Author: Sue

by Anne Bronte

This was my pick for Classics Club Spin #43, and I enjoyed it very much. I have really enjoyed both books by Anne Bronte – both have seemed to me to be very relatable to modern day issues. The way Agnes, employed as a governess, was treated by the spoiled and very badly behaved children of the two families she worked for, and also by their arrogant and unfeeling parents, was quite horrifying. Agnes didn’t feel she could complain because she wanted to prove her independence and also needed to support her own family. Neither of her employers gave her credit for her education or intelligence, but were happy to blame her for the bad behaviour and lack of educational progress of their offspring.

This book is apparently quite autobiographical – what an awful state of affairs when this was one of the very few occupations open to educated single women at that time. The book is very easy to read and really enjoyable. The ending was very predictable but satisfying – the protagonist ended with a much happier outcome than Anne Bronte did.

I have now read 45 books from my second set of classics – I generally only blog the ones that come up for the Spin, because writing takes too much time from reading! I also keep adding to my lists because I keep finding excellent classics in street libraries and charity shops.

by William Makepeace Thackeray

This book was my pick for Classics Club Spin #42 – an 844 page novel in two volumes. It has sat unread in my bookcase for many years since gifted to me by a great-aunt who was thrilled to discover that I enjoyed classics! I loved reading Vanity Fair at school and have always thought of Thackeray as one of my favourites, but somehow this version, with very thin pages and tiny print, put me off, even when I still had very good eyesight! Anyway, it was a slog, but I persevered. The novel was originally published in serial form, but the first volume was extremely slow-moving, and the characters hard to get to grips with because there are so many. Luckily I read a few other reviews once I was half-way through the book and feeling somewhat despairing, and one in particular commented on how hard it was to get through volume 1, but that volume 2 was a treat! I agree with that reviewer! Only very few of the characters were likable, and a major theme of the book is the problem of marrying for money/progress/anything other than love, so it often felt frustrating. Thackeray seems to have had very good insight into people’s behaviours and the ways they managed (or didn’t manage) social expectations. He also had a great sense of humour and wonderful way with words.

This book is not recommended as a first foray into Thackeray – Vanity Fair is definitely a much more engaging read – but otherwise this one is well worth reading.

Oh dear, it seems I forgot to blog my last spin book, which I did read but took a looooong time because it was a very long book! However, I am still keen to continue my unbroken run of Spin classics, so here is my list for this time:

These books range in length from 160 pages to 808, so I’m hoping for a shorter one this time – fingers crossed!

Here we go again! On Sunday 19th October a number will be posted from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on my Spin List by the 21st December, 2025. Here is my list, some of which are fairly new to my list, and others have been languishing unread on my shelves for years, which is why I love this challenge!

by H Rider Haggard

This was a book I picked up at a local street library, and it was the one selected for me in the Classics Club Spin #41.

This book was first published in 1885, and it shows! I had heard of Rider Haggard and knew he wrote rip-roaring adventure books, but had never read any. I did persevere with this through to the end despite many winces and shakings of the head, mainly because it was my pick for the Classics Club Spin. Actually it’s one of the things I love about reading classics – they provide such a window into life and attitudes of the time they were written. This book is an adventure narrated by one of the British protagonists, whose money is made by big game hunting, and much of the adventure involves hunting of big game in Africa, lots of description of African tribal wars/torture/indiscriminate murder, and fundamental racism. I had to look up several words, including ‘quogga’ which turns out to be an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra that was endemic to southern Africa until it was hunted to extinction in the late 19th century. There are descriptions of huge piles of elephant tusks, and the shooting and eating of a giraffe – at that time there was clearly no thought given to the possible extinction of any of these species. There is some reference to the negative effects of white man’s desire for money and riches from ivory, diamonds and gold as opposed to the tribal African’s lack of interest in those things, but the stereotypes of the British adventurers, the superstitious natives, the warring tribal kings (one evil, one noble), and the beautiful young native women, were pretty sickening. The travels through the desert and mountains where the adventurers were on the point of death several times were well described, though there were far too many improbable coincidences. Luckily for them there was a full lunar eclipse at exactly the time they needed to convince the evil king of their magical powers by “turning off” the moon!

I can see why young boys found these stories exciting more than 100 years ago, but I won’t be giving them to my grandchildren to read, and I certainly won’t be reading any more myself!

In the last spin I read The Leopard by Tomasi Di Lampedusa – a classic that is often on “best books” lists, but I had tried and failed to get into it previously. This time I persevered and really enjoyed it. I learned lots about the social and historical events of that time (Sicily in the 1860s) and found parts of it very funny – unfortunately I forgot to blog about it though!

So, here is my list of 20 books for the current spin. My list of classic books is constantly being added to as I find books from street libraries and charity shops. This Sunday a number will be drawn and I will read the book corresponding to that number.

I have been burning through my second Classics Club list, but there are still quite a few that I find myself putting off – the Spin challenges often give me that necessary push to start something that I end up really enjoying!

On Sunday 16 February a number will be posted, and I will read the corresponding book from my list. Here is my list of 20 books remaining on my current classics list – all are physical books on my shelves waiting to be read.

This is the book that was selected for me in the Classics Club Spin #39. It is special because it was purchased by my Grandfather from Burns’ house in Dumfries, Scotland in 1929 when he (my Grandfather) was travelling there. It is a small, leatherbound book which originally had a papery coating which has flaked off over the years. It has 648 thin pages, and more than 550 poems and songs. I must admit to skimming over many of them – especially the many epitaphs, elegies etc – I really think he must have put almost every thought into rhyme! Though I read this over several weeks, I still found it very slow going. The list of contents takes up 14 pages, and then there is a very helpful glossary (also many pages long) as most of the entries are in Scots dialect and are barely comprehensible to this Australian! Despite all of that, I did enjoy many of the songs/poems as Burns clearly had a great sense of humour, had an impressive way with words, and obviously loved the ladies! He is most famous for “Auld Lang Syne” sung every New Year’s Eve, but I have a special fondness for “The Birks of Aberfeldy”. Some years ago I was visiting Scotland and did an early morning walk in Aberfeldy – there is a steep but beautiful circular walk up and over a waterfall, and at one point you come across a statue of Robert Burns seated on a bench, note pad in hand. I had assumed the birks was the waterfall, but no, it’s the birch trees!

I’m glad to have finally had the push to actually read through this little gem.

This is my 19th consecutive time participating in this event – sorry to have missed the first 20! I have chosen 20 books from my list of classics, all of which are currently on my shelves at home waiting to be read. Whichever number is posted on Sunday, I will read the corresponding book before 18 December . My books for this challenge are: