Each year I try to read five books that are considered to be classics. Usually I try to find books I haven’t read before, or some that I may have read when I was young but honestly can’t remember.
When I was a teenager I went through a phase of reading the classics. I thought I read a whole lot of them, at least that’s how it felt at the time. Looking back I realize that I only scratched the surface, sampling an occasional book here and there, and subsequently missed out on many great books. I’m trying to correct that oversight now, with this particular aspect of my annual reading challenge to myself.
Here’s the books I selected for this year:
- Alcott, Louisa May – Little Women01 Little Women
- Austen, Jane – Pride and Prejudice
- Cervantes, Miguel – Don Quiote de La Mancha
- Doyle, Arthur Conan – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- Leroux, Gaston – The Phantom of the Opera
A few additional notes:
Pride and Prejudice was definitely a reread. I hav a soft spot for all Jane Austen’s novels and seldom does a year go by without me rereading one of them. While I’m not much of a rereader generally, settling down with an old favourite can be enjoyable, especially when the stories are as much loved as Austen’s are.
On the subject of rereads, I’m still confused about whether or not Little Women was also a reread. I found some of the story vaguely familiar, but there was much that felt new to me. It’s possible I read a children’s version or watched a movie/TV adaptation many years in the past, but decided that it would be worth a read, whether or not I had previously read it.
Finally, I read the unabridged version of Don Quiote de La Mancha in translation and followed it with Salman Rushdie’s modern retelling of the story, Quichotte. I enjoyed the experience of seeing the ways in which Rushdie makes use of the original story and the frequent references that he weaves into the tale. Next year I hope to do a similar paired reading of Bram Stoker’s original Dracula together with the more recent retelling The Madness, by Dawn Kurtagich.
So that’s the wrap-up of my reading year in review for 2025. Tomorrow is New Year’s day, heralding a brand new reading year for me. I can’t wait to see what it has in store for me but there is no doubt in my mind that it will include many more wonderful book titles.
And so I close the chapter on another year of the Beyond Sight blog. Thank you for joining me as I’ve chronicled my experiences over the last 12 months and I look forward to sharing many more adventures with you in the coming year. Wishing you all the best for 2026. I hope it will be a year of fun, laughter and success for you, with plenty of breathtaking moments of joy.
See you next year!
