Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

October starts tomorrow! What are everyone's reading plans, spooky or otherwise?

First priority for me this month is the Quest for Women hold that finally came in, whose finishing will mean that I am officially done with all of my 2020 challenges. Alongside that, there is my conglomerate of 21st c./1970/optional lag challenges, whose newly rotated in focuses this month will be YA, first works in a series, and GR user recommendations. Finally, my reading schedule has cleared up enough for me to start thinking about the series that I've been progressing in on a yearly basis, and I plan on reading at least one of those this month. And, of course, there are all the conglomerate challenge works leftover from September that hopefully won't take too long to finish.

Quest for Women
The Scottish Chiefs - Jane Porter (completed 10/13/20)

21st Century Lag (YA, First in a Series, GR Recs)
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky - Heidi W. Durrow (YA) (completed 10/19/20)
Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead - Sara Gran (F, GR) (completed 10/22/20)
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón (F) (completed 10/28/20)
The Siege - Helen Dunmore (F, C) (completed 10/30/20)
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Naomi Klein (GR) (Currently Reading)

Post 1970 (Lag) - Wild Card
Mao's Last Dancer - Li Cunxin (Currently Reading)

Nofiction November Preparation
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World - Steven Johnson (Currently Reading)

September Remainders
The Night Watch - Sarah Waters (Q, R) (completed 10/3/20)
Native Guard - Natasha Trethewey (completed 10/5/20)
The Master - Colm Tóibín (Q, C) (completed 10/12/20)
A Naked Singularity - Sergio de la Pava (completed 10/26/20)


Yearly Commitments
The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 3: 1939-1944 - Anaïs Nin (Currently Reading)
River of Smoke - Amitav Ghosh

October seems full of creepy stories for me.

From September - A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Bingo Challenge
Frankenstien

Short Story Buffet Challenge:
The House on Mango Street
Waiting for Godot
Lady Susan
Siddhartha

Other Short Stories by H.P. Lovecraft:
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Whisperer in Darkness
The Haunter of the Dark
The Shadow Out of Time

Group Reads with this group:
Fahrenheit 451
The Pickwick Papers - Chapters 1-20

Group Reads with Other Groups:
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - Ongoing
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Tristana

P.D. James Challenge:
Original Sin
A Certain Justice

Other Reading:
Profile of a Criminal Mind by Brian Innes - Ongoing
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

I'm trying to focus on reading some of the books I'm still missing for my challenges: (pulitzer) decade challenge, nobel laureate challenge and birth year challenge:

Currently reading:
On the Origin of Species (serial reader)
New York 2140 (audio)
Dragon's Teeth (pulitzer)

To read:
The Queen of the Tearling (audio, Q-title)
Mitjas kärlek (nobel laureate challenge)
American Pastoral (pulitzer)
Rage of Angels (birthyear challenge)
Girl with a Pearl Earring (audio, personal challenge)
Vi skal ikke våkne
The Museum of Mysteries
The Nickel Boys (audio)
Vinger af sølv
Rent blod (audio)
Vildhunden & panteren
Uneasy Spirits
De underjordiske
Don't Overthink It: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life (audio)
Ørsted: Han satte strøm til verden
Kongeriget
The Horse Dancer (audio)
Springtime for Murder
Mutts & Murder
Wives and Daughters - started
Stormvarsel
The Caine Mutiny - started

I am reading a book by both father and son Alexandre Dumas. I guess I can compare their styles. I have a couple of books that work for Victober and one that's seasonally creepy.

The Lady of the Camellias: La Dame Aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas fils (classics group read)
Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë (classics group bookshelf)
The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas (classics group bookshelf)
The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe (classics group bookshelf)
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (other group read)
When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head (personal 20th century challenge)
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

I am still reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor.

I need to read a poetry collection for Bingo. Also for challenges:

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
A Murder of Quality by John le Carré
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

I will be reading from this list. Perhaps something else will intrude. That usually happens. Finishing the challenges this year seems like a long shot.

Lynn, I'm waiting to read "My Cousin Rachel" since I joined the group. That said I have so many group reads and challenge reads each month that I don't think I'll read it till 2021. Hope you enjoy it.

I enjoyed "The Spy who came in from the Cold" by John le Carre in September. Let me know if this one is a good read.

Well it's the first of October, and I'm looking at my challenges, thinking "I've got to do something different next year!" I'd like to get a few of them done, so I'm trying to map out a plan. For this month, these are my hopes:

Finish:
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Close Range by Annie Proulx
The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism by George Bernard Shaw
Group Read:
The Street by Ann Petry
Possibilities:
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah
Existentialism and Human Emotions by Jean-Paul Sartre

I finished 2 of 3 challenges so I have fewer planned reads (not that I follow the plan).

