Classics Club Book List and Sign Up Post
The Classics Club is for readers with a common goal to read 50 (or more) classics in 5 years. The Club is a site where members can share and discuss the classics they’ve read, participate in readathons, memes and group reads. The club offers a little something for everyone and lots of opportunities to share great reads and support other book bloggers in their classics challenge.
To join, I’ve got to list the 50 books I intend to read between February 28, 2013 and February 27, 2018. I’ve broken down my list by genre just so I make sure to balance out the types of books I read. I also wanted to incorporate classics from ancient Greece through modern times.
Children’s/Young Adult Classics
1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
3. The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
4. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
5. Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Adventure Classics
6. Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
7. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
8. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
9. Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
10. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Historical Fiction Classics
11. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
12. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
13. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
14. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
15. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Mystery/Horror Classics
16. Dracula by Bram Stoker
17. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
18. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
10. Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
20. Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
21. The Mysterious Affairs at Styles by Agatha Christie
22. The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
23. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
24. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
Nonfiction Classics
25. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Romance Classics
26. Emma by Jane Austen
27. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
28. Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
29. An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
30. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Dystopia
31. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
32. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
33. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
34. Utopia by Thomas More
35. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
Wizards and Witchcraft Classics
36. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
37. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
38. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
39. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
40. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
41. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
42. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
43. King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table by Thomas Malory
44.The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
World Classics
45. Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and one Nights by Anonymous, Richard Francis Burton
46. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
47. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
48. The Inferno by Dante Aligheri
49. The Iliad by Homer
50. Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
As I complete the books I will link them up to this page so stay tuned.
What do you think of my list? Which classics have you read that you recommend? Any that you disliked or couldn’t finish? Let me know your thoughts, I’d love to hear them. Hope you share in this journey with me!
I decided to join Classics Club this year. I’m shooting for 60 by the end of 2019, so 1 a month. It will be a challenge since I usually avoid classics but I feel like I’m missing out on so many wonderful books! Plus some will be long overdue rereads. I’m hoping to get my list online today.
Oh good for you. I feel like I owe them another try now that I actually enjoy reading. I get to knock the Harry Potter series off my list!
Your #30 is one of me favorite novels EVER. I also adore Little Women. One day, if you haven’t read them yet, I highly recommend Gone With the Wind, Anne of Green Gables, and Tarzan of the Apes (the last being another excellent adventure classics.) 🙂
Well glad to hear the glowing recommendation for Sense and Sensibility. How did you like Pride & Prejuidice or Persuasion? I am excited to read Little Women next month for my monthly keyword challenge selection using the keyword “little”. Thanks for the recommendations Mabel, you have me excited to tackle my classics list.
Such a great list!! I love the “Wizards and Witchcraft” section. 😉
I love your category choices!
Thanks Arie Stotle for adding me to your cool club!
Thank you for explaining the classics club. I’ve seen it around but I wasn’t sure how it worked. Your list is great!
Thanks Jennifer. It’s a fun challenge to complete, and I like that it gives me 5 years to finish it, makes it more manageable!
Tania, this reading list is awesome – I’ve read 23 of them! I agree with people’s comments about Pillars of the Earth – such a fantastic book, so don’t be put off by the size of it. Alice in Wonderland is very trippy, I think it was successful in that it was the first book (and possibly the only!) written in that style. The trippy part is really the conversational style, which is all discussions of semantics. No one really speaks that way except philosophers! But the characters and settings are awesome! So many stories within stories. The Disney movie is definitely preferable, because it captures the essence of the story and adds in some wonderful songs!
If you are going to read the Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, read the whole seven books in the Narnia Chronicles. They are all brilliant! Little Women and The Secret Garden are gorgeous, heartwarming reads. The Grapes of Wrath had a huge impact on me. Made me realise what poverty really was.
