New Year's Resolutions: Books to Read in 2012

I'm doing something a little different this year: Instead of New Year's Resolutions, I'm making a short list of books I want to read in 2012.  These are all classics that I've meant to read for years now, and just never got around to it.  I am even making a special shelf on my Nook for these books.

The Professor by Charlotte Bronte - This is the only Bronte novel (at least out of the ones published during their lifetime) that I haven't read.  I didn't like Villette very much, so I've been dragging my heels on reading The Professor, but I am a big Bronte fan so I think I need to read it.  Therefore it's at the top of my list of books to read in 2012.



The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell - Another Bronte-related book I've been meaning to read is The Life of Charlotte Bronte.  Although I know the book is accused of not being very accurate (Gaskell glossed over a lot and made up some stuff to defend her friend, who was often criticized by Victorian society for the subject matter of her books), it's a classic as well as the original source of information (correct or not) on the Brontes.



Emma by Jane Austen - I've read only a couple of Jane Austen books, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility (I might have read Northanger Abbey as a kid, but I don't remember it, except for a mild feeling of confusion).  When making this list, I was trying to decide between Emma and Persuasion, but decided on Emma.



Moby Dick by Herman Melville - This is my big undertaking.  I have been planning on reading this since I read a short bit of it during an English literature survey course in college, but I never got around to it.  I've heard both good and bad, and it sounds like it will be a bit tedious, but I do want to be able to say I've read it!


Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - My husband read this one a few years ago for a college course — I can't recall what course, as he wasn't a literature student, but he seemed to think it was worth reading.  And, just in general, I can't stand my non-literature-major husband having read something that I, with my fancy English degree, haven't!



There are many other classics that I would like to read, and of course many others that I did read in college (or, in some cases, high school).  This is just a short list of the ones I want to make sure I read in 2012!