{"id":4181,"date":"2016-10-25T04:39:03","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T11:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=4181"},"modified":"2021-10-24T11:07:44","modified_gmt":"2021-10-24T18:07:44","slug":"50-classic-books-in-5-years-for-my-50th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/50-classic-books-in-5-years-for-my-50th-birthday","title":{"rendered":"50 Classic Books in 5 Years for My 50th Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Classic<\/p>\n

Since today is my 50th birthday, I thought I would start my next 50 years off right by joining the Classics Club<\/a> and committing to read 50 classic novels by October 25, 2021. The idea behind the club is to read at least 50 classic books within five years, and to blog about each one.<\/p>\n

My main purpose in this project is to read more books from my Summary of Great Books Lists<\/a> and my Catholic Classics List<\/a>. I’ve selected books from those two lists along with a few extras. You can see the full list below. As I finish each book I’ll write a blog post about it and link to it from this page.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned last week<\/a>, I am currently reading The Betrothed<\/em> by Alessandro Manzoni, so I’ll make that my first book for this challenge. Here’s the rest of my list:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Louisa May Alcott – Little Women –<\/em>\u00a0Finished July 17, 2018 <\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Dante Alighieri –\u00a0The Divine Comedy –\u00a0<\/em>Finished April 10, 2021<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Eric Ambler –\u00a0A Coffin for Dimitrios –<\/em> Finished March 22, 2020<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Jane Austen – Emma\u00a0<\/em>– Finished September 27, 2017<\/strong> Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Robert Hugh Benson – Lord of the World –\u00a0<\/em>Finished November 12, 2016<\/strong> Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. George Bernanos – Diary of a Country Priest\u00a0<\/em>– Finished April 11, 2020<\/strong><\/li>\n
  7. Will C. Brown –\u00a0The Nameless Breed –\u00a0<\/em>Finished February 1, 2021<\/strong><\/li>\n
  8. Frances Hodgson Burnett – The Secret Garden\u00a0<\/em>– Finished January 31, 2018<\/strong> Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Willa Cather – O Pioneers!<\/em> – Finished July 16, 2017 <\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. Miguel de Cervantes – Don Quixote<\/em> – Finished May 8, 2019<\/strong><\/li>\n
  11. Louis de Wohl – The Living Wood: A Novel of St. Helena<\/em> – Finished July 3, 2021<\/strong><\/li>\n
  12. Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol –<\/em>\u00a0Finished December 18, 2020<\/strong><\/li>\n
  13. Charles Dickens –\u00a0David Copperfield –\u00a0<\/em>Finished October 24, 2021<\/strong><\/li>\n
  14. Charles Dickens – The Old Curiosity Shop –<\/em>\u00a0Finished December 31, 2019<\/strong><\/li>\n
  15. Fyodor Dostoyevski – Crime and Punishment –\u00a0<\/em>Finished January 20, 2020 <\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  16. Frederick Douglass – Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass –\u00a0<\/em>Finished March 22, 2021<\/strong><\/li>\n
  17. Alexandre Dumas – Twenty Years After\u00a0<\/em> – Finished January 13, 2018 <\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  18. Alexandre Dumas – The Vicomte de Bragelonne –<\/em> Finished March 17, 2019<\/strong><\/li>\n
  19. Alexandre Dumas – Louise de la Valli\u00e8re<\/em> – Finished March 31, 2019<\/strong><\/li>\n
  20. Alexandre Dumas – The Man in the Iron Mask<\/em> – Finished April 3, 2019<\/strong><\/li>\n
  21. Alexandre Dumas –\u00a0The Count of Monte Cristo\u00a0<\/em>– Finished September 2, 2019<\/strong><\/li>\n
  22. Daphne du Maurier – Rebecca\u00a0–\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Finished December 6, 2017<\/strong> Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  23. Lord Dunsany –\u00a0The King of Elfland’s Daughter –<\/em> Finished February 2, 2020<\/strong><\/li>\n
