Reading plans for 2009

[mousme]

I'm trying to find a list of classic novels to give me a bit of inspiration about what to read next year on top of my list of usual suspects. I have no trouble finding s.f. and mysteries and such to read, but I have the keen suspicion that I haven't read as many classics as I think I have. Allow me to add that I know that many s.f. books and mysteries are considered classics, but I'm talking non-genre fiction, specifically.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not doing this out of some weird masochistic sense of elitist obligation. I usually enjoy classics when I read them, but these days they're not really on my radar, as it were. I've read very little by way of the "big" classics (Tolstoy, Hardy, Balzac, what have you), and as such I miss a lot of cultural references along the way. I'd like to correct this, and perhaps discover some treasures along the way.

The plan is to participate in 50bookchallenge again, starting January 1st. I am going to challenge myself to read 50 books of my own choosing (minimum) and 50 "classics" as well. Two books per week is eminently doable for me. :)

So, dear flist, help out a girl with weak Google Fu. Are there any really long lists out there with the Big Classics One Can't Avoid And Is Usually Made To Read In School?

I'm open to non-fiction, and I would LOVE suggestions in French, too. I haven't done nearly enough reading in my mother tongue lately.

Also: new icon love! I am slowly filling my shiny new icon slots, mostly with icons I snagged from iconsbycurtana. :)

Comments

[miseri.livejournal.com]

I believe that every literate human being should read Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" at least once in their life. And if you intend to read in French, I would suggest Henri Murger's "Scenes de la Vie Boheme" (which I've only read in English, but still....)

I don't know about books the "made to read in school" list. I remember "Cry, The Beloved Country" by Alan Paton, but that's about it. There was also the year where we had a list of optional readings that included "Exodus" (Leon Uris), "Great Expectations" and "The Lord of the Rings". Oh, and C S Lewis's "The Screwtape Letters".

Otherwise, some favourites of mine (assuming that "everything written before WW1 and still in publication now" can be considered a "classic":
"The Warden" - Anthony Trollope
"Barchester Towers" - Anthony Trollope
"Three Men in a Boat" - Jerome K Jerome
"Silas Marner" - George Eliot

Probably doesn't count as a "classic", but David Lodge's "The British Museum Is Falling Down" might make a good appetiser for your 50-classics feast. Supposedly it parodies or references 10 different Great Writers Of The English Language, but I'm not well-read enough to detect any of them other than Kafka. And probably Virginia Woolf. I've never actually read either of them.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I've read "To Kill A Mockingbird" several times, never fear. :)

[miseri.livejournal.com]

...actually, come to think of it (and before people start pointing at me and laughing) Kafka didn't write in English, did he?