I'm actually still working on finishing a couple books from my 2011 challenge, but I'm also starting Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Tales and Poems. Since that's a massive book, I plan on reading other books at the same time. However, as I said, I still need to complete 2011's goals/

What are you all reading first?

                                                                                                      Rose

Not to boast about it, Rose, but I have already read my first challenge book!    That's because I deliberately started with my "short" book---it was Annie Dillard's The Writing Life, and it was all of 68 pages.  I did that on purpose, for the 'encouragement' one gets from finishing a book, you see. 

So I am now immersed in Saul Bellow, and I do mean immersed.   What an enormous vocabulary!  What complex syntax!  And the multitudinous references, literary, biblical, historic, you name it!   The only Bellow I had read before this was Seize the Day, and it was no indication of what was in store for the reader who then picks up The Adventures of Augie March.   It's my bildungsroman (*coming-of-age novel") selection. 

I'm reading The Silmarillion as my choice for being on a high school reading list. So, this one isn't specifically I don't guess, but Tolkien is and I already read the others. LOL Has a lot of extra stuff in it that I didn't realize. Had the creation story, plus descriptions of the Valar and angel-like and demon-like beings in it. So, I'm just now starting the Silmarillion proper. Really excited about this one!

Next up is 1984 which is my choice for dystopia. I've always wanted to read this one! And I have honestly no idea what it's actually about, but expect to enjoy it. My impression is that it's Orwell's speculations of what the futuristic 1984 would be like if conditions didn't improve.

I have completed my first challenge book for the year, but I also selected my "short" book so I could at least start my year on top of things.  I know it won't last, but it's nice to feel in control once in awhile.

I read Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte.  The novel is said to have been written from Anne's own experiences as a governess.  What a bleak existence for young women.  They were expected to educate children they were not allowed to discipline in any way. They had no social life as they were not of the same class as the family for whom they worked.  They were resented by the other members of the household staff.  Yet, this was the best job that an educated young woman with no money could expect to find!  

I haven't started because I am still working my way through 800 pager, Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd.

I don't know what I'll chose since I only selected about 5 books. Probably the shortest of them all.

My first book was Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley.  Next I might read Rabbit, Run by John Updike, since it's pretty short.  Next month I have reserved for David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

My first read was Inherit the Wind by Jerone Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.  Like some of you I chose a short book (115 pages) to start.  Meant to read this one last year but removed it from my list.  I think that my next read will be The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Finished my tome and moved onto "Uncle Tom's Cabin." 

I read this many, many years ago and remember liking it, but I could not remember much detail. It's like reading it for the first time again.  How's that for an oxymoronism? Or is that a Yogi Berra-ism

I just finished my first choice for this challenge. It is under the My Choice Category. I read Sense and Sensibility. I had thought that it was one i had never read. but there were scenes in it that I remembered and arent in the movie, so I must have read the book at some point. I had been on a Jane Austen kick in my early twenties and for whatever reason, i had thought i didnt read this one, but apparently I did. Anyway, it is an excellent book. I thoroughly enjoyed its language and detail. OF course, I had to watch the movie afterwards. I was actually amazed at how different the movie is from the book.

Next is David Copperfield. I will probably start it next week.

This month I read my wit-lit (A Confederacy of Dunces) and my dystopian novel (A Clockwork Orange) and loved them both.  Not sure yet which one I'll pick up next.