It’s another challenge signup post! Thank you to Karen K over at Books and Chocolate for once again hosting the Back to the Classics Challenge.
The challenge involves completing classic books (50+ years old) in as many of the 12 sub-categories as possible for entries in a prize drawing (Click the picture I lifted from her page to go there, see full details, and sign up). For me, it’s mostly a fun incentive to include some “serious literature” in my reading and an opportunity to see what classics others have enjoyed.
You don’t have to choose which books you will be reading at the start of the year, but I like to start with a list of possibilities. This year I’m starting with two possibilities for each category… we’ll see how it goes. Without further ado, the list:
- A 19th century classic:
The Black Robe by Wilkie Collins
The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville - A 20th century classic:
The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Oil! by Upton Sinclair - A classic by a woman author
The Sundial by Shirley Jackson
Julius by Daphne DuMaurier - A classic in translation
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - A classic by BIPOC author
Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cuba by Machado de Assis
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley - Mystery/detective/crime classic
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
Nightfall by David Goodis - A classic short story collection
The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne DuMaurier
An Obsession with Death and Dying by Cornell Woolrich - Pre 1800’s classic
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan - A nonfiction classic
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
The Travels by Marco Polo - Classic that’s been on your TBR list the longest (Pretty close between these two)
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis - Classic set in a place you’d like to visit
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (Middle Earth)
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm (Oxford) - Wild card classic
Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Great list! I love Shirley Jackson and have been curious about Sundial for quite some time.
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I love her “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” and appreciate a lot of her other work, but hadn’t heard of this one until a couple months ago.
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Nice choices. I’ve got Pilgrim’s Progress for pre 1800s also. Enjoy!
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I like how you’ve listed your possibilities. Hope you enjoy The Hobbit as it’s such a fun read 🙂
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Thanks! I’m not sure how many times I’ve read The Hobbit since first reading it in grade school… this time through will probably be the Audible version read by Andy Serkis
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