Classics Club Lists #1, #2, and #3 -- Finished

Here are my first, second, and third lists of 50 books read for the Classics Club, beginning in January of 2016 and ending in October of 2022.

Re-reads are marked with an asterisk.  I define "classic" as being more than 50 years old , being well-known (or by a well-known author), and/or being influential on society or other writers.

If you want to see my fourth list of 50 books, which I am now working on, click 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)

Here is my second list of 50 books, which I began on December 1, 2016, and finished on June 28, 2020.

  1. All the Mowgli Stories by Rudyard Kipling (Finished 1-15-20)
  2. April Twilights and Other Poems by Willa Cather (Finished 4-23-17)
  3. The Big Sleep* by Raymond Chandler (Finished 7-29-17)
  4. The Blythes are Quoted by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 11-16-16)
  5. By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Finished 7-01-19)
  6. Caddie Woodlawn* by Carol Ryrie Brink (Finished 4-10-19)
  7. A Christmas Carol* by Charles Dickens (Finished 12-16-16)
  8. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* by Roald Dahl (Finished 9-18-18)
  9. Chronicles of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 6-16-20)
  10. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (Finished 4-23-18)
  11. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (Finished 4-25-20)
  12. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (Finished 12-15-16)
  13. Fahrenheit 451* by Ray Bradbury (Finished 10-3-18)
  14. Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier by W. B. "Bat" Masterson (Finished 8-22-18)
  15. The Four-Story Mistake* by Elizabeth Enright (Finished 1-29-19)
  16. Gone-Away Lake* by Elizabeth Enright (Finished 9-4-18)
  17. The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis (Finished 3-12-19)
  18. The Great Gatsby* by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Finished 6-29-17)
  19. Homer Price* by Robert McCloskey (Finished 3-17-19)
  20. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (Finished 6-28-20)
  21. The Hundred Dresses* by Eleanor Estes (Finished 1-8-19)
  22. I, Robot* by Isaac Asimov (Finished 5-9-17)
  23. Jane of Lantern Hill by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Finished 2-4-18)
  24. The Lady in the Lake* by Raymond Chandler (Finished 3-2-19)
  25. Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien (Finished 12-19-16)
  26. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum (Finished 12-23-19)
  27. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe* by C. S. Lewis (Finished 10-24-18)
  28. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Finished 9-15-19)
  29. Lord of the Flies* by William Golding (Finished 3-5-19)
  30. Montana Rides! by Evan Evans (Max Brand) (Finished 2-25-17)
  31. Murder on the Orient Express* by Agatha Christie (Finished 6-18-18)
  32. Northanger Abbeyby Jane Austen (Finished 4-9-18)
  33. Nutcracker and Mouse King/The Tale of the Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann/Alexandre Dumas (Finished 11-22-19)
  34. Old Ramon by Jack Schaefer (Finished 1-31-20)
  35. The Phantom of the Opera* by Gaston Leroux (Finished 3-12-17)
  36. Pride and Prejudice* by Jane Austen (Finished 5-25-20)
  37. The Racketty-Packetty House by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Finished 7-22-19)
  38. The Railway Children* by E. Nesbit (Finished 5-20-20)
  39. A Room with a View* by E. M. Forster (Finished 5-14-19)
  40. The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis (Finished 11-21-17)
  41. The Secret Garden* by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Finished 6-18-20)
  42. "Smith of Wootton Major" and "Farmer Giles of Ham" by J.R.R. Tolkien (Finished 4-2-18)
  43. Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis (Finished 1-31-20)
  44. The Torrents of Spring by Ernest Hemingway (Finished 1-12-18)
  45. Treasure Island* by Robert Louis Stevenson (Finished 1-16-19)
  46. True Grit* by Charles Portis (Finished 12-18-16)
  47. Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop (Finished 12-1-18)
  48. Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington (Finished 1-20-20)
  49. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Finished 9-4-19)
  50. The Wind in the Willows* by Kenneth Grahame (Finished 5-5-19)

Here is my third list of 50 books, which I began on August 4, 2020, and ended September 29, 2022.

