Wednesday, 9 November 2011

Challenges Are Very Challenging...

Since everyone's signing up for challenges and stuff and I don't like to be left behind with things, I'll tell you all about the challenge I'm going to be doing next year, which is the Back to the Classics 2012 Challenge. I'm taking part in it essentially because everyone I love and respect in a blogging way is doing it, and I thought I'd try being a sheep for once in my life (also because I want to read more classics, and I can obviously only do that if being forced to, but it's mainly the sheep thing). Soooo, the Challenge has nine categories, and they are (with the tentative books I'm going to read for each of them):

Any Nineteenth Century classic- The Awakening by Kate Chopin OR Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery

Any Twentieth Century classic- The Plumed Serpent by D H Lawrence

Re-read a Classic of your choice- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

A Classic Play- Othello by William Shakespeare

Classic mystery/horror/crime fiction- Armadale by Wilkie Collins

Classic romance- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Read a classic that has been translated from its official language to your language- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky OR Dangerous Liasons by Choderlos de Laclos

Classic Award Winner- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (I might have to change this because I'm not sure The Grapes of Wrath did win any awards, and I might be thinking of Steinbeck's Nobel Prize... But I would like to read a Steinbeck, so if anyone knows of any that did win awards, let me know, yeah?)

Classic set in a country you realistically won't visit in your lifetime- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria- although it's fictional Nigeria, so if I find myself in Nigeria at some point in my life, I won't be a liar!)

I am excited, because these are all books that I've had for far too long, and which inevitably get pushed aside for books that are easier because, you know, they're not classics! So yay for self improvement in 2012! Plus, if the world ends, I'll at least be able to say I've read Othello...

I'm sure I'll sign up for more challenges when I see some I like (if you're hosting something awesome, tell me about it in the comments and I'll check it out and have a think about it) but to end out this year, I'm taking part in the Advent with Austen event (not so much a challenge as an opportunity to read me some Austen) which I highly recommend signing up for because, who doesn't love Jane?! At the moment, I'm thinking I'm going to join in the readalong of Sense and Sensibility (because I always forget the plot of it which disturbs me), read Lady Susan/The Watsons/Sandition, because I have it and I haven't read it, blog about my visit to Jane Austen's house/Chawton (where I got to touch rare books, and enjoy one of those rare perks about living in England) AND I might watch Clueless as well because it clearly counts as being related to Austen, and, you know, I wanna. By my calculations, this will give me a score that makes me Mr Bingley, about which I am extremely meh. Although- if I count the three short books separately, that will make me Captain Wentworth, which is a much more pleasing result if you ask me! So, we'll see. But go sign up and we can be Austen buddies! Go on!
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5 comments:

  1. Sarah9 November 2011 at 12:58

    Oooo I almost picked The Awakening, but I went with something else instead... I don't remember what now, lol. But I have it on my shelf, so maybe it'll work it's way in there at some point next year.

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  2. Red9 November 2011 at 14:05

    You're going to (I hope) love Othello. It's one of my fav Shakespeare plays and Iago is the best character Shakespeare created. Also after (or before or during) you read the play, you should watch the Reduced Shakespeare Company perform Othello as a rap because nothing says thug life like 3 white theater guys rapping the plot of a Shakespeare play.

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  3. Reading Rambo9 November 2011 at 15:12

    Lazy non-wikipedia-er! "In 1962, the Nobel Prize committee cited Grapes of Wrath as a "great work" and as one of the committee's main reasons for granting Steinbeck the Nobel Prize for Literature."

    So I think that counts. Also I'm reading it, so you obvs should.

    And WAY TO PICK A NON-CLICHED WILKIE COLLINS. I feel shown up.

    "but it's mainly the sheep thing." Love.

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  4. Laura10 November 2011 at 19:44

    @Sarah- I feel like it's all feministy and stuff which can only be a good thing! But I might be completely wrong hehe.

    @Red- I'm excited to read Othello cause I've read most of the other big one name plays (Hamlet, Macbeth...) and I feel like Othello should join that list. It's going to be totally hilarious and hi-jinks-y and some people are going to get married at the end right? (I'm totally kidding. Just in case you were worried hehe)

    @Reading Rambo- I SO looked on Wikipedia, I'm just not sure if it contributing to his Nobel Prize actually counts as being a prize winner. Also it's a mildly lazy choice because I've read it ooh, 5 times before? So I should really pick something different, but I don't wanna. Humph. Also, my Wilkie Collins is the only one I own, and that only because a friend bought it for my birthday the other year, so I thought I should read it... I wasn't trying to be, like, alternative duude!

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  5. Red10 November 2011 at 19:49

    In a way, it is kinda hi-jinks-y. The hilarious part I guess depends on how messed up the reader is...

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