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The Classics Club was created to inspire people to read and blog about classic books (their words). In high school, I relied on SparkNotes to help me ace my tests and never read any of the required classics until Frankenstein, or the last assignment.
I learned about The Classics Club from This Tangled Skein and, as someone wanting to work classics into my reading, see it as a great challenge for myself. Having a community and as long as five years to complete my list makes this a practical challenge for myself, so Iâm giving it a shot.
My list of 50 classics to read by January 7, 2024
Links to my reviews will be added as applicable.
- âAffinityâ by Sarah Waters
- âAnnie on My Mindâ by Nancy Garden (1/20/20)
- âAnimal Farmâ by George Orwell
- âAnna Kareninaâ by Leo Tolstoy
- âThe Art of Warâ by Sun Tzu
- âThe Bell Jarâ by Sylvia Plath
- âBlack Beautyâ by Anna Sewell
- âBrave New Worldâ by Aldous Huxley
- âCatch-22â by Joseph Heller
- âCold Sassy Treeâ by Olive Ann Burns
- âThe Color Purpleâ by Alice Walker
- âCrime and Punishmentâ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- âDraculaâ by Bram Stoker
- âEmmaâ by Jane Austen
- âFahrenheit 451â by Ray Bradbury
- âA Farewell to Armsâ by Ernest Hemingway
- âFrankensteinâ by Mary Shelley (reread)
- âGiovanniâs Roomâ by James Baldwin
- âThe Great Gatsbyâ by F. Scott Fitzgerald (reread, sort of)
- âGone with the Windâ by Margaret Mitchell
- âThe Handmaidâs Taleâ by Margaret Atwood
- âThe Helpâ by Kathryn Stockett
- âIf on a Winterâs Night a Travelerâ by Italo Calvino
- âInfernoâ by Dante Alighieri
- âJane Eyreâ by Charlotte BrontĂ«
- âLes MisĂ©rablesâ by Victor Hugo
- âLolitaâ by Vladimir Nabokov
- âLord of the Fliesâ by William Golding
- âMoby-Dickâ by Herman Melville
- âMrs. Dallowayâ by Virginia Woolf
- âOf Mice and Menâ by John Steinbeck (reread, sort of)
- âThe Picture of Dorian Greyâ by Oscar Wilde
- âThe Portrait of a Ladyâ by Henry James
- “The Price of Salt” (or “Carol”) by Patricia Highsmith
- âRubyfruit Jungleâ by Rita Mae Brown
- âThe Scarlet Letterâ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- âSiddharthaâ by Hermann Hesse
- âSlaughterhouse-Fiveâ by Kurt Vonnegut
- âThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydeâ by Robert Louis Stevenson
- âTheir Eyes Were Watching Godâ by Zora Neale Hurston
- âThe Time Machineâ by H.G. Wells
- âTo Kill a Mockingbirdâ by Harper Lee
- âA Tree Grows in Brooklynâ by Betty Smith
- âTwelfth Nightâ by William Shakespeare
- âThe Woman in Whiteâ by Wilkie Collins
- âUlyssesâ by James Joyce
- âVanity Fairâ by William Makepeace Thackeray
- âWe Have Always Lived in the Castleâ by Shirley Jackson
- âA Wrinkle in Timeâ by Madeleine LâEngle
- âWuthering Heightsâ by Emily BrontĂ«
My criterion for creating the list
- Diversity: Variety is important, whether expressed via genres, page counts, themes, author demographics, etc.
- No repeat authors: Because of the wide array of classics out there, I opted out of repeating authors so I cansample various classic authors without having to commit to them.
- Woman writers: 21/50 books on this list were written by women. I tried to find books that interested me and that I generally wanted to read for pop culture reasons, and titles written by women that I figured I could read off the list would suffice in favor of adding a book that I need a little more motivation to read to the list instead. Otherwise, half the list would be books written by women.
I used the list provided by The Classics Club, books commonly shelved #theclassicsclub on Goodreads, and Book Riotâs âZero to Well-Read in 100 Booksâ list for assistance in creating my own.
In my review posts, I’ll be including why I selected a particular book if it’s one I selected for more than sampling reasons.
Banned and/or challenged books
From my list, a handful of books are banned/challenged:
- Animal Farm
- Brave New World
- Catch-22
- The Color Purple
- A Farewell to Arms
- Frankenstein
- The Great Gatsby
- Gone with the Wind
- The Handmaidâs Tale
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Lolita
- Lord of the Flies
- Of Mice and Men
- Slaughterhouse-Five
- Ulysses
Reading banned/challenged books has been a dream of mine for awhile, so Iâm excited about this!
