The Book Challenge discussion

I don't have very much time to read, and to be honest my pace is somewhat lethargic compared to so many others... so I'm shooting for a total of 30 books in 2009, many of which I've intended to read for years.

I'm starting out the year re-reading The Lord of the Rings since I finally finished The Silmarillion last year and also just finished my second read of The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again. The rest of the year was chosen from my enormous To-Read list, but is subject to change. I'm open to suggestions!

1. The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien
3. The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien
4. Hedda Gabler - Henrik Johan Ibsen
5. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
6. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
7. The Plough and the Stars - Sean O'Casey
8. Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw
9. Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas - Chuck Klosterman
10. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
11. Realityland: True-life Adventures at Walt Disney World - David Koenig
12. John Bull's Other Island - George Bernard Shaw
13. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift REPLACED: The Man Who Ate Everything - Jeffrey Steingarten
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
15. Outlaw Cook - John Thorne

And the rest of the list...

16. Tender Is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
17. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
18. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass - Lewis Carroll
19. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary - Simon Winchester
20. Hell's Angels - Hunter S. Thompson
21. Disney: The First 100 Years - David Smith
22. The Crucible - Arthur Miller
23. A Separate Peace - John Knowles
24. The Awakening - Kate Chopin
25. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
26. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
27. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk - Legs McNeil
28. The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
29. Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
30. Dracula - Bram Stoker

Here's THE SHELF I've created for my list.

Finished the Lord of the Rings again, and I'm so glad I took the time for a second read. The details stand out so much more when the plot basics are already known. I feel like I've discovered Tolkien all over again. Everything felt new, but in a different way. I don't know, can't describe it.

Anyway... 3 books down, 11 months to go.

Jumped ahead and the read The Crucible, because Hedda Gabler was not available at the library. I finished it in less than 2 days... what a fascinating play. I seriously love Arthur Miller. I know that's cliche, but I just don't care. I have to admit though, I was a little disappointed to discover that in real life Abigail wasn't a lying whore (at least as far as we know). Would be so much more satisfying if Miller's account were true.

Started reading Gulliver's Travels. Hated it. Dreaded reading more of it. Swapped it out with The Man Who Ate Everything. Never been happier.