#ClassicsCommunity 2021 Reading Challenge discussion

As we get ready for the 2021 #ClassicsCommunity Reading Challenge, introduce yourself again! Tell us who you are and what your favourite classic is!

Hey! I'm Kristie, I'm a librarian from the U.S. (NJ). I found this group last year while looking for in-depth reviews while I tackled Anna Karenina. I had intended to read 20 classics in 2020 but only read about 10 :( I did discover that I really love Elizabeth Gaskell and found some horror novelists that I can't wait to get back to (Vernon Lee!)
I really love the monthly read-alongs!

Ahhh so exciting! I'm Kato, 24, from Belgium, a literature and linguistics graduate. My favourite 20th century classic is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. My favourite 19th century classic is probably The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (I looooove Oscar Wilde) or Emma by Jane Austen. Will definitely be reading more Austen in 2021!

Hello! My name is Erika and I live in Rochester NY (US). I love classics and am looking forward to reading with all of you!

Hello everyone, my name is Giorgia and I’m from Florence, Italy. I’m soo excited to partecipate in 2021’s Classics Community reading challenge, because I feel that in the past years I fell out of love with reading classics. I really want to change that! I made a list of 10 classics I want to read this year, but I hope I’ll read even more :))

Hiii everyone, my name’s Becky. I’m from Slovakia. I really wanted to participate in this challenge because i think that in the past year or two i have fallen out of the habit of reading classics. My favourite classics are probably Little Women, Frankenstein and Crime and Punishment. Can’t wait to widen my horizon on different classics and discuss it with you.

Hi, everyone! My name is Luna. I'm an english literature student in college and an aspiring writer. I believe that this shall be my second time joining this year's reading challenge. My favourite novels are the count of monte cristo and dante's inferno.

Hi, my name is Anne. I'm originally from Belgium but reside in Georgia right now. I'm a biostatistician at a medical school. Last year my goal was to read twenty classics in the broader sense (including new school classics), and i ended up with 85. Today i finished the Fellowship of the Ring, which I'm also counting. It was a year where I used classics to cope, so I'm hopeful that my goal of twenty classics for 2021 will become a stretch instead. I'm hoping to tackle some larger books I've been avoiding (middlemarch, anna karenina, the brothers karamazov). My ultimate goal is to read the BBC 100 classics, and the BBC classics to read before you die. These are two lists that are very similar, so I'm tackling both at the same time. I've only read 38 and 39 books of those two lists (95% overlapping) in the past two years, so my goal is to add another 10-15 this year. I also have a lot of classics on my Bookcase of Shame (containing about 350 books I've not read but wanting to), and I've been working hard to mostly read from there. This year i read about fifty from there, so that's a good start. I listen to a lot of audiobooks because I have an awful commute, which is how I've been able to read so many books on top of my full-time job that has zero to do with reading for fun. Once I've redone the inventory of my bookcase (and the other stacks of books), I'm ready for 2021!

Hi! I'm Claire from Michigan, my favorite classic is Little Women. I read it every year and absolutely love the 2019 version of the film. My goal is 40 books this year with at least 12 classics!

Hi, I am Nidhi from India. I found this group last year and liked it. I couldn’t read many classics in 2020 but next year I am planning to read a lot. My favourite author is Dickens and all time favourite book is A Tale of Two Cities.

I too like Alcott, recently I read Merry Christmas and other stories by her, it’s nice Christmas read.

Hi, my name is Janice and I'm from Canada. :) I joined the Classics Community group for the first time last year and ended up reading 20 classics. Some of these were new authors such as George Eliot and Charles Dickens, some were children's classics, and some were never-read books by authors I know such as The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery and The Quiet Little Woman and Kate's Choice by Louisa May Alcott. I look forward to reading more classics and finding new authors in the upcoming year. My favorite classic is Pride and Prejudice. I read it every year. <3

Merry Christmas and keep safe everyone and here's to another year of reading great classics. :)

Hi I'm Penny from Australia. I joined last year and found the group a great help in suggesting titles and encouraging participation reading. I am starting my year with War and Peace and can't wait for Jan 1.

