I’ve begun a new project or perhaps I’ve continued an old one depending on which way you look at it. I have been creating a list of books that I would like to read. In recent years I seem to lean towards popular fiction reading the latest works of my favorite authors or picking up random best sellers. I haven’t read a piece of classic literature in years and I’ve recently realized that I miss reading those books that challenge my intellect rather than simply my imagination.
It’s quite the list I’ve created and while I have read many of these books previously it’s been a long time. The first book on my list is in fact one of my favorite reads - Utopia by Thomas Moore. I had read it many times over until one day I discovered that my dog-eared and well read paperback copy was missing. I never did find it and with slight astonishment I now realize I first discovered it missing nearly a decade ago.
I’m a rather voracious reader and I can and do read several books a week fairly regularly and so this is not really a daunting task at all but something I’m looking forward to. Here is the first 25 I plan on reading.
1. Utopia – Thomas Moore
2. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien (Just purchased the box set which is why these are so high on the list)
3. The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien
4. The Two Towers – J.R.R. Tolkien
5. The Return of the King – J.R.R. Tolkien
6. The Time Machine H.G. Wells
7. The Iliad - Homer
8. The Odyssey – Homer
9. Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathon Swift
10. Dracula – Bram Stroker
11. 20,000 Leagues under the Sea – Jules Verne
12. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
13. Around The World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne
14. The Call of the Wild – Jack London
15. Brave new World – Aldous Huxley
16. Les Miserable – victor Hugo
17. The Phantom o the Opera – Gaston Leroux
18. Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
19. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
20. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – John Le Carre
21. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
22. Midnight’s children – Salman Rushdie
23. A Passage to India – E.M. Forster
24. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
25. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
