Reading Every Book Mentioned in Roald Dahl’s Matilda

During a recent reread of Matilda, one of my all- time favorite books from my childhood, I came to realize that tiny little Matilda has read far more classics than I, a firm lover of classics, ever have! In childhood I never truly appreciated the variety of important and impactful literature she had read, and instead my focus was firmly set only upon the number of books she had read. But a reread of the novel was all I needed to inspire me to spend my free time attempting to read all of the books mentioned in the novel, and so that is what I am going to attempt to do!

I have no clue how long this will take and I realize it certainly will not be a challenge that can be completed quickly, but is one I am willing to try all the same! There are 18 books in total that I will be trying to read, some of which I own and others I had barely even heard of! 

Below I have categorized the books starting with a full list and then separating them into lists of those that I’ve already read, those that I own, those that I do not own and still need to buy, and those that were never even on my TBR! I’d love to know if you’ve read any of them and if there were any you particularly enjoyed!

 

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The Books Mentioned in Matilda

The books mentioned in Matilda are as follows: 

The Secret Garden, Nicholas Nickleby, Jane Eyre, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Gone To Earth, Kim, The Invisible Man, The Old Man and the Sea, The Sound and the Fury, Grapes of Wrath, Animal Farm, Brighton Rock, The Red Pony, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Just So Stories.

 

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The Books I’ve Already Read

It embarrasses me to admit that I’ve only read two of the books on this list! The first is Tess of the D’Urbervilles which I studied at school and absolutely loved (you can see my full review here!), and the second was Pride and Prejudice which I also loved (full review here!). A lot of the other books have been on my TBR for a very long time but I’ve never gotten around to reading them, so I feel this is the perfect challenge to get through them!!

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Books That I Already Own

I already own a number of the books on the list, meaning I’ll be able to make quite a bit of progress before having to buy the remaining books! These books include The Secret Garden, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Grapes of Wrath, Animal Farm and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Note: I have read the last one but it was so long ago that I’m going to read it again!)

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Books That I Still Need To Buy

The books that I do not yet own include Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, Gone To Earth, Kim, The Invisible Man, The Old Man and the Sea, The Sound and the Fury, Brighton Rock, The Red Pony, and Just So Stories!

And as you can see the books that I still need to buy outweigh those that I already have by quite a far stretch, but I’m not going to let that stop me! My plan is to buy them one at a time once I’ve finished those that I already have so that it is a more manageable challenge!

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Books That Weren’t Even on My TBR

There are a fair number of books on this list that were not even in my TBR prior to my decision to take on this challenge, and I thought it would be fun to include those in a category! These books include Gone To Earth, Kim, Brighton Rock and Just So Stories! The fact that they were not on my TBR is not to say I’m dreading these ones; I look forward to reading these ones all the same and I’m super excited to try to complete the challenge!

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And that wraps up the challenge that I have set for myself! I’d be interested to know whether you’ve given yourself any similar challenges or if you’ve read any of the books on the list and enjoyed them! I really look forward to attempting to complete this challenge, and hope that I will be successful!

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