In Which I Am an Unlucky Spinner...

So the Classics Club Spin Number was posted this morning, and it's number 17.  Which means Moby Dick it is for me, the one book on an otherwise excellent list that I was dreading!  I'm starting to feel like an unlucky spinner - a few months I got the monster of a book that is Les Miserables and now this.  On the positive side, at least I am being forced to knock these sort of books off my list!

What scares me about Moby Dick is that it's not just a story, I'm dreading all of the diversions about whaling and the technicalities of running a ship.  The blurb on my copy also describes it as a 'hymn to democracy', which again makes me think it might be more of an ideas book than a plot book, which is one of my bookish pet peeves.  I'm expecting the pacing to be glacial at best.

But I do want to read it, as it's so loved, and so I can understand a bit more about American classics.  I've had a copy for around ten years, but I've never been able to pick it up and read it, always selecting something 'easier' at the last minute.  I put it on my classics club list to give myself a deadline to try it, and now the spin has just forced that deadline ahead a bit.

As it's such a big book and as I have a newborn son, making me prone to sleep deprivation, my plan of attack is little and often.  My copy has 135 chapters, I'm hoping to work through a few a day until I get to the end.  That way I can continue to read other books alongside it.  Wish me luck!

Did you take part in the spin?  If so, are you happy with your book?

Classics Club Spin #7

I love the Classics Club Spin.  I've participated in most of them, and have had a push to read some fantastic books (Their Eyes Were Watching God, Rebecca), some good ones (Lord of the Flies, Out of Africa), and some I'm just glad to have finished (Les Miserables).  So I was excited to see a new spin announcement this morning; if I can take part while heavily pregnant, I can do it with a newborn!

As always, I've used random.org to randomly select 20 books from my classics club list that I have yet to read.  Some will be planned rereads (in bold) and some will be new reads:

1. Kim by Rudyard Kipling - I've tried starting this one before and didn't get very far.  Hopefully I will have better luck if this book is selected this time around.
2. Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan - I would love it if this one is picked.
3. Burmese Days by George Orwell
4. The Bell by Iris Murdoch - One of my favourite books.
5. Hard Times by Charles Dickens - At least this one is short for Dickens...
6. King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard 
7. Persuasion by Jane Austen
8. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck 
9. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
10. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
11. Orlando by Virginia Woolf - Woolf scares me, so I'll be a bit apprehensive if this one is picked.
12. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
13. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
14. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
15. A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
16. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
17. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
18. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
19. Dracula by Bram Stoker
20. Tess of D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

This is quite possibly the nicest classics club spin list I have ever compiled!  With the exception of Moby Dick, I really don't mind which number is selected.  I wouldn't be surprised if the whale comes up though, it's been on every list I have ever made, and each time I've been dreading it...

Are you taking part in the spin?  Link me to your list if you are.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Lord of the Flies was the book chosen for me by the recent Classics Club spin.  Somehow, I managed to make it through all of secondary school and an English Literature A-Level without having to read this book, and it's always felt like a bit of a gap in my reading history.  The story centres around a group of English schoolboys, mysteriously stranded on a desert island.  In the absence of adults, they set about electing a chief and dividing up the chores necessary for survival in a fair and democratic way.  At first everything goes well, but gradually the society they have attempted to build starts to break down as their more savage natures and desires come to the forefront.

I really liked Lord of the Flies.  It's a short, easy to read classic that explores a particular theme (the darker side of humanity) very well.  Golding does a great job of showing the gradual decline of the boys into violence; at the beginning of the novel none of them can stomach even killing a pig for food, but by the end they think nothing of performing extremely violent acts against each other.  There's a lot of talk of rules, and of rules being what holds societies together, and as soon as someone breaks the rules, things do start to decline.  Lord of the Flies exposes how thin what we call civilisation really is, something that we see all too often in real life in the event of civil wars and genocides.

Something I was interested in as I read the book was the whole issue of belonging to a group, and how it can make you act in a certain way.  When Ralph is chief at the beginning of the novel and clearly in charge, the other children responded the way he wanted them to.  But when Jack forms a rival group, complete with war paint, the same children act completely differently.  Their costumes become a mask that lets them act in ways they would never have acted back in England, and their actions are sanctioned by being part of the group. Again, this is something we definitely see in real life, so Golding's analysis is spot on.

I didn't find Lord of the Flies as shocking as I thought I was going to.  I knew the basic idea of the story before starting, but not the specifics, and I knew that the thought of these nice middle-class English boys being so violent caused a stir at the time.  But it didn't shock me, as their decline into 'savagery' just made perfect sense in the novel.  We do all have a darker side and impulses that we would never normally act on, and history is full of examples of groups of people taking things too far. 

