The Classics Club is holding its 18th Spin.
The idea is to list 20 of the books on your Classics Club list before 1 August 2018 when the wheel will turn and reveal the winning number. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List, by 31 August 2018.
The rules suggest we pick five books to challenge ourselves but to be honest my main problem is time so I’m hoping for a relatively quick read. The club recommends the following categories.
5 books you are dreading/hesitant to read
5 books you can’t WAIT to read
5 books you are neutral about
5 books which are free choice
I only made my list at the end of January and I wasn’t silly enough to add books I really didn’t think I’d enjoy but I do have some books that I’m more ambivalent about reading for various reasons.
1. Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolfe
2. Chocky – John Wyndham
3. The Dubliners – James Joyce
4. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
5.The Quiet American – Graham Greene
A mixed bag of books here Virginia Woolfe made the list as I have just read a nonfiction book about her and her servants, and Chocky is the one and only sci-fi addition to my list but the others have just ended up on this list on a whim.
But I am longing to read the next five so hopefully and none of them have made it off the list yet.
6. Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
7. The Hireling – L.P. Hartley
8. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Murial Spark
9. The Shuttle -Frances Hodgeston Burnett
10. We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
A mixed bag for the next set with nothing to tie them together…
11. Bonjour Tristesse – Françoise Sagan
12. The Wheel Spins – Ethel Lina White
13. Sunset Song – Lewis Grassic Gibbon
14. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
15. A Wreath of Roses – Elizabeth Taylor
And a final list with a couple of adult stories written by authors who were better known for their books for children.
16. Miss Pettigrow Lives for a Day- Winifred Watson
17. The Greengage Summer – Rumer Godden
18. Saplings – Noel Streatfeild
19. The Long View – Elizabeth Jane Howard
20. Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell
So that’s my twenty and as I compiled the list for this post and yet again I’m hoping for The Hireling most of all but The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day aren’t far behind.
Which would you pick?
