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

[mmack]

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.

Welcome from me as well, Stevie. I read Breakfast at Tiffany's about 20 years ago and I don't remember it very well but I know I enjoyed it and it's much darker than the film. I only read Cold Comfort Farm a few years ago too and I read I Capture the Castle around the same time. Both were very enjoyable.

Funny, I Capture The Castle led me to Cold Comfort Farm!

Funny, I Capture The Castle led me to Cold Comfort Farm!

I read The Children Act over the weekend. Fiona was a compelling character and the court parts were fascinating so my only criticism would be that it was much too short. Next classic for me is Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and it's one I'm really looking forward to.

This is really niche ... But following a trail from a book review I came upon this article in The Guardian about the poet Rosemary Tonks. I don't think I've heard of her before, certainly ever read any of her poetry.

However, when we were talking about the narrator of Great Granny Webster I wondered what might have become of her after the episodes of family history set down in the book. I think she would have become Rosemary Tonks.

I'm a little scared of this "discovery" ...

Interesting article-I hadn't heard of her either. It fits in with the '60 mood I'm in after reading in The Golden Notebook. There are a lot of writers from that era that I haven't read, including Alan Stilltoe, John Braine, Harold Pinter and John Osborne.

Hello, just updating my list for this thread. Have recently read the following modern classics (including some children's) and enjoyed them all, especially the Adichie and Rowling (my first reading ever of Harry Potter):

• Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje
• The Borrowers, Mary Norton
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
• The Magician's Nephew, C.S. Lewis

I have Bel Canto on my TBR pile mmack.

Whoops, I'll take the Ondaatje off the list as, though good, I don't think it's a modern classic like his phenomenal The English Patient.

If that was your first reading of The Magician's Nephew I envy you Bssh. It's just my happiest ever reading memory - it seemed and still seems so subversive.

I'm halfway through Natsume Soseki's The Three Cornered World which wasn't on my list. Just as I was about to fling it down as world's most boring book it's picked up a little ...

Bel Canto is lovely-one of my favourites of this year. I saw The English Patient film before I read the book and I think that took from my enjoyment of the book a bit. I love that film so much-I still can't watch it without crying for a solid hour.

May is proving to be a good modern classics month for me. I read Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively over the weekend. It's the story of a historian looking back at her life. The best part happens in Egypt during WWII. I would very highly recommend this to fans of The Narrow Road to the Deep North or The English Patient.

I'm so glad I've found this thread :) I was going to ask for some inspiration as I've been quite disappointed with a lot of books I've read recently and want something a bit more substantial :)

I need to go back through and make a proper list, I've read quite a few that have been mentioned so I have high hopes!

Welcome, Sooperdooper. My June book is going to be is Plainsong by Kent Haruf. I'm also planning to read The Sea by John Banville.

I'm almost half way through my original list so I'm going to recap.
January was In Cold Blood. I didn't enjoy it very much but I can see why it is so highly regarded.
February was The Handmaid's Tale. It's brilliant in every way and one of the most thought provoking books I've ever read. It should be read by everyone.
March was American Pastoral. It started slowly but it's excellent once you get into the main story. I'm sure I'll read more Philip Roth.
April was The Golden Notebook. It's not a perfect book. It gets dragged down into too much psychology at times. But it's brimming with ideas about everything and she really can write. I read The Grass is Singing as well and enjoyed finding out more about Doris Lessing.
May was Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. I truly hated every word of it. It was the most misogynistic book I ever read.

Disgrace has always looked like a book I would hate - one day I will have to read it, just to be sure.

I have nothing to report. Annoyingly managed to leave the thing I was reading somewhere and haven't been back to pick it up. None of the piles of books I'm tripping over seem to appeal. And I have ordered an Antonia Forest and a Gwendoline Courtney from Girls Gone By as a buttress against RL vexations.

I'll do better in the second half of the year.

(For a few moments yesterday Amazon appeared to have lost my 600 strong "saved for later" list. It was terrifying. )

Zero, I took your advice from a lot earlier in this thread and read a play-Look Back in Anger by John Osborne. I can see how it must have been revolutionary when first staged. It was a nice change of pace from always reading novels.

