The Classics Club: I'm Halfway!

On the 16th March, 2012 I joined the newly-formed Classics Club and suddenly , hard as it is to believe, two and a half years have passed by which, in terms of time, is halfway. I committed to reading 60 classics and fortunately made good progress during those first two years as this year hasn't been memorable.

I have enjoyed every part of my participation with the Classics Club - the club events, the annual readathon, the Spins , the monthly memes, and with the community at large. There are always new blogs to discover, new recommendations to explore and being part of a group is both inspiring and motivating.

Progress report - 37/60 read

Some of the highlights have been.....

Clarissa by Samuel Richardson.....a year long group read in 2012 hosted by JoAnn @ Lakeside Musing and Terri @ Tip of the Iceberg. At 1500 pages the longest classic I've read and one I would never have finished on my own. There was a great deal of wailing and teeth gnashing but some of us battled on together and managed to reach the end. Not one I will ever contemplate rereading.


Our Mutual Friend & Bleak House by Charles Dickens - renewing my acquaintance with a once rejected author. If my teenage self wasn't too impressed time has changed that completely.
With that in mind I knew I had to do some rereading - so far only Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte but again completely different that what I remembered.

An Underrated Author - Arnold Bennett

Three Big Surprises......authors I had always told myself I would not like and therefore had never read any of their work. A lesson in never assuming I know best and to at least give every book a chance. I loved them all!

East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Dracula by Bram Stoker

I could never make a list of favourites because there has only been one I didn't like at all - Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms.

On a less positive note my bete noire is reviewing at which I fail miserably and my drafts list is full of half written posts discarded because I don't feel I can adequately comment on the classics. I need to make an effort to clear the decks even if it's only a simple record or a quick mention.

I look forward to the second half of this journey with as much, maybe more, enthusiasm as I felt at the beginning. So many wonderful classics waiting to be read!

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