Saturday, March 4, 2023

The Classics Club (Redux)


The point of The Classics Club is to make a list of fifty classics and read them over the course of five years. I attempted this for the second time in 2016, with a goal of finishing in June 2021. I read thirty of those I had listed, though the last one wasn't marked off my list until May 2022. (You can see the old list and discussions here). 

I'm going to adapt the rules to my personal needs this time, and for that reason, will not be adding myself to the official Classics Club list.

Here are the basic rules of The Classics Club:
choose the 50+ classics that you plan to read, and make a list of them

I started making my new list for this challenge, spent days picking out the fifty I planned to read, then when finished, suddenly felt overwhelmed, stressed, and anxious about having a required reading list. Yes, I want to read fifty classics in five years.  No, I don't want to make myself stick to a list of any sort. It may sound silly, but at this time in my life, I can't handle being boxed in, even if it's just with a reading list.  

So, my personalized adaptation of this rule is that over the next five years, I will read (or re-read) fifty classics, but they will be unplanned and spontaneous, not written down in advance.

Note: Some that I read may appear to belong to the category of "classic" only loosely, but the Classics Club emphasizes that the term "classic" is to be used at the reader's discretion.

list the classics you plan to read 
Instead, I will list each classic after I have read it, with a link to the discussion/review.

choose a reading completion goal date up to five years in the future and note that date on your classics list of 50+ titles
My new completion goal date is March 2028.

write about each title on your list as you finish reading it, and link it to your main list
Though the purpose of this is not necessarily to write reviews, but to discuss "your reading thoughts", there will be times that those thoughts will be in the form of a review.  I reserve that right.


Classics Read:
  1. coming soon