2009 Reading Lists (Oh my!)

Nothing like going into a new year with a heaping pile of books to read. After considering high-school reads I want to revisit, I stumbled upon the 9 Books for 2009 challenge to work through books in your TBR (to be read) stack. Actually, it was very useful to even gather together a comprehensive stack, collecting books from shelves and piles around the house. Here’s what I’ll be ticking off my list in ’09, by category and with notes:

• Long: Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon (this is the most recent addition to my TBR pile, and topping 800 pages, it’s longer than most books I read. I was tempted to put Infinite Jest into this slot, but I need to read that one without a challenge hanging over my head)
• Free: On the Road, by Jack Kerouac (I got this at a free-book thing when I was in university; I should have read it then)
• Dusty: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou (I don’t remember when I picked up this obviously used book, but I’ve had it on my shelf for many years)
• Used: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (this book came up in our high-school discussion; I read half of it the summer I turned twenty-one. Time to read it all the way through)
• Letter: Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury (the “k” for Kim and wicked)
• Str (strange genre for me): Knit with Courage, Live with Hope, by Annie Modesitt (I don’t usually read memoirs, but I very much want to read Annie’s. This book seems to be incorrectly attributed on GoodReads, so I linked to the author’s page)
• Cover: Gentlemen of the Road, by Michael Chabon (it’s a pretty cover, and I love reading Chabon)
• AN (alive or not; award-nominated): Maus I, by Art Spiegelman (I can’t believe I haven’t read this yet)
• Distance: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (takes place in Greece, which is around 8,000 km from Vancouver)

While going through books I haven’t read, I discovered I have a copy of The Handmaid’s Tale, which is on my revisit-from-high-school list, so I’ll put that on the pile for 2009, too. The Grapes of Wrath is also on that list, so yay double whammy. Also, there will be the book-club books.

It’s possible I’m being unrealistically ambitious by leaving such little room for impulsive reads. We’ll see.

What’s on your reading list for 2009?

PS Here’s the list of high-school books I want to revisit; I’m not committing to read them in 2009, though at least I’ll start with the two I’ve already mentioned:

• Lord of the Flies
• Catch-22
• A Separate Peace
• Animal Farm
• The Scarlet Letter
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Middlemarch
• The Handmaid’s Tale
• The Great Gatsby
• Little Women
• Flowers for Algernon
• The Grapes of Wrath