Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. It is all about sharing the books that you have recently added to your bookshelves. These books can be physical books, ebooks and of course audiobooks.
Hello!
I am really not doing well on the book buying at the moment. My resolution this year was to not buy too many books and this month I just haven’t been able to stop.
I went to Ironbridge this week and visited the second hand bookshop there and found a book that has been on my wish list for a long time. I have wanted to read this book for ages so now I have no excuse because I own a copy. It is also one of the books on my Classics Club list.
The results are in and I am so happy! The number for the Spin event was 2. Number on 2 my list is Persuasion by Jane Austen. This will be a reread for me but as I love Austen and Persuasion is my favourite Austen novel I am not complaining. I can’t wait to get reading this fabulous book. I am still hoping to read Northanger Abbey this month so the end of this year will be a filled with Austen.
Persuasion is Jane Austen’s last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma, completing it in August 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December that year (but dated 1818). Persuasion is linked to Northanger Abbey not only by the fact that the two books were originally bound up in one volume and published together, but also because both stories are set partly in Bath, a fashionable city with which Austen was well acquainted, having lived there from 1801 to 1805. Besides the theme of persuasion, the novel evokes other topics, such as the Royal Navy, in which two of Jane Austen’s brothers ultimately rose to the rank of admiral. As in Northanger Abbey, the superficial social life of Bath-well known to Austen, who spent several relatively unhappy and unproductive years there-is portrayed extensively and serves as a setting for the second half of the book. In many respects Persuasion marks a break with Austen’s previous works, both in the more biting, even irritable satire directed at some of the novel’s characters and in the regretful, resigned outlook of its otherwise admirable heroine, Anne Elliot, in the first part of the story. Against this is set the energy and appeal of the Royal Navy, which symbolises for Anne and the reader the possibility of a more outgoing, engaged, and fulfilling life, and it is this worldview which triumphs for the most part at the end of the novel.
I really hope I finish the book before the 3rd December 2023.
Please drop me a comment if you are doing the Classics Club challenge or if you have taken part in the Spin Challenge.
I haven’t taken part in a Classics Club Spin event in ages so I thought it was high time to take part again. My classics reading hasn’t been great so far this year and I know if I am going to manage the full 50 books I need to increase my reading.
Anyway, here are my selected 20 for the spin on the 15th October. I will then read the chosen book before 3rd December.
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Cecilia by Frances Burney
Evelina by Frances Burney
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Love in Excess by Eliza Haywood
The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Candide by Volatire
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
I’ve listed all the female authors from my list and then made up the rest with some of the male authors. Hopefully, a female author book is chosen as I really fancy a classic by a female author.
The results are in and the number was 2. This means my next read off my Classics Club challenge will be The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy.
In this classically simple tale of the disastrous impact of outside life on a secluded community in Dorset, now in a new edition, Hardy narrates the rivalry for the hand of Grace Melbury between a simple and loyal woodlander and an exotic and sophisticated outsider. Betrayal, adultery, disillusion, and moral compromise are all worked out in a setting evoked as both beautiful and treacherous. The Woodlanders, with its thematic portrayal of the role of social class, gender, and evolutionary survival, as well as its insights into the capacities and limitations of language, exhibits Hardy’s acute awareness of his era’s most troubling dilemmas.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
Hopefully, I will be able to finish and review The Woodlanders before the deadline of 30th October.
Please drop me a comment if you are doing the Classics Club challenge or if you have taken part in the Spin Challenge.
I thought it was time to check how my reading goals for 2022 are going.
My first goal was to read 60 books this year. So far I have read 25 books out of the 60. This means I am slightly behind my target currently but I’m not too worried as I usually read more in the summer when I am not working as much and in December.
My second goal was to read more classics this year with the aim of reading 10. To help with this goal I joined The Classics Club challenge and set myself 50 classics to read in 5 years. Here is my list. So far I have read 3 classics and I am currently reading my 4th classic book which is also rather huge. If some of the next ones I read are on the smaller side I might be able to complete my aim of 10 books.
