Last year it was War and Peace, Don Quixote and Kristin Lavransdatter. The year before that it was The Woman in White and Middlemarch. The year before that The Count of Monte Cristo. I seem to be making it a habit to pick one (or more) big books to read each year. They've always been classics--something a little challenging or famous for its place in literature. I'm just not quite sure what to follow those books up with this year.
Susan is going to tackle Ulysses by James Joyce. As I've not even read Joyce yet (he's one of the few authors I am in fear of), I better not start with his most difficult (or next to most difficult) work. I could attempt to read all of Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Dorothy managed it last year. Kate may work her way through Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, which is 12 novels/movements in four volumes and sounds like a tempting story.
I am indecision all over the place right now (can't even choose a library book to read). I am going to read Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina for sure. It's considered by some to be the greatest novel ever (there seem to be a few of those greatest novels ever out there), and it is certainly going to be a chunky, challenging read. But I'd like to have something else to look forward to as well. Maybe something to read in a group? A few ideas I've been tossing about:
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo - I'm leaning heavily towards this as I think I would find it very enjoyable.
Dante's The Divine Comedy - I read The Inferno in high school. I really should read the whole work.
Homer's The Iliad and the Odyssey - Read them in high school, don't remember a thing. And I probably skimmed, too...I have a lovely boxed set of the books.
The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Sikibu - The first novel? I read a fictionalized story of Murasaki's life and have been intrigued by her ever since.
Moby Dick, Herman Melville - I should have read this already. I think I might actually like it--it is a seafaring tale after all.
Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy - I'm sure I'd enjoy this, but the book is so long I have not really seriously contemplated reading it (thus a project like this would be perfect).
The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann - Another book I've had so long the pages have turned yellow in my copy.
An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser - I started this years ago, but put it down. The story was good, but I think I got distracted, and it is a long book (which only appears to be in mass market format, which I am not too fond of).
Clarissa, Samuel Richardson - Stefanie has been working on this mammoth tale.
Maybe it is too early to be thinking about this, but I can't help myself when others are planning nice, long reads. Any suggestions? Anyone interested in reading something challenging, or long (or both) in a group?