I also finally got my hands on A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. I think it might be her best book. It's the story of a family but it's brilliantly told. There were several twists and revelations that I didn't see coming at all.

I finished Plainsong. It was very enjoyable and well written and I would recommend it but I'm not sure if I'll remember it in a few years time. It's similar in style to Willy Vlautin, Tim Gautreax and James Lee Burke.

We're almost half-way through the year now so I thought I'd post my list to date with the outstanding ones in bold:

Stoner - John Williams
A Single Man - Christopher Isherwood
A Taste of Honey - Shelagh Delaney
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
The Night Watch - Sarah Waters
Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson

My favourite was A Taste of Honey.

After glancing at my bookshelf, for the second half of the year, I'll be reading To Kill a Mockingbird, The Little Friend, The Secret History, I Capture the Castle, and The Little Stranger. Will read more after that but don't know which ones as I don't fancy reading most of the ones on my original list (only read three of them).

My July classic is going to be Money by Martin Amis. I think I need a change of pace from the nice Anne Tyler/Kent Haruf type of books I've been reading recently. I hadn't heard of A Taste of Honey before today but it looks excellent-I'll put in on my list.
I think I'll read Slaughterhouse 5 in July as well because I plan to devote August to Stephen King. I've never read The Stand and I also have The Running Man and Under the Dome on my bookshelf. I also like the sound of Rose Madder.

Slaughterhouse 5 was not at all what I imagined it to be. It's the story of Billy Pilgrim who was a chaplain's assistant in WWII and ended up as a prisoner of war. He survives the bombing of Dresden and goes on to be an optometrist and time-traveller. The war scenes are harrowing but the parts about time travel and his life after the war add balance. It's never made clear if Billy is really time-travelling or mentally ill and the central theme of the book seems to be that war is hell and you should enjoy the good bits of life as they happen. All in all it's a thought-provoking book and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

I also read Money by Martin Amis. It's the story of John Self, a successful ad director who is travelling between New York and London getting started on making his first feature film. The first 300 pages or so are a description of the amazing amount of drink, nicotine, junk food and pornography he consumes and of his very dysfunctional relationship with his girlfriend Selina. Amis really can write and this part is a bit dragged out but entertaining enough. The last 100 pages have a lot more plot-it's very obvious what's going on but still enjoyable. I don't know if I'd class Money as a classic because I know I won't remember it in a year but it is genuinely funny and well-written.

I read The Go-Between this week. Too verbose and long-winded for me, I'm afraid, though it was very touching in some parts.

Also read A God in Ruins, only published two months ago but given the critical reception I expect it to be a modern classic of the future. This was much more engrossing and poignant than Life After Life and I'll be reading more Kate Atkinson books soon.

My next modern classic is either To Kill a Mockingbird, or Offshore.

I just noticed that there in a typo in my first post-The Ice Storm is by Rick Moody. Ron Moody was Fagin in Oliver. The Ang Lee film is a very faithful adaptation of the book. I loved the film and after reading the book I have to say that the film was brilliantly cast. Looking back I can't believe that Joan Allen didn't get an Oscar nomination for her performance. I would really recommend both the book and film to anyone who is suffering from Avengers fatigue.

The fact that this thread had slipped out of my TIO list is testament to how much I hated The Three Cornered World. (I've nc'd.)

It's true I've been rather taken up with everything but fiction lately - but it's a long time since I've given up on a book and this one made me dread reading. Not something lost in translation - it was everything.

Anyway. It's done now. World's most boring book.

Oh ... No one here.

No matter. I have utterly failed this year anyway. (So far.)

I guess everyone has name changed so won't be coming back to tell of their successes?

I kept going with my list. I still have to read Herzog and The Sea, The Sea. I bought Herzog and plan to read it this month. I've sort of run out of enthusiasm for the Iris Murdoch one but I guess I will read it for a sense of completeness. I imagine I'll do it again for 2016.

Since I last posted, I've read To Kill a Mockingbird, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and I Capture the Castle, all of which I found disappointing. But I really liked The Little Stranger, and loved 84 Charing Cross Road and The Secret History. On my tbr pile to read before the end of the year are The Swimming Pool Library, The Little Friend, and Rebecca.