Today’s the Day!
On the 19th November 2018, we announced the special CHUNKSTER edition of the Classic Club Spin, challenging you to read book 1 on your CC Spin #19 list by 31st January 2019.
Did you read your book? Did you write about it, or not?
What’s Next?
- In the comments below, tell us what book you read, and what you thought of it?
- Feel free to add a link to your review, here, on twitter and/or fb.
- Also add your link to the ‘Reviews by Members’ in the tab at the top of the page.
- Take a moment to see what everyone else has been reading.
- Tick/strikeout/cross off that book from your Classics Club List – congratulations!
As always, the prize is the reading experience.
We hope you enjoyed it.
Twitter hashtag: #ccspin #ccwhatimreading
Calendar alert: #ccspin 20 is scheduled for mid April.
I finished my spin & loved it! I have a feeling it will be one of my best reads in 2019: Cassandra at the Wedding, by Dorothy Baker (1962).
I wrote a review here: https://theblankgarden.com/2019/02/05/review-cassandra-at-the-wedding-dorothy-baker/
🙂
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I finished both my spin book (Prince and the Pauper) and the book I added for the fun of it to make the monster challenge work. (The Woman in White)
https://mounttoberead.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-prince-and-pauper-by-mark-twain.html
and
https://mounttoberead.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-woman-in-white-by-wilkie-collins.html
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I should add – I was rather meh on these books. Didn’t particularly enjoy or dislike them. The Woman in White was fairly fun to read, but I kept wanting it to be The Moonstone and it wasn’t. Still, I like Wilkie Collins. Prince and the Pauper was not exactly what I expected at all out of Dickens and I didn’t find myself wanting to read.
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Congrats on making the chunkster spin work for you the best way 🙂
There’s an old B&W movie of the woman in white starring Sydney Greenstreet as the Count and a young Agnes Moorehead that’s a real treat.
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I did finish my spin but I’m a little late with linking up! I read The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu 🙂
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I found this interesting New Yorker article about The Tale of the Genji and the various translations available for it – https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-sensualist-books-buruma
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Well I had a cavet for my last spin, since I had already planned for a chunkster I put some shorter ones on my list. Since I got Sula by Toni Morrison, I decided to read and review another book from my list by Morrison, The Bluest Eye.
I just published my review: https://booksbythecup.wordpress.com/2019/02/02/sula-and-the-bluest-eye-reviews/
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I read Ivanhoe. https://blbooks.blogspot.com/2019/01/ivanhoe.html
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I really enjoyed The Three Musketeers, but I expected to. http://carolsnotebook.com/2019/01/30/the-three-musketeers-by-alexandre-dumas/
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I finished… a day late. Not that I didn’t love re-reading Jane Austen’s Emma – just that I didn’t find myself completely in the mood till after Christmas.
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Oh…yeah…almost forgot, yeah I did finish my spin. First, my ALMOST guilty conscience has to explain something: I misread the rules a bit, and I didn’t think EVERY book on my list had to be a chunkster. I had quite a few heavy tomes, just not all…and the spin turned out to be one of the shortest novels on my list…The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Alan Poe, and that’s why I ALMOST feel guilty. To ALMOST atone, I read Pym PLUS a sequel…An Antarctic Mystery by Jules Verne. So, two reviews:
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
And An Antarctic Mystery
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I FINALLY finished Eden’s Outcasts – a bio about Louisa May Alcott and her father, Bronson – http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2019/01/edens-outcasts-by-john-matteson.html
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Well, I didn’t like them, but I finished Anton Chekhov’s Five Major Plays. Shudder. https://rosereadsnovels.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/five-plays-by-anton-chekhov/
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Alas, I did not finish. To be honest, I didn’t really read much at all in Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey, but I did carry it around in my bag several times. I plan to read it in 2019. I’ve been a bit of a moody reader these days. It is always a joy to see what everyone has been reading.
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I understand completely about the mood reading part. The Odyssey is definitely one that has to be tackled in the right one. My last attempt to read it was rather torturous, but I still bought the Wilson edition to try again one day #gofigure
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I did enjoy the Odyssey. Read it for a literary course. I don’t remember the translator but I think I downloaded a rather old version. I have read half the Iliad, but a while ago. Will probably start from the beginning. I have just read ‘The Greek Treasure’ by Irving Stone about Heinrich Schliemann and his search for Troy. Makes you go back to the original.
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I finished Trollope’s “Can You Forgive Her?”, the first of the Palliser series of 6 chunksters. I’m ruminating on it before writing my review. I liked it a lot and have just started the next one, “Phineas Finn”.
