Saturday, January 9, 2016

Back to the Classics Challenge 2016

Link to challenge announcement post

Host: Karen K @ Books and Chocolate
Dates: January 1 - December 31, 2016

Guidelines - to successfully complete the challenge and qualify for the final prize:
  • Read classic books, from 12 categories (but you don't have to read twelve books to participate in the challenge).
  • All books must be read in 2016. Books started before January 1, 2016 do not qualify.
  • There will be links for posting reviews for each category. All reviews must be linked up by December 31, 2016. You must also post a wrap-up review and link it to the challenge no later than December 31, 2016.
  • All books must have been written at least 50 years ago; therefore, books must have been written by 1966 to qualify for this challenge. The ONLY exceptions are books published posthumously.
  • E-books and audiobooks are eligible.
  • Books can crossover with other challenges.
  • Books may NOT crossover within this challenge. You must read a different book for EACH category, or it doesn't count.
  • Updated: Children's classics are acceptable, but please, no more than 3 total for the challenge.
  • A blog isn't necessary, you can link to reviews on Goodreads or any other publicly accessible online site.
  • The deadline to sign up for the challenge is March 1, 2016.
  • You don't have to make a list of books in advance; but if you do, your list can be changed at any time.
  • Books may be read in any order.
Categories:
  1. A 19th Century Classic - any book published between 1800 and 1899.
  2. A 20th Century Classic - any book published between 1900 and 1966. Just like last year, all books MUST have been published at least 50 years ago to qualify. The only exception is books written at least 50 years ago, but published later.
  3. A classic by a woman author.
  4. A classic in translation. Any book originally written published in a language other than your native language. Feel free to read the book in your language or the original language.
  5. A classic by a non-white author. Can be African-American, Asian, Latino, Native American, etc.
  6. An adventure classic - can be fiction or non-fiction. Children's classics like Treasure Island are acceptable in this category.
  7. A fantasy, science fiction, or dystopian classic. Dystopian could include classics like 1984, and children's classics like The Hobbit are acceptable in this category also.
  8. A classic detective novel. It must include a detective, amateur or professional. This list of books from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction is a great starting point if you're looking for ideas.
  9. A classic which includes the name of a place in the title. It can be the name of a house, a town, a street, etc. Examples include Bleak House, Main Street, The Belly of Paris, or The Vicar of Wakefield.
  10. A classic which has been banned or censored. If possible, please mention why this book was banned or censored in your review.
  11. Re-read a classic you read in school (high school or college). If it's a book you loved, does it stand the test of time? If it's a book you disliked, is it any better a second time around?
  12. A volume of classic short stories. This must be one complete volume, at least 8 short stories. It can be an anthology of stories by different authors, or all the stories can be by a single author. Children's stories are acceptable in this category also. 

● See my original post about the challenge HERE.
● See my wrap-up post HERE.
● See the challenge announcement/sign-up post HERE.
● Link up reviews HERE.
● Link up challenge wrap-ups HERE.


MY READING LIST (books I've read, with links to reviews):
  • Category 1: Daisy Miller. Henry James (first published 1878)  [linked to review page 7/14/2016]
  • Category 2:
  • Category 3:
  • Category 4:
  • Category 5:
  • Category 6:
  • Category 7: 
  • Category 8:
  • Category 9:
  • Category 10: To Have and Have Not. Ernest Hemingway (first published 1937)  [linked to review page 7/14/2016
  • Category 11:
  • Category 12:

Possible Reads:
Category 1 (19th century classic):
  • Cranford. Elizabeth Gaskell (1851)
  • Daisy Miller. Henry James (1878)  
  • The Europeans. Henry James (1878)
  • Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë (1847) 
  • Persuasion. Jane Austen (1818)

Category 2 (20th century classic):
  • Appointment in Samarra. John O'Hara (1934) 
  • England Made Me. Graham Greene (1935) 
  • Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Anita Loos (1924) 
  • The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple #1). Agatha Christie (1930)
  • Our Man in Havana. Graham Greene (1959)
  • The Sheltering Sky. Paul Bowles (1949)

Category 3 (classic by a woman):
  • All Passion Spent. Vita Sackville-West (1931)
  • The Bell Jar. Sylvia Plath (1963)
  • The Enchanted April. Elizabeth von Arnim (1922)
  • Murder at the Vicarage. Agatha Christie (1930) 
  • A Wreath of Roses. Elizabeth Taylor (1949)

Category 4 (classic in translation):
  • Demian. Hermann Hesse (1919) 
  • Fathers and Sons. Ivan Turgenev (1862)
  • King, Queen, Knave. Vladimir Nabokov (1928)

Category 5 (classic by a non-white author):
  • Things Fall Apart. Chinua Achebe (1958)
  • The Woman in the Dunes. Kobo Abe (1962)

Category 6 (adventure classic):
  • Casino Royale (James Bond #1). Ian Fleming (1953) 
  • A Coffin for Dimitrios. Eric Ambler (1939; aka The Mask of Dimitrios
  • The Prisoner of Zenda. Anthony Hope (1894) 
  • The Road to Oxiana. Robert Byron (1937; nonfiction)
  • Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe (1719)
  • The Scarlet Pimpernel. Baroness Emmuska Orczy (1905) 
  • To Have and Have Not. Ernest Hemingway (1937)
  • West With the Night. Beryl Markham (1942; nonfiction) 

Category 7 (fantasy, sci-fi, or dystopian classic):
  • Bedknob and Broomstick. Mary Norton (1943; fantasy) 
  • A Canticle for Leibowitz. Walter M. Miller Jr. (1959; Hugo Winner Best Novel 1961; sci-fi) 
  • The Caves of Steel. Isaac Asimov (1953; sci-fi) 
  • The Enchanted Castle. E. Nesbit (1907; fantasy) 
  • The Five Children and It. E. Nesbit (1902; fantasy)
  • James and the Giant Peach. Roald Dahl (1961; fantasy) 
  • Miss Hickory. Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (1946; Newbery Medal, 1947; fantasy) 
  • The Phantom Tollbooth. Norton Juster (1961; fantasy)
  • Stuart Little. E.B. White (1945; fantasy) 
  • Way Station. Clifford D. Simak (Hugo Award winner, 1964; sci-fi) 
  • The Wind in the Willows. Kenneth Grahame (1908; fantasy) 

Category 8 (classic detective novel):
  • The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe #1). Raymond Chandler (1939) 

Category 9 (name of a place in title):
  • England Made Me. Graham Greene (1935) 
  • Goodbye to Berlin. Christopher Isherwood (1939) 
  • Our Man in Havana. Graham Greene (1959) 

Category 10 (banned or censored):
  • Butterfield 8. John O'Hara (1935)
  • Rabbit, Run. John Updike (1960) 

Category 11 (re-read a classic read in high school or college):
  • Franny and Zooey. J.D. Salinger (1961) 
  • A Handful of Dust. Evelyn Waugh (1934) 
  • The Haunting of Hill House. Shirley Jackson (1959)
  • The House of the Seven Gables. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851) 
  • Lucky Jim. Kingsley Amis (1953) 
  • Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen (1813)
  • Rebecca. Daphne DuMaurier (1938) 
  • The Thurber Carnival. James Thurber (1945)

Category 12 (volume of classic short stories):
  • Blandings and Elsewhere. P.G. Wodehouse (1935) 
  • Carry On, Jeeves. P.G. Wodehouse (1925) 
  • The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories. Algernon Blackwood (1906)
  • Goodbye to Berlin. Christopher Isherwood (1939)
  • Tales of Men and Ghosts. Edith Wharton (1910)


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