UPDATE - Wrap Up Post
I did it!!! I finished all 12 categories for the Back to the Classics Challenge!!! You can see all the books I read this year on my GoodRead account (and you can contact me through there too if I get luck and win something Karen! lol ;) ) Thanks for the fun challenge!!!
Ok, I'm going to ATTEMPT this in the coming year. Karen apparently hosts this challenge on her blog every year. This is the first time I've heard of it but it sounds right up my ally and will be a good challenge to help me read books with a bit more substance. I'll also probably to try to find books from Ambleside that the kids will have to read eventually so that I'm a step ahead there. So, here are the categories and if I have an idea for what book I'll read for that category I've added it also. (Once I've completed a category the category name is hyperlinked to the page for that challenge on Karen's blog and the title of the book I read is hyperlinked to my review of it.)
1. A 19th Century Classic - (DONE!)
Idylls of the King (I'm actually reading my original plan book right now but won't finish it before the end of the year.) In Freedom's Cause (A Story of Wallace and Bruce) by G.A. Henty - This is one Kessa will have to read next year in year 7 of Ambleside Online so it will help me get a jump on my pre-reading.
2. A 20th Century Classic - (written between 1900 and 1968) (DONE!)
I ended up going with Animal Farm for this one just because it fit and I was reading for "school". I still plan to read The Birth of Britain but I'm counting this category done for this challenge!
3. A Classic by a Female Author - (DONE!)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte - I've had this one for a little while, I think I got it after reading The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, but haven't started it yet. I don't know that I've read anything by Anne before. I've read several of Charlotte's books and at least one by Emily. Jane Eyre is my all time favorite book, so we're going to give this one a chance! lol.
4. A Classic in Translation - Phantom of the Opera (DONE!)
5. A Children's Classic - (DONE!)
Ended up going with King Arthur and His Knights for this one. Possibly A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain - This is an AO year 7 free read.
6. A Classic Crime Story - (DONE!)
The Pink Motel. Probably either Bleak House by Dickens or a Sherlock Holmes book.
7. A Classic Travel or Journey Narrative - (DONE!)
The Incredible Journey - This is an AO year 4 book that Zeke will be reading and I've never read it before so I'm excited to see how much better it is than the movie!
8. A Classic with a Single Word Title - (DONE!)
Pollyanna - another one that I've seen the movie but never read the book! Horror! Or possibly Ourselves because I need to pre-read it for Kessa's AO year 7.
9. A Classic with a Color in the Title - (DONE!)
I ended up reading Agnes Grey for this one instead of my original plan of Sir Gwain and the Green Knight (I'll probably read the translation by Tolkien because he's fabulous.)
10. A Classic by an Author that is New to You - (DONE!)
I read Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy for this one. (DONE!)
Maybe the Tripods series (these just eked in under the 50 year old limit for this challenge! lol.) They're on the AO year 7 Free Reads list.
11. A Classic that Scares You -(DONE!)
Bleak House by Dickens (DONE!)
12. Re-read a Favorite Classic - (DONE!)
I didn't go with any of my original plans! I've been re-reading the Anne series. I've re-read Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and now I'm also most done with Anne of the Island. They're just as good as I remembered! Well Jane Eyre would be the obvious choice here...and I probably will...or maybe The Lord of the Rings...or a Jane Austen book...there are just too many to choose from!!!
