Classics I Want to Read by the End of 2023

one of the best lattes I've ever had made with macadamia nut milk

{This is an update to a post I made back in the fall of 2022}

I don't wait until January to make any of my goals- reading, life or otherwise.

I have been playing around in my physical book journal with titles and authors that I love and have wanted to read more of. Now I've landed on a dozen or so novels that I feel I MUST get to within the next year of my life.

While reading Proust, I am reminded of how powerful it is to remember one's life. For me, this means to sort out my reading life. I remember my life by what literature I was reading at specific times on my journey.

My life is rife with stressful circumstances- I am a full-time caregiver this year for a loved one battling cancer, as well as a mom to a child with special needs. "Escaping" into literature is a must for my mental health. 

I see "escape" as a deep diving into great works. 

I am on a mission to read less, but more deeply. This is helped by my being very selective in which BookTube channels I watch, avoiding Bookstagram (not sure if I'll ever go back), and reading quality bookish blogs that help to inspire my love of literature.

updated december 3. 23

Classics left to read in 2023 

1. Another Country by. James Baldwin - currently reading December 2023
2. Notes from the Underground by Dostoevsky - currently reading December 2023

Classics I've read so far in 2023

1. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope ✔️ 
2. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky ✔️
3. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert ✔️
4. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell ✔️
5. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol ✔️
6. A Room With a View by E.M. Forster ✔️
7. Persuasion by Jane Austen ✔️
8. East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood ✔️
9. Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov ✔️
10. Mistress and Maid by Dinah Mullock Craik ✔️
11. First Love by IvanTurgenev ✔️

Classics I'm moving to 2024 and beyond

1. Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon 
2. Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau 
3. The Story of Ivy by Marie Belloc Lowndes

Every year I reread in part or total

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ✔️ 
2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy ✔️ 
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë ✔️ 

My reading year will be peppered with

1. Short Stories by Anton Chekhov ✔️
2. Plays performed via full cast audio of Shakespeare ✔️
3. BBC audio dramas on works by Gaskell, Austen, Hardy and Tolstoy ✔️

This is a seriously intense yearly reading list. It is intense. It is seriously exciting.

I have a new book journal in one of my favorite shades of red, and I am excited to start documenting my experiences with these great novels there and here on this blog. 

When I glance over these titles, I get so extremely excited. I am dedicated to avoid reading novels that don't nourish me. I will not waste my time on any literature that doesn't feed my soul.

Have you planned out any great novels to read in the next few or the next 12 months? Do you plan books this far in advance?

I'm off to polish my kindle collection of my next 12 months of great reading. 

Happy reading my slow living friends.