Friday, November 18, 2016

In Which I Complete My Classics Club Quest, and Begin Another

I joined the Classics Club in January of 2014, having seen so many bloggers enjoy participating in it and deciding I should just go ahead and try it.  Slightly less than three years later, I have completed my fiftieth book, which most fittingly was my favorite book of all time, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.  

Because I feel like celebrating, I'm sharing my completed list here :-)

  1. Anne of Avonlea* by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 2-26-16)
  2. Anne of Green Gables* by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 1-23-16)
  3. Anne of Ingleside* by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 7-2-16)
  4. Anne of the Island* by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 3-17-16)
  5. Anne of Windy Poplars* by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 4-28-16)
  6. Anne's House of Dreams* by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 6-2-16)
  7. Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace (Finished 10-1-14)
  8. The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer (Finished 4-6-16)
  9. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 9-10-15)
  10. The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes* by A. Conan Doyle (Finished 2-7-14)
  11. Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster (Finished 11-25-14)
  12. Dear Enemy by Jean Webster (Finished 9-3-15)
  13. Flappers and Philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Finished 3-6-14)
  14. The Further Adventures of Zorro by Johnston McCulley (Finished 3-2-16)
  15. Greenwillow by B. J. Chute (Finished 7-24-16)
  16. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark* by William Shakespeare (Finished 12-22-15)
  17. The High Window* by Raymond Chandler (Finished 4-20-16)
  18. His Last Bow* by A. Conan Doyle (Finished 1-10-14)
  19. The Hobbit* by J.R.R. Tolkien (Finished 2-10-14) 
  20. The Hound of the Baskervilles* by A. Conan Doyle (Finished 11-18-14)
  21. Jane Eyre* by Charlotte Bronte (Finished 11-12-16)
  22. A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich (Finished 6-13-16)
  23. Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart (Finished 12-06-15)
  24. Letters on an Elk Hunt by Elinore Pruitt Stewart (Finished 11-3-16)
  25. The Light in the Forest* by Conrad Richter (Finished 9-30-16)
  26. The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey (Finished 2-5-15)
  27. Little Women* by Louisa May Alcott (Finished 6-9-15)
  28. The Lord of the Rings* by J.R.R. Tolkien (Finished 7-1-14)
  29. The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley (Finished 5-27-14)
  30. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle (Finished 8-12-15)
  31. Middlemarch by George Eliot (Finished 7-3-15)
  32. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (Finished 5-18-15)
  33. And Now Tomorrow by Rachel Field (Finished 5-16-16)
  34. Of Mice and Men* by John Steinbeck (Finished 8-21-15)
  35. The Old Man and the Sea* by Ernest Hemingway (Finished 7-21-14)
  36. The Outsiders* by S. E. Hinton (Finished 9-21-16)
  37. Persuasion* by Jane Austen (Finished 2-27-15)
  38. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (Finished 3-9-14)
  39. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes by Vincent Starrett (Finished 6-26-14)
  40. The Quiet Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott (Finished 12-11-15)
  41. Rainbow Valley* by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 8-19-16)
  42. Rilla of Ingleside* by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 10-1-16)
  43. Shane* by Jack Schaefer (Finished 2-16-15)
  44. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (Finished 10-16-15)
  45. Spiderweb for Two* by Elizabeth Enright (Finished 12-15-14)
  46. The Sun Also Rises* by Ernest Hemingway (Finished 4-30-14)
  47. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (Finished 3-30-14)
  48. Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Finished 3-23-14)
  49. Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck (Finished 7-15-14)
  50. The Witch of Blackbird Pond* by Elizabeth George Speare (Finished 8-28-16)
And because this really was a good incentive for me to read more of the classics I've always intended to read, I am reenlisting, as it were, and starting over.  So here is what I currently have on my "new" Classics Club list, to read before December of 2021:
  1. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
  2. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
  3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  4. The Blythes are Quoted by Lucy Maud Montgomery
  5. By-Line:  Ernest Hemingway
  6. Camille by Alexandre Dumas fils
  7. Chronicles of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery
  8. Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
  9. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
  10. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  11. Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather
  12. The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper
  13. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
  14. The Door into Summer by Robert Heinlein
  15. Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds
  16. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
  17. Evelina by Frances Burney
  18. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
  19. Further Chronicles of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery
  20. Good-bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton
  21. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  22. The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
  23. House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
  24. Howard's End by E.M. Forster
  25. Ivanhoe* by Sir Walter Scott
  26. The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott
  27. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
  28. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
  29. Lost Horizon by James Hilton
  30. A Man Called Peter by Catherine Marshall
  31. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
  32. The Merchant of Venice* by William Shakespeare
  33. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
  34. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
  35. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
  36. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
  37. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
  38. The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
  39. The Once and Future King by T. H. White
  40. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
  41. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
  42. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emma Orczy
  43. The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
  44. Silas Marner* by George Eliot
  45. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre
  46. Tales of India by Rudyard Kipling
  47. A Tale of Two Cities* by Charles Dickens
  48. The Taming of the Shrew* by William Shakespeare
  49. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
  50. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  51. Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
  52. To Kill a Mockingbird* by Harper Lee
  53. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
  54. Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  55. Under the Deodars by Rudyard Kipling
  56. Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
  57. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Basically, my original list had grown to 107 books by the time I read my 50th book, so those extra books I hadn't gotten to are my "new" list.

