Reading one classic book per month (all right, I ended up reading three in December, but I still read twelve classics over the year) was one of the best decisions I ever made. I no longer find a book labelled with the term ‘classic’ intimidating. I even found myself looking forward to choosing and reading my next classic, and I actually sometimes found it difficult to pick one because there are so many I want to read. If you told me I’d feel like this 5 years ago, I wouldn’t have believed you. Although most of the classics I read were ‘contemporary’ or ‘modern’ (I have yet to pick up Dickens, for example) I still think it’s a massive achievement. Some of them even became my top books of 2012!
If you’ve seen my 2013 bookish resolutions, you’ll know that I’m continuing with the ‘classics challenge’ this year, alongside the 50 Book Challenge. You can see all of the classics I read in 2012 here. I’ll also link back to this page when I complete each classic this year. First up, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde!
Classics Read in 2013
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
★★★★ • Goodreads • Buy
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
★★★ • Goodreads • Buy
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
★★★★★ • Goodreads • Buy
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
★★★★★ • Goodreads • Buy
Yaayy…that’s my favourite! Waiting to hear what you think of it.
Super! I’m really enjoying it at the moment and I cannot see that changing!
That is my favorite gothic novel; hope you like it. Can’t wait to see your review :)
Excellent! After Jane Eyre and Rebecca, I see the appeal of gothic novels.
Rebecca? Never heard of that one. I’ll have to google it and see if I can download it if it seems interesting enough.
Oh yes. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It’s so good. You can read my review here :)
Goodluck to you, the classics are so hard for me to read.
Have you tried some children’s classics, like Anne of Green Gables? I find that they can be a fantastic way into classics!
Good luck! I’ve heard so many great thing about Dorian Grey, I want to try it as well. Looking forward to your thoughts.
Me too! I kept seeing positive reviews and comments about it last year so knew I had to read it for this challenge.
This sounds a great way to tackle the classics, very do-able. I haven’t read it but from what I’ve read about it, Dorian Gray is a good choice.
It means my reading of classics improves dramatically, but it’s not a daunting target. I’m enjoy Dorian Gray so far. I think it was a good choice too. It’s quite… not light-hearted exactly, but humorous and eccentric (at the moment, at least).
I recently purchased The Picture of Dorian Gray as an ebook. I have yet to read it (although I have seen the film) but am looking forward to your review.
Good luck with meeting your challeneg this year :-)
A friend informed me, when I was telling her about the book, that it was made into a film recently. It explains why I kept seeing people talk about it! I’ll have to watch it sometime. And thank you!
Dorian Gray! I love that book!
When/If you begin Dickens, remember that he wrote serially, with a few chapters coming out every week or month. It’s like marathoning your favorite TV show: the characters and their plots seem repetitive after a while, but as the show comes on once a week, you never notice these things. To keep the enjoyment level up, read another book (of a different writing style / genre / etc) alongside it. After a few chapters of Dickens, read a chapter of something else.
I will do! :)
Also, Wilkie Collins was a student of Dickens. Great story-teller, very gothic as well. If you don’t like Dickens but you like Wilde and Bronte, definitely check out Collins (“Woman in White” is an excellent one).
I just went to download it, but apparently I already have – thank you!
What a great idea ! I will seriously think about it.
I’d thoroughly recommend to anyone to have a go at it!
I started and I must confess it’s fabulous ! Well, I read a lot of books for children (it’s part of my work) but, thanks to this challenge, I discovered and re-discovered books. It is soooo great :)
Hi Stacey! :) I was wondering if you have read Pamela by Samuel Richardson before? I’m planning to read 1 classic book . I’d love to hear your thoughts about it. I’m very new to classic books (despite reading The Great Gatsby, Heart of Darkness & Pride and Prejudice for A level Literature) in the sense that I’ve never read them of my own accord before. If you have other recommendations, that will be great too ! :)
Hello Genevieve! You might find this post (on Tumblr) quite helpful :)
Thankss Stacey! :)
Oscar Wilde is one of my all time favourite writers and people. Good job on the classics! I’ve gotten a little more into them lately too. I’m a bit like you! I never thought I’d like them, and in high school if a teacher told me to read something – it was a sure way to turn me right off. haha! I missed out on reading so many great books because I was such a horror!
Exactly! I used to think that all classics would be terribly dry and difficult to read, so I’m actually in shock most of the time at how untrue this is.
[...] I took a trip to two London bookshops with a friend last month, as part of my A Tour of London Bookshops feature, the first of which you can read about here. In the second, I bought two John Wyndham books and In Cold Blood, which were all on my Adult Fiction wishlist and are appropriate for my classics challenge! [...]
[...] Adult fiction (classic, fantasy, adventure) Challenge: Classics Challenge – #2 Rating: ★★★ More: [...]
I wonder… is there a place to find a list of classics? I want to attempt to read more classic books, but I’m not sure where to begin. How do I know if a book falls into the category of “classic”?
I tend to look at Goodreads here, look for books I already know about, or just make a judgement call! I know a lot of people follow the BBC’s list here.