2027 "Classics" Reading Challenge for Voracious Reader

[RedMage]

I'm a fairly voracious reader--or, perhaps, listener as the vast majority of my "reading" is by audiobook. (See my signature for last year's total.) I primarily read (both physical text and listening) fantasy and scifi. I have a number of series and standalone books I want to read next year, in 2027, but I keep thinking about challenging myself to read/listen to some Classics. American or British, I read several for school. But that was 20 years ago.

Can anyone recommend a list of specific books and/or authors I should read next year? I'm thinking 1 book a month. I'm a guy, and not into the Romance genre. I tried this a year or two ago and decided to start with Little Women, for some reason... I DNF'd it and didn't pick up any more Classics at that time. Despite that, I'm open to Austen and the Brontes and others.

I remember liking The Scarlett Letter and Of Mice and Men, hating Walden and Moby Dick. Beowulf was fun, but that may have been because our class of 17 and 18 year olds read it aloud with some trying to do voices, some hamming up the euphemism "making logs". Tale of Two Cities was really difficult, but that was the teacher's fault which is a whole story in and of itself.

 

[Cicero]

On Human Bondage by W Somerset Maugham
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
The Oxbow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Vathek by Williams Beckford
The Star Rover by Jack London
I Claudius by Robert Graves

 

[Raf]

I had to think about this...and do a bit of research. While I have read and enjoyed many classics. I didn't really want to post them here for a re-read. So, this list are some of the ones that I have always wanted to get around to. But have, unfortunately, slipped under my radar over the years.

The Count of Monte Christo – Alexandre Dumas
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
The Hamlet – William Faulkner (1rst of the Snopes Trilogy)
True At First Light – Ernest Hemingway
The Picture of Dorian Gray-Oscar Wilde
Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantez
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kenedy O’Toole

You know, we could do this here. Choose & read or try to read one classic story a month and talk about it. Of course DNF's fully allowed because some classics are dated, dense and not much fun, lol.

Oops, misread your post. You were asking about a list for you.

Here are some I've really enjoyed:

Cannery Row & Sweet Thursday - John Steinbeck. (related books)
A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Kim-Rudyard Kipling
Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
Robinson Crusoe- Daniel DeFoe

 

[Cicero]

Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos
Lost Horizon by James Hilton
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
King Solomons Mines by H Rider Haggard
She by H Rider Haggard
The Last Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer Lytton
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Hunchback of Notre dame
The Maltese Falcon by Dashell Hammet

 

[Randy M.]

If you liked Of Mice and Men you could try The Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden. Haven't read the latter, and I have reservations about the former, but Steinbeck is so easy to read I had no trouble finishing it and overall enjoyed it. If you want something lighter, Raf's suggestion of Cannery Row is spot on.

For Whom the Bell Tolls is something of an adventure novel, though Hemingway wasn't one for non-stop action. I'm not sure how listening to it would go, though. His dialog flows naturally on the page, but actors have had trouble with it when not altered for movies.

With William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying is usually used as an entry level book. It's been awhile, but I think Light in August wouldn't be all that bad to start with. Or if you like mysteries, Intruder in the Dust, which in some ways reads like an early version of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Speaking of which, that's a pretty good one, too.

I enjoyed Dickens' Hard Times, which seems not to be the general consensus. David Copperfield was also enjoyable. Leaning more toward realism, George Eliot's Adam Bede was good and I should have read more by her.

Almost forgot Mark Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is certainly a classic.

I wonder if there's an audio version of Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews. I remember it as one of the funniest books I read for a course on comedy in literature.

I like Cicero's suggestion of The Maltese Falcon, which could act as a palate cleanser if you read a bunch of Victorians. And there's always The Hound of the Baskervilles.

 

[RedMage]

Thanks @Cicero, @Raf and @Randy M.! Those are all great suggestions!

You know, we could do this here. Choose & read or try to read one classic story a month and talk about it. Of course DNF's fully allowed because some classics are dated, dense and not much fun, lol.

Oops, misread your post. You were asking about a list for you.

Hahaha! I originally intended a list for me, but while reading your post, Raf, I thought exactly this. We could do a book club here!

About 60% of the suggestions so far are books and/or authors I haven't heard of. I have heard of the rest and have wanted to read them, too, but never seem to get around to them. Shall we pick something and plan to read/discuss starting in January? I am planning to use my library, so given potential hold times, it may take a while to get the book. We could make a short list, check availability and go from there...

From the suggestions here, I'd be interested in starting with one of the following:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

This past January I listened to Dumas' The Three Musketeers, and last summer I spent a few weeks listening to a 70+ hour collection of all Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, short stories and novels, read by Stephen Fry with his personalized introductions to each novel or short story collection. That was on Audible and it's fantastic!

I also listened to King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard last fall. It was generally enjoyable; however, the big game hunts hit me harder than I would have thought. I'm not a hunter and have never really been exposed to hunting as a thing people do--I'm a urban/suburban boy, I get my meat at the grocery store. That said, I've donated to a few conservation organizations but I don't march or picket or volunteer for them either. Given all that, the book (in my opinion only) seemed to rather glorify hunting of creatures that are, today, endangered. And, yeah, the book was written 150 years ago. It was a very different time in many different ways. Same for all these classics. That's something to be considered while reading and discussing...

Anyhow, I'd be down for an SFFWorld Non-SFFH Classics Book Group!

 

[Raf]

Thanks @Cicero, @Raf and @Randy M.! Those are all great suggestions!


Hahaha! I originally intended a list for me, but while reading your post, Raf, I thought exactly this. We could do a book club here!

About 60% of the suggestions so far are books and/or authors I haven't heard of. I have heard of the rest and have wanted to read them, too, but never seem to get around to them. Shall we pick something and plan to read/discuss starting in January? I am planning to use my library, so given potential hold times, it may take a while to get the book. We could make a short list, check availability and go from there...

From the suggestions here, I'd be interested in starting with one of the following:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

This past January I listened to Dumas' The Three Musketeers, and last summer I spent a few weeks listening to a 70+ hour collection of all Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, short stories and novels, read by Stephen Fry with his personalized introductions to each novel or short story collection. That was on Audible and it's fantastic!

I also listened to King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard last fall. It was generally enjoyable; however, the big game hunts hit me harder than I would have thought. I'm not a hunter and have never really been exposed to hunting as a thing people do--I'm a urban/suburban boy, I get my meat at the grocery store. That said, I've donated to a few conservation organizations but I don't march or picket or volunteer for them either. Given all that, the book (in my opinion only) seemed to rather glorify hunting of creatures that are, today, endangered. And, yeah, the book was written 150 years ago. It was a very different time in many different ways. Same for all these classics. That's something to be considered while reading and discussing...

Anyhow, I'd be down for an SFFWorld Non-SFFH Classics Book Group!

Count me in Red.

 

[RedMage]

Count me in Red.

Yay!

Anyone else want in?? @Hobbit and @Fryan, you've both recently talked about your local book groups in other threads. Would either of you be interested in another group for non-SFFH classics? 1 book a month, starting in January.

 

[Hobbit]

Hi RM. Thank you for the offer, but with all the review stuff as well I think if I took on another book club my head would explode!

But I am interested to see what people suggest/is read.