Top Ten Tuesday: Classics I Haven't Read

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week the theme is Modern Books You Think Will Be Classics In The Future (submitted by Veros @ Dark Shelf of Wonders). I was having a look at some lists of classics and it seems I am not great at even recognising what a classic classic is let alone looking at modern books and thinking it will become a classic in the future. So I am turning the theme on it's head and instead sharing 10 classics I haven't yet read. 

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque - Not too long ago we watched the recent German adaptation of the movie and then an older English version. Remarque was clearly something of a celebrity in his day as he was involved with Marlene Dietrich and married to actress Paulette Goddard

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin -- Mile Franklin, real name Stella  has given her name to not one but two of the major awards in Australian literature (Miles Franklin award and Stella Prize)  but I haven't read anything by her. The book was published in 2001.

The Tree of Man by Patrick White - Patrick White is the only Australian winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. 

The Fortunes of Richard Mahony by Henry Handel Richardson - I had this book on my shelves for a long time but at some point it didn't survive a cull. Like Miles Franklin, Richardson is using a male name but is actually a female writer. 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - I haven't actually read any of the books by the Bronte sisters.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - You would think I would have managed to read this given how much I read about WWII. 

Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien - It's not like I haven't tried! I have read and loved The Hobbit at least 3 times. I have started the first book int he Lord of the Rings trilogy several times but I have never made it through to the end. 

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - I did get this on audio a few years ago, mainy because Richard Armitage was one of the narrators. I didn't get very far though. 

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne - I read Around the World in Eighty Days a couple of years ago and really loved it but haven't read anything else by him yet.  According to Goodreads there are apparently 6726 different editions of this book! Made choosing a cover a bit of a challenge.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - I have known lot of people over the years who name this as a childhood favourite but I never read it!

I am contemplating using this as the basis to maybe join in on the Classics Spin next year, but we will see. I would have to find another 10 classics to add to make a full list. What's your favourite classic?

Top Ten Tuesday: Childhood favourites

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is Books for My Younger Self (These could be books you wish you had read as a child, books younger you could have really learned something from, books that meshed with your hobbies/interests, books that could have helped you go through events/changes in your life, etc.). I am not sure I can find books that fit, so I am instead going to talk about childhood favourites instead.

From a very early age, books were my escape, my sanctuary from everything in life! I would read at any opportunity and my family often used to say that I would read the back of a cereal box if there was nothing else available.

Here are some that I remember, as well as a couple that I have appreciated as an adult.

Beatrix Potter - While I don't remember reading Beatrix Potter, I did have a set of Bunnykins plates, similar to the one picture, when I was a baby. I did enjoy finding a bit more about Beatrix Potter when I listened to Lucinda Riley's The Shadow Sister not too long ago.

For books I did read, I thought I would start with some Australian childhood classics, some of which may not stand up quite so well in terms of political correctness, but I have a lot of fond memories of.

The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay - This book features a cantankerous pudding named Albert which changes flavours to whatever one you might fancy (savoury or sweet) and magically refills itself! It also features anthropomorphic animals and lots of adventure. The pudding is always getting his friends in trouble!

Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs - Another Australian childhood classic, this time featuring gum nut babies which and the bad guys are banksia men. With lots of native plants used as inspiration for the characters this is another Australian childhood classic, at least for my generation and those that proceeded us. I am not sure whether they are read now or not.

Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall - Blinky Bill is a koala  and his friends are a platypus, kangaroos and marsupial mouse, as well as a wise old wombat. With a strong conservation theme, this is another classic which has spawned cartoons, merchandise and more over the years.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham- One of the earliest specific books that I have memories of reading is Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I have no idea what edition it was that I read, but I have clear memories of borrowing this book from my school library when I was about 6 or 7, and being so proud of myself because the book was so huge and I read it in no time at all. The print must have actually been huge, or there must have been a lot of illustrations or something because it really isn't that big a book but I didn't realise it at the time. In later life this was also one of my grandmother;s favourite stories so there is that connection as well.

Trixie Belden series - Fast forward a few more years, and my books of choice were the Trixie Belden mysteries. For anything else I may have found to complain about my mother, she did buy me the whole series that was out at the time. I loved reading about Trixie and her brothers Martin and Brian, along with their friends who made up the rest of the Bob-Whites, especially Jim who was my first red headed literary crush, but not my last.

Summer of my German Soldier by Betty Greene  - I remember reading this at school, maybe in early high school. A few years  ago now, I reread it for nostalgia's sake. You can read my thoughts here. 

Jean Plaidy - It was in my early teens that I discovered Jean Plaidy, and I think that my love of historical fiction was cemented. I read through basically every novel that my school library had by Plaidy, and I particularly loved reading the books that she wrote about the queens of England. I couldn't tell you about individual books that I read, but my goodness, I devoured them as quickly as I could get my hands on them.

The Hobbit - I first read The Hobbit in either year 8 or year 9 - the first couple of years of high school anyway. I remember liking it a lot at the time, but my overwhelming memory is the title page that I did for the book report. 

Edward the Emu and Edwina the Emu by Sheena Knowles - This wasn't one of my childhood favourites, rather it was one of my son's favourites when he was a child. They are therefore books that I have read over and over.

Mr Chicken In Paris by Leigh  Hobbs -  A couple of years ago now I went to our State Library for an exhibition on kids books with my nephews. This was one of the books that was part of the exhibition and we had so much fun reading the story.

What a trip down memory lane!

