Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Top Ten Tuesday-The Classics!

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Today I'm linking up with the lovely crew over at The Broke and the Bookish to share my top ten list.  And it's freebie week.  But before I share my list, a little background...

I was home schooled through high school.  That's right.  I didn't have a prom, no football team to cheer on, no clique to hang with, and no after school clubs.  But that doesn't mean I didn't have a community to hang out with.  I had friends that I saw in the flesh, sure, but I also had other friends.  No not message board friends, or blog friends, but penpals!  And I loved it.  There's just something about paper and pen and the thrill of getting mail.  There was also a strong community of desktop published magazines and newsletters.  Think of it as similar to a zine, but with regular features, stories, and articles about whatever.  And yes friends, I had one.  I published a magazine with ClarisWorks 3.0 on my Macintosh Performa.  It was fun, and actually similar to blogging.  But it really helped you make new friends.  And don't scoff, I still write to one penpal fairly regularly, keep up with several on Facebook, and even owe my love of the Upper Peninsula to a penpal who lived there that I visited one summer in high school, and she took me all over, and fed me thimbleberries, and pasties and we grilled out on the shore of Lake Superior.

Now, one thing this large community of (mostly) girls loved more than anything was 19th century literature- Charles Dickens, the Bronte Sisters, George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, and the like.  But our by far and away favorite was Jane Austen!  I became so enamored with classic literature that I resolved only to read classics.  I figured that time was too short to spend it on fluffy books when there was all this great literature to read.  It took me years to realize that lots of good books were written by authors who were still alive and that I was ignoring some great books by setting so narrow a scope.

But now, this year, I decided I want to read some classics again.  One per month is my goal, and I went down to the basement to cull some classics out of the bookshelf I have down there.  (A kind of home for forgotten books.)  So, without further ado, here's my book reading list of Classics for 2015, in no particular order.

english literature

I haven't read any of these prior, so it should be an interesting reboot of high school English class of sorts.  What do you think?  What classics did you enjoy, and do you still read them?  And don't forget to go to The Broke and the Bookish and check out the link up!

8 comments:

  1. I have yet to read Jane Austen. I need to step up. I love the idea you were homeschool. There are so many opportunities with socializing, you do not have to have it through school.

    From 6th grade to 10th grade when I had a fire I had a pen pal from Australia. I loved sending and receiving letters and packages from her. I have missed her from time to time and thought of her through the years. A matter of fact, I Googled her last month to see if I could find anything and was amazed with what I did find. She is somewhat of a celebrity in Australia. Karin Catt artist, celebrity photographer. It would have been amazing to keep in touch through out. To think, I had a copy of one of her first band photos but lost it in our house fire.

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    1. That is so cool Jolene! I wish I had kept in better contact with some of my penpals. After high school, I just kind of drifted away. But, I still love getting mail.

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  2. Fellow homeschooler here-I went all the way through, from K-12 :) I have a love/hate relationship with the classics. There's a few that I've enjoyed (Sherlock Holmes series etc), but most of them have been misses for me. I am enjoying some of the noir crime classics from the 1920s-1960s, those are a lot of fun!

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    1. Cool! Homeschooled for K-12! I know what you mean about the classics. I never could get through some of them. I think I actually spent more time collecting used copies of them than reading them. :) But, I figured it'd be fun to sprinkle them back in, here and there.

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  3. I'm glad I read classics when I was in high school, since I had the time to do so back then.;)
    You have some of my favorites on your list! I loved Shirley, and Emma (along with Persuasion) is my favorite Austen.
    You have several ones I have yet to read though. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on them!:)

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    1. Glad to hear you liked Shirley. It sounds good, and I'm looking forward to it, since I have no idea how the story goes.
      I think Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey are my favorite Jane Austen books. I love how Northanger is like a skewer of the popular "Gothics" of the day.

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  4. I love Dracula, still the best vampire story ever! I haven't read Shirley yet, but want to very much. Enjoy! ♥

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    1. Dracula is one of those classics, where I feel like I already know the story, but I was trying to remember how it ends, and I honestly don't know. So, I figured that'd be a good October read, for Halloween and all. :)

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