For a while now I’ve been entertaining the notion of joining The Classics Club, since so many bloggers I follow are a part of it and I do enjoy and want to read more classic literature. Since I’ve realized that, as an Obliger (Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies,) I need to have outer accountability to meet inner expectations, I thought this would be the perfect little nudge I need to get me reading all those novels I’ve been “meaning to read” forever.
The (short version) rules of the Club are this:
- – choose 50+ classics
- – list them at your blog
- – choose a reading completion goal date up to five years in the future and note that date on your classics list of 50+ titles
- – write about each title on your list as you finish reading it, and link it to your main list
So by February 8, 2023, I hope to have read the following books (but I reserve the right to add and drop titles along the way:)
Gather Together in My Name – Maya Angelou
The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Arnim
Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon – Jane Austen
Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin
Go Tell it on the Mountain – James Baldwin
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
The Long-Winded Lady: Notes From the New Yorker – Maeve Brennan
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë
Jane Eyre -Charlotte Brontë (reread)
The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
A Study in Scarlet – Arthur Conan Doyle
My Cousin Rachel – Daphne du Maurier
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens
The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
Adam Bede – George Eliot
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
Love Medicine – Louise Erdrich
Howard’s End – E.M. Forster
North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
Wives and Daughters – Elizabeth Gaskell
Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
Nightingale Wood – Stella Gibbons
The Thin Man – Dashiell Hammett
Strangers on a Train – Patricia Highsmith
Jonah’s Gourd Vine – Zora Neale Hurston
The Bird’s Nest – Shirley Jackson
Life Among the Savages – Shirley Jackson
The Lottery and Other Stories – Shirley Jackson
Quicksand – Nella Larsen
West With the Night – Beryl Markham
The Blue Castle – L.M. Montgomery
The Gowk Storm – Nancy Morrison (thanks Fiction Fan!)
Beloved – Toni Morrison (reread)
A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories – Flannery O’Connor
1984 – George Orwell
The Last Gentleman – Walker Percy
Less Than Angels – Barbara Pym
Quartet in Autumn – Barbara Pym
The Sweet Dove Died – Barbara Pym
Ceremony – Leslie Marmon Silko (reread)
Crossing to Safety – Wallace Stegner
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
The Warden – Anthony Trollope
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
The Island of Dr. Moreau – H.G. Wells
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Stoner – John Williams
To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf (reread)
Native Son – Richard Wright
So that’s 51 books, mostly novels, three memoirs (Angelou, Jackson, and Markham) two books of short stories (Jackson, O’Connor,) one book of essays (Brennan.) A few rereads, but it’s been at least ten-twenty+ years since I’ve read some of them. I am excited to dig in to these. Some I have been meaning to read for years, others I just learned about in the last year from fellow bloggers! Some of these I don’t know how I’ve escaped reading in school before now (1984, I’m looking at you!)
Have you read any of these? Any you’re particularly attached to or perhaps despise? Let me know in the comments!
Ok I like the fact that you have five years to complete this challenge! That seems doable 🙂
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Ha ha! Anne, if I didn’t have five years, I wouldn’t do it! 😉
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Welcome to the Classics Club, Laila! You have a great list here. I especially love The Blue Castle, Cold Comfort Farm, the Brontes and Gaskell, The Woman in White, West with the Night, and The Enchanted April.
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Thanks, Jessie! Ah, you’ve read some of the ones I’m most looking forward to!
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I hope you’ll love them as much as I do!
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I love Gaskell and Collins.
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I love your reason for joining. 🙂 I think you’ll love Stoner!
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Oh good! I read a positive review on Care’s (Books and Pie) site a little while ago and She convinced me!
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COOL.
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Awesome! 🙂 I’m part of the Classics Club too. It was the first reading group I joined, I think, when I committed to blogging. I’ve since failed my goal (the deadline year has passed), but I’m still going with it.
Some great books there. Native Son was a great read and still applicable to today’s problems and Quicksand too is good.
