I did a Reading Challenge on GoodReads for 2015, and surpassed my 60 book goal, but only some of those were classics. This year, I may lower that to 50 books or less, and increase the difficulty and/or length of the books.
As part of this challenge for myself, I'm joining up in the Back to the Classics challenge at Books and Chocolate. You can read her rules here.
I learned about this challenge on the Ambleside Online forum, and am happily using some of their books for my own list. Thanks, ladies! :)
The books with asterisks are scheduled for the AO book discussions and are from year 8 of the curriculum, to help us educate ourselves and pre-read for our kids.
1. A 19th Century Classic - *Westward, Ho! by Charles Kingsley
2. A 20th Century Classic (but before 1966) - *A Man for All Seasons by Sir Thomas More
3. A classic by a woman author. -Little Women by Louisa Alcott (will likely read aloud to my 11 year old)
4. A classic in translation. - *I, Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed) by Alessandro Manzoni (June-Aug)
5. A classic by a non-white author. - Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
6. An adventure classic - *Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves from The Faerie Queen
7. A fantasy, science fiction, or dystopian classic. - *Utopia by Thomas More (Feb-May)
8. A classic detective novel. Agatha Christie (some googling led me to And Then There Were None, so I will try to start there) (May)
9. A classic which includes the name of a place in the title. - Middlemarch by George Eliot (completed Jan/Feb)
10. A classic which has been banned or censored. - *Paradise Lost by Milton (Jan-April)
11. Re-read a classic you read in school (high school or college). -Emma by Jane Austen
12. A volume of classic short stories. (min. of 8) -Martian Chronicles by Bradbury or The Peterkin Papers by Lucretia Hale, if my son is ready to hear those read aloud before the end of the year
Whew, that was harder than I expected! I will do another post with my other reading goals for 2016.
So many great books on your list! Bleak House is a personal favorite, and I highly recommend the 2005 BBC adaptation. Middlemarch is also fabulous, and you can't go wrong with Agatha Christie! Thanks for signing up for the challenge!
ReplyDeleteGlad I've picked some good ones :) Thank you for being the hostess!
DeleteAre you going to read the annotated version of Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves by Maynard? I found it to be super helpful as I struggle with allegory, analogies, and metaphors. (And see, I don't even know which category Spenser's writing falls into!)
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should have chosen books that are tied with discussions on the forum... There would be others to talk with! Eh. I think I better just stick with what I have :)
Yes, I did get the annotated CanonPress paperback, as I've never read this before. The reason I posted mine after you other AO ladies was so I could use the categories you all did, LOL!
Delete