The Classics Club

Hello!

So for quite a while now I thought about joining The Classics Club and this year I have decided to join up. I have chosen 50 books all published before 1900 and plan to complete the list in five years, so my deadline is 11th January 2027. I used to read a lot of classics so it will be good to get reading them again and tick off quite a few books on my TBR pile.

The list has mostly new reads for me but there are a few favourites on the list and ones that I can’t quite remember all the storyline of and would like to read again.

All books that I read and review will be linked back to this list.

In no particular order, here is the list…

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen – Goodreads Monday
~~The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas~~ – Goodreads Monday
~~Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens~~ – Goodreads Monday
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky – Goodreads Monday
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot – Goodreads Monday
~~Silas Marner by George Eliot~~ – Goodreads Monday
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell – Goodreads Monday
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding – Goodreads Monday
Clarissa by Samuel Richardson – Goodreads Monday
~~Villette by Charlotte Brontë~~ – Goodreads Monday
The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas – Goodreads Monday
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë – Goodreads Monday
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy – Goodreads Monday
The Red Sphinx by Alexandre Dumas – Goodreads Monday
The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas
Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas
Louise de La Valliere by Alexandre Dumas
~~Lady Susan and other works by Jane Austen~~ – Goodreads Monday
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray – Goodreads Monday
~~Evelina by Frances Burney~~ – Goodreads Monday
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins – Goodreads Monday
Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott – Goodreads Monday
~~Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen~~
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe – Goodreads Monday
Love in Excess by Eliza Haywood – Goodreads Monday
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift – Goodreads Monday
Candide by Voltaire – Goodreads Monday
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
~~Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot~~ – Goodreads Monday
~~The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne~~ – Goodreads Monday
Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore – Goodreads Monday
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope – Goodreads Monday
~~The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins~~ – Goodreads Monday
The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart – Goodreads Monday
Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Middlemarch by George Eliot – Goodreads Monday
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius – Goodreads Monday
Moby Dick by Herman Melville – Goodreads Monday
~~Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy~~
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens – Goodreads Monday
Cecilia by Frances Burney – Goodreads Monday
~~Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan~~ – Goodreads Monday
~~Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe~~ – Goodreads Monday
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome – Goodreads Monday
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith – Goodreads Monday
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne – Goodreads Monday
~~Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte~~
Persuasion by Jane Austen

Wish me luck!

Happy Reading

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Reading My Height in Books #12

Hello!

It is time for my final update of my 2021 challenge. I had to change location of the book stack because I could no longer keep it upright without it leaning on against a wall.

Sadly, I failed the challenge. The final stack came to 64 inches and it needed to be 67 inches. I was so close but I just came short.

Here is the year in full.

Maybe, I will try the challenge again another year.

Happy Reading

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The Weekly Brief

Hello!

It is time for the first Weekly Brief of the year.

Not much has happened on the blog so far this year because I have taken a bit of a rest from blogging.

Posts this Week

Currently Reading

I ordered Village Christmas by Laurie Lee in November and it turned up a couple of days ago but being as it isn’t all about Christmas I decided to read it and so far I am loving it and finding it very funny.

Happy Reading

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December 2021 Wrap Up

Hello!

I am playing catch up on the blog at the moment, as over Christmas and New Year I took a little bit of break. So here is my last wrap up from 2021.

Statistics

Books

Pages: 374

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲

Review

Pages: 288

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

Review

Pages: 64

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲

Pages: 416

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

Review

Pages: 18

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

Pages: 172

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

Review to follow

Pages: 144

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

Review to follow

Pages: 140

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲

Review to follow

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

Pages: 74

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

Goodreads Challenge: 71/70

Happy Reading

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: A. A. Milne

Hello!

I hope everyone is coping well with the first week back at work after New Year. I have come down with a nasty cold so I must admit I have been resting and reading to hopefully get over it quickly.

My chosen poem today is by A. A. Milne.

Explained

Elizabeth Ann
Said to her Nan:
'Please will you tell me how God began?
Somebody must have made Him. So 
Who could it be, cos I want to know?'
And Nurse said, 'Well!'
And Ann said, 'Well?
I know you know, and I wish you'd tell.'
And Nurse took pins from her mouth, and said,
'Now then, darling, it's time for bed.'

Elizabeth Ann
Had a wonderful plan:
She would run round the world till she found a man
Who knew exactly how God began.

