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Smiling Shelves

My Classics Club List Is Complete!

5/10/2018

4 Comments

 
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In August of 2013, I joined the Classics Club and made a list of 51 books to read in the next five years. On May 3, 2018, I finished the last book from the list! In honor of that occasion, I thought I would share some info about my Classics Club journey.

If you're interested in seeing my whole list of books, you can find it here.
First book I read: Xingu by Edith Wharton
Last book I read: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (Technically, I finished Daniel Deronda three days later, but that one had been spread out over many months.)
Shortest book: I'm not sure how to count this one. Xingu by Edith Wharton was 48 pages, but I read it as part of a whole book of her short stories. And Howl by Allen Ginsberg is 56 pages, but I read the graphic novel version, so it was longer.
Longest book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1,361 pages)
Book that took the longest to read: Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (January 16 - May 3)
Percentage of books from the list that I owned: 75% (Yay!)
Book I liked best: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Books I liked least: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (mostly because of crudity or characters' immorality)
Hardest book to read: The Iliad by Homer (I read this one mostly while nursing my newborn, and I kept falling asleep!)
Book that surprised me with how much I liked it: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Oldest book on the list: The Iliad by Homer (about 762 B.C.)
Newest book on the list: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1985)
Genres read: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Play, and Short Stories
Number of books read in each year: 2013 (3 books); 2014 (7 books); 2015 (15 books); 2016 (5 books); 2017 (15 books);​ 2018 (6 books)
So there you have it - 51 books in 5 years! Some I loved, some I strongly disliked, but I'm glad I experienced every single one of them! And yes, I'm contemplating a second round, focused mainly on classic children's literature. . .​ Any suggestions for what I should put on my list?
4 Comments
Jade @ Reading with Jade link
5/11/2018 09:39:58 am

YAY - what a wonderful bookish accomplishment!

Reply
Julie @ Smiling Shelves link
5/14/2018 02:03:00 pm

Thanks, Jade! It's hard to believe I actually finished it!

Reply
Christine link
5/14/2018 02:15:17 pm

I love how you did this wrap-up! You should definitely do a second round with children's classics -- especially since you've proven yourself capable of reading through a full list (unlike myself ::cough, cough::) and I think a children's list would be even more fun! I'm debating some sort of children's classics project for myself, but I haven't come up with a solid plan yet -- we shall see!

If you haven't read them yet, I'd defintely recommend the original Winnie the Pooh books and A Bear Called Paddington (and however many sequels you might care to add on that are older!) Then I'd totally pick some of the older Newbery books so they can do double duty! I have SO MANY children's classics on my TBR that you've probably read already -- so interested to see what you end up picking :)

Reply
Lois link
5/18/2018 10:19:28 pm

Congratulations! I hope I can complete my list and join you in not too long! I know I'm already thinking about what's going to be on my next list.

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    My name is Julie, and I own a lot of books. As in, they are stacked on the floor because I've run out of room on the shelves. And those shelves? There are so many books on them that they smile -- not sag; smile. This blog will cover book reviews and all manner of other bookish things.

    You can contact me at julie@smilingshelves.com.

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