The Classics Club: The Classics Spin #43

 

"Words and Peace" is a blog I've been following for a couple of years and I have always found some interesting new (or old) books there, especially French ones.

On her page, I found the posts by "The Classics Club" asking us to create a post, this time before next Sunday 8^th February 2026, and list our choice of any twenty books that remain "to be read" on our Classics Club list. They'll then post a number from 1 through 20 and we have time until Sunday 29^th March 2026 to read it.

This time, I read two books from my old list (Classics Spin #42) (The Sound and the Fury" and "Urfaust. Faust Fragment. Faust I. Faust II"). I do want to concentrate on a couple of books in the near future, so I have listed only ten books and repeated them. The books are all in chronological order.

1. Dumas, Alexandre fils "Camille: The Lady of the Camellias" (La Dame aux Camélias) - 1848
2. Turgenjew, Iwan Sergejewitsch "Fathers and Sons" (Отцы и дети/Otzy i deti) - 1862
3. Conrad, Joseph "Victory: An Island Tale" - 1915
4. Hamilton, Cicely "William - an Englishman" - 1920
5. Hesse, Hermann "Wir nehmen die Welt nur zu ernst" [We just take the world too seriously] - 1928
6. Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms" - 1929
7. Meigs, Cornelia "Invincible Louisa" - 1933
8. Krleža, Miroslav "On the Edge of Reason" (Na rubu pameti) - 1938
9. Cela, Camilo José "The Hive" (La colmina) - 1951
10. Plaidy, Jean "The Sixth Wife: The Story of Katharine Parr" - 1953
11. Dumas, Alexandre fils "Camille: The Lady of the Camellias" (La Dame aux Camélias) - 1848
12. Turgenjew, Iwan Sergejewitsch "Fathers and Sons" (Отцы и дети/Otzy i deti) - 1862
13. Conrad, Joseph "Victory: An Island Tale" - 1915
14. Hamilton, Cicely "William - an Englishman" - 1920
15. Hesse, Hermann "Wir nehmen die Welt nur zu ernst" [We just take the world too seriously] - 1928
16. Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms" - 1929
17. Meigs, Cornelia "Invincible Louisa" - 1933
18. Krleža, Miroslav "On the Edge of Reason" (Na rubu pameti) - 1938
19. Cela, Camilo José "The Hive" (La colmina) - 1951
20. Plaidy, Jean "The Sixth Wife: The Story of Katharine Parr" - 1953

This is a great idea for all of us who want to read more classics. Go ahead, get your own list. I can't wait to see what I get to read this time.

Here are all the books on my original Classics Club list.

And here is a list of all the books I read with the Classics Spin.

Happy February!

   Happy February to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch
"Wintermorgen in Honnigsvag"
"Winter morning in Honnigsvag"

Hanka and Frank say to this picture:

"Bei einer unserer Reisen in den Norden mit der MS Otto Sverdrup von den Hurtigruten haben wir in Norwegen einen wunderschönen 'Wintermorgen in Honnigsvag' erlebt."

"During one of our trips to the north with the MS Otto Sverdrup from Hurtigruten, we experienced a beautiful 'winter morning in Honningsvag' in Norway." 

I have never been to Norway but to other Skandinavian countries and they are all beautiful.

Read more on their website here. *

* * *

I can't believe the first month of the year has already passed. Time flies faster every year.

* * *

I read a couple of interesting books last month. 

Brandreth, Gyles "Have You Eaten Grandma?" - 2017
and
Larsen, Nella "Passing" - 1929

While the first one is a funny approach to grammar and spelling, the second is all about racism. How do we perceive people?

* * *

I have two German words for you that somehow belong together:

Fernweh (far away pain) - the longing to go away

Wanderlust (joy and longing to walk) - strong desire to travel

* * *

We had a lot of snow in January, more than in the last years together. I rather have none but we can't choose. On the other hand, I rather have a snowy month than a very hot one.

* * *

I received a beautiful present from a blog friend that will accompany me all year round. A calendar called "A Book Lover's Year". My little reading figurine is sitting right next to it, keeping it company.

