Reading Challenge 2021 Update.

We all had our fingers crossed for 2021. For me personally it really hasn’t been so great. It has still been filled with books though. Now that we’re pretty much halfway through 2021 I thought I’d share with you an update on my reading challenge.

I set myself a target of 20 new books for the year over on Goodreads. I’ve already surpassed this and I think I’m currently on 23. Additionally, I wanted to make 2021 my year of re-reading and return to some old favourites and other novels that have enchanted me over the years. Below is a reminder of my list of tasks to incorporate into the books I read this year as well as a list of the ones I am hoping to re-read.

1. A Book Written by an Author Who Knew the Brontës (Not yet achieved although one is sat on my shelf).
2. A Piece of Brontë Juvenilia You Haven’t Read Before (I’ve ticked this one off with The Keep of the Bridge by Charlotte Brontë.
3. A Piece of Non-Brontë Juvenilia (I’ve achieved this with the Wonderful The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown.
4. A Piece of Brontë-Inspired Fiction (Another one done thanks to The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and Ill Will by Michael Stewart. I also read and reviewed  I’m also going to include The Corpse at the Haworth Tandoori as it’s set in Haworth and does mention the Death of a School Girl by Joanna Campbell Slan.
5. An Agatha Christie Book That Does Not Feature Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. (I read the wonderful Absent in the Spring as well as the murder mysteries Sparkling Cyanide and Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?). 
6. A Book Published in the Year You Were Born (Not yet achieved).
7. A Book With a One Word Title (Not yet achieved although I have one waiting on my Kindle).
8. A Book With a Person’s Name in the Title (I’ve actually managed quite a few of these: the non-fiction Agatha Christie’s Poirot by Mark Aldridge and Taking about Jane Austen in Baghdad by Bee Rowlatt as well as the fictional The Eyre Affair; Ill Will; the wonderful The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner; Maddy Alone by Pamela Brown; Mrs McGinty’s Dead and Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie; and Jane in Love by Rachel Givney.
9. A Book With a Place in the Title (I suppose I could technically include Poppy Field by Michael Morpurgo as I didn’t state it had to be a place name. I can also include Talking about Jane Austen in Baghdad and The Corpse at the Haworth Tandoori).
10. A Book Published in 2021 (Have we Met? by Camille Baker. It’s not my usual type of novel but it got me through a very difficult time so I’m grateful for it. It was a fun read).
11. BONUS – Listen to an Audiobook (I’ve managed to get through a few audiobooks this year including The Jane Austen Society; Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; The Windsor Knot by S.J Bennett; Agatha Christie’s The Harlequin Tea Set; The Mysterious Affair at Styles; and Curtain. I’ve also listened to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and The Professor.

And here are my books to re-read. I’ve made bold the ones I’ve re-read/listened to already. In addition to the list below I’ve also read the amazing A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr.

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
5. Villette by Charlotte Brontë
6. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
7. Atonement by Ian McEwan
8. Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente
9. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
10. The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith
11. BONUS – Ubik by Philp K. Dick

Take care all and happy reading.

In Loving Memory of Bob the Bichon (2007-2019)

A lover of life, the Brontës, and Haworth who knows that I’m just going to write because I can’t help it.

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