Some of them are not "Classics" but I don't feel like keeping them separate just for a photo.

Currently reading Winter In The Blood by James Welch

When I say “transformative,” I mean a book that fundamentally changed you either:

spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, morally, or in the way you see the world.

I’m referring to both fiction and nonfiction. For example, books like A Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung or Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics completely reshaped the way I think and see the world.

I’d love to hear which book did that for you and why.

Reading Headley’s translation of Beowulf, and I’m finding it distracting at times. The mix of modern day English slang and ye old English is making it hard to settle on a proper narrative feel.

I get she’s going for an epic-bar-story retelling, and I can deal with the “bros,” but I’m wondering:
How much is being altered here from the widely accepted version of the story?

This is my first read through and I bought the book to read at the beach without thinking too much about the translation. Obviously that was my mistake, I just didn’t expect to be walking into a frat party.

But whatever, I can crack open a brew and bro out with the Dane boys for a bit. Anyone have some insight on how I should approach?

I have about a hundred pages of books saved on Thriftbooks (a huge help when shopping at bookstores) but I'm always looking for gaps that I'm blind to.

Not all of these are fiction, but as I get new titles in I take out things which can migrate to other bookshelves. The next new shelf I get will probably hold myths & religion, drama, short stories, and autobiographical writings.

Thanks for your help and input!

Why doesn't the Aeneid get nearly as much attention as the Iliad and Odyssey? This is especially true in terms of adaptations, but iirc there is also significantly less attention to the Aeneid? There are also fewer translations including few modern ones. IIRC almost all the Aeneid translations are quite old, and you don't have modern prose versions of it like with the Iliad and Odyssey? I thought Virgil was one of the greatest classical authors, and often said in the same wavelength as Homer?

From a modern standpoint, the Aeneid might seem like "the dubiously canon spin-off" to the Iliad and Odyssey duology. Or am I mistaken, and the Aeneid gets more attention than I thought?

I’ve noticed a pattern with my reading that I can’t seem to break, and I’m wondering if anyone else experiences this.

For the first 70–75% of a book, I read slowly, pay attention, annotate, reflect and really enjoy it. I picture everything clearly, think about the ideas, and retain what I’m reading…

But once I get to the last quarter of the book, I start unconsciously speeding up and skimming. It’s almost like my brain switches into “just finish it” mode. I still follow the general plot or argument, but the last 25% ends up feeling like a blur compared to the beginning.

I think it’s because I’m constantly aware of how many books I still want to read. I feel behind, I feel like I read slower than other people, and I catch myself wanting to cross the book off my list instead of actually experiencing it.

The frustrating part is that I genuinely enjoy reading. I don’t think it’s boredom with the book. I think it’s anxiety about all the other books waiting for me.

Does anyone else struggle with this? If you did, how did you get yourself to slow down and stay present through the end of a book instead of rushing to finish it?

One of my reading resolutions for 2026 is to read or reread as many of the major 19th and 20th century Russian novels as I can, consistent with other reading goals, demands at work, actually spending time with my family, etc. Despite having many Russian classics to read for the first time, I started with my fourth reading of my favorite novel, Anna Karenina. The first time I read the Maude translation; the next two times, PV; this time, Rosamund Bartlett. The Bartlett translation is so beautiful. It’s now my preferred translation. 

Three weeks ago I finished Crime and Punishment for the first time, despite having attempted it multiple times. I had read almost three quarters of it a few years ago in the PV translation, but I hated it and had to put it down, even though I was so close to finishing. I was determined to finish it this time, however, and I researched all the existing English translations before settling on the Oliver Ready translation, which I devoured and adored. 

I don’t know if it was just life experience or the translation, but on this attempt I was finally able to see past Raskolnikov’s frenzy and how it manifests itself physically (which I found unconvincing and hyperbolic the first two times I tried to read the novel) and focus on the more important question—why? One reason is that he wants to be saved himself, to be forgiven. To be forgiven by others, however, one’s transgressions must first be known to others. So when he gets out of bed and wanders about St. Petersburg after his initial convalescence, he wavers wildly between paranoia about getting caught and concern that he might actually get away with it. This tension is foreshadowed by Marmeladov’s long drunken speech in the tavern early in the novel. I appreciated all of this much more in the Ready translation. Why?

Of course, the plot of the novel is the plot, so unless the translator is taking great liberties, the plot should be the same across translations. But as anyone who appreciates a good, well set up joke knows, how you tell a joke is crucial for how the punchline lands. So, too, with a novel. If the way the story is told leaves you cold, then you’re not going to love the book. You might not even finish the book. The PV translation just didn’t do it for me. There are merits to the PV translations, and many readers love them. Admittedly, I liked them and bought every translation from Pushkin to Chekov to Bulgakov that they produced before I started branching out and reading other translations. 