Third goal was to read more poetry. I set myself the task of reading A Poem for Every Night of the Year and A Poem for Every Day of the Year. The idea was to read two poems a day but to be honest I have fallen a little bit behind. I am still reading poetry at least once a week though which is way better than I have done in the past so I am definitely doing well on this goal.
My final goal was to finish three book series and start another one. The series to start is The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. The three series to finish are:
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey
Shardlake series by C. J. Sansom
I haven’t finished any series yet but I have moved forward with them all. I haven’t started The Witcher series though yet. To be honest I know I won’t finish The Wheel of Time series this year but I hope to make good progress with it. I do hope to finish The Expanse series and The Shardlake series though.
I’m not too worried that so far I am a little behind with my reading goals. My overall aim was to have a more relaxed reading experience this year and so far I think I am managing that and that is the main thing.
I hope everyone’s reading goals are going well so far this year.
Happy Reading
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So the results of the latest spin are in and the number is 5. For my list for Spin #30 the post is here. Number 5 on my list is Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot.
A collection of three stories. The Stories take place in and around the fictional town of Milby in the English Midlands. Each of the Scenes concerns a different Anglican clergyman, but is not necessarily centred upon him. Eliot examines, among other things, the effects of religious reform and the tension between the Established and the Dissenting Churches on the clergymen and their congregations, and draws attention to various social issues, such as poverty, alcoholism, and domestic violence.
I haven’t read much George Eliot so I am looking forward to reading this book. Hopefully I can finish it by August 7th.
Now I have started reading classics again my TBR pile is growing as there are so many I want to read.
Please drop me a comment if you are doing the Classics Club challenge or if you have taken part in the Spin Challenge.
Happy Reading
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It is time for another spin event from The Classics Club. I really enjoyed the last one I did, because it chose me an absolutely brilliant book that I think I would have left to the end of the challenge. So here are my 20 books, whichever number gets picked on the 12th June I will read and review the book before the set date of 7th August 2022.
Silas Marner by George Eliot
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome. K. Jerome
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Evelina by Frances Burney
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
Candide by Voltaire
I’m really looking forward to what the random selection will be and I hope I will be able to read the book within the time frame.
Wish me luck!
Please drop me a comment if you are taking part in the Spin event or if you have read any of the books on my list.
Happy Reading
If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you
Last week I decided to take part in the Classics Club Spin Event to decide my next read off my Classics Club List. The post can be found here.
Well the results are in and the chosen number was 11. This means my next read will be The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins and I have to finish it by 30th April 2022.
I have only read one book by Wilkie Collins but I did love it so fingers crossed I will enjoy The New Magdalen just as much.
I am thoroughly enjoying my classics reading after so long without reading any.
Please drop me a comment if you are doing the Classics Club challenge or if you have taken part in the Spin Challenge.
Happy Reading
If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you
I have decided to take part in my first Spin event for The Classics Club. To join in you simply list 20 books left off your Classics Club list before Sunday 20th March 2022 and then the club will randomly select a number. The selected book then has to be read before Saturday 30th April 2022. I have a lot of titles left to read as I have only recently started the challenge so it has been a difficult selection but here is my list:
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Silas Marner by George Eliot
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Evelina by Frances Burney
Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot
Love in Excess by Eliza Haywood
I’m really looking forward to what the random selection will be and I hope I will be able to read the book within the time frame.
Wish me luck!
Please drop me a comment if you are taking part in the Spin event or if you have read any of the books on my list.
Happy Reading
If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you
Goodreads Monday is now hosted by Budget Tales Book Club. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.
This weeks book off my Classics Club List is another new author to me and one that I have been meaning to read for many years and own a lot of her books already.
When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.
In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
Hopefully I will get around to reading this book this year and it will be another classic off my ever growing TBR pile.
Please drop me a comment if you have taken part in Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading
If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you
Lady Book Dragon 