26 Questions in 2026 (#11)

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. 

#11 -Favorite biography about a classic author you’ve read, or the biography on a classic author you most want to read, if any?

I love a good biography, and picking a favorite, even when I limit it to just considering biographies of "classic authors" is impossible. Here are 5 literary biographies that I enjoyed:

1. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
2. Jane Kenyon: A Literary Life by John H. Timmerman
3. The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene by Richard Greene
4. Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell is This? by Marian Meade
5. Virginia Woolf: A Writers' Life by Lyndall Gordon

On my TBR list are biographies of Barabara Pym, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Dick Francis, Anais Nin, Josephine Tey, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dashiell Hammett, Margaret Wise Brown, E. M. Forster, and Willa Cather. 

26 Questions in 2026 (#10)

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. 

#10 -Favourite movie or TV adaption of a classic?

The adaptation that immediately comes to mind as a favorite is the Hitchcock film based on Rebecca.

Released in 1940 the movie start Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier. It is gothic, and creepy, and dream-like, as is the novel, and the twists and turns of the plot are brilliantly depicted in the cinematography. The film got eleven academy award nominations, the most of any film that year, and won both Best Picture and Best Cinematography. 

26 Questions in 2026 (#9)

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. 

 #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. 

26 Questions in 2026 (#8)

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. 

 #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. 

26 Questions in 2026 (#6 and #7)

 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. 

26 Questions in 2026 (#5)

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. 

 #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. 

26 Questions in 2026 (#4)

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. 

 #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.

26 Questions in 2026 (#3)

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. 

 #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.

• The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Cain
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
• Roots by Alex Haley
• Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
• Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
• The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

I understand that the question asked for a favorite, but looking back at these amazing reading experiences I really can't put one above the others.

 

26 Questions in 2026 (#2)

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. 

 #2 - What classic are you planning to read next? Why? Is there a book first published in 1926 that you plan to read this year?

I don't have a 1926 book on my current list but an earlier list included Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy which was published in 1926.

I'm not sure which one I will read next, I rarely plan that sort of thing in advance, I just pick up whatever appeals to me in the moment. I have a couple of Classics Club titles in progress -- both very slow progress. War and Peace is my "read at lunch at the office" book and has been for several years now--I am making slow but regular progress on it. Several months ago I began listening to One Hundred Years of Solitude on audio in the car, but other things to listen to while I drive keep appealing to me more. Not sure if that one will end up abandoned or not. 

26 Questions in 2026

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 love this idea, but want to take a slow approach to this so I can really think about my answers. I plan to answer one question every few weeks throughout 2026. 

 #1 - When did you join The Classics Club? How many titles have you read for the club so far? Share a link to your latest classics club list.

I joined the club in September 2012. It took me until 2018 to read my first list of 50 titles. I finished my second list in November 2023 and started in on my third (and current list) which will ideally be completed by December 31, 2028. From the beginning I have set the additional rule for myself that once I compile a list--which has more than 50 books on it--I can't add to it, I have to select my 50 books from the compiled list. I have finished 10 books from my current list so my grand total for the club so far is 110 books read.