My thanks to the creators and sustainers of the club!  I've met some cool bloggers through it, and it's always fun to go read other people's thoughts on a book after I've finished it, which is so easy thanks to their list of clubbers' reviews.

20 comments:

  1. Yay, Hamlette! Good for you!

    I was checking out your new list, and you have some of my favorites from my WEM novel list (Crime and Punishment, Age of Innocence, Anna Karenina, Far From the Madding Crowd, Moby Dick, A Tale of Two Cities, Howards End). And you have plenty more that are on my new CC list. : )

    I will say that I struggled with Last of the Mohicans. It was not like the movie, and the movie was a lot better, in my opinion. I never finished it. I finished Grapes of Wrath, but I hated it. Ugh!

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    1. Oh, not all of those novels I listed are on my WEM. I added others.

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    2. Ruth I haven't seen the movie version of The Last of the Mohicans, which is kind of a crime, I know. Especially since it was filmed in NC in places I've visited. I've always wanted to read the book first, though.

      I am not looking forward to The Grapes of Wrath because I don't like what I've read of Steinbeck, which admittedly is just two books, but yeah. He leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

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    3. Hamlette, I just read your reply to my comments on Jillian's blog. So, I hear you: you are not reading the books at this time. Since you haven't seen Last of the Mohicans, yet, whatever you do about the book, don't miss the movie. And you know what I'm saying about Steinbeck; we've talked about him before. But even still, I want to read his works. All of them. So if someone says they hated a Steinbeck, I know what they mean; but I'm still curious.

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    4. Ruth, I think there are some books we just want to hate for ourselves, not simply based on what we've heard of them. Just like if someone says they loved a book, we want to see if we'll love it too. That's how it is for me at times, anyway.

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  2. Congratulations on finishing your first list and starting your second. That is impressive. You have some good choices there. I am finally moving along again on my list but I think I need some of your dedication!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jennifer! It helps that, during those 3 years, I read the entire Sherlock Holmes canon and all the Anne books. If re-reads didn't count, I'd be sunk, cuz at last half of my list ended up being rereads!

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  3. Yes, very impressive! I also very much want to red Moll Flanders. :)

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    1. Thanks, Jillian! So many books on this list are things I've heard of a lot but don't really even know what they're about, which is sad and must be rectified.

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  4. WoW! Congratulations, Hamlette! You had some charming titles on your first list. Happy reading for the new one!:D

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    1. Thanks, Risa! It's been a great incentive to seek out new books, but also re-enjoy some favorites :-)

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  5. Yay! That's quite an accomplishment! Good luck on the next list D

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  6. How wonderful! Congratulations. I am sure you have come away with a lot. I enjoy classics myself and have been working on my first list to officially join the Classics Club. I very much look forward to seeing how you come along with your new list.

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    1. Thanks, Toady! I like how the CC has encouraged me to think, "Oh, maybe I'll read *this* book cuz it will count for my CC list" and try something I might otherwise pass over. Good luck with your own list!

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  7. Woohoo, congrats! Your new list also looks really interesting. I can recommend quite some of those, especially Far from the Madding Crowd and The tenant of Wildfell Hall. Others I'm very curious about myself, such as Evelina or The Scarlett Pimpernell.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Birdie! Far from the Madding Crowd is totally on this list because of the watch-along I did with you :-)

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