I enjoy reading other people’s reading plans, so I decided to create a formal list some of the books I hope to read this year. I have a list in my head, but maybe getting it down on paper would force me to focus on these books instead of the many temptations at the library! The main reason for this list is because I’m hoping to finally make a trip to England this year. We’ve been planning a trip there for a while and even had one booked, but various life interferences keep cropping up and we keep postponing. So, barring the unexpected, we’re planning to really go this year, on my 30th birthday. I think becoming 30 will be a bit more enjoyable in London (or maybe even in Paris if we take a day trip)! I’ve read a lot of English literature and history already which is why this is a dream trip, but I still have a lot more I want to read before we go. And there are some books I just want to get off of TBR bookcases (yes bookcases, plural – I counted recently I have over 400 unread books in my house!). Finally, there are a few “project” books I’d like read, like finally finishing all of Shakespeare’s works! Anyway, here’s my list of some of the books I want to tackle this year.
- The Bible (NKJV) – I’ve read most of it, but not all of the Old Testament and not all the way through in order before
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (I’m taking a trip to Savannah, where this is set)
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (reread for Savannah trip)
- The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich (at least the parts relevant to museums we would tour)
- Book Lover’s London by Lesley Reader (how fun/appropriate is that last name?!)
- Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
- The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare
- Two Gentleman of Verona by Shakespeare
- Love’s Labor’s Lost by Shakespeare
- The Merry Wives of Windsor by Shakespeare
- All’s Well that Ends Well by Shakespeare
- Titus Andronicus by Shakespeare
- Macbeth by Shakespeare
- Coriolanus by Shakespeare
- Timon of Athens by Shakespeare
- Shakespeare’s Kings by John Norwich
- King John by Shakespeare
- Henry VIII by Shakespeare
- Pericles by Shakespeare
- Cymbeline by Shakespeare
- Two Noble Kinsman by Shakespeare
- The Reign of King Edward the Third possibly by Shakespeare
- Poems (not including sonnets) by Shakespeare
- “Shakespeare” by Another Name by Mark Anderson
- Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
- The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir
- Children of England by Weir
- Norton Anthology of English literature – 16th Century to the Restoration (just the parts I haven’t read)
- Norton Anthology of English literature – Restoration through the 18th Century (just the parts I haven’t read)
- Robinson Crusoe or Moll Flanders by Defoe
- Major Works of Samuel Johnson (what I haven’t already read)
- The Life of Samuel Johnson by Boswell
- Tristram Shandy by Sterne
- Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
- Camilla by Fanny Burney
- Fanny Burney by Claire Harman
- The Mysteries of Udolpho by Radcliffe
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (reread)
- Becoming Jane by Jon Spence
- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (reread)
- Two Hisories of England by Austen and Dickens
- Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens
- Barry Lyndon or Penndenis by Thackeray
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (reread)
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (reread)
- Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
- The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
- Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
- The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Gaskell
- Adam Bede by George Eliot
- Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Lewis Stevenson
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- A Concise History of England by Halliday
- The Making of England by Hollister
- A Traveller’s History of England (what I haven’t already read)
- A Brief History of British Kings and Queens by Ashley (what I haven’t already read)
- Rules, Britannia by Hargis
- Imagined London by Anna Quindlen
- 1066 – Year of Conquest by Howarth
