Top Ten Books I'm Most Excited to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

Today is a Top Ten Tuesday freebie and since my literary excitement is still new and fresh, I thought I'd write about books I'm excited to read! (Both from my Classics Club list and otherwise.)

10. The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe. This isn't on my list, but I need to read it for a class. I'm actually really excited about it! I'm severely deficient in pre-Victorian novels (except for Shakespeare), so I'll be glad to get one under my belt. Especially because a) it was written by a woman, and b) at the time it was written, novels were just starting to get popular. Aaaand it's a Gothic novel. It just intrigues me...

9. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. Oh, Dickens! I'm really excited to just get my teeth into this book. It's been a while since I've read a really massive novel, and I also want to get a lot more familiar with Dickens (hence my many titles by him on my list of classics). Plus, one of my professors mentions it and how wonderful it is every couple weeks, and she is one of my favorite professors (despite some horrific expectations, but that's another blog post).



8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Okay, to be honest, I probably won't actually read this book until I have children (I have too many other to-reads to get into right now). But I've never read it. And I feel like something was missing from my childhood.

7. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. Having just finished North & South, I'm really dying to read more Gaskell! Plus, I read the short story of "Cranford" that she wrote prior to the (much longer) book that came about because of the popularity of the story, and I really liked it.

6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I've heard good, bad, and everything in between about this book. I know I don't normally read (or like) YA, but this one just seems different. Ever since it came out I've been wanting time to get into it.

5. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf is quite the enigma to me. Everybody loves her, and I (gasp) have never read a single word by her. (That truly is one of my literary confessions.) This needs to end. I'm reading this book for my class in a couple weeks and, if I remember right, we have four (count 'em, four) class periods in which to discuss it. It's going to be fantastic! So, so, so excited!

4. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. I've been meaning to read this for ages and I just haven't been able to find a suitable copy (one that's easy to tote around). Someday... Library book sales, anyone...?

3. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. I'm excited about this one because it's pretty much the only Austen novel I haven't read and I don't know anything about the plot. Apparently, it's one of the less liked Austen books, since I haven't heard much about it. In the past, I've gone into Austen novels having seen a film adaptation, but not this one, so I'm excited to read it completely fresh.

2. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer. I've read one chapter from this, which was very intriguing...and, of course, there's the movie that came out recently, and I want to read the book before seeing the movie.

1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Okay, technically I'm already reading this one, but it's so wonderful! Every time I open it, I completely abandon my analytical, suspicious English major side and I just enjoy it as a book that gives me oodles of warm fuzzies. The copy I have is a Norton edition, so it has some letters of Louisa May Alcott and other great stuff in the back that I'm excited to read, as well.

What books are you excited to read?