Crikey it’s only a few months since the last Classics Club Spin and now here we are again with another turn of the roulette wheel.

The rules are the same as always:

  • List 20 books still to be read from our Classics Club list.
  • Read whichever number is picked when the wheel is spun on Sunday August 16.

For Spin #45 I’m placing my bets on a list which is ever so slightly refreshed since the last spin.

I’ve refreshed the list a little, replacing The Conquest of Plassans by Emile Zola which I read last month with the next title in his series, The Sin of Father Mouret.

Newcomers to the list are The Well of Loneliness by Radcylffe Hall and Oh Pioneers by Willa Cather.

Here’s my new spin list.
  1. The Nose  by Nikolay Gogol (1836)
  2. A Sentimental Education by Gustav Flaubert (1869)
  3. The Sin of Father Mouret by Emile Zola (1875) 
  4. A Study In Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (1886) 
  5. New Grub Street by George Gissing (1891)
  6. What Maisie Knew by Henry James (1897)
  7. Oh Pioneers by Willa Cather (1913)
  8. Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan (1915) 
  9. The Painted Veil by W Somerset Maugham (1925)
  10. The Well of Loneliness by Radcylffe Hall (1928)
  11. They Knew Mr Knight by Dorothy Whipple (1934)
  12. Princes in the Land by Joanna Cannan (1938)
  13. On the Edge of Reason by  Miroslav Krleža 
  14. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)
  15. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry (1947)
  16. The Far Cry by Emma Smith (1949)
  17. In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming (1953)
  18. The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas (1957) 
  19. The Bitter Glass by Eilis Dillon (1958)
  20. A Toy Epic by Emyr Humphreys (1958)

Whichever of these books “wins” the spin, I’ll be aiming to read it before the “deadline” of October 4 2026.

25 responses to “The Classics Club: Spin#45”

  1. #8, because I loved it, and feel I should reread it!
    And 8 would be great for my list too: https://wordsandpeace.com/2026/08/12/the-classics-club-the-classics-spin-45/

    1. It would be a fun read I think.

  2. If this list was mine I’d be hoping to see the Gogol come up in the spin – having read the Buchan and the Conan Doyle I’d not be in a hurry to revisit them. I know the names of a significant number of the remaining authors but ten of the titles are unfamiliar to me, so I’m hoping you’ll be enlightening me if the spin lands on one of those!

    1. I keep thinking of reading the Gogol and then chickening out at the last minute.

  3. I also have O Pioneers on my list, but mine is 17th. Good luck!

    1. Not too long before we find out. I just hope I don’t land a really long book

  4. I’d like to read Grapes of Wrath or The Sin of Father Mouret. I haven’t read anything from your list so can be tempted if you recommend whatever you do spin up!

    1. I shall wish hard for a really good book so I can recommend it to you Rose

  5. I want to read O Pioneers. I enjoyed the Grapes of Wrath so much.

    1. I know I’ll get to it sometime

  6. Not answering directly, but I’d read Willa Cather whether she came up or not. Of the ones I haven’t read, there are quite a few I don’t recognise, but Lamming looks the most interesting.
    Also, I read 39 Steps as a boy. It was pretty old fashioned (gung-ho for Empire) even then.

    1. I’d not heard of Lamming but he came up on a reading list created to mark the late Queen’s jubilee where a novel was selected for each decade of her reign

  7. I think I’d want They Knew Mr Knight by Dorothy Whipple, just because I hear people talk about her books and I’ve never read any of them.

    1. I’ve never read her either but her name crops up so many times so thought I should investigate

  8. Good luck. The Grapes of Wrath is on my list as well, but at a different number. I read the Tarjei Vesaas book last year and loved it.

    1. Oh thanks Helen, so few people I follow seem to have read the Vesaas so I wasn’t sure what I was letting myself in for

  9. I haven’t read many of these but I enjoyed The Painted Veil very much. O Pioneers! is on my list too but at a different number. Hope you get whatever you’re in the mood for!

    1. That’s two votes for The Painted Veil then.

  10. Oh Pioneers showed me a different world in a part of the world I didn’t know before with believable characters

    1. That’s just my kind of book!

  11. Such an interesting list! I have read a few, and if it was me I would want to get Under the Volcano – I read it pre-blog and I reckon I would get much more out of it second time around!

    1. That novel has an extraordinary history it seems – apparently the publishers asked him to rewrite it after they received negative feedback from two readers! He refused and wrote a long defence of the book

  12. If this list were yours, which titles would you be hoping to see come up in the spin??
    The Painted Veil by W Somerset Maugham (1925)

    1. Thanks for the recommendation. It’s one I’ve been thinking of reading for quite some time.

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