Two Birds, Fifty-One Stones

It's a little late for New Years Resolutions (2014 calendars have already been price-slashed at Walmart), but I've been struggling to think of a self-inflicted, book-related challenge for myself for this year that would both expand my book knowledge and whittle down my To Be Read List. In researching this lovely cyber realm of book bloggers--of which I have been a part for exactly three days, huzzah!--I found The Classics Club. It's awesome, and perfect, and throws down a great bookish gauntlet I'd love to be a part of.

 

The idea is to set yourself a "living list" of literary classics, and read them within a five year time frame. It sounds simple, but a few notes in particular on their official site made me do a I Truly Appreciate You dance in my computer chair:

"There have been questions about what constitutes a 'classic'. As long as you feel it meets the guidelines for your list, include it! ... The Classics Club is not intended as a statement on what counts as a classic."

As someone who has taken part in many a "but can you ever really define literature?" debate, I love this idea-- I have my own personal parameters for what I think makes a classic, but I resent teachers/scholars/journalists/snooty kids sitting next to me in the lecture hall/my dad telling me that I am wrong or misinformed. The important thing is talking about books, not crafting arbitrary limitations.

 

My general focus for my Classics Club list is to finally get to all the books that have fallen between the cracks and slipped my attention all these years. I have often read classics for fun, and continue to re-read them often, mostly because I enjoy archaic wordplay and period-specific social commentary. There are so many that I've been meaning to read, ones that sit just next to the "big ones" on the library shelf, ones that I keep forgetting about until somebody says, "So, have you read --- " and I'm forced to say, "No, not yet."

 

I've got fifty-one planned novels, hopefully to be finished in just under three years. My original list was much longer, but I tried to stick to just the "Oh, I've always wanted to read that!" titles that have been haunting me for a while. There are so many by authors I've loved but haven't explored their work as much as I would like, and several I've started a whole bunch of times but never finished (ahem Satanic Verses ahem). Here's a link to my full list: 

 

There is something about stumbling around through lists of literary cannons and recommendations that makes me feel like I haven't really read all that much at all! Gee willickers, Batman, what have I been doing with my life if I haven't even read Anne of Green Gables yet?? On the plus side, it's given me an overwhelming determination to do right by my list, and get started as soon as I can check out the first one from the library....which, I think, will be Dickens's Hard Times, because I've been going through a Dickens withdrawal lately, complete with cold sweats and frequent outbursts of "tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!"

Link & Source: The Classics Club.