For the Love of Classics Book Tag


This tag was created over on Youtube by Beyond the Pages and TheSkepticalReader, two of my favourite channels. I love reading classics and these two ladies read such a wide variety of them, I always find their videos very inspiring! So I wanted to join the fun and participate in this really cool tag. 



A bit like fantasy, classics really take you away and to a time and place that is very different (in appearance at least) than where you are. Books like Jane Austen's I read for the simple pleasure and cosiness, for the beautifully refined language. But I also care about learning of the differences between society then and now, to see what has changed and what maybe hasn't. Reading classics really makes me think about the themes and topics I read about, because so many things aren't explicitly stated in the text but rather hidden in the language, so that one can learn so much from them, about the times and people depicted, but also about humans in general.
Of course I have to read classics for university as well, but, as they are one of my favourite things to read anyway, I read them nearly all the time.

 There are so many classics, so I don't know if I can say that I read very many of one particular period or country already, they are all so fascinating. I just started getting a bit more into Russian classical literature, thanks to Simon Sebag Montefiore's The Romanovs and the new Vintage War and Peace Edition. Since reading David Hair's Moontide Quarted, I'm also interested in reading more from India, like the Mahabharata, which is staring accusingly at me from my shelf right now. 


 It has been said many times, and I will say it again: Harry Potter. The first children's book to create such a wave of popularity, it has impacted so many childhood's and adulthood's all over the world. I am convinced that these books will stand the test of time. We've just celebrated the 20th anniversary of the beauty that is The Philosopher's Stone, and its fame hasn't diminished after all these years. It rather feels like it is becoming more popular as time passes. I also think that Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels might gain the status of classic fantasy, if the success of The Hitchhiker's Guide is any indicator at all.



 The very last classic I read is a short chivalric romance from around 930CE, the Waltharius by Ekkehard I of St. Gallen (or not?). This is a lovely short piece about heroes and love and bad kings I can thoroughly recommend to anyone interested in such things. Something more recent would have been either Henry James' Portrait of a Lady or his Figure in the Carpet, both things I thoroughly enjoyed as well. 



Pride and Prejudice, I read it for the first time in 2012 and understood maybe half of it, as English is not my first language and I had never read anything like it before. 












 How to choose only one? I love everything by the Folio Society, like their copy of Shakespeare's sonnets, Jane Austen's letters or Homer's epics. Another favourite is my old copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream illustrated by Arthur Rackham and published by Viking Press. Oh, and not to forget the beautiful Penguin Leatherbound Classics. 








 A name that has fallen many times already: Jane Austen. I only have Mansfield Park and her shorter works left to read, and although I love rereading very much, I'm not looking forward to having no Austen left. I also wish there were more short stories on Sherlock Holmes (good ones, not like those last ones in The Casebook), or a lot more by Shirley Jackson.












East of Eden by John Steinbeck is the last one that came to mind. Man was I disappointed and annoyed by that book. 













 Either Ovid's Metamorphoses or Tolstoy's War and Peace, both very long and complex books I want to reread many times in the future.





 I have already proven incapable of choosing only one answer for most of these questions, so why break the pattern now? I don't read very many modern classics, but I would probably choose either We Have Always Lived in the Castle or The Haunting of Hill House, both by Shirley Jackson. I also really loved Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. All of these are books that really left an impression on me, and I find myself thinking of them quite often still.






Far too many. There are the famous places of antiquity, like Athens and Rome. Reading Henry James also really made me want to see the Colosseum, since that's where some important scenes from his books take place. I'm really interested in visiting Pompeii as well. Above all I would like to visit Middle-earth, though, a.k.a. New Zealand. England itself is basically a classic literary place, and I would love to go to Stratford-upon-Avon, Jane Austen's House and that of the Brontë's. There's also Tintagel, where according to legend King Arthur was conceived.






Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass, that would do wonders for any child's imagination. After that, I'd also recommend Little Women for some hope, warmth and cosiness.


 If I really, really have to choose, this would be Pride and Prejudice. Seeing the characters admit their mistakes and better themselves is so nice and refreshing, even inspiring. The happy ending would also probably help and get more people into classics, because this offers such a positive reading experience. On that note, I would just recommend all of Austen's work because let's face it, they are happiness in a neatly packed shape.


via GIPHY










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