persuasion might be my favourite Jane Austen right now! And I only made it through Crime and Punishment because Jessie said I "wouldn't get it" - very useful to get someone to goad you into reading unappealing books! She was right, I didn't get it. :(
I'm really prejudiced against the whole Charles Dickens vibe, but I'm not sure I've ever actually *read* one (think I am basing some of my prejudice on having been forced to read Wilkie Collins at school, and the rest on TV adaptations of A Christmas Carol), so should probably address that.
I love that you're reading classics. Let me just tell you though. Skip Tess of the d'Urbervilles. I cannot stress enough how incredibly BORING and terrible that book is. I'm a fiction junkie and I love the classics but I've never understood why English teachers fawn all over Thomas Hardy. It always makes me think of the literary Canon and who gets to decide who is in the English literary canon -- and I ask myself: Should that author remain there simply because a group of white men at one one point put him there? I think this book needs to be tossed out. :))))
+1 on hating Tess of the D’urbervilles. In HS, it hadn’t occurred to our English teacher that Tess “falling in love” with her rapist was deeply troubling for a class of juniors at an all girls school to read.
Agree on Secret History! Came here to see if anyone had suggested this.
Also - Stoner. It is one of the oddest books I have read and genuinely disliked reading the first two thirds of it... but am SO glad that I kept going, it felt like a bit of an epiphany moment finishing it! Would love to know if anyone else found the same.
It's been a while since I made it through a real-doorstopper of the Moby-Dick / Portrait of a Lady / Bleak House / Buddenbrooks kind (thank you, children!). But it's a consolation that a great many of the classic classics at quite short. For example, you can safely sub out Crime & Punishment for Notes from the Underground and get a strong flavour of Dostoevsky - and Tolstoy's shorter fiction (The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata, Hadji Murad, etc) is just as immersive as his grand epics. Just: smaller.
Throw in Gogol's The Overcoat (30 pages?), Eugene Onegin (70,000 words or so, and it rhymes) and a few Chekhov short stories and you'll have a pretty good grounding in 19th century Russian litrature in a week or so.
This gives me much to think about. Two of my favorites have been A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird. Looking forward towards a new year of reading makes me realize I would like more structure and routine in my schedule to highlight time to read. I think I will look towards reading books from my birth year and going down a list of banned books to read.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry blew me away - and I'd never wanted to read a western before. But it won the Pulitzer, and deservedly so. Another Pulitzer winner: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Both fairly modern but classics in my opinion!
Your year of reading classics reminds me of Susan Hill's Howard's End is on the Landing: she committed to a year of only reading the books in her house that she had always intended to read. It's a fun journey through classics through the eyes of someone who had been putting them off!
Always a pleasure to read you! I read Tess in my teens and recall being gripped. Also a fan of Far From the Madding Crowd. I finally read In Cold Blood quite recently and was glad I did. Looking forward to reading about your reading.
Sometimes when I'm not sure what to read next I go to the Classics section at the Sheffield Central Library and choose a book based entirely on it being the thinnest one I can see. My theory is that I'm going to get through a great story in a short space of time. It generally works on both counts... Recents have included Of Mice and Men, The Castle of Oranto and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. A less well known classic that I really recommend is The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas.
Hattie - two must reads from me are The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark and Cassandra At The Wedding by Dorothy Baker.
I love Cassandra at the Wedding!
Noted, thank you!
I love 2024 your year of reading classics! I love Cold Comfort Farm, and Persuasion might be my favourite Jane Austen right now! And I only made it through Crime and Punishment because Jessie said I "wouldn't get it" - very useful to get someone to goad you into reading unappealing books! She was right, I didn't get it. :(
Haha! Well done Jessie! Now I know how to get you to read a book!
And I read some Dickens a little while back, and loved David Copperfield, and I think you might too!
I'm really prejudiced against the whole Charles Dickens vibe, but I'm not sure I've ever actually *read* one (think I am basing some of my prejudice on having been forced to read Wilkie Collins at school, and the rest on TV adaptations of A Christmas Carol), so should probably address that.
Dude Wilkie is the GOAT!! The Moonstone kills me!!
