Barbara's Random Thoughts

I was surveying my bookshelves the other night, and, geek that I am, making a list of books I intend to read in the coming year. One of my roommates asked me what I was doing, and commented, "Oh, I thought you'd read all of those." Ha, yeah right. My continually unreached goal is to have read all the books I've purchased. Well, you know, the reading books. (This excludes textbooks, reference books, anthologies, stuff like that. Naturally.)

Anyway, in order to make myself feel guilty a year from now, I present to you (in no particular order) a list of the books I own but have not yet read, and intend to read in 2005.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Rape of the Fair Country, Alexander Cordell
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, John Steinbeck
The Once and Future King, T.H. White
Watership Down, Richard Adams
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb
China Boy, Gus Lee
Certain Women, Madeleine L'Engle
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
The Golden Key, George Macdonald
Foolscap, Michael Malone
The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton
The Language Police, Diane Ravitch

Wow, I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I haven't read some of those yet. A Tale of Two Cities?! And I called myself an English major. This list doesn't even cover all of the books I own but have not yet read. Ah, the guilt of unread books. Perhaps one day I will conquer it.