Back to the Classics 2017 Wrap-Up

This year I read eight books for the Back to the Classics 2017 challenge. I was aiming for at least nine, but that mid-year reading slump hit me pretty hard.

This challenge continues to be a favourite of mine, and not just because I won the prize last year! This is my fifth time participating, and I still really enjoy the little push to read more and the chance to see what others choose for the same category. Mainly I like checking things off on a list, though.

These are the categories I hit this year:

1. A 19th Century Classic: The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
2. A 20th Century Classic: Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
3. A classic by a woman author: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
4. A classic in translation: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
5. A Gothic or horror classic: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
6. A classic with a number in the title: Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome
7. A classic about an animal or which includes the name of an animal in the title: Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck
8. A Russian Classic: The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

If I had to choose a favourite of the bunch, which is difficult as I read a few great books as part of this, it would probably have to be The Haunting of Hill House. That book was just so much better than I was expecting. I’ve gone on to read We Have Always Lived in the Castle (review pending), and it wasn’t quite on the same level, but I still really enjoyed it. I plan to read more from her.

My least favourite was The Prisoner of Zenda. Anthony Hope somehow managed to write a adventure novel I couldn’t enjoy on any level, a first for me. It has sword fighting, political intrigue, sneaking about in the night, travel to unknown lands, and I just couldn’t bring myself to care.

I’ll be joining in this year too, I think. I’ll post my list in the next couple of days.