My Resolution to Become a Classic Reader in 2019

I’m Emma Purcell, a 24 year old woman living in Alton, Hampshire. I have quadriplegic cerebral palsy and registered blind. I’m the blogger of Rock For Disability, a writer at Disability Horizons, a content advisor at Muscular Dystrophy UK, the Hampshire Champion at AccessAble and graduated with a BA (Hons) in Journalism from the University for the Creative Arts.  

Christmas is now over and the New Year is in full swing. A tradition that we all try to do is create a New Year’s resolution. This can be anything such as going on a diet, doing more exercise, visiting a new place, taking up a new hobby or even just spending more time with those we love.

I will be honest, I haven’t been very good at creating and keeping resolutions in the past. I know I would never be able to do the dieting or the exercise as I’m a fussy eater and the only exercise I tend to do is typing on the keyboard. However in 2017, I did set myself the goal of attending a minimum of 10 live music events in a year and I did achieve it. Last year I did not set myself a particular resolution but I did manage to stick to my regular schedule of blogging every week which I was quite proud of.

This year I have decided something completely different. My 2019 resolution is to read more classic literature. I’ve always been a bibliophile, more commonly known as a book worm. Since I was a child, I’ve read hundreds of novels over the years including Harry Potter, Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’, the Twilight series, the Alex Ryder series, The Hunger Games, multiple autobiographies, romance, chick flicks, erotica plus other general & contemporary fiction.  However I have not read much classic literature. At school, I studied a few Shakespeare plays, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald. But now I am approaching my mid 20s, I feel it is time I should expand my reading culture and I may appreciate classical literature more than I would’ve done if I studied them at school.

Due to my poor vision, I use audiobooks. I can listen to them on various devices including my smartphone, tablet, kindle and Amazon Echo device. I have been using the service for over 8 years now and it has been a huge lifeline for me to be able to access books.

For this resolution, I have made a wish list of some classic book titles and authors I would like to read in the next 12 months. These include:

·      Lord of the Flies by William Golding

·      The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

·      Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

·      The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

·      Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontė

·      Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontė

·      Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

·      To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

·      Jane Austen

·      Charles Dickens

If you know any other good classic literature I should read, I’d love your suggestions.

What are your New Year’s resolutions? Please share them in the comments box below. Happy New Year!