Normally, I don't make New Year resolutions: Too often, they have the whiff of insincere penance--as, I have sinned against God's handiwork that is my body, and I will henceforth avoid donuts .... 2018 was different in that I had an idea for a new year's resolution that was both sincere and reasonable. I would read fiction older than 100 years from original publication, and at least a novel a month. Reading Plan 2018
![[quasimodo]](quasimodo.gif)
My reasoning was any novel that's 100+ and read must have enduring value. We often neglect the old classics once we leave college. Maybe the expansive, leisurely prose of novels from yore might be a challenge for a reader short on time. Still I have ample free time [no cable TV & no Facebook], so I plunged into my novel-a-month resolution.
To get off to a running, not stumbling, start, I avoided doorstoppers like War and Peace [1869], opting for Leo Tolstoy's novella-sized The Death of Ivan Ilyich [1869]. A quick, rewarding read, full of compelling psychological insight about the ultimate theme.
While at Goodwill, I also picked up another short one, Jack London's White Fang [1906], and the reward there was London showing the world from the point of view of a coming-in-from-the-wild wolf-dog.
Before January was out, I'd read two 100+ novels, and both far better than some of the predictable, gimcrack novels of recent vintage I've suffered.
Next, I used the library for an interlibrary loan of Alphonse Daudet's Sappho [1886 in translation], an exploration of "all for love."
Then I recalled [as I posted before] 100+ books are exactly what gutenberg.org is about. Out came my Kobo e-reader and my ticket was punched for completing the Reading Plan 2018.
I followed Daudet with another French novelist: Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris [1831]. Wow! Has any writer ever created an arresting character in the space of half a page like Quasimodo?! A tragic romance that has it all.
Next up was a frequent download at gutenberg.org: Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White [1859]. This is a novel with so many twists and turns, it has the narrative drive of a Victorian steam locomotive. Rightly called an archetype of the mystery/detective genre.
My sixth novel, which I now read is the irresistible Moby Dick [1851] by Herman Melville. This is my third reading of the American masterwork, which was finally elevated in the 1910s to canonical American Lit.
So my Reading Plan 2018 proceeds apace, and keeping this new year's resolution seems almost an indulgence [like donuts!].
Image credits: swanseaandbrecon.churchinwales.org.uk
Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection [and feel free to share with a friend] The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:
.mobi (Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)
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