Classics Club II

As I said in my post yesterday I have been restructuring my Classics Club list over the past week or two and since it barely resembles my previous list I have decided to think of it as a completely different list. So, this will be a post about my Classics Club second list, or Classics Club II if you will. 

What is the Classics Club? It is a group of people who state they will read 50 or more classic literature texts over a five year period. I have been part of this community for a few years now and I couldn't speak more highly of it. I very much wanted to stick with my old list and complete what I set out to do but it reached the point where I was dreading reading certain titles and it just wasn't a good experience for me anymore. This made me sad because due to the Classics Club and the list I had compiled a few years ago I have read some of the greatest books ever written, I've met some great people and I've been exposed to ideas I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise. If you love classic literature there's no better community, in my mind. 

I have spent hours upon hours researching for this new list and combing through my own book collection, book lists, websites like sacred-texts, goodreads and ancient-literature, articles about various literary periods in history and I can say I'm (almost) happy with what I've put together. I realised after what was probably 20 hours of research that it would be better as a living list. That is, a list that I add to over time. I was overwhelmed with the amount of texts I wanted to read and since I don't want to go over 300 titles I've decided to let what I currently have sit for a while. That way as I make my way through the list I can adjust it depending on if I find new authors I love that I want to read more of or different genres or time periods etc. 

As for the list itself I've separated it into five distinct periods: 

Ancient: this is the longest section by far. I've been reading a lot of ancient texts over the past two years and I think I have a great selection. I've tried to include ancient texts from Mesopotamia, Egypt and China as well as the old faithfuls Greece and Rome. This section will be challenging but I'm looking forward to every title I've included. 

Medieval: This section isn't completed as I still have a bit of research to do but I'm pleased with the selection so far. As with the Ancient section I've tried to include rarer texts or texts from the East. I'm especially excited about the Sufi poetry and Arthuriana.

16th/17th/18th Centuries: Like the medieval section this will be added to but I've managed to put together a good selection. There are lots of plays and poetry and this section has some of the hardest titles but I'm definitely looking forward to the challenge. 

19th Century: Again, this will be a living list but I've read so much from the 19th Century already that I've tried to limit it. This section has a few rereads. 

20th Century: This section is full of reinterpretations of myths and Virginia Woolf so I'm definitely excited about it. I've tried to be as mindful as possible of the lack of female classic literature there is and I'm determined to read lots of books written by female authors. 

And for those interested you can find my list here: http://achaemenids.blogspot.com/p/classics-club-ii.html

**** I've bolded the ones I specifically read for the Classics Club in my previous list but wanted to include them in this one