Back to the Classics -- A not-wrap-up post

  Well since my last Back to the Classics-post in February, nothing happened on the Classics front. I can repeat my list from back then, and say well that was it.

  I think I'm going to try once more, if Karen K. at Books and Chocolate hosts the challenge again, that is. I'll stay with the die 12 randomness and try to find books that I really want to read.

Here's my 2019 list in its sad state. 3 out of 12 is bad, isn't it:

-- 📚 -- updated list -- 📚 --

1. 19th Century Classic:  Alice in Wonderland
2. 20th Century Classic: READ - Trapp Family Singers.
3. Classic by a Female Author: ?
4. Classic in Translation: ?
5. Classic Comedy: Don Quijote
6. Classic Tragedy. The Odyssey or The Iliad.
7. Very Long Classic: ?
8. Classic Novella: ?
9. Classic From the Americas: Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer.
10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia):  READ - 7 Years in Tibet
11. Classic From a Place You've Lived: READ - 3 Hearts and 3 Lions
12. Classic Play: Jedermann. 

Back to the Classics ... Musings.

It seems this is going to be a reading season of serendipity.

January 1st I rolled a 2, telling me to read a 20th Century Classic. I read The Trapp Family, not because it fit the category, but because I kept on being reminded about it.

Then - having read the book early, I rolled a 7 - a Very Long Classic. But hunting for a long book, I stumbled upon Seven years in Tibet, a book I always wanted to read. It was not super long, but fit category 10 - Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia).

I then followed my own rule of rolling the die whenever I had read a book, and written about it. The die showed me a 1, a 19th Century Classic. Hunting for such a book, I found instead Three Hearts and Three Lions by Paul Anderson. Once again not suitable for the chosen category,  but for another one. Classic From a Place You've Lived as parts of the book is placed in Elsinore.

Today, following my new rule, I rolled a 4 - Classic in Translation. Maybe the category it's easiest to find a book for. Now I'm off to search, I'm curious as to what I'm going to find this time.

-- 📚 -- updated list -- 📚 --

 1. 19th Century Classic:  Alice in Wonderland

 2. 20th Century Classic: READ - Trapp Family Singers.

 3. Classic by a Female Author: ?

 4. Classic in Translation: ?

 5. Classic Comedy: Don Quijote

 6. Classic Tragedy. The Odyssey or The Iliad.

  7. Very Long Classic: ?

  8. Classic Novella: ?

  9. Classic From the Americas: Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer.

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia):  READ - 7 Years in Tibet

11. Classic From a Place You've Lived: READ - 3 Hearts and 3 Lions

12. Classic Play: Jedermann.

Back to the Classics -- Three Hearts and Three Lions

Well, I did roll a 1 - telling me to read a 19. century classic. But looking for such a book on the shelves I stumbled across Three Hearts and Three Lions written in 1961 by Poul Anderson. Well it is strictly speaking a science fiction book, but written in the 20 century.That category was taken by Sound of Music. Well then as crucial parts of the book takes place in Helsingør (Elsinore) where I lived for many years this could count as

11: Classic From a Place You've Lived. 


Link to the Back to the Classics Challenge.

The theme of the book is the eternal fight between Law and Chaos. Holger, a common dude from Elsinore is fighting in the resistance during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. One night, on the beach near Kronborg (Yes Hamlet's castle) he is with a group trying to secure the passage to Sweden for a boat with a supercargo refugee. Fighting for this end, Holger is hit by enemy bullets, and suddenly he's somewhere else. Transported through space and time, not knowing who or where he is, but with a great warhorse and equipment suitable for a knight of noble ilk, he tries to find his way back. His coat of arms Three Hearts and Three Lions, and his name, Holger, gives off to all but him, that he is Ogier le Danois, the Defender, the Holy knight sleeping in the dungeons of Kronborg to appear in times of peril.
He fights his way through realms fair and foul with unlikely allies and grim foes. In the end he discovers who and what he is in a rather unexpected way.
Wikipedia told me that "The novel influenced the role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, especially the original alignment system, which grouped all characters and creatures into "Law" and "Chaos". The game drew on the novel's depiction of the troll, which regenerated when wounded, the swanmay, and the nixie. The novel also inspired the paladin character class."
As I played Dungeons & Dragons for many year, always yearning to be a Paladin, and always twarted by my chaotic co-players, this spoke to me.
It is excellently written with many jokes and puns, and I think it is even funnier for me, because Poul Anderson knew Danish, had lived in Denmark for some years, and in this book he accurately describes a Dane seen from an American point of view. Also his use of Danish pronunciation and words makes this even better.

-- 📚 -- updated list -- 📚 --

 1. 19th Century Classic:  Alice in Wonderland

 2. 20th Century Classic: READ - Trapp Family Singers.

