Back to the Classics 2015

I had a great time participating in the Back to the Classics challenge in 2014 hosted by Karen at Books and Chocolate.  It was a great way to knock a lot of books off my TBR list.  I also love the sens of community it brings and getting to read the reviews of other bloggers.  I'm signing up for the 2015 challenge, though I will not be reading book from every category like last year.  My goal is to read nine classics (published before 1965), and below are the books I have selected:

20th Century Classic - A Passage to India by E. M. Forster (1924)
19th Century Classic - Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (1876)
Classic by a Woman Author - The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963)
Classic in Translation - Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (1957)
A Very Long Classic Novel - Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (800+ pages, 1839)
Classic Novella - My Antonia by Willa Cather (230 pages, 1918)
Classic with a Person's Name in the Title - Therese Raquin by Emile Zola (1867)
Classic Nonfiction - A Moveable Feast by Earnest Hemingway (1964)
Classic Children's Book - At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald (1871)

If you are interested in taking part in this challenge, head on over to Books and Chocolate to sign up.  It's a great way to add some classics to your diet!

2014 Shakespeare Reading Challenge

This year marks the 450th birthday of William Shakespeare.  To celebrate, I had already planned on reading his plays as my summer challenge, and the 2014 Shakespeare Reading Challenge hosted by Caffinatedlife.net fit in perfectly with my plans.  I'm going for the "Frequent Theater-Goer" level by reading 9 plays over the summer.  Here are the ones I have chosen:

Comedies

• Much Ado About Nothing
• The Tempest
• Twelfth Night

Histories

• Henry IV, Part 1
• Henry IV, Part 2
• Richard III

Tragedies

• Hamlet
• Macbeth
• Anthony & Cleopatra

Looking forward into delving into the works of the Bard!  You can join this challenge at anytime during 2014.  If you are signed up for any other challenges, share with us below! 

Back to the Classics 2014

Though I've watched many other book bloggers take part in various reading challenges, I've never stepped up to the plate and participated in one myself.  But this year, I decided I'd try something new.  I found a couple of challenges that would not only line up with my own plans for the year, but would also help my knock quite a few items off my "to read" list.  The first is the Back to the Classics Challenge hosted by Books and Chocolate.  Since I read so many classics, I figured that I should be able to read the 6 required categories and at least a few of the optional.  Here's what I have decided on:

Required

• 20th Century Classic - Joy in the Morning by P. G. Wodehouse (1946)
• 19th Century Classic - Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1891)
• A Classic by a Woman Author - Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell (1848)
• A Classic in Translation - Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin (Russian 1837)
• A Classic About War -Night by Elie Wiesel (1960)
• A Classic by an Author Who is New to Me - The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (1910)

Optional

• American Classic - Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
• A Classic Mystery, Suspense, or Thriller - And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1939)
•  Historical Fiction Classic - Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott (Set in 1715, published in 1817)
• A Classic That's Been Adapted Into a Movie or TV Series - The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (1922)
• Movie Review of Film Based on Book in Category #4 - Enchanted April (1992)

If you are interested in joining this challenge, be sure to sign up by March 1.  Let us know what challenges you will be participating in this year!