Updated to say that the Spin picked I Capture the Castle and here’s the link to my review.
I joined the Classics Club because I wanted to participate in the spins.
What’s a spin? When they announce SPIN!!! like it’s “Duck, Duck, Duck, Duck, GOOOSE!!!” and you have to list 20 books from your list of 50 that you want to read and they spin the wheel to pick a number and you have to read whichever book is listed at that spot. The spin number is announced March 7 and you have to read the chosen title by the first week of May. Fun, huh?
I’m making a new list this time around: (ALPHABETICAL)
1 And Then There Were None / Agatha (I might have read this when I was a teen…)
2 Brighton Rock / Graham Greene (this also counts for WiaN)
3 Charlotte Sometimes / Penelope Farmer
4 Cry the Beloved Country / A Paton (I had attempted this once and abandoned; let’s try again. This will from now on be a MUST-HAVE-ON-SPIN-LIST title.)
5 The Double Helix / JD Watson
6 The Dud Avocado / Elaine Dundy (Our friend Jill read this recently; would be awesome if she sent it to me. HINT HINT)
7 The House of Seven Gables / Hawthorne (I recently read The Map of True Places which referenced this title a LOT.)
8 I Capture the Castle / Dodie Smith
9 Jude the Obscure / Tom Hardy (I own a copy)
10 The King Must Die / Mary Renault (I saw this once at a dusty ol’ junk shop downtown and didn’t buy it. Still kicking myself for that missed opportunity.)
11 Love in a Cold Climate / Nancy Mitford
12 Love in a Fallen City / Eileen Chang
13 Naked Lunch / Burroughs
14 Orlando / Woolf (this has been on my tbr for FAR TOO LONG)
15 The Ox-Bow Incident / WVT Clark
16 Rabbit, Run / Updike (I have never read this author, have you?)
17 Stoner / John Williams
18 The Way We Live Now / Anthony Trollope
19 West with the Night / Beryl Markham
20 Wide Sargasso Sea / Jean Rhys
I’m cheering for 1, 2, 8, 9 and 14 while hoping that 12, 15, and 19 are NOT chosen. Basically rooting for the single digits 1-10 and not the last half of the list. Just cuz, no real reason. Whichever number the ball falls on is fine…
Care's Books and Pie 
I loved Cry the Beloved Country! I can’t remember if it was hard to get into. I also really liked Wide Sargasso Sea. I think Naked Lunch and Orlando would both qualify as weird.
Cry the Beloved Country suffered from too much competition in reading wants with reading time constraints. I had to put it aside for a book club read and just haven’t gotten back to it. By which I mean that I got swept up into the Rooster readings and it fell off the nightstand and is hiding somewhere under the bed maybe.
Oh, I hope you get West With the Night. Even though you don’t. 🙂
Yea? OK! For some reason, I am expecting it to be boring. I think I added it to my list because I am fascinated by the name ‘Beryl’.
The woman had a life to match the name. 🙂
Thank you for explaining the Spin! I’ve read so many posts about the spin and I’ve been trying to figure out what it is. I hope you get Capture the Castle! It is so, so good. I have read Rabbit, Run, and I thought it was very good, but it’s definitely not a happy book. I tried to read Rabbit Redux and only got about halfway through it. I refer his short stories.
I always link the buttons to the challenge. Everything is explained. The “List of 50” is not even a set in stone, only a goal! Just life 50 books that you want to read over 5 years. The spin just keeps it lively.
This sounds like so much fun. I hope you will get something you like. 🙂 By the way, I haven’t read any of these books.
Ha ha! Me, neither.
I hope the book you wind up reading, you love!
Me, too!
Oh, i just loved I Capture the Castle. So whimsical and funny at times! I have quite a few of Mary Renault’s Greek books but I’ve only read a couple. She is such a good writer but the two I’ve read have been quite serious business. In any case, best of luck with the spin!