Classics Club: A Spin!

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The Classics Club is throwing a spin!  What is that, you say?  Read on:

It’s easy. At your blog, by next Monday, Feb 18, list your choice of any twenty books you’ve left to read from your Classics Club list – in a separate post.

 This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books in February and March. (Details follow.) So, try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five Classics Club books you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, rereads, ancients — whatever you choose.)

 Next Monday, 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 April 1. We’ll have a check in or something in April, to see who made it the whole way and finished the spin book.

I think that's a fun idea--I like games like this.  So here is my list.  Some of them are so long there's no way I could read them in just 8 weeks, so I don't know what I'll do in that case. 

1-5 are books I've been putting off or that are kind of scary.
6-10 are books I really want to read! (Possibly scary also)
11-15 are books I don't actually even know anything about.  Goodness knows what will happen.
16-20 are books picked completely at random, by random.org.
  1. James Fenimore Cooper, 1826, The Last of the Mohicans.
  2. Chaim Potok, 1967, The Chosen.
  3. Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, (1859)
  4. E. M. Forster, A Passage to India. 
  5. Murasaki Shikubu, Japan, ca. 990.The Tale of Genji. 
  6.  Solzhenitsyn, 1958, The First Circle. 
  7. Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy. 
  8. Nikolai Gogol, Russia, 1842. Dead Souls. 
  9. C. J. L. Almqvist, The Queen's Diadem.
  10. George Eliot, 1860, The Mill on the Floss. 
  11. “Our Town,” Thornton Wilder (1938).
  12. Junichio Tanizaki, Japan, 1943. The Makioka Sisters
  13. Kaestner, Three Men in the Snow 
  14. Wole Soyinka, Ake: The Years of Childhood
  15. Mario Vargas Llosa, The Time of the Hero (or another work by Llosa).
  16. Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit.
  17. Ngugi wa Thiong'o, A Grain of Wheat.
  18. RK Narayan, India, 1935. The English Teacher. 
  19. 'Picnic At Hanging Rock', by Joan Lindsay, 
  20. William Faulkner, US, 1929. Light in August.
Wish me luck, and join in the game yourself!




Comments

  1. Karen K.February 12, 2013 at 6:14 PM

    Good luck!! I don't have any of those books on my Spin list, but The Makioka Sisters and The Chosen are on my TBR challenge list. I think I'm going to try and read The Makioka Sisters in May because it's Asian-Pacific American Heritage month and there are lots of events at the library where I work, so I'll try and feature that on my blog as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JeanFebruary 12, 2013 at 7:02 PM

    Oh good! I'll be interested to see what you think of it. I didn't know anything about it when it came up on the list, and I looked it up--now I'm kind of hoping it gets picked. Though I don't know where I can get a copy...

    ReplyDelete
  3. BronaFebruary 12, 2013 at 9:38 PM

    I hope it's no. 7 - A Suitable Boy is one of all time favourites, in fact probably my no.1 all time favourite book!!
    Also loved Picnic at Hanging Rock (are you Australian too?) and A Passage to India - good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. TeresaFebruary 13, 2013 at 5:38 AM

    I'm also quite scared of 'The Tale of Genji', it's a huge book and a classic... Talking of Asian lit, The Makioka Sisters has been on my wishlist for a while now, looking forward to your thoughts if you ever read it :)
    And 'A Suitable Boy' is great, I read it about four years ago and I remember it was a long but excellent reading! Actually, now I'm reading a novel in verse by Seth, The Golden Gate :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownFebruary 13, 2013 at 9:58 AM

    I had a hard time getting through The Chosen, although I don't know why because it wasn't really a difficult read. I don't think I even finished it, so I really need to give it another try.
    I'm sort of hoping they pick number 17 now, because I would really like to read your thoughts about Ngugi Wa Thiong'o. (I really should just read the book myself...but the next best thing is reading what someone else has to say about it, right?)

    ReplyDelete
  6. JeanFebruary 13, 2013 at 10:06 AM

    I know what you mean about 'Genji,' Teresa--in fact I'm not quite sure what to do about that one. The copy I was given--by my brother, I think?--is an abridgement. Normally I don't approve of them, but as it is I'm pretty intimidated. I don't know. Argh.

    Emily, you're ahead of me, as I've never even picked up The Chosen. I'd be interested to read Thiong'o, though.

    ReplyDelete
  7. CatFebruary 13, 2013 at 11:17 AM

    You have some interesting but scary titles on your list. Very brave to add A Suitable Boy - I have it on my CC list but didn't put it in the spin.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jennie K.February 16, 2013 at 5:27 PM

    I'm currently reading Little Dorrit. I am rather pleased with the novel, so if the spin is 16, don't worry.
    Jennie K

    ReplyDelete

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