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Post by skyhappysal on Apr 20, 2017 3:21:28 GMT
I moved directly to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books. Yes, I sometimes had to have a dictionary handy to keep up with the vocabulary. Ahhh, dear Archie. Have you read any of Robert Goldsborough's Wolfes? Try them, you'll like them. He did a great job at capturing their voices.  |
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Post by Nancy on Apr 21, 2017 14:11:37 GMT
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (And I've just started My Cousin Rachel by the same author. Love it so far. Oh, and the book Rebbecca is different than the movie, so read the book.) Rebecca is possibly my favourite book of all time, if I have to pick just one. Diane, you need to see the 1997 mini-series! So much better than the movies, and accurate to the book. m.imdb.com/title/tt0119991/ |
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Post by Austin on Apr 21, 2017 18:02:03 GMT
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Post by PaulinaAnn on Apr 22, 2017 0:20:57 GMT
Books I love: Baroness Orczy was fun although re-reading the books n both Percy and Marguerite both get a bit irritating Hopefully, Robina's quote is intact above...
I just started smiling HUGELY when I read this!  I absolutely loved reading the Scarlet Pimpernel! Yes, there were numerous moments of irritation... but still, it was like Mission: Impossible meets The Reign of Terror! I also loved the tv movie of the same name. I may have to go to amazon and see about ordering some of them. I'm in the mood for some swashbuckling... hmmm, is that only for pirates? Well, at the least, it will have sword fighting!
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Post by Nancy on Apr 22, 2017 2:17:37 GMT
I haven't seen the 1997 Rebecca mini-series. How strange that I've never even come across that! *wanders off to see if it's on Netflix or on Amazon streaming...* Here you go 😉 youtu.be/0Dm6dx9plKc |
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Post by Austin on Apr 22, 2017 7:45:49 GMT
Thank you!!! saturday night movie night: Scheduled!!! |
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Post by dawn on Apr 22, 2017 11:36:30 GMT
Lord of the Rings. Got to a part where they were just running and running and nothing was happening. I tired of it an couldn't return to it.
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Post by snowprincess on Apr 24, 2017 5:26:49 GMT
I haven't seen the 1997 Rebecca mini-series. How strange that I've never even come across that! *wanders off to see if it's on Netflix or on Amazon streaming...* Here you go 😉 youtu.be/0Dm6dx9plKcWoot!!! I'm watching this tomorrow!!! |
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Post by fvhardy on Apr 30, 2017 23:39:42 GMT
Oh man. *cracks knuckles* I love this thread! But where to start. Okay, classics I tried but could not get through:Everything by Jane Austin. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park... I have tried everything, multiple times and I literally could not get through them. And I wanted to (hence why I tried so many times) because I love the classics. But I just find Jane Austin mind-numbingly dull. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I've never been able to get through more than three chapters. Total slogfest. Now, classics I read in full and hated:Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Someone mentioned Anna Karenina (which I actually quite liked) and being glad she threw herself under a train? Well, that's how I felt about Madame Bovary. I have never wanted to shake a fictional character more in my entire life. And the book is really dull to boot. The Secret Agent and Heart of Darkness, both by Joseph Conrad. Zzzzz. Those books took themselves way too seriously. A room of one's own and Mrs Dalloway, both by Virgina Wolf. See my comments on Conrad. Ulysses by James Joyce. My most hated book of all time. Period. Except for the last chapter - Molly Bloom's chapter is a hoot! Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. More of a modern classic but I still hated it. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. All of 'em. I read them because a friend pronounced them life-changing. Then I got to the end and wanted to howl because that was a month of my life I will never get back. Another modern classic I don't get. And finally, classics I LOVE:Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. One of my all-time favourite reads. I've reread it so many times I can quote from it. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Yes, Cathy and Heathcliff are annoying. Yes, I spent the entire book wanting to slap both. But I still really love it. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. This book never fails to real me in. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Another top favourite book. Very rereadable. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell. These books need to be read together and I freaking love them both! The Lord of the Rings. I know I'm in the minority putting that as a favourite judging by everyone's comments, but I still love it. I will admit Tolkien was a bit too big on detail though. And The Silmarillion! Dear god, that thing can't be read without everyone's family tree beside you! Everything by Daphne DuMaurier, although Rebecca is my favourite. And she does amazing short stories! The Three Muskateers and The man in the Iron Mask. I love Dumas, and The Count of Monte Cristo has actually been sitting on my bookshelf for months just begging to be read. The Moonstone and The Woman in White, both by Wilkie Collins. I do love me a good gothic horror. Uncle Silas and In a Glass Darkly by Sheriden LeFanu. Again. Gothic horror! The Collector by John Fowls. Utterly chilling but gripping read. Anything by Margaret Atwood (except her last book of short stories which fell oddly short of her usual standard). Finally, I know this isn't technically a classic but can I add The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly to my 'Love' list? Oh, and Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy! Also, yay, to whoever started this thread. Love it. |
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Post by Fenlaur on May 26, 2017 17:32:17 GMT
Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are my problem books. Got about half way through Lord of the Rings and gave up when I was in high school. Then I bought the movie tie in box collection when the Hobbit movies came out. I got halfway through The Hobbit and I gave up.
