Rebooting the Classics TBR

In looking back over my 2018 reading year, it became apparent that my Classics TBR list was not working.  I tried to include a variety of different books across several time periods, but I ended up with a lot of books that simply did not call out to be read.  I am not ready to give up on the idea of the Classics TBR, but in order to increase my chances of success, I’m making some changes.

First of all, I am going to remove the Persephone books.  I have a separate reading goal to read all of them so including a selection on the Classics TBR seems redundant.  I have cut the list down to 70 books (as opposed  to 100, and have made substitutions as necessary to create a list that I am excited about.  I am going to try to read these 70 books within 5 years (14 books a year), so my target completion date is 12/31/2023.

I hope these changes will provide a good inspirational boost to start out 2019.

Here is the revised list:

Pre-20th Century Classics

1. Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
2. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
3. The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
4. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
5. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
6. Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell
7. Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim – Finished 1/2/2019
8. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
9. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
10. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
11. The Backwoods of Canada by Catharine Parr Traill
12. Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope – Finished 2/9/2019
13. The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Leo Tolstoy
14. The Annotated FairyTales by Maria Tatar
15. Kivert’s Diary by Francis Kivert
16. Adam Bede by George Eliot – Finished October 2019
17. To Have and to Hold: A Tale of Providence and Perseverance in Colonial Jamestown by Mary Johnston
18. Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper
19. Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
20. The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
21. Evelina by Fanny Burney
22. The Odd Women by George Gissing
23. The Half Sisters by Geraldine Jewsbury
24. The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow & Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond by Mrs. Oliphant – Finished 6/4/2019
25. The Eustache Diamonds by Anthony Trollope – Finished October 2019
26. Phineas Redux  by Anthony Trollope – Finished 4/17/2019
27. The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope – Finished 6/15/2019
28. The Duke’s Children by Anthony Trollope
29. East Lynne by Ellen Wood
30. The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde – Finished 3/11/2019
31. The Rebecca Rioter by Amy Dillwyn
32. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
33. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
34. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Need to choose an alternate
35. John Halifax, Gentleman by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

20th Century Classics

1. Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin – Finished September 2019
2. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton
3. The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
4. Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
5. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
6. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
7. Queen Lucia (Lucia, #1) by E. F. Benson
8. A Country Doctor’s Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov
9. Mary Peters by Mary Ellen Chase
10. Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns, finished 1/28/2019
11. An Autobiography by Agatha Christie, finished 5/25/2019
12. Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks
13. Shadow of a Lady (Richard Medford #1) by Holly Roth – Finished 6/15/2019
14. Something of Value by Robert Ruark
15. Albert and Jacob by Cora Sandel
16. Canoeing with the Cree by Eric Sevareid
17. Bel Lamington by D. E. Stevenson
18. A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
19. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
20. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
21. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
22. Little Boy Lost by Margharita Laski – Finished 5/6/2019
23. The Town House (House #1) by Norah Lofts
24. Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
25. The Narrow Corner by W. Somerset Maugham
26. South Riding by Winifred Holtby
27. Emily of New Moon (Emily #1) by L. M. Montgomery
28. The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
29. The World my Wilderness by Rose Macaulay
30. The Last Hurrah by Edwin O’Connor
31. In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
32. The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
33. Memed My Hawk (Ince Memed #1) by Kemal Yasar
34. The Home of the Blizzard: A True Story of Antarctic Survival by Douglas Mawson
35. Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson

Alternates

• A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
• The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
• Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge
• A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird
• Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
• The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
• The Mysteries of Udolpho  by Ann Radcliff
• Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick Nash
• Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
• The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
• The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell