The rules are that I have to read 50 classics in 5 years time. I have to make a list (this is often where I’ve stalled out in the past) and to do this I have to define what classic means for me. I think a classic is something that stands the test of time and has something to say. I will use an arbitrary number of 25 years, so anything before 1990 (just typing that makes me feel old). The list can be changed as the years go on, but I think I’ll start with the classics that are sitting on my shelves right now, many of them for years. Take a look and tell me which one I should read first.
1. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
2. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
3. Washington Square by Henry James
4. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
5. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
6. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
7. Ada by Vladimir Nabokov
8. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
9. Night by Elie Wiesel
10. Up From Slavery by Booker T Washington
11. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
12. Cat’s Cradle or Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
13. Aesop’s Fables
14. Good as Gold by Joseph Heller
15. Lady Chatterly’s Lover or Women in Love by DH Lawrence
16. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
17. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
18. Moonstone or The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
19. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
20. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
21. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
22. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
23. 1984 by George Orwell
24. Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone by James Baldwin
25. Babbit by Sinclair Lewis
25. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
26. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert m Pirsig
27. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
28. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
29. Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
30. The Chosen by Chaim Potok
31. Christy by Catherine Marshall
32. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
33. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
34. Roll of Thunder Hear, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
35. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
36. Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou
37. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
38. Oliver Twist or Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
39. The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
40. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
41. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
42. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
43. The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien
44. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
45. Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
46. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
47. The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
48. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
49. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
50. The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer
Stacy's Books 