It might be quite fun to have a year long Classic reading challenge - with a chapter by chapter read-along and analysis.
Please post your thoughts, ideas of books to read -it can be one long book or several shorter books....
If enough folk are interested I would love some volunteers to move it forward -rather like we do for the Outlander chapter analysis...

Please post your thoughts - we've plenty of time to have a good think about it.

We could always try "War and Peace "

I'd actually love that! I've been wanting to listen to War and Peace, but I hadn't had access to it. However, I think it's close to being finished at librivox.org so I should be good to go before the beginning of 2011. And, since that is free and downloadable, I could listen along without having to worry about a due date. I say we go for it.

I think this is a fabulous idea. I read War and Peace eighteen years ago and would really enjoy reading it again. I actually have a goal to return to the american classics ("Mark Twain" is probably my favorite author), but I think I could manage one chapter a week for W&P. I might even participate in the discussion instead of just reading!

A chapter a week would be good. I decided to re-read as many classics as possible, especially now that Barnes & Noble has a buy 2 get 1 free classics program. When I bought Wuthering Heights, I also bought Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy) and The Secret Garden. I am not particular about which classic, but Thomas Hardy and John Steinbeck are my favorites.

My one concern about a chapter a week is that it make take us several years to finish. I don't know how many chapters there are in total, but there are at least 15 Books and the first has 28 chapters and the 14th has 19. So, I think there are quite a lot of them. Maybe we should aim for 2 a week? Some seem to be pretty short because the audio files are under 10 minutes long in some cases, so it might not be too much of a hardship. Maybe someone who has read it, or who has the actual book could get a better idea?

that maybe W&P would take us forever to read

but we could start off small with something easier - I would love to read some American Classics - apart from Uncle Tom's Cabin years ago and To kill a Mocking bird I haven't read anything else - any suggestions?

I'd still like to do War & Peace since I've been wanting to read that one, but we might need to do a few short chapters per week to make it feasible. I wish I had a copy of the book to get an idea of how many chapters there are and their length. . .

The other one that I am considering when I finish my current audiobook is actually Uncle Tom's Cabin, so if we think we might do that, let me know and I'll wait until we start (I have a list of other audiobooks to listen to, so it's no hardship to wit). I just checked my "waiting list" for audiobooks and the only real American classic that jumped out at me was Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt. Haven't read or listened to it yet, but a friend who was a lit major said it was good, for whatever that's worth.

Sassenach, I think W & P is a great choice, but Audiobooklover does make a good point about the length of the book.


I looked up a couple of "American Classic Literature" lists. Here are a couple of lists.

This one is pretty concise.
http://www.americanliterature.com/ARCHIVES/ARCHIVES.HTML

I just noticed they included in this list A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens!! Someone forgot to fact check this list. But the rest of the books are legitimate. If only we could claim Dickens!

This list is more extensive.
http://www.readliterature.com/american.htm

I would add Mitchell's Gone with the Wind but maybe it is too current to be considered a classic. M.M. is a beautiful writer!

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck is a very interesting story, but sad.

I think we English would be loathe to give up Dickens too

Great suggestions Nina - I'm going to add all these great choices to a poll in December -and we'll see what the winner is....

Regardless of the choice I WILL read more American Classic next year -and I agree that MM writes beautifully and surely by now Gone with the wind is a modern classic...I loved reading it.

Anything Jane Austen is always great.

Anyone likes Emma?
What about the latest BBC adaptation of this book?
I love it!~

Austen (and Bronte sisters equally) fascinated me in my younger years, and I confess as a teenagers i saw myself as a modern Lizzy Bennet...o/c i was waiting for my own Mr. Darcy.
But i have tried to read them lately and they don't have the same impact on me, I actually do not have the patience to read them anymore...my innocence is long gone for sure...

I just started Emma tonite...what a coincidence! I needed something soft and gentle after reading Karen Marie Moning's Dark Fever book.

Pauline - You just read Darkfever? That's next up for me because a few people, including me, plan to read the series leading up to the release of the last book in January. We were supposed to start reading Sunday, but none of us were quite ready because of other things, so tomorrow it is, for at least 2 or 3 of us. Did you like it?

I love Jane Austen and only read Emma once over a decade ago, so I'd be willing to read (or listen to) it again if we go with that.

Please add any more Classic recommendations before December 1st when I will open a book poll for the winner...

Here is the list so far :

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Emma by Jane Austen.

If you want to add to the list please do it on this thread before 1st December....
Looking forward to the poll