Back to the Classics Challenge 2018

I’m happy to be participating again in the Back to the Classics Challenge, hosted by Karen at Books and Chocolate. The idea of the challenge is to read six to twelve classics that fit predetermined categories. This year’s categories are a perfect fit for many of the books I’ve already got planned, so I’m going to go for all twelve. I think most of the categories speak for themselves, but there are a couple I want to mention.

First, for the “classic that scares you” I’ve chosen The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor. It scares me for a couple of reasons. I really want to like Flannery O’Connor, since she is a highly regarded Catholic author, and I’m afraid I won’t like her writing. She is from the south, and I’ve not had good luck reading writers from the south. I’ve tried reading O’Connor several times and could never quite get interested enough to finish. I’m committed to finishing The Violent Bear It Away, but I still worry I won’t like it.

Next, the “re-read a favorite classic” category was easy since I’m hosting the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along, and Les Misérables is definitely one of my favorite classics.

Finally, I was surprised to discover that I had three books lined up for 2018 that could have met the “classic with a single-world title” category: She by H. Rider Haggard, Lilith by George MacDonald, and Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. I wound up choosing Lilith since I needed the other two for other categories. Here’s my full list, but I’ll be recording my progress on my 2018 Reading Challenges page.

1. A 19th century classic: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
2. A 20th century classic: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
3. A classic by a woman author: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
4. A classic in translation: Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas
5. A children’s classic: The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett
6. A classic crime story: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
7. A classic travel or journey narrative: She by H. Rider Haggard
8. A classic with a single-word title: Lilith by George MacDonald
9. A classic with a color in the title: The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
10. A classic by an author that’s new to you: Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
11. A classic that scares you: The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor
12. Re-read a favorite classic: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo