A few days ago, Ana posted about a certain month of reading that she had created with Iris. They decided that it might be an idea to finally tackle some of those books that you buy with the best intentions but never get round to reading. We’ve all been there. You’re so excited about a book, but for one reason or another you put it off, namely because it’s daunting or you feel your reading or writing of it won’t live up to the mark. So Ana and Iris named January 2013 Long-Awaited Reads Month, and whilst it is primarily a venture for themselves, quite a few people have expressed interest in joining, myself being one of them because I’ve several books that have been collecting dust, in some cases for years.

Ana and Iris are dedicating the whole month to nothing but these books, however I’ll likely be taking a detour every now and then, and am considering extending my own goal to further months. It’s time to get to those books. Because a list came to mind very soon, I’ve decided it might be an idea to write it out lest I forget and end up treating the lack of a list as a convenience. It’s not complete, but here’s the basic plan:

Beatrice Colin: The Luminous Life Of Lilly Aphrodite – You remember a few years ago this was on a lot of blogs? Yes, I’ve had it that long.

Irène Némirovsky: Suite Française – Found in a cheap bookshop, bought because everyone said it was good, never got round to reading it.

James Clavell: Shogun – Double points because it’s on my Classics Club list.

Lisa See: Shanghai Girls – The small print put me off.

Vanora Bennett: The People’s Queen – I bought this on holiday this time last year, wanting to read someone other than Elizabeth Chadwick (I love Chadwick but know I ought to broaden my medieval horizons). I haven’t read it yet because it’s not Elizabeth Chadwick.

Vikram Chandra: Red Earth And Pouring Rain – A random purchase at the same time as Suite Française, the heaviness and complexity of the plot put me off. That said I’ve only Amazon to go on regarding the complexity.

So there we are. My list for Long-Awaited Reads Month and likely beyond. It’s about time those books were read.

Fancy joining us?

Update on 9th may 2016: As per suggestions in this post I’m going to make a list of all the classics I’ve read since the date I first joined the club – 17th October 2012. I’m not abandoning my original list – it’s still below – but as a reflection of my changing reading habits and the way I’ve been reading classic books not on the original list, and the way seeing my original list makes me feel I’ve not read many classics, which is untrue, I’m changing things up a bit.

• F Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (1925)
• Jane Austen: Persuasion (re-read) (1818)
• Margaret Mitchell: Gone With The Wind (1936)
• Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol (1843)
• Jane Austen: Mansfield Park (1814)
• Elizabeth Von Arnim: The Enchanted April (1922)
• Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina (1875-1877)
• Charles Dickens: Nicholas Nickleby (1838)
• H G Wells: The Time Machine (1895)
• Kate Chopin: The Awakening (1899)
• Horace Walpole: The Castle Of Otranto (1764)
• Elizabeth Gaskell: Cranford (1853)
• Thomas Hardy: Far From The Madding Crowd (1874)
• Alice Dunbar-Nelson: Violets And Other Stories (1895)
• Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (1865)
• Harper Lee: To Kill A Mockingbird (1960)
• F Scott Fitzgerald: Tender Is The Night (1934)
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Herland (1915)
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman: With Her In Ourland (1916)
• Lewis Carroll: Through The Looking-Glass (1871)
• Edith Wharton: The Age Of Innocence (1920)
• Charlotte Smith: Emmeline (1788)
• Charlotte Lennox: The Female Quixote (1752)
• Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar (1963)
• Anne Brontë: Agnes Grey (1847)
• L M Montgomery: Anne Of Green Gables (1908)
• L M Montgomery: Anne Of Avonlea (1909)
• D H Lawrence: Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928)
• Maria Edgeworth: Belinda (1801)
• Louisa May Alcott: Little Women (1868)
• Louisa May Alcott: Good Wives (1869)

Books I’ve read but am not sure of their ‘status’: Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns; The Brandons by Angela Thirkell; The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon; Bird In A Cage by Frédéric Dard; Now In November by Josephine Johnson; The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence

So here’s my (original) list for The Classics Club, 62 books. Because my goal is to read literature from a range of periods, I’ve decided to list the books by era, even if it will expose the bias towards 19th and 20th Century novels. I would actually have liked to include more medieval work but it being very old it can be difficult to get a hold of copies. After much thought I decided to list by first name to make it easier. Five years from now… 17th October 2017. Seems a long way away, but it likely won’t be. Titles I’ve completed are in italics.

