my very own personal book challenge

So it’s one in the morning and I seriously can’t sleep. Le sigh. So I decided to make a list! I inherited this very useful habit from Mama, as she is a pro as far as list-making goes. I tend to do this when I am very stressed or anxious, as well as re-alphabetize my books and movies.

I’m cool like that.

So I sat in front of my main bookcase and wrote down the books that I have either half-read or haven’t read yet. I have challenged myself to read the 40 (!) books on my list in a year’s time. I have some pretty hefty guys on my list so if I don’t finish in EXACTLY a year, I’m not going to cry about it.

Here’s my listy-list: 

1. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (currently reading)
2. Little Bee by Chris Cleave*
3. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
4. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
5. The Count of Montecristo by Alexandre Dumas
6. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards*
7. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan S. Foer
8. Marley and Me by John Grogan*
9. Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz
10. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
11. Nigger by Randall Kennedy
12. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
13. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer*
14. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
15. Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts
16. The Giver by Lois Lowry (reread)
17. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
18. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
19. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel G. Marquez*
20. Atonement by Ian McEwan*
21. Rhett Butler’s People by Donald McCaig
22. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
23. Wesley the Owl by Stacey O’Brien
24. Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne
25. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
26. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling*
27. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
28. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
29. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
30. Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks*
31. Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence
32. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe*
33. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
34. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
35. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
36. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
37. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
38. Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells
39. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
40. Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff*

*= the books I have started but haven’t finished… 

Now that it is nearing two o’clock, I’m going attempt to sleep. Guess who gets a nap tomorrow? Already can’t wait. Woof.