…. and I came down with a large carrier bag.
You may recall that a few weeks ago I was reorganising shelves and boxes of books, and bringing my LibraryThing records up to date. I should have known that as soon as I had everything straight books that I had put away in the attic would call. Loudly.
And so I went up with a bag, and I came down with this:
All of the Penguin Classics I could carry!
Next year I plan to read more classics and less crime. And maybe to knit a little less and read a little more.
Of course I won’t read all of the books I brought down next year, but I want to have them around again.
(I hate having to keep books in the attic, but there is no alternative while I am living with and caring for my mother in her home.)
It all started when I read the Review section of the Saturday Telegraph a week or two ago. There was an article about One Day by David Nicholls, pointing up all of the references to Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Suddenly I was interested in a book that hadn’t called me at all.
But then another thought struck. Wouldn’t it be better to re-read Tess?!
And then other classics began to call. It was time to go up into the attic.
Tess came down, and so did all of the other works by Thomas Hardy I own.
Middlemarch, and all of George Eliot’s other novels came down, because I really should like to read again, over an extended period, with Team Middlemarch.
Jane Austen’s novels came down, to celebrate Advent With Austen.
Les Miserables came down, because I have wanted to read this book for so long and Kate’s Library is hosting a readalong that will help me to work my way through slowly over the course of next year.
With all of those books coming down I really couldn’t leave Wilkie Collins or the three Bronte sisters behind.
It was fortunate that those works I own by Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell, plus my copy of Vanity Fair, were downstairs already, as my bag wouldn’t have held any more books.
I’ve also moved my Elizabeth Taylor collection to the front of the Virago bookcase, ready to read with the LibraryThing Virago Modern Classics Group.
My Virago copy of The Odd Women by George Gissing, that Darlene recommended so warmly is also to hand.
So I’m not going to run out of classics to read, and re-read, any time soon …..
Fleur in her World 
Oh how exciting to find all those classics! I have specific classic shelves at home and I had been thinking recently that I should read more classics again too (I have also had a massive crime fest this year, but way more than you I think, and I want to get back to them.)
Happy reading 🙂
There’s a lot of great crime writing about so I’m not going to give it up, but I have to be a bit more selective next year so it doesn’t crowd out other books.
I’ve always thought of you as a classics reader rather than a crime reader, as we first crossed paths in the GoodReads Victorians group.
Ooh, an attic filled with books! How lucky you are. I’m delighted you’ll be taking part in the Elizabeth Taylor celebration too.
Not a whole attic sadly, but a dozen storage boxes. The contents are detailed in a notebook, and when the mood strikes they’ll be tagged on LibraryThing.
I’m looking forward to reading Elizabeth Taylor. I read a lot of her books when I was a student, and I liked them then but I think I may appreciate them more now I’m a little older.
What a marvellous bag of reading! Wandering around the blogs in the Classics Challenge I’ve added so many titles to the TBR and have a feeling 2012 is going to be a back to classics year for me too.
Fabulous stuff. The Odd Women is the one I would like to get hold of myself.
In storage boxes they may be…. still jealous you have so many books!
I have lots of classics on my list for 2012, too. Good luck!
It looks like you have a wonderful year of reading ahead of you!
All those lovely Penguins – I had immediate book envy.
I am extremely jealous of that bag… I have a lot of classics but they’re all higgledepiggldy in my bookcase. To see a bag full of Penguins like that. It is so tempting to dive in isn’t it?
Classics are on my 2012 plan as well… I am concentrating on the authors I haven’t read before.
What a treasure trove you had up there! They look divine! I don’t blame you for wanting to read more classics; they always call to me, too.
I’m so glad that you’ve signed up for the Venice in February Challenge. We’ll have great fun reading (classics set there? Like The Wings of A Dove?) together.