12 Classic Books I Want to Read in 2022

hi guys olive here here today to tell you what classic books i plan on reading in 2022. i've been making these lists of classic books for myself for years now and normally they serve as really good motivators for me to continue picking up classics the entire year long this year has been a little bit of an exception i got very distracted by new releases since i'm also a freelance book reviewer in addition to being a booktuber but i really miss reading the classics i'm ready to refocus on them in 2022 so let me tell you about the 12 books that i plan on prioritizing next year the first classic i plan on reading in 2022 is o pioneers by willa cather in this book we follow a young woman named alexandra who is forced at a very young age to take over her family's nebraska farm so as not to betray her father's dying wish i've heard that this one is a little bit lacking in plot it's much more focused on the setting the land of nebraska which willa cather herself really loved i've not read much from willa cather so i'm very excited to be picking up this book next year it is the first book in her great plains trilogy now while o pioneers is a short book shouldn't take me very long to get through the next book on my classics to be read list for 2022 is much longer it's don quixote by miguel de cervantes this is a book about a spanish nobleman who after reading lots of books about knights decides he's going to become one himself and sets off with his squire sancho ponza in tow on a quest to restore chivalry this is one of those books that i've heard so much about over the years that i feel like i've read it but i know for a fact that i haven't because well reading an over 1 000 page long book is typically something you remember so i know i haven't tried to read this one yet i'm really excited to read this one i don't want to just have it under my belt that'll be nice but i'm actually really interested to see how i'm going to like this one i've heard amazing things about it the only thing i'm stuck on right now is which translation to go with if you have any recommendations please let me know after i pick one then i will buy my own copy and then as part of my ongoing quest to read all of edith wharton's novels next year i will be picking up the reef and i picked this one to be my next edith wharton novel because of a piece i saw in the new york times earlier this year they ran this article showing these old book reviews all the times that their reviewers panned books that we now consider to be classics like this book got a negative review in the new york times in the early 20th century and the title of that review was edith wharton positively tortures her characters in her new novel and i had two thoughts when i read that title and then read the review the first thought was of course she does she's edith wharton and my second thought was i have got to read that book this book is apparently about a love rectangle and is considered to be at least partially autobiographical i love edith wharton's writing i was just going on about how much i love her in her books in a tag video i did recently so i've definitely got edith wharton on the brain and i'm realizing that it's been far too long since i've picked up one of her books so i'm going to pick up this one as soon as possible but one that i will probably reserve for the spooky season is the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde and other stories by robert louis stevenson the titular story in this collection is the iconic horror tale of a scientist who allows the darker side of himself to come out but this alter ego begins to take over and becomes more dangerous by the day i think i may have read jekyll and hyde in high school but i can't remember it's been a long time maybe it'll all come back to me when i end up reading this but i know for a fact i've not read any of the others in this collection not sure if i'll like them but i guess we'll find out in october and then a newer acquisition of mine that i can't wait to read i knew i had to put it on this list is mrs dalloway by virginia woolf this is the brand new annotated edition that just came out this year it is so gorgeous i am just in love with this this book is a portrait of a day in the life of all of the main characters in this novel but the central most character is mrs dalloway who is finishing up planning a party when we meet her i have only ever read virginia woolf's nonfiction i've been wanting to read some of her fiction and when i heard it said that this is her best novel i knew i needed to put it on the 2022 list the next classic i would like to read next year is the prince and the popper by mark twain this is the famous historical tale of two young men who happen to look a lot alike one is a prince the other is a poor son of an abusive father they decide they're going to trade places in order to see what life is like in the other person's shoes this is yet another classic that i feel like i know so much about that it feels like i've read it but i'm pretty sure i haven't but come the end of next year that won't be true anymore and then the next george eliot novel that i will be picking up as i continue to work my way through her bibliography is ramallah this is another extremely long one but i kind of expected that when i decided to put george eliot onto this classics tbr list this book is set in renaissance florence and we follow the daughter of a blind scholar who is married to a very destructive man this book is probably george eliot's least popular novel i know it didn't sell as well as the rest of them but it also seemed to be by the way that george eliot spoke about it the one she felt the most confident about which is a very interesting juxtaposition i am all about the lesser-known works of famous authors mansfield park is one of my all-time favorite classics even if it's not the most popular jane austen novel so i'm very curious to see how i feel about this one next up i have a little bit of an unusual selection for me anyway because in 2022 i plan on picking up a classic work of science fiction one of my least touched genres i don't know much about science fiction i don't read much of it but i really want to read the classic dystopian tale the time machine by h.g wells i know that my reader's digest edition here has both war of the worlds and the time machine i'm only going to be reading the time machine next year i'm starting slow this is a short novel that has a pretty grim answer to the question what will earth look like in 800 000 years there is a scientist who uses a time machine to propel himself forward in time to a time when the earth is slowly dying and the human race has split off into two different races again i'm not the biggest reader of science fiction but this one is so iconic and it's short enough where i feel like it'll be pretty easy for me to just give it a try a book i absolutely cannot believe i haven't read yet is actually the only non-fiction book on this list it's i know why the caged bird sings by maya angelou this book is a memoir in which the author discusses her very tumultuous childhood growing up in the jim crow south i'm actually really shocked i was never required to read this book in high school or in college but it's always been one of those books that i know i need to read so i'm assigning it to myself it's been a while since i've read any charles dickens so in 2022 i am planning on reading david copperfields it's another long one for this tbr list and it's also another one that was the author's own favorite among their work this is considered to be a loosely autobiographical novel in which we follow david copperfield from his childhood all the way up through his adulthood i have mixed feelings about charles dickens i always find that i really like his stories but i find that he goes on too much which does make sense i know he was paid by the word but it doesn't mean that i love it about him but i do want to read all of his books so reading this big one will be another step in that direction and then the last two books on this list are two books that i didn't get to in 2021 but that i would still very much like to read so i am carrying them over to 2022's list the first of those two is shirley by charlotte bronte another long one there are two contrasting heroines in this novel one is shai and demure and she lives in the oppressive atmosphere of a rectory and the other is a vivacious heiress whose wealth affords her a lot of freedom i always end up enjoying charlotte bronte novels and i'm sure i'll feel no differently about this one and the last classic i want to finally read next year is ovid's metamorphoses i have been trying to read this collection of linked greek myths for actual years now but every single time i try to pick it up something gets in my way i think it's this translation that keeps tripping me up i probably need a new edition of this so if you have any recommendations of good translations of this please let me know what they are i need the help so those are all the classic books that i'm hoping to take on next year all of them will be linked in the description box below for your clicking convenience if you have thoughts on any of these books if you have translation recommendations please let me know and also let me know what your favorite classic book is i am always happy to add to my ongoing list of classic books i would like to read over the course of my lifetime i liked the well-loved ones but i also like the hidden gems so let me know any or all of that down in the comment section below and if you would like to keep up with what i'm reading and writing about right now you can find me on a variety of places around the internet including goodreads and instagram where i'm the most active the links to everywhere you can find me will be at the bottom of the description box below thank you so much for watching hope you're having a wonderful day i will see you in the next video bye [Music]

Channel: abookolive

Views: 4,406

Keywords: books, booktube, adult booktubers, booktubers who read classics, literature, classic literature, classic books, reading the classics, classics tbr, classic books to read, longest books on my tbr, intimidating books, intimidating classics, long classics, intimidating tbr, intimidating tbr tag, best books

Id: s13I443xqz8

Length: 10min 33sec (633 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 12 2021