Thursday, January 3, 2013

Back to the Classics 2013 Reading Challenge


I've decided to join the Back to the Classics 2013 challenge hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much.  If you want to join in, click on the link above for more information and to sign up on Sarah's site. If you manage to complete the challenge, you get entered to win a prize!

Below are the categories of books to read along with my tentative choices. I'm trying to do some crossover here with my own 2013 Banned Books Challenge, so at least a few of my picks have also been featured on one of the ALA's Most Frequently Challenged Books lists. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

The Required Categories:
     A 19th Century Classic (Emma or Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
     A 20th Century Classic (The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
     A Pre-18th or 18th Century Classic (The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer)
     A Classic that relates to the African-American Experience (Their Eyes Were Watching God, By Zora Neale Hurston)
     A Classic Adventure (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain)
     A Classic that prominently features an Animal (?)

Optional Categories: (not sure if I'll do these, but I picked a few tentative choices anyway)
     A.  Re-read a Classic (A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens)
     B.  A Russian Classic (Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy)
     C.  A Classic Non-Fiction title (?)
     D.  A Classic Children's/Young Adult title (too many to choose from!)
     E.  Classic Short Stories (?)

UPDATE: I will be keeping track of my progress with this challenge here.

13 comments:

  1. Thanks for joining! I'm also planning on some Austen, as well as Their Eyes Were Watching God. For your animal category - what about Lord of the Flies? Also a banned book... just an idea for you :)

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    1. Thanks Sarah -- that's a definite possibility! Thanks for coming to check out my choices :)

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  2. This looks like a fun challenge, but I think I'll stick with the two I have already signed up for since this is my first time doing challenges.

    You have some good books ahead of you! Some classic novels with an animal in them that may work are Animal Farm, The Call of the Wild, and Black Beauty. All of those are good ones but I don't know if you have read them yet.

    Have fun with this challenge!

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    1. Thanks Kay those are all great suggestions -- I think I need to do a little research and see which one I think I'll like the best.

      This is my first time doing challenges too (and hosting one!) and I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up getting in over my head, but I'll see how this year goes. If the ones I'm choosing didn't overlap, I would definitely be in big trouble!

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  3. How fun!

    I love Emma, P&P and Great Gatsby. It's like you picked my favs. Good luck with Canterbury Tales. Ye Olde English is hard to understand. And good luck with Anna Karenina. I really didn't like that book, but maybe you will. :)

    As far as the Animal category I hear fantastic things about White Fang by Jack London. You could always go Old Yeller, but that's just setting yourself up to cry.

    Anyway, happy reading! Can't wait to hear what you think of all these classics.

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    1. Thanks for the recommendations Sus and I'm glad to hear good things about a few of my picks! I chose Canterbury Tales because I remember reading a couple of the tales in high school and really enjoying them, but you are right they can definitely be challenging -- especially since I would now be reading all of them! We'll see if I end up altering some of my picks or not, but I'll at least give it the old college try :)

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    2. And if you really can't figure it out, there's always Cliff's Notes. :)

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  4. How you know we still share a brain:

    I've decided to read 4 of those 5 books this year also. Some of them I actually have on my Kindle and just haven't read yet, so I plan to do so.

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    1. OMG that is too funny! Which 4 are you reading? I'm also trying to read mostly books I already own this year, so I already have all of these ones (or at least I did at some point -- one or two I'm really going to have to dig for once I finally unpack all our boxes!).

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    2. All in the first group except "Their Eyes Were Watching Good". I have "Pride and Prejudice" on my Kindle so I chose that Jane Austen book. I am aiming for one new book per month at minimum.

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    3. That's awesome babe...it'll be like we're back in school, just without the essays & homework!

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  5. Best of luck in your challenges. I am not doing any this year.

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My Blog

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I'd love to hear what you think :)