The Classics Club recently posted a questionnaire for members to complete. It’s a shorter, updated version of an earlier questionnaire from 2014 with 50 questions – I participated in that one and found it interesting to go back and look at my answers! There are 26 questions in this version (because it’s 2026) and here they are:

1. When did you join The Classics Club? How many titles have you read for the club so far? Share a link to your latest classics club list.

I joined in 2012 when it was first formed. Since then I’ve read 150 books for the club (100 from my first list and 50 from my second). I recently posted a third list of 50, which you can see here.

2. What classic are you planning to read next? Why? Is there a book first published in 1926 that you plan to read this year?

I just posted my new Classics Club list last week and am still deciding which book I want to pick up first! I have one title published in 1926 on the list – Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner, which I’m definitely intending to read this year.

3. Best book you’ve read so far with the club? Why?

My re-reads of The Count of Monte Cristo, Rebecca and Wuthering Heights, but I already knew I was going to love those books before I read them again, so that’s probably not a fair answer! Considering only books I read for the first time as part of the club, my favourites include Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy.

4. Classic author who has the most works on your club list? Or, classic author you’ve read the most works by?

I’ve restricted myself to no more than two books per author on my current club list. The classic author I’ve read the most works by overall, not just from my club lists, must definitely be Agatha Christie. Since I started blogging in 2009, I’ve read 64 of her books and still have more left to read!

5. If you could explore one author’s literary career from first publication to last — meaning you have never read this author and want to explore him or her by reading what s/he wrote in order of publication — who would you explore? Obviously this should be an author you haven’t yet read, since you can’t do this experiment on an author you’re already familiar with. Or, which author’s work you are familiar with might it have been fun to approach this way?

I can’t really think of an author I haven’t read who I would want to explore in that way, because if I haven’t tried them yet I don’t know if I would like them enough to read everything they wrote. However, I think it would have been interesting to work through Agatha Christie’s books from the beginning – I’ve just been reading them at random as I come across them. Daphne du Maurier is another author I wish I’d approached in that way; I’ve read all of her novels and short stories and have noticed differences between her earlier and later books so it would have made sense to read them in order.

6. First classic you ever read?

I see there’s a separate question coming up about children’s classics, so for this one I’ll stick to adult classics. I think the first one I read was probably Wuthering Heights when I was thirteen (at least the first one I read on my own rather than at school). At that age I loved the passion of the writing and the dark, Gothic atmosphere. I’m not sure how I would have felt if I’d read it for the first time as an adult.

7. Favorite children’s classic?

There are so many! My absolute favourite is probably Watership Down by Richard Adams – I still loved it when I re-read it as an adult – but others that I enjoyed as a child include The Secret Garden, The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia, Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables and anything by Enid Blyton!

8. Which classic is your most memorable classic to date? Why?

Memorable in a good or a bad way? I don’t think I’ll ever forget the experience of reading Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa as part of a year-long readalong in 2012 – all 1,536 pages of it! It wasn’t actually the length that was the problem – it was the repetitiveness and the way the plot just seemed to go round in circles for hundreds of pages at a time without moving forward. The good parts were good enough to make it worth persevering.

9. Least favorite classic? Why?

I don’t think I could single out a ‘least favourite’. There are some very popular classics that I just didn’t get on with at all, such as To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway and Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I also hated John Steinbeck’s The Pearl when we read it at school, but I suspect I was probably just too young to appreciate it.

10. Favourite movie or TV adaptation of a classic?

My favourite is probably Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier. I also love The Lady Vanishes, Hitchcock’s adaptation of Ethel Lina White’s The Wheel Spins – one of the few cases where I’ve enjoyed the film much more than the book!

11. Favorite biography about a classic author you’ve read, or the biography on a classic author you most want to read, if any?

I haven’t read a lot of biographies of classic authors, but I did like Daphne du Maurier and Her Sisters by Jane Dunn; Daphne is a favourite author of mine, but it was also interesting to learn more about her sisters Angela, also an author, and Jeanne, an artist. Another biography I enjoyed is The Real Enid Blyton by Nadia Cohen, a fascinating exploration of Blyton’s life and work.

12. Favourite classic author in translation? Do you have a favorite classics translator? What do you look for in a classic translation?

As The Count of Monte Cristo is my all-time favourite classic and I also loved The Black Tulip and The Three Musketeers and its sequels, I’ll say Alexandre Dumas as my answer to the first part of the question. I don’t think I have a favourite classics translator, though.