  1. The Abbot's Ghost by Louisa May Alcott (Finished 12-12-21)
  2. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil by J. R. R. Tolkien (Finished 9-22-21)
  3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* by Lewis Carroll (Finished 4-21-21)
  4. The Alpine Path by L. M. Montgomery (Finished 7-31-21)
  5. Bed-Knob and Broomstick by Mary Norton (Finished 3-20-22)
  6. The Black Swan by Rafael Sabatini (Finished 7-12-22)
  7. Christmas at Thompson Hall and Other Christmas Stories by Anthony Trollope (Finished 12-12-21)
  8. Christmas with Anne by L. M. Montgomery (Finished 12-10-20)
  9. Christy* by Catherine Marshall (Finished 7-5-21)
  10. The Count of Monte Cristo* by Alexandre Dumas (Finished 8-8-21)
  11. Dracula* by Bram Stoker (Finished 10-24-20)
  12. Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim (Finished 5-2-21)
  13. Further Chronicles of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery (Finished 2-10-21)
  14. The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett (Finished 10-14-21)
  15. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis (Finished 10-9-20)
  16. Hamlet by Alexandre Dumas (Finished 10-10-21)
  17. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Finished 6-17-21)
  18. Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie (Finished 12-23-20)
  19. A House to Let by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Adelaide Anne Proctor (Finished 12-11-20)
  20. If Only They Could Talk* by James Herriot (Finished 10-6-20)
  21. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway (Finished 9-15-20)
  22. In the Heat of the Night by John Dudley Ball (Finished 5-25-22)
  23. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier (Finished 11-30-20)
  24. Kidnapped* by Robert Louis Stevenson (Finished 4-24-22)
  25. Kilmeny of the Orchard by L. M. Montgomery (Finished 5-29-21)
  26. The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins (Finished 12-11-21)
  27. Little Town on the Prairie* by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Finished 9-19-21)
  28. The Long Winter* by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Finished 10-20-20)
  29. The Maltese Falcon* by Dashiell Hammett (Finished 2-18-22)
  30. A Man Called Peter by Catherine Marshall (Finished 10-21-20)
  31. Mary Poppins* by P. L. Travers (Finished 9-19-22)
  32. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (Finished 1-13-21)
  33. My Side of the Mountain* by Jean Craighead George (Finished 1-20-21)
  34. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (Finished 2-14-21)
  35. Pollyanna* by Eleanor H. Porter (Finished 6-11-22)
  36. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope (Finished 3-31-22)
  37. Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien (Finished 9-21-20)
  38. Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony Hope (Finished 5-23-22)
  39. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emma Orczy (Finished 3-13-21)
  40. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le CarrĂ© (Finished 7-30-20)
  41. Summer by Edith Wharton (Finished 8-3-21)
  42. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (Finished 4-2-21)
  43. Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome (Finished 6-5-22)
  44. The Swiss Family Robinson* by Johann David Wyss (Finished 3-3-22)
  45. These Happy Golden Years* by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Finished 8-29-22)
  46. The Thin Man* by Dashiell Hammett (Finished 10-22-21)
  47. Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim (Finished 5-1-22)
  48. What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge (Finished 5-29-22)
  49. What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge (Finished 6-22-22)
  50. What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge (Finished 7-27-22)

31 comments:

  1. Hello Hamlette, I am doing the Classics Book Challenge as well. Your list is very different than most. This is actually very refreshing. More authors and books for me to explore :) Good luck!!

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    1. Hello! I'm intrigued now -- how is my list different? I'm going to have to find some time t check out other people's lists and see, eh? I'm guessing maybe I have fewer really famous books or something.

      Thanks for dropping by, and good luck to you too!

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  2. Welcome to the club! I love Alcott and Tolkien.

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  3. I don't remember if I congratulated you on making the list! So congratulations on joining. How did you choose your books?

    Don Quixote was my first CC title. (I sure do miss DQ).

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    1. Thanks! I chose my books by copying my to-read list and deleting everything that I didn't consider a classic, then adding in some things I plan to re-read until I had about 50 titles. So really, this is just a condensed version of my to-read list as a whole, hee.