* * *

* You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about the two artists. 

🧊 I wish you all a very Happy February! 🧊

Larsen, Nella "Passing"

Larsen, Nella "Passing" - 1929

I had never heard the expression "passing" in this sense. A "black" woman who is white enough to be considered "white" and "passes" as "white". While I totally understand that in such a racist world, a women (or a man) would do that, I don't see the need why they should have to. First of all, to me it really shouldn't matter what skin colour someone has. But, if you distinguish between "black" and "white", shouldn't someone who looks "white" be considered "white". There is something I don't get. Or rather, that I really don't want to get. In what kind of world are we living???

Anyway, I found this book because it was mentioned in "The Vanishing Half" by Britt Bennett where a similar situation is described.

As we can read in the book description, the novel is about two different women, both light-skinned, both considered "black". But, whereas one of the women lives officially as a black woman, the other one didn't even tell her husband about her ancestry. He is extremely racist. Which is another thing, why do you marry someone like that? Oh, right, some people marry for money. And, as most characters, who do that, they have to pay the price at some point.

The author has used a lot of material from her own life, apparently.

This rather short novella could have been longer for my taste but we have been given a lot of food for thought here. Great book.

From the book cover:

"This Signet Classics edition of Passing includes an Introduction by Brit Bennett, the bestselling author of The Vanishing Half.

Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly light-skinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing for a white woman after severing ties to her past--even hiding the truth from her racist husband.

Clare finds herself drawn to Irene's sense of ease and security with her Black identity and longs for the community (and, increasingly, the woman) she lost. Irene is both riveted and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret, as Clare begins to insert herself--and her deception--into every part of Irene's stable existence. First published in 1929, Larsen's brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to 'pass,' is as timely as ever."

Book Quotes

"I can live without television, but not without books." Elke Heidenreich, German writer and cabaret artist

I would definitely claim books before television.

"If Liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." George Orwell

Only those, who always think they are right, don't want to hear the opposite.

"There's no shortage of female role models. They're everywhere - in history, in literature, in the news. Just look around." Kerri Russel

For sure!!!

Find more book quotes here.

Brandreth, Gyles "Have You Eaten Grandma?"

Brandreth, Gyles "Have You Eaten Grandma?" - 2017

I know Gyles Brandreth from TV, mainly from panel shows. And he is always really, really funny. When I saw the title of this book, I just had to get it. I already enjoyed writings like "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss (not to be confused with the "minor royal" or "local dignity" Liz Truss) and this one was just as great.

Just as in his shows, the author is simply hilarious. He can teach us about the English language and make a great joke at the same time. 

As a non-native speaker, I am always surprised at mistakes like mixing up their, there and they're. What's the problem? Are people really so dumb or do the just not care. I suppose the latter because 90% of internet users cannot be dyslexic.

If only everyone would read this book, we could pass on a great legacy to our descendants.

And if you ever have someone correct your English, don't call them Grammar Nazis. They want to improve your English, not kill you. Call us nerds, if you like.

From the back cover:

"Don't know if it's, like, okay to say 'like'?
Are your apostrophe's in the wrong place?
Should it be 'past' or 'passed'?
Want to make fewer not less grammatical mistakes?

Then do not despair, Gyles Brandreth's Have You Eaten Grandma? is the definitive (and hilarious) guide to punctuation, spelling, and good English for the twenty-first century.

Sunday Times best-selling author and grammar guru, Gyles pokes fun at the linguistic foibles of our time, tells us where we've been going wrong (and how to put it right), and reveals his tips and tricks to make every one of us better, more confident users (not abusers) of the English language."

Statistics 2025

     

My statistics for the last years are here:
2009-12, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 

2023, 2024  

* Statistics 2025 *

 

I did 235 posts in 2025 which was 57 more than last year.

