Start thinking about ambitious reading plans for 2018 now?

[hitmouse]

Slightly tangential, perhaps.
I have just had 3 large bookcases built, which more than double my shelving capacity. This means that I can finally disinter books that have been boxed in storage, in various residences, in some cases since the late 90s.
This is going to be a major sorting and weeding job, and will generate a lot of pleasurable reading and rereading. Progress so far suggests that the new bookcases will be completely full.

 

[Connavar]

With a little over a month to go before 2018 begins, I thought it might be timely to offer a thread for the discussion of ambitious reading plans for 2018. At the moment I'm considering, but not yet committed to, the idea of reading a couple of very thick Penguin Classics that I've owned for years, or at least giving them a serious try -- St. Augustine's City of God and Cervantes' Don Quixote. They're both books I've started but not finished.

As always, a pertinent question is, If not now (in 2018), when?

I have some other hefty books in mind for reading before long, too, but these are more daunting.

Also, I'd like to bring the project of having read all the Shakespeare plays to completion, sometime in 2018. Right now I have King John begun, but my bookmark seems to have taken root at the beginning of Act 2.

Actually i was planning an ambitious a year reading the classic books,plays,poetry,authors i always wanted to read but havent completed my reading of their works when i saw this thread. Im making a list of authors to include, the works i didnt have time for, to mostly focus on them this year.

For example because of a recent book club in Uni, i saw the greatness of Christopher Marlowe, the poetry of Tamburlaine the great so yesterday i ordered The Complete Plays Penguin Classic version. I want to complete the classic adventure fav of Dumas by finally reading unbdridged 1000+ pages of The Count of the Monte Cristo.
The list so far:

Before 1900

Jalal al-din Rumi - The Essential Rumi ( Coleman Barks)
Poe - Complete Tales & Poetry (American Library hardcover)
Goethe – Iphigenia auf Tauris & Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
Christopher Marlowe - Tamburalaine The Great
Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo, the bridged childrens version was the book that made interested in reading.
Ibn Hazm - The Necklace of Dove ( a collection of poetry/essays on love in 11th century Arabic Spain)

Most of those books i have had for years by alltime favorite authors of mine.


After 1900

Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar & Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams
Chinua Achebe - No Longer Ease (The African Trilogy #2), Arrow of God (The African Trilogy#3)
Dashiell Hammett - The Hunter and Other Stories
Naguib Mahfouz - The Cairo Trilogy
Marguarite Duras - The Sea Wall
Toni Morrison - Beloved & Song of Solomon

Even here in the 1900 authors only Toni Morrison is the only new one for me, who i have only read A Mercy of. The others are literary gods in their field in my eyes. For me its both about reading challenging reads that might take more time but also even shorter books,works that is a must read now that i dont have time to read 100 books in a year.

 

[soulsinging]

I've settled my ambitious plans. I'm currently working through Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and enjoying it immensely and plan to follow it up with another renowned novel about monastic life: Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Both are pretty big and dense. After that, I want to tackle East of Eden by John Steinback, and then close the year taking down either David Copperfield or Les Miserables.In between, I've got some less ambitious tomes, including the next in CS Forester's Hornblower series, Ship of the Line, and Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves.

 

[CTRandall]

I'm currently finishing Other Minds: the Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligence (highly recommended for anyone designing their own intelligent aliens!). After that, I'm diving into the works of Stanislav Lem. I've somehow managed to neglect him over the years and feel the need to plug that gap in my reading.

 

[Extollager]

So -- how are folks doing?

 

[Bick]

Looking back I'm reminded that my mental promise to myself was, principally, to read three more Dickens novels (as I did last year) to maintain my target of reading all his novels. I've so far read two (Hard Times and David Copperfield), and I plan to read another before the end of the year - perhaps Nicholas Nickleby?

 

[kythe]

I'd already forgotten about my plan to read some of my daughter's YA books before she left home. I did read the first two books in The Maze Runner series and Perks of Being a Wallflower, both at her recommendation.

I seem to have changed focus when I bought a kindle and read several e-books by Chrons authors, including The Goddess Project by Bryan Wigmore, The Waters and the Wild and Inish Carriag by Jo Zebedee, Exile and Nandor by Martin Owton, and The Event by Nathan Hystad.

 

[Extollager]

My postings for this thread have been laughably irrelevant as regards what I've actually read.

 

[Randy M.]

My postings for this thread have been laughably irrelevant as regards what I've actually read.

What you said. I read one of the books I listed.

Randy M.

 

[hitmouse]

I have completely filled my new bookcases with the stuff I got out of storage. Need more bookcases but no room until the kids leave home and I can reclaim their rooms ( though they will of couse keep coming back forever.)

 

[Brian G Turner]

My big reading plan was to re-read LOTR this year, and I managed that.

 

[soulsinging]

I've settled my ambitious plans. I'm currently working through Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and enjoying it immensely and plan to follow it up with another renowned novel about monastic life: Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Both are pretty big and dense. After that, I want to tackle East of Eden by John Steinback, and then close the year taking down either David Copperfield or Les Miserables.In between, I've got some less ambitious tomes, including the next in CS Forester's Hornblower series, Ship of the Line, and Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves.

2 out of 7 isn't bad I suppose. I did read Pillars of the Earth and still intend to read Name of the Rose, but I swapped Our Mutual Friend for DC (one was at the used shop and the other wasn't) and shelved Eden and Les Mis until next year. I also opted for Le Guin's Dispossessed over Asimov and McKinley's take on Robin Hood over Hornblower.

 

[Bick]

...but I swapped Our Mutual Friend for DC ...

I just read both of these, and in my opinion Our Mutual Friend is more enjoyable, moves more swiftly, is better plotted and is generally much more satisfying. I think it’s a decent swap.

 

[awesomesauce]

My big reading plan was to re-read LOTR this year, and I managed that.

Me too.

My other goal is to read 100 books for the Goodreads challenge. I'm currently on track to achieve that, within the parameters I set for myself. (Nothing shorter than a novella, and comics count, but only collected volumes and graphic novels, not single issues.)