Last year on my birthday I found an old copy of the Tenant of Wildfell Hall at my favorite used bookstore. It's leatherbound, and from 1912, with an inscription of the original owners name on the cover page, and I got it for $7!!!
But, it feels so special and the onion skin pages feel so delicate that I'm almost afraid to read it, because what if I ruin it? So, I haven't yet. I think I may end up having to get a different copy for reading and that one can be my special really cool old book/ piece of history on my shelf that I just look at sometimes.
Ooooh, such a good book! I support the idea of getting a crappy paperback or the digital version from Gutenberg to actually read. The 1912 edition sounds lovely!
Years ago I gave myself permission to stop beating myself up over the classics I have yet to read. If one comes at the right time, great! If not, well, I'll get over it. LOL.
I have been meaning to read the American classic Lonesome Dove as I’ve heard it’s a wonderful read. I even have a copy on my bookshelf—but it’s a mass market paperback with its tiny tiny font which prevents me picking it up. I need to just get a better copy or ebook version and read it!!!
This is on my list too! Lonesome Dove and The Count of Monte Christo both have me hesitant because of the length. I don't mind a long book but I am a slow reader so it's a high opportunity cost.
I bet The Count of Monte Christo was on my TBR for 20 years! About 5 years ago, I decided I was going to dive in. (I am a very slow reader.) I decided to both listen and read the book which was easy and worked out so well. I was bowled over by it! It is SO wonderful!! I cannot recommend it enough!
You just said what I was going to say! CoMC is supposed to be amazing, but if that is what I pick, it severely impacts my TBR, which is already frighteningly long.
I have wanted to read this for years but I grew up with movies of that time and place and they made me sad. I'm afraid Lonesome will bring back the sadness of Shane.
I keep hearing such good things about this book too! I want to make sure to read it someday. I'd definitely want something other than a mass market paperback too!
quite frankly I could spend an entire hour listing all the classics I've meant to read and haven't, mostly out of fear and burn out a long time ago in undergrad. Top of the list are Middlemarch and something Dostoyevsky.
HOWEVER.
After reading The Age of Innocence with Haley at Closely Reading, I have new found confidence in my ability to understand and actually enjoy classics - if you are struggling to get started I can't recommend her Substack enough!!
I just read it. It's not bad. Much more accessible writing than I thought it would be. I recommend finding someone to talk to about it when you're done, because I didn't find it all that great of a story, TBH, but the discussions you can have about it are excellent. It's a great pick for a book club, especially if you talk about the Romantic Period, Gothic literature, and the circumstances in which the book was written. Plus, the author's life was highly unusual for the time and raised-eyebrow interesting.
Pride & Prejudice. (and all Jane Austen books) Sorry Mel! I think the hype that surrounds them has me worried that if I don't like it I'm out of the "club". It sounds silly now that I've written it out! I even have a friend who owns a shop called "The Lady Jane Shop" and I haven't even told her my secret.
No apologies necessary. I've only read three of them! And my dirty secret is that I prefer the screen adaptations — although I do enjoy the audio of Sense & Sensibility.
That is exactly what I was going to say. I have one even downloaded and I don’t know if I can bring myself to do it. Afraid of being bored. It just seems like there’s never a right time to read it especially after coming off reading a thriller.
This comment makes me so sad! Read it! It's wonderful and so many people have loved it very deeply. If you don't like it, it's ok! Just don't tell anyone. 😆
Years ago I had tried listening to Anna Kerenina and Middlemarch on audio, and the combination of certain tedious passages and my wandering thoughts caused me to abandon both. Just wrong format/wrong time for me. I 've been meaning to read the print versions, but that pesky TBR list has kept me from it...though I did just read The Picture of Dorian Gray and am currently reading Frankenstein, so I'm checking some of the classics off!
Dave, you must read Proust. I started it this summer after reading Clara Reads Proust by Stephane Carlier, and I only read it at lunchtime, never bedtime or in the car. Let yourself meander through the book, relax into it and set no goals. Don't worry if you never finish it.