And these are the results of my reading lists for 2025:

My regular posts are either weekly (Book Quotes, Top Ten Tuesday, ThrowBack Thursday, Wordless Wednesday) or monthly (Happy Month, Six Degrees of Separation, Spell the Month in Books), so I posted more or less the amount of weeks or months in a year. I didn't do them all regularly, though. Especially the Top Ten Tuesday, I've participated so long and have done a lot of the topics already, so I just do them from time to time.

Book Quotes of the Week (12 posts)

Happy Month (12)
Top 5 Tuesday (26)
Top Ten Tuesday (18)

ThrowBack Thursday (45)
Wordless Wednesday (2)
Six Degrees of Separation (12)
Spell the Month in Books (12)

I also did a few lists that are more or less statistics about half of the year and a comparison to ten years ago:

Mid Year Freak-Out Tag

I also participated in Non-fiction November.

******

And then there are, of course, all the challenges I have done over the years.
I read books that contributed to the following challenges. Some of them count for more than one category:

Challenges (number of books read for the challenges in brackets)

The 10 Greatest Books Ever (1)
The 100 best Non-fiction Books of All Time as Chosen by The Guardian (1)

100 Books by the BBC (2)
100 Greatest Fiction Books as Chosen by the Guardian (1)

13 Ways of Looking at the Novel (1)

2025 TBR Pile Reading Challenge (23)

Anti-Racism Books (3)

I read more on this topic but they were not on this list.

Barack Obama Reading Lists (2)

Thanks to a present by my son and a loan from a book club member, I was able to add two more books to the list.
Best European Literature (2)

Bildungsroman (2)

Children's Books (2)

The Classics Spin (5)

Dutch and French Books (1 Dutch, 3 French)

German Books (30)

My Favourite Books Ever (24)

Every year I find some more books I can add to my list of favourite books. 24 this year. Not too bad, I guess.

Nobel Prize Winners and Their Books (3)

Oscar Winning Books (1)

Paris in July (4)

Some books taking place in France or written in French.

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (1)

(German: Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels)

Read the Year Club (2)

We read 1925 and 1952 this year. It's a good idea to add some reads from former years that we might not have touched before.

Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2025 (17)

I read 17 chunky books in 2025 of which 4 are considered a chunkster. Mor-book-ly Obese again.

Suggestions from Friends (lots)

I read suggestions from friends all the time, just haven't kept up with who recommended which book.

Voracious (1)

Book Clubs:

International Online Book Club 2017 etc. (7)
One of the books was not available in English or German and I had read four of the others.

German Book Club (10)

We took a break in the summer and at Christmas, so only read 10 books this year.

******

Some of the challenges are older and I only add to them if I happen to read one of the books. No new books on these lists:

100 Greatest Fiction Books as Chosen by the Guardian 

101 Best Selling Books of All Times 

20 Classic and Important Books 

I already said this last year. Only three more books on my list, maybe I'll get to "Slaughterhouse Five" one day.

7 Books That Will Radically Shift Your Perspectives 

Books That Changed the World 

A Century of Books 

Emma's Book Club - Our shared shelf 

Esperanto Books 
Here we mostly read short stories.

Favourite (German) Independent Books

(Das Lieblingsbuch der Unabhängigen = The Favourite Book of the Independents)
When they are German books, it usually takes a couple of years until they appear in paperback. So, this year, I didn't get to read the newest one:
Nelio Biedermann "Lázár"

Le Monde - The 100 Books of the Century 

Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century 
Nobel Peace Prize 
Unfortunately, I didn't get to read any of the peace prize winners this year, but I read many by people who would have deserved it (not the one who was so keen on being awarded only to start a war right after that).

Oprah's Book Club

Reading the World 

The non-western books that every student should read 
The only thing I miss from our old place is the library that would get me any book I wanted. Not so easy here where we only have a small church library and they only get the biggest best-sellers. And all of them in German only, of course.

Travel the World Through Books 

******

Books Read: 88
Pages read: 26.884 which results in 306 pages/book, 73 pages/day, 7 books/month

Last year (2024), I read 73 books with 25,412 pages which resulted in 348 pages/book, 73 pages/day, 7 books/month. So, it looks like I read a little more in 2025.

