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Original poster

Would anyone like to join me in a modern classics challenge for 2015?

227 replies

mmack · 05/12/2014 16:27

This year I read some very good books but a lot of mediocre ones as well. So next year I plan to read 12 modern classics that I haven't read before. Would anyone be interested in doing something similar? Or in discussing any of the books with me? My list is below. It's a bit male-dominated but that's because I tend to read mostly female writers so the classics I haven't read are mostly by male writers.

  1. Saul Bellow; Herzog 2. Martin Amis; Money 3. Truman Capote; In Cold Blood 4. John Updike; Rabbit, Run 5. Philip Roth; American Pastoral. 6. Kent Haruf; Plainsong 7. Kurt Vonnegut; Slaughterhouse 5 8. Iris Murdoch; The Sea, The Sea 9. Doris Lessing; The Golden Notebook 10. Margaret Atwood; The Handmaid's Tale 11. Ron Moody; The Ice-Storm 12. J.M. Coetzee; Disgrace.
OP posts:
Original poster
mmack · 05/12/2014 18:00

Yes, I plan to read one a month starting in January. I will probably read In Cold Blood first because it seems the least daunting. Then The Handmaid's Tale in February as it gets such glowing reviews from other regular posters here. I feel slightly embarrassed that I'm in my 40s and have never read any Updike or Roth considering I read Steinbeck and Hemingway in my teens.

OP posts:
guggenheim · 05/12/2014 16:43

I'd like to join in please. I've got into some very lazy book habits since having ds. I can vaguely remember having a brain : )
Some of those books have been on my 'to read' list for quite a while- especially the Capote.

Are you going to begin at the start of the new year?