Reading My Shelves in 2019: Literature Shelf 1

Every year I say I want to read more of the books that are already on my shelves.
Every year I don't read as many as I would have liked.
This year, I have a plan.

I am planning to focus on one fiction shelf per month (that will be 12 of my 14 shelves in that category). I will read (or begin to read) at least one book from my focus shelf each month.

But first, I have to choose.

January's shelf has 26 books. Of those, I've read 9. Every one of these are books I have re-read and plan to re-read again (I don't keep them if I don't think I'll re-read them.), but that's not what this challenge is for.

Emma - Jane Austen
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
The Rosary - Frances Barclay
The Broken Halo - Frances Barclay
The Lilies of the Field - William Barrett
Jayber Crow - Wendell Berry


These are the books I haven't read yet:

Tales from Watership Down - Richard Adams
Traveller - Richard Adams
Prometheus Bound - Aeschylus
Crime and Mr. Campion - Margery Allingham (volume includes Death of a Ghost, Flowers for the Judge, and Dancers in Mourning)
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
Francis Bacon (volume includes Advancement of Learning, Novum Organum, and New Atlantis)
The Best Short Stories of J. G. Ballard
Eugenie Grandet - Balzac
The Forgetting Room - Nick Bantock
The Golden Mean - Nick Bantock
The Gryphon - Nick Bantock
Alexandria - Nick Bantock
Nod - Adrian Barnes
The Admirable Crichton - J. M. Barrie
The Little Minister - J. M. Barrie
A Window in Thrums - J. M. Barrie
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult - Joseph Bedier

At the pace I'm going, I don't anticipate reading more than one or two of these this month. I'm not looking for anything really heavy right now, as I have a few heavier books scheduled with my local Schole group.

I am interested in Richard Adams because my husband read Watership Down aloud to me in our first year of marriage and it's a lovely memory.

I think I'll probably pick Margery Allingham up. I've read one of her books before and her hero reminded me a bit of Lord Peter in Dorothy Sayers mysteries.

Balzac looks interesting. I've never read any of his books before.

I am attracted to J. M. Barrie's novels, but I am hesitating because I have never been able to get through his Peter Pan. However, these seem quite different from that, so maybe it will be okay.

I am not particularly interested in Nick Bantock or Adrian Barnes ... those are my husband's books. However, if I have time I may run through the Bantock volumes because they'll be quick reads.

What do you think? Is there anything on my list that you consider a must-read?

What would you read first?