So in the spirit of adding a little more structure to my life--which I hate and need in almost equal measure--I have decided to sign up for this reading challenge. The idea is to give myself an incentive to whittle down my to-be-read pile. It's not that the books on my list don't sound good to me; I bought them for goodness sake, and I'm pretty well past the need to read for show. No, sadly, these book titles just slipped to the bottom of my pile because I am a book buying magpie, continually distracted by newer, shinier books I hear about. And since I am always attracted to lists of recommended books--well, you get the idea. It took some time to assemble my list, but it was enjoyable. Some of these books I have lying around really sound good! Jeez. I also tried to make sure to include some of those which have lingered the longest. Here goes:
- The Age of Wonder, by Richard Holmes
- Troubles, by J.G. Farrell
- The Color of Water, by James McBride
- Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson
- Shop Class as Soulcraft, by Matthew Crawford
- Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson
- Gate of the Sun, by Elias Khoury
Sea of Poppies, by Amitav Ghosh- Over the Edge of the World, by Laurence Bergreen
- Lonely Planets, by David Grinspoon
- Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut
- Annuls of the Former World, by John McPhee
My alternates are:
- Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens, and
- Enduring Lives, by Carol Lee Flinders
