It’s My Birthday and I’ll Read if I Want To: 2012 Reading Challenges

I love my New Year’s birthday. It feels like a totally fresh start for so many things – including a totally clean reading slate. This year I’m planning to focus on classics that I’ve never read, but should have, so you’ll see a lot of them doing double (or triple) duty on my reading lists. But I’ve also left plenty of room for book club reading, spur of the moment reading, and some mini-challenges, such as Venice in February and R.I.P. So far my actual commitment is only 27 books, and I know I’ll read far more than that, so I'm sure there will be some additions!

Happy New Year and Happy Reading to you all!

What’s in a Name 5

1. The Reef by Edith Wharton (Topographical feature)
2. Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes (Something in the sky)
3. The Gold Bug by Edgar Allen Poe (Creepy crawly)
4. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (Dwelling)
5. The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham (Something in your purse)
6. Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill (Something on a calendar)

Vintage Mysteries 2012 (Murderous Miscellany)
I’m calling mine Vicious Vacations, and reading 8 books that take place in a destination where I’d “kill” to spend a holiday!

1. Death Lights a Candle by Phoebe Atwood Taylor
2. Six Problems of Don Isidro Parodi (Seis Problemas para Don Isidro Parodi) by Jorge Luis Borges
3. Murder on the Nile by Agatha Christie
4. The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice by Wilkie Collins
5. The House without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers
6. Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh
7. The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
8. Lock 14 by Georges Simeon

Back to the Classics Challenge 2012

1. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (19th Century Classic)
2. The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham (20th Century Classic)
3. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Classic Reread)
4. Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neil (Classic Play)
5. The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin (Classic Mystery/Horror/Crime Fiction)
6. These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer (Classic Romance)
7. Massimilla Doni by Honoré Balzac (Translated Classic)
8. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (Classic Award Winner) (1933 Femina Vie Heureuse Prize)
9. The Gold Bug by Edgar Allen Poe (Classic in a Place I Won’t Visit) (Sullivan Island, South Carolina)

Venice in February

1. Massimilla Doni by Honoré Balzac
2. The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi’s Venice by Laurel Corona
3. The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice by Wilkie Collins

Europa Editions Challenge 2012

1. Lions at Lamb House by Edwin M. Yoder, Jr.
2. A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome: Daily Life, Mysteries and Curiosities by Alberto Angela
3. Treasure Island!!! by Sara Levine
4. You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik

Historical Fiction Challenge 2012

1. Eromenos by Melanie J. McDonald
2. Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman
3. Reign of Madness by Lynn Cullen
4. A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome: Daily Life, Mysteries and Curiosities by Alberto Angela
5. Lions at Lamb House by Edwin M. Yoder, Jr.
6. The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi’s Venice by Laurel Corona
7. All the Flowers of Shanghai by Duncan Jepson
8. These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer
9. TBD
10. TBD

Read-Along

Clarissa, Or the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson