I may regret announcing this resolution to my fellow Gatherers, but I have officially challenged myself to read 50 books in 2008. Quick math shows that I'm signed up to ingest a book about every eight days, at an average of around 40-50 pages a day. Ambitious? You bet. Possible? Um, I'm not actually sure. But I am going to make a valiant and somewhat public effort to do it.
To stay on track, I'm logging each of my 50 reads into a Google doc (a link to which I'll post in the next "50 Book Blog" entry) and planning out at least two books in advance. And, most pertinently to this audience, I plan on drafting up a brief review here on Gather after every two books.
I'm also taking suggestions -- that's where you all come in. I'll consider just about anything published in (or translated to) English in the last 150 years, provided it's under 400 pages. (Please, have mercy.) I'm allowing myself to count up to five books that I've already read (not in the past two years), and at least 15 of the books have to be non-fiction. I'm open to all formats including paper, audio, or electronic (I do have a first-gen Sony Reader). Fire away.
So welcome to the first of -- hopefully -- 26 total entries in the 50 Book Blog. First up: The Blind Side by Michael Lewis and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Stay tuned for the reviews.
And wish me luck.
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Chris Steib is a writer, editor, and digital product manager living in Harlem, New York.
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Comments: 16
Perhaps you will encourage me to pick up the great novels again.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
http://www.unc.edu/~mason/hand.html
For one thing, it's free so if you start reading it and don't like it you can always stop without it having cost you more than time.
For another thing, the main idea in the book is unique. You will find the idea nowhere else in literature.
Third, though fiction, the book is quite educational. You will understand much that doesn't make sense about our society and the course of history from having read the novel.
Fourth, from the comments of those who have read some of the chapters, the book is really good and you will enjoy reading it. You can look at the comments for yourself, of course.
Last, if you do read the book I will agree to read any online publication of yours that you choose and discuss it via email with you. Deal?
other books that are very short and very good: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest hemingway.
I want to reread some classics. "House of Seven Gables" by Hawthorne is first on the list.
Best of luck to you in your endeavor.
good luck
First, though,
comment 1: you must have nothing else to do all day but read. I see your occupation and think that might be true.
comment 2: I read often (though not as often as you think you're going to), and only like books that I can't put down so keep me up at night. The list is short.
comment 3: I'm anxious to read your reviews of the abovementioned books. I can't decide whether to read another Cormac McCarthy book. I still can't decide what I think of his _The Road_ .
The three unputdownables I can think of now are
_The Good German_ by Kanon. If you saw the movie, believe me, it's nothing like the book, which is excellent.
_The Hot Zone_ by Preston. This is great nonfiction.
_Demon in the Freezer_ by Preston. This is also great nonfiction. It should frighten you.
_We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families_ by Philip Gourevitch. More excellent nonfiction.
_Under the Banner of Heaven_ by Jon Krakauer. More excellent nonfiction, I think better than his other books.
_Atlas Shrugged_ by Ayn Rand. You either love it or hate it. I loved it.
_Atonement_ by Ian McEwan. A lot of people don't care for his books. But I think you'd appreciate, as I do, his beautiful writing. Sometimes I reread sentences just because they sounded so good.
_Enduring Love_ by Ian McEwan. Although fiction, it's based on fact. Be sure to read the appendix, too. Very interesting. I liked this more than _Atonement_.
_The Innocent Man_ by John Grisham. I don't like his fiction. This is his only nonfiction and is quite different from his fiction.
_No Second Chance_ by Harlen Coben. It's a far cry from my other unputdownables, but Coben is so, so funny, he's unlike other mystery writers.
_Gone Baby Gone_ by Dennis Lehane. Although fiction and written a couple/few years ago, it reminds me of the Madeline McCann case.
If you're looking for excellent stuff that won't take forever to read, I would highly recommend "S." by Slavenka Drakulic. It tells the (fictionalized composite) story of a Bosnian woman who is forced into prostitution in a Serbian prison camp during the recent Balkan civil war. Brilliant, thought-provoking, heart-provoking, and only about 200 pp.