December 31, 2011

Classic Reads...

I fell in love with Goodreads this year. I have always been an avid reader, another good thing I blame on my mother.

Since I'm also a reader by nature and heart, I intitially though about setting up a list of 25 reads the next year. But then I thought about trying to accomplish 25 things, as well as baking/cooking 25 things, working full time, spending time with Music Man, possibly going back to school, etc. And since I'm on a quest to release anxiety from my life, I though I had better not add any more craziness to my life.


Then I stumbled upon November's Autumn Classics Challenge. Seven classics in one year? That would be perfect for me. So, I started to compile my list of classics (both adult and children's novels) and my list kept growing, and growing, and eventually I ended up with 25 novels anyway. This past year I challenged myself to read fifty-two books, one every week, and I ended up with fifty-six. So, 25 shouldn't be to much of a challenge, minus the fact that classics often take me longer to read because I enjoy them so much, and that I'll also have about twelve other books I'll be reading next year for book club, and my ever revolving que at the library.
What can I say? I'm just a reader!  
So, I'm taking the classics challenge at least, but on slightly different terms. I'll be posting a list of 25 reads for 2012, all of which are classics (works of literature that transcend time). My initial goal is to read seven specific ones for this challenge and respond to the prompts every 4th of the month while my ultimate goal is to finish all 25 novels because classics just do something to your soul that modern books don't.
I suppose I should stop adding books to my library que.

If you're up for a Classics Challenge, head over to November's Autumn and join up. And then, let me know over at A Hopeful Heroine what you'll be reading this year.


2012 Classics Challenge
* = NA Classics Challenge Picks

*Little Women by Louis May Alcott
Jos' Boys
Little Men
Gone with the Wind  (my mother's favorite, I trie dot read it in 7th grade, once)  by Margaret Mitchell
*Wuthering Heights  by Emily Bronte
Ann of Green Gable  by  Lucy Maud Montgomery
*Phantom of the Opera  by Gaston Lerous
*Vanity Fair  by William Makepeace Thackeray
*Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
*Jane Eyre  by Charlotte Bronte
War and Peace  by Leo Tolstoy
*Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass  by Lewis Carroll
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Peter Pan by  J. M. Barrie
Wizard of Oz  by  L. Frank Baum
A Gift of Magic by  Lois Duncan
A Wrinkle in Time  (and quintet) by Madeline L'Engle
A Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Many Waters
An Acceptable Time
The Little Prince by  Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Phantom Tollbooth by  Norton Juster

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Learn contentment. Seek peace. Find joy. Live Faith. Breathe hope.