#ClassicsCommunity 2021 Reading Challenge discussion

Share your personal challenges for the 2021 #ClassicsCommunity Reading Challenge here!

Reading at least 20 new classics that I haven't yet read; and of course, re-reading my most favorites. Also, to understand the deep meaning of the stories rather than just reading them as words strung into sentences and paragraphs, so basically to grasp the soul of the book within.

I don’t have a number of how many, but I want to read a lot of the longer classics like War and Peace. I also want to reread some like Wuthering Heights and Treasure Island. I’m almost done with The Count of Monte Cristo.

I created a reading plan for 2021 without worrying about numbers. The plan includes titles from many of my favorite genres and authors as well as titles I am curious about. I prioritized titles that appeal to me and must-read titles that I have not yet read. One of my goals is to read the nine Horrid Novels—totaling 3709 pages!—referred to in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey before reading this novel in late July.

To keep my TBR fresh and balanced between longer and shorter and weightier and breezier reading, I created monthly themes: January (Pre-Victorian), February (Black Experience), March (Middle School), April (American Literature), May (Murder and Mayhem), June (European Classics), July (Jane Austen July with a Gothic Theme), August (Steamy Romance), September (Cultural Diversity), October (Victorian Literature—Victober), November (Native, History, and Nonfiction), and December (Warm and Romantic).

January (Pre-Victorian and Georgianuary 1714-1837) TBR:
- Hamlet ~ Shakespeare
- “The Battle of the Books” and “An Argument over the Abolishing of Christianity” ~ Jonathan Swift
- The Vicar of Wakefield ~ Oliver Goldsmith
- She Stoops to Conquer; Or, The Mistakes of a Night: A Comedy ~ Oliver Goldsmith
- From The Complete Northanger Horrid Novel Collection: Ann Radcliffe: Mysteries of Udolpho
- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ~ Mary Wollstonecraft
- The Vampyre; A Tale ~ Polidori

I'm going to adapt Rincey Reads's strategy for 2021: Instead of making an annual goal, I'm making a quarterly goal. That makes more sense to me and seems easier to stay on track. That is all I know right now. Cheers!

Cedricsmom wrote: "I'm going to adapt Rincey Reads's strategy for 2021: Instead of making an annual goal, I'm making a quarterly goal. That makes more sense to me and seems easier to stay on track. That is all I know..."
That's what I'm doing too and I also want to focus on my tomes this year. I have too many I have started but put on pause because how long they are.

For 2021 I would be happy to read new to me classics and classic short stories. :)

In 2021, I definitely want to read more classics because I read zero, that's right, absolutely no classics in 2020 (shame on me haha). I'm a huge fan of Jane Austen and the Brontë's, but I've read all of their novels. So, I'm planning to delve into the works of Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Gaskell and possibly Thomas Hardy and Virginia Woolf. The first classic I would like to start with is "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton. Lucy recently talked about how Wharton's novels are overlooked so I'm looking forward to reading her work(s)!

I’d like to complete the Great Courses I started in 2020. Classic Novels:
Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature

A few of the books will be repeats, but there are enough new to me books to keep it interesting. And I’m glad to revisit books as I’m finding my mind at 51 approaches everything differently than my younger self. I took a many years break from avid reading of books, which gave me time to really recognize the shift in perspective once I got back to it. My new year’s goal is to write more reviews. I won’t review everything I read, but I hope to find more of a voice about what I read.

As I`m participating in Dickens vs Tolstoy debate, I plan to read quite a lot of their works, including War and Peace, Anna Karenina and The Pickwick Papers. Also I really want to read Brothers Karamazov and The Idiot by Dostoevsky and Cat`s eye by Margaret Atwood.

Going to attempt to make half the books I read this year classics!

I'd like to get to three of the longest classics on my TBR: Don Quixote, Les Miserables and Anna Karenina. I'd also like to finish Trollope's Barsetshire Chronicles. I'm sure I'll read more classics than that this year but those are my priorities.

