End of Year Wrap-Up

So it looks like I read 81 books this past year. That seems a bit excessive to most people except that a few were re-reads (which go faster) and many were young adult novels and series'. Most of it was light and fluffy and fun.

I have a new goal for next year.

When I was young, my family would often play a card game called Authors. It is essentially the same as Go Fish with a literary twist. There are 13 Authors represented and each one has four cards. Each card represents one of their books, usually the more famous or popular ones. These means there are 52 books (in a few cases, poems) represented. These authors and books were considered to be "the classics." Many I have read as required reading in high school or college but I haven't read them all.

I have decided to try to read them all. A daunting task considering that I will still read my book club books and probably a junk book or two for reprieve. I doubt that I'll get them all read this year but I'll give it a go and see how far I get.

Here's the list:

James Fenimore Cooper

The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Spy, The Pathfinder

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter, House of the Seven Gables, Twice-Told Tales, The Wonder Book

Sir Walter Scott

The Talisman, Ivanhoe, Kenilworth, The Lady of the Lake

Washington Irving

Rip Van Winkle, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Alhambra, Tales of a Traveler

Louisa May Alcott

Little Men, Little Women, Eight Cousins, An Old-Fashioned Girl

Edgar Allan Poe

Fall of the House of Usher, God Bug, The Raven, Annabel Lee

Henry W Longfellow

Courtship of Miles Standish, Song of Hiawatha, The Village Blacksmith, Evangeline

William Makepeace Thackeray

Henry Esmond, Vanity Fair, The Virginians, Pendennis

Mark Twain

Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, The Mysterious Stranger, Tom Sawyer

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Crossing the Bar, Idylls of the King, Charge of the Light Brigade, The Brook

William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest

Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, A Child's Garden of Verses, Kidnapped

Charles Dickens

The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol

Wish me luck! Have a safe and happy New Year's eve!