I was going to post something the other day suggesting that people introduce themselves and then Shiloh beat me to it so I didn't
I probably should introduce myself though.
I'm Emma and I'm 28, from the UK. My blog is A Writer in A Wheelchair. I really love to read and I've been trying to increase my "range" of books away from easy chick lit and into new areas.
Since partway through last year I've been using this list as a bit of inspiration for some of what I read. I'm thinking of not having a number goal this year when it comes to reading - for the last three years the goal has been 100 books which I finally managed in 2009, reading 102 books (72 in 2008 and 93 in 2007). Instead I am making my goal that at least half of the books I read come from that list. This spreadsheet is proving an invaluable tool in doing so.
I'm going to keep a list of books I read this year on my blog and I'm hoping to check in here every week or couple of weeks too depending on what happens with this challenge/blog.
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Congrats on hitting 100. I am also really glad that you are only taking half of what you read from the list - which is known as 'bread and butter' in the book trade - simply because they are assigned, or hot and then NOT (check back in 10 years and most of the books in the first list will leave you with a 'huh?' or 'who?' or 'I remember that'), which means they are west lit heavy, male writer heavy, particular genre heavy.
ReplyDeleteI guess people find the books that make meaning for them - that list is sort of a 'so everyone has the same cultural reference'.
Personally I would rather someone read 'Where the Wild Things Are" than "Bleak House" but I am odd that way.
I wish I had a list to challenge me. I wish I had a list of that which has been ripped out, not voted on or churned out. I wonder if we could find a list like this from each country and make a meta list - like is the Tale of the Genji on the list? There was some 1000 page Chinese book I read which was several hundred years old and the 'classic' of that country. What defines a culture? What is fiction?
Actually that's an interesting comment Beth - the spreadsheet I have about it includes a list of the books that were removed from the earlier version and I've read more of those I think (or I had)
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