Last December we announced the New Classics Bookclub. Instead of selecting a book each month and reading it together, we invited you to keep reading classics, but at your own pace — 1 or 2 a quarter, 1 a month, or whatever you chose. You made a plan and linked up your initial reviews.

At the end of the first quarter, quite a few of of you linked up some reviews of books you had read.

In the 2nd quarter, Lisa reviewed a children’s classic she read using Nintendo’s 100 Classic Books program that all of the contributors got to try out, and again, quite a few of you linked up your own reviews.

In the 3rd quarter, knowing that I myself had lagged behind on my goal of reading 1 classic a quarter, I asked “How are you doing?” You all linked up once again, proving that you were doing better than I was!

And now we come to the last quarterly linkup. In addition to your reviews from this last quarter, I’d love to see a wrap-up post reflecting on what reading the classics has meant to you. I hope that if you enjoy classics, you’ll go back and revisit some of the linked reviews to give yourself some ideas of where to go next, but this is the end of the Classics Bookclub. We are paring down our Tuesday linkups so that we can focus on reviews.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

I meant to — I really did.

When the Classics Bookclub went to once a quarter, I set a goal of one classic per quarter. Not too hard. I was reading Gulliver’s Travels on my very fun new 100 Classics Books program on my Nintendo DSiXL. I read it some on my vacation in June/July. I read some more when I got home. Then I sort of got caught up in other things.

I was going to finish it up while we were away visiting family for 4 days. In fact, I got in lots of reading, finishing up a book or two. I brought the 100 Classics Books cartridge, but guess what? I forgot my DS — that’s what. ARGH!

The story was okay. Not great, but okay, but as I was reading, I also remembered that I have read it before, which sort of defeats my purpose of reading some books I haven’t read or didn’t appreciate in high school. So I think I’m going to let good old Jonathan Swift go.

I’m thinking Jane Austen. Next quarter. Seriously.

What about you? Have you met your goal for the quarter? Or would you like, like me, to post a resolution to get back on board?

Link up any reviews of Classic books that you have posted on your blog since our last Classics Bookclub post at the end of June. To link up a review or two (That’s it! Two! I’ll post two reviews next time.) when we next “meet” on November 29, for the last time in 2010.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

Yes, indeed, it’s true. Thanks to the 100 Classic Books “game” for Nintendo DSiXL, we who love all things classic can not only be hip but I have to tell you: I’ve also been the envy of at least two young gamers in my circle of acquaintance (who also happen to live with me). I’ll freely confess that I’m pretty much old school, like most fans of classic literature, but I really enjoyed the convenience of having so many great novels at the tip of the fingers (or my stylus, as the case may be).

Since I was branching out and reading a book in an electronic format, I decided to also choose something a little different for my reading selection for this quarter’s Classics Book Club. Yes, dear Jane (Austen) has a couple of spots in the 100 (as rightly she should), and so do other favorite authors of mine like Dumas and Dickens but I chose instead a fairy tale, The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald.

The Princess and the Goblin is the delightful story of the young, precocious princess Irene and the courageous, quick-witted miner Curdie. All of the elements that make fairy tales so much fun are present: evil goblins, dark dungeons, a sinister plan, a kindly king and a mysterious grandmother. There are spells and mysteries, a beautiful ring, and a nearly invisible thread that leads to home. MacDonald writes in an easy, conversational style, almost as if the reader were enjoying story time with a doting grandfather. The Princess and the Goblin is great fun and a good story, as all good fairy tales should be. It is a classic that deserves to be read by both young and old(er) lovers of literature.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Princess and the Goblin as well as the handiness of the Nintendo DSi XL. I mean, I could finish The Princess and the Goblin and, without even leaving my chair, immediately turn (tap) to The Princess and Curdie, the next installment in MacDonald’s series. Or to a Sherlock Holmes novel. Or to my beloved Pride and Prejudice. Or to one of the other 100 Classic Books, some that I’ve been eager to read, some that are new to me. It’s fun to see old friends in an electronic format; it’s also fun to discover new titles and genres.

