It’s that time of year again – though time has ceased to mean very much to me. But it IS April and it IS time for another club year – this time, our earliest yet: 1920 club.
It’s kicking off on Monday – join me and Karen in reading any book published in 1920, and sharing your thoughts on your blog, on GoodReads or LibraryThing, or in the comments on our posts. Just drop us a link when you’re done, and together we’ll build up a good picture of what the reading world was like 100 years ago! All books welcome, and all languages – as long as it was first published in 1920, then perfect.
It’s a weird, strange, anxious time – I think taking a trip back to 1920 seems quite inviting. But obviously if you’re not feeling like you can read anything at the moment, there’s absolutely no guilt in giving this one a miss. Join us in October for whatever the next club year is, and hopefully we’ll be back to normal!
Hopefully this should be a nice distraction from the horrors of real life – looking forward to a little escapism! :D
I’m in!
I’m hoping to join in with Queen Lucia but my reading is practically non-existent at the moment. I’ll look forward to all the posts though!
I’m hoping to join in and have started reading Age of Innocence. Whether I finish it in time is another matter entirely. I’m reading so slowly these days.
I wasn’t sure I would be up to doing this, but I just started The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Christie, and I should be able to do a post for that. I have read it before but I did not like it then. I am reading it again to try to figure out why or see if I will appreciate more 13 years later.
I have started early, hoping to review next week. Currently reading Penny Plain by O Douglas.
Yeah! I’ll be reading a Wodehouse, or maybe Waugh. Which one though…
I’m in!
I’m starting from this list: “The Books of the Century”-
1920
Fiction Bestsellers
1. Zane Grey, The Man of the Forest
2. Peter B. Kyne, Kindred of the Dust
3. Harold Bell Wright, The Re-Creation of Brian Kent
4. James Oliver Curwood, The River’s End
5. Irving Bacheller, A Man for the Ages
6. Eleanor H. Porter, Mary-Marie
7. Joseph C. Lincoln, The Portygee
8. E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Great Impersonation
9. Ethel M. Dell, The Lamp in the Desert
10. Kathleen Norris, Harriet and the Piper
Nonfiction Bestsellers
1. Philip Gibbs, Now It Can Be Told
2. John M. Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace
3. Joseph B. Bishop, ed., Roosevelt’s Letters to His Children
4. William Roscoe Thayer, Theodore Roosevelt
5. Frederick O’Brien, White Shadows in the South Seas
6. Cornelia Stratton Parker, An American Idyll
From https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~immer/books1920s
After reading a few summaries I’ve picked “The Great Impersonation” as my first 1920s book. I may have read a Reader’s Digest Children’s Condensed Books version when I was young; the plot sounds familiar.
It would be lovely to see a list of what you have already read (or intending to) from 1920 to help with choosing, choosing wisely our reads is something of a theme at the moment.
I’ve read a short story that is very relevant for our times, and not especially soothing, I’m afraid. I’ve scheduled my review for the blog on Monday:)
Yep! I’m in with The Age of Innocence.
Very much looking forward to this, I’ll be reading In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim. Sounds like the perfect escapist read for the circumstances.
I’m going to be picking up Arthur Quiller-Couch’s On Reading (a book about books, hooray) which I haven’t read since approx 1920!
I have missed taking part in this. Glad I’ll be doing it this year.
Here’s my post:
https://ahotcupofpleasureagain.wordpress.com/2020/04/09/the-1920-club/
Thanks for hosting it.
I’m in! And now I’m off to see if I also have a copy of that Ethel M. Dell novel too.
Sounds good! I’ve read quite a few 1920s novels lately, I’ll need to search out another – one that doesn’t require a physical library checkout. Here’s a big listing from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1920s_books
I’ve decided on “Indiscretions of Archie” by P.G. Wodehouse. I can use a dose of Wodehouse these days!
OOops, off by a year. It will be Arthur Quiller-Couch’s “On Reading”, mentioned by Liz earlier. Looks interesting!
Lots of Colette published in the 1920’s. I can’t remember whether I need to read books in their original language to take part. I had wondered about reading Nadja by Andre Breton.
I’m reading a short for this “The Cut-Glass Bowl” F. Scott Fitzgerald. I’ll pop up my link to my thoughts shortly.
Well, when I saw 1920 my mind went blankish. I’ve got a huge library of 20th century books, but all that came to mind was PGW and Agatha Christie. So I checked my Books Read spreadsheet (which goes back only to 2010) and found only 2 authors I’d read in the past 10 years with 1920 books: LMM’s Rilla of Ingleside, and O. Douglas’s Penny Plain.
I guess my reading habits really have evolved over the years (I mean many many years). I’ll be interested to see what else comes up.