Hi! I'm Lay, I'm 18 and love reading. I really enjoy classics but don't know that many people who read a lot. I haven't read as much as I wanted to this year but I did read a fair few classics including some Jane Austen and lot's of 20th century fiction. I'm super excited to join the club, let's hope 2021 is a better year!

Hi, I am Zoë. I am a young teenager and I am starting to enjoy classics. So far I am loving Elizabeth Gaskell and hope to read my first Jane Austen in 2021. My goal is to read 12 classics so one a month. I read quite a lot of YA still so like to find a balance between the two.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Hi, I'm Cathlyn and I am from the Philippines. I just got back from reading this year and I'm really glad that I came across with really good classic books. Gone with the Wind, Jane Eyre, and Anne of the Green Gables are some of my favorites.

Hi! I joined you in the second half of last year. I don’t remember if I introduced myself, but I loved the few buddy reads I joined. I’m Ashley! Grew up in Southern California (USA) for 20 something years before living for a year in Pennsylvania and then moving to Utah with a friend who needed a roommate. She was going to school, I got a job. I met my future husband after being here a couple days. It took a couple weeks to start dating, and then we got married a year and a half later. I had one year left of college, so we both transferred to Utah State (he started at a smaller school and planned to transfer to a different university, but I needed to get further away from his family (who I love now) for a few years....which worked out well and helped us solidify our bee marriage). We have 3 kids- oldest (boy) will be 9 in a month, girl just turned 7, and the caboose will be 2 in the spring. I have chronic pain (arthritis and other injuries/problems in my back and hips and joints) and didn’t think the last baby would ever happen, but she was really wanted and here she is after a lot of miraculous events (if you believe in that sort of thing).

I am a life time lover of reading and have always read a lot. I’m picky and have a hard time with most modern books, but still am always trying to find good ones because when they are good, they are good! But I read a lot of biographies and classics. My favorite is probably Les Mis, but anything Dickens is a close second. I also love Middlemarch (which I keep trying to get different groups to read!), Anna Karenina, A Lantern in Her Hand, and CS Lewis.

This year I hope to reed Kristen Lavransdatter, Roots, and I forget what other large tome I chose! I like to have 2 or 3 as a goal for the year and take them slowly. I created a Toni Morrison group on FB (come join if you’re there) so I have to focus on that and the one book a month, but I also found a group that is reading all of Dickens in 2021. I said no way at first, but now I’m considering it. There are groups here on GR that read this works slowly, which is nice and easy to fit in. But this group seems like it will be very active and fun so I might try. I read 3 (and a half- but I may give up the half read one and start this challenge early) Dickens novels this year, so I’ll probably skip those next year to give me more time to fit in everything else. It’s only 25-30 pages a day, but Dickens pages and I usually read a lot of books at once, so I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep it up. I don’t do well with long challenges and often get bored. It’s hard to read one author over and over again for a really long period. Has anyone ever done anything like this?

Hi, I am Lorri and I am a Minnesota American woman, wife, mom, and grandma. I have loved reading since I learned how and was really into classics by age 12. Recently I earned an MA in English Literature Education.

I joined this group late in 2020 and committed to reading 12 classics but read 16, including the tomes Dombey and Son and Moby Dick; or The White Whale. I also participated in Jane Austen July and Victober and intend to do so again in 2021.

I just finished creating my 2021 TBR with monthly themes and hope to read about 60 classics (some are very short stories) and 60 other books. However, I will only commit to reading 32 classics in 2021, after all, I might get a job that will seriously impinge on my personal reading time.

Favorite classic authors include Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Jane Austen, Alexandre Dumas, Leo Tolstoy, and Oscar Wilde. Favorite individual works by other authors include Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, Carmilla, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Hound of the Baskervilles, Frankenstein, Little Women, Lady Audley’s Secret, and Evelina: Or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World.