The big classic that I can't get into is Crime and Punishment, and I have never finished The Count of Monte Cristo. However, I am 60, so I figure "What's the point?" I am going to read what I love. The heart wants what the heart wants, and it won't read what it doesn't want. You can apply the same thinking to any book.
Thanks for the gentle push! -- I'm going to finish the book I'm reading now for spooky season, and then see if I can wander into a little Proust... - Dave
We have almost finished this year's readalong – two months to go to the end, it runs Jan-Dec, 361 chapters. But I'm running it again next year. It will be my third year hosting a slow read of War and Peace.
We don't meet up each day, I run a daily chat – and people drop in and out of it when they feel like it. Then I post weekly updates with resources and discussion, linked to plot summaries for each character. Chapters are between 3-5 pages mostly, and take perhaps 10 or 15 minutes to read each day.
I have a few but top of list are The Count of Monte Cristo (just the length is keeping me from picking that one up right now), Great Expectations (I thought I hated Dickens but after reading A Tale of Two Cities this year, I decided I need to give another of his a chance), and A Room With a View (no particular reason I haven't read it but after reading Howard's End this year I'm going to make sure to read it next year). And Dracula but that's up next on my TBR!
Oh! I hate Dickens! Are you telling me that ATo2C is the gateway Dickens book? I want to like him, but there's just so many....words. (I really struggle with Victorian authors.) Maybe I should try that one. I also read Howard's End and I liked it.
Maybe?? I did listen to ATo2C on audio so that probably helped a lot. I'm not saying I loved his prose, but I really want to give another one a chance and GE is the one I'm most interested in. I've read A Christmas Carol (but it might have been an abridged version?) and, I think, Hard Times in college (this was where I decided I hated Dickens' writing, I think).
How was Howard's End? I LOVE ARWAV, and I've been thinking I should branch out in EM Forster's works. The audio of ARWAV is fantastic if you need a nudge to read it :-)
Howard's End is really good! All about how human connection can transcend class. I enjoyed it. I have a sweet story about that book. I was reading it when I met my husband, and on our first date (a blind date!) I learned he had just finished reading it! It was one of several early signs it was meant to be. ❤️
I find classics daunting, especially because I'm a slow reader. I remember finally listening to Pride & Prejudice on audible after seeing the movie (blush). You just inspired me though, because Anna Karenina has been on my list for a while and I have one credit left from Audible before I cancel. I'm told this one is really well-read by Maggie Gyllenhaal, so I'm going in for it!
East of Eden is also on my list. I once read (go figure!) a motivational book where the author said he put a tome (maybe War & Peace?) next to his bedside and since the chapters were short (does anyone have a classic like this?) he could hack away at this book a little at a time.
In the same vein (this isn't a classic per se), a friend of mine recently recommended the book The Memoirs of Cleopatra (1139 pages!) I bought that one second-hand and am keeping it on my nightstand to tackle one night at a time.
So I guess what's keeping me from reading classics and long books is an intimidation factor - I need to make the easily digestible - maybe listen on audio without the fear of having to return to the library too quickly or keeping it on my bedside table to read in snack-size portions. :-)
Can confirm that War and Peace's chapters are indeed short! The book group I run on Substack reads it a chapter a day for a whole year (it has 361 chapters). It's a great way to tackle a classic, and it is an amazing book. We will be doing it again next year if you are tempted!
I’m choosing an entire author as my “I’ve been meaning to read” regret. Charles Dickens. I have only read Bleak House because of a readalong, not expecting to LOVE it. I have attempted a few others and am currently trying very hard to read A Tale of Two Cities as a readalong, and am struggling mightily. Charles Dickens was my dad’s favorite author and it pained him that his children did not have the same rabid obsession. He was a British Literature professor and a Dickens pusher. (He couldn’t understand my love of Jane Austen.) I may get through them all, some day.