I have the same problem with the Anne of Green Gables series. Someone gave me the set and I think I managed to get to the second book. They and the Lord of the Rings are sitting somewhere in my basement...
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Post by JD on May 27, 2017 0:07:26 GMT
Sometimes a person's mind just doesn't "click" with an author. They might be considered a wonderful writer, and you know lots of people who adore their works, but it simply leaves you cold. And that's just fine!
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Post by fflurcadwgawn on May 28, 2017 11:07:47 GMT
I can add Tolkien and Charlotte Bronte's Shirley to the list. Also The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (can't remember which Bronte sister wrote it). I can't stand the flirting in that one.
I got through the first book of Outlander and am still stuck in the second book. The show is stuck at about the same spot. The first season/book was really good but the second book slogs about as badly as Robert Jordan's The Shadow Rising (#4 of The Wheel of Time) and Tolkien.
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Post by snowprincess on May 30, 2017 18:45:38 GMT
For those of you who are Bronte fans, you might enjoy this story: www.amazon.com/Madwoman-Upstairs-Novel-Catherine-Lowell/dp/150112630X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496169714&sr=8-1&keywords=the+madwoman+upstairsIt's a modern tale on the last living Bronte descendant. She's a university student, attending Oxford, and she's involved in a treasure hunt, of sorts, trying to discover the Bronte's long rumored estate. All she has to go on are clues left behind in the Bronte's novels, with notations from her deceased father. I'm almost to the end, and I love it. Samantha is college age, so she acts like it sometimes, but I'm okay with that. It's been a really fun read, and I've learned a lot more about the Bronte family. Check it out, and let me know what you think! |
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Post by cheryl on May 30, 2017 19:09:37 GMT
Awesome! I'll check it out!
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Post by Rokia on May 30, 2017 21:01:00 GMT
I moved directly to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books. Yes, I sometimes had to have a dictionary handy to keep up with the vocabulary. Ahhh, dear Archie. Have you read any of Robert Goldsborough's Wolfes? Try them, you'll like them. He did a great job at capturing their voices. Actually I own all of those but the prequel - he did do a fantastic job capturing the voices of the Archie, Wolfe, et al (and gave me a satisfactory REAL ending to the whole Orrie Cather thing in Family Affair... - or at least he didn't ignore it in later stories...) |
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Post by Rokia on May 30, 2017 21:03:29 GMT
I can add Tolkien and Charlotte Bronte's Shirley to the list. Also The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (can't remember which Bronte sister wrote it). I can't stand the flirting in that one. I got through the first book of Outlander and am still stuck in the second book. The show is stuck at about the same spot. The first season/book was really good but the second book slogs about as badly as Robert Jordan's The Shadow Rising (#4 of The Wheel of Time) and Tolkien. I devoutly read all of the Outlander books - except the last one - which I only made it halfway through. She did entirely too much extra time-jumping in that one. I made it up through book 7 of Robert Jordan's series - tried reading it twice, made it halfway and never finished. Gave up on the whole series at that point. I DO think Dragonfly in Amber(the 2nd Outlander book) could have been several chapters shorter and not lost anything in translation... but I didn't have any trouble reading it. |
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Post by Stormwatcher on May 30, 2017 22:53:52 GMT
I startled myself by getting through 'The Scarlet Letter' in my last effort to read it. I've never managed the Silmarillion, not even in small, careful doses. The rest of LOTR I can generally manage and enjoy, though I do skip a page or two, here and there. I get totally hung up on Last of the Mohicans and Deerslayer. Though Mohicans was a pretty decent movie, the book is just too....too Cooper. Oh, Wuthering Heights and all that, I don't know. They all just seem too melodramatic, angsty, soap-opera-ish in some weird way. Does Wicked and the other three by that author count as classics? I got fairly well through Wicked, but I found it very disturbing, and didn't make much headway into the others. Weirdly enough, I adore Kidnapped and the sequel, David Balfour, despite having to keep a dictionary beside me for quick definitions. I also enjoyed Rebecca, despite the narrator not ever having a name. Ethan Frome is a good, if melancholy, read. The Good Earth is one I can read through, go back to the beginning, and start right up reading again. And of course I get a lot of enjoyment from the original classic versions of the Hardy Boys.  |
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Post by skyhappysal on Jun 1, 2017 18:22:38 GMT
Ahhh, dear Archie. Have you read any of Robert Goldsborough's Wolfes? Try them, you'll like them. He did a great job at capturing their voices. Actually I own all of those but the prequel - he did do a fantastic job capturing the voices of the Archie, Wolfe, et al (and gave me a satisfactory REAL ending to the whole Orrie Cather thing in Family Affair... - or at least he didn't ignore it in later stories...) How Archie met Wolfe is a fun read. Though, I always imagined a more dramatic meeting. But I found it to be satisfactory. In the purest Wolfe sense of the word. |
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Post by Purple on Jun 1, 2017 21:07:22 GMT
I can't stand Jane Austen. Absolutely can't stand her, no matter the form. Watched the Colin Firth P&P once, and I want those five hours of my life back. As much as I love romance, everyone is always so shocked when they hear I can't stand Austen. She's also the only romance my sister devours. She's replaced her paper copy of Pride and Prejudice at least twice.