The average novel contains between 140 and 320 pages, i.e. 230 which would make 117 average books (compared to 116 last year, so not that much better, just shorter books).

Books dating from which year:

Pre 1800s: 3

1800s: 12

1900-1949: 7

1950-1999: 14

2000s: 52 (3 of which from 25)

Male Authors: 48 + 1

Female Authors: 40 +1

Nobel Prize Winners: 3

Fiction: 62
Non-Fiction: 26

I might have to include some of the reference books I read and use.

Chunky Books - more than 450 pages: 17, of which more than 750: 4
Library/Borrowed: 7
Re-Read: 6 (all Jane Austen)
TBR Pile: 23

Oldest Book: 411 BC
Aristophanes "Lysistrata and Other Plays" (GR: Λυσιστράτη, Lysistrátē) - 411 BC
Newest Book: 2025

Harris, Kamala "107 Days" - 2025

Longest book: 1,022 pages

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (Goethe German) - "Faust I + II" (GE: Urfaust. Faust: Erster und zweiter Teil) - 1772-1808

Shortest book: 52 pages
Wilde, Oscar "Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast" - 1946

Longest book title: 57 letters

Kaminer, Wladimir "Little Red Riding Hood smokes on the balcony … and other family stories" (GE: Rotkäppchen raucht auf dem Balkon … und andere Familiengeschichten) - 2020

Shortest Book Title: 2 letters
Schöfer, Maike "Nope: An incitement to say no" (GE: Nö: Eine Anstiftung zum Neinsagen) - 2025

Funniest Book:

Schnoy, Sebastian "Learn from Napoleon how to avoid doing the dishes" (GE: Von Napoleon lernen, wie man sich vorm Abwasch drückt) - 2013

Saddest Book:

Rushdie, Salman "Knife" - 2024

Weirdest Book:

Thoreau, Henry David "Walden; or, Life in the Woods" - 1854

Most disappointing:

Hopmann, Sophie/Heidelore Mais "Cucumber Sandwich in the Glove Compartment" (GE: Gurkensandwich im Handschuhfach) - 2019

New author (for me) that I would like to read more from: 8
Michel Bergmann, William Deresiewicz, Tahsim Durgun, Michael Köhlmeier, Benjamin Monferat, Jasmin Schreiber, Yuta Takahashi, Lucy Worsley

Translated Books:

7 from 7 languages

1 ea from Finnisch, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish

Books read in another language:

Dutch: 1

French: 3

German: 30

Numbers in Book Titles: Sixth, Seven, Ten, 107
Place Names in Book Titles: Brüssel, England, Europe, Mansfield, Mariana Trench, Northanger Abbey, Walden

Names in Book Titles: Artemisia, Austen, Bovary, Britt-Marie, Chekhov, Chibineko, Chuzzlewit, Emma, Faust, Feld, Felix Krull, Gretchen, Hamnet, Jane, Judith,Katherine, Klee, Luzie, Lysistrata, Mann, Mariana, Martin, Mary, Max, Moormann, Napoleon, Parr, Peanuts, Psmith, Rose, Rotkäppchen, Sonneborn, Thomas, Tiffany, Tolstoy, Unrat, Wunder

Colours in Book Titles: Rot (red)

My Favourite Books: 24

Austen, Jane "Emma" - 1816 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen)

- "The History of England: By a Partial, Prejudiced and Ignorant Historian" - 1791
- "Mansfield Park" - 1814 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen)
- "Persuasion" - 1817 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) *
- "Pride & Prejudice" - 1813 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) 

- "Sense & Sensibility" - 1811 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) 

Brooks, Geraldine "Year of Wonders" - 2001

Deresiewicz, William "A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter" - 2011

Heidenreich, Elke "Dr. Moormann & I" (GE: Frau Dr. Moormann & ich) - 2023

Hyun, Martin; Kaminer, Wladimir "Instructions for neighbours" - (GE: Gebrauchsanweisung für Nachbarn) - 2024  

