Photo by Kristin Nador from WANA Commons on Flickr
Last week on Tami Clayton’s blog, she announced that she joined The Classics Club on The Great Book Challenge. The challenge is to pick 50 or more classic books to read and report on over a maximum of 5 years.
Being the reformed accountant that I am, I quickly did the math:
Okay, that’s 50 books over 5 years ~ 52 weeks per year..
..that’s, um, carry the one.. 260 weeks total..
….50 titles divided by 260 weeks, that’s…
0.1923076923
What was I talking about?
Ahh, yes, less than one book a week. That is the point.
“I shall do it!” she said, with her Nook fired up and her reading glasses hanging on to the end of her nose.
The truth is that I already started on my journey of reading the classics about a year ago, I think, but it has been slow going. Participating in a club just might push me to get it done.
Plus, I hear they have killer snacks and a snazzy clubhouse in a tall southern mossy oak tree.
That may or may not be true.
In any case, for those who want to join me, here are the basic rules:
- - 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
- - e-mail the moderators of this blog (theclassicsclubblog@gmail.com) with your list link and information and it will be posted on the Members Page!
- - write about each title on your list as you finish reading it, and link it to your main list
- - when you’ve written about every single title, let us know!
Now for my 50 books:
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
The Shining by Stephen King
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
Carrie by Stephen King
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
The Legend of Sleepy Hallow by Washington Irving
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
Through the Looking Glass by Louis Carroll
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Utopia by Thomas More
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Phantastes by George Macdonald
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Whew!
If any of you decide to join in, come back and let me know in the comments ~ I would love to follow your reviews.
What do you all think of the classics? Do you belong to any clubs? Do you find challenges motivating or intimidating?
Yay! So excited you decided to sign up! Looks like we have some books in common on our lists. I’m looking forward to reading your write ups on each of these and to see if we had similar or vastly different reactions and opinions to them. Yeah, the math of it all kinda freaked me out at first, but I’m not going to let myself focus on that too much. (Also, that’s why I threw in a couple of middle grade readers and short story collections so I could get caught up if I fall too far behind.)
Happy reading and thanks so much for the mention!
Oh my gosh, it took me so long to pick those 50 books. I had your list, Rory’s list, an Amazon list, a Barnes & Noble list, and the classic club’s list up all at the same time trying to pick. Plus, I went searching through my kindle downloads on my phone, my Nook and any physical books that I already had. It was kind of funny because I kept counting the list ~ am I at 50 yet??
I’m looking forward to getting to know the different author’s voices. Icons!
That was so smart of you to toss those in there to catch up if you fall behind…
I can’t wait to read your write ups too ~ it should be fun
Oh, and you’re welcome ~ of course
Sounds like a great way to challenge yourself. Posting your goal up on the blog for all to see adds more weight for you to follow through. Makes you accountable. I might try it.
Accountability just may be the only way I will get it done
Cool ~ hope you join!
Welcome to the club! I love Jane Eyre and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I hope you enjoy reading them!
Thank you for the welcome! I’m starting with Treasure Island and am excited to read the 2 you mentioned
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