Click to sign up on The Classics Club Blog
Jillian of A Room of One’s Own came up with an awesome idea to host a book club of sorts, which she has named The Classics Club. The idea is for individual readers to set a goal to read a certain number of classics over a certain period of time (say, 100 classics over a period of five years). The club is intended to be very casual–pick your own list, no stress, no major requirements, etc.–and it sounds like a lot of fun. I’m a lover of classics and there are so many I have yet to read, so I jumped at the chance to join Jillian and the other participants.
My goal is to read the following 100 101 classics over the next five years (list to be expanded if I reach the goal early), which is quite doable for me–that’s about two classics per month. Some of the books on the list will be re-reads for me (technically), but I read them so long ago (when I was a kid/teenager) that I have forgotten almost everything about them. I’m sure I will feel like I’m reading them for the first time. Plus, it’s amazing how much more one gets out of a book the second time around, when one has 20+ more years of experience and learning under one’s belt.
This list is subject to change, in case I exceed my goal or in case I decide to replace a title on the list with something different. Who knows? I may get into one of these classics and really hate it, and although I’ve only DNF’d two books in all my years of reading, I’m not opposed to doing it again (I’m looking at you, Truman Capote).
I don’t think every book will receive a “formal” review on the blog; I think for some of them, I will format my posts more like discussions or informal thoughts about the book (and its author). I’m really just going to take it as it comes and write whatever I feel like writing at the time.
Anyone is welcome to join the Classics Club, so if you’re interested, just click on the Classics Club button at the top of this page to be taken to the sign-up page on The Classics Club Blog (or click here to get more detailed information).
Start date: March 7, 2012
Goal finish date: March 7, 2017
Books in red = re-reads
Struck-through titles = read (if I choose to review a book, a link to the review will be posted next to the title)
UPDATE: I’ve decided to use Daytum to keep track of my reading stats for this challenge. You can view my profile/stats here: http://www.daytum.com/between_the_covers
Louisa May Alcott Little Women Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility Persuasion Emma Mansfield Park Northanger Abbey James BaldwinGo Tell It on the Mountain Giovanni's RoomSamuel Beckett Molloy Malone Dies The Unnamable Saul Bellow Humbolt's Gift The Adventures of Augie March Anne Brontë The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Agnes Grey Charlotte Brontë Villette Shirley Truman Capote Breakfast at Tiffany's Lewis CarrollAlice in WonderlandThrough the Looking GlassWilla Cather O, Pioneers! Death Comes for the Archbishop The Professor's House Wilkie Collins The Moonstone Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe Moll Flanders Roxana A Journal of the Plague Year Charles DickensDavid Copperfield Bleak HouseA Tale of Two Cities Oliver Twist Great Expectations Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment The Idiot Daphne du MaurierRebeccaAlexandre Dumas The Count of Monte Cristo The Three Musketeers George Eliot The Mill on the FlossMiddlemarchSilas Marner William Faulkner As I Lay Dying The Sound and the Fury Absalom, Absalom! F. Scott Fitzgerald Tender is the Night Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary E.M. Forster Howard's EndMaurice
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Faust Nikolay GogolDead SoulsThomas Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles Far From the Madding Crowd Nathaniel Hawthorne The House of the Seven Gables The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories The Blithedale Romance
Victor HugoLes MisérablesThe Hunchback of Notre Dame Henry James The Portrait of a Lady James Joyce Ulysses The Dead Franz KafkaThe TrialD.H. Lawrence Sons and Lovers The Rainbow Sinclair Lewis Babbitt Main Street Charles Robert MaturinMelmoth the Wanderer(Review) W. Somerset Maugham Of Human Bondage The Razor's Edge Cakes and Ale Herman Melville Moby-Dick Billy Budd Margaret Mitchell Gone With the Wind Vladimir Nabokov Pale Fire Pnin Ada Flannery O'Connor Wise Blood The Violent Bear It Away Everything That Rises Must Converge Ann Radcliffe The Mysteries of Udolpho Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Don Quixote William ShakespeareHamletMary Shelley Frankenstein Betty Smith A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island Bram Stoker Dracula Jonathan Swift Gulliver's Travels William Makepeace ThackerayVanity Fair(Review) J.R.R. Tolkien (Wrap-up post)The Hobbit The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers The Return of the KingLeo Tolstoy War and Peace The Death of Ivan Ilyich Jean Toomer Cane Mark TwainThe Innocents AbroadJules Verne Around the World in Eighty Days Journey to the Center of the Earth H.G. Wells The Island of Dr. Moreau The Time Machine Edith Wharton Ethan Frome The House of Mirth Virginia Woolf Mrs. Dalloway A Room of One's Own
March 7, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Heather! I can’t WAIT to see what you think of all those Austens! And I’m so excited to see you re-reading so many titles. I agree with you: experience and time can change the way we look at books. It will be interesting to see if you react differently to the titles you’re revisiting for this project.
Also, RADCLIFFE! Yeah, I love my some The Mysteries of Udolpho. I can’t believe how much I liked it, but I did.
