When I turned eighteen, I joined a book club. It was called being a Literature major at Point Loma Nazarene University. When I entered my freshman year of college, I loved to read. In fact, I still read books outside of my Literature studies. By the time I entered my senior year, however, I was reading 400-500 pages of assigned reading a night. Needless to say, reading lost a bit of its charm for me.
A few months after I graduated, I suddenly felt the urge to read again and realized that I had the freedom to read whatever I wanted without being required to write a 10 page thesis on it. So I skimmed through my bookshelves and picked out a book that I was shocked I had never read - The Great Gatsby. It was exhilarating! I could read at my own leisure, I didn't have to take notes, and I didn't have to think about the Modern Era once!
Since then, I have been actively working my way through a reading list, and I thought that I would share this list and my progress here on the blog. The titles below are all of the books that I have left on my list, and it contains all genres, including business books as well as literary classics that I somehow have still not read, even after four years of reading 500 pages of literature a night. Here's my list of books, in no particular order, that I hope to read in 2009:
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell (in the middle of it right now and almost finished)
Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
Tribes - Seth Godin
Purple Cow - Seth Godin
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert T. Kiyosaki
Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
Traveling Mercies - Anne Lamott
Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Never Eat Alone - Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz
The Sound and The Fury - William Faulknor
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey
The Power of a Praying Wife - Stormie Omartian
Phew! Not sure if I can make it through all of these, but I'm certainly going to try. Any other suggestions?
Hugs,
Erin
15 comments
Vowell, Gilbert, and Wroblewski | The Youngrens - [...] sure that many of you are simply dying to know my progress on my 2009 Reading List – ok I’m sure most of you forgot completely about my little reading series, so [...]
Gail - The Time Traveler’s Wife (I love that book..and bonus, they are making it a movie, so if you read it before August you can go see it!)
The Book Thief (next to To Kill A Mockingbird, this is one of my favorite books of all time)
And I, too, adore The Great Gatsby… everything – the time period, the story, the meaning of the green light. My husband’s name is Nick and I have dog named Daisy..I joke we need another pet named Gatsby to complete the picture!
stefanie - Hey! You should add Memoirs of a Geisha…soooooo good. Also, there is a cool website called Goodreads.com that some friends and I belong too. You can put the books you have read as well as books you want to read on it, and it is very easy. Then you can read other’s reviews of the books, see what your friends thought, or review the books you read. I recommend it!
stan cross - oh dang!!! Here goes:
- At the center of the storm (You can’t trust a CIA spook. Can you trust a disgruntled one?)
- Savage Holiday by Richard Wright
- The Age of Turbulance by Alan Greenspan (history from an economic perspective)
Jeff Cleveland - I loved The Kite Runner but I loved his other book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, even more. Highly, highly recommended.
Jessi - Things Fall Apart, The Power of a Praying Wife, The Kite Runner… All fabulous. Can’t wait to see you guys soon!! Enjoy your reading.
Mark Leonard - Anne Lamott is one of my favorite authors, and Bird by Bird is my favorite book of hers. I loved it. If you like Anne Lamott, I’d check out Kathleen Norris and Bill Bryson. I recommend adding Norris’ Dakota to the list.
Jackie - This is another great book: From Good to Great by Jim Collins.
Jeff Marmins - p.s. You will be surprised at the relationship between Ferrazzi and The Great Gatsby. It has something to do with naming his compnay Ferrazzi Greenlight and launching greenlightcommunity.com (think about the green light on Daisy’s dock)
Jeff Marmins - Josh, great list. some of these are on min too. You haven’t read Never Eat Alone yet? It will change your perception of how to connect and build relationships with others. The author is launching “Who’s Got Your Back” now. you should check into it. that one is on my list for sure.
joyful weddings - Good for you! Your list made me laugh- some of the books brought back funny memories from high school- the sound & the fury & things fall apart. My husband just read traveling mercies and loved it.
Shannon - Just kidding…only 8 people didn’t make it….not that that’s that much better….(did I really just use ‘that’ three times and it makes sense?!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Everest_Disaster
Shannon - I read Little Women (and by read I mean listened to…that’s all I have time for anymore it seems like!) when I was out there visiting you guys….it’s a really charming read/listen and I’m currently in the middle of Robinson Cursoe, which is also a great read. I recently read two Jon Krakauer books…he’s an AMAZING author…In the Wild and Into Thin Air…I liked Into Thin Air much more….it’s a personal account of his experience on Mt. Everest, when a freak storm took over and 12 people didn’t make it back. I also listened to those….and fell in love with the guy who read them…great voice. =)
Austin - That’s quite a list. I am also an avid reader, if you do not own all of those books, let me know before you buy them. I own several of them. I’ve got probably 50+ books that I have yet to read on my shelves. There’s just not enough time in the world to read all of the books I want to read…
Josh - I really want to read Outliers as well. Also, Freakonomics is AMAZING. Feel free to borrow my copy.