      Once I finish LOTR, I want to start DQ. So probably this summer or fall!

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  4. What a great list with lots of variety! Are going to begin to read DQ with plans of starting The Well-Educated Mind novel list?

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    1. Thanks! No, I don't have plans to start a WEM list, as I haven't read "The Well-Educated Mind." I'd actually never heard of it before I started reading Ruth's blog. Do you recommend it? I minored in English in college, so I do know how to read books, and I don't know... what I've read about it makes my instincts say, "I like how I read books -- I like my system." But maybe I should give it a whirl? My library does have it.

      (And by "give it a whirl," I mean, "read it when I'm done with the 3 books I'm currently reading and the 3 that are begging me to read them, plus the 1 I just decided to read for Dickens' birthday month.")

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    2. It is definitely worth reading. It's not a formula nor do you have to do everything she says. It's teaching how to read in depth and in the beginning it takes some work but eventually it becomes rather natural just to ask yourself the questions. Ruth and I and a couple of others (one of them Robin from 52 book in 52 weeks) are going to be reading through the biography list starting in May if you want to join us, or want to join us for a book or two. It's on this group on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1646620-reading-through-the-biographies if you are interested. That might fit in with your schedule, giving you enough time to clear all those reads!

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    3. Okay! I've added WEM to my to-read list, but I make no promises as to how soon I'll get to it :-) It'll probably be a couple of weeks before I finish anything and start in on the Dickens book, etc.

      And I don't really do GoodReads because I simply don't have the time, so thanks for the invite, but you won't see me popping up in the group. But it does sound like a good way to get motivated to read things!

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    4. I admire that you set limitations for yourself. I am trying to do this because I have the problem of saying yes to everything and then overloading myself. Let me know what you think of the WEM, when you've had a look! :-)

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    5. I have that same problem! In fact, my only New Year's resolution last year and this year is to say 'no' more often. I keep finding more reading challenges online that look so fun -- but I set myself the limit of 3 for the year, and I've already fudged a little on that by doing the Dickens birthday celebration next month and joining the Classics Club.

      I'm sure I'll be posting about WEM when I read it! And I'll try to let you and Ruth know when I start it :-)

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  5. Great list! I read Moby-Dick last year and even though it took a while to get through it, it was well worth it!
    -Dale

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    1. How did I miss this comment? Anyway, thanks! I keep adding things and my list gets longer and longer -- it's almost 60 books now! But as long as I get 50 read in 5 years, it doesn't matter if I finish my whole list. Right? Right.

      I tried Moby-Dick years ago and got about a chapter in. Then set it down and said, "This is not the right time for this book." One of these days!

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  6. I spy The Mysteries of Udolpho and Agnes Grey on your list: two of my favorites. :) Enjoy!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! I just introduced my mom to Northanger Abbey two weeks ago, and that has me rather eager for Udolpho, hee.

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  7. What a great list! We do have quite a few books in common and I would love to do a read-along for some of the more intimidating ones. Let me know if you'd be open to that :) I look forward to following your blog!

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    1. Thanks! The only trouble with this list is how it keeps getting longer and longer, lol.

      I'm hosting a read-along of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" beginning in mid-October, and planning a read-along of "Little Women" for early 2015. You can see my list of prospective read-alongs here and suggest some if you'd like! I will note, though, that on a whole I'm loath to host a read-along of a book I haven't read myself yet. But I'm totally open to suggestions! Even of books that aren't on my to-read list.

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  8. You've picked some wonderful novels there! I loooove North and South, The Screwtape Letters, Anna Karenina and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I really hope you will! I'm making my own Classics Club list at the moment actually and I have a question for you. I'm thinking of putting one and only one Ernest Hemingway novel on the list but I have no idea which one I should go. Which book would you suggest? I realise that this might be hard for you and I'm very sorry for any distress that I might cause! :)

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    1. I'm sorry, I can't do that.

      I just can't recommend One Hemingway Book! Impossible. I'll give you 4 recommendations, and you can take your pick.

