happy new year!

I do realise that it's a bit late to be wishing people a happy new year, but I've been away out of reach of internet for the past couple of weeks, enjoying views like this one:

Looking out over the lake while eating fish and chips

And this one:
South Coast beaches are beautiful, this is near Tilba
And generally enjoying the beach. I hope everyone had some good holidays as well!

Now it's time to face the fact that a new year has started, head back to work and talk about plans for the year. Specifically, reading plans. On my holiday I did manage to read my 1990s book, so I will soon be able to post about that and finish off my 2012 reading challenge (belatedly). For this year, I want to do something a little bit inspired by the Century of Books challenge and read books published before the 20th Century. Mainly because I have quite a few sitting on my shelves that I can't bring myself to start, and I need a little motivation, and also because I sometimes miss studying history and Old English and want to read some Medieval or older things. I'm being a bit flexible with this, because I'm not sure how long it will take me and I want to leave room to read other things, so my current plan is to read at least one book from each of the following time periods over the next two years (please note the time periods are really rough, they're not necessarily exact fits with the dates, but I thought it would be more fun this way):

Archaic - pre-500 BC
Ancient - 500 BC to 400 AD
Late Antiquity/ Early Medieval - 400 to 1000 AD
Late Medieval - 1000 to 1450 AD
Renaissance - 1450 to 1600 AD
Enlightenment - 1600 to 1800 AD
Nineteenth Century - 1800 to 1900 AD

I want to call it 'A Journey through time and space'. If the challenge is too easy I will read more books from these time periods, or add new ones (e.g. the Edo Period, the Mughal Empire)! I'm interested in adding some periods/places that are less based in the Western Canon, but I'm less familiar with them (and don't have as much sitting on my shelves, waiting to be read), so if you have any suggestions or areas of interest, please let me know.

Also late last year I started up a book group, so I'll be reading for that this year as well. The first book we read was The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, and next I have to read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. The group seems to have pretty diverse reading habits, so it looks like we'll be reading some interesting books.

Apart from that, who knows?

Comments

  1. I find the best thing about Book Groups is that the diverse reading habits of those involved means I read works I would never otherwise have thought of selecting. Oh, and with nine inches of snow forecast for Friday and more on Saturday and Sunday, I am seriously jealous of those beaches:)

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    Replies
    1. I am looking forward to reading books I wouldn't otherwise have read, if with some trepidation! Though it should make for interesting discussion as well. And the beaches were wonderful, although when the weather hits almost 40 degrees (celcius) tomorrow I think I will be envying the snow!

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