2011 Reading List: So far, so good

I'd say that the start of 2011 has gone well. I'm watching a lot less TV and am reading constantly. The amount writing, however, has only increased slightly from last year, which is not where I'd like to be. Hopefully I turn that around soon.

Anyway, I stated in a post a few months back that I wasn't going to buy any new books until I read a substantial number of the ones I already own. With the exception of buying and receiving some as Christmas presents, I've stuck to the plan. So far, so good.

Here's the tentative 2011 reading list I had setup at the beginning of the year. These all fall under the category of books I own or have in my possession, but haven't read. I hope to add more, once I've burned through most (if not all) of these titles:

1. The Passage by Justin Cronin *READ*
2. The Stand by Stephen King
3. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (making its 8th consecutive appearance on the annual to-read list!)
4. The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
5. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
6. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
7. Independence Day by Richard Ford
8. Lay of the Land by Richard Ford
9. Rock Springs by Richard Ford
10. A Multitude of Sins by Richard Ford
11. Oh What a Paradise it Seems by John Cheever *READ*
12. The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
13. Forty Stories by Donald Barthelme
14. Demons in the Spring by Joe Meno
15. The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon
16. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
17. Light in August by William Faulkner
18. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
19. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
21. Not that You Asked by Steve Almond
22. Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti *READ*
23. The World According to Garp by John Irving
24. This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff
25. In The Heart of the Heart of the Country by William Gass
26. If Rock and Roll Were a Machine by Terry Davis *READ*
27. Mysterious Ways by Terry Davis
28. Borrowed Voices by Roger Sheffer
29. Fakebook by Richard Terrill
30. Night Birds by Thomas Maltman
31. Throw Like a Girl by Jean Thompson
32. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
33. Wind by Leigh Allison Wilson
34. Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison
35. Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
36. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
37. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
38. Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
39. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
40. 1984 by George Orwell
41. Animal Farm by George Orwell
42. Times Arrow by Martin Amis
43. The Slide by Kyle Beachy
44. Tooth and Claw by T.C. Boyle
45. Dancer by Colum McCann
46. Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
47. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
48. Sonny Liston was a Friend of Mine by Thom Jones
49. The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby by Tom Wolfe
50. Close Range by Annie Proulx
51. Five Skies by Ron Carlson

Fifty-one. Fifty-one books, AH-AH-AH-AH-AH. Admitting that I've never read some of these books (I won't say which ones, though you could probably figure it out) is kind of embarrassing, considering they appear on high school English curricula. That's why this is the year I knock those out, in addition to some other long overdue reads.

I've already finished four of the books on this list, though three were pretty short. That leaves me with forty-seven books to read in just under eleven and a half months. What is that, like four books a month? No problem, so long as I continue my current pace. The prospect of buying new books will be acting as my motivator.