Inspired by a conversation among brilliant educators I follow on BlueSky, I decided to use a “chapter a day” strategy to read books that are long, challenging, or intimidating to me. I went through my bookshelves and selected books and authors that I want to read, but haven’t for the above reasons.
Here are my current choices (in no particular order).
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: My only experience reading Dickens was the abridged version of Great Expectations in my 8th grade literature book. A friend loves teaching this, so I’ll give it a try.
- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner: Aside from some short stories, I’ve never read Faulkner. I have friends who love Faulkner, so I feel compelled to finally read one of his novels.
- The Odyssey by Homer and Ulysses by James Joyce: When I was in college, The Modern Library published its list of 100 Best Novels, and Ulysses was number one. My fellow English majors were trying to figure out why, since we knew no one who had read it. The list generated so much discussion. My plan is to read The Odyssey first and then attempt Ulysses. I’m going to time this so it happens over the summer.
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez: My favorite professor was always telling me to read this. I tried but it was too complex, and I decided that my junior year of college, when I was overloaded with English courses, was not the right time. I’ve been meaning to come back to it.
- Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre: I’ve read Existentialism Is a Humanism, and for some reason, I feel the need to tackle this beast. There’s more behind my reason, but I’ll save it for a later post.
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: I love Steinbeck, but I haven’t read this because it’s very long.
These books have a total of 253 chapters, so I’ll need to add more. I’m not worried about having exactly 365 chapters since I’m sure there will be days where I just don’t have time to read.
I started with One Hundred Years of Solitude, and I’ve found that the most difficult part of this is limiting myself to one chapter a day. I see why my professor kept telling me to read it.
I’ll be posting occasional updates on my progress and my thoughts on each book as I finish.