Classics Club Spin #40

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Another spin and another chance to choose from my  Classics Club list .  

The Rules for the Classics Club Spin #40 are:
  1. Go to your blog.
  2. Pick twenty books that you’ve got left to read from your Classics Club list.
  3. Post that list, numbered 1 – 20, on your blog by Sunday.
  4. Sunday morning, the Classics Club will announce a number from 1 – 20.  Go to the list of twenty books you posted and select the book that corresponds to the number they announce.
  5. The challenge is to read the book by April 11, 2025

 

I used the random list organizer here to choose the 20 books from my master list. Here is my spin list:

  1. The Gallic Wars (58 – 49 B.C.) – Caesar
  2. The Republic (380 B.C.) – Plato
  3. Tartuffe (1669) – Molière
  4. Animal Farm (1945) – George Orwell
  5. The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) – John Bunyan
  6. Cur Deus Homo (1094-1096) – Anselm of Canterbury
  7. Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731) – Bede
  8. Pensées (1669) – Blaise Pascal
  9. The Praise of Folly (1509) – Eramus
  10. Heptaméron (1558) – Marguerite of Navarre
  11. Bel Ami (1885) – Guy Maupassant
  12. Aristotle, Ethics (330 B.C.) – Aristotle
  13. The Frog (c. 405 B.C.) – Aristophanes
  14. Huckleberry Finn (1884) – Mark Twain
  15. Fairy Tales (1831) – Hans Christian Andersen
  16. One Day in the LIfe of Ivan Denisovitch (1962) – Alexander Solzhenitsyn
  17. Works and Days (8th century) – Hesiod
  18. Moll Flanders (1722) – Daniel Defoe
  19. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) – Victor Hugo
  20. The Complete Fairy Tales (1691-97) – Charles Perrault

As with previous Spins, instead of producing a new post, I’m going to simply announce the winner below and, to make it easier to complete at least one book, I’m going to choose a book from my Guardians List, my Shakespeare Projectand my Children’s Classics Project, with no deadline date, just a dedication to read at least one of them by the deadline.

And the winning number was 4 !  Animal Farm by George Orwell is the winner.  How appropriate!  I just finished reading 1984.

See my other options below:

Classics Club Winner:  Animal Farm

Guardians Book List Winner:  Fair Stood the Wind to France

Shakespeare Winner: Measure for Measure

Children’s List Winner:  Prisoner of Zenda

 

Photo #1 courtesy of Wikiimages

Photo #2 courtesy of Conger Designs

Photo #3 courtesy of Leonhard Niederwimmer

15 thoughts on “Classics Club Spin #40”

  5. Pingback: #ccspin 40, 1001 Arabian Nights, & www.silviacachia2.wordpress.com – Spanish Blog! – Silvia Cachia

  6. Hi Cleo! It’s Karen from The Simply Blog. I don’t have that blog anymore but I just recently started a brand new blog at https://literaryexcursions.com/. I’m still working on getting posts up and such. But it’s coming along. Just wanted you know it was me. 🙂

    I re-read Animal Farm last year and just finished reading 1984 for the first time a week or two ago. What did you think of 1984?

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Karen! So nice to hear from you. I was wondering how you were and if you were reading classics still. Thanks for the link to your blog. I will check it out.

      I enjoyed 1984. It was very bleak and a downer but I’m sure that was Orwell’s intent …. so we know how it would feel in a society as totalitarian and controlled as what he thought we were headed to. Interestingly, I read another novel set in 1984: G.K. Chesterton’s The Napoleon of Notting Hill. It was a totally different take on a society that has been lulled into a meaningless stupor. I really loved it!

      Reply ↓

      • Yep, still reading classics. 🙂 But I probably need to just re-do the whole Classics challenge since I have a new blog. I do still have my original list though. I’m still working my way through Agatha Christie too. And I’ve added reading through the works of Steinbeck and Fitzgerald. 🙂 I’ll probably add pages for each of those on my blog.

        I think you described 1984 very well. I felt like both it and Animal Farm dealt with the same topics just with a different approach; mainly that Animal Farm is told through animals and more of a fable-like approach. I haven’t read Chesterton’s book you mentioned. In fact, I don’t recall even hearing of it before. I might add that one to my list! Thanks!

        Reply ↓

        • I tried to get on your blog to comment but for some reason it wasn’t letting me into my WordPress account and wouldn’t let me post a comment outside of it. I’ll keep fiddling around to see if I can make it work.

          I’m still reading Christie too! I’m on N or M? with Tommy and Tuppence.

          Animal Farm is based on Stalin’s Russia so I’m looking forward to re-reading that one. Chesterton is an excellent writer. He’s such an intellect that he can be hard to follow but even if you can’t follow him, his books are lots of fun! I would say he’s the most under-rated writer. I hope you get to read him one day!

          Reply ↓

          • You shouldn’t have to log in to WordPress to comment. I double checked the settings and you should be able to comment with just name and email. Did you try just name and email by any chance?

            I’m currently on The Mystery of the Blue Train in my chronological reading. But I’ve also read a few out of order as well for some buddy reads. But I decided to stick to the chronological reading. 🙂

          • Oh, I just realized you said it wouldn’t let you post a comment outside of your WordPress account. That’s weird. Maybe log out of your WordPress account altogether (if you stay logged in for your own blog), then go to my page and see if you can comment with just your name and email.

Thanks for visiting. I'd love to hear from you and have you join in the discussion!