Reading Challenges – Page 2 – What Cathy Read Next…

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin. If you’re wondering how it works, read on:

Before 17th May, create a post listing twenty books that remain to be read on your Classics Club list. This is your Spin list. On 17th May the folks at The Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin list by 5th July 2026.

My Spin List

I enjoyed the book chosen for me in the last Classics Club Spin – Thunderball by Ian Fleming – so I have my fingers crossed for this one. The perfect scenario would be that the number chosen is either 4 or 18 as those two books are also on my 20 Books of Summer list. Kill two birds with one stone and all that…

The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories by Edgar Allan Poe
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
The Hound of Death and Other Stories by Agatha Christie
Victoria Four-Thirty by Cecil Roberts
The Smiler with the Knife by Nicholas Blake
The King’s General by Daphne du Maurier
A Maigret Christmas and Other Stories by George Simenon
The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier
A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie
Beyond the Black Stump by Nevil Shute
Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie
Trial by Terror by Paul Gallico
The Story of Esther Costello by Nicholas Montserrat
The Red Rock Wilderness by Elspeth Huxley
The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
Good-bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton
Lord Hornblower by C. S. Forester
Creatures of Circumstance by W. Somerset Maugham
The Satanist by Denis Wheatley
Stephen Morris by Nevil Shute

If this was your list, which book would you be hoping for?

Last year Cathy at 746 Books handed over the baton of the 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge to two new hosts: Annabel at AnnaBookBel and Emma at Words and Peace. This year Annabel has taken on sole hosting duties producing brand new graphics and a new hashtag #20BOS26.

The 20 Books of Summer 2026 challenge runs from 1st June to 31st August. You can find all the information you need about the challenge here where you can also sign up to participate.

Every year I approach the challenge high on ambition and usually low on likelihood of success. I’m aiming for the full 20 books again but this year with a healthy dose of realism. Therefore the majority of books on my list are from my NetGalley shelf, prioritising those with publication dates between June and September that I should theoretically be reading during that period anyway. I’ve added a couple from my current Classics Club list, my book club’s June pick and a couple of nonfiction books. Finally the remaining books longlisted for this year’s Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction that I haven’t yet read.

Being a stubborn old so-and-so, I like to stick to my original list and not take advantage of the option to swap books in and out. However, I do give myself more freedom to abandon books during the challenge if they’re not working for me. Links from the titles will take you to the book description on Goodreads. I’ll update them with links to my reviews when I’ve read them.