[lifestyle] a personal reading list.

I am dead on my feet in college.  Though that still doesn’t mean I need to neglect my literary genius.  After The Bell Jar in May 2010, I have yet to read something substantial.  The other night, I tried reading The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read Them because the author is visiting Wellesley College later on.  The beginning failed to capture my interest completely.

So, last night, while watching Spring Waltz, I crafted a book list that I must read before my brains fall out at the end of 2010.

1. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
2. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
   — Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.  I need a double dose of South Asian literature: Jhumpa + Salman
3. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
   — I read a book that was written by the translator (Edith Grossman) of Marquez into English, so I might as well see what the hubub is all about
4. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. The American, Henry James
   — I’ve read Portrait of a Lady, and that book held a mysterious trance over me.  I hated the writing, but I needed to keep reading.
6. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
7. All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren
8. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
   — tried reading this three times, but something always got in the way.  It was an interesting novel, though.
9. Dead Souls, Nikolai Gogol
10. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
11. Bullet Park, John Cheever
12. The Magus, John Fowles
13. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
    — again, see what all the hubbub is about
14. A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
15. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
    — this will be less scary than watching the movie, and I get my dose of Italian literature
16. The Prophet, Khalil Gibran
    — about this one, I’m a bit skeptical, since it’s a book of self-help and guidance, essentially
17. The Solitude of Prime Numbers, Paolo Giordano
    — if I like this book a lot, I’ll read it in original Italian
18. Falconer, John Cheever

As I finish one, I’ll write a brief, one paragraph review.  Yes, I know.  There are 11 weeks left in 2010.  That means reading more than one book per week.  Can I do it?

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