Squeezing in just under the wire...
It's time for another Classics Club spin. I was off-grid for a few days there, and now I need to hurry up and figure out some spin possibilities. It's also a relatively quick turn-around spin, so I'm concentrating on short to medium-length books.
From my original Classics Club list:
I'm nearing the end of my first list and I won't pick the super long ones, but here are a few from my first Classics Club list:
1.) Willa Cather/The Lost Lady
2.) Willa Cather/One of Ours
3.) W. Somerset Maugham/The Razor's Edge
4.) Sir Walter Scott/Count Robert of Paris
5.) Honoré de Balzac/Cousin Bette
6.) Henryk Sienkewicz/Quo Vadis
7.) George Bernard Shaw/Major Barbara
Numbers 5, 6, 7 are already on my twenty books of summer list, so I'm expecting to read them soon anyway.
From a potential new Classics Club list:
I haven't made up a new list yet in earnest, but I've been thinking about things I might put on it. And anyway I'm tired of putting the same books THAT NEVER GET PICKED on spin lists. (I'm looking at you, Willa Cather.) So here are some new choices I've been considering. Some of these come from the list that Deb assembled after a discussion of classic non-fiction at the home blog a few months ago.
8.) John Ruskin/Unto This Last
9.) Thomas de Quincey/Recollections of the Lake Poets
10.) Dee Brown/Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
11.) Robert Pirsig/Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
12.) Konstantin Stanislavsky/My Life in Art
13.) Barbara Tuchman/A Distant Mirror
14.) Ernest Hemingway/A Moveable Feast
Some Other Oddballs...
Is Austen in August happening? A couple for that. (The Austen I most want to reread is Persuasion.) Since reading Alex Ross' Wagnerism, I've also been wanting to reread Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark. Mudpuddle lately has made want to read some classic American sea tales.
15.) J. E. Austen-Leigh/A Memoir of Jane Austen
16.) Jane Austen/Persuasion
17.) Willa Cather/The Song of the Lark
18.) Sholom Aleichem/In The Storm
19.) James Fenimore Cooper/Red Rover
20.) James Fenimore Cooper/The Pilot
Which look good to you? Which should I be sure not to miss?
Fingers crossed the spin lands on a Willa Cather this time. Or Persuasion, because Austen is always a good idea. :)
ReplyDeleteI may have to read Persuasion anyway...
DeleteZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a bit bizarre (in parts). But worth the read. I've read some of these authors, but no other books. Can't go wrong with Cather.
ReplyDeleteI've definitely been curious about the Pirsig & would be a good choice.
DeletePersuasion is my favorite JA (well, tied with P&P). I also really loved One of Ours, I wasn't expecting to love it because of the WWI setting but it's really not about the war. It won the Pulitzer but it doesn't get nearly enough attention any more, it's really good.
ReplyDeleteI may just have to read the Cather whether it spins up or not!
DeleteA Distant Mirror is a favorite of mine! I vote for that one. Persuasion is my favorite JA too, I've been thinking it's about time for a re-read...
ReplyDeleteEmma is the one I've reread most recently. It's been too long for Persuaasion!
DeleteNaturally, I wish you a Jane Austen :-)
ReplyDeleteHa!
DeleteI'm sorry to say but Quo Vadis is not short. Recollections of the Lake Poets sounds intriguing and I've been meaning to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for about 20 years! I've begun A Distant Mirror but sort of stalled on it. Mudpuddle and his sea tales have alot to answer for, don't they?!! I've been itching to read some sea tales since I began reading his reviews.
ReplyDeleteI didn't finished my last spin book but I read yours so hopefully that sort of counts. Travelling through the Cévennes was a nice trip this time of year!
Best of luck with the spin!
Quo Vadis is the longest one & I would have left it off except I think I'm already going to read it because I put it on my twenty books of summer list--which I'm behind on...
DeleteStevenson was pretty fun & I think that counts. I was going to read yours, too, but I got no further than downloading it, I'm afraid.
In any case I'm kind of hoping the spin overlaps with my books of summer list!
Seriously, no one reads James Fenimore Cooper any more, right? I tried to read The Last of the Mohicans decades ago but didn't get far. But my stamina for books is better now than when I was young.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess for your sake you get a Cather title? Isn't it funny how we let these challenges pick our reading for us - I do it too - when really the power is in our hands to read what we what, when we want, at any time?
Well...there is Mudpuddle. But I've read the whole Leatherstocking saga myself & kind of liked it. I think I've read Red Rover before but I'm not 100% certain.
DeleteI know: everything on the list is a book I would enjoy reading (I think) but it is a little weird to let some random number generator pick which one. OTOH, what book I read next before the spin lists felt pretty random, too...
wonderful choices, there... i'm chagrined i haven't been able to read Ms. Austen in spite of trying several times, mea culpa... the second time i read the de Quincy i didn't remember that i'd already read it a couple of times(it's like that) Ms. Tuchman's book was memorable. Pirsig was mind-moving; i must read more Ruskin...
DeleteWell, they announced the number--6--so it will be Quo Vadia. (Too bad about Red Rover, might have to read it soon anyway.) Lots of people have been reading Quo Vadis this spring & I was interested in it anyway...
DeleteI read Last of the Mohicans, and I'm never reading Cooper again.
DeleteWell...that's a strong reaction. C'mon, he's not that bad... ;-)
DeleteYay! You spun Quo Vadis. I'm almost finished it but I'll be interested to hear your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteI'll look for your review, too! I've been half following some of the tweets and things, but not very systematically.
Delete