"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Friday, January 2, 2026

Classics Club 26 for 2026

The Classics Club -- 26 Questions in 2026: 

1. a. When did you join the Classics Club? b. How many titles have you read so far? 
  • a. I think I joined the CC in 2007. I'd recently become a high school librarian and suddenly realized how woefully behind on reading classics when students started asking me questions about them.
  • b. So far I've read 144 books. Link to my current list: Here  
2. a. What classic are you reading next and why? b. Any books from 1926?
  • a. Today I am starting A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. Last year, part way through the year I started the practice of reading 12-pages a day of classic books at the encouragement of some book blogger. Magically following that practice I was able to finish more than double the number of classic books compared to other years. I let off that practice in December and am determined to pick it back up in 2026. I purchased a used copy of A Passage to India in an old, overstuffed used book shop this past summer and it seems like a good place to start the year.
  • b. I just looked. The only book still unread on my CC list which was published in 1926 is The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. I will make it a 2026 priority. 
3. Best Book I've read so far for club? Why?
  • I have read some wonderful books which are also so memorable. To name two: Lonesome Dove (McMurtry, 1985) is one that really stands out. It is such an epic story, one I got completely lost in. // Brideshead Revisited (Waugh, 1945) is another. This one just wrapped me up in its beautiful language and symbolism.
4. Classic author who I've read the most:
  • Easy. Jane Austen. I've now read all her major novels and most of her shorter works. Just the juvenalia left to go.
5. An author I'd like to learn more about, read more works by:
  • Herman Melville. This year Moby-Dick is my One Big Book.
6. The first classic I ever read:
  •  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I read a lot of from a series of Children's Great Illustrated Classics and I remember that one clearly.
7. Favorite Children's classic read as a child?
  • Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I had it figured out that I was Jo, my older sister was Meg, and my younger sister was Amy. My brother, by default, was Laurie. (No Beth.)
8. My most memorable classic
  • Pride and Prejudice. Probably because I have interacted with it so much over the years.
9. Least favorite liked classic?
  • Wide Sargasso Sea by Rhys. I hated HATED that book. And I didn't even have to read it so I should have stopped reading but it was a CC SPIN book for me so I kept going. Another I did stop reading and never finished was Clockwork Orange. Awful.
10. Favorite movie or TV adaption of a classic?
  • Pride and Prejudice TV Mini Series/BBC with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet.
  • Midsummer Night's Dream movie (1999) with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline
11. Favorite Most recently read biography about a classic author: Harper Lee
  • Furious Hours: Murder, Mayhem, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
12. Favorite classic author in translation? Favorite translator?
  • Fyodor Dostoevsky.
  • I just read the book Brothers Karamazov and was so impressed in the forward it was mentioned that other translators had flattened out the author's intended humor and recommended the edition I read, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky 
13. A favorite classic poet? Playwright?
  • Poet: Rumi, Persian poet and mystic. I just love the imagery evoked from the poems.
  • Playwright: Shakespeare. I do not, as a practice, enjoy reading plays by anyone however. Recently I watched the movie "Hamnet" which is fictional story about Shakespeare's family and how he came to write Hamlet. In the last scene, portions of Hamlet is performed. So moving.
14. a. Which classic character most reminds me of me? b. Which character do I wish I could be like?
  • a. Anne Elliot in Persuasion by Austen. Often overlooked.
  • b. Pippi Longstockings by Astrid Lindgren. More fun-loving.  
15. What is the oldest classic I've read?
  • Does the Bible count? The oldest parts of the Bible, the first five books, are considered to be written 13th-12th Century BCE.
16. What classic do I wish had an ending beyond the original ending?
  • I've always wished that there was more story to Pride and Prejudice. 
17. Favorite edition of a classic?
  • I own the whole Chronicles of Narnia first Book Club Editions with illustrations by Pauline Baynes, published in the 1960s.
18. Do I reread classics?
  • Yes, sometimes. I've reread all of Austen's books. Sometimes I pause before rereading others because I don't want my memory of the book to be tainted.
19. A classic title I could not finish:
  • As I said before, A Clockwork Orange (Burgess, 1962)
20. A classic book I expected to dislike but ended up loving --
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1954. I hadn't read this as a teenager like the rest of the world and thought I'd escaped something awful but I really appreciate this book and this of it often.
21. Fellow Classic Clubbers whose blogs I frequent:
  • Deb Nance at Reader Buzz
  • Brona at Brona's Books
  • Chris Lovegrove at Calmgrove Books
  • Margaret at Books Please
  • Adam on Roof Beam Reader (not sure if still active)
22. Readalongs?
  • I'm not opposed to them but just haven't participated.
23. If I could, what book would I recommend for a readalong?
  • Moby-Dick, since I'm reading it anyway this year.
24. What is my favorite part of being a member of the Classics Club?
  • The SPINS for sure. They force me to keep chipping away on the list.
25. What would I like to see more of on Classics Club?
  • I wish we had more SPINS, one per quarter and have them on a specific schedule so I can keep track and know when the next one is coming. For example: One per season, starting dates: January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, October 1st. 
26. A question I have for the questionnaire?
  • Q: What is one classic you remember reading and liking that no one seems to talk about?
  • A: Lorna Doone by Blackmore. I remember reading it as a kid and loved it. (I bet I read an abridged version.) It is never on any list I've seen as if it has completely slipped off the face of the earth.

-Anne
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