#theclassicsclub
#ccspin
The Classics Club
2019-2024
The Classics Spin #21
Time for a new spin!
At your blog, before next Monday, Monday 23, create a post to list your choice of any twenty books that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list.
This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the year. Try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five Classics Club books you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, re-reads, ancients — whatever you choose.)
On Monday September 23, we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by October 21, 2019.
I have just started my 2nd list of 50 classics, so I’m just picking the 20 oldest books on my list.
Some are quite long, like #1, some short:
| 1 | Laurence Sterne | The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1767) |
| 2 | Xavier de Maistre | Voyage Autour de Ma Chambre (1794) |
| 3 | Edgar Allan Poe | The Masque of the Red Death (1842) |
| 4 | Henry David Thoreau | Civil Disobedience (1849) |
| 5 | Nikolai Leskov | On the Edge of the World (1875) |
| 6 | Robert Louis Stevenson | Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) |
| 7 | Fergus Hume | The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886) |
| 8 | Edmond Rostand | Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) = reread |
| 9 | Machado de Assi | Dom Casmurro (1899) |
| 10 | Marcel Proust | Days of Reading (1905) |
| 11 | Natsume Soseki | Kusamakura (1906) |
| 12 | Kakuzo Okakura | The Book of Tea (1906) |
| 13 | Natsume Soseki | Sanshirō (1908) |
| 14 | Natsume Soseki | The Miner (1908) |
| 15 | Robert Walser | Jakob von Gunten (1909) |
| 16 | Natsume Soseki | To the Spring Equinox and Beyond (1910) |
| 17 | Natsume Soseki | The Gate (1910) |
| 18 | Marie Belloc Lowndes | The Lodger (1913) |
| 19 | Christopher Morley | Parnassus on Wheels (1917) |
| 20 | Jun’ichiro Tanizaki | Devils in Daylight (1918) |
COME BACK ON SEPTEMBER 23
TO SEE WHICH BOOK I HAVE TO READ SOON.
HOW MANY HAVE YOU READ?
WHICH ONE IS YOUR FAVORITE?
Words And Peace 
Waiting with excitement to see which one you will read!
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Me too!!
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Nice list…hope you enjoy whatever the spin chooses for you.
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thanks, we’ll see
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You have a fabulous list, with many books that are new-to-me. The only book on your list I’ve read is Civil Disobedience. I’ve often wanted to read the Robert Louis Stevenson book; I always feel akin to him since my school was named after him.
Good luck!
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so sounds like you could add it to your list!
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I’ve read on,y two from your list, numbers 1 and 9. Tristram Shandy was a slog for me and of it wasn’t for the fact it was on the university required reading list I would have given up. Dom Casmurro is amusing…
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Oh oh, I have so much hope for Shandy, we’ll see
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I’ve not heard of a lot of yours but I hope you get something you enjoy. Personally, I’d be hoping for the Edgar Allan Poe as that would also be an excuse to watch the wonderful film version starring Vincent Price and directed by Roger Corman.
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Ah ah, thnaks for mentioning the movie!!
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That’s an unusual list, I’ve only read number 6 and possibly number 3 back in the year dot.
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well, 6 out of these unusual 20 is really good! And thanks for introducing me to this idiom I didn’t know – the year dot.
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I love all your Japanese classics, I have a few of those floating around too. And you have an Aussie on your list, although I’d forgive you if you didn’t realise. Fergus Hume was born and died in England. But he was schooled in NZ then moved to Melbourne to be a barrister. It’s where he wrote (& set) The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, so I wish you that for this spin 🙂
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Thanks for your forgiveness, indeed I had no idea about Hume in NZ and Australia!! I plan to read the Japanese starting in January, for the Japanese Literature Challenge
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Oh ugh, I can never think of Tristram Shandy without a shudder. Eighteenth century fiction and I largely did not get along when I had to read it for college. But maybe you will enjoy it more than I did.
I had never heard of Robert Walser till I moved here to Switzerland. But Biel/Bienne (the nearest big city) was his hometown and things are named after him there; right now there is a huge wooden sculpture-installation about him in front of the train station. So I’ve become curious to read something by him. Interesting that he turned up on your list just now, I have never seen him on anyone else’s! So I rather hope you get that one so I can learn more…
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Funny, I just had a very positive feedback on Shandy from one of my students, and then yours. We’ll see how it works for me. And I love our other connection with Walser!! I apparently added it to my TBR 5 years ago, but I have no idea where I heard about it. At some point, I added some comments about why I added a book to my TBR, but not back then
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Well, I see you did not get either one, but On the Edge of the World by Leskov – I have never heard of this book. How do you feel about that pick?
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Thanks for asking. I thought I had talked about that, but it must have been in a comment, so I added my answer to my post on what I got: https://wordsandpeace.com/2019/09/23/the-classics-club-what-i-got-for-the-classics-spin-21/
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