Lauren Ducommun

It’s that time of year again, when I don’t quite know what day it is, but during all the respite, bookish plans are proposed. I like to enter a new year of reading with some sort of intentionality.

For the past eight years, I’ve kept a Moleskine journal of places I want to see in the United Kingdom. It looks like this dream may become a reality, as my son and I are in the throes of planning a trip in spring 2017.

With that in mind, I’m devoting 2026 to reading about all things British. British legends and literature are also among my favorite stories, so this is a reading challenge I would enjoy regardless of whether our trip becomes a reality or not.

Perhaps you are both an Anglophile and a bibliophile and would like to join this British reading challenge! I’ve chosen five categories: British History, British Myths & Legends, Brit Lit, British Theologians, and British Publishers. You can download the reading challenge for free below! And tag me (@laurenducommun) on Instagram if you are participating!

Here are some recommendations: (I’ll update the list later this week with more options)

British History

• Our Island Story
• The Birth of Britain
• Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede

British Myths & Legends

• Beowulf
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Pearl
• King Arthur
• The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White
• Galahad and the Grail by Malcolm Guite (pre-order now)

Brit Lit

• George MacDonald
• Black Beauty by
• The Little Duke by Charlotte Yonge
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream or MacBeth by Shakespeare
• The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

British Theologians

• Charles Spurgeon
• John Bunyan
• John Flavel
• Michael Reeves
• C.S. Lewis
• J.I. Packer
• David Martyn Lloyd-Jones
• Richard Baxter
• Andrew Fuller
• Carl Trueman
• Rebecca McLaughlin
• Natalie Brand

British Publishers

• Evangelical Press
• The Good Book Company UK
• Union Publishing
• Canterbury Press