So, I keep seeing posts about this Classics Club around the book blogs, and I’ve been meaning to check it out for months now.  Beth from Too Fond is a member, so that right there tells me it must be a worthwhile endeavor.  Plus, they do monthly memes, and who doesn’t love a good meme?  I kept promising myself that one of these days I’d find out what the Classics Club is all about, and join if I thought I could make the time for… whatever the group requires.  Well, it turns out that the Classics Club is a pretty laid-back concept: all you have to do is commit to reading 50+ classics over the course of five years and write about each one on your blog.  You can read more than 50 classics in that time, or you can take less than five years to do it, but that’s the game.

I love to read classics.  I believe that, while there are exceptions, most books that are widely regarded as “classics” have acquired that status for a reason.  I’ve been an avid reader all my life, and a reader of classics for most of that time.  So committing to read classics regularly, and write about them, isn’t a hard thing for me to do.  It’s what I love, so the only question is… what took me so long to get around to starting this challenge?

The Classics Club encourages members to set their own parameters for the challenge, within certain guidelines.  So here’s what I’ve decided: I’m going to take the full five years if I need it, because I have a career and a family and, much as I may wish I could, I simply can’t spend all day, every day, reading.  (Drat.)  But I’m a fairly fast reader and if I am conscientious about priorities, I can get to plenty of books, so I’m going to make my list 100 books instead of 50.  100 classic novels, to read and “review” on the blog, in the next five years?  I think I can do that.

Here’s my list of 100 books, in no particular order (and note that re-reads, which are allowed, are starred):

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte*
Middlemarch, by George Eliot
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
Daisy Miller, by Henry James
The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton
Eugene Onegin, by Alexander Pushkin
Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak
Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust
Silas Marner, by George Eliot
The House of Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev*
The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas
Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes
Litte Dorrit, by Charles Dickens
Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
Confessions, by Saint Augustine of Hippo
What Maisie Knew, by Henry James
The Optimist’s Daughter, by Eudora Welty*
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen*
Emma, by Jane Austen*
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen*
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen*
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen*
Persuasion, by Jane Austen*
A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster
Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
My Antonia, by Willa Cather*
Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Crome Yellow, by Aldous Huxley
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee*
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo*
The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins*
Everything that Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor
Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys
The Garden Party, by Katherine Mansfield
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson
Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell
Tortilla Flat, by John Steinbeck
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger*
Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis
Rabbit, Run, by John Updike
Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte
The Professor, by Charlotte Bronte
Agnes Grey, by Anne Bronte*
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte*
The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James
The Iliad, by Homer
The Odyssey, by Homer
Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift*
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol*
The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov*
The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin*
A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster
Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier*
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
The House on the Strand, by Daphne du Maurier
Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer
David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Finnegan’s Wake, by James Joyce
Henry IV, Part I, by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, Part II, by William Shakespeare
Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens
Richard II, by William Shakespeare
Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville
Howards End, by E.M. Forster
Where Angels Fear to Tread, by E.M. Forster
The Forsyte Saga, by John Galsworthy
The Ambassadors, by Henry James
The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James
Washington Square, by Henry James
The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
Excellent Women, by Barbara Pym
Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott*
Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery*
Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery*
Anne of the Island, by L.M. Montgomery*
Anne of Windy Poplars, by L.M. Montgomery*
Anne’s House of Dreams, by L.M. Montgomery*
Anne of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery*
Rainbow Valley, by L.M. Montgomery*
Rilla of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery*
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett*
The Purloined Letter, by Edgar Allen Poe
Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray
Castle Richmond, by Anthony Trollope

Whew!  That’s my list of 100 classics to read in the next five years.  I think it’s a good mix of new reads and re-reads, chunksters and quicker picks.  I suppose I’d better get cracking…

Back in June, Jessica from the Quirky Bookworm blog posted her “Literary Bucket List” and challenged her blog readers to come up with their own.  This is something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile, ever since my blog pal Eagle-Eyed Editor came up with one.  But between my library misadventures and Audiobook Week, I’m only just getting around to this now – oops.  So, to make up for the delay (which, let’s be honest, no one but me cares about), I thought I’d do mine in two parts.  Obviously, I lurve to read, so Part I of the Bucket List will focus on the books I want to read.  And since I love to travel almost as much as I love to read, Part II will list the literary places I’d like to visit someday.  So here I go with Part I, the ultimate TBR:

1. The Complete Works of Charles Dickens – I have them all, a complete set gorgeously bound in forest green leather.  My grandmother bought them, read them all, and then handed them down to me.  It’s a massive undertaking, but I really want to read every last one, just like she has.  I’ve read A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities, so obviously I have a long way to go.

2. Read all of the Russian works translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky – Pevear and Volokhonsky are a husband-wife translation team who do absolutely brilliant work.  I’ve never seen Russian classics as readable as theirs.  I read their translations of Anna Karenina and War and Peace and loved them – especially War and Peace.  They’ve collaborated on some of my favorite Russian works, like Dead Souls and The Master and Margarita.  I read other translations of those and loved them, but I’m very keen to read them again, in the versions with the fingerprints of my favorite translators.  And there are other Russian works, like The Brothers Karamazov, Doctor Zhivago, and The Enchanted Wanderer, that I want to read anyway.

