Back-to-the-Classics Challenge

Tuesday, December 07, 2010


This is one of my most anticipated challenges for the upcoming year. Hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much, the Back-t0-the-Challenge requires the completion of eight different tasks involving classics to be completed between January 1, 2011 and June 30, 2011.

Here are the tasks, and my potential reads for each.
  1. A Banned Book - Lolita
  2. A Book with a Wartime Setting (can be any war)
  3. A Pulitzer Prize (Fiction) Winner or Runner Up: a list can be found here - The Age of Innocence
  4. A Children's/Young Adult Classic - Call of the Wild
  5. 19th Century Classic - Great Expectations
  6. 20th Century Classic -If On a Winter's Night a Traveler
  7. A Book you think should be considered a 21st Century Classic
  8. Re-Read a book from your High School/College Classes - To Kill A Mockingbird
I am excited to have an opportunity to reread To Kill a Mockingbird. I also have about three Pulitzers that I want to read, but The Age of Innocence is one that I actually own, so that will be the winner for now. I don't want to pick my 21st century classic til I read it, and I haven't thought of any ideas for the book with the wartime setting. Any suggestions for a good 21st century potential classic or a war-time story? Oh, and I have to say I did decide to read a lot of Dickens this year independent of Oprah's decision to promote Dickens this year. Not that I have a problem with Oprah. But I didn't do it on account of her new book club selection.

8 comments:

  1. Nice list! We'll be reading some of the same books, but for different categories! My wartime book is going to be For Whom The Bell Tolls by Hemingway, but if you're wanting more Dickens', there is always A Tale of Two Cities!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A war book I really enjoyed was "All Quiet on the Western Front". It's short but hard hitting.

    I read Lolita quite recently, and it was very different from what I was expecting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I signed up for this one too! The only one on your list that I've read (besides To Kill A Mockingbird) is Lolita. I liked it a lot. I haven't finalized my list yet, but there are a couple I already own that I am going to squeeze in there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is definitely another challenge I'm going to have to jump into -- I've also joined the Victorian Literature Challenge as well!

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Sarah - Thanks for the suggestions! I have been meaning to read more Hemingway, so I might have to copy your war read. I am also planning to read Tale of Two Cities this year, but might not read it until later on. We will see!

    @Sam - I've been hearing good things about All Quiet on the Western Front. I will have to look into that one. Was Lolita different in a good way? I'm a little nervous about reading it, to be honest, but I've heard good things.

    @Brenna - I'll be interested to see what you read! There are really so many books I could put on this list, I might end up switching some of mine.

    @Coffee and a book chick - I'm doing that one as well! I haven't written my start-up post yet but I am excited for all these challenges.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lolita!!!!! I love Lolita. I'm rereading it right now, or rather listening to Jeremy Irons read it to me on audio, and I love it just as much as my first read of it 10 years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm interested to get into it - it will probably be the first one I tackle off this list.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is awesome and so creative. My goal as a reader has always been to try to read all the classics and I'm slowly on my way (I even downloaded a couple lists online so I could make sure I don't miss any), but challenges like these make the prospect of reading a classic so much more fun. Love it.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...