In January, I wrote a blog that has affectionately been tagged Aimee Reads the Classics, laying out my plans to read a classic novel a month this year. Well, I’m here to update you and say that so far, so good! I have managed to finish my classics within my time constraints, and in the case of this month, finish early and start on next month’s pick. I’ve actually been really enjoying the books I’ve read. My guess is that since there are no teachers breathing down my neck ready to ask the significance of so-and-so’s eye color, I have felt more relaxed about reading.
In January, I started with We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. I wanted to ease myself into reading classics, so I chose one that was put out more recently so the language wouldn’t trip me up. While I enjoyed reading it, I felt like it was a bit predictable. But I liked how it ended, and I still think it was the perfect way to kick off 2018. I read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen in February. I knew I was going to like it because I already love Jane Austen. I had only seen movie versions but surprisingly, I had never read the book. It’s surprising because I consider Catherine Morland to be the Austen heroine that I’m most similar to. While I love Austen’s works, I did get a little bored. If you read my reading rut blog post, you know that I had a couple of weeks in February where I wanted to do anything but read.
So far, though, my favorite classic I’ve read is my March pick: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. I hadn’t seen the movies yet, so everything was brand new to me when I read it. I loved all the scrapes the dwarves got into that Bilbo Baggins had to get them out of. Tolkien’s straightforward way of writing made it easy to just want to sit down and read. The Hobbit is one of those books that reminds you of why you love to read.
I have already finished my April pick. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is probably going to end up being my easiest read this year–not because it’s an easy book, but because it only took about an hour to read start to finish. Hemingway’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book surprised me because I was initially a bit bored with it, but about halfway through something clicked and I suddenly couldn’t wait to find out the fate of the old man and his fish. Since I finished it so quickly in April, I decided to go ahead and start my May classic since I have a feeling it’s going to take me a little longer to read. I’m only about ten pages into Middlemarch by George Eliot, but I already know I’m going to have to start over because I didn’t pay any attention to what I was reading.
So far, I’ve been enjoying this ride into the classics. I’ve already impressed myself by sticking to my monthly deadlines, something I’ve never been able to do (That’s the 4 in me; it’s an enneagram thing). I’ll come back in a few months with another update!
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