The Explanation

On January 1, 2010 I resolved to buy a new book only when I had read three of the books on my unread books bookshelf. Some poor books had been on that shelf for several years as I successfully avoided them, occasionally brushing their spines with my fingertips as I made my way to something more appealing. On that January day there remained only three novels on that shelf with the remainder of the unread some variety of non-fiction. But I was determined to stand by my resolution. I could read Rousseau’s The Social Contract if I set my mind to it.

My avoidance of that bookshelf and my resolve were helped by the generosity of a friend lending me an entire bag of novels. She and I have similar taste and she often lends me books that she’s read. I also completed my annual reread of the Austen canon, so that was six books! OK, technically they weren’t on my unread shelf, but I counted them anyway.

Last week I either came to my senses or successfully rationalized that just because a book—well, about twenty books, actually—are on my unread books bookshelf doesn’t mean that I must read them. Some of those books were gifts and some I bought because It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time. But if I don’t want to read them, why don’t I put them in the giveaway box and take them to the charity shop already?

And so with the entire world of books once again open to me, I decided to pay attention to the BBC’s Big Read list and expand my horizons, literarily speaking. (Emma Woodhouse inspired me, though I hope my success rate on finishing what I start will be better than hers.) Variations of the BBC list have made the rounds for several years on blogs and Facebook. I found the story here - BBC Big Read. Quotage: “In April 2003 the BBC's Big Read began the search for the nation's best-loved novel, and we asked you to nominate your favourite books.” About 750,000 votes were received. The Lord of the Rings was #1 and Pride and Prejudice #2. The website lists the books in order of total votes.

Since I rely heavily on other people’s recommendations of books, this seems like a good way to read a variety of novels. And I’ve decided to blog about it, quasi Julie and Julia style. I’ve read 30 of the books on the list and refuse to read one list book, so I have 69 to read. I’ve listed them in alphabetical order and will read them that way, both because it appeals to my sense of order and because I don't want to read all the good ones first and dread reading the last dozen or so. I know people voted for all of the books but I'm bound to dislike some of them.

I ordered the first ten books this week.

Books to read:

1. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving

2. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

3. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute

4. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

5. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

6. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks

7. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

8. Bleak House, Charles Dickens

9. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

10. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres

11.  Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

13. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons

14. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

15. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson

16. Dune, Frank Herbert

17. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

18. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson

19. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

20. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

21. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake

22. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

23. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

24. Holes, Louis Sachar

25. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith

26. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer

27. Katherine, Anya Seton

28. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding

29. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez

30. Magician, Raymond E Feist

31. Matilda, Roald Dahl

32. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden

33. Middlemarch, George Eliot

34. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

35. Mort, Terry Pratchett

36. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

37. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman

38. On The Road, Jack Kerouac

39. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez

40. Perfume, Patrick Süskind

41. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

42. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome

43. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

44. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

45. The BFG, Roald Dahl

46. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

47. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett

48. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

49. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

50. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
51.  The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

52. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

53. The Magus, John Fowles

54. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett

55. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot

56. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell

57. The Secret History, Donna Tartt

58. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

59. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson

60. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough

61. The Twits, Roald Dahl

62. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

63. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins

64. To Kill A Mockingbird
65. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

66. Ulysses, James Joyce

67. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson

68. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

69. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne

Books I’ve read:

1. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

2. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

3. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

4. Animal Farm, George Orwell

5. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery

6. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

7. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding

8. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

9. Emma, Jane Austen

10. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian

11. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling

12. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling

13. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling

14. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling

15. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (I've read the three books in the series)

16. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

17. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

18. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

19. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck

20. Persuasion, Jane Austen

21. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

22. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel

23. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

24. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

25. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
26. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (I've read the three books in the series)

27. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

28. The Stand, Stephen King

29. Watership Down, Richard Adams

30. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

Book I’m not going to read because I don’t like gratuitous violence and besides I’ve never heard even one of my reliable sources say they enjoyed reading it:

1. The Godfather, Mario Puzo