#9 - Least favorite classic? Why?
Hands down, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway.
The 'why' is in the post from when I read it.
#8 Which classic is your most memorable classic to date? Why?
Considering only the classics that I read specifically for classics club, two titles stand out as most memorable: Lonesome Dove and The French Lieutenant's Woman.
Both novels were books I had known about for a long time and thought I knew what they would be. They both turned out to be quite different, and much more fabulous, than I expected.
I finished 12 books last month.
Birthday flowers, 2026
A quote from this month's reading:
“It is fruitless to search for the characteristics of an “American” identity, because each nation has its own notion of what being American should mean.”
― American Nations
To kick off the new year the Classics Club posted a list of 26 questions designed to help members consider their relationship with reading classics. I plan to answer one question every few weeks throughout 2026.
#6 - First classic you ever read?
#7 - Favorite children's classic?
The first classic I read for Classics Club was the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I participated in a read-along for this book, which was probably a good thing because I didn't love this book and that might have been the end of my club activity if I hadn't had the read-along to keep me going.
The first classic I ever read was Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I wrote about my experience with it in 2013 in a meme about re-reading.
Little Women is also my favorite children's classic. I am also fond of Alice in Wonderland, The Phantom Tollbooth, A Wrinkle in Time by Ursula K. Le Guin, and Eloise by Kay Thompson.
When I was a kid I loved the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett, the Pippi Longstocking books by Astrid Lindgren, and the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books by Betty MacDonald. I haven't read any of these since I was actually a kid, however, so I don't know if they hold up.
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| My partner's new hobby ❤ |
A quote from this month's reading:
“Both described at the same time how it was always March there and always Monday, and then they understood that José Arcadio Buendía was not as crazy as the family said, but that he was the only one who had enough lucidity to sense the truth of the fact that time also stumbled and had accidents and could therefore splinter and leave an eternalized fragment in a room.” ― One Hundred Years of Solitude
#5 - If you could explore one author’s literary career from first publication to last — meaning you have never read this author and want to explore him or her by reading what s/he wrote in order of publication — who would you explore? Obviously this should be an author you haven’t yet read, since you can’t do this experiment on an author you’re already familiar with. 🙂 Or, which author’s work you are familiar with might it have been fun to approach this way?
I love this idea but I have not been able to come up with an author that I want to do this with whose work I haven't already read most of. I am definitely a completist, when I find an author I like I keep reading their work until I am out of books. I have finished (or very nearly finished) the works of Willa Cather, Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Robertson Davies, Colson Whitehead, and Margaret Atwood. Until I read one of their books though, I don't know if I am interested enough to read the whole oeuvre.
I did do this once with a poet -- Jane Kenyon and I enjoyed the experience. I read a biography of her along with the poetry and essays in order of publication.
One Hundred Years of Solitude “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice...”
“Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end."
#4 - Classic author who has the most works on your club list? Or, classic author you’ve read the most works by?
Charles Dickens definitely has the most spots on my list -- I have read 4 of his novels for the Club and there are 4 more of his books on my current list.
On Sunday 8th February 2026 the spin number will be posted and the challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on my Spin List by the 29th March, 2026.
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| Contoocook, NH, Jan 2025 |
A quote from this month's reading:
“Consider my grandmother... But she wasn't a fan of the unvarnished truth. She liked the truth fully varnished, with a tinted glaze and a doily on top.” --A. J. Jacobs, It's All Relative
#3 - Best book you’ve read so far with the club? Why?
I give all the books I read star ratings, and 5-star books are fairly rare -- I save that for books that were really wonderfully written and that really spoke to me in some way. Out of the 110 books I have read for the club there are only 8 that I gave 5 stars.
