Here is the newest list of at least 50 classics I vow to read and blog about by July 1st, 2025. It is a fluid list, and will very likely change over the next five years, but it will always have at least 50 books on it. Most of these are novels, but there are a few plays and one or two books of nonfiction. Rereads are marked with an asterisk. As I read and post reviews on my blog, I will link these titles to those posts.I define "classic" as being written before 1970, being well-known (or by a well-known author), and/or being influential on society or other writers.
If you want to see my first two completed lists of 50 books for my first and second go-'rounds with the Classics Club, click here.
- The Abbot's Ghost by Louisa May Alcott (Finished 12-12-21)
- The Adventures of Tom Bombadil by J. R. R. Tolkien (Finished 9-22-21)
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* by Lewis Carroll (Finished 4-21-20)
- The Alpine Path by L. M. Montgomery (Finished 7-31-21)
- Bed-Knob and Broomstick by Mary Norton (Finished 3-20-22)
- The Black Swan by Rafael Sabatini (Finished 7-12-22)
- Christmas at Thompson Hall and Other Christmas Stories by Anthony Trollope (Finished 12-12-21)
- Christmas with Anne by L. M. Montgomery (Finished 12-10-20)
- Christy* by Catherine Marshall (Finished 7-5-21)
- The Count of Monte Cristo* by Alexandre Dumas (Finished 8-8-21)
- Dracula* by Bram Stoker (Finished 10-24-20)
- Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim (Finished 5-2-21)
- Further Chronicles of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery (Finished 2-10-21)
- The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett (Finished 10-14-21)
- A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis (Finished 10-9-20)
- Hamlet by Alexandre Dumas (Finished 10-10-21)
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Finished 6-17-21)
- Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie (Finished 12-23-20)
- A House to Let by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Adelaide Anne Proctor (Finished 12-11-20)
- If Only They Could Talk* by James Herriot (Finished 10-6-20)
- In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway (Finished 9-15-20)
- In the Heat of the Night by John Dudley Ball (Finished 5-25-22)
- Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier (Finished 11-30-20)
- Kidnapped* by Robert Louis Stevenson (Finished 4-24-22)
- Kilmeny of the Orchard by L. M. Montgomery (Finished 5-29-21)
- The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins (Finished 12-11-21)
- Little Town on the Prairie* by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Finished 9-19-21)
- The Long Winter* by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Finished 10-20-20)
- The Maltese Falcon* by Dashiell Hammett (Finished 2-18-22)
- A Man Called Peter by Catherine Marshall (Finished 10-21-20)
- Mary Poppins* by P. L. Travers (Finished 9-19-22)
- The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (Finished 1-13-21)
- My Side of the Mountain* by Jean Craighead George (Finished 1-20-21)
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (Finished 2-14-21)
- Pollyanna* by Eleanor H. Porter (Finished 6-11-22)
- The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope (Finished 3-31-22)
- Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien (Finished 9-21-20)
- Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony Hope (Finished 5-23-22)
- The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emma Orczy (Finished 3-13-21)
- The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré (Finished 7-30-20)
- Summer by Edith Wharton (Finished 8-3-21)
- Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (Finished 4-2-21)
- Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome (Finished 6-5-22)
- The Swiss Family Robinson* by Johann David Wyss (Finished 3-3-22)
- These Happy Golden Years* by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Finished 8-29-22)
- The Thin Man* by Dashiell Hammett (Finished 10-22-21)
- Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim (Finished 5-1-22)
- What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge (Finished 5-29-22)
- What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge (Finished 6-22-22)
- What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge (Finished 7-27-22)
Hi Rachel! I am so glad to have found your blog through The Classics Club! I just started my first round this month and am SO excited about this challenge!
ReplyDeleteHere are the books on your list I have read and loved: Agnes Grey, Further Chronicles from Avonlea, Grapes of Wrath, Mere Christianity, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
And here are books from your list that we have in common: Wives & Daughters, Villette, Cranford (currently reading!), Far From the Madding Crowd, Howard's End, The Scarlet Pimpernel (I JUST reviewed it as my first Classics Club read!), Silas Marner, Tender is the night.
It's fun to see so much overlap! Here is my list if interested: https://elle-alice.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-classics-club-55-classics-in-5.html
Elena, it's so cool that our lists overlap so much! I keep meaning to read The Scarlet Pimpernel and then it keeps getting shoved down my list, but I WILL get to it. I will check out your list! Thanks for the link :-)
DeleteI think you'll enjoy The Scarlet Pimpernel! I see that Silas Marner is a re-read for you. I am assuming you enjoyed it then? I have no idea what its about but I liked Middlemarch, so I added it to my list, lol!
DeleteElena, well, I read Silas Marner shortly out of college and liked it fairly well, I think? But I think it might have ended sadly? Mostly, I just want to read more George Eliot because I liked Middlemarch so much! And my bff loves The Mill on the Floss, so I need to read that at some point.
DeleteI've always been curious, do you set your own challenge with the classics club (i.e. how many you want to read and the date)?
ReplyDeleteOf the ones in your list I've read: Agnes Grey (used to be my favorite Bronte), Cranford, Crime and Punishment (<3), about half way through Don Quixote and got too mad to finish (even though I know it's satire and all that), Far From The Madding Crowd (I'd say still near and dear for various reasons), Further Chronicles of Avonlea, Ivanhoe, Lord Jim and The Moonstone (both of which I quite love/enjoy), The Scarlet Pimpernel (I still very much love the book rather than the movie there, but have to see it again, I guess), Silas Marner, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (also a favorite Bronte, though as I recall I wish it went on longer), Wives and Daughters (always quite enjoyable and definitely wish it went on longer ;)).
Good list! And very inspiring... makes me want to crack out my list making stuff. Hmmm...
Heidi, there's quite a bit of wiggle room in the Classics Club challenge. The general challenge is 50 classics in 5 years, but some people do more, or shorter time periods or whatever. Fifty in five years is the basic challenge, but you can set your own standard for what you consider a classic (I definite it as being at least 50 years old when I start the challenge, well-known or by a well-known author, etc.). Some people do all classic children's novels, or all classic Victorian lit, or whatever. I am an omnivorous reader, so I have a very varied list.
DeleteIt's interesting that you love Far from the Madding Crowd because I'm kind of worried I won't like Thomas Hardy at lot, but now you're making me think maybe I will! That's cool.
I definitely find lists and things like the Classics Club a good way to stay motivated to read specific things. I know some people see them more as chores to get through, though. But the CC does some fun events and such, and people share when they're going to host a read-along and things like that. It's a very supportive and nifty community. When I read a book for it, I like to check out other people's reviews of it too, and sometimes find new blogs to follow that way.
Oh, and you can change your list as you go. I always start out with a list of 50+, and as I go, I add more and more, so both the times I've finished a list of 50, I've had 50 more on my list I didn't get to, and those become my next list. You can add and subtract as you go, as long as you end up with at least 50 read and reviewed by the end of the 5 years (or less).
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