Good luck with all your choices! While some of those books are huge, some are really short like Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Great Gatsby. I’ve been trying to read through the classics for about three years now. 🙂
Thanks Wendy, that’s funny you described Alice as trippy, I found parts of the Disney movie trippy as well. I have been wanting to read The Chronicles of Narnia since I was a kid and never got around to it. You’ve got me more excited to read these classics. I love hearing reader’s thoughts and recommendations. What are your favorite classics? Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me and stopping by!
I’m so glad you decided to sign up!!!! I think The Classics Club is fabulous. I didn’t divide mine into categories, but what a great idea! Making sure that you are well-rounded with your classics!
Thanks Rebecca!
In YA– I’d pick “Little Women” hands down. We read “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” for my book club a few years back and we all HATED it. It was all trippy and weird–and not in a good way. I have no idea how it became a classic.
In Historical Fiction– “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” is outstanding. There is one line in there I think about just about once a week. LOVE that book.
Mystery/Horror– We read “Frankenstein” in my book club about 10 years ago. It was nothing like I imagined. It’s not like any Frankenstein movie. It’s deep and meaningful. I really liked it!
–Lisa
That is disappointing to hear about Alice in Wonderland…bummer. Looking forward to the other two now even more that Tree Grows in Brooklyn taught an important enough lesson you remember each week and that monsters are often misunderstood and can be deep and meaningful too 🙂 Thanks for sounding off on your faves Lisa!
I love Alice in Wonderland!! It made me laugh the whole time. 🙂
Oh good Mabel, glad you loved Alice, seems like there are mixed reviews on that selection. But at least it stirs up good conversation.
Great list! We share many favorites! 🙂
Thanks Crystal for stopping by.
Great list, Tanya! I see several on your list in common with mine. I’m glad to see Interview with the Vampire on your list. Although it’s not my most favorite Anne Rice (that would be Queen of the Damned), it is an excellent read. And Pillars of the Earth..woot woot! Such a wonderful book!
Welcome to the Classics Club!
Thanks Michelle, Your top ten list of must buy authors convinced me to add Pillars of the Earth, a friend wanted to read it but the length of it was intimidating. It may take me 5 years to get through Pillars of the Earth alone! I remember Queen of the Damned was your favorite Anne Rice but thought I would start with the first book in the series to get there.
Thanks for the welcome and now I have my Anne Rice book for your Spring into Horror readathon in April! Yay! Happy reading!
I loved Pillars of the Earth, Rebecca, and Frankenstein! Some of these we have in common so we’ll have to compare notes later!
That’d be great Allison. I admit I stalked yours, Rebecca’s and Michelle from the True Book Addict’s lists to help me devise mine. I look forward to getting started on some classics. Will you and Rebecca pick any of your classics for your book club? I started In the Woods last night and the mystery begins….
That’s okay! Most of mine are from stalking other members’ lists, as well! We pick our book club picks based on a follower vote, so who knows?
Of course, as soon as I create my list I then realize what all I forgot. Hopefully, these lists are flexible because I’d like to add Princess Bride back to my children/YA Section 🙂
I didn’t vote last time b/c I wasn’t sure I’d participate but next month I will! 🙂 Talk to you soon, I gotta finish chapter 6 so I can join the discussion.
Thanks for checking out my Classics Club list and for the follow on my blog 🙂 We do have quite a few books in common! I read Dracula last year and was so disappointed by it — I’m hoping to have better luck with my other classics choices. I have a gorgeous leatherbound copy of Arabian Nights, but it’s just SO big I was afraid to put in on my list. If I get brave, maybe I’ll tackle it anyway. Good to have a mix of easier & harder reads if you ask me!
Sure thing Christine. I’m sorry you were disappointed by Dracula. Well I guess between Arabian Nights and Pillars of the Earth, they may be the only 2 books I get done in 5 years! Just kidding…I hope. Isn’t Arabian Nights a series of shorter stories? Hopefully that will make it more manageable to pick it up and put down between stories.