Author: TravellinPenguin

In 2015 Penguin Books published a series of 80 Little Black Classic Books to celebrate their 80th anniversary.  I bought the original set but see now more books have been added to the set. I believe they number 127 books. You can see the complete list here.

Of course I have looked through them but not read any of them.

This week the Classic Club 16th Spin has been announced and I thought I would use this set of books to get started reading them. I have picked the first 20 books of the series for the list. There are some I look forward to more than others but I will read the book chosen by the spin number and post a review of it, as required by the end of the year.

The list is as follows:

1. Mrs. Rosie and the Priest by Giovanni Boccaccio
2. As Kingfishers Catch Fire by Gerard Manley Hopkins
3. The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue by Anon
4. On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts by Thomas DeQuincey
5. Aphorisms on Love and Hate
6. Traffic by John Ruskin
7. Wailing Ghosts by Pu Songling
8. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
9. Three Tang Dynasty Poets
10. On the Beach at Night Alone by Walt Whitman
11. A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees by Kentō
12. How to Use Your Enemies by Baltasar Gracián
13. The Eve of St Agnes by John Keats
14. Woman Much Missed by Thomas Hardy
15. Femme Fatale by Guy de Maupassant
16. Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls by Marco Polo
17. Galigual by Suetonius
18. Jason and Medea by Apollonius
19. Olalla by Robert Louis Stevenson
20. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels

I don’t have firm favourites or ones I am dreading BUT …. if I had to choose I think my best pick might be no. 7 or 11 and the ones I might hesitate at would be no. 13 and 20. They sound a bit dry but hey! Who Knows!

The Spin will occur on Friday, November 17th.  Stay Tuned.

Great Expectations is Charles Dicken’s thirteenth novel and only the second one after David Copperfield that is written in the first person -according to Wikipedia.

I am listening to the audio version of it in the car and must say I am thoroughly enjoying it. More so than most books I have read this year.  According to academic sources it includes  themes of wealth, poverty, love, rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil.

I have not read Dickens before and have felt guilty for many years. It wasn’t emphasised in American high schools in the 1960’s.  Then life got in the way and I never made time for these very long books.

The version I am listening to is performed by Martin Jarvis and I love his interpretation of it. (Audible.com).

Dickens paints pictures with his words. The swamps with the convicts hidden, Miss Haversham’s old dilapidated house. Pip’s sister and brother in law are exceptionally well spoken.  The characters are three dimensional and I expect to look over in the passenger seat of the car and see Pip or Joe sitting there.  Sometimes if I get distracted by traffic I will rewind the chapter and listen to it again.

Other news:

I have been reading several magazine articles from Womankind and Philosopher magazines that are published in Hobart.  There is a brand new book shop in Hobart connected to the publishing establishments of these magazines. I went in for the first time the other day and talked to the staff. They let me take some photos. I will do a separate post on this wonderful new shop.

I am also reading the blogs listed on my post regularly.  Although I don’t always have the time or strength to comment I do enjoy them.

I have been seriously decluttering the house. I have joined a fitness centre and am working on ‘getting old gracefully.’  Stretching, balance and weight bearing are the goals. I have lost a few pounds and am working on strengthening my upper body and torso muscles as I get achey while riding my motorbike.  It is like riding a horse. I hobble the day after.

I have a week coming up in Sydney beginning the 19th of this month but more on that later too.

Our photo club challenges are taking up a lot of time. I watch countless videos on You Tube to learn all the settings of my Canon 5D Mark III.  It is like learning to fly a plane. Lightroom and Photoshop are also extensions of that.

I will leave you with a happy honey bee I photographed this morning as I practised various camera settings.

How is your week going?

Bus Trip into Hobart for my Writing Group Meet Up

A very  quiet day..