Tuesday, August 02, 2022

Classics Club: Ten Years Celebration

The Classics Club is celebrating ten years!!

I began blogging (first as An Experiment With The Well-Educated Mind and then Great Book Study) in January 2012, and then in March of that same year I found The Classics Club and immediately joined, thinking it would help me to be accountable to myself. I was on a quest to read through The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer, and most of the books on her list were classics that I had never read. I had been intimidated by them, and TCC sort of challenged me even more so.

In the end I have completed 2 1/2 Classics Club lists since 2012. I fail to remember what happened to my third list, but I think 2020 happened and my priorities flipped. I quit blogging and writing in early 2021, for about nine months, and then returned with this new blog, with freedom and books.

I have yet to write up a new CC list (though I may at the start of 2023) because things are still not settled right now, and we just moved from Cali to Florida, and we are still looking for a house. I don't trust myself to stay with the list right now. But I thought it would be fun to answer the questions, which you can find at The Classics Club blog.

The Questions


When did you join the Classics Club?  March 2012

What is the best classic book you’ve read for the club so far? Why? This question is impossible to answer because my mood changes and with that my experience. I can only give a broad answer and a sample (from 2012-2020): Anna Karenina / The Great Gatsby / Persuasion / 1984 / Walden / Uncle Tom's Cabin / Gone With the Wind / My Bondage and My Freedom / Far From the Madding Crowd / The House of Mirth. The reason why is because these are enjoyable, give a complete picture of a life or lives, and because memories of them continue to come to mind even when I least expect it. 

What is the first classic you ever read? The first classic I read for TCC is Don Quixote.

Which classic book inspired you the most? Anything by Frederick Douglass (He wrote three autobiographies.) / The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings by Olaudah Equiano / Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart.

What is the most challenging one you’ve ever read, or tried to read? I struggled with The Republic (Plato) and did not finish it.

Favourite movie adaptation of a classic? Least favorite? Favorite: Gone With the Wind / Far From the Madding Crowd / Least: Madame Bovary.

Which classic character most reminds you of yourself? Jo from Little Women / Scarlet of Gone With the Wind / Lizzy from Pride and Prejudice / Thoreau from Walden (minus the snarkiness).

Has there been a classic title you expected to dislike and ended up loving? Respecting? Appreciating? Moby Dick, especially after a re-read with Brona. <--because she dug so much and pulled out tons of amazing trivia that wasn't exactly trivial. 

Classic/s you are DEFINITELY GOING TO MAKE HAPPEN next year? This is a good question, especially if I plan to write a new list for 2023: I will definitely include poetry (because I am still working through TWEM): Blake, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Whitman. 

Favorite memory with a classic and/or your favourite memory with The Classics Club? My favorite memory with a classic is floating in the pool while reading Moby Dick for the first time. And I really enjoyed rereading One Hundred Years of Solitude in 2021 (and doing a read-along with Silvia) because initially I hated the book, but after rereading it, I changed my mind. 

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Head over to TCC to read more answers from members, or answer your own.

10 comments:

  1. I can relate to most of your favs. A few I have yet to get to.

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  2. Wow. You have been a member a long time---Good for you! I do hope your busy life will hit the pause button and you will get time to create a third list filled with books you can't wait to read and share with us.

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    1. Thanks, Deb. Me, too! I look forward to doing that again.

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  3. As I also love Far From the Madding Crowd and Persuasion, so great to see them listed as some of your favourites you've read for the club. 🥰

    As I have been on holiday for the last two and a bit weeks, I haven't got round to doing my CC 10 Year Celebration post, but I hope to have it up soon! 🤞

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    1. Hardy is one of my favorite authors. : )

      Hope you had a memorable holiday! I look forward to seeing your answers.

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  4. I'm glad to see you back blogging. We're connected on GR, of course, but it's easy for people's updates to get lost there -- plus, there's more content here! I'm glad you enjoyed Moby-Dick, though I suppose the pool helped. I soldiered through that one and derived entirely too much fun by writing a tongue-in-cheek review of it that treated it like a nonfiction title.

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    1. Thanks, Stephen. I went back and read your (I'd say) very precise review of MD as NF, even if sarcastic. I feel like three-fourths of it was NF, esp that whale anatomy chapter. Still, MD was quite a literary journey. Definitely mystic, as you called it. Even spiritual.

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  5. I enjoyed some of your favourites, too, but I've never been able to bring myself to read Walden after reading about his life - I can't even remember what it was but it made him seem rather fake. Poor man, I may be unfairly slandering him.

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    1. No, you were probably right. He skipped out on paying taxes, and he was a bit self-righteous. But in my youth, I was very much into solitude and nature (and still I am); so that is what attracted me to Walden. : )

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