The Hunt for The Second Book

Whew! After several hunts through our bookcases, I've ascertained that these are books we own that are on The List:

1. Augustine's Confessions


2. Beowulf


3. Bronte's Wuthering Heights


4. Cervantes' Don Quixote


5. Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans


6. Dante's Divine Comedy


7. Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities


8. Dickens' David Copperfield


9. Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov


10. Ellison's Invisible Man


11. Golding's The Lord of the Flies


12. Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude


13. Melville's Moby Dick


14. Mitchell's Gone with the Wind


15. Shelley's Frankenstein


16. Stevenson's Kidnapped


17. Stevenson's Treasure Island


18. Thoreau's Walden

Now, for a Random Integer: The winner is...#3, which is Wuthering Heights. Good. I'll actually read that. (I've heard that it's morose and glum to the max. Maybe their melodromatic gloom will cheer me up.)

Grapes of Wrath Fail

I'm ashamed to admit it, after all that rigmarole, but I'm going to have to choose yet another book.

Why?

1. I don't own The Grapes of Wrath.
2. I didn't buy it at The Big Used Bookstore here in Chattanooga.
3. I don't want to get it at the library at this time.
4. To be honest...I don't really want to read it right now! If I don't want to, I won't.

So...new book choice is on the way. I promise.

Choosing Book #2: A Conversation with Myself.

I'm done with the Lord of the Rings. What should I read next?

Here's the complete list (it's long, so I made it small). I'm going to eliminate some and then see if I can choose from the remaining:
Alcott's The Young Man's Guide
Augustine's Confessions
Beowulf
Bronte's Wuthering Heights
Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita
Calvin's The Institutes
Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People
Cervantes' Don Quixote
Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans
Dante's Divine Comedy
Darwin's Origin of Species
Delillo's White Noise
Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Dickens' David Copperfield
Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment
Eliot's Four Quartets
Ellison's Invisible Man
Friedan's The Feminine Mystique
Gladwell's The Tipping Point
Golding's The Lord of the Flies
Graham's The Wind in the Willows
Heller's Catch-22
Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls
Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey
Kerouak's Slaughterhouse-Five
Kierkegaard's Christian Discourses
Kingston's The Woman Warrior
Machiavelli's The Prince
Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude
Martel's Life of Pi
Melville's Moby Dick
Mitchell's Gone with the Wind
Morrison's Beloved
Nietzche's Beyond Good and Evil
Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Pizan's The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry
Plato's The Republic
Rand's Atlas Shrugged
Rand's The Fountainhead
Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
Shalit's A Return to Modesty
Shelley's Frankenstein
Sjoholm's Incognito Street
Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
Stevenson's Treasure Island
Sun Tzu's The Art of War
Thoreau's Walden
Tolstoy's Anna Karenina
Tolstoy's War and Peace
Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace's Ben Hur
Wharton's The House of Mirth
Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
Winner's Real Sex
Woolf's To the Lighthouse
Wright's Native Son

First, eliminate British authors. I want a little bit of well-roundedness. That leaves this list:

1. Alcott's The Young Man's Guide


2. Augustine's Confessions


3. Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita


4. Calvin's The Institutes


5. Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People


6. Cervantes' Don Quixote


7. Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans


8. Dante's Divine Comedy


9. Delillo's White Noise


10. Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov


11. Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment


12. Ellison's Invisible Man


13. Friedan's The Feminine Mystique


14. Gladwell's The Tipping Point


15. Heller's Catch-22


16. Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls


17. Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey


18. Kerouak's Slaughterhouse-Five


19. Kierkegaard's Christian Discourses


20. Kingston's The Woman Warrior


21. Machiavelli's The Prince


22. Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude


23. Martel's Life of Pi


24. Melville's Moby Dick


25. Mitchell's Gone with the Wind


26. Morrison's Beloved


27. Nietzche's Beyond Good and Evil


28. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance


29. Pizan's The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry


30. Plato's The Republic


31. Rand's Atlas Shrugged


32. Rand's The Fountainhead


33. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye


34. Shalit's A Return to Modesty


35. Sjoholm's Incognito Street


36. Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency


37. Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich


38. Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath


39. Sun Tzu's The Art of War


40. Thoreau's Walden


41. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina


42. Tolstoy's War and Peace


43. Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five


44. Wallace's Ben Hur


45. Winner's Real Sex


46. Wharton's The House of Mirth


47. Woolf's To the Lighthouse


48. Wright's Native Son

Ok. Now, I will see what happens when I get a random integer: #22 is the lucky winner....that's...let me scroll up...Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.

...I'm trying again. (read here for the Official List of Excuses: I already started it once. This time I'm wanting to read something I have little to no prior relationship with. I just 'reconciled' with one book.)

Again: 24...that's Melville's Moby Dick.

OooooKay. Yeah, no.

One more try: 38...that's Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. All right. Thaaaat's the one! That's the lucky winner!

What this is

So, it occurred to me that my 30th birthday is just around the corner! In some ways, I've already gone through the "Oh. my. word. that's. the. FIRST OVER-THE-HILL! Ack!" wave of emotions because my older sister (and only sibling) already turned thirty a year ago...but still. It's a landmark age, people.

Some people make a pre-bucket list, filled with goals like "I want to go skydiving" and "I'm going to learn to water-ski, make a souffle, and shoot a hole-in-one in golf!" Not me!

Why is that?

1) Those things are expensive, and I'm afraid I can't afford them.
2) Skydiving? Water-skiing? Golf? No thanks. I don't enjoy sports and athletics now, and I'd hardly commemorate my thirtieth birthday happily if I torment myself with a year one failed attempt after another to improve my frustratingly lame gross-motor skills.

The question is, what sort of List is appropriate to me? Those who know me, especially those who have known me a majority of these (nearly) thirty years will say a list of books!

So there it is. I'm reading thirty books (or trying to) before I turn thirty.