Classics Club Spin #16

On By Laurie @ RelevantObscurityIn Classics Club

classicsclub

 

I think this has come at a good time. My energy is flagging a bit and I feel the pressure of unfinished challenges before the year ends. Yes, this is self-inflicted pressure, but I sign up for these specific challenges because I LIKE them and the books they involve.

These Spins always bump up my enthusiasm and even though I don’t always finish on time, I usually do finish at some point. (Case in point: the last Spin, #15, was to be posted on May 1st. The Spin Goddess chose #12 which was Dracula. That post went up October 10th)!

If you are a Classics Clubber and have never done this I encourage you to try. It’s fun and you feel like part of the community.

It’s easy and simple to participate. From the website:

 

What is the spin?

It’s easy. At your blog, before next Friday, November 17th, create a post to list your choice of any twenty books that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list.

This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the year (details to follow). Try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five Classics Club books you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, re-reads, ancients — whatever you choose.)

On Friday, November 17th, we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List, by December 31, 2017. We’ll check in here in January to see who made it the whole way and finished their spin book!

 

Here is my list of 20 beginning from the top of my list of books I already have on my shelves. All the classics here would be first reads. I know, I know Pride and Prejudice, Rebecca, Wuthering Heights…where have I been?!!

ETA: And the Spin chose #4, Agnes Grey!

Jane Austen
1.Pride and Prejudice (1813)
2.Persuasion (1817)

Richard Doddridge Blackmore
3.Lorna Doone (1869)

Anne Bronte
4.Agnes Grey (1847)
5.The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)

Emily Bronte
6.Wuthering Heights (1847)

Willa Cather
7.O Pioneers! (1913)

Daniel Defoe
8.Robinson Crusoe (1719)

Theodore Dreiser
9.Sister Carrie (1900)

Daphne Du Maurier
10.Rebecca (1938)

George Eliot
11.Silas Marner (1861)
12.Daniel Deronda (1876)

Elizabeth Gaskell
13.Mary Barton (1848)
14.Cranford (1851)
15.North and South (1854)
16.Wives and Daughters (1864)

George Gissing
17.The Odd Women (1893)

Radclyffe Hall
18.The Well of Loneliness (1928)

 Henry James
19.Portrait of a Lady (1881)
20.The Bostonians (1886)

37 thoughts on “Classics Club Spin #16”

  1. Carrie @ Cat on the Bookshelf

    I’ve only read Pride and Prejudice and Sister Carrie. Both are time-consuming, but they’re worth the reads. I absolutely loved Sister Carrie this year.

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  8. Pingback: Reading the American Civil War. :-) – In Her Books

  10. I’ve not attempted this before but am tempted to now! Like you I need a spur to get me onto those standard classics like those works of the Brontes, Du Maurier and Gaskell. My head’s spinning now. 🙂

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    1. Since I started this blog and made connections with other readers, I realize how many classics, or what I would call foundational classics, I have not yet read. I might try and concentrate on those next year.

      I feel so left out when I read discussions about Pride and Prejudice for example, even though I have seen many films and know the general story. Somehow, I know I am not getting a full insight into the characters, not having read the book. Or why is Rebecca on so many ‘favorite’ lists. And how come I have never read Wuthering Heights???

      But good to know I am not the only one. And I know what you mean about your head spinning!

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  14. Jillian

    Hey! If they draw #7, we’re BOTH reading O Pioneers! 😀 Okay, I hope you get either 19, 15, 5, 2 or 1. If you get one of those, I’ll be reading My Bondage and My Freedom (Frederick Douglass), The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation by Fanny Kemble. 😀

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    1. Jillian, some day would you do a post of maybe ten to fifteen books for the Civil War Impaired? While I still have yet to finish Gone with the Wind (don’t hate me, I DO plan to finish), I am interested in more. You are such a great resource and I would love to do some kind of an American history-themed challenge next year, especially something involving the 19th century, even if it is just a personal challenge. No pressure or anything…ok, pressure!

      That recent PBS series called, Mercy Street, really whet my appetite.

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      1. Jillian

        Hi Laurie! I think the idea of hosting an American Civil War event is SO FUN, & honestly I just spent a lot of time writing out the opening post and structure for such an event! But I know myself, & if I host this year I’ll become too involved. I am extremely busy offline right now & have to keep my focus on things that are far less fun! Sorry! I might do one in 2019 though! I’ll have to see how things look for me then. I am QUITE interested however. You should host one this year! 🙂

        As for suggestions on titles for the war? I’m not expert! I’m just now steering myself to the topic. I’ve mostly read British classics.

        I wouldn’t have time to write out a whole post on the topic right now, but I did recently list a few of the American Civil War titles I’m looking forward to reading in the days to come here. If you scroll to the bottom of that post, you will see a comment from November 10 of this year where I answer someone who asked for American Civil War title suggestions. I’ve read the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant & a few novels and books, but nothing extensive yet. I’d suggest the Brice Catton title I mention in my comment as a starting place for an overview.

        Sorry I have to demur for now! I ADORE THIS SUGGESTION. I just know I’d give it far too much of my time this year.

        Sending a hug! x

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          1. Hi Jillian, I wouldn’t be interested in hosting one, just a personal challenge for myself. With everything going on about the Civil War, I realize my knowledge is just so shoddy.

            I am not sure if I want to read nonfiction or fiction, or first person accounts or what, but I am going to think this through and look at the suggestions you’ve provided and if I decide to make to make a plan to run the titles by you, if that is ok?

            I totally understand you are busy and I know these challenges take a lot of time and preparation. (But you ARE such a great resource)!

            Thanks for your responses here. I will get to it 🙂

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            1. Jillian

              I left a few suggestions at my place. No idea if it will help, but that’s all I may have time for right now! Very best wishes building your list! I’m sure I’ll be by if you share, eventually, but I wouldn’t want to commit to looking over your list at a certain time or anything. I’d find it too tempting. I’m supposed to be learning math and I barely have time to do it. Naturally, at the end of a long day, I rather talk books. So I’m being a minimalist blogger right now: blogging quietly, eyes on my own paper mostly. Hopefully eventually I can get back to real blogging! The truth is, I LOVE BLOGGING, especially this sort of thing! But if I have too much fun blogging right now, I will want to blog books and talk books and make book projects whenever I have a spare minute, & I will never knuckle down to the dull work I’m supposed to be doing. That may make no sense, but it is a fact! So I’m lying low. I just can’t seem to avoid blogging altogether. 🙂 Hence, my current blog. It’s a gift and a curse!

              VERY best wishes, Laurie! I’m excited by your reading plans & sorry I can’t currently help more! I’m sending good wishes!

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