12 Classic Books I Want to Read in 2022

Today I’ve dressed like Blair Waldorf in order to tell you what classic books I want to read in the new year!

💄 My Makeup 💄

📰 New York Times Article Mentioned 📰

🕰 Previous Years’ Lists 🕰

📚 Books Mentioned 📚

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[samanthaericson]

On Don Quixote -- I took a class on it during my undergrad and my professor swears by the Edith Grossman translation! She says that Grossman is the only translator she's found that truly captures Cervantes beautiful use of language. I can't personally speak on any other translations because my professor made me a Grossman loyalist, but I really loved reading Don Quixote and I often wish I had more time to really settle down read it again so I really hope you enjoy it regardless of the translation you pick!

[cherylanderson]

I appreciate your recommendations. Thank you! You have a friendly, engaging way and always look lovely.

[CasperLCat]

Fave classic: Jane Eyre, by a mile. And I’m a 59 yr old straight male, BTW. Genius knows no categories.

[Readlive]

I haven't read Oh Pioneers, but by Willa Cather, I highly recommend Lucy Gayheart and her short story Neighbor Rosicky. They are both great! Neighbor Rosicky really sticks with you! It melts your heart to pieces.

You have some great book choices to read.

The Prince and the Pauper and David Copperfield are also very good! Don Quixote is very good, but I have only read it in Greek, so I don't know about English translations. I have the translation by Grossman because I heard is the best. Maya Angelou's I know Why the Caged Birds Sing will make you tear up, and Ovid's Metamorphoses is wonderful. In Ovid, notice how the ending of each tale ties up to the beginning of the next.

[lindab]

Just came across your video when I was scrolling for something interesting to see. I have a couple of suggestions about your awesome reading choices. I would suggest that you read Don Quixote in the summer when the weather is beautiful and bright. It’s ultimately a sad story (like most classics because they explore the human condition) and if you read it in winter when it’s cold and dreary you won’t be able to escape the sadness. Mrs. Dalloway is the kind of book that tears you up, but as soon as you read the last line you will want to turn back to the first page and start again. The Metamorphosis was the only book I read in grad school that I refused to finish…I felt like a dunce and didn’t want to admit that I had NO IDEA what the guy was talking about. I would recommend a couple of books you have probably already read and that’s Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas C. Wolfe and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.

[ianthereader]

Don Quixote and David Copperfield are on my 2022 classics list, as well! Good luck to you, and happy reading!

[llo]

I would highly recommend the Allen Mandelbaum translation of Ovid

[hasteyebooks]

Oh I have similar ones on my classics tbr for 2022, like Shirley and Mrs Dalloway! I'm also thinking of adding Don Quixote, but it's so intimidating!

[alinejoannewenk]

Can't wait to hear what you think about Jekyll and Hyde as well as The Time Machine! Just had my master's english final and I focused on Fin de Siècle Gothic, which they are both part of. I would also really recommend Dracula within this literary epoch, in case you haven't read it.

[TheNovelSanctuary]

Can't wait!! I'll be reading hopefully Middlemarch

[CourtneyReads]

Favorite classic is such a difficult question! The Count of Monte Cristo and The Brothers Karamazov are two of them.

[samrjacobson]

I read O Pioneers in 2020 & loved it so much that I read all the rest of Willa Cather’s books that year.

[readwritecollage]

You just sold me on the Edith Wharton. I really love Ethan Frome so it is time I pick up something else of hers. Thank you for sharing your selections.

[someonerandom]

My personal favourite classic? It’s a play but the Importance of being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and really anything by him. That got me into reading classics. I read a couple others before that and I did enjoy them. But they were rather dark and I happen to like dark. Earnest though is hilarious and I love the word play and the snark

[JolienReads]

Good luck with your classics TBR in 2022! One of my goals for next year is to try some classics, since I almost haven't read any (and only 1984 for pleasure and not for school 😅) so I'm probably going to pick up some big ones like the works of Jane Austen, the Brönte sisters, maybe a Russian classic like Anna Karenina, etc. You have some on your list that I haven't even heard of before, so this was fun and eye opening.

[ajwa]

Love Mrs Dalloway. The language is delicious. My favorite classic I read this year was Portrait of the Artist as a young man by Joyce. Absolutely brilliant.

[AnniesBookNook]

Wow very ambitious list!! I plan on reading all of the Bronte sisters' works next year

[a.g.]

Loved this video!!! 💗 You are planning to read several of the ones I'm planning to read too! 😄 Shirley, David Copperfield & O Pioneers... possibly Romola. I love George Eliot. 💗

[thebookishbryants]

Hi! We read Don Quixote earlier this year with the Grossman translation and we highly recommend it. Very, very well done and easy to read. Whichever one you pick up I am sure you will love it!
Scott and Becky.

[TheREADhead]

These lists always remind me how many classic books I have yet to read! I'm uploading my list of classics to read next year tomorrow. I wish I'd already moved on to the broader classics but I have to agree it's so great to have a backlog of great literature to continually work on!