Remember that time I got really into my new book blog because Adam @ Roof Beam Reader motivated me to participate in Austen in August? It remains my favorite reading event, and really my favorite anything related to blogging. That being said, I find it only natural that another brilliant Adam idea motivates me to get back into blogging…again. Shame on me for leaving you all for two months, but I’m excited to be back. Now, without further ado…
The 2013 TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Adam @ Roof Beam Reader is intended for people who buy books with the intention of reading them, but sadly too many books are bought with only so much time for reading. I have a major issue with this, as do most book bloggers, so I assume.
This challenge involves reading 12 books throughout the year that have experienced too much shelf time without being dusted off and enjoyed. While I certainly have more than 12 books I’m eager to read, I’m sticking with the list below for now. I can’t wait to get started!
My 2013 TBR Pile Challenge List:
1. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
2. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
3. My Antonia by Willa Cather
4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
5. The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
6. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
7. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. Howards End by E.M. Forster
9. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
10. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
11. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
12. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Alternatives:
1. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
2. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Edwin Drood and Mill on the Floss are both in my reading list for this year (Edwin Drood is also in my TBR Pile challenge). I have just read Great Expectations last month, and liked it very much.
Good luck with the challenge!
Thank you, Fanda! I can’t believe I’ve taken a Dickens class and am obsessed with him, yet I haven’t read Great Expectations. The time is now! Good luck to you as well!
you’ve got some great books in your list. Things fall Apart is stunning… and horrific… never read anything like it.
I can’t wait to read it! I’ve heard good things.
Woooo! Fabulous list! Good luck with the challenge! I’m doing this one (AND ONLY THIS ONE) this year as well
Thank you, and good luck to you as well! Also, are you ready for the big football game? My family is getting all riled up about it, and it made me think of you. Go Pack Go!
Nice list! I’m doing this one, too. It’s been far too long for some of the books on my shelves, and I figure a challenge was the only way to get me to finally read them (I’m competitive, at least, especially with myself)
Looking forward to reading your updates!
Good luck to you! Looking forward to your updates as well.
What a wide selection! I’m hoping to read quite a few of them over the next few years.
Good luck to you!
Love your list. I’ve got Edwin Drood on my Classics Club list, too. This is the first year I’m participating in the TBR challenge and it’s definitely much needed. (My list.)
Looks like you have a great list going as well! Good luck.
Great list. I wish you the best on it. I could spend years on my own TBR pile. Though I don’t own “A Moveable Feast” I would like to get to it this year.
I hope you enjoy the read! I love Hemingway and am excited to start that one.
Welcome back, Jenna! I’m glad you’re joining us for this one. Your list is fantastic. Willa Cather is one of my favorite American writers. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is SO GOOD. It and Through the Looking Glass are actually two novels, but I’ll let that slide.
Great Expectations might be my favorite Dickens, with David Copperfield (but I still have so much Dickens to read). I adored Mill on the Floss and I’ll be reading The End of the Affair this year, too! Les Miserables.. oh gosh. I can’t say enough about that book. And Tender is the Night… another personal favorite. Definitely the best Fitzgerald (yes, of course, The Great Gatsby is an American Masterpiece – but Tender is the Night spoke to me on a much deeper level). I really enjoyed Edwin Drood, too – it’s one of those unfinished novels (like Twain’s Mysterious Stranger and Hemingway’s Garden of Eden) which I absolutely adored & wish had been finished, but then wonder if I would have loved it as much if it actually had been finished, ya know?
Ah, you have a great reading year ahead of you, for sure. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on all these – good luck!
Thank you, Adam! You caught me with Alice, haha! Maybe it’ll even out with Edwin Drood since that one is unfinished. And it sounds like I picked some good reads based on what you’ve written, so I look forward to them even more.
This is such a great list! I see some of my favourite readings ever there such as Howards End and Lady Chatterley.
I had mixed feelings about Things Fall Apart. From an anthropological point of view is great, but there were some really tough parts.
Glad to see some of your favorites made the list! It sounds like I’ve picked some good ones. And I hope to get through the tough parts with Things Fall Apart. We’ll see!
Pingback: The Classics Club Readathon « Lost Generation Reader
Heh heh, I was just thinking this morning that maybe my next challenge should be an I’ve Been Meaning To Read-a-thon. It really is sad how many books I’ve bought and then neglected ^_^;;
Ooh, Reading Lolita is one of my favorites. (have I already mentioned that here? If I have, please excuse my random short-term memory. It’s not quite like Dori from Finding Nemo…but sort of ^_^;;; ) In addition to many other things, I liked her insights on the structure of Pride and Prejudice as a dance.
I don’t think you mentioned it yet, but it sounds wonderful. I’ll have to look out for the Pride and Prejudice reference. And yes, that sounds like the kind of readathon I need, haha!