after weeks of tossing around ideas, i think i've come up with how i want this little endeavor to go down. i'm posting a few guidelines i've come up with to help me focus. i'll also be posting the list of books that i'll be reading. this isn't an attempt to read the classics or all the great books that weren't covered in my college lit classes or books that someone, somewhere thinks are a must-read and will change my life. it's just what's on my shelf. little bit of this, little bit of that. i went back & forth on whether or not to post the list for quite a while. reason being, well, some of the books were given to me as gifts. i confess i was a bit afraid, perhaps even embarassed, to admit that i have not read something that a very thoughtful friend or family carefully chose for me. and, more terrifying (as well as selfish :), that people would stop giving me books for gifts! i can assure you that the amount of books gifted-read far outweighs the list of books gifted-unread.
ok, enough jibber-jabber for now. here's the skinny:
1. books included in this project are only unread books on my shelf as of december 31, 2008, 11:59pm CST.
2. reference books and textbooks have been excluded. fascinating as it is, i'm certain it would take all year just to get through gardner's art through the ages from my art history survey courses. additionally, while i'm sure it would improve my vocabulary, i just have no interest in reading my dictionary and thesaurus from cover to cover this year.
3. for each cookbook on my shelf, i will cook a minimum of one recipe from the book in 2009.
that's all i've got for now. we'll see if i need to make any additions as this progresses.
the reading list:
| Title | Author |
| Tori Amos: Piece by Piece | Amos, Tori and Powers, Ann |
| Primary Colors | Anonymous |
| Oryx and Crake | Atwood, Margaret |
| The Wright 3 | Balliett, Blue |
| How to Talk to Children About Art | Barbe-Gall, Francoise |
| The Excellent 11 | Clark, Ron |
| Dear Mr. Henshaw | Cleary, Beverly |
| Frindle | Clements, Andrew |
| The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar | Dahl, Roald |
| The BFG | Dahl, Roald |
| The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me | Dahl, Roald |
| Wacky Chicks | Doonan, Simon |
| 100 Easy Ways to Get Your Kids Reading | Duey, Kathleen |
| Inspiration | Dyer, Dr. Wayne W. |
| Captivating | Eldredge, John & Stasi |
| Welcome to Lizard Motel | Feinberg, Barbara |
| Color: A Natural History of the Palette | Finlay, Victoria |
| The Bookshop | Fitzgerald, Penelope |
| Seedfolks | Fleischman, Paul |
| Lucky Man | Fox, Michael J. |
| Stone Fox | Gardiner, John Reynolds |
| The Kids' Book Club Book | Gelman, Judy and Krupp, Vicki Levy |
| The E Myth Revisited | Gerber, Michael |
| Tunnels | Gordon, Roderick |
| The First Americans | Hakim, Joy |
| You Can Heal Your Life | Hay, Louise L. |
| Ten Poems to Set You Free | Housden, Roger |
| When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit | Kerr, Judith |
| The Secret Life of Bees | Kidd, Sue Monk |
| Animal, Vegetable, Miracle | Kingsolver, Barbara |
| How Good Do We Have to Be? | Kushner, Harold S. |
| Alias Olympia | Lipton, Eunice |
| The Art Therapy Sourcebook | Malchiodi, Cathy |
| Cesar's Way | Millan, Cesar |
| Starting From Scratch | Moss, Wes |
| Making Kind Choices | Newkirk, Ingrid |
| Island of the Blue Dolphins | O'Dell, Scott |
| Bridge to Terebithia | Paterson, Katherine |
| A Creative Companion | Sark |
| Fast Food Nation | Schlosser, Eric |
| I Like Me | Sedaris, Amy |
| Good-Bye Chunky Rice | Thompson, Craig |
| A Lifetime of Secrets | Warren, Frank |
| The First Days of School | Wong, Harry K. |
what-oh-what will i ever decide to read first?!
the cookbook list:
| Cookbook | Author |
| The Little Black Book of Chocolate | Benjamin, Barbara Block |
| Food Network Favorites | Food Network |
| Crepes | Hamlyn Publishing |
| Picasso, Bon Vivant | Herscher, Ermine |
| Daisy Cooks! | Martinez, Daisy |
| Biscotti | Pappas, Lou Seibert |
| Happy Cooking | Pepin, Jacques |
| Veggie Meals | Ray, Rachael |
| Almost Vegetarian | Shaw, Diana |
| Simply Scones | Weiner, Leslie and Albright, Barbara |
as the infamous text message i received several years ago said, here goes nothing.
ps: if anyone has any helpful html tips on how i can get my picture to scooch over to the right a little bit, i'd be forever thankful. i've looked at the code for this blog template for hours and just can't see how to make that last adjustment!
Start with Good-bye Chunky Rice!
my suggestion? primary colors, in fact, i think i gave that one to you ;) ... great idea, chris. x0x
Good Luck Chris- I'll stay tuned on this little endeavor of yours! By the way, I can't believe you haven't read Tori Amos!! No judgement... ;)
great idea, tell me what book you chose first and I'll try and find it at my library and read it with you!...and so on! The only one on your list I've read is Oryx and Crake and you should definitely do more than one recipe from the Crepe book, I LOVE crepes!-love you, miss you!-aly
penelope fitzgerald's "the bookshop" is a delight...and a quick read, too, at a mere 123 pages.
Haha - great idea for the new year! You know you need to read a book every week or so in order to get through them all this year...not to discourage you - but encourage you! Get to reading! :) Have a great one!
I can't wait for you to master crepes and then invite me over!!! kt
why don't you just read twilight over and over again? hehe :)
bd!