In the spirit of moving boldly forward
into the new year, I’ve decided to try to tackle a few reading projects that
have been on my list for a while now. I like to think of this list as a bit optimistic
but do-able. You might think of it as madness. We might both be right.
My “Reading Resolutions” for 2013:
Team of Rivals:
The Political Genius of AbrahamLincoln by
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Hardcover
(2005) 944 pages
This one has come pretty highly
recommended to me by my mother in law (who hasn’t quite finished it yet). I
think she heard an author interview on NPR around the time that Lincoln (2012) was coming out in theaters. After seeing the movie myself, I want
to know more about Lincoln and his cabinet and how exactly they managed to pass
the 13th Amendment.
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Signet
Paperback (1987) 1,488 pages
I’d been wanting to see Les Mis for ages. A lot of my friends who are into
musicals and theater had told me that it was one show that everyone should see.
So on Christmas day my fiancé and I braved the crowds to see the movie with our
families. It was spectacular and I’m so glad that I saw it (more on that
in a later post). However, I’m the kind of person who loves to read the books
behind the movies, so for some reason I decided that I had to read Hugo’s book,
and I had to do it this year.
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by
Douglas Adams
Paperback
(2002) 832 pages
My fiancé has been bugging me to read Hitchhiker’s for a long time, and it’s
been on my reading list, I just hadn’t quite gotten around to it yet. A few
weeks ago while we were at Barnes & Nobel we found a copy of the
complete series for a reasonable price and split the cost. I apparently have no
excuse not to read this now, and in fact I’ve already started on it.
The
Lord of the Rings Trilogy:
The Fellowship of the Ring by
J. R. R. Tolkien
Paperback
(2012) 432 pages
The Two Towers by
J. R. R. Tolkien
Paperback
(2012) 352 pages
Paperback
(2012) 432 pages
Now I know these are three books, but I’m counting them as on entity on my list
because I plan on getting the whole trilogy read this year. A long long time
ago, way back in 2001The Fellowship of
the Rings movie was coming out and my friends and I were excited to see it.
But one of my friends (who shall here remain nameless) made me promise that I
would read the book first. I foolishly promised and then… never got around to
reading it. Here we are 12 years later, and I still haven’t read any of the
books, and so I still haven’t seen any of the movies. But that’s going to
change this year, I hope.
In case you folks at home haven’t been counting, I ran up a total for you.
These four little reading projects add up to a total of 4,480 pages.
That’s a lot of pages… and I’m planning on reading this all in one year? You
guys were right, this is madness. Oh, and this is all on top of my ever-present
challenge to read all of the 1001 Books
to Read Before You Die and my standing 50-books-a-year challenge.
Yeah, I’ve lost what little marbles I
had to begin with. If all else fails though, it’ll be an interesting year
filled with lots of wonderful books. It might be crazy, but I can’t wait to get
started on my challenges. I’ll keep you guys posted on my progress and I’ll try
to post reviews of more books this year (in the spirit of posting more content
in general). Well, I’m off to the library, wish me luck!
I'm cheering you on sweetie. It's a worthy and doable challenege. Good luck.
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