Classics Club Challenge Complete!
With the completion of David Copperfield yesterday, I successfully met my Classics Club Challenge of reading fifty classics in five years! I began the challenge on my 50th birthday in 2016 and finished the final chapter of the final book on the eve of my 55th birthday in 2021. Much has happened in the last five years. I became a grandfather, transitioned from elementary teacher to school principal, began hosting reading challenges, traveled to Europe for the first time, and lived through a pandemic, to name just a few of the more memorable experiences. Through it all, the Classics Club Challenge kept me motivated to read some of the world’s best literature.
Though my initial list changed over the years, and though I was not able to keep up with writing reviews for all the books, I still feel like I accomplished what I set out to do, which was to read more books from my Summary of Great Books Lists and my Catholic Classics List. I did manage to review twenty-two of the fifty books, but then I changed jobs and I had to let go of a few things to keep my sanity. I look forward to the day when I can return to book-blogging more consistently. Until then, I can be satisfied in knowing that I stuck with the five-year challenge during some pretty busy and momentous times.
This reading challenge showed me that fifty books is a lot, even spread out over ten years. Some have become personal favorites worthy of re-reading, and some were not my taste at all. Here are some of the books from the challenge that I look back on with particular fondness:
- Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson
- The Living Wood by Louis de Wohl
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Twenty Years After, The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Louise de la Vallière, and The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
- Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
- Conan: The Definitive Collection by Robert E. Howard
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
And here are some of the duds:
- Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
- The Trial by Franz Kafka
- Lilith by George MacDonald
Will I do another Classics Club Challenge? I think probably yes, but at this point I don’t think I’m ready to commit to anything new. Between the annual Chapter-a-Day Read-alongs and the Aubrey/Maturin Chapter-a-Week 4 Year Read-along Odyssey, my reading hours are pretty full these days. Still, you never know…
Congratulations on finishing your fifty classics in five years challenge! I was particularly interested in seeing which ones were your favorites from those five years. It’s a very enjoyable reading challenge, isn’t it.
Congratulations on a job well done! You do have a lot of reading things going on, but you may find that you want to be able to play along with Classics Club stuff (like spins) and will want to have another list sooner rather than later. That was my experience.
Yes, I never did play along and wanted to. I have to admit that I have been toying with the idea of another Classics Club challenge!
Congratulations! I have found that having a list elevates my reading in a positive way. I will be reading, but instead of simply picking up what is at hand, I consciously seek out books of quality.
I am looking forward to participating in the group. I read about 60 books a year but not all classics. I admit to a lot of light reading this year.