Classics Considered

There's three weeks left in the year, but I honestly don't expect to get much reading done till my Christmas break (beginning the 20th!!!), so I thought I would start my yearly retrospective a bit early. These were my reading goals for 2018 : Bring back Book Journals - Kind of a fail. I started a book journal with Ben-Hur but lost momentum early on.  I'm still tacitly reading it, and maybe during my break will start posting about it again. Read more non-fiction.   Check!  Of the 45 books I read (or partially read) this year, almost a third were non-fiction, and some of the fiction was based heavily on real life.  That's pretty good for me. Escape the comfort zone.   Check.  I read a number of books this year that definitely challenged me, and some made me extremely uncomfortable. Revive the blog.   Check.  While podcasting, I made an effort to write posts that complemented the episodes, and that worked out nicely. In spite of havi...

Great books can make great movies (and, in some cases, better ones).  This week's topic features some of my favorite costume dramas inspired by classics. Editor's note: In my excitement and haste, it seems I mispronounced Wodehouse's name and called videos VCRs... whoops!  (Oh, and The Young Victoria was 2009, not 2012.  Time does fly.) The Questions: First literary drama miniseries you ever watched? Last literary drama you watched? What media forms do you prefer to use when watching period dramas (i.e. purchased DVDs, rented/borrowed DVDs, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu)? Favorite literary drama soundtrack(s)? Favorite literary musical? Literary drama you'd recommend to anyone? If you could have a new adaptation of your favorite classic book, what would it be and who would star? A favorite pair of literary drama friends? A favorite pair of literary drama enemies? Movies or miniseries with the best costumes? Where I found the questions: Old-Fashioned Ch...

Looking for your next great read?  This episode features six little-known classics and why I feel they should be famous.

Our voyage takes a detour through that hardest of decisions: how to rate a novel.  I share my four personal guidelines for rating classics and show some examples of how this works in practice.

For this week's topic, I talk about my favorites from classic literature and why I may give up having "favorites" in the future.