Saturday 11 March 2017

On Past And Future Reading Projects

I'm always trying to get more reading done and nothing motivates like a reading challenge, right?

At least, that's what I'm telling myself year after year when I sign up to yet another reading challenge that I fully intend to complete, but deep down know I wont.

Last year's project was The 12 Months Classics Challenge.
The mission: read 12 classics in a year. A quite simple and easy goal to accomplish.

So did I finish it?

Need you even ask? Of course I didn't!

Then was it a failure? Not at all!

Though I didn't get through all 12 books I read 6 of them - books I wouldn't have read if not for the challenge. And I discovered 2 new instant favourites, so last year was by no means wasted on the literary front.

Let me briefly tell you my thoughts on the books I read:


January- A classic you've always wanted to read
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë 
I fell completely in love with this book right from the start. I'd wanted to read it for more than 10 years but the timing never seemed right (and because I knew I would love it, I needed to be in the right mood before starting it).
It was brilliantly written. And just the vocabulary used impressed me (I had to look so many words up in the dictionary). And off course Jane!! I loved Jane. She is such a wonderful character.
Mr Rochester on the other hand, I wasn't very impressed with. It wasn't until the end of the book I started liking him. But what an ending! And What a book.
In case you haven't guessed it, this was an instant new favourite.

                                                 Image result for romeo and juliet shakespeare

February- A classic you've always dreaded reading
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
I thought I would have to drag myself through this play with sheer will power, but I must say I liked it a great deal more than expected. Rationally the plot makes little sense and I generally dislike mushy romances and love at first sight, but the plot just sucked me in and all the speeches were so sweet that I just bought it all for a little while. And that ending was so tragic, even though I knew it was coming. So all in all, I actually liked it and wouldn't mind reading it again someday in the far future.

                                         Image result for the blue castle

March- A classic you've been recommended
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
Everyone in the blogging world was gushing about this book so I decided to read it, and boy am I glad I did. Never have I felt so instantly drawn to a character as I did to Valancey and her sad life. And it's been a long time since I enjoyed a book more than this one. I may even like it better than the Anne-books, because it's just so thoroughly sweet and delightful and it makes you all happy and gooey inside. Another instant favourite!

                                    Image result for code of the woosters

April- A classic you've seen the movie/miniseries/TV show of
The Code Of The Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The one word to describe this book is hilarious! Wodehouse's books have the ability to make me shriek with laughter all the way through and this was no exception. If you' enjoyed the TV show, I can promise you taht you will enjoy the book even more!

                                        Image result for uncle tom's cabin

May- An American classic

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stove
To tell you the truth, I never really got into this book. The characters were good the plot was good but the narrator was really obnoxious. And when I had to return the book to the library I realised that with only 70 pages left of the book I didn't really care what happened to everyone. So I technically never finished it, but I am still counting it as read.


                                     Image result for the hound of the baskervilles

June- A British classic
The Hound Of The Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
A truly classic Sherlock Holmes story that I had somehow never read or watched so it was with bated breath I read this book. I love Sherlock Holmes so naturally I loved this book as well, and can now say that I've read all 3 Sherlock Holmes novellas.


There! That's brief reviews on all the classics I read last year.

I actually promised myself to not start any new reading projects this year and instead focus on rereading my favourite books. That soon turned into dubbing this the year of non-fiction, but let's see which of the projects I stick with;)

And as fate will have it, I had no sooner given myself the above mentioned promise before I stumbled upon Heidi's Adventure of Reading Challenge 2017. And as I cannot resist a good challenge I just have to be a part of it. This year I will be wise and do like Heidi herself: start at the Explorer level that is 3-5 books, and then take it from there.

                                      

I do not yet know what I will be reading, but I will make a page dedicated to this project and add books as I think of them (in case anyone is interested in my progress)

Do you have any reading projects for 2017?

8 comments:

  1. I'm SO glad you liked The Blue Castle! I mean... how could you not???

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  2. Oh! Great post! I'm new here, and I am really liking it! My reading project is to finish all the books in my book pile. It may take awhile. :-)

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    1. So glad you liked it:)
      That sounds like a commendable project, though a very lenghthy one if your book pile is as big as mine;)

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  3. It was fun to hear about what you've been reading. And even more so because all of these titles are familiar to me. :)

    I'm glad you enjoyed Jane Eyre. It really is an excellent book. Beautifully written. And there's just so much depth to the story and the characters. I love it. :)

    I have yet to try my hand at reading Shakespeare. I guess I've just always assumed it would be boring. (Or too difficult to understand.) It's interesting to hear that you didn't actually have to drag yourself through it, like you thought you would. Who knows? Maybe I would even Shakespeare if I tried it. :)

    The Blue Castle has been on my to-read list for a while now. It sounds splendid!!

    Aww. JEEVES AND WOOSTER!! I love the TV series! I guess that means I would love the books, too. :D

    Believe it or not, I've never read Uncle Tom's Cabin. I guess I really ought to, especially as it's an American classic.

    Oooh. Yes! Sherlock Holmes. Those are fun stories. My dad used to read them aloud to us. I remember him reading The Hound of the Baskervilles to us years ago, but I don't actually remember much of the story anymore. :)

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    1. I'm glad you liked it:)
      Shakespeare is quite a handful but it helped me that I was already very familiar with the plot of the play.

      You should definitely try and read The Blue Castle, it's a nice quick little read and I think you would absolutely love it:)

      Oh, if you've ssen J&W you will decidedly like the books, they are even funnier than the show!

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  4. Woo! I'm signed up for Heidi's reading challenge too. (I'm also doing the Mount TBR challenge, and reading LOTR very slowly for another challenge of sorts.)

    I'm so glad you liked Jane Eyre, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and The Blue Castle, as those are all big favorites of mine!

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