I love Jane Eyre, Louisa May Alcott, the whole Anne of Green Gables series, and a whole load of other older stuff nobody's ever heard of. Like The Five Little Peppers. Good books, those. Especially when you're 10 and a blue spine lasts you, if you're lucky, two hours. The Five Little Peppers each lasted me almost a week. I was very sad when I ran out of them.
My favorite classic is probably Jane Eyre, with Anne of Green Gables and An Old-Fashioned Girl tied for second. Little Women is third. I really hope the upcoming Little Women miniseries don't disappoint me like the new Anne did.
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Post by JD on Jun 1, 2017 21:35:35 GMT
I've read all the Five Little Peppers books, Purple -- although I wasn't aware that there was more than the original one, until not that many years ago!
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Post by Rokia on Jun 2, 2017 2:43:56 GMT
Actually I own all of those but the prequel - he did do a fantastic job capturing the voices of the Archie, Wolfe, et al (and gave me a satisfactory REAL ending to the whole Orrie Cather thing in Family Affair... - or at least he didn't ignore it in later stories...) How Archie met Wolfe is a fun read. Though, I always imagined a more dramatic meeting. But I found it to be satisfactory. In the purest Wolfe sense of the word. Next time I wonder downtown I will see if the library has it. |
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Post by PaulinaAnn on Jun 11, 2017 0:36:00 GMT
I can't stand Jane Austen. Absolutely can't stand her, no matter the form. Watched the Colin Firth P&P once, and I want those five hours of my life back. As much as I love romance, everyone is always so shocked when they hear I can't stand Austen. She's also the only romance my sister devours. She's replaced her paper copy of Pride and Prejudice at least twice. I love Jane Eyre, Louisa May Alcott, the whole Anne of Green Gables series, and a whole load of other older stuff nobody's ever heard of. Like The Five Little Peppers. Good books, those. Especially when you're 10 and a blue spine lasts you, if you're lucky, two hours. The Five Little Peppers each lasted me almost a week. I was very sad when I ran out of them. My favorite classic is probably Jane Eyre, with Anne of Green Gables and An Old-Fashioned Girl tied for second. Little Women is third. I really hope the upcoming Little Women miniseries don't disappoint me like the new Anne did.
Well since I loved P&P I can't speak to that. However, I did Anne of Green Gables. Only the original but I did watch the movies with Meghan Fellows as Anne. My hubby turned on the new Anne series and I told him he could turn away. I'm afraid that I loved the other adaptation best and I just couldn't picture anyone else as Mr. Cuthbert besides Richard Farnsworth.
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Post by Purple on Jun 11, 2017 0:41:42 GMT
The new one is awful! I watched the whole thing, and never again. So much character assassination, totally ignored the books, and what they did to Gil is still making me mad when I think about it.
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Post by Scott on Jun 11, 2017 7:49:02 GMT
I'm not even sure what qualifies as a "classic".
I couldn't get past the first page of U.S.A. by John Dos Passos.
Had this copy of The Pickwick Papers but I never got past the first couple of paragraphs.
I bought a copy of Death on the Installment Plan mainly for the title but Celine used this weird punctuation which Betty White also used in her memoir. I did read another book by Celine, though, and it was okay.
I had a friend who had an unpleasant brush with Alain Robbe-Grillet so I tried to read one of his books. I can't really watch his movies, either.
But I did read Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge which reportedly came out of Vidal's proposed alternative to Robbe-Grillet's literary theories. It's an epistolary novel. At one point, Myra writes in her journal:
Tried to read Nausea (La Nausée) but I didn't get very far. I should try again. Vidal sort of spoofed it, didn't he, in Myra Breckenridge?
Nausea starts with:
and Myra Breckenridge starts her journal by crawling around measuring the desk she's sitting at. Am I remembering that right?
Read about two chapters of The Dharma Bums.
Did like the Pierre Boulle novels I've read, though.
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Post by Stormwatcher on Jun 15, 2017 6:15:55 GMT
Just popping in to remark that I read 'Rebecca' last week, again... I had forgotten how very creepy Mrs Danvers is. And I had forgotten how vivid the narrator's descriptions and her projections, or daydreams, are. Quite an imagination that young woman has. I've about decided to call her Emily in a salute to a Beverly Cleary book: 'Emily's Runaway Imagination'. |
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