Hip to be square, you better believe it!

Did you read any classics this quarter, electronically or otherwise? Link up your reviews and let us know!

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

Wife and mother, Bible teacher and blogger, Lisa loves Jesus, coffee, dark chocolate and, of course, books. Read more of her reflections at Lisa writes…. Lisa would like to thank Nintendo for providing the DSiXL and the 100 Classic Books software for review purposes.

I have always been a reader, but reading challenges and my work with 5 Minutes for Books have helped me to expand my horizons in a very specific way: I now read classics—for fun. I first joined the classics scene by reading all of Jane Austen’s books (it seemed that everyone in Blogland adored Jane), and since then, I have read many other classic titles.

Last year, however, I read very few classics. I was sick for much of the year, and I was just too tired to do the work that reading classics involves. I specifically remember trying to read Jane Eyre for the Classics Bookclub. I didn’t make it past the first two chapters because I kept falling asleep! I hated to put it down because I knew it was a well-loved story, but I just couldn’t muster the energy.

Not long after that, I learned about the Readable Classics version of Jane Eyre….

Read my full review of Readable Classics on 5 Minutes for Mom, and enter to win one of the three published Readable Classics titles!

Comments are closed here to remind you to check out the full review over at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Book blogger Lauren is a wife, a mother of two, an avid reader. She blogs at Baseballs and Bows. Thanks to the author for the review copy of the book.

Have you been reading the classics? Have you read any since we announced our “pick-your-own” sort of bookclub? I set some goals, loosely hoping to read one per quarter, or at least four over the year, and here we are at the end of the first quarter, and I’m cramming. I have not finished my book, but I am reading it. I’m fairly sure I’ll be able to link up a review by sometime tomorrow.

And though the traffic will probably slow down, there’s no time limit. I would say if we get too far into April you should save that review to link up the next 5th Tuesday (June 29).

This is our first quarterly posting of the linky that invites you to post up all your reviews from the last quarter (from January 1 on). The idea is not only that you will tell us what you’ve read and what you thought of it, but that it will still be like a bookclub of sorts, as those who have also read the book, or who are curious, surf around to your link, and join in the conversation (and for that matter, check out last quarter’s links as well).

For ease in surfing, please include the name of the title(s) that you read. You are welcome to post the review for any book you read between the end of December and now.

If you are still cramming, or didn’t even get to that point, just mark your calendars for June and share what you have then.

Find out about our upcoming community events at our Join In page. Coming soon:

• April 6: I Read It!
• April 13: Children’s Classic Mystery Challenge
• April 20: Kids’ Picks
• April 27: What’s on Your Nightstand

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

Link up:

We’ve made a lot of changes to the Classics bookclub over this year to try to make it easier for people to participate. We’ve reduced the frequency, we’ve added in some non-classics, we’ve selected an author instead of a specific book to give people some leeway — and it’s still been slow going.

We don’t want to dump it. We know that there are some of you out there who love to read the Classics and love to be able to do so alongside other booklovers. And then there are those of you (like me!!), who want to re-read some of those classics that didn’t mean as much as they could’ve because we read them when we were 16 years old. There are also books that we never got around to that we feel like we really “should” read someday.

So now we have a new idea.

• We are going to reduce the frequency to quarterly — meeting up here on the 5th Tuesday of the month. Each quarter you can link up your reviews and thoughts of the classics that we’ve read over the previous quarter.
• You pick the books you want to read, you pick when you want to read them, and you pick how many you’ll read.
• It’s my hope that even though we aren’t reading the same book, we’ll still build a community of classics-lovers. If someone posts a review of a book you’ve read, go over and comment and join in the discussion, just as if we were holding a regular “bookclub chat.” I also think that by doing it this way, we’ll find books that we want to add to our list, or read reviews that will convince us that we can finally take a book that we thought we really should be read off that list for good.

So, this month, you can either link up the review of a book that you’ve read in the last couple of months, OR write up some goals for this year, letting us know how many classics you might want to read, or specific titles that you hope to get to (or both).