  24. E.R. Eddison – The Worm Ouroboros –\u00a0<\/em>Finished November 15, 2017 <\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  25. George Eliot – Romola<\/em> – Finished October 22, 2017<\/strong> Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  26. E.M. Forster – A Room with a View –\u00a0<\/em>Finished January 7, 2019<\/strong><\/li>\n
  27. Nikolai Gogol – Dead Souls<\/em> –\u00a0Finished November 25, 2017 <\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  28. H. Rider Haggard – She – <\/em>Finished May 16, 2018<\/strong> Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  29. Thomas Hardy – Far From the Madding Crowd\u00a0<\/em>– Finished April 8, 2017\u00a0<\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  30. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter –\u00a0<\/em>Finished October 28, 2019<\/strong><\/li>\n
  31. James Hilton –\u00a0Goodbye Mr. Chips –\u00a0<\/em>Finished March 22, 2021<\/strong><\/li>\n
  32. William Hope Hodgson –\u00a0The House on the Borderland – <\/em>Finished November 3, 2016<\/strong> Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  33. Robert E. Howard –\u00a0Conan: The Definitive Collection –\u00a0<\/em>Finished December 4, 2016 <\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  34. Victor Hugo –\u00a0The Hunchback of Notre Dame – <\/em>Finished August 21, 2021<\/strong><\/li>\n
  35. Franz Kafka – The Trial –\u00a0<\/em>Finished May 19, 2017\u00a0<\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  36. Gaston Leroux – The Phantom of the Opera –\u00a0<\/em>Finished August 15, 2020<\/strong><\/li>\n
  37. Richard Llewellyn – How Green Was My Valley –\u00a0<\/em>Finished February 11, 2017\u00a0<\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  38. George MacDonald –\u00a0The Light Princess –\u00a0<\/em>Finished December 22, 2020<\/strong><\/li>\n
  39. George MacDonald – Lilith –\u00a0<\/em>Finished October 19, 2019<\/strong><\/li>\n
  40. Alessandro Manzoni – The Betrothed<\/em> – Finished October 31, 2016\u00a0<\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  41. Larry McMurtry – Lonesome Dove –\u00a0<\/em>Finished July 11, 2017\u00a0<\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  42. Baroness Orczy – The Scarlet Pimpernel –\u00a0<\/em>Finished April 15, 2021<\/strong><\/li>\n
  43. George Orwell – Nineteen Eighty-four<\/em> –\u00a0Finished January 5, 2017\u00a0<\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  44. Henryk Sienkiewicz – Quo Vadis –\u00a0<\/em>Finished June 23, 2021<\/strong><\/li>\n
  45. Clifford Simak – City<\/em> – Finished August 2, 2020<\/strong><\/li>\n
  46. Leo Tolstoy –\u00a0How Much Land Does a Man Need? and Other Stories –<\/em> Finished December 21, 2020<\/strong><\/li>\n
  47. Leo Tolstoy –\u00a0War and Peace –<\/em>\u00a0Finished December 30, 2020<\/strong><\/li>\n
  48. Sigrid Undset – Kristin Lavransdatter –\u00a0<\/em>Finished December 18, 2017 <\/strong>Review<\/a><\/li>\n
  49. Horace Walpole – The Castle of Otranto<\/em> – Finished December 30, 2017<\/strong><\/li>\n
  50. Thornton Wilder – The Bridge of San Luis Rey <\/em>– Finished November 21, 2016<\/strong> Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Since today is my 50th birthday, I thought I would start my next 50 years off right by joining the Classics Club and committing to read 50 classic novels by October 25, 2021. The idea behind the club is to read at least 50 classic books within five years, and to blog about each one. My main purpose in this project is to read more books from my Summary of Great Books Lists and my Catholic Classics List. I’ve selected books from those two lists along with a...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"50 Classic Books in 5 Years for My 50th Birthday","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[831,822,47,830],"class_list":["post-4181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-50-posts-in-50-weeks","tag-catholic-classics","tag-classics","tag-classics-club"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/classic_books.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-15r","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4181"}],"version-history":[{"count":82,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8351,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181\/revisions\/8351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}