Book Corner: What are you reading today?

~ The Classics Club
“Reading (portrait of Edma Morisot).” Berthe Morisot, 1873.

Here’s a space to tell the club what you’re currently reading. You’re welcome to use the comments below.

No pressure, of course! But if you’re feeling social, here’s a space to tell us about your latest classic. As always, you are of course welcome to leave a link to your blog if you prefer to share there.

Twitter hashtag: #ccreadingupdate

– The Club

37 thoughts on “Book Corner: What are you reading today?”

  1. I belong to a Classics Book Group in the town where I live. The group has been going for years so I have already missed a lot of classic books that they covered before I joined, but I plan to use their list to do some catching up. Last month we read A Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Last summer we read War and Peace and now I am fascinated with Russia, even more so than when I was in college and developed an interest in the Space Race. There is a Russian lady who attends our meetings when we discuss one of these classic works, I think just to provide us with some direct firsthand exposure to their viewpoint and experiences. This month we read The Chosen. I was singled out to lead the discussion since I’m about the only Jewish person in the group. I was almost embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know much about some of the customs and traditions described in the book, but in the end it provided a good incentive for me to learn more about my own history and to share some of what I knew and had experienced firsthand with my fellow bookies. Classic books remain classic over the years because it seems they are always timely, don’t you think?

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  2. I’m not currently reading any classics, but I picked Princess of Mars as my first “official” classics read with the club, which I joined this week! Princess of Mars has been on my mental to-read list for at least a year

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    2. Ooooh! I really liked Anna Karenina – the second time around. The first one just felt overly long, since I only wanted to understand the tangle of relationships and know what was going to happen to Anna. The second time, my favorite parts were the passages where Levin reflects on peasants and country life.

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      1. I know exactly what you mean! I enjoy reading many books twice. I’m too impatient to find out what’s going to happen the first time. The second time I can relax and enjoy the ride. I thought I was the only one.

        Susan

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  5. I’m working my way through Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood. I only have about 30 pages left, but I’m enjoying it a little less than I had hoped. I am also reading two German classics for German Lit Month. After that, I will hopefully be able to finalize my list of female writers for the Women’s Classic Literature event and start reading from that list.

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    2. Curiously I have never heard of this author, until this week when a customer asked me to order in one of her books….I also just realised she was a she by your comments 🙂

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  6. I’m reading Death in Venice and Other Stories by Thomas Mann for German Literature Month and still have three of the seven stories left to read. I’ve also just started The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson, which I’m enjoying so far.

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  7. I just finished a mini-series on WW2’s African front (Operation Compass 1940; The Desert Foxes; and An Army at Dawn) and will next read…..well, I’m not particularly sure. Most likely I will do a little set on WW2 marine combat (Convoy, Iron Coffins), with an unrelated book in between. I still need to read a classic romance to finish off the (facebook) 2015 Reading Challenge. I think I will use “Emma” for that.

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  8. I recently started reading “Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong”, which gives insight into the people and culture of France. I am trying to learn French, so I thought this might be a great way to understand all that is France. I’m looking forward to reading more!

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  9. I’m halfway through an Australian classic for my Classic Women Lit challenge (& AusReadingMonth) – The Fortunes of Richard Mahony by Henry Handel Richardson (another woman who felt she had to publish under a male pseudonym).
    It’s wonderful.

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  12. I just finished Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier. It’s too fun, which one does not usually expect from a classic. Jamaica Inn does have its darkness too.

    Reading Men Without Women by Hemingway now. Not loving it. But I’m only on the first short story so here’s hoping things will improve.

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  19. I’m reading the folktales collected by the Grimm Brothers. They are the foundation of many classic and modern stories, but the originals were really weird. And short. The versions we read when we are children are completely different in spirit.

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    1. I love the older, gorier tales – most of the ones we read now have been Disney-fied!

      I would love to read more about the psychology behind the original tales – what fear/lesson/idea were they designed to convey to their listeners?

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      1. My coworker was shocked the other day when I told her that in the original Cinderella, the two stepsisters hacked off part of their foot to make the shoe fit and that the prince was fooled by both of them at first. So unlike the Disney version, yet so much better. 😉

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      2. I know! There’s an annotated edition by Maria Tatar, a renowned Grimm brothers scholar, plus oodles of essays by her, and now I really want to get my hands on them.

        On the other hand, the Grimm brothers did rewrite the tales to suit their needs. The tales are not exactly as they were once upon a time, which adds another layer of difficulty regarding interpretation.

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