Milestones & rewards for myself
I initially had non-monetary/non-food rewards here for myself, but as I’ve practiced self-care and made a habit of it, those rewards have been redundant. I do them already, when I have the spoons.
Thus, instead of setting up milestones/rewards, I’ll consider the reward to be reading the books and completing however much of this list I complete.
Sharing my progress
Iâll be sharing my progress as I review the books! I selected many of them with deeper reasons that I think might interest certain people, i.e. those who like my book reviews already, but even more so when I get a little personal in them. Iâll a roundup of books I finish in monthly updates. I’ll also be tagging posts accordingly.
Fifty books comes out to, roughly, one book per month. As there are 60 total in five years, I should have 10 months leeway. I tend not to take one month to read a book, however, unless my mood causes me to jump around to different books.
Good on you! I’m ashamed to say I’ve only read 6 of the ones you list. Some of the authors I’m familiar with for other works, which is maybe worth a minor something? Hehe. If I manage to actually finish one book this year I will feel like I’ve achieved something. There are many reasons why I find it so difficult to read an entire book these days, whereas in the past I reguarly got through at least 200 books a year. I miss those days.
I used to find it difficult to read books, but don’t so much anymore. I’ve never read 200 books in a year, though!
I recognize several names because pop culture—one of the reasons I’m doing this book club—or because they were assigned reading in school. I never actually read them, though, in full, because I was so over assigned reading since it removed all the fun of reading. đ
This sounds like so much fun! I’ve been wanting to pick up a few more classics this year, so I’ll do this challenge with you and buddy read the books on your list! I’ve only read five of them, one of which I plan to re-read this year (The Handmaid’s Tale) because the sequel is coming out in September and also because I could never write a proper review for it which I want to do. I’ll re-read the five that I’ve read with you since I haven’t written reviews for any of them, and it’s been quite a few years since I have. Let me know which ones you pick up!
I also joined a Banned Books club on Goodreads that has a very active twitter chat. The chat is a little overwhelming for me to keep up with, but I figure it’ll be fun!
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/588030-banned-book-club
Awesome! I don’t know which book I’ll be starting with yet…probably Frankenstein, considering I have it handy? I spent a bit of money this month because groceries and lifing material. đ But I also don’t know when I’ll be starting it because ugh…this new year is starting off long and busy.
Ooooo good luck on all of these! I haven’t read many of them, but I LOVED To Kill a Mockingbird for the issues portrayed in the novel and hope you’ll enjoy it as well! The only time I used SparkNotes was for The Great Gatsby, but only because we got asked detailed questions in quizzes.
Lots of good stuff on your list and lots I haven’t read too! I love Vanity Fair and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and strongly recommend you dump Moby Dick and Lolita… đ Have fun and welcome to the club! đ
Thank you! đ Those two are definitely on the list due to specific reasons that I’ll reveal once I review them on my blog.
This is a great idea! How funny that you used Spark Notes in high school but now you want to read those classics after all. đ
đ I think required reading in school doesn’t work as well as the education boards think they do, although my issue was less the reading and more that I either didn’t have time for it (because my mom and stepfather always had me watching my half-siblings so they could go out) or I didn’t like how the majority of the books hadn’t any female main characters, and the female characters were almost always the villains because they didn’t like the male protagonists. I couldn’t relate to much of the books, either, save for The Diary of Anne Frank, because I was in the small percentage of children living in an abusive, neglected environment—which was not portrayed in more than maybe one or two stories.
I have read a few books from your list: Gone with the Wind, The Handmaidâs Tale, The Help, The color Purple.
Now I see they are all on the banned list LOL what does that say about myself???
I hope that I’m a nonconformist đ
I hope you love them as much as I did đ
We Have Always Lived in the Castle was a DFN for me
I DO want to read all the books on your list with the exception of Lolita! Classic Literature and all, pedophilia is where I draw the line đ
I remember visiting that club’s page and wanting to join but then I decided not too because I’ve already have way too many goals đ
Maybe I’ll try to add one to my TBR every quarter .
Since your list is so awesome I’ll choose from it. Let’s seeeeee…. Which oneeeeeee….
AHA! got it… I think I go with Wuthering Heights! I’ll go and add it to GR right now before I forget đ