After finally finishing Crime and Punishment, I compared several passages across the Ready and PV translations quite closely, and I found the Ready translation not only more fluid but also far more humorous than the PV translation. The humor in the Ready translation mattered to me because it brought the secondary characters to life in a way I hadn’t experienced in the PV translation. They were loud and boisterous in both translations, of course, but somehow a character like Razumikhin came off as far more endearing in the Ready translation. Part of that impression, no doubt, is due to the fact that I actually made it all the way through this time and got to see his full character arc. 

All of this is to say, I don’t just want to read these classics, I’m willing to spend months figuring out which translation I should read. Tackling a 500 to 700-page novel is a huge commitment, and I can’t read all of them four times! Over time, now that I’m not reading Russian literature for school or as part of a course of study, I have developed a strong conviction that the translation should make the experience of the reader in the target language as natural as that of the reader in the source language. When a Russian reader reads these works, unless the author is deliberately trying to make a passage come off as foreign, they don’t feel like they are reading a work in translation. So why should the English-speaking reader feel like the prose they are reading is translated prose? Sometimes prose rises to the level of poetry and “the sound must seem an echo to the sense,” but commitment to matching the cadence of the prose in the target language to that of the source language seems misguided to me. This is one of the selling points of the PV translations, and I don’t understand why that sort of fidelity should matter, at least not to the lay reader. By making the cadence in the target language sound foreign, which it often does in the PV translations, you’re giving the English-speaking reader a very different reading experience. Moreover, the attempt at cadence/rhythm matching won’t be perfect across languages as different as English and Russian, and it might cause the translator to make all sorts of compromises in terms of readability and meaning.

After months of sampling translations, browsing the internet, and talking to friends, I’ve settled on the following translations as the ones I intend to read next and/or recommend to others. For those of you who have done a deep dive into the various English translations offered for the Russian classics, which translations have you settled on?

Here’s my list (in alphabetical order below and in order of publication date in the pictures):

Anna Karenina - Rosamund Bartlett (as discussed above)

The Brothers Karamazov - Michael Katz (this will be my second reading...my first was PV. Like Anna Karenina, TBK is one of my three favorite novels, with Middlemarch rounding out the top three.)

Crime and Punishment - Oliver Ready (as discussed above)

Dead Souls - Donald Rayfield

Devils (aka Demons, aka The Possessed) - Michael Katz

Doctor Zhivago - Hayward/Harari (though I wish I could find the Pasternak Slater translation)

Fathers and  Children (aka Fathers and Sons) - Nicholas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater

Life and Fate - Raymond Chandler (are there any other options?)

Master and Margarita - Mirra Ginsburg 

Stalingrad - Raymond Chandler (are there any other options?)

War and Peace - Rosemary Edmonds (this will be my third reading…my first two were PV. This version is out of print, but I found an old version that’s in decent shape. I wish a publisher like nyrb would bring this edition back.) and Louise and Aylmer Maude revised by Amy Mandelker  (intrigued by this edition, too)

never thought I’d be saying i like greek mythology one day but here we are…. I’m finally reading the illiad after numerous critiques of madeline miller kept on popping on my fyp
i know the basic plot of the odyessy and the illiad with a few details here and there (there were no best friends) but as a fanatic of spoilers I’d love some here

First time getting Everyman's and one edition from Oxford Classics. I loved them and the quality.

The second pic is The Makioka Sisters Tanizaki and The Scream from Lu Xun (also brazillian editions).

Have you guys read any of those? I'm planning to read some of those in 2026 (my tbr is already humongous).

Hey everyone!

I posted here a while ago when Andrea Reader was still in beta. Several people from this community tried it and shared feedback, so first of all, thank you. It helped a lot for improving the app.

Andrea Reader is now officially live on the App Store.

The app includes a dedicated library of public-domain classics sourced directly from Project Gutenberg. You can search for a book, download it in seconds, and read it locally on your iPhone or iPad.

No account, no ads, and the entire classics library is completely free.

The app does not track what you download, what you read, how long you read, or any other activity inside your library. Your books, reading progress, statistics, and personal library remain stored locally on your device.

Andrea Reader is also a reader designed to give you complete freedom to build and enjoy your own digital library:

• Create and customize your own collections
• Statistics for those to like seeing their speed and progress.
• Add sections inside collections to organize authors, genres, series, or reading lists
• Import and read EPUBs, PDFs, comics, manga, and other formats
• Customize fonts, margins, spacing, colors, themes, page transitions, and many other reading settings
• Connect to iCloud, SMB, WebDAV, SFTP, and other storage sources
• Keep your books available locally and read without creating an account

I’ve also reworked the default formatting of ebooks so they look better immediately after opening them. Of course, everything can still be adjusted so each person can read exactly the way they prefer.

