Personal Classics Challenge-2014

[Christine]

I have actually never read anything written by Jane Austen. I don't know how that happened! I keep meaning to read her novels, and then I never get around to it. I think I will set a challenge for myself to read at least ONE Austen novel before the end of 2014.

[Elsbeth]

I know what you mean, Christine! I ve seen dozens of films made from the stories she wrote and visited her house in Chawton (UK) and had never read anything by her. That s why I wanted to read them all. But after struggling through Emma, I decided to give it a rest. Maybe I ll try some more next year or so. Or maybe we should make one of her books a group read...

[Elsbeth]

And I realized I liked the books by Thomas Hardy, Wilkie Collins and Elizabeth Gaskell better. So I've decided to give those a chance, first!

[Christine]

Elsbeth wrote: "I know what you mean, Christine! I ve seen dozens of films made from the stories she wrote and visited her house in Chawton (UK) and had never read anything by her. That s why I wanted to read them..."

I believe the group has read 5 of her books as group reads in the past, and the group just read Emma a few months ago. But maybe a new one will be selected as a group read soon, or one of those 5 could be selected as a Revisit the Shelf group read. OR if not, maybe we could set up an Austen buddy read in the new year. I know I have a ton of books I want to get through first, too!

[Julie]

Julie wrote: "I aim to get my %-read on 'BBC Big Read Top-100' up to 60%. I'm currently at 53%, so that means I will need to read 7 books from that list."

At this time of year I can take a look at this personal challenge with satisfaction - I am currently at 62% read on this list, so I've surpassed my goal-

Now it's time for thinking up my personal challenge for 2015 - will there be a new thread for that, or should we just continue on in this thread?