A great motivator for reading classic books is to belong to a classics book club. Mine meets monthly so we read around 12 classics a year, a couple of which I have suggested. Some of the books can be a slog but I never regret having read them. They are classics for a reason!
Dave belonged to a bookclub called 'Required Reading Revisited,' and that was his experience, too. Having more life under his belt and having people to talk to about the books really changed the reading experience for the better.
Don Quixote. I purchased the book several years ago, and four different times I've started it, or picked it up from where I last left off, so I have read about half of it. And as a former high school Spanish teacher, I have taught excerpts from it. But I just can't seem to find it in me to read it to the end.
War and peace. I’ve read Tolstoy and many other Russian authors but I think the titular topic (war) and the volume’s length are what’s keeping me from starting it.
If you decide to take it on, Louise, my book group Footnotes and Tangents will read it next year, a chapter a day (there are 361 chapters) – and the theme of war isn't quite what you might imagine.
Last year on my birthday I found an old copy of the Tenant of Wildfell Hall at my favorite used bookstore. It's leatherbound, and from 1912, with an inscription of the original owners name on the cover page, and I got it for $7!!!
But, it feels so special and the onion skin pages feel so delicate that I'm almost afraid to read it, because what if I ruin it? So, I haven't yet. I think I may end up having to get a different copy for reading and that one can be my special really cool old book/ piece of history on my shelf that I just look at sometimes.
I do this. Hard copies are for looking at and kindle copies are for reading. I drop my kindle. But I couldn't bear it if I dropped a book I love 😄
Ooooh, such a good book! I support the idea of getting a crappy paperback or the digital version from Gutenberg to actually read. The 1912 edition sounds lovely!
I have a beautiful edition of A Hundred Years of Solitude next to my bed that I've moved from room to room for years and have never opened.
Years ago I gave myself permission to stop beating myself up over the classics I have yet to read. If one comes at the right time, great! If not, well, I'll get over it. LOL.
No beatings here! There are classics I know I will never read. Unpopular opinion: I cannot get through Dickens.
But some Dickens are so easy and funny!
I have been meaning to read the American classic Lonesome Dove as I’ve heard it’s a wonderful read. I even have a copy on my bookshelf—but it’s a mass market paperback with its tiny tiny font which prevents me picking it up. I need to just get a better copy or ebook version and read it!!!
I love to read doorstoppers in ebook — way less intimidating and the highlighting/searching really helps with those looooooong books.
This is on my list too! Lonesome Dove and The Count of Monte Christo both have me hesitant because of the length. I don't mind a long book but I am a slow reader so it's a high opportunity cost.
I bet The Count of Monte Christo was on my TBR for 20 years! About 5 years ago, I decided I was going to dive in. (I am a very slow reader.) I decided to both listen and read the book which was easy and worked out so well. I was bowled over by it! It is SO wonderful!! I cannot recommend it enough!
Listening + reading is such a smart way to go! How fun that you loved it!
You just said what I was going to say! CoMC is supposed to be amazing, but if that is what I pick, it severely impacts my TBR, which is already frighteningly long.
I listened to the Count over many hours and loved it.
Those are two of mine also and it is because of the length.
This book is so good. It's a wonderful read.
Yes, do! It’s my favorite book.
I have wanted to read this for years but I grew up with movies of that time and place and they made me sad. I'm afraid Lonesome will bring back the sadness of Shane.
I recently got Lonesome Dove as my October pick for Audible. That way I can listen a bit at a time
I keep hearing such good things about this book too! I want to make sure to read it someday. I'd definitely want something other than a mass market paperback too!
quite frankly I could spend an entire hour listing all the classics I've meant to read and haven't, mostly out of fear and burn out a long time ago in undergrad. Top of the list are Middlemarch and something Dostoyevsky.
HOWEVER.
After reading The Age of Innocence with Haley at Closely Reading, I have new found confidence in my ability to understand and actually enjoy classics - if you are struggling to get started I can't recommend her Substack enough!!
https://haleyalarsen.substack.com/
Frankenstein. I'm not sure what is holding me back. So many books, so little time?