Hi I’m Katrina, I got back into reading over lockdown this year. I’ve been enjoying classics and hope to dive into Jane Austen and more of Charles Dickens

I thought I posted my introduction earlier!! Hi, I'm Suzanne, I currently live in the Bay Area, and I am working on classics that I should have read back when I was at my university, but never got to. In 2020, I read Little Women, Kindred, Murder on the Orient Express, (will be finishing) The Stand, and I am currently reading Anna Karenina. in 2021, I want to read about 15 "classics" on top of my goal to read 40 books this year. I have Anna Karenina to finish up, and start on Madame Bovary, Tale of Two Cities, Moby Dick, and several others (I have Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou and Rilke on my TBR)

Looking forward to sharing and posting with y'all!!!

Hi everyone! I’m Allie, 26 and from Melbourne, Australia! I am currently completing my PhD in Education (more sociology of education focused) and I have always been a huge book lover ever since I remember.

This year the challenge enabled me to read so much more classics than I have ever read! I’ve been wanting to read more classics for a while but always felt a bit too intimidated to do so. But this year I found some of my favourites and was able to really immerse myself in classics overall.

My favourite classic of this year would have to be Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and it might be my fav classic of all time! I also did a mini challenge with myself this year to complete all of Jane Austen’s full-length novels - which I did and it was incredible! Emma is my favourite Austen novel now haha.

I would like to read all of Oscar Wilde’s plays next year as well as reading the rest of the Bronte books I have on my shelf ! Would love to read War and Peace as a challenge to myself but we shall see how I feel next year haha!

Hello. My name is Tiffany and I come from a small farming community in northern Canada. Nothing really spectacular about where I am from outside of the fact that it is cold and it started snowing at the end of September.

I have always loved reading classics, but outside of some other classic communities on Goodreads, I haven't been reading them on my own.

I plan on being more active, but do not know how many classics I want to try to read next year. I love Alexandre Dumas, Émile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, Victor Hugo, Guy de Maupassant, Irene Nemirovsky (is she considered a classic author, now?), Charles Dickens, Frances Burney, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and L.M. Montgomery.

Outside of the authors I have mentioned, I love reading medieval Arthurian works, the romantic poets, and some Greek and Roman classics (particularly the histories).

I am so happy to see that this community is going to continue for another year and look forward to actually participating this time!

hello I'm Megan I'm from Canada and I wish I would get some snow for Christmas and Christmas alone. I joined last year and it helped me work through a bad reading slump. I look forward to he new year new classics I have yet to discover.

Hi, my name is Mary and I'm from Canada. I joined the Classics Community at the beginning of last year, but was unfortunately not able to participate as much as I would have liked to or read as many classics as I had planned. 2020 was a busy year for me as I was finishing up my bachelor's degree and starting a full time job as an education assistant. However, now since I no longer have required university reading and have settled into my new job, I am hoping to spend more time reading.

Hi, I am Devyani.
I found about this through Lucy’s YT channel.
I haven’t read classics proactively but this is 2021 me curious and aiming just about 12 classics for the year.
Joining this group for support and like minded people. :)

Hello everyone, I'm Iza, a librarian from France.
I read a lot of classics this year, I'll be updating a post when the year is (finally) over.
This year, I'm planning to read a lot of classics that are on my physical shelves and my kindle. I'm particularly fond of 19th century classics, but also early 20th century, both British and French. Thank you Lucy for this 2021 edition of the challenge :) It's great to see so many people participating from all around the world !

Hi I'm Yuki from Texas. Used to read a lot of classics in high school (on top of the school required ones!). Recently got more into fantasy for the escapism, but I just always appreciated the wholesomeness of classics and the writing. Hope I'll be able to read 1 classic a month in 2021 and share my thoughts with y'all!! Btw, I'm also a big Jane Austen fan!

