Saturday, December 29, 2012

New Year, New Book Challenges


So 2012 is nearly over and it's time to reflect on the year. I've really enjoyed having these challenges/read-a-longs to nudge me into reading things I wouldn't ordinarily read. Or maybe get around to that pile. I set out to read a bit more and surprised myself by doing just that. I signed up for Goodreads' Reading Challenge to read 30 books and managed to read 42! I also successfully climbed Pike's Peak for the 2012 Mt TBR Reading Challenge but couldn't quite move on to Mt Vancouver. So of course for this year's challenge I signed up for the Mt Blanc level of 24 books, just to challenge myself further. I don't have a list for that... yet.

I also vowed to spread my reading wings out a little and read some classics. The Classics Club challenge is perfect for that, because you can set up a list to tackle, but you have five years to finish. I spent some time thinking about these. Some are ones I've always meant to read and some I've always felt bad about not reading... it'll be interesting to see how far I get into this challenge. I'm already signed up for Unputdownables' Persuasion Read-a-long to start me off.

So here is my list:

1    Bram Stoker - Dracula
2    Henry James - Portrait of a Lady
3    Edith Wharton - House of Mirth
4    Edith Wharton - Age of Innocence
5    Edith Wharton - The Buccaneers
6    Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre
7    Charlotte Brontë - Villette
8    Edmund Spenser - The Faerie Queene
9    Virgil - Aeneid
10    Homer - The Iliad
11    Homer - The Odyssey
12    Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights
13    Pierre Choderlos de Laclos - Les Liaisons Dangereuses
14    Jules Verne - Around the World in Eighty Days
15    Charles Dickens - Bleak House
16    Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
17    Wilkie Collins - The Moonstone
18    Wilkie Collins - The Woman in White
19    Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
20    Jane Austen - Mansfield Park
21    Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey
22    Jane Austen - Persuasion
23    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Complete Sherlock Holmes
24    Sir Thomas Malory - Morte D’Arthur
25    JRR Tolkien - The Hobbit
26    Elizabeth Gaskell - Wives and Daughters
27    Elizabeth Gaskell - North and South
28    Daphne Du Maurier - Rebecca
29    L. Frank Baum - Wonderful Wizard of Oz
30    Lewis Carroll - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
31    Lewis Carroll - Through the Looking Glass
32    TH White - Sword in the Stone
33    Flappers and Philosophers - F Scott Fitzgerald
34    William Butler Yeats - Complete Poems
35    Alfred Lord Tennyson - Idylls of the King
36    Chretien de Troyes - Arthurian Romances
37    Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace
38    Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina
39    Thomas Hardy - Return of the Native
40    HG Wells - Invisible Man
41    John Milton - Paradise Lost
42    Arabian Nights
43    Oscar Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray
44    Herodotus - Histories
45    Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War
46    Hesiod – Works and Days and Theogeny
47    Emily Dickinson - Complete Poems
48    Edgar Rice Burroughs - John Carter of Mars
49    Anthony Hope - The Prisoner of Zenda
50    Anthony Hope - Rupert of Hentzau
51    Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince
52    Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol

Goal for completion date: January 2018

Bolded books have been finished.

8 comments:

Alex in Leeds said...

Hello from a fellow Classics Clubber, love the look of your list. I couldn't get on with Wilkie Collins but I love WB Yeats and it's refreshing to see poetry on a list. Good luck with your challenges. :)

Julia said...

Thank you for the welcome, Alex! I wanted to try for an even mix of poetry, prose, and non-fiction, so I didn't get too bored from weighty tomes.

Vikk @ Down the Writer's Path said...

Hi, I'm in the Classic Club, too, and chose 50/5 years but I'm assuming I'll go past that so my list has a good 90+ books on it.

Unknown said...

Welcome to the Classics Club!

Unknown said...

Arabian Nights is high on my list as well!

Brona said...

Great list!
Are you joining in the Readathon this weekend?

Anonymous said...

WoW! You've got some really tough titles there!...at least, I always feel the epic verses are tough. I have a few of them listed on my list as well.

I also see you're an Arthurian fan? :D....if you are and would like to read more on the Arthurian legend that isn't part of the classic cannon I would recommend Mary Stewart's The Merlin Trilogy and Stephen R Lawheads The Pendragon Cycle series. They're both excellent writers and bring fresh perspectives to this body of legend. :)

All the best with your list!

Risa

Julia said...

Brona: I'll be in the readathon for part of the day, but not the full 24 hours.

Risa: Yes, my list is heavy on Arthurian and Greek mythology. I hope I haven't bitten off more than I manage! Thanks for the suggestions.