Challenges

Begin with the Bard: Shakespeare Reading 2013

Published on November 26, 2012 | 4 Responses

In 2012, I enjoyed starting off my year with a Shakespeare reading month. I have decided to go for it again, and I would love to invite other friends to join in!

In January and February 2013, I plan on starting off my 2013 classics reading year with reading books by and about the Bard. I hope to get 6-10 different things read: plays and poetry by William Shakespeare, books about the man or his plays, or adaptations for children. This last year I decided to focus on the Henry VI plays. I really enjoyed them. I am planning on dedicated a month or a month and a half to this project. I’ll read until I get ready for something new!

I have not decided yet what to focus on for his plays, but I do have a few nonfiction books I have had my eye on. In the beginning of January, I’ll post my reading plans, and I’ll invite anyone who wants to join in to do the same.

I’m hoping, somehow, I’ll find a way to make it worth your while if you do join in. A prize, perhaps in the form of books, for one of our participants? I’m still pondering the feasibility of offering a giveaway to you, my friends.

Would you like to join me in starting of with the Bard in January and February 2013?

50 in 5 (Classics Club) Intro Post

Published on March 22, 2012 | 5 Responses

Jillian from A Room of One’s Own has started a group to encourage bloggers to read a set number of classics (you choose — at least 50) to read in the next five years (or you choose a different length of time). Because of the hiatus of the Classics Circuit and given my interest in the classics, I hope you are not surprised that I decided to join in!

See the introduction post
See the “join” post, with links to other participant’s lists.

I’ve decided to make my list of 50 books mainly books I own because I’ve struggled to get my own books read in the past years! About ten of the books on my list I do not own, but I wish I did. The rest are ones I’m eager to read but they’ve been sitting neglected for far too long!

I am going for a list of just 50 because, let’s face it, since my daughter was born last month and I became a mother of two, my time for reading has disappeared. I’m hoping to read my 50 books by Strawberry’s fifth birthday: February 22, 2017. That sounds like so far away from now, but my experience is that it will go fast!

To be honest, however, I hope to finish much sooner than five years. I wanted to say two years, but I’m more realistically thinking three years. My reward for when I finish is that I”ll make a list of 50 books to reread … and then I’ll get to reread them! I can’t wait for that. I love rereading.

My list is here. I’ll update it as I finish books. I am heavy on the Victorians because they are my favorite. But I also added a few ancient classics and some modern ones (although I’m keeping my list of “classics” pre-1950). If it looks like there are authors omitted from a must-read classics list, it’s because I’ve probably already read them. This is a list of books I have not read yet. I love rereads, but this project will stay with new books. I am most excited to read Vanity Fair (which I may start next month if I ever finish the dragging Erewhon by Samuel Butler that I’m reading now). I’ve heard so many wonderful things about Vanity Fair! I’m most scared of The Tale of the Genji which is huge and I’ve heard it drags!

You’ll notice I also have a few other lists I’m working on. I’ve made steady progress on the 101 Great Books for College-Bound Readers since I started my blog four years ago. I’m not crazy excited about some of those books, so I didn’t make those a priority per se. (I can’t image a teenager getting through all of those before college!) I also have favorite authors I want to read the complete works of. Shakespeare is a must, but I left him off my 50 in 5 list because I want to spontaneously decide which play to read next over the next five years. Reading his complete works is my life goal, not a five-year goal. I am also about to embark on the wonderful project called home schooling, so I plan on working on a list of classics to read with my son (and daughter) for that.

What books on this list are you excited for me to read?

Harlem Renaissance: Fiction for February and Other Yearly Reading Ideas

Published on January 31, 2012 | 12 Responses

I am trying very hard to not be too ambitious in my reading plans for the year. That said, I really enjoyed how my January has been focused on Shakespeare and Charles Dickens this month, reading both biographies of the men and some of their works.

I decided to revisit the Harlem Renaissance during the month of February. I am not currently running the Classics Circuit, but one of my favorite Classics Circuits of the past was February 2010 when I learned all about the great literature of the Harlem Renaissance. I have not been very diligent at revisiting those works I really want to read, so this year, I’m going to try to read a few novels. I have a volume of five Harlem Renaissance novels out from the library. (more…)

1000 Books: Project Completion

Published on January 30, 2012 | 20 Responses

About two years ago (December 2009), I started a project I titled “1000 Books” in which I hoped to read 1000 different books with my son before his sixth birthday (fall 2013): picture books, chapter books, or essentially any books that we read in full. Originally, I said I wanted to read the books by his fifth birthday, but then I panicked because that was too soon and changed it to his sixth birthday. The purpose of this goal was to nurture his natural interest in reading, to expose him to a variety of good books, and to help him gain the literary exposure necessary to learn to read at age 5 or 6.

It’s been quite the wonderful experience for us. (more…)

RIP Season Once Again

Published on September 3, 2011 | 19 Responses

Just like hundreds of other reading bloggers around the web, I’m joining the RIP challenge, which is to read mystery, or suspense or horror books for the fall season.

I’m taking it rather easy with this and joining for just the read one book option.

I really want to read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but I may instead be substituting a Gothic read, since the upcoming Classics Circuit will be pre-1840s Gothic literature. I’m not sure what it will be yet, since the only true Gothic novel from that era that I have read was The Monk and I didn’t like it all that much. Frankenstein? Or maybe Ann Radcliffe of some kind. Also, my classics book club is reading The Woman in White in October. Since I’ve already read it, I didn’t want to count it for this challenge, but then again, I do plan to reread it. If I do get all three of these read, I’ll have almost finished Peril the First!

I also plan on joining the Short Story challenge too. I have an Everyman’s Library edition of Ghost Stories with stories by classic authors from Saki to Maupassant. I hope I’ll write about one a week, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m not a ghost story person, but this collection just looks so classic, I’m thinking I may enjoy it. (There is no Edgar Allan Poe in it, so it looks doubly promising…)

Anyway, which pre-1840s Gothic novel have you loved and could recommend? I’m still working on the intro to the Classics Circuit tour, so I have lots more research to do myself…