Tag: The Classics Club

The Classics Club

The Classics Club: One Year Check-In

Geoff W

I was really hoping to time my one year check-in for The Classics Club for the exact date, but that just didn’t work out. I forgot I’d joined as early as I did. (I may have joined a little later, but I’ve set my end date as March 8, 2012.)

I’ve really enjoyed participating in the club and even though I’m right on track 20/100 books read I am starting to wonder if I can keep up the pace for the next four years. I managed to squeeze in with my twentieth novel this month (thus the late post), so I’m right on schedule, but long-term I’m not sure if I want to continue to dedicate a third of my reading to Classics. Who knows though, mostly I’ve only read older classics, maybe it’s time I take a break and read some of the newer classics from my list or re-read a few favorites? Any one else go through this sort of thing already?

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Books

Book 182: The Mysteries of Udolpho – Anne Radcliffe

Geoff W

WordPress decided to move this post to the trash bin and I, assuming it was duplicate draft, permanently deleted it. The first three paragraphs are verbatim as I was able to recover them via caching, however after that is a poor substitute of what I spoke about previously.

I had to add this to my Classics Club list because of its reference in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. I wish I would’ve spaced things to read Northanger Abbey immediately before or after, but I didn’t and I’m sure I will enjoy it just as much when I next read it.

The Mysteries of Udolpho counts for every challenge I’m currently participating in. It is first and foremost the 20th book in my Classics Club list and signifies my 1/5th completion (right at the year mark, so keep an eye out for a longer post later this week)! In addition it counts for my Mount TBR Reading Challenge, Back to the Classics Challenge and through a bit of questionable math as a bonus book for my Tea and Books Reading Challenge (the physical copies average out to 666 pages).

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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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2013 Challenges, Books, The Classics Club

Book 175: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

Geoff W

Overall I found this book dull and lacking. I’m not sure if it has to do with it being built up so much throughout my lifetime (the two big films: the animated Disney which I grew up with and the 2010 Johnny Depp/Tim Burton version) or perhaps because it’s only half the story I know (I didn’t read Through the Looking Glass with it), but I was completely and utterly underwhelmed with this book. On the plus side it counted for the Back to Classics, Mount TBR and The Classics Club Challenges.

I will say that the book is incredibly short and that worked in its favor. If I had to read more than 89 pages of what came across to me as rambling nonsense, I would not have finished the book. It did make me wonder about whether it was a novel or a novella and a quick internet search says novel. (Novels feature more conflicts than novellas and novellas feature more than short stories according to the ever accurate Wikipedia.)

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Books, The Classics Club

Book 172: Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

Geoff W

[For less fan-boy love and more response check out my August 2013 response here.]

Swoon. That’s my review, that’s it. I have nothing more to say. And that has nothing to do with Mr. Darcy, okay well maybe a little, but not as much as you’d think. And just to provide you with fair warning, this isn’t so much a review or response as it is a fan-boy “I love you Jane Austen” post. So read on if you like, you’ve been warned!

I’m not sure how many times I’ve read Pride and Prejudice, but I definitely feel like I should read it more often! I planned this re-read to coincide with the 200th Anniversary and I’m glad I did because it had been far too long! It also counted as one of my re-reads for The Classics Club. Hopefully the next time I re-read this novel I will be able to write about the characters or the story and have less fan-boy love, but I honestly doubt it, I mean look at all the crazy spinoffs I read even though they can never approach the original!

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