I decided to join the Classics Club. I'm hoping this will be a good way to meet other bloggers with an interest in literature. I arbitrarily consider books published 25 years or more ago to be "classics." Below is a list of books that I want to read over the next 5 years:
- Mimesis, by Erich Auerbach
- Iliad, by Homer
- Odyssey, by Homer
- Holy Bible, anonymous
- The Apocrypha, anonymous
- The Analects of Confucius
- The Oresteia, by Aeschylus
- Mêdeia, Euripides
- Antigone, by Sophocles
- Aeneid, by Virgil
- Bhagavad Gita
- Beowulf
- The Jakata
- Kathasaritsagara
- Pañcatantra
- Poems of Wang Wei
- The Kokinshu
- Man’yoshu
- The Tale of Genji
- The Divine Comedy, Alighieri
- The Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer
- The Arabian Nights
- Monkey, by Ch’eng-en
- Heptameron, by Marguerite of Navarre
- The Plays of Shakespeare
- Don Quixote, by Cerventes
- Molière, the comedies
- Candide, by Voltaire
- The Story of the Stone, by Xueqin
- Faust, by Goethe
- Wuthering Heights, by Bronte
- Eugene Onegin, by Pushkin
- Madam Bovary, by Flaubert
- To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
- Roots, Alex Haley
- Sons, Pearl S. Buck
- The Chimes, Charles Dickens
- Missing Person, Patrick Modiano
- Cotillion, Georgette Heyer
- The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels, Alexander Heidel
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
- The Corinthian, by Georgette Heyer
- A Passage to India, by E. M. Forester
- The Reivers, by Faulkner
- Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
- The Epic of Gilgamesh, anonymous
- The Hobbit, J R R Tolkien
- Lord of the Rings, J R R Tolkien
- Carmilla, J. Sheridan Le Fanu
- Persuasion, Jane Austen
This is a great list. I have read about 16 of these books over the years and every single one was well worth the time.
ReplyDeleteI do not know if you have read most of the Bible or not in the past. Having read most of it a couple of times, what worked for me was reading one book at a time, between other books.
If you have not already read the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad-Gita, or the Ramayana you are in for a real treat. I found those works not just meaningful and important, but extremely entertaining.
Either way, happy reading!
Hi Brian! I've read about 7 of them already, but mostly when I was a teen. I HAVE read the Bible before, and I agree that splitting it up is the best way to go.
DeleteI have not read the Hindu works yet, and look forward to them. About a decade ago I was living with a group of about 10 Indians, so I have some sense of Hinduism, but would like to delve in more deeply.
Nice list! I've read a few and have a few of those on my Classics Club list, too. Welcome to the CC and blogging.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris! A few of them are rereads for me. :) I'm excited to be blogging.
DeletePersuasion is my favorite Austen novel. I hope you enjoy it! - Melissa
ReplyDeleteI read Persuasion a long time ago, and don't really remember the book very much. However, I enjoy the movies quite a bit and I suspect that when I reread it, it will be my favorite as well. It is certainly her most mature book.
DeleteNice list! I don't know Andrew Lang but now you have me curious. You have a good mix here, enjoy.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I tried to get a variety. Andrew Lang was a collector of fairy tales / folklore in Victorian England. He published them in a series of fairy books. They're fun to read, especially the stories that I'm not familiar with.
DeleteSylvia Plath's poems are incredible & electric. I hope you enjoy these books! x
ReplyDeleteThanks! I've only read one of Plath's poems - way back in undergrad. I think it should be quite eye-opening, since I'm not much of a poetry reader.
DeleteI hope you enjoy the Classics Club! I joined almost 3 years ago & have loved the community and the books that I've read!
ReplyDeleteThanks Christine. I'm already enjoying the community, though I've only partly reviewed one classic so far.
DeleteIdon't have a Cl;assics Club List but hese sound like a great idea
ReplyDeleteIt IS a great idea. You should try it out. They're great people in the club.
DeleteI just joined The Classics Club too! Love your list. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are both fantastic. I also love Jane Eyre. Middlemarch, North and South, and The Grapes of Wrath made my list. Excited to read more classics in the coming years! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Jane! Yeah, I think the reason I found your blog is because of your Classics Club post. I like to follow people who read literature and nonfiction - even though I read a lot of fluffy stuff, too. I find that people who read literature and nonfiction tend to have more interesting content on their blogs overall.
DeleteExcellent list! I love Tolkien, Doyle, and Austen (Persuasion is my favorite of hers). Jane Eyre is my favorite novel, and I just read both North and South and Middlemarch this year, both for the first time! Good luck with your reading :-)
ReplyDeleteI've read the Tolkien, Austen, and Bronte novels in the past - they're rereads. I just want to enjoy them yet again. North and South and Middlemarch I have never read.
DeleteMy list has lots of re-reads on it too. I love that they allow that for the Classics Club!
DeleteHooray for the Fairy Books! And you have some interesting non-fiction picks too. That's sadly missing on my list.
ReplyDelete:) Yeah, I want to read the Fairy books, though I feel like I got a little lazy at the end there and threw in a bunch of them. :)
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