I don't read enough of the classics. I am always lamenting the fact that I somehow managed to miss reading so many books that other readers were reading when they were 12 or 15 or even 21. And I keep telling myself that I really do need to read more books "that I should have read when I was younger". Granted I am picking them up here and there through my own occasional choices or online book clubs (the last two books that I finished were Scoop and The Island of Doctor Moreau--but more on them another day). I am still planning on reading books from the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list (I am run aground at the moment on Sophie's Choice--not because it isn't good--it is excellent...just very long). But I am always reading books that others choose or that are self-imposed (the ML list). Not books that just sound good right now to me. No more thinking I need to move it up the TBR pile (because that is just one constant shuffle and reshuffle of books)!
You see I have plenty to choose from. I have been collecting classics for some time now (some read, many as yet unread). So instead of always thinking that I should do this, I am simply going to start reading them. I already have certain "types" of books that I always have on the go (always a nonfiction, a mystery, a fiction title, for example...), so why not always a classic on the night stand as well. I keep looking at these piles and shelves thinking I really need to read Colette or Hardy or Steinbeck or Dickens or or or or... And there is no time like the present. The piles will likely just get worse, so I better start at them or quit buying them. And as a side note--Virginia Woolf still stays out on her own for the moment. I know she falls quite nicely in the classics category, but there are simply so many books by her, for the time being anyway, I want to try and read a few of them.
I have decided to start with Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Although there is not going to be any rhyme or reason to how I pick books (other than being in the mood for something), and I am not going to try and attempt some sort of chronological reading (or I will feel guilty for not going back to Aristotle or something), but this is "widely acknowledged as the first English novel" (does it seem to you that lots of books make some sort of claim like this? The first modern novel, the first novel....). Mostly I became interested when Dorothy mentioned it. And then it came up in Wilkie Collins' book The Moonstone. Betteredge the butler claimed over and over that all life's questions could be answered by this one book--Robinson Crusoe. Now must see for myself. Besides, it is nearly the end of summer, the book is set on a deserted island--perfect setting! I have just barely started it, but I may have questions. Why, for example, are certain words either italicized or begin with an upper case letter? Perhaps Dorothy can help with that one? Must do a little research on it. And I may have other questions--like when attempting to read Henry James--where do you start (I have a fear of certain authors--that I will read them and it will all go right over my head). But for now it is just Robinson Crusoe and me!