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There is something about this time of year - the cold, the snow (which I don't have yet), the Christmas decorations - that makes me want to curl up in a comfy armchair (which I don't have) in front of the fire (umm which I also don't have) and read a good book (aha - that one I have!). And right now I'm itching to lose myself in some classics. Sitting on my nightstand are Austen's Pride and Prejudice, one of my all-time favourites, and Dickens' A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Stories, a holiday must. This time of year I slow down the speed of my reading and lose myself in the language. I roll the words in my brain like you roll around a fine piece of chocolate in your mouth - slowly, savouring every little bit of it.
And I'm happy to see I'm not the only one on the classics train right now. It seems that with every challenge that pops up in the book blogs there's always someone who says they are going to read classics. Or as we edge up to New Year's and resolutions there's usually a few bloggers who resolve to read more classics,
This year book bloggers are getting a jump start with the Winter Classics Challenge. The premise is simple - participants pledge to read five classics in January and February. This challenge is the brain child of booklogged and she so very nicely posted a list of participants so we can click and read their lists at our leisure.
The one thing that never fails to surprise me about reading challenges is the variety of books that people are reading. Even when you have a theme such as classics there is a great deal of variety. It's sometimes easy to forgot how many different genres of literature exist and that each genre has its own classics. And then there's modern classics which we sometimes forget really are classics. Different languages and cultures all have different classics, some that I have never heard of and it's like discovering a miniature gold mine of literature. It also surprises me to see the overlap. There always seems to be one book that a bunch of bloggers decide to read together - totally unplanned. This challenge's common book seems to be The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.
I've not signed up for this particular challenge but if I were to I think my list would go something like this:
1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (re-read - can't help it, I'm a Lizzie/Darcy addict)
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
3. The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
4. A Tale of Two City by Charles Dickens
5. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Take a few minutes and browse through some lists. Maybe you'll find a long lost favourite. Or carve out some time from your day to curl up with a classic. I know I plan to.
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey also blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
