26 Books Challenge

If you know me at all, you know I love books.  I love books as much as Jane Austen loves happy endings, as much as the Brontes love the Yorkshire moors, as much as Mark Twain loves making fun of politics and politicians.  I have a reputation at work for finding new books every other week or more.  Yes, I may need to seek professional help. :)



In any case, when I saw this 26 Books Challenge from Bringing Up Burns (my thanks to Erin Burns), I immediately decided that I wanted to try it.  Never mind the fact that it's her 2015 edition and that a list intended to be started in January is being started in October instead.  (By the way, Erin Burns has a 2016 list that you can find here - maybe I'll try that one next).  I fully intend to keep an eye out to see if she posts a 2017 list.

The idea behind the original list is to finish a book on average every other week.  I plan on getting through this list pretty much as quickly as I can, fully anticipating getting bogged down in a few of these books.  Once I finish a book, I'll post a review of it here.

I purposely tried to choose books and authors I haven't read before.  Hence, as much as I love Jane Austen and would recommend her to anyone, I only have her Juvenilia on this list.  I have only read maybe three or four of these books (either in part or the whole), and about the same as far as authors.  I am not reading them in any particular order; I would hate to not read a lot of these books just because I have trouble getting through one of them (*cough* Wuthering Heights *cough*).

So... drumroll please... Here's my list!

• Read a book you own but haven’t read
• Last of the Mohicans – James Fenimore Cooper
• Read a book that was made into a movie
• The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
• Read a book you pick solely because of the cover
• Onward – Russell Moore
• Read a book your friend loves
• Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
• Read a book published this year
• Unashamed – Lecrae
• Read a book by an author you’ve never read before
• The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
• Read a book by an author you love
• The Great Divorce – C.S. Lewis
• Read a book at the bottom of your “to read” pile
• Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
• Read a book with a color in the title
• The Call of the Wild/White Fang – Jack London
• Read a book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit
• The Wheel on the School – Meindert de Jong
• Read a book you started but never finished
• Juvenilia – Jane Austen
• Read a book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe
• The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane – Katherine Howe
• Read a book with a female heroine
• Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
• Read a book set in the summer
• The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
• Read a book of poems
• Olney Hymns – William Cowper
• Read a book you learned about from this challenge
• The Secret Keeper – Kate Morton
• Read a book that will make you smarter
• Breakthrough – Thea Cooper & Arthur Ainsberg
• Read a book with a blue cover
• Love Does – Bob Goff
• Read a book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t
• The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Read a book “everyone” but you has read
• Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank
• Read a book with a great first line
• The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
• Read a book with pictures
• The Hundred Dresses – Eleanor Estes
• Read a book from the library
• All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
• Read a book you loved… read it again!
• One More Wish – Robin Jones Gunn
• Read a book that is more than 10 years old
• Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
• Read a book based on a true story
• Monuments Men – Robert M. Edsel

Stay tuned!