      Are you committed to it being a novel? If so, The Sun Also Rises is thus far my favorite, and I think it's pretty accessible to someone unused to Hemingway (I'm assuming you are, since you're asking for recommendations.)

      However, by far my favorite work of his so far is not a novel, it's his memoir of his life in Paris in the '20s, A Moveable Feast. (I haven't actually read everything by Hemingway yet, I must admit.) Definitely a classic, just not fiction.

      Or there's a fantastic collection of some of his short stories, called The Nick Adams Stories, that I'm also really fond of. He returned to that character many times, over decades, and it's got some of his most famous stories in it, like "Indian Camp" and "Big, Two-Hearted River." Very accessible, and I like how that collection is arranged according to when the stories happen in Nick Adams' life, not according to when they were written.

      Finally, there's By-Line: Ernest Hemingway, which is a collection of some of his newspaper and magazine articles spanning 40 years. Everything from the Spanish Civil War to ex-pat life in Paris to WWII. You'll notice this is on my CC list too -- I read the first hundred pages or so when I was at my parents' house, then promptly bought my own copy when I got home and have failed to pick it up again because I'm a slacker. Or something. Anyway, it's soooooooooo readable and enjoyable, and informative too! And the articles run every emotional gamut, from funny to sad to wistful to angry to enthusiastic...

      So take your pick!

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    2. Thanks! I am committed to it being a novel so I'm going to go with The Sun Also Rises for my list. But I am interested in your other recommendations!

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  9. So many of these I need to read!!!
    How did you get the bubble thing on your side bar to go with this?

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  10. I also have Tess of the D'Ubervilles on my list! And The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I didn't put Anna Karenina on my list, but maybe it will be on my second list. I'll get to it someday, I hope.

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    1. Beth, very cool! I sometimes despair of ever finishing all these books. I'll just keep making more 5-year lists every 5 years...

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  11. Ok, one more comment and then I will stop stalking your Classics Club lists! haha!

    I LOVED all the Anne books, Daddy Long Legs (such an unfortunate title, though! I hate spiders), Jane Eyre, Little Women, Middlemarch, North & South, Persuasion, Of Mice and Men, Rilla of Ingleside, A Christmas Carol, The Enchanted April, Great Gatsby, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, One Hundred Dresses, Letter from Father Christmas, The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus, the Narnia series, The Little Prince, Pride and Prejudice, Phantom of the Opera, Wind in the Willows, Scewtape Letters.

    I am looking forward to reading these as part of my Classics Club picks: The Blue Castle, The Hobbit, A Study in Scarlet, The Phantom Tollbooth, Northanger Abbey, The Railway Children, Treasure Island. I look forward to checking out your reviews once I get to these books!

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    1. Elena, don't apologize! I love replying to comments :-) Even on posts that are older than this! If you want to sift through these and comment on books you've read to discuss them, I am 100% up for that :-)

      I hate spiders too. I avoided Daddy Long Legs for YEARS because of that. Silly me.

      I'm so excited you're going to read The Blue Castle! That book needs more people to read it. It's wonderful. (Or have you read it before? I know some people (like me) do include rereads for their Classics Club lists (I just don't count them if I've read & reviewed it for a previous CC list -- I'm a dedicated re-reader, you see).

      Anyway, it looks like we have some very similar taste! :-)

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    2. No, I have not yet read The Blue Castle. I am slowly making my way through L.M. Montgomery's books, so I am looking forward to finally reading that one!

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    3. Elena, I'm slowly making my way through LMM's books too! I read all 8 Anne books over and over as a child and teen, but never her others. I read the Emily books once after college, but didn't love them. And that was all I read of hers until about 5 years ago or so, when friends convinced me I had to read The Blue Castle. Oh my word. It's SO different from most of her other novels, but yet, still so distinctly LMM. I love it. I think I've read it 4 times now? Delicious.

      So after that, I started reading more of her things, slowly. I loved Jane of Lantern Hill too -- hoping to reread that this fall. And I just read Chronicles of Avonlea a couple months ago and it was such peaceful fun.

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