My list of 12 books I want to read this year

 1. Middlemarch by George Eliot
 2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
 3. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
 4. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
 5. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
 6. The Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse
 7. 1984 by George Orwell
 8. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
 9. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
10.  The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
11. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
12.  All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque

Alternates:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

The selections are taken from this list. I've already read most of the most commonly known books on this list and to be honest there are some I have no desire to read. When I took a college English class we spent a lot of time reading John Updike and I found him very depressing. Needless to say the class was taught by a middle aged divorced man, who happened to love Updike. He thought my views on marriage were projected through rose-colored glasses even though I had 25 years of marriage under my belt. So I'll avoid Updike thank you very much!