Tag: Classics

Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – November 2012 Meme

Geoff W

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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2012 Challenges, Books, The Classics Club

Book 153: 1984 – George Orwell

Geoff W

I started to read this a few months ago, but I just couldn’t get into it in the first few pages. Setting it aside was apparently the right thing to do because when I read it this time I enjoyed everything about it (with the exception of the ending). 1984 counts for both my 2012 Back to the Classics Challenge (20th Century Classic) and The Classics Club.

Once again, as it seems happens more and more frequently, I’m at a loss of how to respond to a novel. I both loved and hated 1984. I thought the ending was a bit tough to get through, but once you got through it the middle of the novel was amazing and kept me wanting to know what happened, but then the ending was let down, even though I get it.

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – October 2012 Meme

Geoff W

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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2012 Challenges, Books, Quotes, Reading Events

Book 147: Other Voices, Other Rooms – Truman Capote

Geoff W

After putting this book off for more than a month so that it would fit within The Literary Others reading event and after it sat on my shelf since I purchased it from the 2011 Boston Book Festival I’ve finally gotten around to reading it. I’m not really sure if it was worth the build up to keep putting it off, but it was an interesting read. In addition to being a part of The Literary Others Event it also counts towards my Mount TBR Reading Challenge (23/25)!

This is only the second Capote work I’ve read and it was very different compared to In Cold Blood, which I read before I started this blog. Other Voices, Other Rooms is Capote’s first published novel and is semi-autobiographical. You can definitely see the personal influence from the effeminate young boy to the faded rich southern decadence you catch glimpses of throughout.

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Books, Quotes, The Classics Club

Book 138: Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak

Geoff W

Doctor Zhivago counts for three challenges, and actually wraps up one of my 2012 Challenges! It counts for the Back to the Classics Challenge (6 of 9), The Classics Club (12 of 100), and is my final book for the Tea and Books (8 of 8) challenge! I will do a wrap up post for the Tea and Books challenge early next week. For the Back to the Classics Challenge, this book was the novel from a place I realistically wouldn’t visit. After reading Doctor Zhivago and Anna Karenina I can say my aversion to visiting Russia is less, but I still would list it as not likely to travel to.

One thing I’ve learned that is vitally important when reading a classic novel is that you have to read the introduction. Sure it might tack on 20-30 extra pages, but they are there for a reason and they reveal so much information that is incredibly useful when reading a book, not to mention they give you a head’s up of what to look for as you read. For example, in the introduction to Doctor Zhivago, the following quote points out how the novel is written.

“Pasternak’s vision is defined by real presence, by an intensity of physical sensation rendered in the abundance of natural description or translated into the voices of his many characters.” (loc. 146)

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