For January the hosts of The Classics Club have asked a relatively simple question, What is the best book you’ve read so far for The Classics Club—and why?, which I’ve already answered here (Go, Anne Brontë! Go!). So I will be doing part two, Or, if you prefer, what is your least favorite read so far for the club, and why?
My first thoughts were that I really wished there were a simple answer, like that I had a burning passionate hate against one book, but I don’t really. As with most books, I have found something to enjoy and something that’s not quite how I would like it. However, the more I thought about it, one did come to mind. You might think it’s Dickens, who I feel needed a good editor – TOO much in the middles, or you might think it was one of the Russians, but no not them either. It was the lovely local Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables.
I mean, I said it in the first sentence of my response to the book: “Very long review short: I didn’t like this book.” You can go there to read my response if you’re actually interested in it. Just suffice to say I had issues with just about everything in the book and I definitely don’t remember The Scarlett Letter being that difficult and I read that in high school – when I HATED reading anything I didn’t want to read.
Hopefully there aren’t many more than can knock this out of the bottom slot, because if there are it is going to be a long four-and-a-half more years to go in my conquest of (some of) the Classics.
It may have taken two weeks to read this book, but it was completely worth it. I don’t know the last time I’ve spent this much time basking in the beauty and wonderment of a novel. 1Q84 counts for my 2013 Mount TBR and Tea & Books 
Although the year has changed, reading must continue 😀 For my first book of 2013 I used random.org to pull one from my shelves and it was definitely an experience.
I finished all three of my challenges with 30 books and read a grand total of 81 books in 2012. According to Goodreads I read 32,866 pages. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but who cares, I read a lot! My original goal was 60 books, five books a month, and that will stand for 2013. I’m sure I will surpass it again this year, but I will not increase that goal because reading should be about fun and not about numbers. There are definitely other cool facts I could share, but go and explore and find out!