I nearly passed by the Tea & Books Reading Challenge.

Because I am not a lover of the traditional English cup of tea. Horrible stuff.

But when the weather turns cold I do turn to fruit teas. Those I understand.

And I do like books.

I used to read a lot of big books. LibraryThing can sequence books by page length, and so I can report that the longest book I have read is Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy at 1504 pages.

But that was a long time ago. Recently I’ve been picking up big books, and even though I’ve wanted to read on I’ve drifted away from them.

I think it’s because for nearly five years I walked past the library, during opening hours, on my way home from work. It was so easy to pop in almost every day just in case there was something new. Which was wonderful, but it meant that I almost always had a book due back that had to be read before the big book.

Now library hours have changed and I don’t have that job any more. I look in a couple of times a week, and that has allowed me to have a little more balance.

And so I’m signing up for the Tea & Books Reading Challenge, just to make sure.

Books of more than 700 pages …

Four books for the Berry Tea Devotee level.

They may change, but the books I have in mind are:

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser (1248 pages)
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1232 pages)
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery (800 pages)
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (720 pages)

A long Dickens is a possibility too, but I haven’t decided which one yet.

And, while I’m here, I’ll confess to those books sitting about unfinished and aim to finish at least some of them this year:

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (translated by Robin Buss)  (1312 pages)
Kristin Lavransdattir by Sigrid Undset (translated by Tiina Nunnally) (1168 pages)
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (translated by E G Seidensticker) (1120 pages)
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (1024 pages)

This may be madness, or it may be the best reading plan I ever made.

Time will tell…