Classics Club - Fave Classic

Since the Classics Club site has officially launched, I thought this would be a good time to see where I’m at and join in on the first meme. Surprisingly, during my blogging absence I read four books off my Classics Club list without even realizing it! Go me! I’m quite sad that I put The Golden Bowl by Henry James on the list instead of The Portrait of a Lady since Portrait is the one I’m reading now and it’s not making me jump for joy (it’s not bad either, it’s just not awesome thus far). When I made my list, I included quite a few things that would be more of a stretch for me instead of just making a list of 50 unread classics that I own, since those are ones I’ll read anyway.

Expect reviews of these four classics soon:

• Ulysses
• Animal Farm
• Cloud Atlas (I know this one isn’t exactly a classic yet, but I still put it on my list.)
• Far from the Madding Crowd

As for the meme, we’re supposed to write about our favorite classic work. But how can I pick just one? Out of my top ten favorite books, nine are classics and I have no idea how to order them. I’ll list all ten here for you, in case you’re curious. I’m thinking about rereading all of these next year, since I haven’t been doing much rereading lately. How fun would that be – reading all your favorite books in one year!

In no particular order:

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
•  A Little Princess
•  I Capture the Castle 
•  Pride and Prejudice (I’m limiting myself to one work per author)
•  The Harry Potter series (if I only get to pick one, I’d pick the Prisoner of Azkaban) 
•  Bleak House 
•  Their Eyes Were Watching God
•  Wuthering Heights
•  Jane Eyre
•  Atlas Shrugged

How do I pick just one of those as my favorite favorite??? I suppose I might say A Little Princess, just because it was the first of these I read and it was really the book that taught me to love classics and England. Without Sara Crewe, would I have developed a life-long passion for both of those? Who knows. I must have read this 100 times. I loved pretended to be Sara, which is sort of morbid. I’d sit in my closet and read, pretending it was the attic. I sometimes tried to read in our actual attic, but it was too dusty and usually too hot. I was much better at pretending to suffer than actually suffering. J

It’s interesting to list all of these out. I notice some common themes. They all feature strong females, even the Dickens’ title, which is a bit unusual for him. All but two focus on younger women, so it makes sense I’d identify with them. All except P&P have some sort of sadness/darkness to them and focus on people finding hope even through struggles. There’s a lot of poor characters struggling to make ends meet. But there’s a lot of hope too, even though several of these don’t have the typical happy ending. And quite a few feature characters who like to read. Can’t imagine why I like that! Maybe I’ll come up with two more titles and re-read one per month next year. Maybe a Shakespeare's Henry V and Vanity Fair.

Well, I'm off to watch more Olympics! I've managed to avoid spoilers so far and hope USA won gold in women's gymnastics today!