We will have prizes throughout the year to spur you on.

Anyone who links up a goals post by the end of January will be eligible to win a copy of Invitation to the Classics: A Guide to Books You’ve Always Wanted to Read (linked to Carrie’s review).

Another reader will win a copy of Jane Eyre (From the Readable Classics series, which could be a great option for those of you who dislike the dated language of many classics).

When you link up, put either the name of the book you are reviewing, or “goals” (and you are welcome to do both) along with your name or blog site. The posts containing goals (U.S. and Canada residents) will be entered to win either of the books.

For example

Jennifer, Snapshot (Jane Eyre), would be how I would enter it if it was linked to my review of Jane Eyre, which was posted in October, November, or December.

My goals post would be entered as Jennifer, Snapshot (Goals).

After reading the book, I found out that there was a television movie loosely based on the novel. Loosely is quite an accurate description. The movie takes liberties with the setting (19th century America), the characters (one missing, and one in the movie who was deceased in the novel), and the events. I think the movie made for a sweeter, more plausible story, and kept my attention more than the novel itself. Tom Conti plays Mr. Hamilton (dead in the novel), and I found his character delightful. Meredith Baxter portrays Mrs. Hamilton, who is much softer (and more likable) in the movie. Edith (Cari Shayne) isn’t nearly as mysterious and haunted as in the novel, but she’s a heroine to champion. Only the characters of Ida and James were consistent with what I’d expected based on the book. Still, I have to say I enjoyed the movie more than the novel.

If you’re a purist, you may want to skip this movie. If not, I’d recommend The Inheritance as a great way to spend an evening.

Melissa has been captivated by books for as long as she can remember. She resides in Virginia and blogs at Breath of Life.

This month for our Classics Bookclub, we invited you to read any work by Louisa May Alcott.

I’ve been very excited about this because I found a few short stories that I wanted to read by Alcott, and I like the flexibility of being able to choose any title I’d like from a given author. This is definitely my cup of tea so I’m anxious to share with you what I read.

This past summer I was browsing at our local Goodwill and stumbled across a copy of the book Kate’s Choice. Having never heard of it before, I snatched it up and intended to keep it for reading this holiday season. I was delighted to dive on in. Kate’s Choice is the title story within this book, but it also includes two other stories, both revolving around the Christmas holiday. Kate’s Choice itself is about a young girl (betcha can’t guess her name!) who is orphaned. Born in England, she is sent to live with her family in America. It was her father’s desire that she spend time living in each of her four uncle’s homes before making her final decision as to where she would live.

Kate is an all together agreeable girl and everyone loves her. So it is with some mixture of sadness when she decides not to live with any of her uncles, but goes to live with her grandmother instead. The grandmother, on the other hand, couldn’t feel more blessed. This is definitely a heart-warming, feel-good type of story and I enjoyed it for that. The other two short stories in this particular book are entitled What Love Can Do and Gwen’s Adventures in the Snow. Both read as short magazine stories and are charming and delightful each in their own way. Of the three, I probably enjoyed What Love Can Do the most because it focuses on having a spirit of giving rather than receiving. That said, having never read any of Alcott’s short stories before this, it was fun to relax for a few minutes and breeze through these works.

I highly recommend them for a fun Christmas read.

Now on to some other Bookclub news….

We had already announced that we were going to take December 1 and January 5 off from Classics Bookclub because of the busy holiday months.

After the first of the year, we are going to switch to a quarterly bookclub, taking place on the 5th Tuesday of each month, meaning our next bookclub will take place March 30. We are hoping that by having it only four times a year that those of you with a strong desire to participate will be able to.

We love the uniqueness of Classics Bookclub and want to keep it going strong.

We’ve gotten so many good ideas from you, so please leave your ideas for future titles in the comments. If you’d like to see the books we’ve already covered, click HERE.

Now it’s your turn. Add in the link to your blog post about Louisa May Alcott in the linky below (or feel free to share in the comment section).