3. The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas, translated by Richard Pevear – Pevear also does occasional translations on his own, from languages other than Russian.  I want to read The Three Musketeers anyway, and I have a copy of Pevear’s translation that I’m itching to get to work on.

4. Middlemarch, by George Eliot – This is one that’s been on my list for a long, long time, and I just need to make time for it.  I have a gorgeous Penguin Clothbound Classics edition, so that should provide some motivation.

5. The Professor and Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre is my all-time favorite book, and I also loved Villette when Beth from Too Fond hosted a read-along in May and June.  I need to read the rest of Charlotte’s work!

6. Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace – Because, David Foster Wallace.

7. Read all of Shakespeare – Because, Shakespeare.  Also, it’s there.

8. Read the Really Old Stuff – Homer (The Iliad and The Odyssey), Virgil (Aeneid) and Ovid (Metamorphoses).  I’ve always wanted to read these, especially The Odyssey.

9. Conquer the Rory Gilmore Reading List and The Guardian‘s Top 100 Books of All Time – I have both of these in Word files on my computer and I cross books off in each as I go.  I’m about a third of the way through Rory’s list and not even that far through The Guardian‘s.

10. Read my childhood favorites, like the Anne of Green Gables and Little House series and books like Gone-Away Lake, The People of Pineapple Place and Island of the Blue Dolphins, to Peanut – I hope she’s an avid reader.  I’m planning to do everything I can to encourage her to read, and I’ve got some great material to show her as soon as she’s ready for it.

I think ten is probably enough for the bucket list, at least for now!  Next week, Part II – my literary travel dreams.

Do you have a literary bucket list?  What’s on yours?

• I can only read one mystery series at a time.  I’m always working my way through some mystery series or other, and I cannot start a new one until I’ve finished the one I’m on.  If I get distracted, I will throw over one series in favor of another, but while I may be “on hiatus” from one series, I am never actively reading two mystery series at the same time.
• It is very important to me that my bookmarks “match” my books.  I’ll use one of my British bookmarks for English literature… my “Reading Ninja” bookmark for a particularly challenging contemporary classic… a cardboard bookmark in the shape of a cat curled up on an armchair (purloined from my grandmother’s collection) for gentle fiction and cozy mysteries… If I lazily select a bookmark that doesn’t reflect the spirit or style of the book I’m reading, I feel all weird and itchy until I replace it with a more appropriate bookmark.
• When planning for a vacation, I spend more time plotting out my reading list than I do researching restaurants or sights at my destination.  This is especially true if the vacation is to Europe; in that case, I must pick books by authors from the region I’m visiting, or that are set in or otherwise pertain to the region I’m visiting.  (Extra points for both: Persuasion in Bath, for instance, or Wuthering Heights in Yorkshire.)
• I can read anywhere – cars, cafés, the couch while hubby plays video games – but for serious reading or for marathon reading sessions, I prefer to be in the alcove in my bedroom that I decorated as a reading nook.

What are your quirks as a reader?

A few weeks ago, I walked through the library doors with my tote bag bulging at the seams.  No, it wasn’t full of library books – at least, not officially, not yet.  I practically danced past the information booth and the new release shelves, over to the blue bin labeled “BOOK DONATIONS” and gleefully turned my tote upside-down.  Into the bin tumbled five of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels, along with The Outlandish Companion, The Jane Austen Book Club, and one of my two copies of What to Expect When You’re Expecting.

Sometimes, I get possessive over my books.  Even if I know I’m never going to read them again, I can’t seem to let go.  They follow me from house to house, even though there’s no room for them on my bookshelves.  These books were piled up in my basement, collecting dust next to a stack of law school texts and hornbooks, and paperbacks from both hubby’s and my college years.  (Hubby, with his English major, wins in the college book races, and I don’t plan to donate any of his books without his permission – obviously – so his lead is destined to grow as I whittle down my own books to only those that I really want to keep.)  I have great intentions to donate books, but then a little voice invades my head with reproaches such as “But you paid for that!” – “That was a gift from your mom!” – “What if you decide to read it again?  Remember The Handmaid’s Tale – you hated that at first and then realized later how great it was.  What if you’d donated it?  You’d have to buy it again!”

Every so often, I manage to tell that chirping voice to – as my high school German teacher would say – “Shutten Sie up!”  And I gather up an armload of books that I know I don’t want, and that I know the library would love to have.  And after I donate them, I feel… free.  Free to give their bookshelf space to a book I really want, that I know I will read again.  Or at least free of a little bit of dusting.

Usually, I am thrilled after making a book donation.  This time was no exception.  I was never going to read any of those books again, and it was time for them to find a more loving home.  But every so often, I regret a loss later.  My Dorothy Dunnett collection, for instance – gone, and I can only hope they’ve found a happier home at the library.  I’m a little sad about those, I must admit.  And a little irked at the way the “What if you want to read it again?” voice is shrieking “I told you so!” at me.

