Tags
2020 goals, books, Charles Dickens, readathon, reading, reading goals, Robert Louis Stevenson, TBR, Victober, Wilkie Collins
![](https://lettersfromthelighthouse.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/img_20201007_175353_206.jpg?w=1024)
I might have mentioned this before (have I?), but October is possibly my favourite month of the year (though May and September are close seconds). Part of that is due to the fact that it is my birthday month, but there’s also things like the weather being not too wet and grey yet (if we’re lucky), the overabundace of autumnal developments in nature (conkers and colourful foliage are my favourites), and the start of the new university year (Germany is late in that respect; even later this year – semester doesn’t start until early November thanks to you-know-what). And, since last year, there is also Victober.
Until about last weekend, I wasn’t too sure whether I wanted to participate this year. I’m not one for well-thought-out TBRs at the best of times, and with the way September went down, I didn’t think the added challenge of reading a particular kind of book (never mind a specific selection) would do me good. But now? Now I am excited, and I want to participate – on my own (very limited) terms.
Much like last year, I’m skipping the group read. This year’s pick is Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley, and after the recent Wuthering Heigts fiasco (and my overall mediocre track record with the Brontë ladies), I’m not in the mood to try that one just yet. Moreover, I really need to stop buying so many books (more on that at another time, perhaps), so I’ve decided to stick to what I already have.
Currently, my options are as follows:
- Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and Bleak House
- Robert Louis Stevenson’s Weir of Hermiston
- Wilkie Collins’ The Frozen Deep
- anything that’s available on Scribd as audio- and ebooks
- and, if I pick them up from home when I visit mid-month for my sister’s wedding, H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds and George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss
If I really stick to these choices, I might even cross off two or three of the additional challenges: ‘Read a new-to-you book by your favourite Victorian author’ and ‘Read a book from a previous Victober TBR that you didn’t get to’ are definitely within reach.
There are also the two novels (Hogg’s Memoirs and Confessions and The Voyage of the Narwhal) and the audiobook (Georgette Heyer’s Sylvester) that I’m carrying over from September, and together with the above that should easily keep me busy for all of October (and probably way into November, even though I’d love to do Non-Fiction November then).
Much like last year, I’m skipping the group read. This year’s pick is Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley, and after the recent Wuthering Heigts fiasco (and my overall mediocre track record with the Brontë ladies), I’m not in the mood to try that one just yet. Moreover, I really need to stop buying so many books (more on that at another time, perhaps), so I’ve decided to stick to what I already have.
Currently, my options are as follows:
- Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and Bleak House
- Robert Louis Stevenson’s Weir of Hermiston
- Wilkie Collins’ The Frozen Deep
- anything that’s available on Scribd as audio- and ebooks
- and, if I pick them up from home when I visit mid-month for my sister’s wedding, H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds and George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss
If I really stick to these choices, I might even cross off two or three of the additional challenges: ‘Read a new-to-you book by your favourite Victorian author’ and ‘Read a book from a previous Victober TBR that you didn’t get to’ are definitely within reach.
There are also the two novels (Hogg’s Memoirs and Confessions and The Voyage of the Narwhal) and the audiobook (Georgette Heyer’s Sylvester) that I’m carrying over from September, and together with the above that should easily keep me busy for all of October (and probably way into November, even though I’d love to do Non-Fiction November then).