Last year, I was able to {barely} meet my goal of reading 52 books in 2011.  The list, if you’re interested, is posted here.

This year, I have the same goal as far as quantity, but I’ve decided the books will all come from my own bookshelf.*  My reasoning here is that I have TONS of books, which I cart around from place to place, without ever reading many of them.  For the most part, I’ve never read the books on this year’s list.  There are a few that I’m sure I’ve read parts of, and I’m re-reading a couple favorites, but, for the most part, these are new-to-me books.

*Exceptions: Several books have been stolen from my mom’s bookshelf, which is in our shared living room, which technically makes it mine. A couple books belong to McKnight.  And I’ve allowed myself to purchase about 5 new books, which are in the mail.

Not surprisingly, the list contains a wide variety of genres and time periods, and only one or two authors are getting double billing–Ondaajte is one of them, as I had already ordered his new book, The Cat’s Table, before discovering I actually have a copy of Divisadero which I’ve never read.

While I like using Goodreads to keep track of my list, as well as my progress, I don’t like their book review feature AT ALL.  I figure since no one reads my book reviews anyway, I can just put them here on my blog.  That will have the added bonus of getting me back into writing on a weekly, if not a couple times a week, basis.  The reviews will also fit nicely into my overall goal this year, which is to get back to looking at the world as a Writer; so, I’ll be evaluating each book in the manner of a craft annotation, except the format will be my own (no pesky mentors to tell me what font to use or how long these should be!).  The point here is not just to remember what it is I like or don’t like about each book–or just to remember I actually read it!–but to make a recording of the aspects of craft that did or did not impress me.  I confess, I do this automatically in my head each time I read a book–and I’ve been known to mark up a text that particularly amazes or disgusts me, but I rarely officially record these thoughts in any meaningful way.  2012 beware: lee lee the writer is back.

Am I setting up a goal that’s too large?  Probably.  I’ve never, ever, ever been good at consistently blogging about anything.  But I’m going with the philosophy that even meeting my goals partially is cause for celebration.  Assuming I can forgive myself for the 20 or 30 book reviews that don’t make it into this blog, this is sure to be a success.

As for the order I will read the books in, I’m kind of playing that by ear.  I’m thinking it will be good to sample the genres, instead of getting stuck in one until I’m sick of it.  But, given that I’m already behind, it’s more likely that I’ll “catch up” by reading all of the “fluff” texts first.

Well, what are we waiting for? Here’s the list:

Classic/-ish Literature

The Sound & The Fury, Faulkner

A Passage to India, Forester

Death in Venice (stories), Mann

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain (*am ashamed to say I’ve never read this!)

Native Son, Richard Wright

The Bostonians, James (*may replace with The Americans, can’t decide…)

Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Lawrence

To Kill  a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (*according to PK, she read this aloud to us when we were little; but I don’t remember it)

The Wedding, Dorothy West

The Complete Stories of Truman Capote

The Ghost Writer, Philip Roth (*this is a re-read)

Paradise, Toni Morrison

The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway

The Power & the Glory or The Comedians, Graham Greene

Memoir/Non-Fiction

Magic Trees of the Mind, Marian Diamond

Wasted, Marya Hornbacher

The Sweeter the Juice, Shirlee Taylor Haizlip

O Come Ye Back to Ireland, Niall Williams

Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion (*parts of this will be a re-read)

The Dance of Initmacy, Harriet Lerner

A Poet’s Grammar (ED), Cristanne Miller

In Search of Emily, Masako Takeda

A Girl Like I, Anita Loos

Bringing Up Geeks, Marybeth Hicks

Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott

Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi

Craft

Inventing the Truth, William Zinsser (ed.)

Writing Fiction, a Guide, Janet Burroway

Punch & Beauty, A. J. Verdelle (*hoping to read this one; I think it will be released later this year)

Words Overflown by Stars, David Jauss (*new purchase!)

One Year to a Writing Life, Susan Tiberghien (*new purchase!)

Contemporary Authors

Scent of the Past (stories), Wayne Brown

The Clock Winder, Anne Tyler

Neverwhere, Neil Gaman

Empire Falls, Richard Russo

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

Saturday, Ian McEwan

The Book and the Brotherhood, Iris Murdoch

Testimony, Anita Shreve

Throw Like  Girl (stories), Jean Thompson

Certain Girls, Jennifer Weiner

Divisadero AND The Cat’s Table, Micahel Ondaajte (*Cat’s Table is a new purchase!)

The Words of Every Song, Liz Moore

I was Told There’d be Cake, Sloane Crosley

The History of the Siege of Lisbon, Jose Saramago

Typical American, Gish Jen (*may have read this before; can’t remember)

Departures, Lorna J. Cook

Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury

The Feedsack Dress, Carolyn Mulford

The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach (*paperback version comes out this summer; I pre-ordered it)

Once it’s been read, I’ll make the title of the book a link to my review on this blog. If you want to check out any of the books or authors, Goodreads is a start. Again, the list is here.