My Own Personal Challenge

Ok, Not like the one on UFOs isn't my own either, but this one is too.



I have an app on my phone for 101 Classics (although there are 112 in the app). The phone is almost 2 years old now, and I've not been paying attention to it. I'd like to see if I can read a bunch of these. For this list (there are crossovers with the other challenges) I'll be happy if I read 60-70%. In an Ideal world I'd read them all. But I just don't see it happening. Most likely I'm not going to re-read ones I've read before. However, If I finish my other books, I might! I'll list them all - and when I read them, if I already have, and update throughout the year. I really like this list of Classics. It has books you don't normally see on Classics lists and it doesn't include modern Classics.

Books in Red I have no intention of reading again this year - even if I love them - Except P&P which I'll probably read a couple of times, just because I seem to read it every few months regardless.

Books in Aqua I've read before and will try and read this year - mostly because I've forgotten them.

Books in Fuscia I have no intention of ever reading (whether or not I've read them) Ever.

Books in green are ones I manage to finish this year 

1.   Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions - Edwin Abbott Abbott
2.   Little Women - Louisa May Alcott - Read more than once before entering high school, once since. Love it. Love the whole series. One of the few books I cried while reading when I was younger.
3.   Emma - Jane Austen - Read in 2011. LOVE this book. But, I love pretty much All Things Austen - go figure.
4.   Mansfield Park - Jane Austen - Read in 2009 - This was Austen's least favorite books and her mother really didn't like Fanny Price. I just LOVE Fanny Price. She stands by what she believes in no matter what, she holds onto hope, and she keeps her faith, all the way through many trials and comes up the winner in the end.
5.   Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen - Read in 2012 - Such a cute story, really it's an Austen Fluff Piece. Quick fun read.
6.   Persuasion - Jane Austen- Read in 2011 - Love this! 2nd chances are fantastic. And I love happy endings.
7.   Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - This was the first Austen book I ever read in 2007, after seeing Pride and Prejudice (Kierra Knightly version) on DVD. I was shocked that no English teacher had ever had me read it before! Read this book a couple times a year now days.
8.   Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - It's Austen. Of course I love it. I'm predictable.
9.   Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy) - J. M. Barrie - Read this in middle school, will probably read it again - I can't remember it separately from the movie.
10. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz - L. Frank Baum - Read when I was young, again will probably read it, I can't remember all the differences.
11. The Marvelous Land of Oz - L. Frank Baum
12. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum
13. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - Read this in 2008 currently re-reading. I Love Jane Eyre as much as I love Fanny Price - for the same reasons. This was in blue, but I read it with friends in January/Feb.
14. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë - Read this in High School. Never finished. Never Will. I hate this book. I understand why everyone calls it a classic, but I hate it.
15. The Thirty-nine Steps - John Buchan
16. A princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
17. Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs
18. The Gods of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
19. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - Read this in middle school will read again, I've forgotten the details.
20. Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
21. Don Quixote - Miguel Cervantes
22. The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie
23. The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie
24. Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure - John Cleland
25. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad - Read this in 1990. I liked it well enough. Good book. Don't need to read it again.
26. The Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper
27. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
28. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - Uh... read this many times. Probably will again sometime, probably not specifically this year.
29. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
30. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
31. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
32. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
33. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - started this in the fall of 2013, got busy doing other things and finished it this past spring. Classic. Like it fine, probably won't read it again, but glad I've read it now.
34. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Read this in 1992 - but for whatever reason I can't remember much about it. Will try to read it again.
35. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - For all I dislike Angst in fiction (there's enough in life), I have always loved this book. Read it in 1992
36. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
37. A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle - Read this many times, will probably read again.
38. The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
39. The Sign of the Four - Arthur Conan Doyle
40. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - Read this in College, will read again.
41. The Man in the Iron Mask - Alexandre Dumas
42. The three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
43. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - Read this in French and English in 1992. Not likely to read again. Ever. It was well done, but I feel no burning need to re-read it.
44. A Room with a View - E. M. Forster - I tried to read this after seeing the BBC movie which was fantastic. It's SO dry, not nearly as well done as the movie. But... someday I might try again.
45. Howards End - E. M. Forster
46. Oblomov - Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov
47. King Solomon's Mines - Henry Rider Haggard
48. Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - I saw this BBC Movie accidentally, I don't EVER want to read this book. I recommend people against reading this book. I just can't handle the misery of Tess.
49. The House of the Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne
50. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne - Finished this early this year, I like it. Will probably read it again someday
51. Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse
52. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
53. The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
54. The Turn of the Screw - Henry James
55. A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
56. Ulysses - James Joyce
57. The Trial - Franz Kafka
58. Captains Courageous - Rudyard Kipling
59. The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling - Have read this before. Will probably read it again.
60. The Arabian Nights - Andrew Lang
61. Lady Chatterly's Lover - D. H. Lawrence
62. Sons and Lovers - D. H. Lawrence
63. Women in Love - D. H. Lawrence
64. The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
65. Babbitt - Sinclair Lewis
66. The Monk - Matthew Lewis - I was always curious about this book because it's mentioned in Austen, I started it. Then I looked up a synopsis. I HATE this book almost as much as Tess. Not going to finish. Ever.
67. The Call of the Wild - Jack London - This is required reading for Alaskans. I've read it twice in Elementary School. I Like it.
68. The Sea Wolf - Jack London
69. Moby-Dick - Herman Melville - Crossed that off my list. I have now read all 136 chapters of Moby Dick. There are quotes I love, imagery I love, and a mildly interesting plot. I loved some of the characters, but... Not sure I'll ever read it again.
70. Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery - Yeah, I don't know how many times I've read this. I Love this book. Love the whole series.
71. Captain Blood - Rafael Sabatini
72. Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
73. Frankenstein - Mary Shelly
74. Quo Vadis - Henryk Sienkiewicz
75. Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
76. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
77. The Black Arrow - Robert Louis Stevenson
78. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson - Read this recently to the kids. Great book for boys (and grown-ups) will probably read it to them again in a couple of years.
79. Dracula - Bram Stoker
80. The Lair of the White Worm - Bram Stoker
90. Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe - I've read this twice, once as an Undergrad once in Grad school. Was good both times. But I don't need to read it again.
91. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift - I read this in the 90's, for fun. I like it well enough, but not going to attempt it this year.
92. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
93. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
94. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
95. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain - Read this more than once as a kid. Not this year.
96. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain - Read this more than once as a kid too.
97. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne - this is a good book, but I'm not going to read it again this year.
98. Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne
99. From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne
100. The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne
101. Candide - Voltaire
102. Ben Hur: a Tale of the Christ - Lewis Wallace
103. The Food of the Gods - H. G. Wells
104. the Invisible Man - H. G. Wells
105. The Island of Dr. Moreau - H. G. Wells
106. The Sleeper Awakes - H. G. Wells
107. The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
108. The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells - Read this the year that the Tom Cruise movie came out. It's quite good - and different from the movie. Will probably read it again someday.
109. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
110. The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
111. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
112. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

This Leaves 79 books on the list that I am willing to read this year and 8 of those are low priority (blue). So, if I read 54 of these books I'll be happy (there's a few of them on my UFO list anyway) and I'll be Really Happy if I read 58 of them, and Over the Moon if I read over 60 books on this list.

And if I get that many read, I can do one of those stupid fb reading lists and be proud of the Classics I've read! ;)

Of course, there's all the OTHER Classics that I'd like to see on a list. But then, the list sure does seem to get long!