The Project

I have a serious addiction to acquiring books. I also enjoy reading them . . . but somehow I can't read as quickly as I acquire. I work in publishing, so I get a lot of free books. My friends know I love reading, so I receive a lot of books as gifts. Then, just to top it all off, I go out and buy books . . . new books . . . used books . . . and now I have too many books! So, I've decided to read all the unread books in my apartment over the next, well, however long it takes.

I'm not going to pretend that I will stop acquiring new books until I read all the ones I already have. There are too many big books coming out this fall to do that--a new one from Elizabeth Kostova, a new Audrey Niffenegger novel, and yes, the new Dan Brown. But, I've already cut back.

I was just in New York on business (at BookExpo, where I tried to find some free books, but there were very few to be had this year!) and my friend and I went into The Strand. If you've never been, The Strand is the most wonderful bookstore ever. They have everything you could want . . . and everything you never knew existed. Going in, I told my friend not to let me buy anything. She's quite the bookie too, and she's planning on reading War and Peace soon, so she didn't want to buy anyting either. Well, just like a gym buddy, it helps you stick to the program when you have a friend holding you accountable. We both--amazingly--made it through without buying anything. (Of course, I fully endorse buying lots and lots of things from your local independent bookstores!!)

So, if I slow down my acquisitons, and keep myself accountable with this blog, I really thing I can get through all these books! It may even be easier than getting my Michelle Obama arms . . .

The List (in no particular or any way organized order):

Brideshead Revisted, Evelyn Waugh
The God of Animals, Aryn Kyle
Love in the Present Tense, Catherine Ryan Hyde
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, Tiffany Baker
Fashionably Late, Nadine Dajoani
The Story Girl, L. M. Montgomery
Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
The Red Queen, Margaret Drabble
Madeleine is Sleeping, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum
The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster, Kaye Gibbons
Red River, Lalita Tademy
Two Little Girls in Blue, Mary Higgins Clark
The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Noisy Outlaws, Unfriend Blobs, and Some Other Things that Aren's as Scary, McSweeney's/826NY
Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland
The Shop on Blossom Street, Debbie Macomber
No Place Like Home, Mary Higgins Clark
Spooner, Peter Dexter
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
Imagined London, Anna Quindlen
Yeah Dave's Guide to Livin' the Moment, David Romanelli
American Wife, Curtis Sittenfeld
Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him, Danielle Ganek
Complete Stories, Dorothy Parker
A Beginning, a Muddle, and an End, Avi
A Crooked Kind of Perfect, Linda Urban
Jack Plank Tells Tales, Natalie Babbitt
Our Lady of the Forest, David Guterson
Harry, Revised, Mark Sarvas
The Bitch Switch, Omarosa
Emma Brown, Clare Boylan
America's Queen, Sarah Bradford
Sweetsmoke, David Fuller
The Grift, Debra Ginsberg
Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fanny & Zooey, J. D. Salinger
Falling in Love with Natasha, Anna Manardo
Flesh and Blood, Michael Cunningham
The Emperor of Ocean Park, Setphan L. Carter
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
The Monsters of Templeton, Lauren Graff
Songs for the Missing, Stewart O'Nan
The Book of Unholy Mischief, Elle Newnark
Jane Austen's Guide to Dating, Lauren Henderson
The Road to Yesterday, L. M. Montgomery
Billy Budd, Herman Melville
The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
Howard's End, E. M. Forster
Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
Les Liaison Dangereuses, Laclos
The Winter Rose, Jennifer Donnelly
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
Petite Anglaise, Catherine Danderson
The Hour I First Believed, Wally Lamb