Read, read, read

A new personal challenge

One of my resolutions of my fifth decade is to set myself personal challenges. My idea being that challenges lift you out of your comfort zone, remind you that you are alive, and give you a new reflection of yourself.

Reminding my brain that it still functions

For me, these challenges don’t always have to be physical. Sometimes it’s great to challenge yourself from the comfort of your armchair.

At the beginning of the year I decided to set myself a bit of a reading challenge and that is to read, or re- read books that are considered classics.

Book Gobbler

Like most of us who love to write, I have always read with a voracious appetite. I  read across a wide selection of genres, only avoiding horror and most science fiction. I tend to be a bit of a book gobbler; I read fast and if a book enthrals me, chances are I won’t put it down until it’s done. Trouble is, ask me in a month’s time about the book, I would probably be able to tell you if it’s good or bad, but there is an excellent chance I won’t remember the characters names.

Setting it up

After consulting a number of recommended lists I could see that not everyone agrees on what should be considered a classic. I’ve cobbled together a list of about fifty books of the one’s most common to all the sources. It is a little haphazard, as it covers a diverse range of old, and more modern classics, and even some beloved children’s classics. Imperfect it may be, but it works for me.

The passion for reading started as a child

I was an imaginative child, and from the moment that squiggles on a page started to make sense, words were the gateway to a rich and textured world, way beyond the borders of my reality. I ploughed through the children’s books, and soon exhausted what was readily available. In desperation my mother started taking out books she thought suitable on her adult library cards.

Maybe it’s genetic

She wasn’t the only one encouraging reading in the family. Her beloved old uncle was a collector of rare and precious books. He had an astounding collection of wonderful books, and fed the need for books in all of us with his enthusiasm, and the gifts of books at every opportunity.

Coercing reluctant readers

Whilst never a huge enthusiast of school in general, I did love English lessons, especially the literature and creative writing. From Shakespeare, to Orwell I enjoyed it all.

Just as well, although all three of my sons loved being read to as young children, they were somewhat reluctant readers at school.  I found myself redoing the set works with them.

This was often, something of a challenge, as it involved speed reading and summarising  the book, so the little darlings could do the work for an assignment, usually due the next day. Not great parenting I know, but I certainly take some credit for their excellent final English marks at the end of matric. As young adults, they all have rediscovered their joy in books, and read far more profound works than I ever tackled.

Why a Classics challenge now

I’m sure you are wondering at this stage why I would feel it necessary to, especially as a number of these books I have read, and re-read a number of times.

• Big ideas from little gifts

Like all challenges the reasons for putting yourself on any path is never that clear cut. The thought entered my head when my husband gave me a little book, concerning the Bronte sisters. As I dipped into the book I thought to myself, this would be even more fun if I reread some of the works by the sisters, and so the idea was born.

• Losing sight of good choices

For sometime I had been feeling overwhelmed by reading choice, we all know the seduction of a pretty cover. Not only that but I also started to feel that the algorithms that my e- reader used to generate suggestions for me were way off beam.  I was starting to download rubbish. I needed to go back to basics.

• Maybe it’s contagious

As a hopeful writer, I also believe that I need to read good books, in the faint hope that great writing will eventually have a positive effect on my sad attempts. I’m hanging a lot of hope on that one.

• I hate missing out

What about all the great reads that I never got to do, now is my chance.

• Guilty secrets

I’m a bit of a secret list keeper, this at odds with a personality that baulks against being told what to do, but there it is. I do have lists of what I read, so having a ‘challenge’ list was hard to resist.

• Free to love or hate them without restraints

Finally, the classics I have read were all prescribed reading, either at school, or university. I rather like the idea of reading without the strictures of looking for themes, and character development.

Digest not only ingest

As I’m trying to savour them as opposed to bolting them like fast food. I have set myself a target of no less than three a month. This is easy to achieve, and as some of the books are short, so I am averaging four, sometimes even five.  I’m only reading a bit of them each day, so that I can think about what I have read.

Print form for the Classics

I have also chosen to read them all in print format, (seems more respectful), as opposed to an e- book. This is also a bit of a salute to my great- uncle and his passion for books, and I try to order them from my local bookstore. I always have more than one book on the go. Besides my classic, I also am reading a book on my e-reader from other recommended lists, and I usually have one, or two non-fiction books on the go as well.

Progress to date

Some of the books I have loved as much as I did in my youth. Jane Austen, you are always going to be right up there. I have always loved the Bronte sisters, ‘Wuthering Heights’ being the one I revisited, often. This time I was more aware, and perturbed, by the emotional abuse and the psychological damage of the characters. Jayne Eyre, moved into first place for me.

I enjoyed ‘The Great Gatsby’ a lot less than when I first read it in my early twenties, can’t tell you why, perhaps because I found images from the movie interfering with the pictures in my head. ‘To kill a mocking bird’ retained all it’s charm, but I still find’ A Passage to India’ tedious.

I have also really enjoyed first time reads. ‘Anna Karenina’, was always too daunting when younger, but now it’s done.’Jamaica Inn’ by Daphne du Maurier was fabulous,  and “Birdsong’ by Sebastian Faulkes, that I had avoided because of its war theme, was haunting and so beautifully written.

In Conclusion

The reasons for doing this are now so unimportant. What really matters, is I’m having so much fun doing it. So much so, I’m sure next year I’ll set up another reading challenge for myself, just because I can.