March y’all. March is when I saw Jillian’s tweet about The Classics Club and I emailed that tweet to myself. It took five months for me to make a damn list so that I could join The Classics Club. Don’t know what The Classics Club is? Let me bring you quickly up to speed so that you can join the fun in less than five months. The Classics Club is the brain child Jillian and has since morphed into a collaborative effort with a dedicated blog. If you’re not already part of the Classics Club—go check it out. Lots of fun things going on over there.
Basically the way you join the Classics Club is to commit to reading at least 50 classics in the next five years. The math boils down to 10 books off your list a year—easy cheesy, right? (don’t tell them that my classics and overall reading average has been a little less than stellar the past two years, k?). But we'll say my finish date will be 9/1/2017.
Without further ado…my Classics Club list!
Which is subject to change per my whimsy.
1. Around the World in 80 Days – Jules Verne
2. The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
3. Vanity Fair – William Thackery
4. North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
5. Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
7. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9. East of Eden – John Steinbeck
10. Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
11. Persuasion – Jane Austen
12. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
13. Phantom of the Opera – Gaston Leroux
14. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
15. Dracula – Bram Stoker
16. Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
17. Little Princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett
18. Bleak House– Charles Dickens
19. A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf
20. WB Yeats collected poems – WB Yeats
21. The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien
22. Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
23. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
24. White Fang – Jack London
25. Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
26. The Tempest – William Shakespeare
27. Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
28. Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys
29. Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence
30. Jane Eyre (re-read) – Charlotte Bronte
31. A Light in August – William Faulkner
32. Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
33. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
34. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
35. The Monk – Matthew Gregory Lewis
36. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
37. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
38. Mary Poppins – P.L. Travers
39. The Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
40. Frenchman’s Creek – Daphne du Maurier
41. Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak
42. Call of the Wild – Jack London
43. A Man for All Seasons – Robert Bolt
44. Franny and Zooey – J.D. Salinger
45. Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
46. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
47. Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman
48. The French Lieutenant’s Woman – John Fowles
49. The Romance of the Forest – Ann Radcliffe
50. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
Now, which if these do you want to readalong with me? (insert mischievous smile)
How's your Sunday shaping up? We're heading to Fort Worth this morning to the Botanic Gardens before the sweltering heat hits and then some light birthday celebrations by the pool with lots of ice cream. Yay!
Sounds like a do-able goal--50 in 5 years. I was cataloging my books yesterday and I've got quite a few in the classics genre, too. Might need to look into making a list. Enjoy your Sunday!
ReplyDeleteUm, I'm all about getting a group together to read Clockwork Orange. I'm more skirrrd of that book than It!! :)
ReplyDeleteYou've got a nice variety on your list. Good luck to you!!
ReplyDeleteUm, how about I not join you and we just say I did? ;) That'll work for me anyway. I can't commit to anything more reading-wise. I've already committed to one thing, finishing (or nixing) the unread e-books on my e-reader, and that's enough. :)
ReplyDeleteYou are just amazing! You've got all these challenges going, and cooking from scratch, and blogging and tweeting and reading AND you have a little kid that keeps you running! Maybe you could do a post on "Where I Get The Energy!" LOL
ReplyDeleteI agree with rhapsodyinbooks, Where do you get your engery? That list would have taken me 5 months to prepare too.
ReplyDeleteYay, good list!
ReplyDeleteI'd reread East of Eden with you - I loved that book when I read it, and I've been meaning to reread. I'd also read Dracula. Its on the kindle and I can't seem to get into it. Maybe someone else reading it will help.
I'm reading Mansfield Park right now and really enjoying it too. :)
I like your list. I think you'll find lots there that you'll love. The only suggestion I have is that you take a look at D.H. Lawrence's other books before committing to Lady Chatterly.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh, so many good books :). I'm doing a readalong of The Grapes of Wrath in October, so if you want to join us (or possibly just me... hopefully not...) then please do!
ReplyDeleteEast of Eden and Of Mice and Men are two of my favorite books. Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteAwesome list!! I have The French Lieutenant's Woman, Leaves of Grass ♥ (and several others!) on my list too. I'm really happy you're joining us, Trish! :-D x
ReplyDeleteI know I have some of those on my list - I'll have to check where we match up so we can read some together. So much easier to push through the books when you've got someone to keep up with.
ReplyDeleteI will join you for Slaughterhouse Five and Jane Eyre.
ReplyDeleteI will send you my copy of Franny & Zooey. :)
I loved East of Eden. I've read 12 of the ones on your list. I'm not about to join you though!
ReplyDeleteLofty goals Trish. Some good picks. I'm willing to lay money down that you are going to hate Dracula and Slaughterhouse Five. Especially Dracula. I've read it once, but I attempted to read it twice before that. It's just not good. I even bought Cliff's Notes to read it like I was in college. So embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteBoth Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer are still amazing, though. Twain is always good. I hope to one day read his Life on the Mississippi.
Oh wait, just noticed this. You never read the Hobbit? It's awesome. I really didn't like the Lord of the Rings books but The Hobbit is awesome.
ReplyDeleteAnd Three Musketeers? That's a great adventure story. Good reading ahead for you. I'm not even sure what I'd put on my 50 list. Some would be re-reads from high school/college that I don't really remember. I'll think on that.
Woo hoo! I'm so glad you joined in the fun, I was hoping you would. Maybe you and I could host a readalong of Vanity Fair or something. (p.s. this is Melissa, Avid Reader)
ReplyDeleteGreat list! I was thinking about scheduling a readalong...maybe for A Room of One's Own? We don't have that many books in common on our lists! (Mine's here)
ReplyDeleteYou have such a good list of a variety of classics to read,that you make it tempting all over again for me to join! I had even got the button on my blog, but have realized that unless I really intend it, I'm never going to read 50 classics in 5 years. I love the idea though, and I am still considering it.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Dracula, and I just read North and South and really enjoyed it. The Bell Jar was amazing to me when I was a teenager and read it, it was the first book i read that included depression, and wanting to write. Persuasion is one of my favourite books of all time. You have some wonderful classics ahead of you! Enjoy the challenge, Trish!
*Thank you all for your awesome comments!!! It's been a busy few days with little computer time so you'll have to forgive me for not responding to each of you individually.
ReplyDeleteBut the list of potential readalongs:
Clockwork Orange
East of Eden
Grapes of Wrath
Slaughterhouse Five
Jane Eyre
Vanity Fair
A Room of One's Own
My...you guys will be keeping me busy, huh?! ;)
Wonderful list! I am also taking part in The Classics Club and we have so many of the same books :-)
ReplyDeleteI would consider a read-along. I did some last year with Amanda and I actually read classics. We haven't this year and I am all ready ignoring them! I am very impressed that I have actually read some of the books on your list.
ReplyDeleteReadalong for the Grapes of Wrath, I would definitely be up for that! Also possibly North and South as I've tried to read it a couple of time and am having difficulty not getting distracted :-) Great list, welcome to the club!
ReplyDeleteIt almost looks like you copied my list! We have quite a few in common and I've got your Bleak House readalong covered! So glad you joined :)
ReplyDeleteI really love the idea of the Classics Club: it has brought together a lot of familiar faces and new ones too :) I'm so motivated to read more classics since I joined! Hmm, I'd like to add The Romance of the Forest to our read-along list? :S
ReplyDeleteWe have quite a bit of overlap. I would love a readalong of The Three Musketeers, The Hobbit, or Dracula. If you read East of Eden I would probably join in if it were in 2013. Probably my all-time favorite book and I would love to read it again.
ReplyDelete