The Classics Club Project: Progress #1

It’s been two months since I started The Classics Club Project, hosted by Jillian, of which I’m proudly announce that I have read six of 100 books from the list, and right now am in the middle of the seventh. Yayyy!!

On March, 8^th I posted my original list of 100 classics for five years reading. However on the progress, I can’t help to—somehow—add more and more books to the original list. The expanded list has now reached thirteen. At this moment I won’t change the original list yet, and will just add any books I find interesting to the expanded list time to time. When the expanded list should reach 50, then I will update the original list. So far, this is my progress report:

March

The first book I read after joining the project was L’Assommoir (The Drunkard) by Emile Zola. I spent two whole weeks to finish it, and that’s why I only read one book that month. L’Assommoir has been shockingly affected me, that I could not turn into any other classics for sometime. I only grabbed some light readings until April came…

April

The second book for the project was The Great Gatsby. Although it’s only 200 something pages, I really enjoyed it that it took me a week or so to finish it. I often re-read a paragraph that I didn’t quite get the meaning or I just loved the scene. Overall, The Great Gatsby has been the most enjoyable reading for the project so far.

After that I read A Midsummer Night’s Dream of Shakespeare, which—I must confess—I didn’t quite enjoy. It’s been the first Shakespeare I read, and I have mistakenly picked the comedy one while I know I never quite fond of comedy or satire.

End of April I went into Alexandre Dumas’ The Man In The Iron Mask. Despite so many obstacles to read it, I found the book quite enjoyable.

May

This month I managed to finish two more books: Nobody’s Boy by Hector Malot and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Actually I have expected quite much from Nobody’s Boy, I thought it would be quite emotionally, however I’m quite disappointed that Malot seemed to write it for children or pre-teen. The story is good, but I cannot deeply moved by it.

I have a personal habit of posting my classics book review on the birthday of the author. It’s like my personal gift for those great authors. For May, I read TheAdventures of Sherlock Holmes for an event I have hosted together with Melisa for Indonesian classics reading community (Baca Klasik). And as Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday is on 22 May, I will post my review only on that date, although I have finished the book last week.

Right now I am in the middle of The Color Purple, participating in the readalong hosted by Bettina. As the readalong will end on May 31^st, I will surely finish this book by this month. So far I like it, not as shockingly as L’Assommoir perhaps, but very touching.

Well, that’s it. Six books for two months, and if I can keep up the pace, I’ll finish my 100 books list by three years! That’s why an expanded list seems reasonable, no?