I just read it. It's not bad. Much more accessible writing than I thought it would be. I recommend finding someone to talk to about it when you're done, because I didn't find it all that great of a story, TBH, but the discussions you can have about it are excellent. It's a great pick for a book club, especially if you talk about the Romantic Period, Gothic literature, and the circumstances in which the book was written. Plus, the author's life was highly unusual for the time and raised-eyebrow interesting.
I feel that.
Pride & Prejudice. (and all Jane Austen books) Sorry Mel! I think the hype that surrounds them has me worried that if I don't like it I'm out of the "club". It sounds silly now that I've written it out! I even have a friend who owns a shop called "The Lady Jane Shop" and I haven't even told her my secret.
No apologies necessary. I've only read three of them! And my dirty secret is that I prefer the screen adaptations — although I do enjoy the audio of Sense & Sensibility.
That is exactly what I was going to say. I have one even downloaded and I don’t know if I can bring myself to do it. Afraid of being bored. It just seems like there’s never a right time to read it especially after coming off reading a thriller.
I recommend the audio if you decide to give it a go!
Pride and Prejudice is great on audio. It's funny! Juliet Stevenson is my favorite narrator but Rosamund Pike was also good.
Agree! I love Juliet S and the Rosamund Pike books — S&S and P&P — are SO good.
Audio might be the way to go. Thanks!
Thank you for the encouragement. I need all the help I can get. Lol I’ll check out audio.
This comment makes me so sad! Read it! It's wonderful and so many people have loved it very deeply. If you don't like it, it's ok! Just don't tell anyone. 😆
Years ago I had tried listening to Anna Kerenina and Middlemarch on audio, and the combination of certain tedious passages and my wandering thoughts caused me to abandon both. Just wrong format/wrong time for me. I 've been meaning to read the print versions, but that pesky TBR list has kept me from it...though I did just read The Picture of Dorian Gray and am currently reading Frankenstein, so I'm checking some of the classics off!
Congratulations! Dorian Gray!!! *throws flowers at your feet 😄
Dave, you must read Proust. I started it this summer after reading Clara Reads Proust by Stephane Carlier, and I only read it at lunchtime, never bedtime or in the car. Let yourself meander through the book, relax into it and set no goals. Don't worry if you never finish it.
The big classic that I can't get into is Crime and Punishment, and I have never finished The Count of Monte Cristo. However, I am 60, so I figure "What's the point?" I am going to read what I love. The heart wants what the heart wants, and it won't read what it doesn't want. You can apply the same thinking to any book.
Thanks for the gentle push! -- I'm going to finish the book I'm reading now for spooky season, and then see if I can wander into a little Proust... - Dave
War and Peace. I have a copy...just waiting for that right moment ):
Maybe next year, Jeanine? I run a group reading it a chapter a day – it's an extraordinarily rich way to enjoy the book.
How far along are you, Simon?
We have almost finished this year's readalong – two months to go to the end, it runs Jan-Dec, 361 chapters. But I'm running it again next year. It will be my third year hosting a slow read of War and Peace.
Do you 'meet-up' once a month? If so then, roughly 30 chapters a month? It's around 1200 pages, is that right? Thanks.
We don't meet up each day, I run a daily chat – and people drop in and out of it when they feel like it. Then I post weekly updates with resources and discussion, linked to plot summaries for each character. Chapters are between 3-5 pages mostly, and take perhaps 10 or 15 minutes to read each day.
Here's the home page to the group: https://footnotesandtangents.substack.com/p/war-and-peace
Good idea to run a chat on it. And nice that people can check in and out as they're reading. I'll check your site. Thanks again!
I have a few but top of list are The Count of Monte Cristo (just the length is keeping me from picking that one up right now), Great Expectations (I thought I hated Dickens but after reading A Tale of Two Cities this year, I decided I need to give another of his a chance), and A Room With a View (no particular reason I haven't read it but after reading Howard's End this year I'm going to make sure to read it next year). And Dracula but that's up next on my TBR!
