Twenty classics I want to read

I'm currently participating in the TBR Pile Challenge, which is enough for one year, especially given my three book groups. Last weekend, though, I came across this post from Behold the Stars in which she announced the completion of her Classics Club list. I thought, "I want to read more classics." I thought, "I could totally join Classics Club." I read the requirements, and was delighted and relieved that you can count re-reads, and you can change your list at any point. Immediately, I spent a weekend making a list of 50 classics to read in the next 5 years. I came up with 20 easily. Then I added another 8 that I've been wanting to re-read.

I actually have three classics checked out of the library right now - one as a potential community read, one for the TBR Pile Challenge, and a third just because - and this made the timing seem even more urgent. I want these three books to count.

So then I was at 28 and had to come up with 22 more. Since they can be changed I thought I'd just go through some lists of classics and pick out more things that I should totally read at some point in my life. I read the Classics Club list of classics, and then moved on to Goodreads, where I went through a few different lists, adding anything that wasn't an obvious and immediate turnoff.

Then I began to come to my senses.

I am in three (3) book groups. I am on the community read committee at my library. I am doing the TBR Pile Challenge. This all equals a lot of books and I have been trying so hard to whittle down my To Read list on Goodreads, trying to delete books I think I might not read so I will stop feeling that pressure.

This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to post my list of classics that I actually want to read here. I will maybe attempt to read them sometime in the foreseeable future (i.e. between now and retirement.) I will not hold myself to any promises.

Here's my list:

1. Middlemarch by George Eliot
2. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
5. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
6. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
7. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
8. War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy
9. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne duMaurier
10. The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
11. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
12. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
13. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
14. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
15. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
16. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
17. Babbit by Sinclair Lewis
18. The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
19. Complete Poems by Dorothy Parker
20. Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker

So there. I haven't read any of these. (Ok, I might have read Mrs. Dalloway but I can't quite remember so that doesn't count. And I read "The Lottery" in school, but not any other of Jackson's stories.) I would also like to read something by Faulkner, maybe, but I'm not sure what. And maybe something by John Updike? I don't know. It doesn't matter. But if you have suggestions I'll take them.

A few of these are chunky. I don't know how I'll get through War and Peace or Moby-Dick or Middlemarch. I'd like to be taking a class on them because that helped a lot in college, and I really think you get more out of a book if you're discussing it. Occasionally the Cambridge Center for Adult Education will hold a class on a particularly long book (in fact they are doing War and Peace this fall, which may work out for me!) There are also read-alongs online that I will look for as well.

I just came perilously close to doing something ridiculous, and I'm so glad I caught myself before actually signing up. But I'm also glad to be thinking about reading more classics.

What are your favorites? Are there any you have been wanting to read and just haven't managed to get to? What's the best Faulkner novel to start with, or should I just skip him altogether? Please share your thoughts and opinions below!

End of the World Reading Challenge

I mentioned around mid-2012 - and you may have seen the banner on my sidebar - that I have been participating in a reading challenge from the Insatiable Booksluts called the 2012 End of the World Reading Challenge, in honor of the apocalypse that ultimately wasn't. The contest is now over and though a winner hasn't been announced yet, it wasn't me. I think I was the third person to post my page count total and I was already in third place. Not all the books I read last year qualified though, as the rules didn't allow for re-reads and I had a lot of those. My Not-So-Young Adult book group at work has read about 4 books in a row that I've already read. I also read a couple of graphic novels early in the year, and those didn't count either. That's ok though, it's all in fun.

The good thing about this particular challenge is that I didn't have to change my reading habits for it. I could have avoided the graphic and re-reads, but that's about it. I don't really like having assigned reading (I already have 3 book groups!) so this challenge is definitely my style. Several years ago I participated in the Book a Month Challenge which was my first-ever challenge (this one being only my second), and also fairly easy to do. Although each month had a theme, the themes were fairly general and open to interpretation. I was able to pick books I already wanted to read, so it didn't feel like there was extra reading to do or like I was missing out on the books I actually wanted to read.

Other challenges are more specific and I have shied away because of it. For instance, I just heard about the TBR Double Dog Dare in which you read only books on your TBR pile for a certain amount of time. There's also the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge, in which you every month you read one female science fiction author you haven't read before. Then there's the intriguing Around the World in 80 Books Reading Challenge that appeals to my sense of adventure but is fairly involved, requiring actual research on the countries in which your book choices take place. There's a challenge for every type of reader out there. However, I'm trying to read more serendipitously, which is already difficult with 3 book groups.

But there is something about a reading challenge that can be irresistible. Reading and blogging are pretty solitary activities but these online challenge create a bit of solidarity. When you can fit books in that you intend to read anyhow, there's just no reason not to join in and be part of something and meet (virtually, anyhow) interesting new bloggers.

Lest I continue talking myself into trying another challenge, I better stop here. What's been your experience with reading challenges? Do you take on more than you can handle? Avoid them all together? Have you heard of any really great ones starting up? (Not that I will be tempted to participate, I swear!) Share your experiences below in the comments.

