2026

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen reread for british lit II course.
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens british lit II course. surprisingly funny but i guess i just wasn't in the dickens mood bc it sort of felt like a slog...
State and Revolution, Vladimir Lenin i was picking this up and putting it down for maybe two months due to school. some days when i was supposed to be reading great expectations i would sneak a few pages of this instead... very rebellious i know. this was my introduction to lenin and while i already feel like i'm due for a reread, it was really insightful! i got the haymarket books edition which includes a glossary and a reading guide that breaks down the main point of each chapter and provides some necessary historical context (much needed when you go into lenin's work with no idea who the hell karl kautsky is lol).
Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad british lit II course. i remember enjoying heart of darkness when we read it for ap lit, and while i don't think i enjoyed this as much as heart of darkness, conrad's prose is great. i really admire his ambition with writing in a frame narrative, it's a fantastic way to explore subjectivity and truth. marlow is a reliable narrator and yet there are so many strange circumstances and conflicting interests between the people he speaks to that get in the way of him understanding the "truth" about jim. what does it mean to truly know somebody? to collect as many testimonials on their personality as possible and average it all out? to have them relay every intimate detail of their memories and feelings? and does that person even know themself? my favorite quote: "It is when we try to grapple with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering, and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun. It is as if loneliness were a hard and absolute condition of existence; the envelope of flesh and blood on which our eyes are fixed melts before the outstretched hand, and there remains only the capricious, unconsolable, and elusive spirit that no eye can follow, no hand can grasp."