What is up people?
Today I’m going to talk about eight books I plan to read in 2021. I’m not a tbr list type of person, but this allows me to focus on my reading goals for this year without making me feel restricted. So without further ado, let’s dive into this glorious list.
I’m going to start this list with a book that will be obvious if you have been following me since I first started this blog and this is Unholy Ghosts by Richard Zimler. This book was first published in 1996, I believe, but was translated into Portuguese last year (2020). Unholy Ghosts is about a man who decides to leave the United States and look for a new life in Portugal when he finds out that his most talented student tests positive for HIV and threatens to take his own life at the age of twenty-four. This pick isn’t a surprise because if you know me you know I love Zimler’s books and I’m sure this one will be just as amazing.
The second book I want to read is Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). I can once again say that you aren’t new here this won’t be a surprise, you can probably find one of my blog posts from 2017 where I talk about wanting to read this book. It has been on my tbr pile for five years now I can’t keep looking at my shelves and see it there. I don’t really know muck about this book except that Hemingway said it was a good book and here on the blog we believe in Hemingway’s word.
The third book I’m bringing to the table is War and Peace by Tolstoy. I’m a massive fan of Russian classics, even though I haven’t read that many. I loved Anna Karenina, Mother and How Much Land Does a Man Need and loved them with all my heart. If you don’t know what this book is about it focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 while following three main characters and studying their humanity.
Continuing with Russian literature we have The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky. Apparently, it is the best known of Maxim Gorky’s plays and since I love Gorky’s work I feel like I must read this play. The theme of this play is the harsh truth versus the comforting lie and that seems really interesting.
The fifth book I plan on reading this year is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. (It’s becoming increasingly obvious that I feel the need to read all the classics.) This book is the tale of a young man who purchases eternal youth at the expense of his soul. It’s the only novel written by Oscar Wilde and it received a lot of backlash from reviewers with it first came out.
Next on the list, we have…drum roll, please… Orlando by Virginia Woolf. If you follow me on social media you probably know that I’ve been fangirling Woolf like a crazy person. I read A Room of One’s Own and now I’m reading Three Guineas, from where I stand they are both masterpieces of non-fiction. So my little brain thinks it’s time to try to read her fiction. The book is about someone that undergoes a mysterious change of sex at the age of 30 and lives on for more than 300 years into modern times without ageing.
The seventh book is If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. The first time I heard of this book was while watching one of Emma Angeline’s videos on youtube (her channel is amazing, please go check it out). She talked about the book with such enthusiasm that, on that exact moment, I knew I had to read it. It’s about a reader trying to read a book called If on a winter’s night a traveller, emphasis on the TRYING.
And finally, the last book on this list is Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky. (Yes, yet another Russian classic. Who knew?) This book presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter and isolated retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg that remains unnamed. I don’t know much more about this book but you know, Russian literature is Russian literature.
And that is my list of books I really want to read in 2021. If you liked the list, please let me know. I’ll make a part two because I could very well go on with this, there are a lot more books I want and plan to read this year. Also, let me know the books you plan on reading in 2021 because I really want to know what you are looking for to read this year.
Bye, bye, bye. Keep on reading!
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