I started off well last year but quickly tanked. This year however I have a brand new reading corner, so here's to getting back on track. I'm hoping to read 25 classics, but I'm going to choose them as I go along.

Ginny wrote: "In 2021, I definitely want to read more classics because I read zero, that's right, absolutely no classics in 2020 (shame on me haha). I'm a huge fan of Jane Austen and the Brontë's, but I've read ..."

I'm a big fan of Edith Wharton, I hope you enjoy The Age of Innocence

I will continue to read poetry--not "the collected works" or "selected poems 1850-2011" or such, but one slender book at a time. I've enjoyed Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric, George Bilgere's Haywire: Poems, Sylvia Plath's The Colossus and Other Poems. I hope to discover more poets.

I will also continue reading "essential classics" I often mistakenly believe are not worthy of my time. Works like Gone with the Wind and The Diary of Anne Frank were never on my radar, but I gritted my teeth and read them and, to my surprise, enjoyed them.

So here's the first five in both categories I hope to read by mid-year:

Poetry:
The Dream Songs
Lunch Poems
Annie Allen
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie
The Wild Iris

Novels:
All Quiet on the Western Front
A Passage to India
Faust
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
The Golden Notebook

I want to read atleast 20 classics and broaden my reading scope!

I've begun Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (in French) and the dialogues of Lucian of Samosata (in Hungarian translation). They will take some time.
I'm not setting a definite number of books as a goal. My goal is to read French classics to improve my French (at least two novels by Balzac, one by Sand and the memoirs of Vidocq), and less known Hungarian classics, in order to make others rediscover them, too. From among classics written in English, I'd like to read some classics of the fantasy genre, Titus Groan first. I'm also planning to do some rereading, but that will come more spontaneously I guess.

Lorri wrote: "I created a reading plan for 2021 without worrying about numbers. The plan includes titles from many of my favorite genres and authors as well as titles I am curious about. I prioritized titles tha..."

What a great idea!!! I look forward to seeing what books you will be reading each month. I may choose some of the same books. :)

My main goal this year is to attack my physical TBR shelves - there are many classics on them ! I'll be reading lots of classics on e-books, too.

So far, I've read :
- The solitary summer by Elizabeth von Arnim
- I capture the castle by Dodie Smith
- Lettres choisies (= chosen letters) by the Brontës
- Dojoji by Mishima
- Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton.

I started reading Villette by Charlotte Brontë and poems by Arthur Rimbaud (Une saison en enfer, Illuminations).

I'm not the fastest reader and I don't have as much time for reading as I would like to have so I won't pressure myself in terms of numbers.

However, I would really like to read more ancient classics as I'm interested in the time period.
Some classics I would like to read this year also include Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, The Great Maulness, Cold Comfort Farm as well as some books by Virginia Woolf

Lorri wrote: "I created a reading plan for 2021 without worrying about numbers. The plan includes titles from many of my favorite genres and authors as well as titles I am curious about. I prioritized titles tha..."

Yesterday, I completed my January TBR. My favorite was The Vicar of Wakefield.

I am Lorri and unemployed, so I am researching areas of interest through reading. This February I am concentrating on Black American issues and literature. February TBR:

- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl 1861 by Harriet Ann Jacobs
- Passing 1929 by Nella Larsen (Harlem Renaissance)
- Invisible Man 1952 by Ralph Ellison
- Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s: A Brief History with Documents 2004 (includes MLK’s I Have a Dream speech and 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail) edited by David Howard-Pitney
- Dear Martin 2017 by Nic Stone
- Their Eyes Were Watching God 1937 by Zora Neale Hurston (Harlem Renaissance author)
- The Souls of Black Folk 1903 by W.E.B. DuBois

Hi everyone! For me in 2021, I'm less concerned about hitting a specific number of classics but I did set a broad goal to fill in gaps within my classics knowledge. I received a good foundation throughout childhood, school and university, but realized I had sort of just stopped reading classics after finishing uni. So, here we are. So far, I have read:

1. Notre Dame de Paris/The Hunchback of Notre Dame
2. Anna Karenina (A re-read for me and just as good as I remembered)
3. The Mayor of Casterbridge
4. Letters to a Young Poet

Currently Reading:
1. Vanity Fair

I don't have a number of books that I want to finish. I would like to finish the following books:

1. Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl by Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl
2. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
3. The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Books I-II by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I want to finally tackle War and Peace this spring (and summer). I really enjoyed Pevear and Volokhonsky's translations of Doestoyevsky's work, but I don't see that they did one for W&P.

