Back to Classics 2021 Reading Challenge

 I started The Classics Club challenge  last summer (see my list of 75 classics to read in 5 years HERE), but I have been seeing this Back to Classics challenge on different book blogs since then. I finally checked it out and think it will be a great companion challenge with Classics Club to help me tackle more of the classic novels I have been wanting to read! Basically, there are twelve categories. The more books you read within these categories, the more times you are entered into an year-end drawing for a $30 gift card for buying more books! 

Here are the categories. Eleven of the twelve  books I chose for these categories were already on my Classics Club list, so it will help me with both challenges this year. Win win!

1. A 19th century classic: any book first published from 1800 to 1899

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (1864) [READ 2/201-3/2021)

2. A 20th century classic: any book first published from 1900 to 1971. 

The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton (1911) [READ 2/2021]

3. A classic by a woman author.

Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie (1936)

4. A classic in translation, meaning any book first published in a language that is not your primary language. 

The Wreath (Kristin Lavransdatter (#1) by Sigrid Undset (1920)

5. A classic by a new-to-you author, i.e., an author whose work you have never read.

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit (1906) [ READ 5/2021]

6. A classic by BIPOC author; that is, a non-white author.

Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall (1959)

7. New-to-you classic by a favorite author -- a new book by an author whose works you have already read. 

A Place on Earth by Wendell Berry (1967)

8. A classic about an animal, or with an animal in the title. 

The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton-Porter (1925)

9. A children's classic. 

The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson (1958)

or Swallows and Amazons (1930)

10. A humorous or satirical classic.

Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym (1953) [UPDATED 1/2021; DNF]

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (1926) [READ 1/2021]

11. A travel or adventure classic (fiction or non-fiction). 

The Hobbit  by J.R.R. Tolkien (1937) [READ 2/2021]

12. A classic play. Plays will only count in this category.

Tales From Shakespeare by Charles Lamb (1807)

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Have you read any of these, and if so, did you enjoy them?