Book Bingo: 25 Classic Books I’m Reading in 2021
Time to read more classic books!
I typically read a lot (proportionally speaking) of classic books, but last year, out of the 80 books I read, only 4 were classics!
To remedy this situation, I decided to accept the Classic Bingo Challenge on Goodreads. The tl;dr is that each cell on the bingo card has a reading prompt, and the ultimate goal is to fill every cell with a book.
This year, I’m trying to read more poetry, more Russian literature, and more literature in translation. With this in mind, I picked out 25 classic books for the challenge. It’s a bit overambitious, but you know what? Shoot for the stars, and if you fail, you’ll hit the moon! Or something like that.
Bingo card
Like my bingo card? Here’s the template.
25 Classic Books for 2021
Column 1
B1: Book From Our Group’s Shelf Prior to 2021
Paradise Lost by John Milton
B2: Book That Has Been Made Into Film
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Maude translation)
B3: Booker Prize Winner
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
B4: Classic Romance
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
B5: Classic of Europe
Don Quixote Introduction By Harold Bloom by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Grossman translation)
Column 2
I1: Classic Adventure
Watership Down by Richard Adams
I2: Book Published or Written 1700 or earlier
The Odyssey by Homer (Wilson translation)
I3: Classic Short Story Collection
Dubliners by James Joyce
I4: Book Published in the 19th Century
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (P/V translation)
I5: New To Me Classic Author
Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake
Column 3
N1: Nobel Laureate
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
N2: History or Historical Fiction
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
N3: Reader’s Choice
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (Tyler translation)
N4: Classic Satire or Comedy
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
N5: Newberry Medal Winner
The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (subject to change)
Column 4
G1: Classic Female Author
Middlemarch by George Eliot
G2: Book Published in the 18th Century
Candide by Voltaire
G3: Nonfiction
Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway
G4: Book Published in the 20th Century
The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek (Parrott translation)
📖 G5: Book From Another Book Club or Library List
Aniara: An Epic Science Fiction Poem by Harry Martinson from the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Around the Shelf in Eight(y) Years Challenge
Column 5
O1: Classic of Africa
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
O2: Classic Mystery, Suspense, or Thriller
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
O3: Pulitzer Prize Winner
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond (subject to change)
O4: 100 Must-Read Classics in Translation
Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments by Sappho
✅ O5: Book From Our Group’s 2021 Bookshelf
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (GR | AMZN)
Read: Jan 19 – Feb 3, 2021 ✦ Rating: 5★ ✦ Review: WIP
I’m really looking forward to a fresh year of reading. So pumped seeing all of the titles on this list.
This post will be updated periodically as I complete (or switch out) books. It’s also cross-posted to my Goodreads challenge thread. All the books on the list are shelved here.