#dicken

It is not easy to walk alone in the country without musing upon something.

I can’t believe it’s almost August. I know time flies, but the recent crisis we are in is really making time fly faster. Anyways, now that I am racing time in order to up my reading game, your girl has a list of books that she wants to get through within the next 5 months. Am I being very ambitious? Yes. Yes I am. But I know next year will be a mess with uni applications and graduation, so this is basically my last year being a child, and an obsessive reader. 

Let me know what books you want to read within this year! And let’s get into Amy’s very ambitious 5 month tbr! 

1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Just a heads up, there will be another Bronte sister novel in this list! I absolutely loved Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, but I never got around to reading any of the other sisters. I feel like a disappointment to the Literature community, so your girl will be changing that this year. 

I have heard excellent things about Wuthering Heights, and furthermore, I have heard that the DA vibes are immaculate. Needless to say, this novel will be totally up my alley, and I can’t wait to get to it! 

2. A Confession and Other Religious Writings by Leo Tolstoy 

If you are obsessed with Literature like I am, you need to get on the Dickens vs. Tolstoy train. This is probably one of the greatest debates in Literature, and one that is quite intriguing. I have never read any of Tolstoy’s works but the Great Debate series by Emma and Carolyn on Youtube has me invested. I would highly recommend watching them debate over Dickens’s and Tolstoy’s works, because it is some of the most entertaining and addicting content related to Literature that exists. 

I am not trying to keep up with them in terms of reading Dickens and Tolstoy, but I do want to at least get into it. Furthermore, this is one of my school’s Literature club picks for this year! I am pretty sure I will automatically turn into an intellectual the minute I finish reading this gem. 

3. The Secret History by Donna Tarte 

If your aesthetic is Dark Academia, and you still have not heard of The Secret History, I am sure you live under a rock. I have heard every single dark academic talk about it, and I am not going to lie, I feel out of place. I feel like I don’t belong to this amazing community until I read Secret History and we can’t have that. 

I want to annotate the shit out of this book, and have this novel absorbed into my soul. Yes. That’s how passionate I am about reading this novel. 

4. The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas 

Another school’s Literature club pick this year. Not going to lie, I’ve been waiting to get my hands on a copy of this for more than 6 months now, and it finally arrived at my local used bookstore. Almost every bookstgrammer has posted about this at least once, and every time they talk about it, my need to read it intensifies. 

I have heard nothing but good things about The Hate You Give, and you know what? I want to experience it this year. I want to end a year knowing I have read something meaningful. 

5. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan 

If you have been around for a while, you already know that I absolutely adored ‘Atonement’ by Ian McEwan. You can read my rant/review here! But now, I have embarked on a journey to read every Ian McEwan book there is. Reading this gem will mean that I am one step closer to my destination. 

This is also another Literature Club pick for this year, so your girl got really lucky! 

6. Hard Times by Charles Dickens 

As I have already mentioned, I really want to get into reading Dickens and Tolstoy. This book is the first step towards that goal! I haven’t heard a lot about this particular Dickens’s novel, so my curiosity came through and killed my bank account. 

Do you ever do this? Do you ever read the least talked about work of a well known writer just to see why it’s not as talked about? I do because I am a peculiar being. But yeah! That’s why this bitch is in this list!

7. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo 

I am not a big fantasy reader, but this is another dark academia must read according to the bookstagram community. I am a dark academia hoe, so I plan on getting through this within 2021. 

I have just started reading the Shadow and Bone series, and I finished Shadow and Bone this month, so I know I like her writing style. I am not so sure how I will feel about the plot though, since there were many plot holes in Shadow and Bone. 

Regardless, I am excited to see how this one turns out!

8. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

My copy of this psychological thriller has been sitting on my shelf for the last six months, and I never got around to reading it. I am a disappointment. But better late than never!

I know there are some Greek mythological elements, and honestly that mixed with the murder mystery vibe is everything I ever want, so I can’t wait to fall in love with this allegedly addicting novel. 

9. The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

This is a book club pick for the Bookish Bishes Book club aka MY book club and I can’t wait to get to this. Again the Greek myth element will blow my mind. If you want to see how I feel about this, follow me on Instagram! I go by arteesticreader and I usually post a lot of book reviews and other bookish stuff! 

10. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 

Another bookstagram made me buy it and now I am going to read it! If you can’t tell, I have an obsession with Greek Mythology at this point and I am not even sorry. Greek myth is the best thing ever! 

My obsession started with the PJ series by Rick Riordan, and now that I am much older, I want to read more serious novels, ones that are a bit more representative of how they were perceived back in the day. Again, the Song of Achilles is well loved so why not dive into Greek myth with this! 

11. Dracula by Bram Stoker

I recently finished reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and now I have a thing for Gothic Literature. I’ve always had a thing for Gothic Literature, but I feel like Frankenstein intensified my obsession. There will be a rant review post up soon, but I make no promises! 

As for Dracula, it seems like the obvious next step towards my Gothic Literature. I hate the fact that we didn’t get to read stuff like this in school, because I would have adored Literature 10x more than what I do. I don’t understand why we need to read the boring stuff and hate every second of it. UHHH WHAT ARE YA’LL DOING SCHOOL AUTHORITIES? 

Anyways....

Dib and Tak respectively, the firsts.