But that’s the exception.  9 times out of 10, I gladly make a donation and I never look back.  Which is good, because… I’m really coveting a set of the new Penguin Drop Caps.  And someone’s going to have to moooooooove over in order to make room for those bad boys on the bookshelf.

Have you ever donated books to your library?  Ever experienced “donator’s remorse” – or do you just dance on over to the bookstore after making a contribution?

I’m trucking along in my quest to read as many of the books in the stack you see here as possible.  Life’s been a lot less busy over the past week, which has really helped matters.  (Both in terms of reading time and stress levels.)  I was also able to renew both Beautiful Creatures (now due back June 21st) and The Mother-Daughter Book Club (now due back June 29th), although another book popped up on the holds shelf.  (For purposes of not allowing this endeavor to go completely off the rails, I’m not worrying about that one – or the six I have on hold right now – at least, not until next week.)  Here’s how reading went this week:

• Finished Eighty Days and loved it (read my full review here) and returned it to the library on time.  Whew!  And then there were five.
• Blazed through Leaving Everything Most Loved, as I always do with Maisie Dobbs mysteries.  They’re quick reads, although they are some of the more thoughtful serial mysteries published recently, I find.  I always enjoy my time with Maisie.  And then there were four.
• Finished Leonardo and the Last Supper, which was a fascinating look at Leonardo’s life and career through the lens of The Last Supper, one of his most famous works.  (I don’t know if it’s the most famous, as the book claims – there’s a certain lady named Lisa who’s pretty well-known too.)  I felt like I was back in my Medieval and Renaissance art history class, freshman year in college.  And then there were three.

Now I’m about to embark on The House Girl, to which I’m very much looking forward, and I expect to finish it in time to return it, Leonardo and Maisie to the library by the deadline (June 18th) or maybe even early.  (I’m actually shooting for a Sunday return, so we’ll see.)  Then I will probably finally crack the spine of Beautiful Creatures, since it’s the next one due back and also since I made a tactical error by letting my mom read the book and now I have two people haranguing me to read it instead of just one.  So it seems that this particular quest is actually going very well.

Except.  While in the middle of this stack, I went on another book-reserving frenzy and I have six books waiting for me on the holds shelf.  One of which is over 900 pages of non-fiction about how parents shape their children’s identities.  Uh.  And also one more at home that popped up on hold before I got through these.  (Summer for the Gods, about the Scopes trial.)  Now, granted, one of the books on hold is for my mom to read (Beautiful Darkness – yep, I’ve created a Caster Chronicles monster without even having read the first book myself) and one is an audiobook for me to play in the car on my commutes.  But then there’s the other four, and… I guess I’ll be continuing these updates after next week, at least for a little while.

Welp.

I thought it would be fun to keep track of my progress through this Stack O’ Ridiculousness from the library.  Not in quite the maniacal detail-oriented fashion of my last Library Mishap, when I had nothing to do with my long, empty weekend afternoons but count page totals, write daily updates, and eat fruit salad with a level of enthusiasm mustered only by pregnant ladies.  But I was looking back at those updates and thinking of what fun it was to challenge myself to get through a seemingly impossible reading task, and then actually get through it.  So, here’s how things are going with the library stack:

• Finished Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, which was a fun bit of fluff.  Got it in just by the deadline.  And then there were seven.
• Returned The Accursed, somewhat disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to read it (and that there are 81 people on the waiting list for it), but downloaded it to my Nook and am saving it for a business trip I have later this month.  And then there were six.
• Am about halfway through Eighty Days and loving it so far.  I keep interrupting hubby at whatever he’s doing to read him funny sentences or bits of historical trivia I find particularly fascinating.  My favorite so far: Puck Magazine’s advice to readers.  “When a charming young lady comes into your office and smilingly announces that she wants to ask you a few questions regarding the possibility of improving New York’s moral tone, don’t stop to parley.  Just say: ‘Excuse me, Nellie Bly,’ and shin down the fire-escape.”

I haven’t had much time to read this week, since it’s been one of the busiest weeks I’ve had at work… well, ever.  The end of May and beginning of June has been just one thing after another.  I’ve worked late quite a few nights and even missed Peanut’s bedtime a few times, which breaks my heart.  But reading keeps me sane, so I still do it – a few pages over my morning tea, a lunch break snatched if I can, and at least a chapter before bed each night.  I’m not going at my normal breakneck pace, but I’m going.  I really need a day to just chill out, though, so on Saturday I’m planning to sit with Eighty Days for hours and hours (once again, thanking my stars that I have such a good napping baby) and let Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland do the crazed running around.  By Sunday, I should be on to Maisie Dobbs.

We were discussing our Twitter feeds – oh, our family lives in 2013, all right – and hubby mentioned that he had been following Levar Burton.  And then this happened.

Me:  I didn’t know you followed Levar Burton.  Why’d you follow him?

Hubby:  Because he was on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Me:  He was?

Hubby: How can you follow Levar Burton and not know that?

Me:  I’ve never seen “Star Trek.”

Hubby:  No, not “Star Trek” – “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Me:  That one either.

Hubby:  Well, then, why do you follow Levar Burton?

Me:  “Reading Rainbow.”

Hubby:  Of course.

Me:  But don’t take my word for it.