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I posted my review of “Can You Forgive Her?” today. https://booktapestry.blogspot.com/2019/02/a-maiden-widow-and-wife.html . I think I’m becoming a big Trollope fan!
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I did! Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin! Excellent! Am in process on composing a review. Interesting research findings about it, too! Also read The Fire Next Time, written by Baldwin. Quite the treatise on oppressive whites and the subjugation of blacks via “Christianity.’ Reviews to come!
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I did not finish my CCSpin Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achabe. I read it in high school and didn’t particularly enjoy it and the same is true some 20+ years later. I’m trying to decide if I’m going to DNF for good or give it another go later. 🤔
Kind of bummed because this is the second CCSpin in a row in which I haven’t enjoyed the book. 😞
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Sorry to hear you’re on another unenjoyable one. Hope the next spin breaks that streak!
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What didn’t you like about it (both times)? Sometimes the ones we don’t like make the most interesting review posts…
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Good luck for next spin!
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Well, I think you can safely decide it’s not for you. (But hey, I think I’ve read Catcher in the Rye three times in the same pursuit, so.) It’s too bad your Spin book was a dud *again,* but maybe next time…
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I finished Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon–#1 was the shortest book on my spin list, but the random number generator knew what it was doing. Very good!
http://reesewarner.blogspot.com/2019/01/toni-morrisons-song-of-solomon.html
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I read and finished and HATED Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Why is this considered a classic? Yuck. I certainly wouldn’t have finished it had it not been a Spin book. My review of Wide Sargasso Sea
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I had heard such good things about Wide Sargasso Sea. People told me I would love it. I was less than impressed.
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I finished, although mine wasn’t a chunkster (I did put some on my spin list!) Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin. It was fascinating. I intend to read everything he’s written, eventually.
https://bigreadinglife.wordpress.com/2019/01/12/thoughts-on-go-tell-it-on-the-mountain-by-james-baldwin-ccspin-19/
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i read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Interesting and proof that not all Roman Emperors were as bloodthirsty as Nero or Caligula, but philosophy is not really my thing and I felt a little disappointed as it is certainly a very popular book with some readers.
There were certainly some gems though
“What injures the hive injures the bee”
“The best revenge is not to be like that”
“Concentrate …. on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice … do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life”
and perhaps the best for me ….
“At dawn when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself “I have to go to work – as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for … is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm? – But its nicer here …” 🙂
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I’m currently reading Meditations but it’s not on my CC list, just one I’ve always wanted to read. I’m enjoying those little gems as well.
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I need more time to finish my book – Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens – but at least I’m enjoying it, which I think is the most important thing!
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Indeed and lucky you.
It would seem that many clubbers got a tough spin this time round, but Dicken’s rarely disappoints 🙂
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I read The Earth by Emile Zola, it isn’t my favourite by him but I intend to read them all – eventually.
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I did! Crime and Punishment. http://howlingfrog.blogspot.com/2019/01/cc-spin-crime-and-punishment.html
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Left a comment on your blog! I loved this book.
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I finished my spin, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2019/01/29/review-1310-classics-club-spin-review-to-the-lighthouse/
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Left a comment on your blog. Loved this book.
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I finished my first CC Spin ever! The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
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Oh, that’s a good one!
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Your comments are closed on your blog, so I’ll comment here. I didn’t know anything about this book, and I really liked your review
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oh, I meant to congratulate you on your first Classic Spin!
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Oh, I love that novel!
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I loved this novel by Anne. I agree with you, it is there with Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. She was definitely ahead of her time, and the novel strikes me as very modern.
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I haven’t read it, but now I want to. Thanks for your good review. Couldn’t leave a comment on your blog.
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This is my favourite Anne Brontë book. It is so modern after all this time. I think she managed so well to describe the society, marriage, motherhood and love. An amazing book.
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I finished it, and exceptionally, I even had time to review it. A Moveable Feast: https://wordsandpeace.com/2019/01/18/book-reviews-for-winter-reading-challenges/
I went into it with fear and trembling, because I really didn’t like at all all the novels I read by Hemingway. But several members of this club encouraged and reassured me, and they were right! This is nonfiction on Paris, and it’s very good, I think. A good book to read for those who dislike the author!!
It is not a chunkster, but actually, I’m reading 3 right now, though only 1 is on my official list: The Moonstone (I should be able to finish listening to it tonight), Don Quijote (with a read-along that will extend into May). And with a French student, I am rereading Les Misérables in French. A couple of chapters a day.
I just DNFed another classic, Berlin Alexanderplatz, by Doblin. Too tough for me, Not unsimilar to Ulysses by JJoyce.
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I feel the same way about Hemingway. I’ve always felt he was overrated. And he was a jerk. Good going on your spin!
