Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Meeghan Reads — check out the next batch of upcoming topics here. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these… and she always has such fun prompts, so I’m going to try to be more regular with my T5T posts!
This week’s topic is Top 5 classics I meant to read (but never got around to). I’ve got plenty! I keep a whole spreadsheet (Excel nerd alert!!) of classics I want to read… here are five that are high on my list.
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (technically, a reread — but it’s been so long since I first read this book that it feels like it would be practically new to me)
- The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
- The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
- Tevye the Dairyman and Motl the Cantor’s Son by Sholem Aleichem
What classics have you been meaning to read?
If you wrote a T5T post, please share your link!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
I loved The House on The Strand. It was my first Daphne du Maurier book. I always wanted to read Agnes Gray by Anne Bronte and I just started it.
The only Daphne du Maurier book I’ve read is Rebecca, but there are so many that I want to read! I haven’t read Agnes Gray — will be interested in hearing more about it! Although I may be done with Bronte books for a while… I’m reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte at the moment, and will need a good long break after that!
Last week I read Mr. Standfast by John Buchan, it has been a lot of years since I read The Thirty-Nine Steps.
That’s a blast from the past! I read The Thirty-Nine Steps such a long time ago that I remember almost nothing about it. I probably should pick it up again!
Frankenstein is high on my list, too. I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet. I know it will come up for me eventually in my classics project!
Same here! I have a list of classics to read, and I keep waiting to see if I’ll finally get to Frankenstein!
My fingers are crossed for you!!
I’ve read both Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Frankenstein. And I liked both, though I think Frankenstein is kind of sad. I felt a lot of empathy for the monster, and hardly any at all for Victor Frankenstein. ;D
I remember feeling that way about Frankenstein too — definitely need to prioritize reading it again in the coming year!
I’m not familiar with The House on the Strand, now I’m curious!
I have so many Daphne Du Maurier books that I want to read — but this one involves time travel, so it’s high on my list!
Spreadsheets are the best!! haha. I really want to get to Frankenstein one day!
I have spreadsheets for everything! 🙂
haha, me too! It’s the only way!
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the only other Bronte book (apart from Jane Eyre) that I’ve truly enjoyed, so definitely recommend that one!
Thanks, that’s good to hear!
Im terrible at getting to classics but im hoping to give a few a chance over the next year or so and Frankenstein is one of the ones I most want to try. David Copperfield is more of a maybe as learning how lengthy it is scared me 🙈 a chunky fantasy novel ends up as a must read for me but when it’s a lengthy classics I panic.
I hope you enjoy all of these whenever you get to them 🥰
Thanks so much! Last time I tackled a big Dickens novel, I used Serial Reader, which breaks the book up into daily installments — it worked really well!
Thanks for the tip, I’ll have to look into trying that out sometime.
I almost placed Tenant of Wildfell Hall on my list.
I’ve been wanting to get to it for a while, although I may need a break from Brontes since I’m reading Villette right now (and can’t wait to be done).
I highly recommend The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Frankenstein. I love du Maurier, especially her short stories, and I enjoyed The House on the Strand.
My list is here:
https://gypsireads.blogspot.com/2025/09/top-five-tuesday-classics-i-meant-to.html
That’s great to know! I have a bunch of du Maurier books on my TBR, and just really need to get to them!
I have so many classics I still need to read… Although there are a lot that I most likely will never get to haha. I’ve read Frankenstein, although it’s been too long to remember what I actually thought of it.
Same — that’s why it’s on my re-read list! 🙂