Dude you've basically just confirmed that I should NOT read Dickens
😂😂😂 and, dang!!
I love that you're reading classics. Let me just tell you though. Skip Tess of the d'Urbervilles. I cannot stress enough how incredibly BORING and terrible that book is. I'm a fiction junkie and I love the classics but I've never understood why English teachers fawn all over Thomas Hardy. It always makes me think of the literary Canon and who gets to decide who is in the English literary canon -- and I ask myself: Should that author remain there simply because a group of white men at one one point put him there? I think this book needs to be tossed out. :))))
+1 on hating Tess of the D’urbervilles. In HS, it hadn’t occurred to our English teacher that Tess “falling in love” with her rapist was deeply troubling for a class of juniors at an all girls school to read.
Useful intel, thank you!! Knocking Tess down the list.
+2 on hating Tess!!
Far From the Madding Crowd is a treat. Great film w/ Carrie Mulligan too. And Hardy's poetry is fabulous.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt - one of my faves of all time. In Cold Blood is the book that made me a reader. That feels weird, but it's true.
Agree on Secret History! Came here to see if anyone had suggested this.
Also - Stoner. It is one of the oddest books I have read and genuinely disliked reading the first two thirds of it... but am SO glad that I kept going, it felt like a bit of an epiphany moment finishing it! Would love to know if anyone else found the same.
For me, Remains of the Day is The One to read if you haven't xx
One of my favourites. Honestly just thinking about it makes me want to cry x
Same! That sense of regret kills me every time!
SOB
I’m excited for you to read To the Lighthouse 🥲🥲🥲
I’ll recommend it until the day I die:
The Peregrine by JA Baker
It's been a while since I made it through a real-doorstopper of the Moby-Dick / Portrait of a Lady / Bleak House / Buddenbrooks kind (thank you, children!). But it's a consolation that a great many of the classic classics at quite short. For example, you can safely sub out Crime & Punishment for Notes from the Underground and get a strong flavour of Dostoevsky - and Tolstoy's shorter fiction (The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata, Hadji Murad, etc) is just as immersive as his grand epics. Just: smaller.
Throw in Gogol's The Overcoat (30 pages?), Eugene Onegin (70,000 words or so, and it rhymes) and a few Chekhov short stories and you'll have a pretty good grounding in 19th century Russian litrature in a week or so.
Yes, I've read some Russian short stories... but I do feel I should have a go at e.g. Anna Karenina...
Neither truly "classics" but older and excellent: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner and Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey.
Love Crossing To Safety.
This gives me much to think about. Two of my favorites have been A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird. Looking forward towards a new year of reading makes me realize I would like more structure and routine in my schedule to highlight time to read. I think I will look towards reading books from my birth year and going down a list of banned books to read.
Love that strategy!
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry blew me away - and I'd never wanted to read a western before. But it won the Pulitzer, and deservedly so. Another Pulitzer winner: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Both fairly modern but classics in my opinion!
Your year of reading classics reminds me of Susan Hill's Howard's End is on the Landing: she committed to a year of only reading the books in her house that she had always intended to read. It's a fun journey through classics through the eyes of someone who had been putting them off!
Oh that sounds great!
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra is more than 5 years old, but to me, it's a modern classic.
I read Brother of the More Famous Jack recently and it is heartbreaking and rambling and GORGEOUS - 100% recommend
I actually interviewed Barbara Trapido recently for the In Writing podcast! https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/barbara-trapido-novelist/id1490412801?i=1000610049351
I haven’t read any Jane Austen 🫣 but planning on reading persuasion before the end of the year
Always a pleasure to read you! I read Tess in my teens and recall being gripped. Also a fan of Far From the Madding Crowd. I finally read In Cold Blood quite recently and was glad I did. Looking forward to reading about your reading.
Some James Baldwin could be a vibe also!
Definitely! And ditto xxx
Sometimes when I'm not sure what to read next I go to the Classics section at the Sheffield Central Library and choose a book based entirely on it being the thinnest one I can see. My theory is that I'm going to get through a great story in a short space of time. It generally works on both counts... Recents have included Of Mice and Men, The Castle of Oranto and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. A less well known classic that I really recommend is The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas.
Love this tactic