The Back to the Classics Challenge next edition is here! I cannot believe it. It’s always fun to read other’s plans, and best of all, to concoct my own. At Karen’s blog you can read all the rules of the challenge, but as a CLASSICS challenge, it means the books have to be 50 years old or older, therefore the books must have been written by 1967.
These are the 2017 12 categories that Karen has chosen for us:
COMPLETED. 1. A 19th Century Classic – any book published between 1800 and 1899.
I listened to Dr. Thorne, by Trollope
COMPLETED. 2. A 20th Century Classic – any book published between 1900 and 1967.
Night, Elie Wiesel, Marion Wiesel. My review.
COMPLETED. 3. A classic by a woman author: Pavilion of Women, Pearl Buck, 1946.
COMPLETED. 4. A classic in translation:
Nazarín, by Benito Pérez Galdós
COMPLETED. 5. A classic published before 1800:
In Praise of Folly, Erasmus of Rotterdam
COMPLETED. 6. An romance classic.
Madame Bovary, by Flaubert
COMPLETED. 7. A Gothic or horror classic:
Northanger’s Abbey
COMPLETED 8. A classic with a number in the title: Ten Fingers for God, by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, published in 1965.
COMPLETED 9. A classic about an animal or which includes the name of an animal in the title:
Planet of the Apes, (El planeta de los simios), Pierre Boulle
COMPLETED 10. A classic set in a place you’d like to visit. It can be real or imaginary: Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, or maybe Los Pazos de Ulloa, by Emilia Pardo Bazán, a Spanish writer, or After You, Marco Polo, by Jen Shor.
COMPLETED 11. An award-winning classic.
I know I want to read the third book in the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, The Cross, published in 1922. This work formed the basis of Undset receiving the 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature,
or
Silence, by Shūsaku Endō. Silence received the Tanizaki Prize for the year’s best full-length literature.
I probably end up reading Silence before the year end, but I’ve read an unusual classic, a Spanish classic, that received different prizes, in particular, Premio Nadal. It’s all explained in the review. El Jarama, or The River, by Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio.
COMPLETED 12. A Russian Classic:
The Brothers Karamazov
As always, I may end up reshuffling some titles, picking different ones, and reading more than one book for some categories. It all depends on what the book club friends decide on reading too, and where my reading takes me. But this year I plan to read some long wanted to read titles I have in my shelves and that I wrote about here, some of which I have added to these 12 categories.
Silvia Cachia 
I like the suggestions, Major. I have read Catch 22, but I LOVE all the other suggestions.
Classics with a number in the title
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes, #2) by Arthur Conan Doyle
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The 39 Steps (Richard Hannay, #1) by John Buchan
Henry V by William Shakespeare
I have A Tale of Two Cities and keep thinking I really need to read it!
I couldn’t find a reply button for under your comment. Anyway, yes…so many book choices! After I left my last comment, I went to the Back to Classics Challenge blog and took a look at it. I saw that you could choose different category completion levels. That’s nice! I also went to see what the Modern Mrs. Darcy challenge is this coming year. She’s doing something a bit different this year. She’s offered two different types of challenges and you can pick either one or do both. You see, I like the idea of participating in a challenge with other people…especially when it’s others I know like you! 🙂 I tend to read a wide variety of types of books and I think that’s why the Back to Classics Challenge feels too limiting for me. But really, I could look at completing the 6 six category limit of that and add in lots of other type books along with it. Hmmm….ideas are rolling around in my head. Heehee. Also, I just joined a local book club. I just found out about it last night and the first get together is in January. So I will be reading books for that. This is the first time I’ve ever been a part of a local book club! I’m so excited about it too!
Amy, don’t say that! I watch TV at times. You are a beautiful literary reader. And I am very grateful that you have not forgotten about The Gray House. I am excited about a bunch of us reading together and THAT title. I know we are all going to enjoy the experience.
