A little classic Q&A – the abridged version!
The Classics Club recently posted The Classics Club 50 Questions Survey. I’ve cheated a little bit on this in that I’ve chosen 10 of the questions only and on one of the questions I’ve changed the wording slightly – still, I don’t suppose I’m going to be arrested for cheating a little!
- First classic you ever read? One of the earliest reads I can remember independently choosing myself and reading was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum – I think I was about 8 years of age at the time. I’m fairly certain I also read The Borrower in the same year. Both books were recommended by my teacher at the time.
- Which classic do you think EVERYONE should read? Why. Woah, what a tough question. So many to choose from. But, I think i would probably go with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dicken. It’s a short story of redemption really with a feel good ending that has been popular since its creation.
- Favorite movie adaption of a classic? Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. All three films are just excellent. Jackson did an excellent job of recreating middle earth and the films were fairly faithful to the books.
- If a sudden announcement was made that 500 more pages had been discovered after the original “THE END” on a classic title you read and loved, which title would you most want to keep reading? Or, would you avoid the augmented manuscript in favor of the original? Why? I think I could continue Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind. Everybody could do with a little more Rhett Butler in the lives – and if you don’t agree, well, frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!
- Whose advice do you always take when it comes to literature. (Recommends the right editions, suggests great titles, etc.) Well, I have a bunch of people that I rely on for recommendations but if I’m going to look for fairly early influences the first would be my dad, who is also a big reader and has massively influenced my reading over the years. I basically read more or less everything on his shelves ranging from detectives and mysteries to fantasy. The second biggest influence was a colleague at work who by dint of bringing me a constant supply of her favourite books introduced me to so many new authors and broadened my horizons.
- Classic author you’ve read the most works by? Jane Austen – well, I’ve read all her books. I’m not sure if I’ve read the most books by her or not but she’s the author that immediately springs to mind.
- List five fellow bloggers whose blogs you frequent. What makes you love their blogs? I’ve cheated here on two counts – one, the bloggers I’ve listed are not all fellow classics club followers and two I’ve put too many down – I basically got carried away! Jessica over at The Bookworm Chronicles – we’ve been following each other virtually since I started blogging. She has a great blog and I love her books choices. Stainless Steel Droppings, ditto the above about the length of time I’ve been following this blog. SSD is Carl’s blog and primarily focuses on SFF – I love this blog and genuinely think I’ve had only one book where we’ve had slightly differing feelings in terms of liking it or not. I would pretty much read a shopping list if Carl recommended it! Andrea, over at the Little Red Reviewer – I think Andrea was one of the first people to actually comment on my posts – which was something of a revelation to me at the time as it never even occurred to me that anybody would even read my reviews. I love this blog – Andrea is always at the forefront of book recommendations, always one of the first to bring me new ideas and I read her blog religiously!! Wondrous Reads – Jenny is one of my best book buddies. This is helped by the fact that we also attend book events and movies together! We originally made friends through a love of reading and have continued ever since. Wondrous Reads is a fantastic blog and probably one of the earliest blogs to boot. If it wasn’t for Jenny I would have missed some amazing books – immediately springing to mind The Rebel Angels, The Martian, The Girl with All the Gifts and I am Legend! Finally – I’m going to be sneaky and add two blogs – basically because I found them both at the same time – Dark Cargo and Dab of Darkness. Dark Cargo – I would say this is a very quirky SFF blog and I never miss a post if I can help it. Dab of Darkness is Susan’s blog – tons of reading goes on over here and I’ve taken part in so many lovely readalongs with Susan that have introduced me to a host of other like minded bloggers. I would love to add many more here – Jason at Genkinahito, Lisa at OvertheEffingRainbow, but, no, I’m going to stop there!!
- If you’ve ever participated in a readalong on a classic, tell about the experience? If you’ve participated in more than one, what’s the very best experience? the best title you’ve completed? a fond memory? a good friend made? Lord of the Rings – a readalong hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings. This was a great read along that I really enjoyed. I always wanted to reread LotR but probably never would have done so without the impetus this readalong gave me. I loved sharing the experience with so many other people.
- Favorite thing about being a member of the Classics Club? I like the diversity of the events and I also like that it’s given me a personal challenge that encourages me to pick up books that otherwise I probably wouldn’t pick up.
- If you could appeal for a readalong with others for any classic title, which title would you name? Why? That would probably be Les Miserables. Why – because it’s on my list and I find it totally daunting. I think if I took part in a readalong it would give me more encouragement to read this plus readalongs are usually a bit more gentle affairs, spread out with allocated reading time so that you can read other books at the same time.