Sunday, October 13, 2024

Classics Club Spin #39


It's time for another spin! The rules are here. Mine's an all-over-the-map kind of list, and the only organization is chronological:

1.) Apollonius Rhodius/Argonautica (3rd century BC)
2.) Lucan/On the Civil War (Pharsalia) (65 AD)
3.) Statius/Thebaid (90s AD)
4.) Luiz Vaz de Camões/The Lusiads (1572)
5.) John Ruskin/Unto This Last (1860) 
6.) Elizabeth Gaskell/Wives and Daughters (1864-1866)
7.) Robert Louis Stevenson/An Inland Voyage (1878)
8.) Machado de Assis/Memoirs of Brás Cubas (1881)
9.) Benito Pérez Galdós/That Bringas Woman (1884)
10.) Knut Hamsun/Hunger (1890)
11.) R. Austin Freeman/The Red Thumb Mark (1907)
12.) E. Philips Oppenheim/The Great Impersonation (1920)
13.) Andrei Bely/Petersburg (1922)
14.) Mikhail Bulgakov/Heart of a Dog (1925)
15.) Dawn Powell/A Time to be Born (1942)
16.) Eudora Welty/Delta Wedding (1946)
17.) Halldor Laxness/The Fish Can Sing (1957)
18.) Harry Mark Petrakis/A Dream of Kings (1966)
19.) Ismail Kadare/The Siege (1970)
20.) Robert Pirsig/Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)
 
I'm kind of keen on 1, 4, or 19 at the moment, but really I expect any of them to be a good read--I didn't put anything terribly challenging on the list. (I think?) Next month there's a Norwegian literature event so 10 would work, too.

Which have you read? Which look good to you?

14 comments:

  1. I haven't read a single one of your books but there are some good authors. I love Knut Hamsun and Ismail Kadaré, so maybe you will get one of their books?

    Here is my list:
    https://momobookblog.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-classics-club-classics-spin-39.html

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    1. Those would be good spins! I've been keen on another Kadare since there were various retrospectives after he passed away.

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  2. As a souther girl, I hope you get Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty. It looks the most interesting to me.

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    1. It would be a good choice! Looking forward to seeing your list.

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  3. Here's hoping you spin a good one! :D

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  4. awesome list! I have read only 3.
    You know about Norway in November, right? : https://dolcebellezza.blogspot.com/2024/09/norway-in-november-sign-up-post.html.
    Would be perfect for Knut Hamsun (I read it in my teens).
    Here is my list:
    https://wordsandpeace.com/2024/10/15/the-classics-club-the-classics-spin-39/

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    1. The Knut Hamsum would be perfect & a good spin.

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  5. I love your photo, so enigmatic. :) I really liked Wives and Daughters is a wonderful novel, even though sadly slightly unfinished. Some of your other picks are on my CC list -- I've been meaning to read more Hamsun for years.

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    1. Those would be good choices. I didn't check but I suspect Wives and Daughters is the longest on that list, though... ;-)

      Erechtheum is a very enigmatic owl.

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  6. I would like to carve out a space for more classics, but I also don't want to read fewer new books...so there's the rub.

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    1. And you already have a truly heroic reading program. But I would really miss not reading classic & backlist sorts of books.

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  7. I only have a couple of your titles on my TBR but I always enjoy seeing your wide-ranging choice of classics. I'm particularly curious about the Welty.

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    1. I may have to read that soon anyway. I liked the one Welty I've read.

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