This, ladies and gentlemen, is my very first post of 2018.
(Also, guess who procrastinated on writing this post to the last minute? What? Not me, I’m insulted that you would even think so).
Can you believe it? This year has sprung upon us and it’s shaping up to be monumentally crazy. There are a few highlights coming up though:
-One year Anniversary of An Ordinary Pen in May.
-The release of Nadine Brandes’ new book Fawkes!
-The release of Paperfury’s debut, A Thousand Perfect Notes!
-My eighteenth birthday.
-The sequel to Stars Fill Infinity
-A standalone novel featuring some of the characters from my The Blade of the Dragon duology.
-A lot of reading
So there’s a lot of things to look forward too. Plus some amazing posts on this blog.
And I’ve set myself an impossible challenge too. Because I’m an overachiever and all that. I’ve been wanting to read more classics, so last year, I asked for some suggestion from some online friends. I got a lot of suggestions, and then added a few books that I wanted to read for myself.
I now have a list of fifty classic novels which everyone needs to read. And I’m going to attempt to read as many as I can in 2018. I present to you:
The Great Classic Quest of 2018
*cue fanfare and trumpets*
So, that’s what I’m going to be doing. To read fifty books in a year, you need to read four a month (plus two extra. I’ll squeeze those in somewhere), so at the end of each month, in my wrap up post, I’ll show you what four classics I read, and what four I aim to read next month. If you want to follow along, please do! There are no rules. If you are interested in reading some classics, but can’t do fifty, try just doing one a month! It’s up to you, but I’d love to hear about your current reads.
Classics for January 2018
-A Tale of Two Cities—Charles Dickens (almost finished!)
-The Phantom of the Opera—Gaston Leroux
-A Christmas Carol—Charles Dickens
-The Three Musketeers—Alexandre Dumas
And so concludes today’s very scattered post (I mean, its a whole new year and my thoughts are all over the place, I promise the next post will be better!). What do you think of my mad plan? Have you read any of these four books? Do you want to?
an ordinary pen 
I read classics every year. Last year, I read Hunchback of Notre Dame, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol. 2016 I read Don Quixote and Great Expectations. 2015, I read the unabridged of Les Mis. 2014, I believe thats when I read Tale of Two Cities.This year, my classic challenge belong to Nicholas Nickleby and David Copperfield. My classic challenge is difficult: since I have been in school, I only have time to read classics during summer and Christmas so I attempt to finish them in a limited amount of time, but it gives me the motivation to never give up
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Looks like you’ve got a busy and exciting 2018 ahead of you! So many exciting things happening! Your goal of reading 50 classics is awesome! The ones that you have selected for this month are all great ones! I might try to reread a few of them this month since it’s been a while since I’ve read some of those! Happy 2018!
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I applaud you on your ambitious plan! I have read A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol, but not the other two. I have been wanting to read The Three Musketeers. It has been sitting on my shelf for over a year. Maybe this will be the year that I finally pick it up!
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I absolutely LOVE A Tale of Two Cities and The Three Musketeers! It’s been a long time since I’ve read Musketeers but it made me cry and I remember loving it. I need to reread it! I’m actually rereading A Tale of Two Cities right now (and my mom is reading it, and I’m trying to get one of my friends to read it…this is really funny I feel like everyone’s reading it at the same time).
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I APPROVE OF YOUR CHOICE OF THE THREE MUSKETEERS. I love that book a heap. xD Also, if you can, I totally recommend finding the movie and watching it because it’s hilarious and really epic.
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Nicholas Nickleby and David Copperfield aren’t on my classics list for this year (I don’t think) but they both sound good, and I really like Charles Dickens, so I’ll definitely get around to reading them one day! I hope you enjoy them!
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Thanks! I’ve finished A Tale of Two Cities and I REALLY liked it, and I’m currently about halfway through The Phantom of the Opera. Thanks for commenting!
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Thank you! Ah we can read it together!
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I just finished it yesterday and it was REALLY good. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I’ve been listening to the musical version of it as well, which is quite enjoyable, even though no one seems to have heard about it.
It’s definitely good enough to warrant a reread, or two or three 😀 Thanks for commenting!
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I’m looking forward to reading it now!!! I’ll definitely keep an eye out for it, but I won’t watch it till I’ve finished the book. Must always read the book first. 😛
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I haven’t read any of these classics! (unless… I kind of read Three Musketeers once? but I was smol and had no idea what was going on.) (also it’s not really a smol person’s book…) I think I should try aiming for more classics this year – maybe Phantom of the Opera, which I’ve heard a lot about! (buuut I’ve heard much more about the musical 😉
– Jem Jones
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Fair enough! Maybe you could try it again?
I just finished The Phantom of the Opera! It was certainly a very odd little book, but what surprised me most about it was the way it was written kind of like a Sherlock Holmes story. I was expecting it to be more like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but it was more comedic. And definitely strange, but I ended up enjoying it quite a lot (even though the characters all drove me up the wall).
Thanks for commenting!
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WAIT there’s a musical? Of A Tale of Two Cities? How did I not know about this sooner????
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Yes, there is!! It doesn’t seem to have been a massive hit, but I like it a lot. The music especially is very cool 😀
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