I'm starting this blog to participate in the Back to the Classics 2018 book challenge.
Growing up, I always considered myself a bookworm, but I haven't been reading much recently. I looked into book clubs near me and they all seemed uninteresting, too far away, or just didn't fit into my schedule. That's when I started looking into a book challenge to participate in. I found a couple that intrigued me, but I decided, that between a full-time job and being recently married, I would only participate in 1 challenge. The classics just seemed to jump out at me, so that's the challenge I went with.
In the Back to the Classics 2018 book challenge, there are 12 categories (that are to be filled with 12 different books). In order to qualify as a classic, the book has to have been published (or at least written) 50+ years ago, so 1968 and older. There are several other minor rules (like having to read all the books in 2018), which you can read at the link above. If you are interested in joining the challenge, the last day to sign up is March 1, 2018.
I added a few extra rules of my own: all books are by a different author (except within a category); all books I haven't read before (except for the re-read category); and only 1 male author (all others will be female authors). I also want to read a play and an epistolary novel. There are a few exceptions, but most of the books I've chosen have an overall genre/theme of science-fiction/fantasy, utopian/dystopian, and/or feminist.
Here is my list:
✅⬜1. A 19th-century classic - The Mummy by Jane Loudon (p. 1827). REVIEW
I might also read The Last Man by Mary Shelley (p. 1827).
HG Wells and Jules Verne are known as the fathers of science-fiction, but 45 years before Verne published his first book, Five Weeks in a Balloon, Mary Shelley published Frankenstein. Jane Loudon was also ahead of the curve of her male counterparts and published The Mummy less than a decade after Frankenstein.
✅✅✅2. A 20th-century classic - Herland Trilogy by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (p. 1915). REVIEW
✅3. A classic by a female author - Votes for Women: A Play in Three Acts by Elizabeth Robins (p. 1909). REVIEW
✅4. A classic in translation - Beauty and the Beast by Madame de Villeneuve (French p. 1740) REVIEW
✅5. A children's classic - A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (p. 1905) REVIEW
✅6. A classic crime story - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (p. 1926). REVIEW
✅7. A classic travel or journey narrative - The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford (p. 1960). REVIEW
✅8. A single-word titled classic - Kallocain by Karin Boye (Swedish, epistolary p. 1940). REVIEW
✅9. A classic with a color in the title - The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge (p. 1946). REVIEW
✅10. A classic by an author that's new to you - Sultana's Dream (p. 1905) and Selections from The Secluded Ones (p. 1928) by Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. REVIEW
✅11. A classic that scares you - Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (p. 1957). REVIEW
✅⬜12. Re-read a favorite classic - Animal Farm by George Orwell (p. 1945). REVIEW
I might also re-read 1984 also by George Orwell (p. 1949).
I'm starting about a month late and have 16 books (instead of 12) that I'd like to read. I guess it's time to stop writing and start reading!