Oh! I hate Dickens! Are you telling me that ATo2C is the gateway Dickens book? I want to like him, but there's just so many....words. (I really struggle with Victorian authors.) Maybe I should try that one. I also read Howard's End and I liked it.
Maybe?? I did listen to ATo2C on audio so that probably helped a lot. I'm not saying I loved his prose, but I really want to give another one a chance and GE is the one I'm most interested in. I've read A Christmas Carol (but it might have been an abridged version?) and, I think, Hard Times in college (this was where I decided I hated Dickens' writing, I think).
How was Howard's End? I LOVE ARWAV, and I've been thinking I should branch out in EM Forster's works. The audio of ARWAV is fantastic if you need a nudge to read it :-)
Howard's End is really good! All about how human connection can transcend class. I enjoyed it. I have a sweet story about that book. I was reading it when I met my husband, and on our first date (a blind date!) I learned he had just finished reading it! It was one of several early signs it was meant to be. ❤️
I find classics daunting, especially because I'm a slow reader. I remember finally listening to Pride & Prejudice on audible after seeing the movie (blush). You just inspired me though, because Anna Karenina has been on my list for a while and I have one credit left from Audible before I cancel. I'm told this one is really well-read by Maggie Gyllenhaal, so I'm going in for it!
East of Eden is also on my list. I once read (go figure!) a motivational book where the author said he put a tome (maybe War & Peace?) next to his bedside and since the chapters were short (does anyone have a classic like this?) he could hack away at this book a little at a time.
In the same vein (this isn't a classic per se), a friend of mine recently recommended the book The Memoirs of Cleopatra (1139 pages!) I bought that one second-hand and am keeping it on my nightstand to tackle one night at a time.
So I guess what's keeping me from reading classics and long books is an intimidation factor - I need to make the easily digestible - maybe listen on audio without the fear of having to return to the library too quickly or keeping it on my bedside table to read in snack-size portions. :-)
Can confirm that War and Peace's chapters are indeed short! The book group I run on Substack reads it a chapter a day for a whole year (it has 361 chapters). It's a great way to tackle a classic, and it is an amazing book. We will be doing it again next year if you are tempted!
Very cool!
It took me many, many attempts to read Anna Karenina, but it was worth it. You can do it!
I’m choosing an entire author as my “I’ve been meaning to read” regret. Charles Dickens. I have only read Bleak House because of a readalong, not expecting to LOVE it. I have attempted a few others and am currently trying very hard to read A Tale of Two Cities as a readalong, and am struggling mightily. Charles Dickens was my dad’s favorite author and it pained him that his children did not have the same rabid obsession. He was a British Literature professor and a Dickens pusher. (He couldn’t understand my love of Jane Austen.) I may get through them all, some day.
I have a really hard time with Dickens. It just run out of steam at some point. Except A Christmas Carol, which i love very much.
A great motivator for reading classic books is to belong to a classics book club. Mine meets monthly so we read around 12 classics a year, a couple of which I have suggested. Some of the books can be a slog but I never regret having read them. They are classics for a reason!
Dave belonged to a bookclub called 'Required Reading Revisited,' and that was his experience, too. Having more life under his belt and having people to talk to about the books really changed the reading experience for the better.
I try to read at least one per year. I like the idea of a classics book club though!
Don Quixote. I purchased the book several years ago, and four different times I've started it, or picked it up from where I last left off, so I have read about half of it. And as a former high school Spanish teacher, I have taught excerpts from it. But I just can't seem to find it in me to read it to the end.
War and peace. I’ve read Tolstoy and many other Russian authors but I think the titular topic (war) and the volume’s length are what’s keeping me from starting it.
If you decide to take it on, Louise, my book group Footnotes and Tangents will read it next year, a chapter a day (there are 361 chapters) – and the theme of war isn't quite what you might imagine.