According to their blog: 10 years ago today [August 1], The Classic Club Blog was born! … To celebrate our 10 years of blogging about Classics, we want to know more about YOU. New members and old.

• Share a link to you blog and/or classic club list/s.
• Answer the 10 questions below.
• As always we are very flexible about how and when you do this.
• Tweek, add or subtract the questions to suit you best.
• Have fun!

Well… I’m up for a couple questions… let’s see how I do!

The Questions:

As always, we are very relaxed about how you interpret the question. The idea is to have fun, talk classics and get a little social.

1. When did you join the Classics Club? Actually, I didn’t officially join, to be honest. I mean I did one of their memes back in 2021, and I’ve done three spins now, plus, I’m always reading classics, so…
2. What is the best classic book you’ve read for the club so far? Why? There are many classics I love, and it would be hard to pick one in particular. However, the only book I’ve ever read more than once is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Now, that might not be considered a classic by everyone, but I certainly think it is one, so I’m going with that!
3. What is the first classic you ever read? I’m not totally sure, but I think it might have been “Jane Eyre.” I know I read it when I was a very little girl and was way too young for the book. Still, I clearly remember reading it when I had an accident with my foot, and was stuck in bed.
4. Which classic book inspired you the most? Define “inspired”! I mean, the book that made me into a reader was probably one of the “Dick and Jane” books, being technically the first books I ever read. But are those classics? Maybe; maybe not. However, there was a book that was written in 1875 called “The Little Lame Prince” by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik that I read about the same time as I read “Jane Eyre”. You can still get a copy of this book, which means it probably is considered a classic. In any case, I can remember lots of it, very vividly to this day (we’re talking getting close to 60 years ago)! Those were the books that made me want to be a reader.
5. What is the most challenging one you’ve ever read, or tried to read? I’ll go with “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf. I read this for a #CCSpin and despite it being relatively short, I struggled with it from beginning to end. I can now cross Woolf off of my classics bucket list of authors to read. She is NOT for me!
6. Favourite movie adaptation of a classic? Least favorite? Least favorite is easy – “The English Patient” by Michael Ondaatje is the WORST adaptation of a book to the big screen I’ve ever seen. If you’ve read and loved the book, you’ll know what I mean. As for favorite, maybe the 1995 mini-series version of “Pride & Prejudice” which really stuck to the book beautifully (and yeah… Colin Firth)!
7. Which classic character most reminds you of yourself? I’d like to say Jo Marsh from “Little Women” the strong, independent woman who just wants to write books. I’m not sure she reminds me so much of myself, as much as I want to be like her.
8. Has there been a classic title you expected to dislike and ended up loving? Respecting? Appreciating? To be honest, I never expect to dislike a classic, because the classics I choose to read are usually literary fiction novels, which I generally like already. That said, when I was in High School, we had to read all sorts of books in many genres. I remember being very impressed by Orwell’s “Animal Farm” even though I don’t much care for books where the characters aren’t human. I went on to read his “1984” and it blew me away.
9. Classic/s you are DEFINITELY GOING TO MAKE HAPPEN next year? Well, I absolutely want to do more #CCSpins, so this depends on what numbers are picked from my list. I’ll also be on the lookout for any #CCDares or memes the Club may come up with, in the coming year. Other than that, I prefer to leave it up to chance, and being inspired by something on my shelf or another blogger.
10. Favorite memory with a classic and/or your favourite memory with The Classics Club? This is a hard one. Since I know you all are flexible, this is a memory connected with my oldest son. When he was in High School, one of the required books was “Catcher in the Rye.” Now remember, my kids went to school in Israel, and this required reading wasn’t for his English class, but rather for his regular literature class. Therefore, the copy he had to read was a translation into Hebrew. So, one day, I start getting phone calls where my son is asking me questions about the original version, saying things like “in the original, does it say XYZ?” or “did Salinger use the phrase ABC in his book?” where the XYZ and ABC were his own English translations of the Hebrew text. After about three of these calls, I tell him “why don’t you just take my copy from the shelf and read it in English?” Well, he did just that, and a few hours later, he calls me to say that the Hebrew translation was SO bad, he decided to take the translation class (which meant extra credit for him)! (By the way, complaints about that poor translation eventually lead to a new one, thank heavens!)

What about you?

How would you answer these questions?