I joined the Classics Club way back in 2012 with the intention of reading 55 classics by the time my 55th birthday came around. Sadly I missed that deadline, shockingly I’m getting on for 58 now! I recently realised that I must have passed my target so I thought it was about time I counted up. Below is the result and if you click on the titles it’ll take you to my thoughts on the book. The list isn’t chronological – I’m not that well organised.

I’m just going to continue with the Classics Club though. Over the years my idea of what a classic book is has changed a lot. In the beginning I was just counting much older books, mainly Victorian, but recently I’ve been a lot less strict about that. I do feel that it’s a bit strange calling something a classic when it has been written well within my lifetime, but I think a lot of people regard 30 years in print as meaning that a book is a classic – fair enough I suppose. Going by that my list of classics read since 2012 would be much longer than the one below. I’ve really enjoyed reading them, some more than others of course but I’ll write about that in another post soon.

1. In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck
2. Linda Tressel by Anthony Trollope
3. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
4. The Lady of the Camelias by Alexandre Dumas
5. Swan Song by John Galsworthy
6. An Academic Question by Barbara Pym
7. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
8. Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov
9. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
10. The Talisman by Walter Scott
11. Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
12. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
13. The Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope
14. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
15. The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
16. The Grand Babylon Hotel by Arnold Bennett
17. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
18. The Old Wives’ Tale by Arnold Bennett
19. Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett
20. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
21. O Pioneer! by Willa Cather
22. Moby Dick by Hermann Melville
23. The Land of Green Ginger by Winifred Holtby
24. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
25. An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym
26. The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
27. England, Their England by A.G. Macdonell
28. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
29. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
30. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
31. Witch Wood by John Buchan
32. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
33. The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck
34. Love by Elizabeth von Arnim
35. Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitgerald
36. Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys
37. Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope
38. One of Ours by Willa Cather
39. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
40. Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
41. Civil to Strangers by Barbara Pym
42. The Silver Spoon by John Galsworthy
43. An Eye for an Eye by Anthony Trollope
44. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
45. The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola
46. The Ladies Paradise by Emile Zola
47. The Castle by Franz Kafka
48. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
49. Miss Mackenzie by Anthony Trollope
50. He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
51. Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope
52. The Duke’s Children by Anthony Trollope
53. The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope
54. Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
55. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
56. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
57. My Antonia by Willa Cather
58. Alexander’s Bridge by Willa Cather
59. The Professor’s House by Willa Cather
60. Therese Raquin by Emile Zola
61. Germinal by Emile Zola
62. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
63. The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
64. Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
65. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
66. In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
67. The Pastor’s Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim
68. Introduction to Sally by Elizabeth von Arnim