Classics Club #21: Here We Go Again

Oh how time flies as the years go by... I feel like I was just writing this post yesterday but it was months ago. Although I haven't finished a title for this challenge yet (with almost 4 years participating) I am determined I will one day. I didn't finish Metamorphoses by Ovid from the last spin however I did read a chunk and absolutely loved it and I think that makes it a success. I don't want to pick books that I know I won't finish this time, as I work full time and study and just don't have the time to force myself to read an 800 page tome so I've decided to pick stories I know I can get through. I've also decided to follow Brona's example and pick titles from one country and which other country could it be than my forever literature obsession: Russia. Basically all I've read this year is Russian literature or non fiction about Russia and I have so much more I want to get to. Maybe I'll have to host another Russian challenge for next year.....

I'm also currently working on a piece about my complicated relationship with Leo Tolstoy. It's been something I've wanted to write for a very long time - I just wasn't too sure how to approach it. He's obviously well loved in the book community and it's not an exaggeration when I say I despise him. However, he wrote my favourite book and is one of the greatest writers to ever live. The separation of art and the artist is fraught with difficulties. It's coming along nicely and I hope people take something of value from it...

Anyway, the Classics Club Spin...

The Rules for the Classics Club Spin are: 

1. Go to your blog
2. Pick 20 books that you've got to read from your Classics Club list 
3. Post that list, numbered 1 to 20, on your blog by next Monday
4. Monday morning we'll announce a number from 1 to 20. Go to the list of 20 books you posted and select the book that corresponds to the number we announce
5. The challenge is to read that book before October 31st.

So without further ado here is my Russian (mainly Turgenev - who is surpised?) only list:

1. Uncle's Dream - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2. Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3. Netochka Nezvanova - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4. The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy
5. King Lear of the Steppes - Ivan Turgenev
6. Yakov Pasinkov - Ivan Turgenev
7. Selected Stories - Anton Chekov
8. The Kreutzer Sonata - Leo Tolstoy
9. A Desperate Character - Ivan Turgenev
10. Smoke - Ivan Turgenev
11. Oblomov - Ivan Goncharov
12. Sketches From a Hunter's Album - Ivan Turgenev
13. White Nights - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
14. A Strange Story - Ivan Turgenev
15. The Brigadier - Ivan Turgenev
16. Dead Souls - Nikolai Gogol
17. Old Portraits - Ivan Turgenev
18. Punin and Baburin - Ivan Turgenev
19. Rudin - Ivan Turgenev
20. A Month in the Country - Ivan Turgenev