Monday, January 3, 2011

Top Ten Tuesday - 2011 Resolutions!

A new year is here, and that means new book goals. Luckily the ladies over at The Broke and The Bookish read  my mind! This week's Top Ten Tuesday Topic is -
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because they are particularly fond of lists over at The Broke and the Bookish. I'm sure they'd love to share your lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten list.

Top Ten Books I resolve to read in 2011!

1. Anna Karenina/War & Peace (or both) - Leo Tolstoy - I generally like Russian Literature. Well, I guess I say this more speculatively then factually. I like the idea of Russian Literature, and the parts of Anna and W&P that I have read I have enjoyed. I'd be lying if I said the size of these works didn't intimidate me a little. I just downloaded War & Peace to my kindle, so maybe now that I always have it on me it'll get read.

2. Bastard Out of Carolina - Dorothy Allison - Okay, so I don't actually know what this book is about, but last fall my roommate lent it to me along with Running with Scissors (which I did read) and insisted I read it. It's been on my bookshelf ever since. Since she's a pretty awesome roommate I trust her judgement and vow to get her book back to her read and hopefully enjoyed.

3. ALL OF THE BOOKS I GOT FOR CHRISTMAS - This year I got Distant Hours, Neverwhere, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, Kelland, Black Swan Rising, Wolf Hall, Innocent Traitors and The Matchmaker of Periord (also Holiday's on Ice and The Shadow of the Wind, but they are now irrelevant to this point). Last year I also got a sizable number of books, and to my dismay I only got through 3 of them before I got distracted and/or bought other books. This year I want to prove that my eye's weren't bigger than my stomach and make a sizable dent in this list by my birthday in July.

4. The Virgin Widow - Anne O'Brien - I got this as an ARC several months ago, and I'm pretty sure it's already come out. I feel pretty bad about this, since I did start it, and enjoyed the few pages I did manage to read. You know the rest of the story - life happened, got distracted, took a bad lit class, had homework blah blah blah. I really do enjoy historical fiction, and I like the idea of a story told from Anne Neville's perspective. Now I just need to buckle down and read it.

5. The Fountainhead/Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand - I kind of want this to be a big year for classics. 2009 was a big classic's year for me, and i discovered wonderful books like Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights. I know this will be a completely different experience, but I want to expand my horizons. The word 'classic' encompasses so much, and I'd like to take my literary education into this direction.

6. The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon - I don't remember how I learned of Pynchon's existence, but I know it was sometime in the last year. When I learned about him and his books, I set myself a mental challenge. I said "Sarah. You will read one of these books. You probably won't like it. You will probably be unhappy with past Sarah while it is happening, but you will do this". After asking around and a little research on Wikipedia, I decided The Crying of Lot 49 was the place to start. It's possible I'm using Pynchon as an excuse not to start Infinite Jest, but either way I'll be an experience

7. Atonement - Ian McEwan - I really want to like McEwan. My only other attempt at his work was with his novel Saturday. I didn't like it, I thought it was dry with not much happening and didn't end up finishing it. I enjoyed the film for Atonement. I haven't heard much mention of how close the book stays to the film, but I've already got a copy on my shelf, and I think ever author deserves a second chance.

8. White Teeth - Zadie Smith - Remember how I said every author deserves a second chance? That's also what I'm doing with Zadie Smith. I read Autograph Man in high school and from what vague memory I have of it, I enjoyed it. Next were several attempts at On Beauty. All of them kind of went to hell around the 100 page mark and ended with me getting bored and hiding the book somewhere on my bookshelf. I figure if I really want to judge Zadie Smith, I should read her best known novel. This will be that attempt.

9. 1984 - George Orwell - Back when I read Brave New World I had every intention of reading 1984 next. Again I got distracted, and started to read something else instead. Honestly, I feel a bit guilty because I know I use lines from 1984 in everyday life, and it just feels wrong that I haven't read it.

10. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley - I was supposed to read this for a class my first year of college. The class ended up deteriorating into an hour discussion on corn each week and we never got to Frankenstein.

21 comments:

Miss Sigh...anide in the Word Emporium said...

This is a pretty good list! I read to about page 100 of Atonement the other day, and although not all that much happened, I really enjoyed the writing. Plus, thus far, I believe it and the film are pretty similar.

Anne@HeadFullofBooks said...

