Mission

Bibliophiliac is the space where one passionate, voracious reader reflects on books and the reading life. You will find reviews, analysis, links, and reflections on poetry and prose both in and out of the mainstream.

A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. Franz Kafka

Thursday, November 8, 2012

The Classics Club: I'm In!

The Classics Club


I am so excited about The Classics Club. What a tremendous idea! And you have to check out the new site for the club: http://theclassicsclubblog.wordpress.com. The site is beautifully done, and I can't imagine how much work went into it. The moderators for the site are:
Allie from A Literary Odyssey
Adam from Roof Beam Reader
Melissa from An Avid Reader's Musings
Sarah from Sarah Reads Too Much
Heather from Between the Covers

Here are the basics about The Classics Club:
+choose 50 or more classics
+list them on your blog
+choose a reading completion goal date of up to five years in the future and note that date on your classics list of 50+ titles
+email the moderators (theclassicsclubblog@gmail.com) with your list link and info
+write about each title as you finish it and link it back to your main list
+when you've written about every single title, let the moderators know

So, my completion day will be November 10, 2017. Here is my list:


1. Joseph and His Brothers byThomas Mann.
2. Dr.Faustus by Thomas Mann.
3. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann.
4. Death in Venice and Seven Other Stories by Thomas Mann.  Completed.
5. Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Completed.
6. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Completed.
7. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens.
8. Bleak House by Charles Dickens.
9. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens.
10. Adam Bede by George Eliot.
11. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot.
12. Middlemarch by George Eliot.  Completed.
13. Silas Marner by George Eliot.
14. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.
15. Diana of the Crossways by George Meredith.
16. Stoner by John Williams.
17. Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner.
18. Go Down Moses by William Faulkner.
19. Light in August by William Faulkner.
20. Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.
21. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
22. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. Completed.
23. The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy.  Completed.
24. Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy. Completed.
25. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
26. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
27. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust. Completed.
28. Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust.
29. The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust.
30. An Authobiography by Anthony Trollope.
31. He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope.
32. Is He Popenjoy? by Athony Trollope.
33. Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope.
34. The Good Earth by Pearl Buck.
35. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Completed. Reread 2017.
36. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin. Completed.
37. Another Country by James Baldwin. Completed.
38. The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos.
39. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
40. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
41. The Ladies Paradise by Emile Zola. Completed.
42. The Monk by Matthew Lewis.
43. America and Americans by John Steinbeck.
44. East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Completed. 8/14
45. Paradise by Toni Morrison.
46. The Street by Ann Petry.
47. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Completed.
48. Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov.
49. The Red and the Black by Stendhal.
50. The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal.
51. Cousin Bette by Honore Balzac.
52. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.
53. The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf.
54. Richard II by William Shakespeare.
55. Richard III by William Shakespeare.
56. Henry IV Part I by William Shakespeare.
57. Kafka on the Beach by Haruki Murakami.
58. Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.
59. Three Lives by Gertrude Stein.
60. A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement by Anthony Powell
61. Mother's Milk by Edward St. Aubyn.
62. Mama Day by Gloria Naylor.
63. Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor.
64. Corregidora by Gayle Jones.
65. A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes.
66. The Known World by Edward P. Jones. Completed.
67. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko.
68. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene.
69. Silences by Tillie Olsen.
70. Dreamtigers by Jorge Borges.
71. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Completed-twice.
72. Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor.
73. Stories and Occasional Prose by Flannery O'Connor.
74. The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima.
75. Acts of Worship by Yukio Mishima.
76. The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West.
77. A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov.
78. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol.
79. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
80. Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
81. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry.
82. The Complete Short Novels of Anton Chekhov translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky.
83. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.
84. Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall.
85. A Death in the Family by James Agee.

Which of these classics have you read? What did I forget to put on my list that you think I just have to read?


17 comments:

Bybee said...

If you don't read anything else, read Middlemarch!

Jennifer said...

Whew, that is a long list!! and you're really committing yourself to some authors - I hope you like Dickens and Eliot! The two Garcia Marquez novels are fantastic; I really hope you like them!! I only put 50 novels on my list because apparently I'm not as ambitious as you. :]

Whitney said...

I almost put Cousin Bette on my list, but I already own Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac so felt compelled to put that down instead. Anyway, you've got a great list, I hope you enjoy reading all your classic novels.

bibliophiliac said...

@Bybee--don't worry, I've already read Middlemarch three times! It is my favorite novel, and I knew I would have to read it at least once in the next five years. My list has several classics I've already read, because I'm one of those people who loves to reread favorite books.

bibliophiliac said...

@Jennifer-I know, I was a little worried myself....Suppose I get tired of Dickens, or Thomas Mann? It's a bit of a risk. But I like going deep with an author, and when I like a writer, I usually end up working my way through his or her entire list....

bibliophiliac said...

@Whitney-Cousin Bette is in my library (most of the books on my list are). I'm trying to read my way through my own library and hold off on buying too many new books. Good luck with your list!

Lisa said...

Wow, that's some list, and so many I haven't heard of. I may be adding books to my list following everyone's reading as fast as I'm getting things read.

bibliophiliac said...

@Lisa=I know, I get list envy when I look at other people's lists for the Classic Club. I'm almost afraid to look, because I know I will want to add more books. I like your idea of adding books as you cross books off....If I read 17 classics a year I will finish my list in five years. I think I can....Some books on my list are rereads, too, so at least I already know I like those books...

The Relentless Reader said...

Yay! I'm glad to hear you've joined The Classics Club :) I hope you have a great time reading through your list!

stujallen said...

some great choices ,all the best stu

Kristen said...

Holy moley! That's a big list. I don't know that I'd want to commit to 50 or more but I do want to read a few more classics than I have been in current years. Now how to go about encouraging myself?!

Unknown said...

What an interesting list you've created! So glad you joined the club! -Melissa

bibliophiliac said...

@Jennifer-thanks! I'm really looking forward to keeping up with my list.
@stu-thanks stu!
@Kristen-well, 50 over the course of 5 years is only 10 classics a year....I'm going for 17 a year, which is not that many if I read an average of a book a week (a conservative number)...The Classics Club is how I'll try to keep motivated. Knowing I have a plan, and planning to post on each book, tends to keep me going....

bibliophiliac said...

@Arie-Stotle (Melissa)-I'm so looking forward to starting on my list!

Ryan said...

I've read a bunch of these and not a one of them was a disappointment. Good list!

Anonymous said...

Great classics list ! I've read 13 of your books.
Most memoable was Tale of Two Cities
Books I would suggest....Dracula by Bram Stoker and Germinal by E. Zola.... if you haven't read them.

bibliophiliac said...

@ipsofactodotme-As a matter of fact, I just bought Zola's Germinal since I liked The Ladies' Paradise so much. Read Dracula long ago, but wouldn't mind doing a reread. For some reason, A Tale of Two Cities is one I've always meant to read yet never have.