Time for some Classics....

I majored in English Literature in College, so I have read a great deal of Lit... and yet I am woefully lacking at the same time. While I have read Shakespeare and Keats.. Tolstoy and Hemingway...  Faulkner and Milton... Mann and Wolfe... Browning and Twain ... on and on.. there are many books considered classics that I have never read. For instance.. I have never read a book by Jane Austen... I have seen movies of her works, but never read them.  I have never read Little Women or Anne of Green Gables.. In fact, I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie, but never read them until I had children of my own.

I read a great deal with my children.. not just picture books, but chapter books.. we read together well into their early teens.  I got a big fill of classics then... the Sarah, Plain and Tall series... E. B. White books (actually I read those as a child too!)... Phantom Tollbooth (OK another favorite from childhood).. Narnia (I never heard of these until my older child was 8!)... The Wizard of Oz (the book is soo much better than the movie!)... and on and on... Needless to say I enjoyed this part of their childhood a great deal and now that they are grown (24 and soon to be 20!) I miss that read aloud time and those classics. Surely there will be grandchildren to read with one day, but in the meantime...

I have decided to read some classics on my own. Some will fall into the category of "children's classics" (like Montgomery and Alcott's works) and others will be adult fiction (Austen and Bronte).

If you own a Kindle or have a Kindle ap on a device, you can read the vast majority of these for free or at very little cost. Most of the Anne books are free, but I could not find the first 2 in the series in the freebies. What I did find was a collection of all the Anne books for the Kindle for 99-cents!  Alcott and Austen books I found for free, as well as a few others I want to read.

And if you have a library, you should be able to find all of these there for free! I love the library.

And lastly you could purchase print copies.  If you have children at home consider reading these with them.  Even very young children can handle a chapter a night from a children's book and there are so many wonderful ones out there from days gone by.  If your nest is empty, like me, you could save them for future grandbabies or once read, donate them to a school or some program that caters to children and literary needs.. or give to a child in your church or neighborhood.  Anything to promote reading!

If you are looking for ideas as to what to read, here is an excellent place to start:  List of Classics by Age Group

I just finished my first classic of the year.. there will be a review very soon.  It was a delightful read!