I love the idea and may join you in it ... I'll think more on it. Some of the classics are very long and my reading is very slow... and many of the classics are written in a manner that is not second nature to us. Anyhow, my only criticism of your list (and those suggested) is the absence of Dickens. Though familiar, his stories truly touch the heart. And as a mystery lover, I wonder if Agatha Christie can be considered 'classic', if not in time, in her unique style. By the month you will get to October and Poe might be reserved for then. I look forward to your reviews!
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Okay, technically it was published in 1980, but it was written in the 60s. Such a hidden, fantastic and irritatingly great story.
Get yourself a nice volume of Chekhov. Read one story a week. Don’t worry about the usual lit crit stuff. Just marinate your brain in the stories. Take them as a “slice of life,” much as you would look at a painting. (Do not read his early stories - say, anything before 1886. The good stuff comes after, and there’s a lot to read.)
The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi —you may have read the original novel, but I find there’s always something of all human life to meditate on by reading about this little wooden boy. Also recommend GK Chesterton The Man Who Was Thursday; All Hallows Eve by Charles Williams and The Great Divorce by CS Lewis. Laurie or The Aviator, both by Eugene Vodolazkin.
I would just suggest swapping out one of the list with something from Jane Austen, the first and stylistically greatest writer of the English "social" novel. Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, Eliot - all owed an enormous debt to Austen, who turned courtship into epic psychological combat.
I've been re-reading books by Dornford Yates, such as Berry and Co. Published in the 1920s if I remember rightly, so it's very interesting to infer the mores of that era, such as when the protagonist feels naked because his hat flew off. Very humorous, especially the letters.
Since you’ve mentioned that you’ve tried to read Dostoevsky so many times, I think this should be the year you finish Brothers Karamazov. I started it once myself, but then finally finished it a couple years later. Totally worth it.
I love the idea and may join you in it ... I'll think more on it. Some of the classics are very long and my reading is very slow... and many of the classics are written in a manner that is not second nature to us. Anyhow, my only criticism of your list (and those suggested) is the absence of Dickens. Though familiar, his stories truly touch the heart. And as a mystery lover, I wonder if Agatha Christie can be considered 'classic', if not in time, in her unique style. By the month you will get to October and Poe might be reserved for then. I look forward to your reviews!
It’s great to be retired and lead a book club!
Some of these are for Book Club. Some are re-reads. The rest are books I should have read long ago. Not in any certain order:
1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
2. To Kill a Mockingbird
3. Fellowship of the Rings
4. Beloved (it will be a classic)
5. Out of Africa
6. As I Lay Dying
7. East of Eden
8. Jayber Crow (another future classic)
9. Anna Karenina
10. The Gospel According to Tolstoy
11. Heart of Darkness (the Karen Swallow Prior edition)
12. Bleakhouse
I loved Zora Neal Thurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. My other two picks would be Beloved by Toni Morrison and Middlemarch by George Eliot.
Puddin Head Wilson by Mark Twain
Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Get an accountability partner. That helps me with my reading goals! I love the SMARTER acronym.
Kristen McGinnis
Noahscaping.com
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Okay, technically it was published in 1980, but it was written in the 60s. Such a hidden, fantastic and irritatingly great story.
I read The Master and Margarita in college and it blew my mind. Good choice!
After reading your article this morning, I saw this in the afternoon and thought you might find some good titles/inspiration https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/11/18/dirda-old-books/
Jayber Crow.
As for Shusaku Endo's Silence and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ... *slow clap*
Get yourself a nice volume of Chekhov. Read one story a week. Don’t worry about the usual lit crit stuff. Just marinate your brain in the stories. Take them as a “slice of life,” much as you would look at a painting. (Do not read his early stories - say, anything before 1886. The good stuff comes after, and there’s a lot to read.)
The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi —you may have read the original novel, but I find there’s always something of all human life to meditate on by reading about this little wooden boy. Also recommend GK Chesterton The Man Who Was Thursday; All Hallows Eve by Charles Williams and The Great Divorce by CS Lewis. Laurie or The Aviator, both by Eugene Vodolazkin.
I would just suggest swapping out one of the list with something from Jane Austen, the first and stylistically greatest writer of the English "social" novel. Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, Eliot - all owed an enormous debt to Austen, who turned courtship into epic psychological combat.
I've been re-reading books by Dornford Yates, such as Berry and Co. Published in the 1920s if I remember rightly, so it's very interesting to infer the mores of that era, such as when the protagonist feels naked because his hat flew off. Very humorous, especially the letters.
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
the hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
Annals of a quiet neighborhood - George McDonald
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
The death of Ivan Ilyich and other short stories - Tolstoy
The forged coupon - Tolstoy
Tolle Lege - Jason parolini
Since you’ve mentioned that you’ve tried to read Dostoevsky so many times, I think this should be the year you finish Brothers Karamazov. I started it once myself, but then finally finished it a couple years later. Totally worth it.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
I recommend The Brothers Karamozov (spelling?) by Dostoyevsky and Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis