View of Ornans and Its Church Steeple (1858) Gustave Courbet ~ source Wikiart
2021 is almost upon us and already I have a couple of challenges planned, a read-along and a few buddy reads. I first saw on Fanda’s blog her posted reading schedule and thought, “what a great idea.” Then when Ruth asked if I write out my TBR for the year I wondered if someone “up there” was trying to tell me something. So even though lists are not my favourite things, a list it is. To keep me on track, of course!
My main goals that will stretch for the year are:
- Nick at One Catholic Life’s 2021 Chapter-A-Day Read-Along
- 2021 Back to the Classics Challenge
- 2021 Deal-Me-In Challenge (to be announced)
- 2021 My own personal Fairy Tale Challenge
Of course, then there are some other buddy reads, etc. The first six months of the year look like this:
First Snow (1875) Ivan Shishkin
~ source Wikiart
January
- Tevye the Dairyman and Motl the Cantor’s Son – Sholem Aichenem (Classics Club Spin read with Cirtnecce. And Back to the Classics Challenge)
- Works and Days – Hesiod (Classics Club Spin)
- Theogony – Hesiod (just because. And it’s short. And it’s on my Classics Club list)
- The Way of a Pilgrim (with Laurie)
- After Virtue – Alasdair MacIntyre (with Genni)
- Waiting for the Barbarians – J.M. Coetzee (Guardian’s 1000 List)
- Asterix the Gaul – René Goscinny (Guardian’s 1000 List)
- Brothers Grimm Tales/ Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales/ Andrew Lang Fairy Books
Reading By The Window – Charles James Lewis
~ source Wikimedia Commons
February
- Westwood – Stella Gibbons (reading with Christine and BrokenTune, I think)
- Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens (with Ruth & Fanda & Laurie)
- The Way of a Pilgrim (with Laurie)
- After Virtue – Alasdair MacIntyre (with Genni)
- Pensées – Blaise Pascal (Back to the Classics Challenge)
- Brothers Grimm Tales/ Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales/ Andrew Lang Fairy Books
The Yerres, Rain (1875) Gustave Caillebotte
March
- Second Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow – Jerome K. Jerome (Back to The Classics Challenge and reading with Cirtnecce)
- A Distant Mirror – Barbara Tuchmann (with Ruth)
- The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri (Nick at One Catholic Life Read-Along, a-chapter-a-day) (maybe)
- Brothers Grimm Tales/ Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales/ Andrew Lang Fairy Books
New Fairy Tale (1891) Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky ~ source Wikimedia Commons
April
- The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Arnim (Back to the Classics Challenge)
- A Distant Mirror – Barbara Tuchmann (with Ruth)
- The Dream (Le Rêve) – Émile Zola (Fanda’s Zoladdiction and reading with Laurie)
- Quo Vadis – Henryk Sienkiewicz (Nick at One Catholic Life Read-Along, a-chapter-a-day)
- The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri (Nick at One Catholic Life Read-Along, a-chapter-a-day) (maybe)
- Brothers Grimm Tales/ Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales/ Andrew Lang Fairy Books
Sleeping Leopard (1777) George Stubbs
~ source Wikiart
May
- The Leopard – Guisseppe Lampadusa (Back to the Classics Challenge & reading with Jean)
- Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott (with Ruth)
- Quo Vadis – Henryk Sienkiewicz (Nick at One Catholic Life Read-Along, a-chapter-a-day)
Posy of Flowers (1695) Rachel Ruysch ~ source Wikiart
June
Travels with A Donkey in the Cevannes – Robert Louis Stevenson (Back To The Classics Challenge)
Quo Vadis – Henryk Sienkiewicz (Nick at One Catholic Life Read-Along, a-chapter-a-day)
Brothers Grimm Tales/ Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales/ Andrew Lang Fairy Books
And that’s, that. Hopefully it will help with a new reading year!
Oh, I love your selected pictures! And I look forward to Westwood!
Thanks! And I’m ready to go!
That is very regimented. I hope you can stick to it 🙂
Regimented? I didn’t add the daily pages to read. Nor book it into my hourly schedule. 😂 But you know me well. I’m soooo regimented …. 🤣
Yeah. I’ll wait for the wheels to fall off this reading bus 😀
Hopefully though, life will be a little less hectic for you in ’21.
Ok, you know me well. 🙄 I hope so too!!
Your schedule is amazing, Cleo! And I love the images you chose. I am feeling inspired to try to organize my plans month by month, in a similar way, so that I can have a better idea of what my reading months will be. So, thank you for this post! I will check Fanda’s schedule as well.
Thanks, Juliana. As Bookstooge said, he hopes I can stick to it. I have my doubts but at least it will keep me focussed. I’ll look forward to seeing your schedule if you post. And the good thing is that schedules are changeable.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and an excellent start to 2021!
That is some reading plan!! I am impressed! Wishing you a happy, healthy abd very bookish 2021 with loads of love and laughter!
Yes, and it’s nice that you’re part of it! I wish you the same with a cherry on top! 💕
I love your plans!! I need to make a similar list because I’ve already signed on to several challenges…:) Need to keep them all straight!
A schedule like this would have done me so well when I was part of tons of challenges. I probably would have finished more of them.
I did find this year that I finished my bigger books when I had a plan in place so it makes sense to keep it like that. Maybe I’m too much of a Type A personality??! 😬😂
Type A can be good at times, especially when that type influences other people to be more organized … 😉
That’s true! 🙂 And a Merry Christmas to you!!
Yes, make a list and share it. And now I’m going to checks out those challenges! With restraint, of course! 😉
Absolutely love the pictures you chose to accompany the months! 🙂 Good luck with your goals…some of them are considerable. I’m hoping to finish the Commedia during Lent this year.
Thanks for the hearty good wishes! I will need them, especially in the early part of the year. Oh, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the Commedia! I absolutely love it!
I had only planned to read Inferno (part of CC #1), but reading “How Dante Can Save Your Life” this past year encouraged me to finish the collection. 🙂
Like others said, I love the pictures… the one with the calf standing in the doorway is absolutely adorable. 🙂 Big fan of Shishkin, too.
Your list is so inspiring! I’m tempted to join in with the fairy tales, because I have a complete, only-partially read Brothers Grimm on my shelf. And Andersen is always a joy to read.
I just discovered Shishkin! I’ll have to look at more of his paintings.
If you want to join in on the Fairy Tales, please do! I’m going to read as many as I can. I’m keeping track of my progress in a group on Goodreads who inspired me with this Fairy Tale Challenge. I won’t review them singly here but perhaps I can have some mini-reviews in one review now and then.
Holy moley, you are impressive. I’m here trying (and failing) to drag myself out of my reading / blogging slump. I don’t think I can make a schedule; I’ll be doing well to choose anything to read that isn’t a children’s book I’ve read 5 times before!
Really?!! You?!! You’re my inspiration because you’re able to work and homeschool AND read so much. But life changes and sometimes it’s weird because we have more time to read, yet we seem to read less. Well, I hope 2021 is better for all of us, reading included. And children’s books read 5 times aren’t so bad after all!
Well, I don’t homeschool any more, my kids got big! 🙂 And while I love re-reading favorites, I want to have more variety, too…amen to a better 2021!
Oh my , so many of books I loved so much, like Le Rêve, by Zola. I’m also doing a spreadsheet organizing my reads for the future months
Look at us! So organized for 2021! I’m glad to hear that Le Rêve was so good. I wish I could read it in French, but alas. If I ever have some time free up I might be chasing after you for some French lessons. ☺️ Have a wonderful Christmas, Emma!
I love how you illustrate your list with beautiful pictures 🙂
Thank you, Izabel. Sometimes when I re-read my posts, I find myself getting distracted by the pictures, lol!
I have such good memories of A Distant Mirror from college, I hope you like it. And hey, I signed up with Ruth to read Ivanhoe with you!
I’ve read one Barbara Tuchmann already and it was excellent so I’m looking forward to this one! Yay! Ivanhoe (one heck of a big book!) here we come!
Wow. I’m afraid I could never be so organized, though I do wonder if being organized wouldn’t help. Instead, it’s typically, oooh, shiny! when it comes to books.
Still I do have intentions to read Quo Vadis this year, and Decameron, for sher!
Oh my goodness, I do the “oooh, shiny”-thing too! But I do it too frequently and often can’t seem gather speed and keep direction. Thus, this schedule. I’m not sure how much it will help but even if it helps a little, it will be a benefit!
Ah, The Decameron. I’m going to do that quietly on the side. (As I mentioned above) I got up good steam and then fizzled out. Time to start with the steam again.
I think I feel slightly overwhelmed looking at your reading plans! 🙂 I know I could never plan out my reading like this, because I would never stick with it – I like being able to follow a whim or the inspiration of the moment too much. But I suppose it’s a good way to get through a lot. Enjoy, especially the fairy tales–that sounds fun!
Well, I must say, it’s been nice to hear that others follow whims and inspirations. I just know that when I’m reading with a group, I tend to read more so a schedule should help in the same way. We’ll see how it works. I’ve been planning on doing a type of fairy tale project for about three years now so it’s wonderful to finally start!
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