Finish: Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns

Challenge read: The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning

Possibles: The Spoilt City by Olivia Manning
Mary Anne by Daphne du Maurier

Kathleen wrote: "Well it's the first of OctThe Heart's Invisible Furiesober, and I'm looking at my challenges, thinking "I've got to do something different next year!" I'd like to get a few of them done, so I'm trying to map out a plan. For t..."

Kathleen, I really enjoyed The Heart's Invisible Furies. I see you have it listed as a "possibility," but even if you don't get to it this month, you should definitely keep it on the list to get to sometime in the near future! :)

Terris wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "Well it's the first of OctThe Heart's Invisible Furiesober, and I'm looking at my challenges, thinking "I've got to do something different next year!" I'd like to g..."

Thanks, Terris! I was at the end of a very long line of holds at the library, but miraculously am now at the top, so it's looking good for me to read it this month. I'm looking forward to it and so glad you enjoyed it!

I have some doorstoppers lined up for October.

With the group, I'm reading The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

For my classic BINGO challenge, I just started War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

With another group, I'm reading In a Glass Darkly by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

and, I'm also reading the 2nd book in the Stormlight Archive series - Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

4 books / 3800 pages - these ought to keep me busy for a while!

Kathleen wrote: "Well it's the first of October, and I'm looking at my challenges, thinking "I've got to do something different next year!" I'd like to get a few of them done, so I'm trying to map out a plan. For t..."

Me too Kathleen. I can't help it if my friends read cool books, and I want to jump in.

My October Reads

Read
1. A Brief History of the Vikings: The Last Pagans or the First Modern Europeans?
2. Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin
3. A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie
4. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
5. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
6. Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow
7. Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by Kimberly Dean
8. Pete the Cat: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by James Dean
9. Jazz: Midnight by Gary Scott Beatty
10. The Lady of Shalott by Lord Alfred Tennyson
11. The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes
12. The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
13. Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs
14. This Van Could Be Your Life by Mishka Shubaly
15. Misery by Stephen King
16. His Last Bow (the collection) by Arthur Conan Doyle
17. The Belle's Strategem by Hannah Cowley

Currently Reading
1. The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean
2. Solomon and the Ant: And Other Jewish Folktales bySheldon Oberman

Plan to Read
1. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
2. The Castle of Wolfenbach: A German Story by Eliza Parsons
3. Words Whispered in Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina bySandy Rosenthal

Kathleen wrote: "Terris wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "Well it's the first of OctThe Heart's Invisible Furiesober, and I'm looking at my challenges, thinking "I've got to do something different next year!..."

I'll be watching for your review :)

Cynda wrote: "... I can't help it if my friends read cool books, and I want to jump in."

Too true, and now there are some on your list tempting me!

My life has been so busy this year, I haven't had the headspace to read much. The TBR keeps growing, but I don't have the time to shrink it back down. I know the time will come, but until then I try to make more humble reading plans.
For October, I hope to finish The Flea Palace for my book club, also looking forward to the final chapters of Piranesi and finally picking up Ghost Money.

Currently reading The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell and Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

In October, I'm looking forward to reading Orphan X by Gregg Andrew Hurwitz, Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin, Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe.

Kathleen wrote: "Cynda wrote: "... I can't help it if my friends read cool books, and I want to jump in."

Too true, and now there are some on your list tempting me!"

You're always welcome to join in, now or anytime in future 😉

Matt wrote: "I have some doorstoppers lined up for October.

With the group, I'm reading The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens [authorima..."

Yes indeed, some heavy books!

Halfway through the month, I've finished four works and can see myself finishing at least three or four (I went and took on a longer page average again) more. I've also finally finished my last 2020 reading challenge, so now all my attention is focused on my ongoing post-1970/21st c. lag reads. Nonfiction November is also approaching (as well as 2021 challenge announcements at the end of that month(?)), so I'll be reading fiction for the rest of the month before diving into works that qualify for such.

Tomorrow's the last day of the month, and today I finished the last, and ninth, book I'll be able to complete during the course of October. Every one of them was fiction, so it'll be a treat to switch over for the event of Nonfiction November, which will be going on on Goodreads, Twitter, and other social medias for the entire course of the month. Almost every work I read will fall in with my 21st century lag goals (got to get my yearly Nin fix in), and I'm looking forward to this group's 2021 reading challenge schematics being released right around the time that I'm ready to move on from cleaning out the clutter of my contemporaries.

I posted five books at the beginning of the month:

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius I am now on Book 10/12. Woo hoo! I probably will finish this one before the year ends. This reminds me of the time I took six month to read Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I actually enjoy both, but am taking my time.

I finished the short story collection A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor. Another slower read for me, but I usually do that with a short story collection.

I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick which I really enjoyed.

I also read a couple of short stories besides Flannery O'Connor
1. "A Cup of Tea" by Katherine Mansfield
2. Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie

And finally the play Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

I did not finish 4 of the 5 I had listed. But I read Dr. Faustus and Do Androids Dream? instead. Oh well. I can never seem to stick to a list.