The Classics Club Spin #37

I am almost completing my annual task of tax reporting at work, and I think I deserve some excitement, that is…. The Classics Club Spin! I will allow the Spin to decide which book I will read for May. But first…

What is Classics Spin?
It’s easy. At your blog, before next Sunday 21st April, 2024 create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list. This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period. On Sunday 21th, April we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by the 2nd June, 2024.

My list:

--UPDATE: I'll be reading: Stormy, Misty's Foal-- 

1. A Room with a View (E.M. Forster) – DNF several years ago, just because I was not 1n the right mood.
2. Frenchman’s Creek (Daphne du Maurier) – planning to read for Daphne du Maurier Reading Week (if happening).
3. Lucy Gayheart (Willa Cather) – I used to do a personal Willa Cather reading month, and been meaning to start again this year.
4. The Cornish Coast Murder (John Bude) – planning to read for A Century of Books, year 1935.
5. Queen Lucia (E.F. Benson)
6. Cranford (Elizabeth Gaskell)
7. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (Helene Hanff)
8. Stormy, Misty's Foal (Marguerite Henry)
9. Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbon)
10. The Enchanted Barn (Grace Livingston Hill)
11. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg)
12. Cider with Rosie (Laurie Lee)
13. Miss Marjoribanks (Mrs. Oliphant)
14. Excellent Women (Barbara Pym)
15. The Nine Tailors (Dorothy L. Sayer)
16. Rhododendron Pie (Margery Sharp)
17. The Black Arrow (Robert Louis Stevenson)
18. The Reef (Edith Wharton)
19. A Woman of No Importance (Oscar Wilde)
20. Maltese Falcon (Dashiel Hammet)

Spot a favorite or two? Which ones do you hope the Spin pick for me? I’m hoping for no. 2 and 4, but any book will be nice!

Classics Club Spin #21, and a Tough Decision!

The next Classics Club Spin has come at the perfect time when I really needed it! The second semester of the year has been very hectic for me - and it will be until the end of the year; it might even stretch to early next year. I am very exhausted right now - more emotionally than physically, and my reading mood has kept altering between calm-and-soothing ones and light-fast ones. It means I always need to have two books to read simultaneously; and I can shift between books two or three times in a day. Really crazy, I know! And that's why, I was very excited to have the 21st Classics Club Spin!

Here's my list:

5 Random Classics

01. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

02. The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams

03. The Crucible - Arthur Miller

04. The Deerslayer - James Fennimore Cooper

05. Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs

5 Victorian Classics

06. Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte

07. Hard Times - Charles Dickens

08. Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy

09. Silas Marner - George Eliot

10. The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane

5 Gothic Classics

11. The Man Who Was Thursday - G.K. Chesterton

12. The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins

13. We Have Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

14. The Mysteries of Udolpho - Ann Radcliffe

15. Othello - William Shakespeare

5 Modern Classics

16. Under the Net - Iris Murdoch

17. The Pearl - John Steinbeck

18. The Beautiful and Damned - F. Scott Fitzgerald

19. This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald

20. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

Which one I look forward the most? I don't know - I say, I'm quite excited to read any number the spin would get me. Maybe, I'd rather having something gothic to read for #RIPXIV. But, I will read from no. 11-15 anyway, so.... anything is welcomed.

Now it comes to the hard decision I have mentioned in the title.

I have made the toughest decision in my reading life, to sign out from Moby Dick Readalong. The thing is, I don't have the right mood for deep reading right now - what with my hectic life, and also with menopausal-depressions I have to cope with. It's not a regular thing - thank God! - but still, it comes now and then.

Actually I have been doing quite well with the readalong so far - I have even managed to post weekly updates, and was generally having fun with the other participants. But entering chapter 26 or 27, I began to lose interest - I don't know why; I believe it has nothing to do with the book - it's just me. And I was thinking that we are approaching the end of year, which is usually the busiest days at work. Then I realized that I wouldn't have the energy to cope with it. I have choices, of course, I can just have a light reading through it. But I have done that years ago (this was my second read). If it doesn't give me joy anymore, why should I continue? 

I feel sorry to Brona - I have been waiting for this for a long time, and even half encouraged her to do it, perhaps, but now I must put it down. I am disappointed too, but... yeah, I have no choice. Another thing, I have mentioned earlier that I'm planning to have an ambitious project of reading Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle in 4-5 years, starting next year. Right now I'm very excited! I have prepared the materials, and can hardly wait till January. I might begin earlier with my Cambridge Companion to Zola, just to get the outline of what I must focus on next year!

Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy my readings as much as I can - no ambitious task for the moment. Good luck with your readalongs, events, or spins! :)

The Classics Club Spin #20

Alright, I’m not supposed to squeeze any book into my tight schedule at present. Yet, who can ever resist The Classics Club Spin, although I have said earlier that I’d skip this round? Following Brona’s example of picking only “slim volumes” from her list, I tried to do the same. So here’s my list, consisting of books under or equal to 300s pages.

1. The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)
2. Othello (William Shakespeare)
3. Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)
4. Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neele Hurston)
5. The Warden (Anthony Trollope)
6. The Crucible (Arthur Miller)
7. All the Pretty Horses (Cormack McCarthy)
8. The Glass Menagerie (Tennessee Williams)
9. Persuasion (Jane Austen)
10. Hard Times (Charles Dickens)
11. The Man Who Was Thursday (G.K. Chesterton)
12. This Side of Paradise (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
13. Agnes Grey (Anne Brönte)
14. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson)
15. Silas Marner (George Eliot)
16. Murder in the Cathedral (T.S. Eliot)
17. My Antonia (Willa Cather)
18. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
19. The Cannery Row (John Steinbeck)
20. Under The Net (Iris Murdoch)

Not all of the books are on my shelf at the present, I might have to buy the e-book from Playbooks if my copy has not arrived in time; but that’s OK. My bigger concern is whether I can make it by 31^st May, as I’d be reading Gaskell too next month…. Anyway, it’s just for fun, isn’t? And for that, I’m in!