The Classics Club is a huuuuuge thing in the blogosphere at the moment. Everybody has joined, it seems. Lists are posted all over and bloggers are committing to reading 50, 100 or even more classics over the duration of 5 years. The club was started by Jillian from A Room of One’s Own but when the club grew from 0 to 170 members in 5 short months, it was decided to give the club a new location, it’s own home so to speak.
And I have not joined.
I have been staying away from it. Carefully avoiding to check out the blog or even read too many posts about it. It’s not because I don’t feel one should read the classics. I do. It’s not because I don’t like the people behind the blog. I do – and I’m impressed with the amount of work they put in their blogs and in The Classics Club. It’s not because I don’t like being inspired by other readers, reading reviews, being part of a community. I love all three things. So why didn’t I join The Classics Club immediately?
First of, I felt that 50 books or more in 5 years are a lot to decide on. I also felt that I already were committed to so much, too much, that I simply couldn’t put the amount of effort and dedication in to it that it required. Or at least, that I would require of myself. There’s no point in joining a group or a challenge and then not participating. And I really didn’t feel I had the time…
But … I’ve caved… Even though I tried to stay away, I just couldn’t. So I’m going to sign up. I’m going to make a list of 50 books, 50 classics, and sign up to read them during the next 5 years. I’m going to start out by listing the classics already on my shelves – and then add books from my wish list. And I’m going to participate as much as possible in the various events, memes and more. I still have a lot of “required” reading in 2012, challenges I’ve signed up to before signing up for this, so I’m not going to be able to read a lot of classics this year but hopefully next year will see me reading quite a few classics!
I’m kind of excited about this. I’ve tried so hard to stay away – but deep down, I think I knew that it would only be a matter of time before I would join to be able to play with all the cool kids 😉
I’ll post my list tomorrow or the day after.
The Literary Bunny 
I resisted for several months before joining, too, but then realized the list can actually evolve over time. My understanding is that you are not committed to the original list of 50, but can make additions or substitutions or your interests change over the years. Will look forward to seeing your list tomorrow!
I’m working on my list now! I think that a lot of these books are books I’ve wanted to read for several years – classics don’t go out of style suddenly so I think I’ll probably not change all that much on the list. But I’m fretting about which books to include…!
I’m glad you’re joining us! Please, please don’t see the club as a challenge that ZOMG YOU MUST READ ALL THE BOOKS BEFORE YOUR END DATE OR ELSE. Hahaha! It’s meant to be super laid back, and you can change your list as many times as you like. Add books, drop books–it’s all up to you. If you don’t get through your whole list in five years? No big deal. Jillian really just wanted a way to get people to read the classics for fun, and she wanted a space where everyone could talk about them. So have fun, and don’t stress over it. 🙂 We’re happy to have you on board!
Well, I don’t expect that you will all come to my house and give me a scolding if I don’t finish 😉 But I want to seriously try to read these books – otherwise there’s really not much point of joining, is there? And yeah, it’s because of Jillian’s vision that I’m joining. I love to read what other people think of books and discuss it – I only wish I had more time to both read books and book blogs!! I’m working on my list now and it’s actually rather fun – although hard to decide which books to include…
You finally convinced me! I’m going to join as well!
Does that mean I’m your sponsor? 😉 I’m looking forward to seeing your list!
Sure, so basically that means that you need to bug me until I read all of the books. Just kidding! I’ve seen it all over the book blogs, and after reading your post, it was kind of the last straw – in a good way.
I’ll get signed up and make my list sometime this week!
I’ve been avoiding it simply because of the time it will take to create the list and participate… Time that could be spent reading 🙂 but I’ll get there too.