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Loved it too. Left a comment on your blog.
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I read Susan Wise Bauer’s History of the Ancient World. I enjoyed it, though I found it a bit depressing, since history seems to be made up of brutal power struggles for the most part! I wrote a review here: https://strewing.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-history-of-ancient-world-book-2.html
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Anna Karenina. Definitely one of the best books I have ever read.
Thank you for challenging me to read this big book.
https://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-best-reading-week-ever.html
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so glad you read it! So good
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That’s a good one!
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I felt the same way about it 🙂
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Anna Karenina is so good! But it is a chunkster alright.
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Happy to hear you like it. I am sure I will like it too, but just cannot get my act together and start it!
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It is a beauty, isn’t it? I’d love to reread it one day as I’ve forgotten so much from my read 18 yrs ago.
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No, I’m still going on Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley (about a third of the way through) though I did put up an interim post about it: https://wp.me/p2oNj1-3ey
Having said which, I am enjoying it, reading Claire Harmon’s biography of Charlotte in tandem and also dipping, as is my wont, into other fiction as a change of mood and pace!
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I enjoyed Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley too, but it did take me a while to get through.
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Took me a long time to finish this one, and I didn’t like it as I read it. I must admit it grew a little bit on me, after I finished it. It is always nice to read the prose of Charlotte, but the story was too boring for me.
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Because so little initially happens (and when it does is low key) I’ve had to relax while reading this and see it as interplay between characters as well as character sketches. It’s also interesting to read Claire Harmon’s biography of Charlotte in tandem with this to see how the author drew on her own experiences and, perhaps, the experiences of her father in the period covered by this novel.
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I recently did a similar thing with Frankenstein – reading the book as I dipped into a bio about Mary Shelley and her mother. It’s a good way to help you get through a book you’re not sure if you’re enjoying/getting or not.
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I agree, absolutely. There’s always an argument for being an ‘innocent’ reader, encountering a novel for the first time without preconceptions. But sometimes, especially with long-dead authors from a bygone age, it helps the reader to get the most out of it by knowing something about the background of the writer and her or his times: with the Brontës (and indeed with Mary Godwin Shelley) we can imagine ourselves as an acquaintance or confidante of the writer, both having at first written under a pen name or anonymously, and perhaps get under the skin of the narrative and appreciate the nuances.
What was the Shelley/Wollstonecraft bio you read, by the way?
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It was Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon – a fascinating read. http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2018/12/romantic-outlaws-by-charlotte-gordon.html
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Thank you so much, Brona, I will check this out! 🙂
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I did finish, hooray!! But no review yet. I read The Mysteries of Udolpho and loved it.
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I probably read 4/5ths of Mysteries of Udolpho but just got tired of it and didn’t finish.
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I read it some years ago. Although it is a chunkster and you think half of it would be enough, there is something attractive about it. Probably all the descriptions of nature, castles, the romantic surroundings. Although totally overwritten as far as the story goes. It could have been done in half the pages. But, but still there to enjoy. Glad you loved it.
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Not sure how i managed to post the comment and didn’t finish it. 🙈 what I was trying to say is someone recommended it to me and I have a note to look for it at my used bookstore. I think someone mentioned to me Jane Austen Northanger Abbey is a satire of Gothic fiction and suggested I read Udolpho first.
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Someone recommended it to me and I have a note to look for it at my used bo
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I read Greenmantle by John Buchan and wrote about it in this post – https://booksplease.org/2019/01/23/greenmantle-by-john-buchan/
Overall, I did enjoy it – I was fascinated by the first half of the book, the second half not as much.
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I bet that was fun. I’ve read a few books by him, but not that one.
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I did not adapt my list for chunksters so got Washington Square by Henry James (https://thecontentreader.blogspot.com/2018/12/washington-square-by-henry-james.html). I decided to add a chunkster as well, so I read Katrin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. https://thecontentreader.blogspot.com/2019/01/kristin-lavransdatter-by-sigrid-undset.html It is not an easy read, but it stays with you afterwords! I am happy to say I managed to finish it!
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FINISHED!
Moby Dick
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Well done! I left a few comments on your blog.
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Good for you! I managed to finish that one several years ago, but it was a struggle!
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A struggle it is for sure!
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Congrats. Left a comment over on your blog. Moby is a beast
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I did! I finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest around mid January. For 300ish pages it’s far from ‘light’, I was quite struggling in the beginning, but it got better after few chapters. I’m glad of ever reading it.
My review: https://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2019/01/one-flew-over-cuckoos-nest-by-ken-kesey.html
Can’t wait for CCSpin #20 !! 🙂
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