Contact me at lucyvictoriabrown@gmail.com because I'm always up for a natter about anything. Well, mostly.

Friday, 1 January 2016

2016 Reading Challenges

Given that I failed miserably with reading challenges in 2015, I've decided on a new approach for 2016 that doesn't require me to commit to external challenges. Maybe this is another sign of me regressing but it's the only way I'm going to put together a 2016 challenge list so que sera sera.

There are three categories in my personal reading challenge with all books identified beforehand. I might have more success with these categories and the first two will at least attack my TBR pile. There'll be individual reviews for the books in those categories then one master post detailing my thoughts on the rereads of the third category.

This post will be updated throughout the year with links. Theoretically.

Challenge One - TBR Pile

Twenty books taken from my TBR bookcase. Only stipulation is that they can't be classics - they get a list of their own.
  1. The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault
  2. Collected Stories by Dylan Thomas
  3. Pages for You by Sylvia Brownrigg
  4. Author, Author by David Lodge
  5. Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
  6. The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens ed. Jenny Hartley
  7. Love Game: A History of Tennis by Elizabeth Wilson
  8. Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth
  9. Wilkie Collins by Peter Ackroyd
  10. The Debs of Bletchley Park by Michael Smith
  11. Events, Dear Boy, Events: A Political Diary of Britain 1921-2010 ed. Ruth Winstone
  12. The Walk by Robert Walser
  13. Confronting the Classics by Mary Beard
  14. Underworld London by Catharine Arnold
  15. The Bletchley Girls by Tessa Dunlop
  16. Virginia Woolf by Mary Ann Caws
  17. Cathedrals and Castles by Henry James
  18. The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders
  19. Too Many Mothers by Roberta Taylor
  20. The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson
Challenge Two - Classics Challenge

Twenty books taken from my TBR classics Kindle list and bookcase. I should really have read some of these already and several of these have been on TBR lists for the last few years.
  1. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
  2. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
  3. Tono-Bungay by H.G. Wells
  4. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
  5. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
  6. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
  7. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens 
  8. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
  9. The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins
  10. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
  11. The Europeans by Henry James
  12. Mathilda by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  13. The Evil Guest by J.S. Le Fanu
  14. Born in Exile by George Gissing
  15. The Whirlpool by George Gissing
  16. The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume
  17. Charlotte's Inheritance by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
  18. Henry Dunbar by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
  19. Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett
  20. In the Days of My Youth by Amelia Edwards
Challenge Three - Rereading Challenge

I don't reread enough and I want to. Reorganising my books a few months ago reminded me how many fantastic books I have that I'd like to read again. This list is longer than the first two for a very good reason - Harry Potter has seven books in itself!
  1. Tell it to the Bees by Fiona Shaw
  2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
  3. The Green Mile by Stephen King
  4. The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
  5. Westwood by Stella Gibbons
  6. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
  7. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
  8. Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
  9. Emma by Jane Austen
  10. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
  11. Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald
  12. Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee by Meera Syal
  13. Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins
  14. Persuasion by Jane Austen
  15. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
  16. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
  17. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
  18. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
  19. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
  20. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
  21. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
  22. Little Face by Sophie Hannah
  23. Hurting Distance by Sophie Hannah
  24. The Point of Rescue by Sophie Hannah
  25. The Other Half Lives by Sophie Hannah
  26. A Room Swept White by Sophie Hannah
  27. Lasting Damage by Sophie Hannah
  28. Kind of Cruel by Sophie Hannah
  29. The Carrier by Sophie Hannah
  30. The Telling Error by Sophie Hannah

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