Still, Lord of the Flies was a thought provoking and enjoyable read.  I think it's more of an 'ideas' book than a story, although the plot does move along at a brisk pace and the events are engaging.  The characters fit the ideas first and foremost, which meant that I didn't have an emotional connection with them, and this stopped Lord of the Flies from becoming a favourite of mine.

Source: Personal copy

First Published: 1954

Edition Read: Penguin Modern Classics, 1964

Score: 4 out of 5

The Classics Club: Book 27/72

My full list of classics to read can be found here.

Bout of Books Update #1 and Classics Club Spin Number Announced.

Day: 1/7

Books Started: 1 (We Need New Names)

Books Completed: 0

Time Spent Reading: 1 hour and 30 mins

Pages Read: 130

I'm going to try to post updates throughout Bout of Books as much as possible.  I don't think I'll have time to take part in any chats or challenges, but I should be able to update on my progress a few times throughout the week.

I'm really pleased with my reading from the first day.  Monday is my busiest work-day as I have meetings in the evening as well as a full day's teaching load, so I'm thrilled that I managed to squeeze in an hour and a half of reading, exceeding my goal of one hour.  It helps that We Need New Names is such an engrossing book.  It's about a girl called Darling living in a shanty town and dreaming of escaping to the West and it's simply written but very powerful.  I can't wait to pick it up again tonight, especially as I'm almost half way through already.

Tonight I'm on track to meet my goal of an hour, but I can't see myself exceeding it by much.  I think I'll get close to finishing We Need New Names, so I'm already starting to think of what I should read next.  Maybe A Girl is a Half Formed Thing?

In other bookish news, the Classics Club announced the lucky spin number as #1, which means I'll be picking up Lord of the Flies soon.  I'm quite excited to start it - my husband loves it - so it's good that I've had a push to finally take it off my shelf.  As a teacher, I find group dynamics between groups of children fascinating, especially the way children act completely differently when they are away from their parents.  Hopefully I will enjoy it!

If you're taking part in the readathon, how are you getting on?

And are you pleased with your spin number?

Classics Club Spin #6

It's time for another Classics Club Spin!  I debated whether or not to take part in this one, as I'm having a baby in about five weeks and all, but I love the spin and will aim to read the book chosen when my maternity leave starts in three weeks time (which I can not wait for, by the way!).  As always, I've used a random number generator to select 20 books from my list that I've not ticked off yet.  Some of them are new reads, some of them are rereads that I haven't actually reread yet.

My list:

1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
2. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
3. O Pioneers by Willa Cather
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (will be a reread)
5. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
6. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
7. The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
8. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
9. A Little Princess by Frances Hogdson Burnett (reread)
10. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (reread)
11. Persuasion by Jane Austen
12. Tess of D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
13. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
14. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (reread)
15. The Colour Purple by Alice Walker (reread)
16. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
17. Dracula by Bram Stoker (reread)
18. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
19. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
20. Othello by William Shakespeare

I'm happy with the list - the only one I'm apprehensive about is Moby Dick.  But in a way, it would be a good thing if it is picked, as I may require a push to get to it!

Have you read any of these titles?  Anything I should be hoping for?

The Spin is In...

 

The spin number has been posted over at the Classics Club blog.  The lucky number was 20, which means I am going to be reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and I'm so excited!  I originally added it to my list as I wanted to read more African-American literature, and I still want to read it as much now as I did then.

The only slight disappointment is that I don't actually own a copy yet.  I've ordered one, but I will have to wait a few days before diving in.

If you took part, what book will you be reading for the spin, and are you happy about it?

Classics Club Spin #5

Time for another Classics Club Spin!  So far I have participated in two, which has led to me readind Rebecca (awesome) and Les Miserables (at least it is out of the way).  I am crazily indecisive about what to read at the moment (I blame the pregnancy hormones), so I'm looking forward to the decision being taken out of my hands.  Of the twenty books I've listed below, one will be selected for me on Monday by a random number posted on the Classics Club blog.

Like last time, I've used random.org to select twenty books off my list.  This time I'm including rereads, by which I mean books I already planned to reread for the Classics Club, not books I've read since joining.

My list:

1. 1984 by George Orwell (reread)
2. Villette by Charlotte Bronte (reread)
3. Othello by William Shakespeare
4. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (reread)
5. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
6. Anthony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
7. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
8. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
9. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
10. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
11. Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
12. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
13. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
14. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (reread)
15. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
16. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (reread)
17. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
18. The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (reread)
19. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkein (reread, and I'm up to this point in the series).
20. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Initial thoughts - anything but Moby Dick!  I'll be genuinely excited to read any of the others, but I don't know if I'm up for the whale after Les Miserables in December.  I'm especially hoping for Tenant of Wildfell Hall or any of the rereads.

Are you taking part in the spin?  If so, link me to your list, as I'd love to see what your options are.