She got up early, she dressed, and ran
Trying to find an Important Man.
She ran to London and knocked at the door
Of the Lord High Doodelum's coach-and-four.
'Please, sir (if there's anyone in),
However-and-ever did God begin?'

The Lord High Doodelum lay in bed
But out of the window, large and red,
Came the Lord High Coachman's face instead. 
And the Lord High Coachman laughed and said:
'Well, what put that in your quaint little head?'

Elizabeth Ann went home again
And took from the ottoman Jennifer Jane.
'Jenniferjane,' said Elizabeth Ann,
'Tell me at once how God began.'
And Jane, who didn't much care for speaking,
Replied in her usual way by squeaking.

What did it mean? Well, to be quite candid,
I don't know, but Elizabeth Ann did.
Elizabeth Ann said softly, 'Oh!
Thank you Jennifer. Now I know.'

A. A. Milne

Happy Reading

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My 2021 in Books

Hello and happy New Year!

Apologies for being a bit quiet recently, I must admit I have been enjoying a break from everything over the festive period but now I am back to normal and looking forward to a good year of reading and blogging.

So here is my year in books!

I am pleased I made my Goodreads Challenge again this year.

Here are all the books I read

I think I read a few different genres in 2021 and I did try to leave my comfort zone at times as well. One thing I did learn was that I really miss reading classics so I think 2022 will involve me reading a few more classics.

Happy Reading

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

WWW Wednesday: 29/12/2021

WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.

The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next?

Hello!

I remembered what day it is! The days between Christmas and New Year are always a little hazy to work out but today I realised it was Wednesday so I thought I would do a WWW Wednesday.

What I am Currently Reading

I just started this last night and I am really enjoying the illustrations. I do love reading Harry Potter books so this is a nice book to finish the year with.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

I haven’t done much reading over the Christmas period so this is the only book I have finished.

What I Think I will Read Next

I have so many books that I want to read in 2022 and I have a lot of book series I want to start and finish. My biggest problem is trying to work out what to read and when.

Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.

Happy Reading

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 27/12/2021

Goodreads Monday is hosted by Lauren’s Page Turners. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and got some nice new books as presents. My chosen book today has been on my TBR for ages but until yesterday I did not own it. Now I own the whole series because I had the set for Christmas.

For more than a hundred years humans, dwarves, gnomes and elves lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over and now the races once again fight each other – and themselves: Dwarves are killing their kinsmen, and elves are murdering humans and elves, at least those elves who are friendly to humans… Into this tumultuous time is born a child for whom the witchers of the world have been waiting.

Ciri, the granddaughter of Queen Calanthe, the Lioness of Cintra, has strange powers and a stranger destiny, for prophecy names her the Flame, one with the power to change the world – for good, or for evil… Geralt, the witcher of Rivia, has taken Ciri to the relative safety of the Witchers’ Settlement, but it soon becomes clear that Ciri isn’t like the other witchers. As the political situation grows ever dimmer and the threat of war hangs almost palpably over the land, Geralt searches for someone to train Ciri’s unique powers.

But someone else has an eye on the young girl, someone who understand exactly what the prophecy means – and exactly what Ciri’s power can do. This time Geralt may have met his match.

I can’t wait to start the series and it will most likely be one that I start in the new year.

Please drop me a comment if you have taken part in Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.

Happy Reading

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Happy Christmas 2021!

Happy Christmas!

This is just a little post wishing all my fellow bloggers a wonderful Christmas.

I hope everyone has a lovely day and I hope you get to spend it with friends and family.

Lyra wishes everyone an extra special Happy Christmas from her favourite spot from under the tree.

Happy Christmas and Happy Reading

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Timothy Tocher

Happy Christmas Eve!

I hope everyone is ready for Christmas and Father Christmas visiting.

When I saw this poem I thought it was perfect for Christmas Eve so I have been saving it just for today.

The poem is by author and poet Timothy Tocher.

Help Wanted

Santa needs new reindeer.
The first bunch has grown old. 
Dasher has arthritis;
Comet hates the cold. 
Prancer's sick of staring
at Dancer's big behind. 
Cupid married Blitzen
and Donder lost his mind.
Dancer's mad at Vixen
for stepping on his toes.
Vixen's being thrown out - 
she laughed at Rudolph's nose.
If you are a reindeer
we hope you will apply.
There is just one tricky part:
You must know how to fly.

Timothy Tocher

Happy Reading

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