Allie, Adam, Sarah, Melissa, Heather and Jillian have teamed up to create and maintain this incredible site which they have dubbed "a community of classics lovers".
I am in awe of their initiative, enthusiasm and dedication!
To join their club, simply commit to reading 50+ classic titles in the next 5 years!!
Easy, huh?
I love reading. I love reading classics. I love blogging. I love making lists.
But putting this list together has been harder than I thought. What to put in, what to leave out? Just one book per author or do I allow myself multiples? Should all the books on the list be new to me or can I re-read some favourites? Can I classify non-fiction, picture books and biography as classic? What is my definition of classic? modern classic? children's classic? Is an award winning book automatically a classic?
I got myself so tangled in semantics, that my fingers were unable to find their way to the keyboard!
For now, the above questions will remain unanswered.
For now, here is my list.
I reserve the right to add, subtract and change my mind as I untangle the above.
An Academic Question by Barbara Pym (15)
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (27)
(A) Aunts Up the Cross by Robin Dalton (58)
The Beautiful and Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald (9)
Bleak House by Charles Dickens (6)
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (reread) (36)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (4)
Carol/The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (41)
(A) The Catherine Wheel by Elizabeth Harrower (30)
The Chateau by William Maxwell (38)
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (reread) (44)
(A) C.J. Dennis Poems (28)
Crossing To Safety by Wallace Stegner (2)
The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield (54)
Dubliners by James Joyce (5)
Emma by Jane Austen (reread) (50)
Eugénie Grandet by Honore de Balzac (39)
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym (14)
A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark (52)
The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (61)
Fortune of the Rougons by Émile Zola (53)
Germinal by Émile Zola (47)
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald (reread) (11)
(A) The Great World by David Malouf (reread) (48)
The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore (56)
Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym (17)
The Kill (La Curee) by Emile Zola (55)
The Ladies of Lyndon by Margaret Kennedy (3)
Lady Susan by Jane Austen (62)
Love and Freindship (sic) by Jane Austen (63)
The Magnificent Amberson's by Booth Tarkington (24)
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (reread) (20)
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Seigfried Sassoon (49)
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (8)
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier (22)
My Ántonia by Willa Cather (43)
Nana by Émile Zola (34)
No Name by Wilkie Collins (37)
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (46)
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (60)
The Odyssey by Homer (reread) (19)
(A) On the Beach by Nevil Shute (10)
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (29)
Out of Africa by Karen Blixen (31)
Persuasion by Jane Austen (reread) (1)
(A) Picnic At Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (reread) (26)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (12)
The Reef by Edith Wharton (35)
The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien (65)
The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (40)
(A) Sisters by Ada Cambridge (59)
So Big by Edna Ferber (25)
The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata (33)
Summer by Edith Wharton (7)
(A) Swords of Crowns and Rings by Ruth Park (32)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (51)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (reread) (16)
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (13)
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (reread) (18)
The Tragedy of the Korosko by Arthur Conan Doyle (23)
The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien (64)
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh (45)
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf (21)
(A) The Watch Tower by Elizabeth Harrower (42)
Young Hearts Crying by Richard Yates (57)
August 2012 - August 2017
65 books
65 books
CHALLENGE COMPLETE APRIL 2018
The Master and Margarita is on my list as well. I've heard interesting things about that one.
ReplyDeleteInteresting list. I am also taking part in the club. Look forward to your thoughts, good luck!
ReplyDeleteGreat list - I have many of the same titles on mine. Enjoy your reading!
ReplyDeleteYour list has some unusual stuff on it, it's great :-) Walden is also on my list and I'm excited to read it, mostly because my copy is really pretty (not that I judge books by their covers or anything...). And I Capture the Castle was one of my favourites as a teenager so I hope you enjoy it!
ReplyDeletePlease - let me lend you my copy of Walden so I no longer have to see it on the shelf and feel mocked for not being able to finish it!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great list!! Just wanted to stop in and welcome you to the club, Brona! I'm excited by your enthusiasm. :-)
ReplyDeleteGlad to find a fellow clubber! I really need to recommit to my list in the new year -- I'm a year in and not doing so great :/ Glad I have 5 years to read all these wonderful books!
ReplyDeleteHey Brona! I wasn't sure where to message you, but since this is a classic book note, I thought here might work. :) I just wanted to let you know I made a button for the group read of Gone with the Wind. It's in yesterday's post at my place, near the bottom -- the one you commented in to say you're interested in joining. Just to let you know, as and if you need one! I hadn't taken care of that yet when I posted because I was SO EXCITED! :) I'm really glad you're joining!
ReplyDeleteHi Brona. I didn't know where else to put this on your blog. I’ve nominated you and your blog for the Premio Dardos Award: http://100greatestnovelsofalltimequest.blogspot.com/2015/07/premio-dardos-award.html
ReplyDeleteBravo! C'est fini!
ReplyDeleteGreat list. So many books that are new to me, as I might expect, but it's also surprising to me to find so many authors that are new to me.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great list! And I am right there with you about loving classics, lists, and blogging, so this has been a fun project!!
ReplyDeleteI read and loved these classics from your list: Tenant of Wildfell Hall, To Kill A Mockingbird, Persuasion, A Moveable Feast (I read it while in Paris, which was a fun experience!),
... and these are the ones I also have on my list: Excellent Women, Northanger Abbey, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Jane and Prudence, Diary of a Provincial Lady
Here's my list, if interested! https://elle-alice.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-classics-club-55-classics-in-5.html