I recently started House of Seven Gables, Silvia. It is going to be good I think! 🙂 I can’t help you out with suggestions! You are far ahead of me in your depth and breadth of reading. I’m still on the fridge with my twaddly stuff. 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading The Gray House with you. ❤ Happy Christmas, dear one. ❤ Amy
LOL, Karen, choices, choices! I do the Back to Classics because it fits me well, and I love to write that potential list. Then I change it and tweak it to my liking! (And did you know you can complete 6 books instead of 12?) I like how my friend Kim (who commented here too) made her own challenge with a mix of other ones.
And to me, what is important is that you are reading and loving BK! If the challenge appeals to you, reset in Jan, if not, keep at it. (I cannot wait!) I think I’d do my own challenge, or possibly do the Modern Mrs. Darcy (since it looks like a great fit for you), and maybe even 6 categories from Back to the Classics.
Maybe I should have waited until January to start The Brothers Karamazov? 🙂 I guess I could always just hold off and start again in January…..yeah, that would be hard to do. It’s been hard to put down. 🙂
I always want to join these reading challenges when I read these posts! But I feel like I’m not the best at completing these challenges because I tend to feel like it limits me. Which I guess is silly really. I mean, I did complete all but two categories of the Modern Mrs. Darcy’s challenge this year and still read lots of other books in addition to the challenge categories too. I did feel like the Modern Mrs. Darcy challenge fit me better though because I felt like it had more flexibility in its categories. I tend to read a lot of children’s books because, as you know, my youngest is an avid reader and I pre-read books for her as well as read aloud lots of books too.
I’m still contemplating what I want to do for this coming year. Do I want to attempt the Modern Mrs. Darcy challenge again? Do I want to just go ahead and see how many categories I might be able to fit in reading for the Back to Classics Challenge? Do I want to do my own challenge? I thought about maybe doing a children’s fiction reading challenge for this coming year. I also thought about just starting to read through the 1000 Good Books List or something like that. I have the book The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and I thought at one point of maybe reading through the books listed in that book.
Hmmm……I can’t decide…….
It looks like it’s going to be the year of the Brothers Karamazov for many of us!
I just started reading The Brothers Karamozov a couple of days ago. I’m on Book Two right now and I’ve already had moments of not wanting to put the book down!
I like your suggestions for the Animal category. For the number, I have read 100 Years of Solitude, but the 3 musketeers sounds good.
Great list!
For A Classic about Animal or with an Animal in the title: I am planning on reading The Yearling which is a children’s book. However, it did occur to me later that I could read The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa (1958) there are FOUR possible titles from D.H. Lawrence: The Fox (1923), The White Peacock (1911), The Plumed Serpent (1926) and Kangaroo (1923).
For a Classic with a Number in the Title, I similarly had problems. My two possibilities are 100 Years of Solitude (1967) or The Three Musketeers (1844).
I saw it… I was just now typing a comment. It looks great your challenge and selections! (I would prefer to read Brothers Karamazov along with you, it also fits in the Russians)
Oh nice! I just finished typing up my blog similar to this! My reading challenge is a bit different since I’m trying to read from my shelves and buy after I read some…I’m a book hoarder apparently! 🙂 I have A Tale of Two Cities on my list if you’d want to read that together maybe later in the year? That would fit one of your categories. Looking forward to SO many books!
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Count on that, dear Lisa. I will be emailing you soon.
I adore Don Quijote! It’s very slow going because I only read a little bit at a time, but I just love it. I’m almost finished with book one.
We should email – lisa dot amer at att dot net.I miss you too and would love to be in touch more. 🙂
Then I WILL. I started a few pages and it was too good to stop, but I did, because I want it to count for the Challenge.
Dracula is one of my favorite books of all times. I need to see your selections. The best thing ever that started to improve my reading selections, was to choose from friend’s favorites.
Silvia, you must read The Brothers Karamozov! Must! It is SO good – you won’t be sorry. 🙂
It looks like you have a really great lineup here. Many I haven’t read so I will be adding some to my own list. I just finished reading Dracula, which fits nicely in the Gothic/horror category and was surprisingly really good. I would absolutely recommend that one as well if you haven’t read it yet.
I’m in tow, a few years behind you! lol. That means you are classy too!
This sounds very interesting! I’m a little sad that I’m old enough to be a “classic” now though! Lol