May Reading Challenge: Book List

I have decided that I definitely want to do a book-reading challenge during the month of May-- to read ten books during that month, as soon as I'm finished with April's Camp NaNoWriMo! It will be difficult, but it'll be productive enough to be worth it.

Why am I doing this? Because it's almost the end of the school year, and I'm way behind on American History, which involves reading three civil war novels. Also, I'll have just finished my own science-fiction/steampunk novel for NaNoWriMo, and what better way is there to celebrate than by reading books like mine that have come before me? They will help influence my editing process a lot! In addition to History class and NaNoWriMo research, I firgured I should read some of the books that have been sitting on my shelf for a long time.

I started with the books I have yet to read for History; Red Badge of Courage, Up From Slavery, and Around the World in 80 Days. Then, I added a classic brother-versus-brother story, Hamlet, because I haven't read it yet, and my Camp NaNoWriMo novel will be similar in plot to the story. I also added the play that Hamlet was inspired by, Antigone, which is a short read (thank God!). Jules Verne and H. G. Wells are on my list for science-fiction authors, so I added some of theirs. Surprisingly, Around the World in 80 Days was on two lists! I tried to select the ones with the smallest word count to make it a little easier on me. The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, and Journey to the Center of the Earth were added. So here is my completed list:

Book Title	Author	Word Count	Days to Read
Antigone	Sophocles	12,000	1 Day
Red Badge of Courage	Stephen Crane	50,000	3 Days
Hamlet	William Shakespeare	33,000	2 Days
Up From Slavery	Book T. Washington	80,000	5 Days
The Time Machine	H. G. Wells	33,000	2 Days
Around the World in 80 Days	Jules Verne	66,000	4 Days
Animal Farm	George Orwell	30,000	2 Days
Journey to the Center of the Earth	Jules Vern	77,000	5 Days
Lord of the Flies	William Golding	63,000	4 Days
The Invisible Man	H.G. Wells	52,000	3 Days

Thankfully, I already own most of these books, and the ones I don't can easily be found in the Public Domain or on Kindle because they're all classics.

I hope I can finish all of these books during the month of May-- I'm really excited about it!