The challenge runs from July 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008. The challenge is to read five classics, and there is a bonus round of reading a modern classic suggested by other participants. For the sake of clarity, I am going to define classic as books before World War II with a bit of leeway for any book before 1970. Since I already read and own a lot of classics, this should not be too difficult. Here are possible selections I may read:

• Summer by Edith Wharton
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Death In Venice by Thomas Man
• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
• Random Harvest by James Hilton
• Plays by Anton Chekhov
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Tess of the D’Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
• The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
• Bleakhouse by Charles Dickens
• Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
• Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• Don Quixote by Cervantes

I am not going to read all of these, but I have found it impossible to determine when I will read which book.

As for my selection for modern books that will be classics. I think a few have already been mentioned by other participants, and many just seem obvious. Here are a few that I’ve thought of just now (which may be amended later):

• The Princess Bride by William Golding
• His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullaman
• Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
• The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman
• The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel

That is a lot of series, but those things tend to last well.