You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

Now I know everyone's TBR pile looks pretty much like this:


- especially after the last week. So lets get some of those pesky books that we have always meant to read, and we know would help us understand so many more pop culture references, not to mention make us seem much more clever and well read at parties or book groups (or to our library's security guard), out of the way over March.

NEGLECTED CLASSICS

For this challenge, I am defining classics as:

- Let's keep this simple. I found a succinct definition that said “A classic book is a book that is very well known and passed down through generations.” Another way, if you want the Rus definition, they are a book that has stood the test of time and is still considered to be pretty darn good.

- I'm making the cut off for this challenge 1963. So any books written in 1963 and earlier are eligible for this challenge. That's 50 years ago, which is a nice round number and a generation or two ago now.

Usual challenge rules apply:
1. The book may be in any format - paperback, ebook, audiobook.
2. The book may be in any genre (but of course some genres get you more points than others).
3. The book may NOT be combined with the Year Long Alphabet Challenge.
4. The book must be read between March 1 and March 31, 2013.

Genre
Poetry – 5 points
Play – 4 points
Gothic Horror – 3 points
Science Fiction/Fantasy – 2 points
Romance – 1 point

Date First Published
1699 –> dawn of time – 5 points
1799 –> 1700 – 4 points
1899 –> 1800 – 3 points
1939 –> 1900 – 2 points
1963 –> 1940 – 1 point

Author
You have read before and disliked – 5 points (add a bonus point if they redeemed themselves)
You have never read before – 4 points
Non-UK/US/Irish nationality – 3 points
Died before their 40th birthday – 2 points
Female – 1 point

Length
This is the version you actually read. If you are listening to an audio book, go by Goodreads' most popular edition.
600pp and over – 5 points
500-600pp – 4 points
400-500pp – 3 points
300-400pp – 2 points
200-300pp – 1 point
under 200pp – 0

Oh, this is good! I think I can get several off my shelves! Thanks!

Having listened to two classics during the Toppler and not enjoying either I'm in two minds about joining in. But I'm sure I can find one that I can read - it might be a short one though. I know for definite I will not be retreading the moors in Yorkshire.

Which is a pity, as being a Yorkshire lass (albeit transported to another country) that is the best place to be. I got in trouble the last time I was in England as my aunt who lived in Huddersfield repeated what I had said to her in confidence to her sister who lived in Devon. That the Yorkshire moors seemed to me the most real part of England "unlike the Thomas the Tank Engine South". Damn sibling competition.

However Wuthering Heights is on my physical bookshelf and I never got there so hats off to you Suzie.

But I agree with Ann, and actually think I will have to use the fruit machine to choose from my 30 or so owned classics that are incredibly neglected.

... I just randomised my list three times and each time The Catcher in the Rye came up number 1.

Guess I should take that hint lol

Judy wrote: "Looks like an excellent excuse to finally get off my shelf...."

I read Dracula under very strange circumstances. Well, some of it. It takes on in my mind a very surreal, classic horror place. However I think if you like modern horror you should read Dracula

So looking forward to your thoughts Judy if you choose it!

Judy wrote: "Looks like an excellent excuse to finally get off my shelf...."
Read this in january not too impressed really I wouldn't label it horror myself but I don't know what else to call it

Picked up Don Quixote at a $5 audible sale the other day should work

Oh boy! I have a few classics sitting on my shelves, in my iPad, and in audiobook. I may need to resort to the fruit machine also.

I have a number of free kindle classic downloads and some audiobooks which I'd like to get through. Dracula is also on my TBR list, plus The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina, and 1984.

This is a great challenge, Rusalka! ; )

Perfect! I will read No Name! *does little happy dance*

I'm going to read Collected Ghost Stories. Some classic horror sounds just right to me!

Squeeeeee! I've found one 'The Children of the new forest' and I own it. Surely a classic children's book can only be good.... Squeeeeee

Perhaps I will tackle The Iliad.

Hmmm....maybe Frankenstein?

Is date a publication date for the book or the edition/translation? I may be reading The History of the Kings of Britain - almost certainly not in the original latin. Originally published in the first half of the 12th century, the edition I'm looking at was published in the 1970s. Will that count?

Travis of NNY wrote: "Judy wrote: "Looks like an excellent excuse to finally get off my shelf...."
Read this in january not too impressed really I wouldn't label it horror myself but I don't know what else to call it "

I resorted to describing it as odd. small word - covers a multitude of sins...

Dracula I see as that old type of horror. The one that makes you slightly uncomfortable but it's not all up in your face.

Debra I'll be interested in what you think of that one. Lexx read it over Christmas. Second classic kind of book I've ever seen him read. The first was The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, which resulted in lots of interest from all manner of people when he was waiting for me in the uni pub reading it.

