Spin List! #38
Update: The spin has spun, and we have landed with . . .
#17, A Handful of Dust, by Evelyn Waugh!
As a wretched Shakespearean lead might say, So. . .
Following dismal failure during the previous Spin I return to the scene with hopes of a better performance. Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady, my Spin book from April, is still progressing with 249 pages left as of this date. Judgement has been lenient: the promised banishment to Scotland's wildest archipelago has yet to be pronounced, with Idaho serving as my prison, various forms of potato as my fare. I hope to finish it in the near future, however, and to make my first review-post soon after! I look forward to it immensely!
But as I say, I am back in the ring and am going to try to finish this Spin on time, if for nothing else, then the fear of being sent to Utah!
iocus iocus omnia iocari
1. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
2. Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
3. Saga of the Volsungs
4. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
5. Le Morte d'Arthur, Thomas Malory
6. Howard's End, E.M. Forster
7. Vile Bodies, Evelyn Waugh
8. The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
9. Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë
10. Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
11. Emma, Jane Austen
12. Confessions of an English Opium Eater, Thomas De Quincey
13. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
14. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
15. The Lair of the White Worm, Bram Stoker
16. The Lark, E. Nesbit
17. A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh
18. Rasselas, Samuel Johnson
19. Where Angels Fear to Tread, E.M. Forster
20. Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
Brideshead Revisited is on my list, too. Your list looks good to me with the exception of #5. It's one of only two books I can remember not finishing. Hopefully you'll get on with it better than I did.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Indeed, that may be one I have to push myself a bit extra for; though I used a random number generator to select the books, I mostly stuck with ones I felt confident I could finish on time, but left one or two that have what you might call 'an element of terror' (haha!). I think either Brideshead or Howard's End would be the one I most hope gets called. What about you?
DeleteOh my--what great choices! Rebecca! Frankenstein! Brideshead!!! The Lark is on my list, too, albeit as #12. I hope you enjoy whatever the pick is. Lisa of Hopewell https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!! I'm so excited about all of them, so no number will disappoint me!
DeleteI love your list! My mother is currently reading Vera, and I myself read (and adored!) The Enchanted April by Arnim last year. I hope you enjoy it (Vera) whenever you do read it, if not for the spin then whenever you pick it up!
Good luck with the spin!
ReplyDeleteBTW, I've heard that Henry James is one of the more challenging of the Classics Club authors, so you should cut yourself some slack. No need for banishment!
Thank you so much!
DeleteYes, though I am thoroughly enjoying the book, a lot of time and attention has to be given it -- as with all books, but this especially! Challenging is the right word; it's not 'hard', exactly, but it isn't quite what the mind jumps to when it hears 'easy'. Thank you! I wasn't too cut up about not finishing when I'd planned, but just enough to be lifted by my joke of 'banishment' coinciding with moving to another state! My silliness has now the grace of validity.
I love your list! I read The Enchanted April last year -- it's a beautiful book! Happy spinning!!
Emma's loads of fun, and Rebecca had just the right amount of scary for me. The Moonstone is longish, but a great mystery.
ReplyDeleteI read the Morte d'Arthur a long time ago & I thought it was amazing--I love those knights in armor tales--but it would be a challenge!
Emma is one I've seen many adaptations of but still have the pleasure of reading it to yet look forward to! It's often the opposite with me: I like to read, then watch, but I suppose with classics of film, Alfred Hitchcock's Joan Fontaine/Laurence Olivier Rebecca for example, a lot of people have watched first and read later, perhaps their having enjoyed the filmed story inspiring them to read the book when they might not have before.
DeleteYes, I've always loved King Arthur -- it's a sort of family tradition to love King Arthur -- so I will have that to spur me on if I get a bit stuck now and again!
Good luck with your spin!
P.S. -
Delete(I hit 'Publish' before I meant to!) Rebecca and The Moonstone are two books I have been thrilled at the thought of reading for years! A scare and a mystery: what could make for better reading?
I love your list! Weirdly, we both ended up with The Lark as #16. I think it's impressive that you've made so much progress in The Portrait of a Lady, all things considered!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Ha - so we have!! I knew we both had it, but I didn't realize it was the same number. Might it be, perhaps, a sign. . . ? If 16 gets called, that would be pretty freaky!
DeleteYeah, I'm quite pleased with having only about 190 pages left! Thank you!