Group Check-In #20 – August 2016

What is this? Click to find out.

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.

17 thoughts on “Group Check-In #20 – August 2016

  1. Approaching halfway of An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. I’m totally captivated, but sort of dreading the end. It does have “Tragedy” right there in the title.

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  2. I generally have a number of books on the go at once but only now have I realised I’m currently reading 4 from my classics club list! Right now I’m working through The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe, which is the oldest book on my list. I’m also about half way through The Periodic Table by Primo Levi. As a collection of short stories it’s easily read in sections and I’m going slowly. On my kindle I’m reading Rainbow Valley by Lucy M Montgomery. Whilst not as good as the earlier Anne books, I want to have read the full series so I shall persist. It’s nice fare at the end of a long day. And finally I’m reading Confusion By Elizabeth Jane Howard which is a much-loved re-read (and not officially a ‘classic’ as it’s not quite 25 years old yet). I shall feel very virtuous when I can mark all four books as read!

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  3. I’m still in the early stages of Middlemarch, which I’m enjoying more than I anticipated – I’m finding Mary Ann to be hilarious. I keep getting distracted by easier reads and young adult fiction, though, which is not helping my progress.

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    1. I also had difficulty with that book and with the writing of Isak Dineson in general. I’m not certain what it is, really. I am too old to plod, however, and if I don’t get on with a book after about 50 pages I have a no-fault divorce with it.

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  4. I’m in Paradise with Dante. Much less interesting that the 2 I read just before that, Inferno and Purgatorio. After that, I’ll go with a shorter classic, probably A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin.
    only recently did I discover I had turned off email notifications, do I was never receiving the group check-ins and the spins!

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  5. Hello! I am brand new here and my blog is at http://www.gubbinal.com

    My classics project is outlined in my blog. Right now I am reading the works of Sinclair Lewis. It’s great to see how he swiftly developed as an author. I often reread poetry and I’ve been blogging about some of my favorite poets: I am not entirely certain when a poet can be called “classic” but these ones are classics to me.

    I am looking forward to “The Aspern Papers,” by Henry James, which is a real-along in a Good Reads group. And I just finished the magnificent albeit flawed (to some minds, not mine) “The Good Soldier” by Ford Madox Ford for another reading group.

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  6. I am reading the “Elsie Dinsmore” series. They are considered classics[I am not sure I agree because they are not exactly on a par with the likes of “Little Women”, etc.]. I never read them as a child.
    Marilyn

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  7. For any readers interested in Jean Rhys, I’ll be co-hosting a Jean Rhys Reading Week from 12-18th September. All participants welcome. There’s some information about it in our announcement post (link below) with further info to follow this weekend. Eric Karl Anderson (of the Lonesome Reader blog) will be co-hosting with me.

    Announcing Jean Rhys Reading Week: 12th-18th September 2016

    For those of you who use GoodReads, we’ve just set up a group area within the site, link below.

    https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/194545-jean-rhys-reading-week

    Do join in if you are interested.

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