You've got some pretty impressive classics on your list. Save room for some fun books, too.

Stephen said...

I think you'll like that Alison Weir book!

I've considered reading Ayn Rand's books, given their reputation, but they're awfully big and Objectivism disagrees with me. Maaaaybe one day.

Anonymous said...

1984 made my list as well and I'm also hoping to get to Wolf Hall.

I have Atonement and I'd really like to read it this year at some stage although I have heard he's a bit of a hard slog. I suppose it will depend how much patience I have!

Anonymous said...

I've read Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and have enjoyed them both. In fact the latter is one of my favouites. A word of warning though, many people I know find Ayn Rand hard to read because they disagree with her philosophy (I do too). However, once you understand her point of view, the reading is simply terrific!

Happy Reading!

Risa

Geosi said...

I like your list particularly the atonement and whiteteeth which i may want to read. I wish you the best of luck.

Bibliophile said...

War & Peace is on my "TBR when I'm old and grey" list.

Everyone should read at least on dystopic novel in their life-time. 1984 is a good one.

mark kohut said...

For War & Peace you might need a chart of characters and relationships (as in the dramtis personae of plays)...
Otherwise it is almost as easy as the newspaper: just life on the page....

Chelsea said...

I'm the opposite of you when it comes to 1984 - I haven't read Brave New World (but I've meant to!) and I have read 1984. I had to read it for school, but I really liked it. It's really good.

Happy reading!
- Chelsea @ Books Turn Brains

Sarah said...

1984 is a fantastic book, I hope you enjoy it!

Irene Palfy said...

Oh, sometime I am going to explore Ayn Rands books, too! Great list! Good luck with all of them! :")

Lucia said...

I'd be interested to know what you think of Atonement. Personally, I didn't enjoy it. Good luck with your 2011 reading endeavors!

Peppermint Ph.D. said...

I'm going to knock War and Peace out this year as well...I found a 365 chapters in 365 days ReadAlong :)

LBC said...

Awesome, awesome list. Bastard Out of Carolina is a sad but beautiful book. I think there is a review somewhere on my blog. Crying of Lot 49 is a great beginning Pynchon. I recommend reading it in one sitting if possible. It's easy to get lost in there. You also have a bunch of my favorite books of all time on here: 1984, Atonement, White Teeth and Frankenstein. These would all be in my top 25 I think. I'm jealous that you get to read them:)

JaneGS said...

What a juicy list! I enjoyed Anna Karenina but I had to pace myself--luckily it's divided into 8 digestible parts, so I tackled it a piece at a time.

Atonement was incredible--one of the most powerful, thought-provoking, maddening books I've ever read. Hope you like it.

I read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and enjoyed it--I tried to read Atlas Shrugged and found it ridiculous, pedantic, and ultimately trite...but others have liked it!

David Sedaris is a riot--I love to listen to him read his stuff on NPR, and I caught him promoing Squirrel meets Chipmunk on Jon Stewart and he was great. Enjoy his books.

Wolf Hall is great also.

Frankenstein is on my list for 2011 also. What a wealth of reading you have before you.

Kara said...

I've been wanting to read The Fountainhead/Atlas Shrugged and War and Peace for almost 3 yrs now. I hope to can read at least 2 of them this year.

audreygeddes said...

This is a great list you've got here. The Fountainhead and 1984 will have to go on my re-read list this year. I just finished another amazing sci-fi novel by Leonid Korogodski called, Pink Noise: A Posthuman Tale. I couldn't put this one down. Not only does the author answer the question why our consciousness evolved, but he also places it in the context of an evolutionary process that surpasses biology.

April (BooksandWine) said...

I'm currently audio-ing Innocent Traitor, and it's fabulous!

Also, yay for 1984. It's worth a read if only for the cultural references. (Everything else is a huge bonus).

Best of luck!

Liz said...

This is quite a heavy list! White Teeth is fantastic, I think you'll really enjoy that book. Frankenstein is good and really interesting, but is lacking in likable characters.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to read a lot more classics this year too. I think a lot of us get so caught up on "what's new" that we forget the best books of the past.

I can relate to your "ALL OF THE BOOKS I GOT FOR CHRISTMAS" resolution. Totally been there!

Shanyn said...

You've got a good list of classics! I've decided I want to try to read a few this year, as well - namely Pride and Prejudice. We'll see if I end up doing it!