My family has a fantastic knack for picking out amazing Christmas gifts. Books, notebooks, post-it notes, a beautiful lamp made out of a salt crystal, I’m glowing with gratitude for their thoughtfulness. One of my absolute favourite presents from this Christmas has to be this amazing mug in the picture above. It’s huge, big enough to last a long session of reading, and decorated with the spines of 30 classic novels from a range of different authors. It’s basically the perfect present for any book lover. Which probably goes some way to explaining why I love it so very much.
The classic books pictured on my new favourite mug are an interesting mix. I’ve read a few, such as Pride and Prejudice, The Secret Garden, Hamlet, and Jane Eyre, but there are so many that I haven’t read. Moby Dick. The Three Musketeers. War and Peace. And then there’s a few that I hadn’t even heard of, such as One Hundred Years Of Solitude. If I’m being very honest, I’ve not read the majority of these classic works, which is a shame because these books are classics for a reason. And that got me thinking. It’s the start of a brand new year, which means a great time to start planning what I’m going to be reading this year. I have a goal to read at least 52 books this year, and hopefully more. What if I took this list of classic novels and read my way through as many as possible by the end of the year? It’s a great way to broaden my reading horizons and, with books like War and Peace, and Crime and Punishment on the list, it’s definitely going to be a challenge.
I also plan to reread all the novels that I’ve already read at least once before. Nothing like an excuse to dip into some old favourites. It’s been a while since I read Jane Eyre after all. I can already see that I’ll be reading across all the book forms as well, from print to ebook, to even some audiobooks. I discovered a full cast recording of Hamlet that seems to be calling my name so maybe I’ll be dipping my toe back into the audiobook world after all, despite everything I’ve said about them not working for me in the past. Maybe this time I’ll be converted.
So this is my big reading challenge for the coming year, working my way through all 30 of these classic books. I’ll add the complete list below, if you’re interested in seeing just what I’ll be reading, or in case you’d like to challenge yourself as well. But I’d love to hear from you. What is your favourite classic novel? What books are you planning on reading this year? And do you have a favourite mug?
The 30 Classic Books Challenge List:
- Lord Of The Flies | William Golding
- Pride And Prejudice | Jane Austen
- Heart Of Darkness | Joseph Conrad
- One Hundred Years Of Solitude | Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Frankenstein | Mary Shelley
- The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Crime and Punishment | Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- To Kill A Mockingbird | Harper Lee
- Gulliver’s Travels | Jonathon Swift
- War And Peace | Leo Tolstoy
- Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland | Lewis Carroll
- The Grapes Of Wrath | John Steinbeck
- Little Women | Louisa May Alcott
- Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes
- Ulysses | Jame Joyce
- On The Road | Jack Kerouac
- Hamlet | William Shakespeare
- The Secret Garden | Frances Hodgson Burnett
- The Bell Jar | Sylvia Plath
- Catch 22 | Joseph Heller
- The Canterbury Tales | Geoffrey Chaucer
- Great Expectations | Charles Dickens
- Brave New World | Aldous Huxley
- The Complete Stories Of Franz Kafka
- The Three Musketeers | Alexander Dumas
- Moby Dick | Herman Melville
- The Catcher In The Rye | J. D. Salinger
- Nineteen Eighty-Four | George Orwell
- As I Lay Dying | William Faulkner
- Jane Eyre | Charlotte Bronte
That’s a cool mug. I’ve never seen anything like it. I love Frankenstein and Dracula. I also like Nicholas Nickleby.
Dracula is another one of those famous classics that I feel like I probably should read at some point, but haven’t yet. I’m actually surprised it’s not pictured on my mug, haha.
To be honest, Moby Dick is not that great in my opinion 😉 And I’m not sure if you really want to read Ulysses? I never finished it 😀
It’s funny how some books get to be classics, but they’re either really hard to read, or just not that interesting, and yet people still revere them, isn’t it? I’ll be giving them my best try, but I’ll definitely have to give myself some grace in this challenge in case some of the books are just not worth the effort.
I love that mug! And there are so many good books on this list! Classics can be daunting, but when read deeply they’re very enjoyable and thought provoking. I’ve been meaning to read As I Lay Dying since I read The Sound and the Fury last semester, and To Kill a Mockingbird is my greatest shame to have not read 😛 But I’m determined to at least read that one this year! And Catch 22–though I have that one off easy because I’m reading it for a class 🙂
Good luck on your challenge!
I’m definitely with you on classics. Sometimes daunting. Often amazing. Of course, there are always those books that make me wonder why they’re classics (though I think that’s often a ‘me’ problem and not an issue with the books). So many of these books are ones so highly recommended though, I’m really looking forward to digging into them.