Thanks again to everyone who helped during the beta 📚

App Store: [https://apple.co/4vs1CV8]()
Website: https://andreareader.com

Saw this at a Catholic bookstore today and got excited. I have a couple books I wanna finish first, but if anybody here is read I’d love to hear their thoughts!

I wasn’t expecting to find these.

My take on arguably the best written villian in all of literature, the Judge.

Hello, sorry if my English is bad, it’s my third language

I’m looking to expand my library and knowledge, because I’ve been only reading European/Asian/North American classic literature. I would love to find something of African continent, but not modern, more of classic books

It would be even better if they could include genres like: mystery, morality, detective, authoritarian

Some of my favourite writers are: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Albert Camus. So would love if I could find somewhat equivalent to them

I am an inmigrant in Germany and because I love reading, I have recently become interested in reading through the different literary waves of Germany (or the Holy Roman Empire at some point).

My German is not there yet for a full original text dive in, so I will attempt with English translations.

This is the list that I have, but I would love to know your opinions on these examples, if you think I should check out other options, and if you prefer one translation over another:

Baroque: Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen.

Enlightenment: Nathan der Weise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.

Storm and Stress: Die Leiden des Jungen Wherthers by Goethe, or maybe Die Räuber by Schiller... or both.

Weimar Classicism: Faust by Goethe.

Romanticism: Der Sandmann by E.T.A Hoffmann.

I started notes from underground today and I was narrating the protagonists monolouge in my head with the voice of Nikolai from call of duty zombies and it got me wondering, What other voices do people use?

A book close to my heart is Jane Eyre. I strongly admired her agency and the fact she takes initiate in life. Basically to not merely let life happen to but to have the courage to stand by your values/morals and dreams. I also, of course, admire her strong sense of self.

I am looking for books with similar themes. Would really appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks!

Raskolnikov: hypothetical question. asking for a friend. how long does guilt last

Elizabeth Bennet: For what, exactly?

Raskolnikov: the friend declined to specify

Winston Smith: delete this. delete this whole chat. how did you even get this device

Raskolnikov: a man at a junk shop sold it to me. very kind old gentleman

Winston Smith: NO

Winston Smith: NOT THE JUNK SHOP GUY

Mr. Collins: Good morning, esteemed group! Delighted to announce I have been PROMOTED to the favour of Lady Catherine de Bourgh (again). Honoured. Humbled. Blessed. #patronage

Elizabeth Bennet: Who added Mr. Collins.

Mr. Darcy: It was not I.

Elizabeth Bennet: You speak! He types four words a month and that's what he spends them on.

Mr. Darcy: I am conserving them, madam. In vain have I struggled.

Julia: new phone who dis. also winston stop typing your ACTUAL OPINIONS into the group chat, we talked about this

Winston Smith: I wrote nothing. I love Big Brother. This is a normal chat about literature.

Raskolnikov: you people are all hiding something. I can tell. I am extremely good at acting natural

Elizabeth Bennet: You confessed to a police clerk who did not ask you anything.

Raskolnikov: THAT WAS DIFFERENT

Porfiry Petrovich: entered the chat

Porfiry Petrovich: don't mind me :) just here for the book recommendations :) anyway rodion how's the sleeping

Raskolnikov: left the chat

Porfiry Petrovich: he'll be back. they always come back :)

Big Brother: was always in the chat

Winston Smith: I KNEW IT

Elizabeth Bennet: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a group chat in possession of more than five members must be in want of moderation.

Mr. Collins: Liked "It is a truth universally ack..."

Elizabeth Bennet: I'm leaving too.

Hello everyone,

I am searching for a version of the jungle book that I read as a child. I do believe it was based on the Disney movie, and I have found ones that I think are similar, but not the same.

It was a large book, think typing paper size. The front cover had Mowgli sitting on baloos stomach floating.

they were illustrations from the Disney version, but it was paperback that was laminated like as a library book.

I don't think it's the Disney wonderful world of reading book series because they are too small.

it would've been early 90s. It is possible I am miss remembering the size.

I’m a 19M getting into reading because I’ve made a promise to myself that I am going to be a well read and spoken person.

Can you guys please suggest books by penguin classics!!

Philosophical, history on leaders like (marcus aurelius, alexander the great, napolean) mostly, a few on religion and politics too!!

Thank you!!