Hi Clubbers! How’s the reading going? Check in with the group below!
Tell us about your project — or you! Introduce yourself. Chat.
Tell us what you’ve read, how you’re feeling about your progress, how much you love the classics or the community — any struggles, a favorite read so far. Really, whatever you feel like sharing!
Some people prefer writing an update at their own blog and linking it here in the comments. That’s fine, too.
Feel free to respond to one another in the comments below — ask questions, visit each other, tell us you are new to the club, planning to join the club — etc. This is a meet and greet.
If you’re having trouble with your list and need encouragement, say that! That’s understandable. We want new classics readers to join us, so there’s nothing wrong with arriving to this thread with all of the newness showing!
(Please also note the “check-in” feature here is entirely voluntarily, intended for those who like weighing in with others in the group, and having a periodic place to reflect upon goals for the club. For some this feature would feel like an unwanted intrusion. Silent participation in this group is of course welcome!)
Thanks for all of your enthusiasm about this project!
New? Introduce yourself to the group on Twitter using hashtag #ccintroductions @ourclassicsclub. You can also introduce yourself here at the blog. 🙂
Twitter hashtag for reading check-ins: #ccreadingupdate
Note that if you’re on Twitter, you can also tweet your latest classic book reviews to the group using hashtag #ccbookreviews.
The Classics Club 
I am checking in with the end of my first year. I think I did pretty well! Really amazed me but yet, I have yet to get into the really difficult ones. Here is a link to my year end post!
http://imaloverofbooks.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-end-of-year-one/
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Hey all,
I just stumbled across this site and think it would be great to be a part of this club. Is there something special I need to do to join? I don’t read classics specifically, but a lot of them end up being so simply because classics by definition are worth reading because they’ve withstood the test of time.
At the beginning of the year, I started a project to read 1,000 books by 2020. So far, I’ve read 80 books, and I just started blogging about it here: http://www.1000booksproject.wordpress.com
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I haven’t read many classics this year, but I’m about a third into Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. I wish I liked it as much as Middlemarch. Eliot is spending a LOT of time on characters that just aren’t that sympathetic. I’m hoping for more Daniel as this gets going – he’s the title character and barely in the book.
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I am working through my main classic reads at the moment and am planning on reading a lot of Villette (my Classics Spin book) this coming week, in addition to do my chapters for the Unputdownables readalong of Wives and Daughters. Sadly this means that W&P and Moby Dick are put on the side burner yet again. I had to put them aside due to a library book that I wanted to get read and a book club read the next week. Hopefully with school ending on Wednesday I can devote more time to reading other books, in addition to my classic reads.
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I’ve put down my second book as I wasn’t making progress and managed to finish A Midsummer Night’s Dream instead which I enjoyed. My link here:
http://lynnsbooks.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/lord-what-fools-these-mortals-be/
Thanks for the advice above. I think sometimes you’re just not in the right frame of mind.
Lynn 😀
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I committed myself to reading 2 classics this month, the spin (Hemingway — why did I put that on the list?!) and Robinson Crusoe for the 18th century event. I am also feeling very tempted to pick up Rebecca which I keep seeing stuff about and which sounds so great. I’m trying to be disciplined and read the stuff I committed to first. I also got sidetracked in my reading this month by Barbara Pym who is wonderful!
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I also got sidetracked by the Pym reading week (wasn’t it lovely?)
After reading A Moveable Feast, I will never (probably never) read any more Hemingway…so good luck!
And I’ve just got a copy of Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser (which won the Miles Franklin award today) tempting me on the sidelines 🙂
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I’ve only just started my challenge really and read one off my list. But, I confess I’ve come to a stand still – I started reading Dangerous Liaisons and whilst I don’t have any complaints about it I seem to have put it down! This is never a good sign!! I must make a big effort to pick it back up – it’s a good story and I don’t dislike the writing but it just hasn’t grabbed me yet and I’m at that odd stage where once you’ve put it down you keep picking up something else instead. So, do I pick up or try something else off the list?? This is the big question.
Lynn 😀
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I find that when a book isn’t grabbing me the best thing to do is set it aside and read something else. Sometimes the timing is just off between a book and a reader and there is no point in forcing it. Select another book from your list and dive in. DL may be just the thing you want to read another time.
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I agree Mary. Life’s too short to read a book that’s not working for you.
I did love Dangerous Liaisons, but I came to it after seeing the fabulous movie starring Glenn Close and John Malkhovich. My love of the movie gave me an ‘in’.
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Hi Brona and Mary. Thanks for the advice. I decided to leave this one alone for a little while and pick up again at another point. I too watched the film and enjoyed it. That’s why it’s a puzzle that I haven’t jumped straight into this one really.
Thanks
Lynn 😀
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I just finished reading Les Miserables which was not on my list because it was a re-read. I loved it and got so much more out of it this time. I have about 10 out of 50 books read and am a bit behind right now, but I plan on lots of reading this summer.
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I’ve only got one of fifty books read on my list, which should be completed two years from now. It was “The Pickwick Papers” by Charles Dickens, and I didn’t really like it that much.
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A tricky one to start with. PP is so far my least favourite Dickens (I’ve read 5 or 6). So don’t give up or think all his stuff is like that.
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Nine books completed and I am reading a tenth which puts me exactly on track except that I have the spin book to read also. So for once in my life I may be ahead. Best reads so far are Crime and Punishment, Little Dorrit and I KnownWhy thebCaged Bird Sings.
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Congrats on C & P. I tried it in my early 20’s but gave up on it (despite a fascination for Russian literature).
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may be worth trying again though Bona. I’ve found that some books I read in my younger days have been a different experience reading them again
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I have been reading a whole lot of titles from my list, all at once, not quite on purpose. A bunch of things fell on me at the same time. Right now I’m reading Pamela, On the Road, and In the First Circle, and I am about to start Mrs. Dalloway and The Chosen. Ridiculous, right?? Most of it is great, though. (I don’t recommend Pamela unless you have a lot of patience for a lot of irritating things.)
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I thought that I read a lot of books at once, but your list is very impressive!!!
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I just finished my FIRST classic’s club book (A Bear Called Paddington, I thought I’d start somewhere easy). Review coming later this week. I think Sanditon/The Watsons might be next, I’m on a bit of a short fiction kick at the moment and they fit the bill.
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I’m taking a short break from classics to conquer some of my to-read list. For classics I’m reading the Brothers Karamazov next. 🙂 I’m still working on Robin Hood, my classics spin book, which is unfortunate.
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Slow but steady progress. I’ve got a handful of children’s books on my list, so lately I’ve been visiting those. Just finished “Half Magic” by Edward Eager, and now I’m onto “Adam of the Road.” Hope to make progress this summer on some of the more intimidating titles. 🙂
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I’m enjoying Jane Austen’s Pand P. This is my first book into my second year.
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Hi! I fear I won’t do much reading this month as I have the final exams… But I’ll try to read the second volume of Galsworthy’s ‘The Forsyte Chronicles’, “A Modern Comedy”, which never fails to cheer me up!
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I love this too. I read it after enjoying the BBC production 10 years ago with Rupert Graves. I’ve just discovered that there are 3 more books that bring us up the world wars!
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Actually, there are 6 more books! A modern Comedy (3 books) and End of the Chapter (3 books) 😀
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almost done with book 3 of 7 in George Eliot’s Middlemarch – its slow going, but interesting…I do a chapter a morning and night on the metro to and from work
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