Tanitha's Cosmic Musings

Continuing the 13 Reading Challenges for 2022, the 3rd challenge is to read everything by one author. Some authors are prolific and have written lots of books, and might need more time than a year to read all of their works; some have written a good deal but doable in one year.

There are a lot of authors I absolutely love their writing. There is Alix E. Harrow who I loved with “The Thousand Doors of January” and adored with “The Once and Future Witches”. There is John Scalzi whose new book “The Kaiju Preservation Society” is forthcoming and I have pre-ordered as a hardback.

However, I would prefer a classic author. That is because although I have read a lot of books, I am missing quite a few classical authors and would like to read more of them. As a half-Greek half-Italian woman, I have read a number of Greek and Italian authors like Nikos Kazantzakis and Italo Calvino; I have read some works of other authors like Mark Twain.

In 2019, I bought a Kindle book for £0.49 called The Complete Novels of Charles Dickens: 20 Illustrated Novels in One Volume. I started reading them slowly one by one; I still have a lot to read and complete. So, for this year I have chosen Charles Dickens whose books, I must admit I absolutely adore.

Since I got the book, I have read: Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewitz, Dombey & Son, and I am currently half-way through to David Copperfield. And what a wonderful journey it has been reading these beautiful novels; I love the way he sets up a story slowly and climaxes it at the end. I love that the bad guys get what they deserve (although not always true in real life); I adored The Old Curiosity Shop despite the bittersweet ending, I cried at the happy ending of Dombey & Son, I was scared for Oliver Twist when Fagan gets his hands on poor Oliver… Oh and my favourite in The Old Curiosity Shop is Dick Swiveler, because he has a good heart and he shows it when he helps Kit with his testimony and how well he treats the Marchioness ( or Sophronia Sphynx as her names is).

So my goal is to read all the remaining novels from Charles Dickens for this year. I have quite a few to read. First of all to finish David Copperfield, which Dickens characterised as his favourite of all his novels. Will I be able to finish the remaining novels from Dickens this year? Maybe. Dickens’ novels are not always easy to read and they are also quite long. So it takes me 2-3 weeks to finish one sometimes. These are novels that you cannot rush through; they need their time and need to enjoy the journey they take you through.

Lastly, Charles Dickens was a humanist for his time period. He saw the flaws in the society of his time and there are a lot of his thoughts and beliefs in his writing. A number of these are still relevant today.

And if I finish Dickens, what next? Will I start reading another classical author? Definitely. I have not yet chosen who, but have more than a few candidates in mind.

So, if you were to challenge yourself to read everything by one author, which author would you choose and why? What other authors whose works you have read do you recommend?