My favorite classics are Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Secrete Garden, and Anne of Green Gables.

Hi, I'm Cleo from Canada. I love classics in particular the ancient Greeks and 19th century classics. Some of my favourites are Herodotus' The Histories, The Brothers Karamazov, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, etc. I'm looking forward to reading more of them in 2021!

(Hi to you Iza!)

Hi everyone, I’m Rebecca (from the U.K.). I joined this group in 2020 but failed miserably on the classics front. I tried but it’s still an intimidating area for me so I only read a handful. I’m hoping 2021 will be more successful! My favourite classics are Little Women and Carmilla

Hello everyone! My name is Manny, and I am from Utah. I will be starting medical school next fall.

If I had to choose, my favorite classic would be One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. This year, I intended to read some Russian classics, Jane Austen novels, and finish Les Mis. Unfortunately, I did not meet any of these goals, haha, but I did read a good amount of classics. I'll probably carry some of these goals over to 2021.

It is nice to meet everyone!

Yes!!! I’m so happy for another year of classics community!
I’m hoping to finish reading Far from the Madding Crowd, the Three Musketeers and For the term of his Natural life.

Hi 👋 I’m Hannah. I get so excited about books that I can’t read the title of discussion groups!

I’m from Australia and I’m a proud Janeite (actually a card carrying member). I love to read historical fiction, classics that can improve you, historical fiction and a bit of murder mystery.

I’m also a total mood reader, so I could set my reading goals but not want to finish books if I don’t feel like I’m enjoying it. I REALLY struggle to DNF books. But I’m getting better!

Hello from Oregon, USA. I’m Jeannetta, mother of 7, grandmother ton12. I love reading, and classics are a big part of my life. Too many favorites to pick just one, but Dickens is a favorite author.
Merry Christmas!

Hi! My name is Milina, I'm 24 and I'm from Serbia. I generally try to read classics from time to time and I really enjoyed most of the ones I've read. I'm hoping to read many more during the next year.

Hi! I'm Adyasha, from India. I'm 22 and I've rediscovered my love for classics (and Jane Austen!) in 2020. I won't get much time to read after I graduate in July 2021, so I want to devote the months before that to one of my greatest pleasures - reading classics. Hoping to read more of the Brontés, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell and Virginia Woolf this new year :)

Hi, I am Antje from the Netherlands, I love classic reading, my favorite writers are Albert Payson Terhune (love the dog yarns) Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, and yes I do love Stephen King (which is considered classic, however a different style) my goal is to re-read Wuthering Heights, I also want to read some Lucy Maud Montgomery as I bought the compete Anne Of Green gables set.

I’m Amanda, a writer and maker from Texas. I’m a huge Agatha Christie fan and adore poetry. I’m currently reading a classic collection of short stories — The Christmas Card Crime and other stories — to finish out the year. I’m also buddy reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Hi, I'm Jackie from NC and I joined last year. I'm glad this is a year long readathon. My favorite classics are The Great Gatsby, Jane, Frankenstein, Emma, Mansfield Park, Wuthering Heights, A Tale of Two Cities, Animal Farm, Crime and Punishment, and Gone with the Wind. The last few years I have come to love classics and this is one of my favorite readathons. I cannot wait for this one to officially starts.

Hello everyone!! My name is Abby, I’m from NYC and I’m very new to classics but have been loving them. Can’t wait to start this journey with you all:)

hi im les, i want to read more classics for 2021 so im excited to be here :)

Hi I’m Leahy from the UK and I’ve only recently been getting into classics, my favourites so far are Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Persuasion by Jane Austen. I really want to read more Austen in 2021 and perhaps tackle War and Peace! X

