B's bookshelf

As you may have read, this blog started out as a motivating tool to get Jane and I to read all the unread books on our respective shelves.

Unlike Jane, I’m going to post my full list of books – scary as it is - so that in 2 months time I can re-post it with many books crossed out and so have that delicious sense of achievement one gets from crossing out items form one’s to –do list.

One of our Thursdays is Missing – Jasper Fforde
The Alchemaster’s Apprentice – Walter Moers
In Defence of Sin – edited by John Portman
The Heart has its Reasons – the Duchess of Windsor
The Diviners – Rick Moody
Sophie’s World - Jostein Gaarder
The Flaneur – Edmund White
The Subterraneans and Pie – Jack Kerouac
The Group – Mary McCarthy
The Book of Revelation – Rupert Thompson
Soul Mountain – Gao Xinjian
Guns, Germs and Steel – Jared Diamond
Twelve Bar Blues – Patrick Neate
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Dangerous Liaisons – Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
The Inheritance of Loss – Kiran Desai
The Red and the Black - Stendhal
Turkestan Solo - Ella Maillart
Man of My Dreams – Curtis Sittenfeld
Harry Potter und die Heiligtumer des Todes – J.K. Rowling

It’s a pretty heavy list. Very little in the light bed time reading area and a little too much that will send me to sleep after 4 or 5 pages.

I’m pretty sure The Heart has its Reasons is going to be both light and a bad read. I picked it out of a throw away box out of books more for author interest than s suspicion it had true literary value.

As you may have guessed, Harry Potter und die Heiligtumes des Todes is Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows in German. I’m re-re-learning German through the Institute of Modern Languages and bought Harry Potter in 2008 when I was over in Germany. When you’re trying to learn a foreign language, you need to read as much as possible to improve understanding. I like to read books that I know in English because that way I don’t spend the entire time wondering what the hell is going on. When I read Harry Potter, I know exactly what is happening and I can concentrate properly on the words. So I bought Harry Potter over 3 years ago, and I’m still only up to chapter 12.

So that's my list. It's long and a little scary. But I've already made a start and am most of the way through The Alchemaster's Apprectice, so my first book review will be coming very shortly.