Hislop, Victoria "The Figurine" - 2023

Kaminer, Wladimir "Little Red Riding Hood smokes on the balcony … and other family stories" (GE: Rotkäppchen raucht auf dem Balkon … und andere Familiengeschichten) - 2020

- "Tolstoy's beard and Chekhov's shoes, excursions through Russian literature" (GE: Tolstois Bart und Tschechows Schuhe, Streifzüge durch die russische Literatur - 2019)

Loriot "The Yodeling School and other dramatic works" (GE: Die Jodelschule und andere dramatische Werke) - 1981

Monferat, Benjamin (Stephan Rother) "World in Flames" (GE: Welt in Flammen) - 2014

Schreiber, Jasmin "Mariana Trench" (GE: Marianengraben) - 2020

Stelter, Bernd "Fashion, murder, and the sound of the sea. Camping crime thriller" (GE: Mode, Mord und Meeresrauschen. Camping-Krimi) - 2024

Sullivan, Margaret C. "The Jane Austen Handbook. A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World" - 2007

Weir, Alison "Six Tudor Queens. Katharine Parr. The Sixth Wife" - 2021

Worsley, Lucy "Jane Austen at Home" - 2017

Added  after an idea by Emma:

Adjectives in Book Titles: brilliant, crazy, dull, last, weird; dramatische, gut, klein

Adverbs in Book Titles: andere. hier

Animals in Book Titles: Penguin, Snail, Whale

Nationality in Book Titles: French

Preposition in Book Titles: about, as, at, for, from, in, of, on, out, to; auf, durch, für, im, mit, nach, oder, vom, von, über, zur
Questions in Book Titles: 

Brandreth, Gyles "Have You Eaten Grandma?" - 2017

With my books, I visited places in the following countries:

Africa (5):Botswana, Cameroon, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe

Arctic (1):

Asia (9):

Armenia, Dubai, India, Israel/Palestine, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Syria, Turkey, Vietnam

Australia/Oceania (2):
Australia, New Zealand
Europe (19):
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, Yugoslavia
North America (4):

Canada, Caribbean, St. Lucia, USA

South America (3):

Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay

Countries "visited" in total: 43

Authors come from:

Africa (2):
South Africa, Zimbabwe
Asia (7):
India, Israel/Palestine, Japan, Korea, Syria, Turkey, Vietnam

Australia/Oceania (2):

Australia, New Zealand
Europe (10):
Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom

North America (2):

Canada, USA
South America (1):

Uruguay
Author countries in total: 24

See also "My Year in Books" (and here on Goodreads).

You may find some even greater statistics by better bloggers than me, e.g. at "Stuck in a Book".

 

If you want more information on any of the lists mentioned, please, let me know.

Mann, Thomas "Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man"

Mann, Thomas "Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man" (German: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull) - 1954

Thomas Mann, one of my favorite authors, turned 150, and since I didn't want to end the year without reading at least one of his novels new to me, I went on a search. I had this book on my TBR pile, so the decision was easy.

I must confess, I had no idea that this book was unfinished. I now know that Mann worked on it for a long time and certainly made numerous notes about the plot, but only completed the first part and then died before writing the second.

What a shame, the beginning is already good. The second part would certainly have been just as excellent as anything by Thomas Mann.

In any case, the book has a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor. And even though Felix Krull manages to outwit many people, one can only admire his cunning.

The book is a very good read; I really enjoyed it.

I am not very happy with the translation of the word "Hochstapler" into "Confidence Man". Maybe that's my German thinking but the word "confidence" sounds far too nice to call someone who tricks other people. Impostor, cheater, trickster, swindler sound much more accurate to me.

Book Description:

"'The most astonishing work that Mann ever wrote and also one of the most perfect. . . with Felix Krull the world receives from Thomas Mann the gift which German literature has almost proverbially withheld from it: the great comic novel' - Edwin Muir

Waiter by day man about Paris by night, the young and good looking Felix Krull has created for himself a personality to charm and deceive the world of wealth. Then the Marquis de Venosta makes a proposal that he can't refuse."

Thomas Mann received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929 "principally for his great novel, 'Buddenbrooks', which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.