Lord of the Rings Readalong: The Fellowship of the Ring

It's February, and that means it is time to move on from The Hobbit and onto the first book of the Lords of the Ring trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. I must confess, I am not quite ready to move on from The Hobbit. I finished reading the book in a couple of days early in January, but since then I have also borrowed a radio adaptation to listen to, and also a graphic novel version of the book which I haven't managed to read yet. But move on we must!

This second part of the Lord of the Rings readalong is being hosted over at the Literary Omnivore and she has started off with these questions:

When did you first hear of The Lord of the Rings

Have you read The Fellowship of the Ring before?

What’s your plan of attack, now that we’re dealing with more “mature” literature?

Have you ever seen the movies? If so, do you think they’ll influence your reading? If not, well, why haven’t you seen them?

I first heard of The Lord of the Rings after reading The Hobbit, but I am pretty sure I didn't actually read it until I had already left school. Here's the thing about this trilogy though. I hardly remember anything about it. I am relatively sure that I have already read it, but it will in effect be just like reading it the first time through I think. I do have vague recollections, but I am not sure that it is any more than is out in the general knowledge in the public.

In terms of my plan of attac, normally with my library books (yes that exceptionally boring cover is from my library book), I keep a list of return dates and whether the book can be extended again, and I keep track of which book I should read next. In other words I keep every library book to read until the last possible moment. I am actually breaking out from that routine to include this book in my February reads, because in theory, assuming that I can extend it through the full cycle of extensions, then I wouldn't actually have to read it for another 8 weeks or so. Instead I think I will try to read 100 or so pages each week. I am sure once I get into it, I won't want to put it down and so I will get through it by the end of the month.

There are some times when I am almost shy to confess that there are certain movies that I haven't ever seen. Let me give you an example. I have never, ever seen any of the Star Wars movies from beginning to end. I've seen bits and pieces, but not whole movies. There's no real reason for this. My mother wouldn't let us see the early movies when we were kids because in her opinion they were rubbish, and then I just really never got around to seeing them once she no longer controls what I view despite the fact that I did go through phases of being really into series like Star Trek, Stargate etc. You know where I am going with this don't you? Yep. Never, ever seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies. Maybe reading this book will inspire me to go and watch it.

Are you joining in on the readalong this month?

Lord of the Rings Readalong: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

There are times that I obliviously wander through life, not noticing the things that are going on around me. Or perhaps it is that at the time I did notice it, but didn't think I would be able to participate. Whatever the case actually was, apparently as long ago as November, there were conversation happening on Twitter and on blogs about a Lord of the Rings readalong starting in January, and I never noticed...until a couple of days ago, when suddenly I needed, yes, NEEDED, to reread The Hobbit. It must have been fated because I walked into my lounge room, stood in front of the bookshelf, and there was the book. Found it without even trying! And now that I am nearly finished reading it, have to say that it is pretty much the perfect read for me at the moment!

I first read The Hobbit in either year 8 or year 9 - the first couple of years of high school anyway. I remember liking it a lot at the time, but my overwhelming memory is the title page that I did for the book report. Now, I am pretty sure I have said before that I am not an artist, and never have been. My friends would turn in these super artistic title pages with gorgeous colours, lettering and illustrations, but that really was never my strong point. If you wanted to talk about what was in the report in terms of content, then I was up there for sure, but presentation...not so much.

My title page had my idea of what the hill that Bilbo Baggin's hobbit hole was built into, with a path leading to his door. I guess in concept it was something similar to the header over at Kaye's blog, The Road Goes Ever On, but there was a mile wide gap in terms of execution!

If you had of asked me, I would have sworn that the edition that I have in my book collection was the one that I had read that first time, but having a look at the details, that doesn't appear to be the case given that I read the book in either 1983 or 1984, and the edition that I am now reading was published in 1987. You can see that it is a book that has been read a few times. The spine is a little damaged, there is some sticky tape holding the spine together, so even just the experience of reading it again has been something of a trip down memory lane without even reading any of the words.

I did really struggle to find an image showing the cover that I am reading, but thankfully Violet from Still Life With Books came to the rescue! There are so many different covers out there! The only difference between this image and my cover is that at the very bottom it says 'The Hobbit 50th Anniversary'.

In the introductory post, Eva, who is hosting the discussion for The Hobbit, asked several discussion questions to get things going.

When did you first hear of The Hobbit? What made you decide to join the read-a-long?

Have you read it before? If so tell us about that experience.

If you’re new to The Hobbit, do you have any preconceptions going into it?

J.R.R. Tolkien pretty much founded the modern fantasy genre. So let’s take a moment to think about the genre as a whole; have you always loved fantasy? Or perhaps you still feel rather skeptical towards the whole idea of wizards and dwarfs and magic? What was your introduction to the genre?

Do you have a certain plan for reading it? A few pages a day, spacing it out over the month? Or are you just going to race through it? Let whimsy decide?

A few years ago I would have said that I wasn't really a fantasy reader. While I don't read anywhere near as much fantasy as I do other genres, for example historical romance or historical fiction, these days I do read a fair proportion of fantasy, and also books featuring paranormal creatures. There are certain authors that I have read for an extended period of time that are classified as fantasy authors, like Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde, but other than those, one of the changes that blogging has made to the way I read is that I do read more outside of my two major genres, and really enjoy it!

When I started rereading this book, I didn't really have a plan as to how I was going to read. It was more a case of having to read it and read it now, and so that's what I have done. In the end I have been enjoying reacquainting myself with Bilbo, Gandalf and all the dwarves, I think I will probably finish it tomorrow morning.

Guess the main question I have left is how many more years will it be before I reread this book again?