I enjoy making a New Year's resolution to challenge myself to read or reread some classics that I've never got around to. As encouragement I make a reading list for the year inspired by certain books celebrating an anniversary based on initial publication date or an author's birthday or a new reprint. You can watch me discuss these 23 books here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28oc5Vel0lA
The titles I've chosen for this year's list range from novels first published two hundred years ago to fifty years ago. Certain books such as “Around the World in Eighty Days”, “The Good Soldier Svejk”, “Catch 22” and “Sula” are celebrated and widely read classics. Some include less well known titles from famous authors such as Mary Shelley, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, Willa Cather and Aldous Huxley. Some such as “Ourika”, “Thy Neighbour's Wife” and “Bobbin Up” are now more obscure books due for a resurgence. And others are from authors whose work is being reprinted for the first time in many years.
I've tried to include a diversity of titles so that some will probably be familiar while others might be from authors you've never encountered before. I discovered some surprising connections when researching my list such as Virginia Woolf's short story which is a precursor to her tremendous novel “Mrs Dalloway”, the influence Jaroslav Hasek had on Joseph Heller and how a Willa Cather novel greatly inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald in writing “The Great Gatsby”. It's wonderful how reading classic titles will naturally lead you on to finding other titles to enjoy till literary history begins to resemble a patchwork quilt of connected books.