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I love that even though the deadline has passed, you’re still working on your list. Thanks! I am really looking forward to both Quicksand and Native Son!
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There are quite a few books that are on my TBR too. Like you, I can’t believe I managed to get out of school without having read 1984 even though I was supposed to. There aren’t too many on your list that I don’t like. I’m not a fan of Virginia Woolf, but I think that’s just writing style. Jane Eyre is definitely one of my all time favorites and it’s on a reading challenge of mine . Enjoy and good luck. I look forward to seeing your/hearing your progress.
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Thank you! I am excited for the project and the nudge it will give me to dig in to some great literature. I read Jane Eyre in high school so it’s been a looooong time! I’ve been meaning to reread it for ages!
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Your list is great! (It also overlaps with lots of my TBR book piles 😉) I’ve got Brideshead Revisited on a TBR challenge list this year. Which one are you thinking of starting with?
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Good question! Probably Lady Susan, etc. by Jane Austen, since I have a copy of my own and I’m trying to also read some more of my own books! 🙂
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What an interesting mix of books you’ve got on here! From different countries and periods, and including some modern classics. I have stalled with my classics reading after last year’s challenge to read one per month. It seems like new books always steal my attention.
Of the ones you’ve listed, I intend to read The Master and Margarita soon, and I’m always hearing recommendations for The Enchanted April and Stella Gibbons. I have also always meant to read Flannery O’Connor and Wallace Stegner.
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Thanks! I wanted to mix it up with time periods and countries, although it is rather heavy on Western Europe and America. Oh well, I’m pretty happy with it. Yes, new books steal my attention too, or at least books that have come out in the last few years! This will be a way to nudge me in the classics direction.
I have read some Wallace Stegner and he’s amazing. Angle of Repose is so good!
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Welcome to the club!
Some of my favorites are here: The Woman in White, Great Expectations, The Count of Monte Christo.
And I admire you for having the courage to have second read of Beloved! It was great, but I don’t think I would want to revisit it.
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Thank you!
I want to reread Beloved because I was a high school sophomore the first time around and I feel like it deserves a read as an adult. 🙂 But I do remember it being a harrowing read.
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Yeah! So excited you have L. M. Montgomery on your list!
I want to read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, too. I like Agnes Grey so want to read Anne’s more famous novel.
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I haven’t even read Agnes Gray yet either! So many classics, so little time!
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I love Agnes Grey. Anne is the best Bronte. 🙂
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Okay I need to strenuously recommend The Woman in White and The Blue Castle. They are very different books but both extremely wonderful. The Woman in White is gothic and crazy, and The Blue Castle is sweet and dear and a superb comfort read.
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You have some of my favorite authors on there: Hurston, Baldwin Larsen, Wright, Jackson, O’Connor. If you’re interested, read Howard’s End by E.M. Forster and then read On Beauty by Zadie Smith, which is a retelling of Forster’s novel.
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Hmmm, I did not know this. Might have to find Howard’s End because two book reads are always interesting to me and I have yet to read any Zadie Smith.
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Yes, Howard’s End fist and On Beauty second. You’ll see parallels in various scenes, but the books are not identical by any means.
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This sounds like a great reading club and I love the fact that you have five years to achieve the goal. That sounds manageable. All the best and happy reading 🙂
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Thanks, Diana! I love the manageable time frame too!
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SO MANY! Crossing to Safety, Count of Monte Cristo! Quite a few of these are on my list and I still need to get to them. It’s good to have some short ones, too, which I see you have. GREAT LIST!
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Thank you! 🙂 Yes, I deliberately picked some shorter ones LOL!
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Oooo good luck! I’ve read Jane Eyre, which is one of my favorite books of all times – did you enjoy it the first time you read it? I’ve also read Fahrenheit 451 – which I liked, but didn’t love. I thought the concept was interesting, but the writing is very dry.
I haven’t read 1984 either and would say out of all of these books it is at the top of my Classics TBR.
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I DID enjoy Jane Eyre the first time – but it’s been since HIGH SCHOOL since I’ve read it. So I’m way overdue for a reread!!