 3. Classic by a Female Author: ?

 4. Classic in Translation: ?

 5. Classic Comedy: Don Quijote

 6. Classic Tragedy. The Odyssey or The Iliad.

  7. Very Long Classic: ?

  8. Classic Novella: ?

  9. Classic From the Americas: Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer.

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia):  READ - 7 Years in Tibet

11. Classic From a Place You've Lived: THIS ONE

12. Classic Play: Jedermann.

Back to the Classics -- 7 Jahre in Tibet.

Seven Years in Tibet

Well, I did roll a 7 - marking me for a very long classic, but looking for this book in the shelves I stumbled across Seven Years in Tibet written in 1953 by Heinrich Harrer. Translated into Danish by Lars Rosenkvist. That is a book I have wanted to read for many years, but I just never got to reading it before now.
I tentatively put this book in category
10: A Classic form Africa, Asia or Oceania. 


Link to the Back to the Classics Challenge.

I think what happens in the book is not new for very many people, but it was to me.

It is an autobiography written by the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, it covers the years from 1939, the beginning of WWII to 1961, Harrer is not a writer, but he has a story to tell, and he knows how to write after all.
He begins by being on a mountaineering expedition then being interned in India. He tries to get away more times, but only succeeds on his 3rd try together with 2 other  prisoners. Those three walks all the way from India to Tibet by foot, an exhausting and cold journey in the wintertime. Tibet is not welcoming strangers of any kind, and all the time they're told to return to India or go on to Nepal. But they stubbornly continues further into Tibet. One of his followers are not as physically fit as Heinrich and Aufschnaiter, and goes to Nepal, where he's welcome.
Heinrich and Aufschnaiter now tries their luck. They want to visit Lhasa, the forbidden city and capital of Tibet. That journey, in the winterlocked mountainous land, is a trial of strength unlike anything I've ever read before. They finally succeed and stay in Lhasa, first as unwelcome strangers, then as tolerated mysteries, then as trusted workers and teachers. In the end Heinrich meets the young Dalai Lama and makes friend with him. The story ends with them fleeing Tibet as the Chinese red army takes over the country.

It is a truly amazing book and a totally immersing read. Read the book, don't bother watching the movie.
With this said what strikes me - apart from the wonder of it all - is the disarming naivete with which it is written, Heinrich stayed for over 7 years in Tibet, learned to speak the language almost to perfection, and got a feeling for and understanding of Tibetan culture and life that is totally amazing. Yet his sentimentality, or what you may call it, is amazing. It is not the "white man's burden"-stuff, he's too wise for this. It is a reluctance to accept that Christmas is not celebrated in Tibet, and that the monks do not go somewhere private to relieve themselves. A funny lack to accept foreignnes, just as a small child, believing that deep inside everybody thinks in his (or her) own language. Also his political musings and thoughts on the roles of women and men in society are so bound to his own time and culture to be unwillingly comical. Luckily the edition, I read, had removed many of these passages.
And somewhere towards the ending he says that Dalai Lama number 14 was prophesied to be the last. In my ignorance I wondered how the next one had been chosen - until the truth dawned on me. He is the same one! His young Dalai Lama is the same as "my" old one.

-- 📚 -- updated list -- 📚 --

 1. 19th Century Classic:  Alice in Wonderland

 2. 20th Century Classic: READ - Trapp Family Singers.

 3. Classic by a Female Author: ?

 4. Classic in Translation: ?

 5. Classic Comedy: Don Quijote

 6. Classic Tragedy. The Odyssey or The Iliad.

  7. Very Long Classic: ?

  8. Classic Novella: ?

  9. Classic From the Americas: Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer.

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia):  THIS ONE

11. Classic From a Place You've Lived: Maybe Hamlet or Glasperlenspiel by Hermann Hesse. (I lived a year in Germany)

12. Classic Play: Jedermann.

Back to the Classics - Extra

Well, this year I'm not behind in my reading of the classics. I choose a book - The Trapp Family Singers - on J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday, and now; less than a week later, I have already read it and written about it.

Now do I really have to wait until February before I find a new book? Well It's me reading, It's my blog, I make the rules, and I re-make them to suit me now.

Whenever I have finished a book and written the blogpost about it, I get to roll the die anew. 

The die was thrown, and I got a 7. Now I've got to go hunting for a very long classics.

Back to the Classics -- Familien Trapp

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

Yes it's an old library book.
I always look at library clearing
sales for books, I want to own.
I have many!

2: A 20th Century Classic. 
     Any classic book originally published between 1900 and 1969

Original title: Die Trapp-Familie. published 1949 and written by Maria Augusta von Trapp.

This is the book behind The Sound of Music, but it is so much more tha the musical. It's a book in two parts, the first part is corresponds roughly to the musical, the second part tells the story of "what happened next". We follow the von Trapp family in America, how they struugle to become Americans during the war even, and how they managed to carve out an existence in a place so very different to their homeland. And through and under the book runs the story of love and faith. Love of the family, love in the family, love of God and faith in His providence. It is a beautiful an heart touching story of making the best out of everything, and how it's what you do that is important, not who you are.