Ancient Texts

• Various/Unknown: The Epic Of Gilgamesh
• Various/Unknown: One Thousand And One Nights
• Plato: The Laches

Medieval and Early Modern

• Christine de Pisan: The Book Of The City Of Ladies
• Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
• Madame de La fayette: The Princess Of Cleves
• Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji
• Niccolè Machiavelli: The Prince
• William Tyndale: The Obedience Of A Christian Man

1700s

• Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries Of Udolpho
• Choderlos de Laclos: The Dangerous Liaisons
• Frances Burney: Cecilia
• Frances Burney: Evelina
• Georgiana Cavendish: The Sylph
Horace Walpole: The Castle Of Otranto
• Samuel Richardson: Clarissa

1800s

Anne Brontë: Agnes Grey
• Anne Brontë: The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall
• Alexandre Dumas: The Count Of Monte Cristo
• Alexandre Dumas: The Three Musketeers
• Charles Dickens: Bleak House
• Charles Dickens: Nicholas Nickleby
• Charles Dickens: David Copperfield
• Charlotte Brontë: The Professor
• Charlotte Brontë: Shirley
• Elizabeth Gaskell: Cranford
• Émile Zola: Germinal
• George Eliot: Middlemarch
• Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary
• Henry James: The Portrait of a Lady
• Jane Austen: Mansfield Park
• Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
• Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
• Louisa May Alcott: A Long Fatal Love Chase
• Louisa May Alcott: Little Women
• Oscar Wilde: The Picture Of Dorian Grey
• Wilkie Collins: The Woman In White
• William Makepeace Thackeray: Vanity Fair
• William Morris: The Well At The World’s End

1900s

• Colette: Gigi
• Daphne Du Maurier: My Cousin Rachel
• Daphne Du Maurier: The House On The Strand
• E M Delafield: Consequences
• E M Forster: Howards End
• Edith Wharton: The Age Of Innocence
• Edith Wharton: The House Of Mirth
• F Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
• Ford Maddox Ford: Some Do Not
• Gaston Leroux: The Phantom Of The Opera
• J D Salinger: Catcher In The Rye
• J M Barrie: Peter Pan
• James Clavell: Shogun
• Kathleen Winsor: Forever Amber
• L M Montgomery: Anne Of Green Gables
• Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House In The Big Woods
• Margaret Mitchell: Gone With The Wind
• Natsume Soseki: I Am a Cat
• Richard Yates: Revolutionary Road
• Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar
• Truman Capote: Breakfast At Tiffany’s
• Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway
• Virginia Woolf: A Room Of One’s Own

What do you think, any glaring omissions?

Edit on 18th October: the count is now 60 books rather than 53, thanks to Scott for the recommendations, and Alice’s commenting which by itself reminded me of a couple more. And thanks to Audra for two works. I’m glad I asked you all for your opinions!

I really, really, want to take part today/tomorrow (it falls between Saturday and Sunday UK time), though as I told Alex, my boyfriend is over and I haven’t seen him this week. However as much as I want to see him I do want to take part, so I’ve signed up with 1 hour and 30 minutes before the starting time and if nothing else I will be reading late this evening and tomorrow morning.

I know that joining this late means no cheerleaders for me but it’s the reading that’s the reason for taking part and I missed not doing so last time. I’ll be reading The Black Count by Tom Reiss because it needs finishing quickly and I haven’t read much this last week. If I manage to finish it I’ll be moving on to one of the self-pubs I have for review.

The last time I signed up for Readathon I failed miserably, but there’s still a part of me that really wants to give it a go this year, despite the fact that once again I’ve little time.

I thought that would be rather impossible until I found out that Ronnica of Ignorant Historian plans to start early. This, I could do. And knowing that there are people out there doing the same makes it more… credible, real? Whatever, I’ve signed up and I’m starting now. I doubt I’ll be able to post any more than this once, but my plan is the following: I will be continuing the early twentieth century novel I’m reading, and starting Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. Just don’t tell my boyfriend because I’ll likely be coaxing him to go to sleep while I slip in the reading.

Game on.

Update, 3th hour: almost to the end of the book I hoped to finish.

Update, 21st hour: if I’m able to finish this book before the end, I will be happy, and will feel that this readathon has been successful despite the lack of time I’ve been able to spend.

I had such fun last year taking part in the Transworld Summer Reading Challenge, that when I saw Helen’s post on this year’s reading group I signed up straight away.

The books I’ve chosen to read are Louise Douglas’s The Secrets Between Us, Lee Carroll’s Black Swan Rising, Priya Basil’s The Obscure Logic Of The Heart, and Danielle Steel’s Legacy. I’m very much looking forward to all four, and after having heard people moaning about Danielle Steel, for reasons I can’t remember, when I was younger I’m looking forward to reading a book by her (remember my reasoning for wanting to read Mills & Boon?)

Are you taking part?