Helen, original publication date. Editions don't work for classics, as most of us won't be reading 18th Century versions of Austen. Nice little point earner with 1138.

love that pic you posted lol

just want to make sure- it's ok to read a book under 200 pgs for this challenge?

if so would love to read We Have Always Lived in the Castle

You can read under 200pp. You just don't get any points for Length. But I do know it's not the size that counts.

This is a great challenge. I just looked at my book shelves and saw I had 192 classics listed tbr. And I own a lot of them for some reason.

Oh I really like this challenge.
It's the perfect chance to finally read Jane Eyre!

Katrina wrote: "Oh I really like this challenge.
It's the perfect chance to finally read Jane Eyre!"

It is a lovely audible.

so how do u keep track of the points you earn, new here to challenges.

Question: Do we pick just one book or read many?

I would imagine the more you read the more points you get but I'm new so not sure

I think these challenges are for one book. If I understand correctly, you can read more than one and try to increase your score, but only one book counts. But I'm not positive on that.

There are some wonderful books mentioned in this topic! I will totally participate, I just need to decide what I want to read. I might read some Robert Louis Stevenson. Oh and I was going to read The Scarlet Pimpernel for a different challenge, so this could be the time! I'll keep an eye on this for ideas.

Yes, you total up the points for a single book. You may read more than one book for that challenge, but only your highest scoring book will count.

This is a hard one for me. The books I'm inclined to read (and already own) do not add up to many points. For instance, I have a translation of The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation, but almost 600 pages of verse is not exciting me. Most of the books I feel like I'd want to read score in the single digits. Sigh. I'll just have to wait and see.

Great challenge! I am definitely going to take part.

I think I will probably read and and hopefully if I have time.

Quick question: One of these books covers two of the tasks in the Author section. How would that work in terms of scoring? Would I get points for both tasks or just one?

Good morning all. Thanks Lara and Shanna, about one book counting. Exactly right. I will count your highest scoring book. So feel free to read a few and see what scores highest if you wish.

Sarah, On the 1st I will open a reporting thread that will be for you to paste in your points. Keep a running tally so we can double check things. I'll give you an example or two in the reporting thread when I make it. Hope you enjoy your first challenge!

Lisa, you count as many in the section that count. So in your example you note down:
Author
You have never read before – 4 points
Non-UK/US/Irish nationality – 3 points

And you would get 7 points for that section.

I understand Lara. I *may* read two books this month to deal with that issue. Seeing like Roz I have close to a hundred classics unread scattered around the place. Personally, I read what I want to read, not to get points. And I always get bogged down in the Illiad when he starts recounting battles and ships. It's like the begatting bits in the Bible.But then I love the rest of the story... tricksty.

can you clarify the period written part? It looks like years can count more than once as it is written now.

I'm going to give this a go by reading I think.

Sounds like fun! I'll have to check my TBR shelf for anything before 1963, I'm pretty sure I have a couple.

Sorry Beth. I will change it to Date First Published

Looking at when it was written not your edition.

Does that make it clearer?

Rusalka wrote: "Sorry Beth. I will change it to Date First Published

Looking at when it was written not your edition.

Does that make it clearer?"

No it's the Dawn of time to 1700s as one category and 1700s to 1800s as another. Does that mean dawn of time to 1699 or to 1700 and then 1700 or 1701 to 1799 or 1800 or does it mean dawn of time to 1799... etc.

Right. Sorry. Will clarify.

Don't write challenges after midnight ;)

Rusalka wrote: "Right. Sorry. Will clarify.

Don't write challenges after midnight ;)"

I figured it was something like that!

Question - are there points for chick-lit and romantic suspense, or do they fall under Romance?

Beth - it usually is. If things don't make sense, just assume I'm typing it at 2am and yell at me to go to bed.

Julia - Depending on what book you are referring to, it may fit in Romance. Now, romance in this challenge is probably not going to be your bodice ripping, throbbing sagas that we were all subjected to a couple of weeks ago (and if you are brave enough to pick up a book with any form of love after that week, you deserve a point). I'm referring to P&P style here. If the Romance is the main thing in the story, it will probably fit in that genre. Just have to limit down to 5 different ones for points. So I'll leave it to your discretion.

I think I'm going to go with

I'm thinking of Henrik Ibsen, not sure which plays, or , which I own.

I think I am going to read We . First published in 1921 maybe the first dystopian novel and I stumbled across it when searching for world literature classics.

Rusalka wrote: "Beth - it usually is. If things don't make sense, just assume I'm typing it at 2am and yell at me to go to bed.

Julia - Depending on what book you are referring to, it may fit in Romance. Now, rom..."

Thanks Rusalka!

I just checked my TBR shelf and I have more choices than I thought.

So many classics I haven't even heard of! Added them all. :( Bad for my mounting TBR.

Suzie, did you try audio of Carmilla? I found it to be good.

I'm reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The House of the Seven Gables. 15 points for 20,000 Leagues!

Denise wrote: "I'm reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The House of the Seven Gables. 15 points for 20,000 Leagues!"

You go girl!!!