-- 📚 -- updated list -- 📚 --

 1. 19th Century Classic:  Alice in Wonderland

 2. 20th Century Classic: THIS ONE.

 3. Classic by a Female Author: ?

 4. Classic in Translation: ?

 5. Classic Comedy: Don Quijote

 6. Classic Tragedy. The Odyssey or The Iliad.

  7. Very Long Classic: ?

  8. Classic Novella: ?

  9. Classic From the Americas: Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer.

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia):  Author: Arthur Upfield. actual title to be decided.

11. Classic From a Place You've Lived: Maybe Hamlet or Glasperlenspiel by Hermann Hesse. (I lived a year in Germany)

12. Classic Play: Jedermann.

Back to the Classics - January.

Today - on J.R.R. Tolkien's 127 birthday I rolled my die 12 and got a 2.

2 means: A 20th Century Classic. Any classic book originally published between 1900 and 1969. 

Actually any of Tolkien's books would do, but I have been haunted by The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta von Trapp for the last 14 days or so. I've been desperately searching the internet for the title of this book in Danish - I know I have it somewhere - and now I found it: Familien Trapp. A photo will follow later, as the Sun has set now.

Books and Chocolate

I think we all know The Sound of Music. This is the book - the real story - behind the musical. As I've told before, I too had been sitting on the green benches in Salzburg, looking up at kloster Nonnberg, the nunnery over the city, wondering if my future lay there. I hope to find much both  known and new in the book. 

Back to the Classics 2019

Sidste år meldte Uglemor sig til klassikerudfordringen. Det gik ikke så godt, hun nåede kun at læse 7 af de stipulerede 12 bøger, sløjt! Men så er der da heldigvis en chance til næste år. Siden, hvor man kan melde sig til, ligger her: Books and Chocolate

12 forskellige bøger på 12 måneder. Det foregår på engelsk, derfor er resten også på engelsk.

-- 😞 --

 If you are looking for a good excuse for reading 12 books in 2019, then look just a bit further.

Last year MotherOwl joined the Back to the Classics, 2018-challenge. It was only a partial success as I read only 7 of the books, I set out to read, but one skirmish lost is not the whole battle. Let's try again.

The original post, with rules and a Linky, can be found here: Books and Chocolate 

There's more rules than what I cite here, the most important being no reading before January 1st 2019, and all books to be written (not necessarily published) at least 50 years ago.

As last year I'll grasp a d12 on the first of every month and let chance tell me which category is up for this month.
This list will grow, as I go looking for books on the shelves in the Owlery, old book shops, second hand shops, the library, and at bloggers' posts. 

- ⑫ - ⑫ - ⑫ - ⑫ -

 1. 19th Century Classic. Any classic book originally published between 1800 and 1899.
Lots of good books are that old. But as I did not succeed in reading it last year, I'll just re-try: Alice in Wonderland I only read parts of it. Never the whole book.

 2. 20th Century Classic. Any classic book originally published between 1900 and 1969.
Another re-useable category. Glasperlenspiel by Hermann Hesse. I read some of it over 20 years ago. It was a tour de force in ingenuity. I wonder if it stands the test of time?

 3. Classic by a Female Author.
😠 This category angers me - if possible even more than last year. Bugger! It's what's in a author's head that counts, not what's between their legs.
Why isn't there a Classic by a male author as I've seen some professing to read only female ones?
But well ... I'll find one. 

 4. Classic in Translation.
Once again recycling: I have loads of classics in Danish and English. I just have to pick one. Ivanhoe, War and Peace ... Loads I never read.

 5. Classic Comedy.
Old Greek books we have lots of, but I 'm not in the mood for more Greek drama. Maybe I could read Don Quijote

 6. Classic Tragedy.
The Odyssey or its sequel, The Iliad. Also I put it on my list last year, but never read it. I read The Odyssey when I was 12. Time for a re-read. In Danish, not Greek.

  7. Very Long Classic. (500 pages or longer).
?

  8. Classic Novella. (Shorter than 250 pages).
?

  9. Classic From the Americas (includes the Caribbean).
Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer.

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia).
Last year's crime fits the bill: I'm not an avid reader of whodunnits, but these Australian ones - written long ago - describe the Australia of days gone by in a charming way. Author: Arthur Upfield. actual title to be decided.

11. Classic From a Place You've Lived.
Hamlet. Playing in Elsinore, where I lived for many years.My first thought was Udsigt til Kronborg, (A View to Kronborg) by Frank Jæger, whom I knew, and who lived in the same place as I did, although not in the very same apartment. But this book was not written until 1976, only a year before he died.

12. Classic Play.
I'd like to read Jedermann. I saw it as a play at Salzborger Festspiele in 1994. I never read it, but always wanted to.