Numerous things are driving my new year's resolution to create a reading list.
One is the 22nd Ave Book Club, which consists of a group of women in my neighborhood. This is not the world's most serious book club: we read a book every other month but we meet monthly. Since half of us don't finish the assigned book and since we spend more time partying than discussing books anyway, we decided this is a more realistic schedule than a book a month. But there are those six books a year to be read.
The second thing that requires structure in my reading is the SAABS Book Club, which is a group of five women in my family who have created an online group to read together. Sandy, Ann, Anita, Beth, and Shirl will read a book a month and discuss it in round robin emails. (My name is Mary Shirley, which is what my family calls me, often shortened to Shirl. Thus the last S.)
A third reading situation with deadlines is Let's Talk About It: Jewish Literature, a lecture series sponsored by the ALA and Nextbook that I've been attending at the local library. (It's terrific, by the way, and if they do it at your library don't hesitate to jump on the bandwagon.) There are only two books left in this season's series, both due in January, but there will be another lecture series starting in September.
In addition, I've been reading along with an online Anthony Trollope group for about a decade. I have to summarise six chapters of Framley Parsonage by the 14th of January, which requires me to re-read the entire book, then to re-read the six chapters a few more times before I even start writing. (I had better get going, hadn't I?)
Another reading challenge for me is reading challenges. I seldom join them because I have difficulty meeting the deadlines. I joined the Outmoded Authors Challenge (and I'm now three months behind) and I was ever so close to joining the From the Stacks Challenge. That one runs from 1 November to 31 January and requires that you read at least one book a month from the stacks of books you have had about the house for at least six months. The tough part is that you are forbidden to buy any new books for the duration - or borrow them from the library. That put the kibosh on joining From the Stacks, but I plan to read for it on my own. Starting with the new year is another challenge that I find intriguing called First in a Series. You are asked to read one book a month during 2008 that is the first in a series. The books can range from a murder mystery to Swann's Way.
I have read four of the 18 books (there's overlap) on the NY Times and NBCC lists of the 10 best books of 2007, a project I undertake with varying success every year. I've dismissed Tree of Smoke as unreadable and I have my doubts about finishing Out Stealing Horses, which is very Norwegian and is so powerful it's tearing me to shreds. But that leaves me with 12 books to read before the new lists come out in December of 2008. None of these books is by Danielle Steel or Garrison Keillor. They are all heavy going and not to be read in an evening or easily forgotten when finished.
For some years now I've been reading many of the books on the various Mock Newbery lists in an attempt to predict the winner. (I'm about 0 for 10.) This year's award will be announced on 14 January (I think) so time grows short and the list is long.
I have acquired a 24 lecture course from The Learning Company on the English novel. I've read all the books mentioned in the lecture titles excepting some Dickens and Hardy, so the reading for that may not be overly difficult (she said hopefully.)
100 Great American Novels You've (Probably) Never Read has been a great find. The books it offers give promise of truly being "great" as the author claims. I have acquired a dozen of them through Book Mooch, I own a few, and the Spokane Library owns a few more. So I'm all set to begin reading, perhaps as frequently as a book a week.
And there's War and Peace (out in a new translation, it therefore needs re-reading.) And Our Mutual Friend (never read it.) And Middlemarch (I read it at 18 and undoubtedly missed half of what it was about.) And A Man Without Qualities (I got through volume one and by golly I intend to get through volume two.)
Tomorrow: The List