It is time for another Classics Club spin! In it I trust random chance to decide which book I need to read before October 31th 2019. The rules are simple, I have to make a numbered list of twenty books from my Classics Club reading list and on the 23th of September the Classics Club will draw a number and thus tell me which of my books I should read.
The books I selected are:
- de Beauvoir, Simone: The Second Sex
- Bulgakov, Mikhail: The Master and Margarita
- Fogelström, Per Anders: Mina drömmars stad (City of My Dreams)
- von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang: Faust
- Ibsen, Henrik: Peer Gynt (winner)
- Kushner, Tony: Angels in America
- Lie, Jonas: Fortellinger i utvalg (Selected stories)
- Linna, Väinö: Okänd soldat (The Unknown Soldier)
- Mansfield, Katherine: Short story collection
- Morrison, Toni: Beloved
- Plath, Sylvia: Ariel
- Rhys, Jean: Wide Sargasso Sea
- Scott, Robert Falcon: Scott’s last expedition
- Shakespeare, William: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Sturlasson, Snorre: Heimskringla
- Thorvall, Kerstin: Det mest förbjudna
- Tikkanen, Märta: Arnaía kastad i havet
- Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina
- Undset, Sigrid: Kransen (The Wreath, Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, part one)
- Walker, Alice: The Color Purple
I’m hoping for 3, 5, 8 or 14 and fear 15 and 18.
Wish me luck!
Edit: And the winner is Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen, one of the books I wished for!
I read that in a book 
1, 2,9 or 11 would be good! Good luck! 😁
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Thank you, as long as I avoid Heimskringla I’m sure I’ll be fine…
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2 or 10 would be my picks. Hope you get one you enjoy! It’s a long time since I read Anna Karenina but I seem to remember finding it a much easier read than most of the Russian classics I’ve tried, so fear not! 😀
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I mostly fear the ending, I want all characters I care about to live happily ever after….
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I love reading lists that contain books I’ve never heard of! Thanks.
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I really like the way joining the Classics Club has encouraged me to identify my own classics and follow what everyone else reads. I learn about so much great literature this way!
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I second Fiction Fan, AK is a great read, and so it’s the Undset trilogy. I bought Mansfield’s same book last Saturday, it seems it’d be a good title too.
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Living in Norway I feel really bad about not having read Kristin Lavransdotter, but I will, eventually…
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I just finished Anna Karenina earlier in the year. Interesting. Def a good book with Winter coming (or ending in the southern Hemi).
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Definitely coming here, we just had a major autumn storm and were out of electricity for 6 hours. I got so much reading done with internet down…
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I feared Anna, too, but she turned out to be a compelling and readable book. I vote for AK.
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But I want her to live happily ever after and that can only happen if I never finish it…
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Good luck with your list! There is some really interesting titles on your list – Some I have not even heard of! However I did really enjoy Wide Sargasso Sea and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 🙂
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I’m sure either of them would be good. Especially A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by now I have both read the illustrated classic and seen the play, but never actually read the real thing.
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I haven’t heard of several on your list, but I have Faust on mine too, at a different number. I hope you enjoy whatever you end up reading.
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Thank you, same to you!
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Ibsen, Rhys and the Shakespeare are all enjoyable (or at least satisfying to read) but I can’t speak for the others, especially the Swedish originals—obviously!
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Yes, I think either of them would be great. I recently saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream played so reading it soon would be fun (ideally I should have read it before).
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Ibsen it is, I’d better play some Grieg to get into the right mood…
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I’d love to read Peter Gynt again, but having not paid attention when we did Hedda Gabler and The Pillars of Society when we did them at school I feel I ought to tackle those first! Grieg I wouldn’t to listen to unless I had a decent recording of the suites, I’ve heard Solveig’s Song mangled so many times by insensitive sopranos…
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My favourite is In the Hall of the Mountain King without choir, so the sopranos are no threat to me 🙂
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12 and 20 are the two I know and love, you’re brave with AK on your list!
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I’m sure either of them would be good!
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I’ve heard about Kristin Lavarsdatter before but have no idea about plot or genre. May try one day.
Midsummer Night’s Dream – I remember that pride many years ago when I read it in English for the first time 😀 I knew it already from the Polish translation and from plays and movies (it is a compulsory read in our schools). Still, one of my favourite of Shakespeare’s plays.
Master and Margarita by Bulhakov is a very, VERY strange book. I guess knowing the historical background helps a bit to understand it better. Still, it is a crazy ride into madness – an absurd man-made madness, that even devil himself can’t make any worse. Absolutely worth reading. Actually, I think I will give it a re-read soon 😉
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We read some other Shakespeare plays in school but never that one. However I saw it played recently and really enjoyed it, so now I want to read it to catch things I missed.
I’ve heard that Master and Margarita is weird, I’m not sure I’ll enjoy it but I’m sure it’ll be interesting 🙂
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There is so much more to Anna Karenina than Anna’s tragic ending — if you get it I hope you will find that as well. It is hard for characters to succumb to the weight of their literary fates but they do live on in us.
I can’t say anything to your other feared book as I’ve never heard of it. A Midsummer Night’s Dream would be delightful if you’ve never encountered it.
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Heimskringla is the old Norse kings’ sagas, and my edition is 660+ pages, all in Norwegian. I only added it to my list as I owned a copy and though I ought to read it now when I live in Norway, but I kind of regret that notion. Definitely scarier than Anna Karenina.
I have recently seen A Midsummer’s Night played, which was great, so I definitely expect enjoying reading the play.
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I’ve got The Master and Margarita on my list too but at a different number. I’ve read the Shakespeare Rhys, Ibsen, Mansfield and Tolstoy. The Jean Rhys book was my least favourite of those ones.
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Ibsen it is, looking forward to Peer Gynt!
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