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What a great list and we have some the same – we can keep each other going over the next five years 🙂
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Yes! 🙂 Your post was part of my inspiration for going ahead and taking the plunge!
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I’ve only read Fahrenheit 451!!! Not my favorite, but it was interesting!
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LOL – that’s two votes for “interesting” for Fahrenheit 451!
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You have so many great books on this list (many that I also want to read sometime). And I’m so happy to see The Blue Castle on your list – I think you’ll love it!
The others I have read are Jane Eyre (which I love), Great Expectations (too long ago to have an opinion), The Count of Monte Cristo (a fun adventure), and Anna Karenina (too long!).
Have fun with this challenge!
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Thanks, Naomi! I love your opinion of Anna Karenina! I think it will be one that I space out and read in small sections. 🙂
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Ooh, so glad you’ve joined up! And I’m incredibly excited to see The Gowk Storm on your list – hope you love it! I like that you’ve mixed it up with some massive heavyweights and also some lighter stuff, and of course every list should have some Dickens on it – great choices! I’ve read surprisingly few of these – only 15. So many books, so little time…
Welcome to the club – hope you get as much fun out of it as I do! 😀
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Thanks! You are part of my inspiration for joining! I am very much looking forward to it. I suppose I’d better get cracking, ha ha!
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Yay, Laila! The Classics Club is so fun. Plus, it gives me way more motivation to read all the classics I have been wanting to–accountability is a good thing 😉 Excited to read your thoughts on these books!
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Thank you – yes, I need the accountability! 🙂
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That accountability is helpful for me too! I have read 24 of your list and none of the ones you’ve included make me think “ugh”. I was warned that The Warden was dull (compared to his others) but I liked it quite a bit (although perhaps knowing that did adjust my expecations) and I have been warned to take time with The Master and the Margarita and allow for some craziness too. You already know that I would be excited to see all those Pyms on there, and I’m also excited to see The Blue Castle, which is almost painfully sentimental but I think you will appreciate it all the same. Another on your list that I really want to get it is the Dumas; I’ve heard good things, but it’s SUCH a commitment!
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That’s good to hear about the 24 you’ve read! And thanks for the tip on the Warden and the Bulgakov.
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Wow! I can’t wait to follow along with this challenge! I love the books you’ve chosen and am so impressed that you’re willing to tackle such challenging reads!
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Thanks! I deliberately included some that I knew ahead of time weren’t likely to be too challenging… 😉
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Smart lady!!
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Omg. This is the challenge I need right here! I have been wanting to read more classics and it just never seems to happen. I think maybe joining this challenge will give me the motivation I need! Your list looks awesome and I hope you enjoy all the classics you’ll be reading!
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I’m glad that you found the Classics Club through my post, and I hope you enjoy it if you join up!
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What a great list. I’m so glad to meet some of the other classics club members. I must admit I’ve been so focused on writing reviews I haven’t spent the proper amount of time browsing, especially the classics club. I love seeing what others are reading and what’s motivated them to add some of the books to their list. Bradbury, Charlotte Brontë (I still have the other sisters on my list), Gaskell, Dickens, Collins are some of my favorite. I’m rereading The Woman in White and might just read a few more Collins books right a way.
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Thanks for reading! I haven’t browsed the Classics Club members as I should have either. I just know the ones who are bloggers I already follow (Fiction Fan and Cleo are the ones who inspired me to join.) I will check out your blog and list!
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They are the ones who have helped me with that. I’m going to make a goal to try to check out a few each week to reach out and talk about our lists or other books
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That’s a great list. I have read the majority on your list, but some titles surprise me and I have not even heard of them. I definitely need to check out The Sweet Dove Died and Crossing to Safety. From all the books listed, my favourite is definitely Anna Karenina, but I also enjoyed 1984, My Cousin Rachel, The Woman in White and Invisible Man.
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Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m glad to hear the ones you think so highly of. I love this reading project – it forces me to put down the shiny new books and reach for the older classics I’ve always meant to read.
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