Earlier this year, Jillian from A Room of One’s Own created The Classics Club where bloggers could pledge to read a certain amount of classics over the next 5 years. It’s a superb idea and a great way to build community among the bookish interwebs. That being said, I initially hesitated. Not because I don’t love classics – I do, probably my favorite ‘genre’, but rather I was worried about over-extending myself or forcing myself to read from a list (even if it were of my own creation). But I’ve caved in and I’m not ashamed to admit it!
Why now, you ask? Because my fears were recently rendered silly when I realized that in the next four weeks I will be completing 4 books I consider classics – for fun! And this classics reading pace is the norm for me – not the exception. As long as my list does in fact have an end and isn’t overly long, I’ll reach this goal naturally. So, I made my list and had a blast. I mean, who doesn’t love a great list of books? Plus, Jillian and several other amazing bloggers just launched The Classics Club’s own internet home this week! Check it out here.
My list consists of books off the top of my head (mostly!) and off my shelves that I am excited about reading. There are quite a few re-reads, but more than enough new-to-me titles. My list is 75 books long and I am vowing to finish the list by July 31, 2017 – roughly 5 years from now. Fifteen books a year is nothing and leaves me plenty of time to read my Litwits books and other pure pleasure reads. WIN.
Without further ado, please see my lovely list below. The re-reads are in bold!
| The Stranger | Albert Camus |
| The Color Purple | Alice Walker |
| The Tenant of Wildfell Hall | Anne Bronte |
| Revolutionary Road | Richard Yates |
| A Tale of Two Cities | Charles Dickens |
| David Copperfield | Charles Dickens |
| The Professor | Charlotte Bronte |
| Jane Eyre | Charlotte Bronte |
| Moll Flanders | Daniel Defoe |
| Rebecca | Daphne du Maurier |
| The Robber Bridegroom | Eudora Welty |
| Brideshead Revisited | Evelyn Waugh |
| Love in the Time of Cholera | Gabriel Garcia Marquez |
| One Hundred Years of Solitude | Gabriel Garcia Marquez |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
| Norwegian Wood | Haruki Murakami |
| The Ambassadors | Henry James |
| Daisy Miller | Henry James |
| Washington Square | Henry James |
| Call It Sleep | Henry Roth |
| Sense and Sensibility | Jane Austen |
| The French Lieutenant’s Woman | John Fowles |
| The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck |
| East of Eden | John Steinbeck |
| Never Let Me Go | Kazuo Ishiguro |
| Slaughterhouse Five | Kurt Vonnegut |
| Anne of Green Gables | L.M. Montgomery |
| Anna Karenina | Leo Tolstoy |
| Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll |
| The Hours | Michael Cunningham |
| The Picture of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde |
| The Good Earth | Pearl. S. Buck |
| Invisible Man | Ralph Ellison |
| Native Son | Richard Wright |
| I, Claudius | Robert Graves |
| Stranger in a Strange Land | Robert Heinlein |
| All the King’s Men | Robert Penn Warren |
| A Fine Balance | Rohinton Mistry |
| Henderson the Rain King | Saul Bellow |
| King Lear | Shakespeare |
| Twelfth Night | Shakespeare |
| The Tempest | Shakespeare |
| The Haunting of Hill House | Shirley Jackson |
| The Stand | Stephen King |
| American Tragedy | Theodore Dreiser |
| Sister Carrie | Theodore Dreiser |
| Jude the Obsure | Thomas Hardy |
| Tess of the D’Ubervilles | Thomas Hardy |
| Our Town | Thornton Wilder |
| Breakfast at Tiffany’s | Truman Capote |
| Les Miserables | Victor Hugo |
| O Pioneers! | Willa Cather |
| The Sound and the Fury | William Faulkner |
| Neuromancer | William Gibson |
| The Princess Bride | William Goldman |
The Blog of Litwits 
Congratulations on your commitment, Brooke.
I personally can highly recommend the following: A Clockwork Orange, The Grapes of Wrath, Slaughterhouse Five, Stranger in a Strange Land, and The Stand.
Each of them seems to carry some baggage with it that may tend to make people shy away, a reputation of violence, a massive page count, the source for a well-known film, or simply old and dated.
Don’t be deterred.
You’ll find that each of these books brings more than the obvious to the table.
All of them have made a lasting impression on me.
I hope you thoroughly enjoy every one.
I’m extremely excited to read each and every title! I love classic literature by any definition and believe all the time I spend with these books will be priceless!
I put off joining for ages too because like you, I don’t like lists and pressure. But I caved earlier in the week and I’m glad to see you caved too 🙂
You have a great list, I loved Agnes Grey and I Capture The Castle. The Tempest is my favourite Shakespeare play out of those I have read so far. Happy reading!
I’m glad someone else caved as well!! Looking forward to the list, especially I Capture the Castle which I decided to throw on there whether or not most people believe it to be a classic. Definitions be damned!
Like you, I had a great time just making my list. Some of my favorites on your list are Slaughterhouse Five, The Stand, Never Let Me Go, Tess, and The Princess Bride. I agree that reading should just be for fun and sometimes these challenges take a little away from that. But mostly I’m excited to have a good go-to list when I need an idea of what to read next.
The list making was definitely a lot of fun. I could literally spend hours a day making book lists. I’m so glad everyone is excited about reading off their lists and discussing their choices!
Pingback: Weekly Round-up for August 6, 2012. « The Classics Club
That’s a really nice mix of classics you have there! I decided to join in June only when I realised my list didn’t have to be set in stone. I already have a feeling I’m going to be changing at least half my list. After all 5 years is a really long time! 😀
Oh, I’m sure my list will see revisions as well. I’ve already contemplated a few in the past couple of days!
Brilliant list! One of my favourite things about the club is browsing other people’s lists. You have so many of my favourites on here, and I’m now thinking I need to add a re-read of Black Beauty onto my own list!
Thanks! I’m a list geek as well, but it gets me in trouble because I end up just wanting to combine everyone’s list onto mine. I’ve never read Black Beauty so I’m excited to give it a go.
This is a good idea to join this Classics Club and now you got me thinking of it too, if not only for the reason that I missed quite a few during my school years. I need to retrace my tracks. Is there a limited amount you have to read in a year? hmm dont want to be overburdened. Your list is good — some of them you will blow through easy, others more painstakingly. good luck
http://www.thecuecard.com/
You can read them at your own pace as long as you finish by your deadline!
I LOVE all your re-reads!! Especially Rebecca, which I just read for the first time a couple weeks ago. DEFINITELY plan to reread. Also, I spy The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on your list. SO GOOD. I ♥ Anne Bronte. 🙂 And Little Women. And Vanity Fair. And Sense & Sensibility. 🙂
I’m super excited about everything on my list! I can’t believe I’m almost 30 and have never read Little Women or Anne of Green Gables (although I adored both movies/mini-series). And the Rebecca re-read might be my most anticipated. I loved it in high school and haven’t read it since – way overdue!!
(And Anne of Green Gables.)
Hey there! This is my first visit to your blog!
We are a team of volunteers and starting a new project in a community in the same niche.
Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on.
You have done a marvellous job!
Great list. I too love the classics … I’m tempted to join the the club, but not sure I’ll have the time! I will check it out. I’m falling in love with your site by the way. I feel like I’ve just stumbled upon heaven – book heaven that is 😉
Thanks for the high praise! The classics club is great and you can adjust your goal to your own lifestyle/reading style without feeling too overwhelmed!