The Plan

Interesting personal fact: I hate reading.

Not entirely true, I used to really like reading, but after a degree in English (almost two now) I've grown rather sick of it. And it's been quite a while since I've read anything just for fun. So I don't really hate reading, I'm just tired of reading what I don't like.

Today I went through some of my books (I have a lot) to try and sell on Amazon and I realized why I stopped reading. A lot of my books weren't anything I would have normally read on my own, but were assigned because someone with a PhD liked it. Some of these I've enjoyed (Thomas Pynchon, Vladimir Nabokov, etc.) and some I haven't (Paule Marshall, Eva Hoffman, Theodore Roethke, etc.). I have nothing against the books I didn't like, and I admit they were “good” in detached “Oh this really is a smart book but I just don't like it” kind of way.

Hey, here's a little bit of heresy for you, I don't really care for Toni Morrison. Yes, she's a genius (I'm not being sarcastic either) but I just can't get into it. Sorry.

I'm just tired of being told not only what to read but what to think of it as well. I guess as I close the teaching English chapter of my life, it's okay to say that some books may be well written but boring, and some mindless page-turners are worth a read.

Oh- don't take that to mean I'm going to read Twilight. I have my limits.

So this year armed with $100 in Barnes and Noble gift certificates I've decided I'm going to make 2009 a year when I read a ton, and only what I actually want to read (law school will, of course, interfere with this). I also figured I would keep track of what I read and write down my thoughts as I go along. Here's a list of the books I plan on reading (or have already read this year) so far:

Three Jeeves & Wooster novels by P.G. Wodehouse- How Right You Are Jeeves, Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves, and Jeeves And The Tie That Binds.
Will and the World by Stephen Greenblatt.
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Gotrek & Felix by William King
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje


It's an interesting list. The Greenblatt biography of Shakespeare is about as pretentious as it gets, but paired with Gotrek & Felix- a series of fantasy novels set in the Warhammer universe about a homicidal dwarf with a mohawk- well..... that's brings the pretension down a bit, right?

About the homicidal mowhaked dwarf- still rather read that than Twilight.

What I plan to read will certainly change, as life intervenes and I find new books, or just don't like a book well enough to finish it.

Anyone have any suggestions? Are there any other lost reader's out there?