My first Classics Club Spin! This will help me as I organize my reading for the next few months, and I need that, because, oh my, I get distracted with all that’s out there and not on my 5 year list!
The deal: Choose twenty books from your aforementioned list, number them 1-20 and put them in categories of your (or their) own choosing (optional). On Monday, December 7th, they will choose a number and that is the one you must read by February 1, 2016.
If you are not familiar with the Classics Club and you want to be, go HERE!
Five I can’t wait to read:
1. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
2. Betty A. Smith, Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943)
3. Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (1847)
4. Willa Cather, O Pioneers! (1913)
5. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Five whose authors I know, but don’t know this work:
6. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899)
7. Wilkie Collins, Woman in White (1859)
8. William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)
9. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
10. Benjamin Disraeli, Coninigsby (1844)
Five I am embarrassed to realize I never read:
11. Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind (1936)
12. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
13. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
14. Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca (1938)
15. Virginia Woolf, The Years (1937)
Five I am dreading or feel obligated to read:
16. Charles Kingsley, Hypatia or New Foes with an Old Face (1853)
17. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855)
18. Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851)
19. H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898)
20. Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe (1820)
Relevant Obscurity 
Hi Laurie
Forgive me if I’ve already mentioned Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich – a must read for everyone who appreciates spiritual depth!
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Thanks, Eric. I have heard of this, of course, but never read it.
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I hope you get a low number – 2 and 4 are among my favorite. I’ve never read Gone with the Wind either… it’s embarrassing! Good luck Monday.
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Glad to know I am not the only one 🙂
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Gone with the Wind is just wonderful. It’s long, but it’s a fast read. I also highly recommend Rebecca and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I wish I could read them for the first time again! Good luck with your spin pick!
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Thank you!
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Your list looks wonderful. Frankenstein, A Picture of Dorian Gray and Robinson Crusoe would probably be my favourites. I have Moby Dick too but it’s number 11 for me. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. In any case, I hope you have a great first spin!
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I am not looking forward to Moby Dick. But I do have some guilt over never having read it. I either have to read it or get over it, I guess lol
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Welcome and good luck with your first spin.
I like to find books in common with other spinners so I have a reading buddy. We share O Pioneers and Heart of Darkness this spin 🙂
You have a great list, so I’m sure you’ll enjoy whichever one you spin on Monday.
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Thanks! I am curious about both. Heart of Darkness has been popping up in several places lately, which is interesting, but I am not sure why.
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Hi there! I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading your post! To say it is great (not just this post, all of yours!) is an understatement. You are really talented (:
Because of how much I loved this post I had to check out your blog and I couldn’t help but follow you because your blog is both amazing and beautiful! I am so happy I came across your blog and I can’t wait to read more from you, keep it up (:
By the way this comment is towards all of your blog posts because they are all equally amazing and incredible (:
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Wowee, you just made my weekend 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to say such nice words. It is absolutely wonderful to meet book lovers and other writers like you who are so supportive!
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Aww this makes me so happy!
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Ivanhoe is also on my Spin List. I am neutral about how I feel about reading it. I liked his book The Talisman, but that was years ago.
And you are so right to be looking forward to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. It’s one of those classics that still reads so fresh.
And I have never heard of that Virginia Woolf book that you mention, but I think upon reflection, I may know only three or so titles of hers off the top of my head.
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Hi Christy. I really don’t know anything about The Years, except it was the last book published during her life. I have an old copy I found in a used bookstore. And I still can’t believe I never read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn!
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I came running right over here as soon as my little notification window showed me you had said, “Maybe the CC will pick #11.” Seriously — didn’t even finish the comment. I came right over here to say, “I HOPE THE CC PICKS NUMBER 11!” If it does, I’ll be reading, The Homemaker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, which works for me. SO #11, please! People! 🙂
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haha! I think the number 11 is a very nice, stable symmetrical number, don’t you? Hey CC? No squiggle or curvy numbers this Spin lol We have alllll weekend to think hard about #11. And hey, I do promise you this, if by chance they don’t choose it. I WILL read it in 2016. When we have have such an authority on a book, it is a shame not to take advantage of that 🙂
eta: Hey, this is Spin#11!!!!!!! Good omen!!
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That’s good enough for me!! 😀
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