Favorites, and the test of time

Now that I use Goodreads to keep track of and rate what I read, I've noticed how my views on books change over time. Recently the director of my library asked us all to provide 1-3 of our favorite books from 2012 for a newspaper article, and when I started looking through my Goodreads list I was quite surprised. Earlier this year I gave 5-star reviews to a few books that I barely remember the details of now, and others only received 4 stars yet I still think about them and recommend them. I left the 5-star reviews as is, because although my love may have been fleeting it was strong at the time and that means something. Perhaps if I read them again I'd fall in love with them this time too. As for those  4-star reviews that seem more deserving in retrospect, I bumped them up to 5 without hesitation.

It's a little thing, but now I can't stop thinking about why certain books blow me away initially but don't stay with me, while others only grow more present in my mind over time.

When I read Age of Miracles, I was totally blown away. I devoured that book like it was cake. When I was done, I closed the book and stared off into space, shaking my head in wonderment. I can remember that, but can't quite grasp the details of what spurred my reaction. Maybe I've just forgotten too much after this much time, and would feel the same if I read it again now. The same with A Land More Kind Than Home. Fantastic book, and it really stood out but again, it's hard to recapture exactly why.

On the other hand, The Dog Stars has stayed with me in a way I didn't expect. I knew it was a very good book, but it didn't pack the punch of the two I just mentioned. However, it had an atmospheric quality that is somehow very easy to recapture.

Similarly, Wild has grown in my estimation since I first read it. I loved it right away anyhow but didn't think it was a favorite. Now though, I keep thinking about how amazing it was for a slightly unprepared and emotionally fragile person to have the determination to do what she did alone. It's really inspiring.

I always wonder how much my book reading experiences would have been different had I read the book at some other time of my life or if I was in a different mood, but that maybe entirely overthinking it.

So as not to leave you hanging, the 3 titles I submitted for work were Gone Girl, Where'd You Go Bernadette?, and Born Wicked (the sequel to which has been pushed back to June. June!)

This week at work I posted a more complete list of my favorite books of the year (restricted to those published in 2012), with links to reviews back here on my own blog. Because I'm lazy like that.

Do you feel like your views on certain books change over time? Are you ever surprised to realize you can barely remember a book you were effusing about a few months ago? Or read a book that you thought was good but not outstanding, only to not be able to get it out of your head later?

Help me choose some summer reading

There are a few authors I want to re-visit so I think I'm going to try and read another book by each of these authors this summer. But which books should I pick?

Maggie O'Farrell - I've read The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Penny Vincenzi - I've read Sheer Abandon

Sarah Waters - I've read The Little Stranger and Tipping the Velvet. I'm thinking of reading Fingersmith next.

Have you read any of these authors? What do you recommend I read next from each of them?

Goals, revisited

Let's look back at last year's goals, shall we?

Knitting plan
I forgot I had a knitting plan until I looked back and saw this post.

The only goal really was to finish the three languishing projects on my needles at the time and I'm happy to say that I did. I've been wearing the Whisper cardigan and Glynis socks a lot, though I haven't used the Bramble Stitch Shawl. Maybe I'm just not a shawl person, though maybe I'd wear a shawl with a different size or shape. This one covers my shoulders, but then comes to a point before really covering any of my back.

This year I feel sort of the same way about my knitting as last year. I've been working on the Coraline Cardigan, Milo Socks, and Cascade Ribbed Socks for what seems like ages now and feel ridiculous that none of them are done yet. Mind you, I just paused everything for a bit to knit a pair of baby booties for a shower, and also a ribbon scarf (which I haven't posted yet - will do soon!) But I'd still like to get back to these projects before so much time has passed that my gauge changes or I can't figure out where I left off.

However, I think my theme for this year is no pressure. If I don't feel like working on something I'm not going to force myself. It's pointless to work on something I'm not in the mood for when I really want to knitting something else. I'd like to let myself be more spontaneous with my projects, which may be better for creativity. Or perhaps I'll just end up with 25 stalled projects and nothing finished.

Reading Plan
Last year my goal was to learn more about US history. I didn't do as much of this as I'd hoped (and I still haven't walked the Freedom Trail in Boston) but I did read a handful of books about U.S. history, more than I normally would have. Some of the books I mentioned in my post I didn't get to, but I did read two of them- The Civil War: A Concise History and American Uprising. I'm not sure how much I retained, which is my real problem.

I had planned to read at least one non-fiction book each month, and although there were months in which I read no non-fiction, my total count for the year was 14. That's a win! Now, some of my non-fiction books were things like Bossypants and Wishful Drinking, but I never said they all had to be scholarly.

As with the knitting, I'm not going to set any reading goals this year except to try and let go of the pressure I keep putting on myself to read particular things. Aside from my book groups (I now have my regular book group and one for work) I'm going to try and read more serendipitously and hopefully ignore my To Read list unless I need to use it for ideas. In an essay from Nick Hornby's Shakespeare Wrote for Money he says "reading begets reading - that's sort of the point of it, surely?" and that's true. I don't want to feel like I need to hold off on something I'm suddenly inspired to read in favor of books that just came in for me at the library. I mean, I work there - I can just order those books again later.

So there are my anti-goals for this year. I wonder if it will make me want to set firm goals again next year.

How did you do with your goals for last year? And what are you focusing on for 2012?