Day: May 24, 2008

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.