The Reading Challenge

 

I'm in. I'm going to try the "Back to the Classics Challenge" for 2021. This will be the first time in a while that I've done a "prescribed" challenge, and I'm looking forward to diving in and reading some books I've always wanted to read. Only one of these (that I know of) of these will be a re-read.

Here are the categories, with my possible selections. I believe these are all classics; if I discover that something isn't a "true classic" (whatever that means), I will change it to something more ... classic.

UPDATE: I am going to mark the month completed for the books below as I finish them. Book reviews will be forthcoming ... I hope ...)

  • A 19th century classic: any book first published from 1800 to 1899 - A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens (1859) (COMPLETED in April)
  • A 20th century classic: any book first published from 1900 to 1971 - Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis (1956) (COMPLETED in August)
  • A classic by a woman author - Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë (1847) (COMPLETED in July - Review is on the edition I read.)
  • A classic in translation - Silence, by Shushako Endo (1966) (COMPLETED in January)
  • A classic by BIPOC author - Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northrup (1853) (COMPLETED in November)
  • A classic by a new-to-me author, i.e., an author whose work I've never read - Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh (1944) (COMPLETED in February)
  • New-to-me classic by a favorite author -- a book by an author whose works I have already read - The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare (1590-1592) (COMPLETED in August)
  • A classic about an animal, or with an animal in the title. Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls (1961) (COMPLETED in January)
  • A children's classic - A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. LeGuin (1968) (COMPLETED in September)
  • A humorous or satirical classic - Catch-22, by Joseph Heller (1961) (Added to the DNF stack on October 23.)
  • A travel or adventure classic (fiction or non-fiction) - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne (1870) (COMPLETED in December)
  • A classic play - Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett (1949) (COMPLETED in December)

The only certain re-read in the list is Jane Eyre, which I read in high school. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've never read some of these, but hey, by the end of 2021 I'll be able to say I've read them! (I've seen the movie Where the Red Fern Grows, and I may have read The Wind in the Willows as a child, but I don't remember if I did or not.) (EDIT: I tried to read The Wind in the Willows and just couldn't get into it. I also realized I'll never be able to read Dostoevsky's Demons or Rhys's The Wide Sargasso Sea, so I've switched/added a few books from my original list.)

I may make some changes to this list--I'd like to have a better balance between 19th and 20th centuries, I think. On the other hand, I've read a lot of the 19th-century classics and not so many 20th-century ones, so I may not worry about that.

All righty, that's it. That's my sign-up post. I'll start my first book on January 1!

Comments

  1. Ruth @ with freedom and booksJanuary 1, 2021 at 2:31 PM

    Wind in the Willows is so sweet and comical. It's a lot about nature. I just love it. A Room With a View is a favorite of mine.

    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nina a.k.a. WaterfallJanuary 5, 2021 at 8:53 AM

      I'm looking forward to both! Thanks for your comment!

      Delete
  2. Elena AliceJanuary 26, 2021 at 7:39 AM

    I adored Wind in the Willows. Make sure the copy you read has good illustrations; it adds onto the whimsical charm of the silly stories. Jane Eyre is a favorite of mine! Wide Sargasso Sea will be such an interesting book to read after Jane Eyre! A different perspective for sure! I am interested in Silence, but I am pretty emotionally sensitive to books and movies that include violence, so I think I would be really hard for me to get through even though the story is an important one. Kristin L is on my list too, though I changed it to just the first book of the trilogy (The Wreath).

    Here is my Back to Classics list, if interested!
    https://elle-alice.blogspot.com/2021/01/back-to-classics-2021-challenge.html

    ReplyDelete

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