I joined in a few challenges this year after swearing that I wouldn’t, November’s Autumn was the one which I joined first I think. It seemed easy to complete so I thought that I might as well go for it, but I’ve just realised that I didn’t actually manage to finish all seven books. I completely forgot about The Old Wives’ Tale so I plan to read that one early on in 2013.
I did read lots of other classic books though, so it has been a good year classics-wise for me. Buying a Kindle has definitely helped as so many of my classics are really old editions with very small print, which is very off putting, especially for bedtime reading.
Yet again I’ve decided not to join any challenges. It’s not that I feel them to be a burden or anything but I often read the books and forget to link them to the challenge, so I’m sort of humming along on my own, which I’m quite happy to do. I’ll follow other people’s challenges from a distance this year I think.
This is my list of books which I read for this challenge, or didn’t read!
1. The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
2. The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope
3. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
4. Summer by Edith Wharton
5. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
6. The Old Wives’ Tale by Arnold Bennett
7. The Pirate by Sir Walter Scott
I really enjoyed this one but didn’t stick to my list – yet I ended up reading a fair number of classics too. Other than the TBR dare, I’m not signing up for any others at this point. Like you, I’m humming along – and reading completely by whim.
Lisa,
I’m doing The Classics Club challenge which is five years long, and my list is 55 books long, mainly books which I’ve had hanging around the house for years unread. That’s going to keep me busy, especially as I’m going to try and complete it by the time I’m 55, hence the number of books on my list, so just 18 months to go. I’ve just shocked myself because I had been thinking I would be 55 in 30 months – it’s galloping up on me and I’ve only read 7 on my list so far!
I enjoyed this challenge too. It was different because of the prompts Katherine posed.
In previous years I’ve decided not to sign up for any challenges, but did. Next year I shall be doing a few -either because I think of them as reading projects and they are what I want to read, such as the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, or (new for me next year) the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, or because like Lisa I want to read books I already own but just haven’t got round to reading yet – in my case it’s the Mount TBR Challenge.
Oh, I’m also doing the What’s In a Name Challenge – again using it to read books I already own. I’ve done this one for several years and often forget to link to the challenge blog.
I’ve found that the challenges a good way to find like-minded readers.
Margaret,
Yes the prompts were interesting, it was definitely different from others. I know that you were ‘swithering’ about joining in the Classics Club for the same reason I did – it looking so far ahead into the future, I did say – If I’m spared, because it’s dangerous to take things for granted!
I saw that you are doing quite a lot of challenges this year but as you say, they are books which you would be reading anyway so I suppose you might as well join in. They are a good way of finding like-minded readers and authors I might not have thought of trying previously, like Zola.