1st April

Cheating slightly - this was taken two days ago :)

The first of the month posts are my absolute favourite to do - I love looking forward and making goals. Before I do, however, let me remind myself of March....

The goals were to complete Middlemarch, Bleak House, and War and Peace, which I did. I wasn't too worried about completing Les Misérables, but I finished it yesterday evening,  and I loved it (post to follow). I also managed to catch up with my Bible challenge. So all in all, March went according to plan.

As for April, well, obviously I have to read Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. It has April in the title for a start! I remember loving the film when I was young, so it has long been on my TBR pile! Also, I'm nearly finished Watership Down (I imagine I'll finish that this evening), and I started The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon for my 100 Greatest Book challenge (I have to be honest, I don't care for it), so it would be good to finish that (and not put it back on the shelf as I am sorely tempted to do!

Also, for Easter Week, although I'm not religious and won't be celebrating it, it seems appropriate to the season to read a little more of the New Testament. This week, I'm aiming to finish the New Testament, which will mean reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. I've been planning this for a few weeks, and on the whole I've enjoyed the New Testament very much. I'm still about half way through the Old Testament, but still on track to finish around about August, September.

What else? Well, challenge-related - numerically, I'm behind on my 2012 Challenges. In theory, in order to be 'on track', I ought to be up to my 24th or 25th book by the end of April. That's seven books away. I can't promise I'll get there this month, but if I did go for it, I'm thinking about:

• Twain, Mark - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 
• Smith, Zadie - White Teeth 
• Proust, Marcel - Swann's Way 
• Zola, Émile - Germinal 
• Hugo, Victor - Hunchback of Notre Dame 
• Homer - Odyssey 
• Forster, E. M. - Howard's End 
• Dumas, Alexandre - The Three Musketeers 
• Dumas, Alexandre - Count of Monte Cristo 
• Dickens, Charles - Our Mutual Friend 
• de Balzac, Honoré - Cousin Bette 
• Austen, Jane - Emma

Really, I think perhaps Odyssey might best be left until May, however, that said, as I'm typing this I keep looking over at it! Like The Iliad, I'd aim to read a chapter a day. But, as I say, if I were to read seven of these books, that would be rather good!

As for others - I'm overdue a P. G. Wodehouse, and I need to keep up with Ted Hughes!

I really am looking forward to this month, and actually I'm quite impatient to finish this post because I want to get reading! There are some fun things going on in April in Book Blogland which I'll be joining in with: firstly, Dewey's Readathon is on the 21st! I had a great time with it last October, so I am very excited to start planning my little lists! Also, next weekend, Caro is hosting The Name of the Rose Readathon. I'll have all of Saturday and half of Sunday to join in, and I'm praying my book arrives in time (I missed reading Uncle Tom's Cabin in March because the book arrived so late). So fingers crossed.