As I’m sure you are well aware (thanks to the ceaseless stream of media reminders), 2009 is swiftly ending. I for one am pretty happy about this; there were some bright spots in this year (like getting married) but a disturbingly high number of dark ones. Good riddance to 2009, bring on the fresh start of 2010!

This year my goal was to read 100 books. I’m pretty darn close to it, but I’ll definitely be pushing it right up to the end. My list was pretty haphazard; I drew from my “to-read” list but I kept it loose and pretty much just chronicled what I read this year. Looking back, I notice that a good chunk of the books were contemporary fiction, and I’m sadly lacking non-fiction and classic/old books.

Luckily, The Classics Bookclub at 5 Minutes for Books may be just the solution. So, along with my general resolution to be more deliberate about reading for knowledge and not just fun, here is my goals list, classic authors and/or books I want to read in 2010:

1. The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer) – We read some of these in college, and I had a lot of fun with them, but I just never got a chance to finish them. I need to find a decent translation, one that–if it doesn’t outright update the language–at least makes a good footnote of it, like the Penguin Shakespeares do. Along the same lines, I’d really love to finish the modern Canterbury Tales, Tokyo Cancelled (Rana Dasgupta).

2. Idylls of the King (Lord Tennyson) – aside from Homer, the only truly epic poetry I’ve ever read has been T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland and a pitifully small part of Paradise Lost. I need more poetry in my literary diet, and hopefully the theme of one of my greatest childhood passions will help me struggle through it.

3. Anthony and Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, and Coriolanus (William Shakespeare) – my lifetime goal of getting through all of Shakespeare needs a kick in the rear; that’s why I’m counting all three of these as just one item. I hope to make it through more than just these three, but even if I don’t read any others, I’ll be satisfied to get through these.

4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) – I think this counts as a classic? I definitely wanted to get some old-school sci fi on this list, and toyed with something by Asimov or Dick, but I settled on Adams. Although I saw the movie and wasn’t much impressed, my husband and my brother both found it entertaining and scathingly insightful.

5. Lolita (Vladmir Nabokov) – I have tried 4 times to get through this, and I can’t make it without being completely creeped out. Still, I think it’s demonstrated itself to be an important work in literary history, and it would also help fill in my pathetically poor knowledge of Russian literature. 

6. The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Doestoevsky) – Several reasons for wanting to read this: recommended by many professors whom I respect, deals with free will/God/ethics, and is a great piece of Russian literature (which I really need to be better at/with).

7. The Lost Girl (D. H. Lawrence) – I’ve heard of Lawrence but never read anything by him; this seems as good as any, and sounds interesting.

8. A Study in Scarlet (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) – never read any Sherlock Holmes before, but I reason that the best place to start would be at the beginning.

9. When the Sleeper Wakes (H. G. Wells) – I absolutely love dystopian fiction, and this one is largely ignored. Plus it’s H. G. Wells (whom I’ve never read, but I know he’s famous).

10. We (Yevgeny Zamyatin) – Russian AND dystopian – two birds with one stone!

11. Inferno (Dante Alighiri) – I’ve always been a little intimidated by this classic, but the new translation out from Oxford University Press–aimed especially at first-time readers–gives me hope. But, I don’t think I’ll try to pursue the other two volumes this year, even if I do like it.

12. 1 book by  Rudyard Kipling – I’ve studied him as a person in the context of Imperialist history, but I’ve never actually read anything. Since I don’t know much about him or his work, I’m leaving this one open.

Twelve books, twelve months; that sounds reasonable enough. I think that’s a darn good start!