13. Do you have a favorite classic poet/poem, playwright/play? Why do you love it?

I don’t read a lot of either poetry or plays (the title of my blog is a clue) but I do enjoy both from time to time. I loved The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, so I included another of his plays on my current club list, and I can also highly recommend Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac. Both were very clever and witty in different ways!

14. Which classic character most reminds you of yourself? Which classic character do you most wish you could be like?

I never really think about whether characters remind me of myself, but maybe someone like Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility – the quiet, sensible sister rather than the impulsive, passionate one.

15. What is the oldest classic you have read or plan to read? Why?

The oldest I’ve read is definitely The Epic of Gilgamesh which was composed 4000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia. The second oldest would be Homer’s Odyssey, dating from the 8th or 7th century BC. I enjoyed both!

16. If a sudden announcement was made that 500 more pages had been discovered after the original “THE END” on a classic title you read and loved, which title would you be happiest to see continued?

The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens! I knew before I started reading it that Dickens never completed it, but it was still frustrating not knowing how it ends. I don’t think it would need another 500 pages, though – just enough to finish the story!

17. Favorite edition (or series) of a classic you own, or wished you owned, if any?

My lovely hardback copy of A Christmas Carol, which I’ve had since my childhood, with beautiful colour illustrations and black and white line drawings by Arthur Rackham.

18. Do you reread classics? Why, or why not?

Yes, I do, but not as much as I used to before I started blogging. I should really do more of it, because the handful of classics that I have reread over the last few years were just as great on a second (or subsequent) read as they were the first time. I also find that I get different things out of books when reading them at different stages of my life.

19. Has there been a classic title you simply could not finish?

Not really. There are some that I started to read then got distracted by other books, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t enjoying them and don’t want to try again. Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop is one of those, which is why I’ve put it on my current Classics Club list. There are also titles that I abandoned and dismissed as not for me, but later had another attempt and made it to the end – for example, Middlemarch and Crime and Punishment.

20. Has there been a classic title you expected to dislike and ended up loving?

I was convinced I wouldn’t like East of Eden by John Steinbeck, after my experience at school with The Pearl, so I was surprised by how much I loved it. When I looked back at my answers to the 2014 version of this questionnaire I noticed I had named East of Eden as the book on my list that I was most avoiding. I’m glad I did eventually read it!

21. List five fellow Classic Clubbers whose blogs you frequent. What makes you love their blogs?

I follow a lot of great bloggers who are part of the Classics Club and don’t like leaving people out, but the first five that come to mind are FictionFan, What? Me Read?, BooksPlease, Just Reading a Book and What Cathy Read Next. It made me sad to see my original answer to this question as three of the bloggers I listed in 2014 are no longer blogging.

22. If you’ve ever participated in a readalong on a classic, tell us about the experience? If you’ve participated in more than one, what’s the very best experience? the best title you’ve completed? a fond memory? a good friend made?

I already mentioned the experience of taking part in a Clarissa readalong in my answer to question 8. I’ve participated in several others during my time as a blogger, including a War and Peace readalong which was supposed to take a full year, but I decided halfway through that the schedule wasn’t working for me and finished it at my own pace. I also joined in with a group read of The Moorland Cottage by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I enjoyed because the book was only eleven chapters long and the host posted helpful annotated summaries of each chapter with pictures and facts (sadly her blog has since been deleted).

23. If you could appeal for a readalong with others for any classic title, which title would you name? Why?

I’m not sure about this one. I would consider joining a readalong of any of the books on my current list or any other book that sounds interesting, but I don’t have any specific titles to suggest.

24. What are you favourite bits about being a part of The Classics Club?

The Classics Spins, which are always fun to join in with and help motivate me to read the books on my list. Otherwise, I like the sense of community that comes with being part of a group of people who all enjoy reading classics.

25. What would you like to see more of (or less of) on The Classics Club?

Maybe more features like this questionnaire that encourage members to interact and get to know each other. I used to enjoy the monthly memes, but I appreciate that things like that create more work for the moderators, who are doing a great job as it is!

26. Question you wish was on this questionnaire? (Ask and answer it!)

Name five classics you loved and haven’t mentioned yet in this questionnaire: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Persuasion by Jane Austen, Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë.

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I hope you enjoyed reading my answers to these questions!