The first classic book I read was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. It set the bar for what I wanted from books and fiction. 21 years on, I’ve read a few classics but there are so many I already own or know about but have put off reading either because I need to read books as research for my own writing, or because… actually, looking at my ‘read’ list on Goodreads, most of what I’ve read could be classed as classics, therefore I’m just a slow, lazy reader who needs to read more. I’ve joined The Classics Club to help me do that and to get a deeper perspective on each book by reading reviews by smarter people. 50 books over 5 years.
My Classics Club Book List
(not in the order of reading)
- 1 Ulysses
- 2 The Fountainhead
- 3 Anna Karenina
- 4 The Brothers Karamazov
- 5 Don Quixote
- 6 War and Peace
- 7 The Pilgrim’s Progress
- 8 Beyond Good and Evil
- 9 Native Son by Richard Wright
- 10 Hazlit Selected Writings
- 11 Fathers and Sons
- 12 The Trial
- 13 The Picture of Dorian Gray
- 14 Eugene Onegin
- 15 Steppenwolf
- 16 The Glass Bead Game
- 17 Invisible Man
- 18 The Thirty-Nine Steps – Read
- 19 Frankenstein
- 20 Wuthering Heights
- 21 Jane Eyre
- 22 Perfume
- 23 The interpretation of Dreams
- 24 The Castle
- 25 For Whom the Bell Tolls
- 26 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
- 27 Bastard out of Carolina
- 28 Treasure Island
- 29 In Watermelon Sugar
- 30 Wide Sargasso Sea – Read
- 31 Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Read
- 32 The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- 33 Les Misreables
- 34 Macbeth
- 35 Ada
- 36 The Iron Heel
- 37 Darkness at Noon
- 38 In Cold Blood
- 39 The Castle
- 40 Howl
- 41 The Tempest
- 42 The War of the Worlds
- 43 Paradise Lost
- 44 Pride and Prejudice
- 45 To the Lighthouse
- 46 Stoner
- 47 Death of a Salesman – Read
- 48 The Myth of Sisyphus
- 49 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
- 50 Goodbye to Berlin
- 51 The Honourable Schoolboy
Rating System
I use the Goodreads.com rating system:
- 1 star: did not like it
- 2 stars: it was okay
- 3 Stars: liked it
- 4 Stars: really liked it
- 5 Stars: it was amazing
P.S.
Looking for something different to read? Check out my novel Vagabundo. It’s been getting some good feedback since I released it in June 2019. Although it’s cheap, you might not even have to buy it. I’ve been taking it around the world. Pop into your nearest hostel to see if it’s there.
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