..and I have a lot of them, buzzing around in my head, for 2011. I don’t believe I will succeed in many of them, but that is why many of them aren’t challenges, or year-long plans, but simply reading lists. Things I’d like to concentrate on, but not finish, per se.
There is one thing I am going to give my undivided attention, or that has priority (undivided attention is a big promise to make, isn’t it?) and that is The Year of Feminist Classics project that I am doing together with Amy, Ana and Emily (and it seems many more amazing bloggers!). We changed the list around a little, and in October I won’t just be leading the discussion on Ain’t I a Woman? by bell hooks, but I will also discuss one article from the anthology: Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism Anthology, namely Under Western Eyes by Mohanty. (Which is, coincidently, the most used keyword to find my blog – weird how that happens). If you would like to discuss any other article in the anthology (and there are many interesting ones in there), feel free to write a guest post! Also, just because I have to say it: Under Western Eyes is definitely a classic in feminist literature, whatever some people may say. Anyway, to follow the project, please visit the blog here.
There is also the project that Sasha started, the Classics Project 2011. And I do aim to read a lot of books in the classics genre. I am becoming more and more pessimistic, and think 10 will be all I will be able to do in both categories, but who knows?
And then there are challenges.. I promised myself to not sign up for any challenges, and for now I have almost succeeded. I like being able to choose what I read at random, dreaming up my own reading list. It seems to work better for me, at the moment. However, there were a few severely tempting challenges. But a lot of them involved things I will probably be reading anyway, such as the Victorian Literature challenge, or the Elizabeth Gaskell Reading challenge. I have to admit, I have trouble not joining the latter. I do so love Gaskell and I really like the efforts of the Gaskell blog. As I am writing this I am so tempted to write-up my own list for the challenge. But no. Stop right there. I have my ongoing Gaskell reading list, and I think I had better stick to it for now.
But then there was Zommie, and her idea of hosting the Nordic challenge. And I cannot be dissuaded from joining this one. My time in Sweden, even if I struggled with homesickness, has made me fall in love a little with the country and the people, and I want to cherish that. I will aim to read at least 5 books, coming from the following pool:
- any of the books by Astrid Lindgren, if I feel adventurous, in Swedish
- A Moomin book by Tove Jansson
- The Summer book by Tove Jansson
- A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen (and maybe some of the other plays included in the Oxford World Classics edition)
- Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Hoeg
- Purge – Sofi Oksanen
- The Daisy Sisters – Henning Mankell (in Dutch)
- Troll: A Love Story – Johanna Sinisalo
- City of My Dreams – Per Anders Fogelström
Apart from focusing on my reading lists, including reading (on) the Brontë’s, reading on the Romantics (for which one of my dear blogging friends, Violet, composed me a list), reading the works by Austen and Gaskell, reading the Bloomsbury Group Books, more Persephone’s, some Virago Modern Classics (in short, I’d like to be more like Verity, if only I could), there is one more thing I plan to do sometime this year. And that will be my own project month, called “Educating Iris: Or, Learning to Appreciate Dutch Literature”. As some of you know, I used to have a complete problem with Dutch literature. But I have decided that this must end. And so, I’d like to play catch up, and educate myself in my country’s heritage. I hope some of you might join me. During this month (I am aiming for March or April, but if any of you have preferences, please say) I would like to organise a Read A Long of The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch as well as read a list of Dutch books that have been on my shelves, or that simply should be read by any Dutch person.
Also, thank you 
.
