Guardian Challenge

So, I’m starting this late, but Jennie at Biblio File is hosting a challenge based on The Guardian’s list of 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read Before They Die.(Yeah, like anyone actually will)

The challenge is to read and review 10 books off the list (that’s 1%) between February 1st of 2009 and February 1st of 2010.

Of these 10, you must read 1 from each category and, if possible, 1 should be a book you have never heard of until you saw it on this list.

These are the books I’ve picked:

Comedy

Handley Cross, R.S. Surtees

(I have picked this solely because Kipling’s Stalky is a fan of Surtees. I doubt his and my reading tastes agree, but I’m curious.)

Crime

Lady Audley’s Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon

The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan

The Riddle of the Sands, Erskine Childers

(These were already on my reading list, and all three are already loaded onto my Kindle.)

Family and Self

The History of Mr. Polly, H.G. Wells

(This is the one I’d never heard of. It sounds kind of awesome.)

Love

Green Mansions, W.H. Hudson

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton

(I have been meaning to read this for years. I hope I don’t hate it as much as The House of Mirth.)

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

News from Nowhere, William Morris

(Mostly because I never want to read another Edgar Rice Burroughs book.)

State of the Nation

Sybil, Benjamin Disraeli

War and Travel

King Solomon’s Mines, H. Rider Haggard