Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – January 2013 Meme

For January the hosts of The Classics Club have asked a relatively simple question, What is the best book you’ve read so far for The Classics Club—and why?, which I’ve already answered here (Go, Anne Brontë! Go!). So I will be doing part two, Or, if you prefer, what is your least favorite read so far for the club, and why?

My first thoughts were that I really wished there were a simple answer, like that I had a burning passionate hate against one book, but I don’t really. As with most books, I have found something to enjoy and something that’s not quite how I would like it. However, the more I thought about it, one did come to mind. You might think it’s Dickens, who I feel needed a good editor – TOO much in the middles, or you might think it was one of the Russians, but no not them either. It was the lovely local Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables.

I mean, I said it in the first sentence of my response to the book: “Very long review short: I didn’t like this book.” You can go there to read my response if you’re actually interested in it. Just suffice to say I had issues with just about everything in the book and I definitely don’t remember The Scarlett Letter being that difficult and I read that in high school – when I HATED reading anything I didn’t want to read.

Hopefully there aren’t many more than can knock this out of the bottom slot, because if there are it is going to be a long four-and-a-half more years to go in my conquest of (some of) the Classics.

Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – December 2012 Meme

This might be my shortest post ever!

For the month of December the hosts of The Classics Club have asked us to share your favorite memory of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. have you ever read it? If not, will you? Why should others read it rather than relying on the film adaptations?

Well, as I said short and simple. I haven’t read it and I don’t know if I ever will. Dickens’ and I have a rocky relationship after A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. I’m not necessarily opposed to reading it, but I don’t know if I’ll go out of my way to read it.

I will say that I LOVED The Muppet Christmas Carol from the early 1990s. I was the right age for it and I thought it was amazingly wonderful. Maybe I’ll watch that this year and it’ll inspire me to go and read the original.

Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – November 2012 Meme

YAY! For the first time I’m not completely baffled/perturbed at The Classics Club moderators for their choice of a monthly discussion question.So I thought I would go ahead and answer it since I haven’t finished a book yet this month and wanted to get at least one post in this week. I should have another one in by Friday, but no promises.

This month’s answer to “What Classic piece of literature most intimidates you and why? (Or are you intimidated by the Classics, and why? And has your view changed at all since you joined The Classics Club?”, is actually an easy answer, so I won’t beat around the bush!

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – October 2012 Meme

The Classics Club moderators have once again out done themselves with something deceptively simple. This month’s theme is “Why are you reading the classics?” Simple right? Not so much.

I could give my gut responses: I’ve not read very many, those few I have read were required reading for school and I’ve had a bunch on my to-read list for ages. And although these are true, they’re not the whole picture.

I only started book blogging in 2010 but have been always been a reader. In High School I read hundreds of Star Wars and fantasy novels; in college I obsessed over Harry Potter, LGBT and southern fiction; after college I started to read a lot more British/Irish fiction. And although I read quite a few ‘classics’ within those genres, I never read The Classics other than those for school requirements (at too young of an age).

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – September 2012 Meme

Those jokers over at The Classics Club sure have a sense of humor.

They want us to “Pick a classic someone else in the club has read from our big review list. Link to their review and offer a quote from their post describing their reaction to the book. What about their post makes you excited to read that classic in particular?”

Not asking for much are they?  Hold on a sec while I go read the 375 posted reviews as of writing this (I’m sure there will be more by time I post this.)  But all kidding aside, I think this is a great idea! I think the moderators made an astute decision to further build a community around this challenge.  I’ve already been tagged in two post, thanks Missy at Honeybee’s Attic and Athena at aquatique, and this meme pushes me to reach out and read new reviewers.

I enjoy reading the plethora of The Classics Club reviews out there, I mean my RSS feed has increased by at least 50% since the challenge started, but I settled on Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (my response 5/13). I chose this for two reasons: my next book is Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote and I will eventually read Breakfast at Tiffany’s as part of The Classics Club.

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