Well, here we are again!
However this one didn't catch me by surprise.
In my new role as one of the four moderators for The Classics Club, I was on the inside!
I'm hoping I will have time before Wednesday to visit other #CCspins to do my usual match ups, but for now here is my #18 spin list.
This is the first time I will be featuring books from my CC Master List #2 after finishing List #1 in April.
1.The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
2. The Dyehouse by Mena Calthorpe
3. Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius (shared with NancyElin)
4. Watership Down by Richard Adams (shared with Joseph @The Once Lost Wanderer)
5. Letters on Life by Rainer Maria Rilke
6. The Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin
7. Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather
8. Indiana by George Sand
9. The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch
10. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
11. A Mere Chance by Ada Cambridge
12. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
13. Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft & Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon
14. The Secret People by John Wyndham
15. The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura
16. Marling Hall by Angela Thirkell (shared author with the[blank]garden)
17. The Annotated Persuasion by Jane Austen & David M Shapard (shared with Austinfey@Books, Books, Books)
18. Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson
19. Petersberg by Andrei Bely
20. Basil by Wilkie Collins
Join in the fun by visiting the other players and commenting on their lists.
It's a great way to meet like-minded bloggers and explode your TBR classics wishlist!
My previous spins have been mostly successful and/or enjoyable.
They look a little something like this:
CC Spin #1 (2013 #14) The Magnificent Ambersons with Cat @Tell Me A Story.
CC Spin #2 (2013 #6) Tess of the D'Urbervilles with JoAnn @Lakeside Musings & Several Four Many.
CC Spin #3 (2013 #4) My Cousin Rachel - hope to watch the movie soon.
CC Spin #4 (2014 #10) The Brothers Karamazov - I floundered about halfway through this chunkster, then I lost the book when we moved two years ago...serendipity, I say!
CC Spin #5 (2014 #20) The Odyssey with Plethora of Books - This one was a bit of a cheat as I had started it for another readalong, but struggled to finish. I added it to my cc list to motivate me to finish it. When no. 20 spun up it seemed like the gods had decreed it so!
CC Spin #6 (2014 #1) No Name by Wilkie Collins with Melbourne on My Mind.
CC Spin #7 (2014 #17) Silent Spring by Rachel Carson with Karen @Booker Talk - my first classic non-fiction spin.
CC Spin #8 (2015 #13) Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh - my one and only dud Spin read so far.
CC Spin #9 (2015 #2) The Great World by David Malouf - my first Australian classic spin.
CC Spin #10 (2015 #5) A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark.
CC Spin #11 (2016 #19) So Big by Edna Ferber with Christy - we both experienced the joy of rediscovering a forgotten award winning classic.
CC Spin #12 (2016 #8) Dubliners by James Joyce - too depressing and hopeless for my state of mind at the time.
CC Spin #13 (2016 #15) The Catherine Wheel by Catherine Harrower - my second Aussie #ccspin classic. Disturbing but riveting reading.
CC Spin #14 (2016 #1) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnet - it's weird how books remind you not only of the time or place within the book but also the time and place where you read them. This spin book was read one weekend whilst visiting my father-in-law. Seeing this cover on my list today made me tear up straight away and took me back to the lovely weekend we all enjoyed together before he died last year.
CC Spin #15 (2017 #12) Out of Africa by Karen Blixen - a disappointment in the end. The movie was better.
CC Spin #16 (2017 #4) The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield - a book that grew better with time & reflection.
CC Spin #17 (2018 #3) Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy with Tasheena @Dear Reader - not my favourite Hardy in the end.
CC Spin #18 (2018 #9) The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch
Has any other Clubber (besides myself and Jean @Howling Frog) joined in ALL 18 spins?
#justsaying
#CCspin
CC Spin #18 (2018 #9) The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch
Has any other Clubber (besides myself and Jean @Howling Frog) joined in ALL 18 spins?