Hi Everyine! My name is Aylya and I am originally from Bulgaria but have been living in Edinburgh/Scotland since 2011. I am a Classics lover that hadn't really had time time to read much, due to the nature of my job. But thanks to the pandemic and several lockdowns in 2020, I am very proud to have completed 15 classics in 2020! My goal for 2021 is to read again at least 15 classincs and My classics TBR for 2021 is as per below:
1. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
2. Wuthering Hights - Emily Bronte
3. Vilette - Charlotte Bronte
4, North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
5. Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
6. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
7. Lady Audley's Secret - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
8. The phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
9. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
10. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
11. Crime and punicsment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
12. Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
13 - To Kill a Mokingbird - Harper Lee
14. The Grapes of wrath - John Steinbeck
15. Native son - Richard Wright
Of course, this list can change any time, or more classicks might (hopefully will) be added to it :)
Good luck, everyone! Wishing you a lovely 2021, when it comes!

Hi, I'm Sara and I'm a Finnish uni student. I got back into reading during 2020. I only read a couple of books in 2019 but made it my goal to read more in 2020 - so far I'm at 33 books and I believe I'm to finish two more before the end of the year!

I've always enjoyed classics and since I didn't really read anything in 2019, I did achieve the general goal to simply read more classics in 2020. This year I've read 13 classics and 4 modern classics (and currently reading Handmaid's tale and Mansfield Park so hoping to add one to each number by the end of the year).

Next year some of the books I'm hoping to read Anna Karenina, A Room with a View, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Crime and Punishment, The Importance of Being Earnest, North & South, Far From the Madding Crowd, Jane Eyre and A Tale of Two Cities and possibly more but these I've written down on my TBR list!

My favourite classics author must be Jane Austen, my favourites from her would be Emma, Persuasion and P & P.

Wishing everyone a lovely Christmas time!

My favourite classic is probably Emily of New Moon or Little Women, it depends on my mood during the day, really!

I am from Rochester, NY and a large percentage of my reading is classics. I have read this year Austen, Dickens, Dumas, Tolstoy, Wharton, Bronte, Maugham, Thirkell, Eliot, Stendhal...And looking for much more with you all!

Hi, I'm Hannah and I'm a student from the UK. I didn't read as many classics as I'd hoped to in 2020, so I'm looking to change that in 2021. My favourite classics are Jane Eyre and 1984, but I love pretty much anything gothic! My aim in 2021 is to read more classics, including new authors I've not tried yet (Hardy, Eliot and Gaskell) as well as authors I've read before (Dickens, Orwell, Austen, Brontes, Du Maurier).

2 specific books I really want to tackle are The Handmaid's Tale and Les Mis, which I'm going to attempt to actually read in French! I just want to expand my classics horizons, as most of the classics I read are British or American, so I want to make my reading more worldly.

Hi, I'm Luke and I'm a film graduate from Northern Ireland. I'm excited to immerse myself within the reading world in 2021, after a longer period of time than I'd have liked without doing it regularly in the last couple years. I've set myself a fairly ambitious goal of a book a week, but I have a few short stories to read which should make that more achievable. I'm starting off the year with some Mikhail Bulgakov (The Master and Margarita, and The Heart of a Dog), and I look forward to reading many other classics as well as a couple of non fiction works in 2021. Can't wait!

Hi. I'm Becky from the Missouri Ozarks. I realized last January that as a child I was very well read. my step-dad would take the family to a bookstore weekly and we would all get enough books to last until the next week. That was a lot! Afterward we would go to the local McDonald's and order lunch. we would get the biggest table and spread out our books and ate as we read. everyone reading and no one talking for up to 4 hours when we got tired of the hard chairs. Last January I decided to catch up on my reading. In 2020 I've read just over 100 books. This year my goals are:
1) read at least one classic per month
2) read at least one non fiction book per month. and
3) read 8-10 books per month.

Hi, I'm Lizzy from Ontario Attempting to read The Count of Monte Cristo for high school in french remotely with no help from the teacher and covid put me in a year-long reading slump. I really hope this will help me get out of it.

my fave classics are:
Alice's Adventures in wonderland
Frankenstein
Dracula
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde