Happy New Year! I hope you had a good rest and that the new year has started well for you. Do you make new year's resolutions? Many people say, for example, 'I'm going to lose weight', or 'I'm going to save money'. These are great ideas, but as we know, things may start off well but more often than not they are short-lived. What are your intentions or projects for this year? If you plan to improve your English this year, and you love reading classic novels, then you can use my Lost in Classics Reading Diary to keep you focused and stick to your resolution throughout 2019.
I have been working on this diary over the holidays and I must say I am proud of it because it not only looks gorgeous but it can also be very useful in helping you follow the novels that we will read each month in my Facebook Group and will discuss in our monthly book club meetings. If you already follow me on Facebook you will have noticed that in November I posted many questions asking about your favourite novels and authors. Well, I used your answers to choose the twelve books that we will read together this year and here they are. Twelve months, twelve books, twelve genres. 1. January - Futuristic - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. 2. February - Romantic - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 3. March - Women - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 4. April - Jane Austen - Persuasion by Jane Austen 5. May - Bildungsroman - Martin Eden by Jack London 6. June - Children - The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett 7. July - American - The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 8. August - Travel - A Room with a View by E. M. Forster 9. September - Crime - The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 10. October - Horror - Dracula by Bram Stoker 11. November - Short Story - Desirées Baby by Kate Chopin 12. December - Festive - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Yes, I know Jane Austen is not a genre but her books are so popular and she has such a following that it could be argued it is! Last year, my choice of books was influenced by word count, I wanted to start low and gradually work up, in fact we started with The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe, a short story of only three thousand words and we finished with The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde with seventy-eight thousand! That's quite an achievement so well done if you read all or even some of the books! This year I decided to choose books in twelve different genres, regardless of their length because the feedback I have received so far has taught me that time is a problem for many people so it doesn't matter how long the book is. If you want to and can read all the book that is great, if not you can read a short version or even an extract or one chapter. I just want to inspire you to read so if you read as much as you can, that's great! Another possibility is that if you know in advance that we will read your favourite book in say March, you can start reading now and give yourself more time to prepare. This month I will be uploading all books to the BOOKS! page of this site so you can plan ahead if that works for you. The diary includes a message from me and the confirmation of your membership of our book club followed by a page where you can note your favourite books. Then there is one page for each month complete with questions and space to record interesting language or quotes from the novel as well as your book review. If you submit your review, I will give you a free gift each month! Each page also includes important births, deaths and other events. If you look on my Facebook Page for that day, you will find more information about that author or book with links to read the book, or a video, picture or quote or any other interesting things I find. Finally on each page of the diary you will find a motivational quote from an important author which I hope will inspire you to keep going! So how can you follow Lost in Classics this year? There are many ways to get involved. First check out my Facebook Page every day for inspiration to learn and read and this blog every Monday for lessons to be learnt from the language and themes in the novel we are reading that month. I also have a Facebook group where we discuss the novel of the month in more detail looking at the history of the author, the language, themes, characters, setting etc. Ask me if you would like to join. Members will receive the Lost in Classics Reading Diary, and bi-monthly newsletters with monthly infograhics focusing on language points covered that month. At the end of each month there is the option to take part in an online or live book club meeting. For more details of how the book club meeting works look at the dedicated page on this site. If you would like to dig deeper or work on a particular area of your English with more personalized help from me, you might like to consider taking part in a group or individual programme (see the PROGRAMMES page of this site). My resolution for this year is to get as many people as possible involved with Lost in Classics so please tell your friends and let me know if there is anything else I can do to inspire you to read and help you to learn and improve your English. Happy Reading in 2019!
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What is this?When I started lostinclassics I looked for language lessons in the books I was reading, such as for example the use of phrasal verbs or inversion in conditionals and I explained them through examples found in the text. I also did reviews of the books I read and tried to give some advice on how to read classics using the various resources I know of. Then I switched to just reviews and lately I have been doing a bit of creative writing inspired by my reading. Who knows what I will come up with next! Archives
September 2020
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