Tag: Meme

Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – May 2013 Meme

Geoff W

For May the hosts of The Classics Club have asked members to “Tell us about the classic book(s) you’re reading this month. You can post about what you’re looking forward to reading in May, or post thoughts-in-progress on your current read(s).”

And as usual I have to pick a point of contention, mostly just because I’m a pain in the ass, but think about the wording of the question. It really only works if you answer the meme early in the month or if you predominately read classics. By time this posts I will have finished, and hopefully posted about one classic +and have finished reading two (Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, which isn’t even part of my Classics Club list) and will hopefully be part of the way through a third, The Canterbury Tales among other books I’ve read this month.

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – April 2013 Meme

Geoff W

For April the hosts of The Classics Club have asked “Who is hands-down the best literary hero, in your opinion? Likewise, who is the best heroine?” And although I have major issues with the separation of hero and heroine, there is no need to separate the two into gender based categories or if you’re going to separate them make a point and call it a ‘shero’, my answer is below.

I really wanted to write about Bone Cartwright from Bastard Out of Carolina, and I guess I could write about her, but I tend to restrict the monthly memes to this specific reading list. If not there’s no telling who I’d write about, so I’ll go for another character with a story similar to Bone’s. Although hero isn’t the first word to come to mind she is one. Wikipedia has a great line which sums up her existence:

In modern movies, the hero is often simply an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances, who, despite the odds being stacked against him or her, typically prevails in the end.

I’m choosing to equate the word hero/heroine with the word survivor. From the moment of Celie’s introduction in Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Color Purple, as she is being viciously raped, the reader is aware her story and her life will be a struggle for survival and existence.

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – March 2013 Meme

Geoff W

For March the hosts of The Classics Club have asked Do you love Jane Austen or want to “dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shinbone”? (Phrase borrowed from Mark Twain.)

  1. Why (for either answer)?
  2. Favorite and/or least favorite Austen novel?

I don’t think I need to explain my views on Jane Austen. If you’ve read my blog you know I’m in love with Jane Austen. I’m so much in love with her that I even love the horrible fan-fiction/spinoff stuff that’s out there! So that’s some real dedication. And if you really want to know how much I love Austen, go read my fan-boy I love you post which was supposed to be my response to my re-read of Pride and Prejudice.

If I had to say what my favorite novel is I would probably say Mansfield Park, because of Fanny Price, and my least favorite is probably Emma, mostly because of the movie adaptation, but I also think it drags along, but we’ll see if my feelings remain the same after a reread for The Classics Club.

Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – February 2013 Meme

Geoff W

For February the hosts of The Classics Club have asked What Classic has most surprised you so far and why?

And I’m not sure if it’s just the books I’ve read or the questions themselves, but I constantly seem to be going back to the same book to answer these questions. I’m glad I checked to see what the next few questions were or I would probably have given up on the monthly memes after this month.

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – January 2013 Meme

Geoff W

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.