Sunday, July 12, 2009

My "summer" reading list is out of control.


Tonight, Matt and I went to Border's to wander around, which is always fun.  We almost never buy books...instead, I just keep adding books to my must-read list.  As you know, the list started out as a summer reading list.  But...I seem to add books constantly.  I put them in my Blackberry as "Tasks," and then I can check them off as "completed" after I read them.
Yes, I know I'm a nerd.  Whatever.  Like you don't add things to your lists just so you can cross them off.

Anyway!  I added about a million more books to my reading list, and that's when I realized...my summer reading list is out of control.  And I'm pretty sure that it's no longer a "summer" reading list...I think it's just a reading list.  Because I only have a couple more weeks left of summer until school starts back up, and there's no way I'll be reading all of these books in time.

Instead, I thought I would repost my no-longer-summer reading list for you to see.  Clearly, I've barely made a dent.  Books are in alphabetical order by title, because that's how they're listed in my trusty Blackberry.

1. A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey
2. Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown (read)
3. April and Oliver, by Tess Callahan (just added this tonight...it looked cute)
4. Baby Proof, by Emily Giffin
5. Battle Cry of Freedom, by James McPherson (wait a minute...Matt had me take this one down for him.  It's a complete Civil War history, I believe)
6. Belong to Me, by Maria De Los Santos
7. Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster
8. Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall
9. Breaking Dawn, by HELLO you already know who wrote this one
10. Bright Lights, Big Ass, by Jen Lancaster
11. Can You Keep a Secret?, by Sophie Kinsella
12. City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt
13. City of Thieves, by David Benioff
14. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Mark Haddon
15. Eclipse (READ!)
16. Escape, by Carolyn Jessop
17. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (just started this one)
18. In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan
19. Master Your Metabolism, by Jillian Michaels (ahhhh)
20. The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards
21. Merle's Door, by Ted Kerasote
22. Mommywood, by Tori Spelling (don't judge me)
23. My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
24. Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
25. Nudge, by Somebody Thaler and Somebody Sunstein (I guess I skipped first names with this one)
26. Outtakes From a Marriage, by Ann Leary
27. Perfection, by Julie Metz
28. Please Stop Laughing at Me, by Jodee Blanco
29. Pretty in Plaid, by Jen Lancaster
30. Remember Me?, by Sophie Kinsella
31. Rhett Butler's People, by Donald McCaig (currently reading...slowly but surely)
32. Scarlett, by...I don't remember because it's not in front of me (READ!)
33. Shopaholic and Baby, by Sophie Kinsella (READ!)
34. Shopaholic and Sister (READ)
35. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (READ)
36. Shopaholic Ties the Knot (READ)
37. Something Blue, by Emily Giffin
38. Something Borrowed, by Emily Giffin
39. Stori Telling, by Tori Spelling (listened to the audio book on the way to Charlotte...LOVED it...it was like listening to US Weekly for 6 hours!)
40. Such a Pretty Fat, by Jen Lancaster
41. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
42. The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold (listened to the audio book on the way home from Charlotte.  Wow, that was a dark one.  Seriously.  If you want to read a book about a woman who kills her elderly mother, this one's for you!)
43. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz
44. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson (don't know anything about this, but Matt pointed it out at Border's and said it's supposed to be great)
45. The Middle Place, by Kelly Corrigan
46. The Mother Tongue, by Bill Bryson
47. The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
48. The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink
49. The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
50. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
51. When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris (I LOVE him!!!)

Um, wow.  51 books.  I didn't realize there were so many.  So, clearly, I have a lot of reading to do!  If you think I should add any books to my list, let me know!  I am always eager for suggestions.  

So, a question.  What are your top five favorite books of all time?  This is a really hard question for me to answer...I love books and reading so much that I'm not sure I can choose a favorite.  But I'd love to hear yours.  In the meantime, I'll try to figure out what my favorite books are.  

And on that note...I have GOT to finish Rhett Butler's People!  

13 comments:

d.a.r. said...

Cocktails for Three by Madeleine Wickham (Sophie Kinsella is her nom de plume) is fantastic. I also just finished Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz and it was amazing.

Crazy Shenanigans-JMO said...

My favorite book ever is Choke by Stuart Woods. It's about a guy who placed 2nd at Wimbledon because he choked in the final set and how his life is.

Casey (@ Chaos and Cardboard) said...

I really enjoyed:
The Double Bind
The 19th Wife
Bitter is the New Black

I am with you on the reading thing. Except I don't just make a list- I buy them. I have a whole shelf of books to be read. I go to Half Price Books though, so that makes it okay right?

On your list I LOVED: 7, 11, 16, 23, and 47

Liked: 10, 14, 40

Disliked: 1, 2, 20, 37

Have on the shelf: 17, 29, 35

Lisa said...

You should read every book by Emily Giffin, but start with Something Borrowed, then move on to Something Blue. Baby Proof was OK, but definitely not my favorite. Love the One You're With comes in a close 3rd on her list. I read those four books over the course of 2 weeks this summer, which is as fast as I can read at this point. I am thoroughly disappointed that her next book does not come out until the summer of 2010.

Jennifer said...

Good reading list. Alot of what's on your list is on mine too!

jenn said...

i just read Water for Elephants and The Book Thief. I loved both of those and I felt very literary for having read them since they were not chick lit.

My very favorite book of all time, is The Lovely Bones. I also like tons of girly books like : Everyone Worth Knowing, The Devil Wears Prada, Chasing Harry Winston, etc.

AEOT said...

You'll get through it all- I have total confidence!

As for Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, it's weird. Very interesting, very intriuging, but still weird. And it definitely didn't end the way I wanted it to. There are a lot of GREAT books on your list- enjoy, savor, and, if you hate it and you're halfway through, give it up. Life is too short to read awful books!

Anonymous said...

I love your list and that you're reading Rhett Butler's People. I've re-read it at least three times. Also I can't recommend Sophie Kinsella's books enough.

Reg / Steve said...

I love the picture of your reading list -- looks like most rooms in my house. You really should read Stieg Larsson, though -- one of the great antiheroines in all crime fiction lurks in those 3 books. And the 2nd one comes out at the end of the month! Check out by blog for more info: http://reg-stieglarssonsenglishtranslator.blogspot.com/

Sophie Kinsella's best IMHO is The Undomestic Goddess. My wife has already read it 3 times in 2 years, and keeps recommending it to her friends, but none of them ever seems to read it. Don't want to be caught reading "chick lit," I guess. But Sophie is the top of the heap in that genre! I stayed away from the Shopaholic series for a long time since I hate to shop, until I tried the first and second, which deserve all their sales. Becky Bloomwood is a great heroine -- perhaps the antithesis of Lisbeth Salander...

Anonymous said...

Rhett Butler's People is fabulous! I loved all of the "Margaret Mitchell-esque" books. All of the Kinsella and Giffin books are my all time faves-I've read quite a bit of your list, and got some great ideas on what to read next. Great idea!
Susannah from Atlanta

Perfectly Imperfect said...

wow. I can't even pick a top 5. But you've got some great ones on your list!!

And I totally put things on my to-do list that I've already done, just to cross them off!

Reg / Steve said...

And I thought I was nerdlike for keeping a list of all the books I've read in the past 49 years! Hey, it comes in handy.

Lucy Marie said...

My favorite book of all time is Ransom by Julie Garwood.