Thursday, December 22, 2016

Back to the Classics 2016 Challenge - It's a Wrap


I give myself a C on this year's challenge.  I love reading classics and read more than show up on the challenge, but fitting them into categories proved to be a bit of a challenge.

I think 7 out of 12 is respectable but 5.5 were rereads, and 3 to 4 are generally considered children's fare.  Personally I don't think Jules Verne's book would be read by today's children, though I know it was a staple in years past.

I feel badly that I didn't get a translated classic read (I did get Emile Zola's The Paradise for this purpose, but ran out of time).  I also feel badly that I didn't get a non-white author of a classic done either.

1.  A 19th Century Classic - Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, reread

2.  A 20th Century Classic - By the Shores of Silver Lakeby Laura Ingalls Wilder, reread

3.  A classic by a woman author - Middlemarchby George Eliot, reread

4.  A classic in translation.

5.  A classic by a non-white author.

6.  An adventure classic - did a reread of Robert Louis Stevenson's incomparable Treasure Island, reread.

7.  A fantasy, science fiction, or dystopian classic.  Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, will never reread!

8.  A classic detective novel.

9.  A classic which includes the name of a place in the title. The Small House at Allington, by Anthony Trollope - book 5 in the Barsetshire novels.

10. A classic which has been banned or censored. I thought that Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes would qualify, but I couldn't find evidence that it had been banned or censored.

11. Re-read a classic you read in school (high school or college).  Emma by Jane Austen, reread.

12. A volume of classic short stories - Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories, by L.M. Montgomery, reread of the two stories that were chapters in Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Windy Poplars.

6 comments:

  1. 9 (by my count) out of 12 ain't bad! I agree with you about 20,000 Leagues...I must have read an abridged version as a child because as an adult I found it overly long and tedious.

    I have never read Treasure Island which I really need to remedy!

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    1. You're right--I did make it to 9! Oh well, I always was better at reading than counting :). Treasure Island is wonderful--it stands the test of time whereas 20,000 Leagues sinks like a stone.

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  2. You read some great books this year.

    many of my blogging friends participate in The Back to The Classics Challenge. I read so many Classics anyway, I should join in for 2017.

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  3. I think you did great! There's always next year for the others. :)
    Merry Christmas!

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  4. Nicely done Jane. Looking forward to everyone's choices for the 2017 categories.

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  5. I think you did great as well. At least this challenged pushed you to read more than you would have without it. Congratulations on finishing book 5 of Barsetshire. I'm just starting it after spending 2 years getting through Framley Parsonage, which I loved at the end. I will not take that long with A Small House!

    All the best for your reading adventures in 2017!

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