Sunday, December 12, 2021

Wrapping up my Back to the Classics Reading Challenge!


 
I did it! I actually managed to complete all twelve categories in Karen's Back to the Classics 2021 Reading Challenge. That's a first for me. I've come close two other times, but I always fell short at the end. Not this year! Here are the twelve categories for this year's challenge, and the twelve books I read to fill them:

1. A 19th Century Classic:  Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

2. A 20th Century Classic:  A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse

3. Classic by a Woman Author:  The Young Clementina by D.E. Stevenson

4. A Classic in Translation:  Au Bonheur des Dames by Emile Zola

5. A Classic by a BIPOC Author: The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon

6. Classic by a New-to-you Author:  Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey

7. New-to-you Classic by a Favorite Author: Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

8. Classic about an Animal, or with an Animal in the Title:  Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

9. A Children's Classic:  Queen Zixi of Ix by L. Frank Baum

10. A Humorous classic:  Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis

11. A Travel or Adventure Classic:  In Morocco by Edith Wharton


So there you have it. Twelve classics I doubt I would have read this year if not for this challenge. Thank you, Karen, for hosting it again! I read some very interesting books. I think my three favorite were The Housing Lark, A Damsel in Distress and Tarzan, although they were all pretty good. And I'm glad I read them. 

Happy Reading!
 

51 comments:

  1. Really well done, Lark! That's amazing. I'd like to try this one next year, just waiting for the sign-up post to appear. Will you do it again?

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    1. I'm seriously thinking about doing it again next year, although I'd probably only try for 6-9 categories, and not all 12. Doing all 12 categories this year was kind of hard.

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  2. Congratulations! That looks like a good variety of books.

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    1. Thanks, Helen! I tried to have fun with it this year.

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  3. wow! congratulations! i'm way too disorganized to accomplish something like that: a victim to my whims i am, yesss....

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    1. Whims are good when it comes to reading. I almost didn't finish this challenge this year because of my own changing bookish mood, but somehow I managed to stick it out.

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  4. Congratulations. That is quite an accomplishment. It's not something that I would ever do but I admire the stick-to-itiveness it took to do it.

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    1. This is the first time I've managed to finish all 12 categories in this challenge; I usually run out of oomph on these kinds of challenges about halfway through the year. :)

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  5. Congratulations! It was fun reading about them as you went along.

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    1. Thanks! They weren't all the books I meant to read at the beginning of 2021, but for the most part I liked all of the books I ended up reading.

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  6. Well done for sure! I like the idea of joining challenges but I'm not very good at sticking with them:(

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    1. I actually have a hard time sticking with them, too. I always start off really enthusiastically, but by June or July I'm usually over it and ready to move on to something else.

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  7. Congratulations Lark for completing all 12 categories in the challenge! You have read and posted about some wonderful books and you are so right. I too would never have read the many classics I have read in the past few years without the challenge.

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    1. That's why I like doing this challenge! I've done it three times now, and I think I might sign up for it again next year. (If Karen decides to do it again.)

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  8. Good job! I've never read any of these. In fact, I've only ever heard to two of them. LOL.

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    1. :D I hadn't heard of The Housing Lark or Miss Pym Disposes before this year either.

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  9. Congrats! 🏆 That's fantastic! This seems like a fun challenge. :)

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    1. It is a fun one! (Well, if you like reading classics.) :D

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    2. I'd like to shake up my reading habits a bit and read more classics!

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    3. There are certainly lots of good ones out there to choose from.

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  10. Ooh Tarzan! I'm an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan even though I like some of his stuff better than others.

    Congrats!

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    1. I've now read Princess of Mars and Tarzan by Burroughs and liked both books. I want to read more by him in the future.

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    2. The Gods of Mars and the third one are quite good and complete the initial trilogy

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    3. I need to read those. (And hey, my library has both of them!) Thanks for the rec. :D

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  11. Wow, you did really great on this challenge. Congrats!

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  12. That's great and congrats, Lark! :D

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  13. Congratulations on completing your challenge, Lark! I've only read Five Little Pigs on your list. I should look into the challenge for next year. :)

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    1. It's a fun one, and it does force you to read a little more widely, which I always like. :)

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  14. Congratulations, Lark! That's awesome! :D

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  15. Wow, well done, you. That took some extra special effort. OK, at the risk of sounding really stupid, you are going to have to tell me what a BIPOC author is. All the letters we use these days leave me in a near constant state of confusion.

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  16. Great job! I don't think I read a single classic all year, yikes what a year!

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    1. Some years are like that! I deliberately signed up for this challenge this year in order to make myself read a few classics. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have read any either.

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  17. Wow! Congratulations! That would be a hard challenge for me to complete.

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    1. I like reading the classics, so I've always liked this challenge....even though I've never actually managed to finish it before. :)

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  18. Congrats on finishing the challenge! Many interesting titles .... I can see Tarzan being the best, ha! Much adventure & wilderness there.

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    1. It was surprisingly fun. Only he doesn't get together with Jane until the next book!

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  19. Awesome! Well done. :D We both read Wodehouse, but for different categories. For me, this was the first time I'd read him and now I am hooked!

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    1. His books are easy to get hooked on, that's for sure! :D

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  20. That's so awesome, Lark! Congratulations!! I am thinking about reading a few classics next year but don't think that I am going to participate in a classics challenge.

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    1. I totally get that. Sometimes I can't face the commitment of a reading challenge either. What classics are you thinking about reading? Or are you still deciding?

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  21. Congratulations on completing the challenge! Well done. You have some interesting titles and some great authors in your lineup. I just finished my wrap up post today, though I finished my final book in November. That's the earliest I've ever finished.

    Hope to do this again in 2022.

    Happy reading and happy holidays!

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    1. I'm hoping to do this challenge again next year, too. If Karen decides to host it again. :)

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