{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"My 40 Before 40 Reading List - Working on the Western Canon - BLOG","description":"For the first time in a couple of years, I've really been enjoying my reading list! I've set a goal of reading 104 books this year, at a clipped pace of 2 books per week. Here at the end of February, I've managed to stay on track with this goal and hope to see it through this year. Part of my renewed vigor with reading is that it has now been 4+ years since I've gone this long without being pregnant. In fact, 2026 might be the first year that I will not have a nursing baby or be pregnant since 2019 (7 years, wow)! In fact, I've only had two years (2013 and 2018) since 2011 that I have not been pregnant or had a baby under 1. Holy moly, when you put it that way, I need to give myself a lot more grace for my failing routines. I say that partially in jest and partially in truth. Only the Lord knows what is ahead but my focus this year is building back up my body, my strength, and hopefully some braincells while I'm at it! It feels like a year wide open for good routines and nurturing parts of my health that have gotten neglected as of late. I know you landed on this post to read my 40 before 40 list of classics I'm attempting to tackle over the next 4 years, but for me, the context matters. I think I'm finally ready to tackle some of these more daunting reads. And more than that, I'm excited to! Jason and I have each taken on a big reading goal. We will turn 40 and 42 just 3 weeks apart from each other. So I made my 40 list and he made a 42 list. We have a lot of overlap but many changes too (books either of us has already read and he replaced the homemaking books on my list with others). This gives us just under 4 years to complete this list. So at a pace of 10 books per year, I think we can do it! Now technically, my list is actually 44 books long. I counted C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy in one spot an then ended up adding two more books to the end of the list. I'm on a big classics binge right now and I want to read those anyway, so might as well add them to my list! My reading list is based on working through the entire Western Canon. Also refer to this article for a crash course in the classics or for starting your own 40 before 40 list. I'm already looking forward to my 50 before 50 list. Jami's 40 Before 40 Reading List: Classic Literature & Story:  1. Jane Eyre \u2013 Charlotte Bront\u00eb 2. Pride and Prejudice \u2013 Jane Austen 3. East of Eden \u2013 John Steinbeck 4. Anna Karenina \u2013 Leo Tolstoy 5. Middlemarch \u2013 George Eliot 6. Great Expectations \u2013 Charles Dickens 7. Bleak House \u2013 Charles Dickens 8. Wuthering Heights \u2013 Emily Bront\u00eb 9. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet 10. The Age of Innocence \u2013 Edith Wharton 11. Gone with the Wind \u2013 Margaret Mitchell 12. Rebecca \u2013 Daphne du Maurier 13. Gullivers Travels - Jonathan Swift 14. Silas Marner \u2013 George Eliot Epic & Philosophical Literature:  15. The Divine Comedy \u2013 Dante Alighieri 16. The Aeneid \u2013 Virgil 17. The Odyssey \u2013 Homer 18. Crime and Punishment \u2013 Fyodor Dostoevsky 19. The Brothers Karamazov \u2013 Fyodor Dostoevsky 20. The Faerie Queene \u2013 Edmund Spenser 21.L es Mis\u00e9rables \u2013 Victor Hugo 22. Don Quixote \u2013 Miguel de Cervantes Christian Faith, Family, & Home: 23. The Hidden Art of Homemaking \u2013 Edith Schaeffer 24. What Is a Family? \u2013 Edith Schaeffer 25. A Chance to Die \u2013 Elisabeth Elliot 26. Orthodoxy \u2013 G.K. Chesterton 27. Pilgrim\u2019s Progress \u2013 John Bunyan 28. The Space Trilogy \u2013 C.S. Lewis 29. Life Under Compulsion \u2013 Anthony Esolen 30. How Should We Then Live? \u2013 Francis Schaeffer 31. On the Incarnation \u2013 Athanasius History, Philosophy & Formation:  32. Meditations \u2013 Marcus Aurelius 33. Pens\u00e9es \u2013 Blaise Pascal 34. Plutarch\u2019s Lives \u2013 Plutarch 35. Church History \u2013 Eusebius 36. Foxe\u2019s Book of Martyrs \u2013 John Foxe 37. In Defense of Tradition \u2013 Richard Weaver 38. The Gulag Archipelago \u2013 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 39. Lonesome Dove \u2013 Larry McMurtry 40. Kristin Lavransdatter - Sigrid Undset 41. Paradise Lost - John Milton 42. Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer Another goal that I will slowly be working through (without a timeline) is reading all of the works of a few particular authors including: George McDonald C.S. Lewis J.R.R. Tolkien Jane Austen Charles Dickens Edith Schaeffer Franics Schaeffer G. K. Chesterton John Steinbeck Jason and I both just got our lists finalized and I'm off to a good start! I just finished Pride & Prejuide and then dove into Emma. Emma isn't on my list but I am working on reading all of Austen. I took a break from Emma though because my book club is reading Cranford, another book not on my list but well worth a read! I will be diving into What is a Family by Edith Shaeffer next. I started this years ago and never finished it. I'll add some 40 before 40 reading updates for you throughout the year! Have you created a similar reading list? I'd love to know what you think I need to start adding to my 50 before 50 list! ","author_name":"Finding Joy in Your Home","author_url":"https:\/\/findingjoyinyourhome.com\/category\/podcast\/","html":"