I don't want to tackle such a huge work with an inferior translation. Hope for some good recommendations.

Hi Dan,

This is the edition of P&V's translation: War and Peace. To be honest, I really liked the Louise and Aylmer Maude translation (from 1942). I tried 3 different translations, including P&V. I read the first chapter from each, and liked the Maude translation best.

Karen wrote: "Hi Dan,

This is the edition of P&V's translation: War and Peace. To be honest, I really liked the Louise and Aylmer Maude translation (from 1942). I tried 3 different translations, i..."

Thank you so much!

I have so far read Hamlet and The Picture of Dorian Gray, and I am currently reading Orlando.

Since last time, I read :
- Chosen letters of the Brontës
- The dead secret by Wilkie Collins
- Le lys dans la vallée by Honoré de Balzac
- Goblin market by Christina Rossetti
- La princesse de Clèves and La princesse de Montpensier by Mme de la Fayette
- The doom of the Griffiths by Elizabeth Gaskell
- The memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Conan Doyle
- Wild strawberries by Angela Thirkell
- Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
- The diary of a Nobody by George and Whedon Grossmith
- How do you live ? by Genzaburô Yoshimo
- Le barbier de Séville and Le mariage de Figaro by Beaumarchais.
I'm currently reading The doctor's wife by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.
I didn't think I'd been reading a lot but this list does help make me feel better about my classics !
When I have a moment, I'll link the titles to my reviews.

I have wanted to join in this year but I have been wrapped up in other things so I am a little late. I just want to read more of the classics.
I have already read Rebecca and I am working on the little house series but besides that I would like to get to some Steinbeck and Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Also I would like to continue with Agatha Christie and Mary Stewart. I don't know if Mary Stewart is considered classic or not but I just got some of her children's books and I need to read two of her suspence.

This year I've already read:
- The Fountain Overflows (Rebecca West)
- Jezabel (Irene Nemirovsky)
- The Little White Horse (Elizabeth Goudge)
- Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
- Lust, Caution (Eileen Chang)
- Lisistrata (Aristophanes)
- Matilda (Mary Shelley)

As my 2021 goal, I'd like to focus on exploring more of my beloved authors and some lesser known works:

- The Black Tulip (Alexandre Dumas)
- Desperate Remedies (Thomas Hardy)
- The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
- The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
- A Rose for Emily (William Faulkner)
- My Cousin Rachel (Daphne du Maurier)
- Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton)
- Quo Vadis? (Henryk Sienkiewicz)
- Sonečka (Marina Cvetaeva)
- The Lady and the Law (Wilkie Collins)
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson)
- Middlemarch (George Eliot)
- Howards End (E. M. Foster)
- The French Lieutenant's Woman (John Fowles)
- A Raisin in the Sun (Lorraine Hansberry)
- something from Elizabeth Gaskell
....

Will I read all these novels? Probably not all, but I hope to enjoy my reading.

In March, I participated in #MiddleGradeMarch by reading these children’s classics:
- Forge 2010 by Laurie Halse Anderson
- Ashes 2016 by Laurie Halse Anderson
- From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler 1967 Newbery Medal by E. L. Konigsburg
- The Westing Game 1978 Newbery Medal by Ellen Raskin
- Heidi 1881 by Johanna Spyri translated from German
- The Red Badge of Courage 1895 by Stephen Crane
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond 1958 Newbery Medal by Elizabeth George Speare

Then moved on to read these classics:
- The Crucible 1953 four-act play by Arthur Miller
- Gothic Tales: Disappearances, The Old Nurses Story, The Squire’s Story, The Poor Clare, The Doom of the Griffiths, Lois the Witch, The Crooked Branch, Curious if True, and The Grey Woman 1851-61 by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
- Agnes Grey 1847 by Anne Brontë

So far this year, I have read 22 classics and a total of 28 titles!