#justsaying
#CCspin
Great post -- I had to go back and count how many spins I signed up for. Of the 17, I signed up for 13, and completed 10. Once I switched my book for another, and two more I just didn't finish. But I love the spins and hope they'll continue! I'm really looking forward to Wednesday to find out what I'll be reading next from my Classics Club list!
ReplyDeleteI always think that half the fun is the joining in and making a list part. Reading a good book by the end is the icing on the cake. Sounds like you've come to the party a lot and had a good time and want to come back, but you've just eaten the wrong cake for you on occasion!
DeleteIs there a prize for the clubber who has taken part in the LEAST number of spins? :(
ReplyDeleteNo matter how many or how few spins you've been in, the prize is the book :-)
DeleteI checked: I'm 2/18 !!
DeleteOh, the shame....
Wow! I'd never put simething like Odyssey on my spin list. I am too obsessive about reading stuff like tgat slowly and thoroughly. Which is why I've never gotten around to reading it, I suppose. Too much work on other hefty books. Glad you were brave enough for that one, even if it was a bit of a cheat.
ReplyDeleteIt was a book I really struggled to finish. I used every means, fair and foul, to get there!
DeleteI'm wondering if my next attempt should be with an annotated edition?
I plan to read an annotated Austen for Austen in August, so will soon see if I like the annotated element or not.
Wow, all 18 spins? This is simply amazing! Congrats!! Are you hoping for any particular number?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I am a bit of a cc groupie!!
DeleteI'm hoping for the Austen so I can read it for Austen in August....although I'll probably read it regardless!
I've only read two of your choices - Watership Down and A Study in Scarlet. Both excellent, though it's decades since I read Watership Down so my memory is quite vague about it. But I'm most excited to see a John Wyndham on your list that I've never read - never heard of, in fact! So I'm going to hope the Spin Fairies bring you that one...
ReplyDeleteIt was first published in 1935, is set in 1964 and was recently republished by Penguin in 2016.
DeleteA new sea has been developed in the Sahara Desert & a British captive find themselves being held captive by an ancient rave of pygmies living underground!
Cool...I nearly had Dream of the Red Chamber on mine as well. Not sure why I left it off now. (pulling for #4)
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Watership Down since my uni days, so I'd love another reread #fingerscrossed
DeleteI have "The Magnificent Ambersons" on my list for Spin #18, and I've been kind of hoping its number will get chosen this time. I'm just wondering if I'll have trouble finding a copy of the book when I need to.
ReplyDeleteI didn't back then, but it was a few years ago now. I still haven't watched the old B&W movie either to see how it compares.
DeleteLots of interesting books on your list, including some I haven't heard of. Watership Down and The Railway Children were two of my childhood favourites so I hope you get one of those.
ReplyDeleteMe too - I'd love to reread both as an adult to see how they stack up to an adult reading.
DeleteI read The Odyssey with you guys and it was lots of fun! It really pushed me to do a thorough read of it. Once again, I LOVE how you do your spins .... so community-oriented!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting list, I'm really not familiar with quite a few of these. I really should reread Persuasion as I don't remember it that well, but it didn't manage to make my spin list this time around. I'm really impressed that you've participated in all the spins--that's a true commitment. Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you've done all 17 so far is really impressive! We both have Study in Scarlet on our lists. You have many I've never seen before! Since joining the Classics Club last year, I've participated in two spins (Numbers 16 and 17) and managed to finish both books on them. I'm really excited for this one!
ReplyDeleteWow. Impressive list of participation. I am so glad you are now a tender of the Classics Club because I know that you care about SPINS and will make sure that they happen on some sort of schedule.
ReplyDeleteOoh. Great list. And lots of things I don't know anything about. That's a much better list from my point of view! Hopefully the random number generator picks one of those!
ReplyDeleteSince this is my second spin, I've got some catching up to do.
Thanks for taking on the moderator duties!