The Classics Challenge / Rhys Reads the Oldies

There are plenty enough annual blogger challenges in the YA and adult book blogosphere. Most of them involve reading new releases and contemporary novels.

Until now.

The point of the Classics Challenge is to expand your reading experience and to cover some of the major classics that everyone should have read. I think this is important because it encourages a deeper understanding of Western culture.

So how does it work?
Because classics often take a lot of digesting and we bloggers still want to read and review new releases, I think one classic a month is a good amount- not overpowering but not insubstantial either. There isn’t a set list, though there’ll certainly be recommendations.

It would be great if this challenge could start in January 2012 with at least a couple of bloggers, including myself. If you’re interested, please do comment!

Possible (Modern) Classics to consider:

• 1984 by George Orwell
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Lord of the Flies by William Goulding
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Peter Pan by J M Barrie
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

If you have any suggestions, please comment!