2022 year of classics

I bought a scratch book bucket list poster from Etsy. I think it has 100 books on it that are mainly classics so am going to work my way through that. The idea of scratching off the ones you have read is strangely motivating for me 😁

@WhatDidISayAlan I started a link about Dickens a couple of weeks ago as I haven't read any either

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/what_were_reading/4427924-Dickens-what-should-I-read

Hello Sadness is a wonderful short French classic by Francoise Sagan. Very original. Highly recommend.

I read 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' last year and I thought it was very good. I have another Le Carré book on my Kindle that I will read at some stage, 'Silverview'.

I try to read 5-6 ‘classics’ every year. Some of my favourites recently have been:
The Spy who Came in from the Cold (John le Carre)
Silas Marner (George Eliot)
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
The Woodlanders (Thomas Hardy)
The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins)
The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton)

I’ve never read any Russian novels but have taken inspiration from this thread and hope to change that this year. I’ve also got Northanger Abbey, Villette and The Woodlanders on my list for this year, all read before but many years ago.

@WhatDidISayAlan the Hard Times readalong has just kicked off, it is chapters 1-6 for January.

Finish no 1 for this year:

Vanity Fair, W. M. Thackeray

I wanted to love this, but I just didn’t. I couldn’t even really love/hate Becky Sharp as seems to be the thing because she was absent for large portions. The ever present narrator and his asides are amusing, cutting and welcome when the plot dries up for a bit. The last two hours were great, but perhaps that’s because I just read it until finished.

I’m sure you have some awareness of the plot but it centred around two young women who finish school together, Amelia Sedley from a mercantile, affluent family and Becky Sharpe, half French with Bohemian parents. It’s about how they make their way in the world. Amelia, through obedience and duty and Becky through sheer force or will and personality. Both have hard times and good times. A 3star for me.

After catching up with the thread I’m finding everyone’s tastes so interesting - didn’t know how many Russian Lit lovers there are out there. I’d second a PP’s recommendation re The Ladies Paradise as a starting point for Emile Zola - I picked up a copy in a BBC staff charity book sale about ten years ago and it’s become one of my favourite books. (The BBC series “The Paradise” was loosely based on the book but I didn’t rate it at all).

I’m after a recommendation. Despite having very eclectic tastes in books I’ve never read any Dickens. Any suggestions for a first read? I have Great Expectations on the shelf but wondered what people thought about a good first one?

What is a classic?

I loved Catch 22. I'm going to read along with DC's literature selection at school.

I fancy some Sci Fi, like Issac Asimov and Ursula Le Guin.

I'm almost finished 'Of Mice and Men' and have found some of the language in it outdated and offensive and I'm surprised this book is still being taught for GCSE and hasn't been 'cancelled'! Several mentions of the N word and the only female character is denigrated as 'a tart'. I suppose it's a jumping off point for discussions about race and misogyny and about how times and language have changed and what was acceptable in 1937 (when the book was written) and now are very different, but it hasn't aged well IMO.

Ooooo love Somerset Maugham. The Razors Edge and Of Human Bondage. Fantastic books. Read them at that ‘coming if age’ adolescent phase. Really made me question what a good life was.

Jst re read Jane Eyre. What a beautiful book.

I really loved The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch.

Following this thread. Great idea. Think it might help w my mental health.

A Town Like Alice

For those saying "Rebecca" I recommend treating yourself to listening to Anna Massey reading it as an audiobook. I'm listening to it for the second time as a Christmas listen. I'm halfway through now and am already preparing myself for the bereavement I'll feel when I've finished! She reads it so well and I've found it a great accompaniment to peeling veg & tidying up etc this time of year.

Does Agatha Christie count?

While we're on the Russian literature tip Turgenev is definitely worth exploring. His novels are mostly much shorter than those of Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy!

Oblomov by Goncharov is another classic but I never managed to finish that.

I want to get back into reading and I’ve always found MR James’ shorts brilliant.

Whistle and I’ll come to you my lad was always a favourite!

War and Peace!!!

I've now got a long list of Russian themed books! My dad was a Russia specialist in the RAF and I've always been fascinated by the country and culture and am trying to learn the language (dad taught me some words and phrases). I'm going to join the Ear and Peace read along for starters.

@yika I really surprised myself by liking the war bits more than the peace.

@Nailsbythesea Catch 22 is a fantastic novella, but over 400 odd pages it’s get wearisome.

I so want to read these. I might join audible just to read them. I could not get on with Catch 22. But maybe as an audio book................

Middlemarch is one of the best books I've ever read.

War and Peace is also fantastic though I tended to skim through the 'war' sections.

I'd like to suggest
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
Short Stories by Somerset Maugham
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (bit gruesome though)
Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

Rebecca
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
I Capture the Castle
The Moonstone
The Woman in White
To Kill a Mockingbird
Gone with the Wind
Classics don’t have to be heavy going!

Maybe see you over there zafferana At the moment I'm tearing the house apart looking for my copy. So frustrating - I just assumed it was in the (alphabetically organised!) bookshelves and it's not.
I think Waterstones is open this morning so may have to get there this morning, just when I was enjoying having the house to myself for the first time in ages ..

Thank you @highlandcoo, I'll take a look. I don't have War and Peace, but I could download it onto my Kindle and read along.

That's what got me through reading Tom Jones, which is a huge doorstopper, for A level - my boyfriend was doing it too and we set reading goals discussed it as we went along.

Oh and it was Animal Farm that my set read for GCSE, while the other set did Of Mice and Men.

zafferana I don't know if you know but there's a War and Peace readalong starting today. Just a few pages each day and a discussion about what we've read.
So if you are thinking Russian literature might be a thing for 2022 ....