Skip to main content

2009: 50 Book Challenge

If you're at all like me, you try very hard not to let the books in your house run wild. No matter how many books I read each year, I always seem to buy even more.

So for 2009, I've decided to try something novel: the plan is to read from books I already own, and not buy any additional books for an entire year. Is that doable? I don't know.

Here's the challenge: I don't care if you buy more books in 2009 or not. I just want you to read 50 books. Are you up to it?

I tried to narrow my selection to the "Top 50 Books to Read for 2009," but I couldn't narrow it to 50. But here's an idea (subject to change) of what I plan to read in 2009 (in no particular order):

Scott Adams -- God's Debris
Scott Adams -- The Religion War
Chuck Klosterman -- Killing Yourself to Live
Chuck Klosterman -- Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
Chuck Klosterman -- IV
Russell Baker -- Growing Up
Frank McCourt -- Angela's Ashes
Frank McCourt -- 'Tis
Lee Stringer -- Sleepaway School
Claude Brown -- Manchild in the Promised Land
Ruthie Bolton -- Gal
Luis Rodriguez -- Always Running
Jim Knopfel -- Ruining It for Everybody
Brent Staples -- Parallel Time
Mary Roach -- Stiff
Mary Roach -- Spook
Mary Roach -- Bonk
Michael Palin -- Hemingway's Chair
Eric Idle -- The Road to Mars
Eric Idle -- The Greedy Bastard Diary
Robert Greene -- Seduction
Robert Greene -- War
Carl Sagan -- The Dragons of Eden
Carl Sagan -- Broca's Brain
Carl Sagan -- Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Carl Sagan -- Pale Blue Dot
Carl Sagan -- Billions & Billions
Conversations with Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan -- The Varieties of Scientific Experience
Brian Greene -- The Elegant Universe
John McWhorter -- Losing the Race
John McWhorter -- Winning the Race
John McWhorter -- Authentically Black
Mick Foley -- Scooter
Nathan McCall -- Them
James McBride -- Song Yet Sung
James McBride -- Miracle at St. Anna
J. K. Rowling -- Harry Potter #5
J. K. Rowling -- Harry Potter #6
J. K. Rowling -- Harry Potter #7
Jamaica Kincaid -- Mr. Potter
Jamaica Kincaid -- Annie John
Ernest Gaines -- In My Father's House
Ernest Gaines -- A Gathering of Old Men
Ernest Gaines -- Of Love and Dust
Ernest Gaines -- Catherine Carmier
Ernest Gaines -- Mozart and Leadbelly
Tim O'Brien -- July, July
Tim O'Brien -- Tomcat in Love
Richard Wright -- Eight Men
Walker Percy -- The Thanatos Syndrome
Walker Percy -- Signposts in a Strange Land
Walker Percy -- The Moviegoer
Walker Percy -- The Last Gentleman
Walker Percy -- The Message in the Bottle
Bret Easton Ellis -- The Informers
Bret Easton Ellis -- Glamorama
Bret Easton Ellis -- Lunar Park
Chinua Achebe -- A Man of the People
Chinua Achebe -- Anthills of the Savannah
Chinua Achebe -- Arrow of God

Up for the challenge? What 50 books do you plan to read? Let me know.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jesus and the Inconvenience of His Word to American Christians

I'm not a preacher, but if you follow the teachings of Jesus, it was he who said: Do to others as you would have them do to you. That's from Luke 6:31 , and reading all of Luke 6 isn't a bad way to spend five minutes of your time.  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%206&version=NIV I guess a lot of Christians understand the Golden Rule and practice it in their daily lives. Others, however, especially political Christians (and specifically those promoting Christian Nationalism) seem to ignore the Golden Rule. They don't care about humanitarian issues. They claim they either don't exist, aren't the problem of the United States, or are the fault of the victims. They counter with distractions like, "Why do you care so much about THEM when you should be caring about the REAL people who matter?" Sorry, but I don't recall Jesus ever dividing people into those who matter more and those who matter less. Of course, Jesus also said not to j...
Post a Comment
Read more

Microblogging? The Future of Writing with ADHD

Bill Bennett is a very common name. Right now, I'm reading a book by the Australian film maker Bill Bennett. He hiked the Camino in 2013 and then wrote a book (and made an Australian movie, not available in the U.S.) about it.  Seems he kept a blog about that hike, too. I went to look for his Camino blog, and found he started one years after the hike, but he didn't post regularly... His last post from 2022 announced his had Parkinson's and had kept the diagnosis secret for 4 years.  Now that almost three years have passed from that post, I wonder what's happened to him.  Blogs are weird. They just sit there. Anyone can stumble upon them, and read them. So I decided to keep looking for his Camino blog.  https://billbennett.blog/home/ *** And I found another Bill Bennett, this one from New Zealand, who keeps a microblog. It's current and updated. "What's a microblog?" My wife asked. Well, I said, it's a small blog. Just a sentence or two for a post. ...
Post a Comment
Read more