I’m going to read “The Dead” next week for Mel U’s Irish Short Story Week. And I’m probably going to put a Joyce novel on my list. (I’m scared.)
Thanks for joining, Heather!! I’m super-excited we’re doing this.
PS – I’m halfway through Vanity Fair. It is SO GOOD so far.
March 7, 2012 at 10:41 pm
I’m a bit scared of Joyce, too. Hahaha! And Goethe.
I’m really excited about this–thanks so much for coming up with this!
March 7, 2012 at 10:44 pm
No problem.
March 8, 2012 at 4:02 am
Impressive list. And really classic. Some of them I’ve read lopng ago and it would be fun reading them from a different perspective that comes with age and wisdom.
March 8, 2012 at 8:07 am
Thank you! I’m looking forward to the re-reads.
March 8, 2012 at 10:01 am
Great looking list – you have some of my favourites on there (Villette, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Count of Monte Cristo) and we also have some of the same books planned. Happy reading
March 8, 2012 at 12:14 pm
Thank you!
March 8, 2012 at 10:09 am
So many great books and authors on this list – and many that I want to read! We share some of the same, but I could easily have made my list 100 or 200 books instead of 50 – I just didn’t want to overwhelm myself (10 classics per year seems good to me, particularly when I read so many other types of books and because so many books on my list are SO LONG!).
I LOVE Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. Can’t wait for you to read that one.
March 8, 2012 at 12:04 pm
I could have made my list much longer, too, so I had to keep telling myself, “It’s only five years. Don’t overdo it.” Haha! Thanks, Adam!
March 8, 2012 at 11:04 am
Great List! I had so much fun coming up with mine… though some titles got cut so I would keep it at 50. I’ve got to focus, or I get distracted and overwhelm myself!
March 8, 2012 at 12:02 pm
Thanks, Sarah!
March 8, 2012 at 3:37 pm
I love that you’re doing more than one read by most of the authors. I’ve been trying to think of titles for my list and just stole a few from yours. I’m really looking forward to seeing what you think of the Nabokov, and to reading your reviews of those other russian authors I am finally planning to get around reading.
(Well, sometime in the next five years.)
March 8, 2012 at 4:29 pm
I’m really looking forward to everyone’s thoughts on all the books they’ve (we’ve) chosen. I have been meaning to read more Nabokov for years, and keep putting it off for some reason. No more!
March 9, 2012 at 12:00 pm
What a great list, Heather! Good luck and happy reading!
March 9, 2012 at 12:37 pm
Thank you, Vasilly!
March 10, 2012 at 5:24 pm
Heather, what a list! Can’t wait to see what you think of Eliot – I am reading her too this year for the first time. Just trying to finalise my own list this weekend; easier said than done!
March 11, 2012 at 12:29 pm
MUCH easier said than done. There are so many books I had to leave off my list for now.
March 10, 2012 at 6:30 pm
This is such a great list! I’ve had so much fun browsing everyone’s lists. But it’s reminding me of all the books I probably should have added to mine… I can’t wait to see what you think of some of these – Persuasion, Gone with the Wind, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Rebecca are some of my absolute favorite books!
March 11, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Thanks, Hannah! As I look at other people’s lists, I realize how many I had to leave off of mine to keep it at 100. Coming up with a list like this was tough.
March 10, 2012 at 7:36 pm
Great list! You have quite a few here that I would’ve liked to include but had to trim from my list. Awesome you included War & Peace – I think I’d need 6 months just to get that one done!
March 11, 2012 at 12:31 pm
I’m pretty sure I’m going to need a lot of time to read War & Peace. Haha!
March 11, 2012 at 12:52 am
Awesome List Heather.
I adored Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. After I finished it, I read every other du Maurier title I could get my hands on:)
Enjoy!
March 11, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Thank you, Adriana! I’m looking forward to reading Rebecca–I’ve heard nothing but good things about it.
May 20, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Just joined The Classics Club so I’m making my way through the group. Great list you have here. I see a lot of my favorites and it looks I have a few on my list that have made it to yours. I debated on whether I wanted to put Tolkein on my list as I’ve read them before. I bet they’ll end up there eventually. Good luck with your Atwood reading, too.
May 20, 2012 at 8:24 pm
Thanks for stopping by and checking things out here! It’s wonderful that so many people have joined. I debated the Tolkien, too, but I haven’t read them since I was in my early teens and I’ve been looking for a reason to re-read them. I just needed a push.
June 5, 2012 at 3:33 am
this is a wonderful list! I have several of the titles that you have, I can’t wait to read your views
June 5, 2012 at 7:02 am
Thanks!
August 31, 2012 at 1:50 pm
I am new around here and a new follower…just wondering how did you get the progress widgets for your classics challenge? That looks so fun!
August 31, 2012 at 2:14 pm
Hi! I will email you the HTML for it as soon as I’m on the computer again.
August 31, 2012 at 4:00 pm
thank you! hewkinm@hotmail.com