Classic Reads Blog Hop

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Today, I’m taking part in a blog hop 🙂 it’s being hosted by Molly Greene Terri G Long Christine Nolfi and Rachel Thompson

The idea is for me to share the books that i think are classic reads, and to tell you what makes a read a ‘classic’ for me. Old, new, controversial, heartwarming – what are the things that catapult a book from a great read to a must read?

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The minute I saw this blog hop mentioned there was only 1 book, for me, worthy of the title 🙂 It’s a book I read back in 2006, but the memory has remained. Unfortunately, it’s no longer available in printed form, (unless you buy a pre-owned copy on Amazon) but you can get it on Kindle.

My recommendation as a Classic Read is Emotional Geology by Linda Gillard

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Let me share with you the blurb:
Rose Leonard is on the run from her life. Taking refuge in a remote island community, she cocoons herself in work, silence and solitude in a house by the sea. But she is haunted by her past, by memories and desires she’d hoped were long dead. Rose must decide whether she has in fact chosen a new life or just a different kind of death. Life and love are offered by new friends, her lonely daughter, and most of all Calum, a fragile younger man who has his own demons to exorcise. But does Rose, with her tenuous hold on life and sanity, have the courage to say yes to life and put her past behind her?

And now let me share with you my review:
OH WOW!!!!! I loved this book! I usually read a book a week, this one, i read in less than 24 hours!!!! When i say it was unputdownable…i am NOT joking! The setting is magical and i want to visit!!!!! No scrub that, i want to live there! I did find myself getting a little bit annoyed with Rose at one point, i mean there was Calum, dishy, kind, interested, available…and a poet….. What more could a woman want????? I’ve heard a lot of people who have read this book have been inspired to be creative…… Oh that is an understatement! I want to create something now lol

Can you tell I liked it? 😉 If you like a bit of romance with an incredible setting, you’ll love this as much as I did.

For me, a classic read is something that you fall in love with, and I definitely fell, big time for this! Even 6 years later I can remember opening the book to that first page and virtually not moving from my chair till I’d finished it. My husband went to work with me reading it and he came home just in time to see me finish lol 😉 There was just something magical about the characters and the beautiful description that touched my heart.

I have 2 spare copies of this book going begging (no, you can’t have my signed copy, that’s staying with me for life!) so if you’d like one (these are pre-read by the way so not brand new) please let me know and I’d be happy to send 🙂

So what constitutes a Classic Read in your opinion?

36 thoughts on “Classic Reads Blog Hop”

  1. sounds enchanting! I love books that suck me in from the very beginning and don’t let me go. most recently, The Fault in Our Stars did that to me. Before that, it was The Hunger Games. The first book in the series still lingers with me. As far as true classics go, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is still haunting and I find the prose to be absolutely beautiful. I’m always up for a great read so if you want to unload a copy, I’ll take one. 🙂

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  4. Great points made. To me, a classic is something that feels true, authentic, and like the writer put their soul into it. A book like that has a certain life to it that just jumps out at you.
    –JW

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  5. A classic read for me is a book that makes me think, or gets my brain ticking long after I’ve read them. As a child 2 books did this. CS Lewis – The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. As a young adult I loved a set of books (unfortunately I can’t remember the author 😦 ) The titles of the books are “Flowers in the Attic”, “Petals in the Wind” & “And If There Be Thorns” all of these books had something else. I could and would read them more than once, and always got something else from them each time. 🙂

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  7. Emotional Geology sounds delightful. Even the title makes me want to crawl inside.

    To me, a classic is something timeless and persistent. A book that is fathoms deep but often simple at its surface. A touchstone—something you can turn to, time and again, at different places in your life. At each juncture you might find new perspectives, uncover layers of meaning, harvest hidden gems. I have a few such books. They are dear friends, the sort you fall in stride with after years apart, and wonder how you had the good fortune to ever find someone so right for you.

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  8. Vikki, your cheque is in the post. 😉 You are a one-woman publicity machine for EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY. I’m really grateful for the good word of mouth, year after year since it was published. I’m happy to supply a brand new signed copy to a UK reader if you care to contact me with an address.

    Thanks, Wendy, for buying the Kindle download. 🙂 I hope you aren’t disappointed.

    As for my own Clasic Read… I’ve bored people for years with my enthusiasm for the Scottish historical novelist, Dorothy Dunnett. Where do you start? With THE GAME OF KINGS, the first in a 6-book series called THE LYMOND CHRONICLES. She’s not a easy read and it can take 100 pages before you get the hang of her, but if I could take only 6 books to a desert island, these are the 6 I would take. Re-reads would keep me going indefinitely.

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    • Ha ha ha 🙂

      You know I’ve always had a soft spot for it Linda. It’s funny, I read books and within a month I’ve forgotten them….and that’s what makes EG so special…..6 years later I still remember how I felt when I’d read that last page! 🙂

      Oh wow Linda! Thank you sooooo much for your kind offer! Is there any chance you could send it to me and then I’ll happily send to Jenny (the first comment) who lives in the States 🙂

      Oooooo, thank you Linda, I will look into Dorothy’s stuff 🙂

      Xx

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  10. Hah, really must get around to reading that one! I remember as a child thinkiing “classic book” meant “boring difficult to read book”. Then when I got older and started reading the books described as classics it was oh, wow, why didn’t I find these before? books like wind in the willows, Black Beauty, and then as an adult Oliver Twist, Lord of the Rings – but favourite? My sci fi classic I guess has to be Ender’s Game. Pride and prejudice I hated when I studied it then loved it later. For me a classic is a book that has something more to say than just the storyline, one that makes you think afterwards, maybe helps you understand life a little better after.

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  12. I really enjoyed Emotional Geology too, Vikki – Linda is an amazing author. A classic read that has stayed in my mind for years is Anne Tyler’s A Patchwork Planet. I’ve read it dozens of times, and it was the book that made me want to become a novelist. Have you read it? I think you’d love it too 🙂 x

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  13. Pingback: The Next Big Thing Blog Hop « Kristin King Author

  14. For me a classic is one that stands the test of time, one whose story is as meaningful hundreds of years after it is written as it was when it was new. Unfortunately that means I can only guess if today’s offerings will become classics! That makes me want to travel in time to see if Emotional Geology still resonates in the 23rd century. Hang on, I feel a story coming on….

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  15. i just downloaded Emotional Geology on my Kindle. I can’t wait – of course, I have six or eight books waiting in line, but I’ll probalby push this one up to #3. Thanks for the recommendation. A classic is a book that I think about weeks, months, years after I read it. A classic book is one I can never give up (I will loan it to a friend, but not give it up entirely) because I like to look at it, close my eyes, and return to the setting and the characters. That’s the kind of book I want to write, that’s for sure. :+)

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  16. Great post, Vikki.

    You have captured the essence of a classic read well, I love it when you find a book as special as you find Emotional Geology.

    At this time if I could only retain one book in my collection it would be Murakami’s Norwegian Wood. Still amazing after multiple reads.

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