My mostly American Literature April TBR follows:
- The Scarlet Letter 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Adam Bede 1859 George Eliot’s response to The Scarlet Letter
- Short Stories: The Gold-Bug, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter (1st detective story), The Fall of the House of Usher, The Premature Burial, & Eleonore by Edgar Allan Poe
- The Turn of the Screw 1898 by Henry James
- Daisy Miller novella 1878 by Henry James
- Age of Innocence 1920 by Edith Wharton
- The Old Man and the Sea 1952 by Ernest Hemingway
- Short Novels: The Pearl 1947 by John Steinbeck
- Of Mice and Men: Teacher ed. 1937 by John Steinbeck
- The Catcher in the Rye 1951 by J. P. Salinger

This year I want to read:
1. Ann Frank's diary (local Holocaust memorial day is on April 7-8)
2. Mansfield park (Jane Austen)
3.To the lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)
4. Oliver Twist (Dickens)
5. Hamlet (Shakespeare)

I have some russian literature I'm thinking of picking up this year too but I'll finish those first and then proceed to the big russians :)

Currently reading: Little Men (Louisa May Alcott).

HAPPY READING!

I am trying to keep up with the #dickensvstolstoy debate readalong and the Brönte project and have thus far read:
-Villette and The Professor by Charlotte Brönte
-Agnes Grey by Anne Brönte
-Boyhood Childhood Youth and War and Peace by Tolstoy.

Can't wait to start on Tenant of Wildfeld Hall and Oliver Twist by Dickens!

Hey everyone!

I've been in the background for a while. I'm secretly in love with classics but I've not been able to read them because of work.
Just today I started to get carried away with Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and I just have to keep reading it!
My TBR the year should consist of me frolicking through the following works of art:
1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (✔done)
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (a re-read)
3. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
4. Animal Farm by George Orwell (a re-read)
5. Brave New World by Huxley
6. A Separate Peace by John Knowles (a re-read)
7. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
8. Another Austen or my first Bronte

Of course my TBR is flexible because I cannot recall the last time I was bored. I am always occupied or distracted.

Let's see how the journey continues...

Latoya wrote: "I've been in the background for a while. I'm secretly in love with classics but I've not been able to read them because of work.
Just today I started to get carried away with Defoe's Robinson Crus..."

Balancing work and reading is difficult. Impressed with your choices.

So far I have read 20 classics this year and also new-to-me-authors and short stories as well. I am very pleased. :) Some new to me authors include Charlotte Bronte. I read Jane Eyre in April of this year and wondered why I waited so long to read it. I also read a few short stories by Anton Chekhov as well. :)

this year I've read:

The War of the Worlds (1897) - H.G. Wells
Mansfield Park (1814) - Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice (1813) - Jane Austen - reread for like the billionth time as its my favourite book ever
Letters to a Young Poet (1929) - Rainer Maria Rilke
Only Dull People are Brilliant at Breakfast (1900) - Oscar Wilde
Crime and Punishment (1866) - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Age of Innocence (1920) - Edith Wharton
Wuthering Heights (1847) - Emily Brontë - reread
Love in the Time of Cholera (1985) - Gabriel García Márquez

Hello! I've arrived late for this year challenge, but I've already read:
- Lazarillo of Tormes (Spanish anonimous classic)
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- The ghost of Canterville by Oscar Wilde
- The veil by George Elliot
- Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
- Midsummer's night's dream by William Shakespeare
- Pride & Prejudice (graphic novel) by Jane Austen

There's still some classic on this year TBR, I promise to organise myself better for the next one!

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