January 1, 2010 - June 30, 2010

Here is the first list, randomly selected with links to amazon.com.

1. The Poor Mouth: A Bad Story About the Hard Life, Flann O'Brien
2. Nostromo, Joseph Conrad
3. Glamorama, Bret Easton Ellis
4. Dead Souls, Nikolay Gogol
5. A Ghost at Noon (Contempt), Alberto Moravia
6. The Revenge for Love, Wyndham Lewis
7. The Stechlin, Theodore Fontaine
8. The German Lesson, Siegfried Lenz
9. Wild Swans, Jung Chang
10. Moll Flanders, Daniel DeFoe

Happy hunting for some of these, namely "The Stechlin" which will likely be particularly difficult to get a hold of.

The Challenge

The challenge is to read all 1001 Books from the compendium of "1001 Books you Must Read Before you Die." Surprisingly, despite being an avid reader, I have not read even a small percentage of these books. The task I am embarking upon is not going to be easy -- even if I read 20 books per year, it would take me almost 50 years to complete. The way this will work is as follows. Every six months, I will randomly select 10 books from the list and attempt to read them all. I will say that I am not interested in suffering so, as my Aunt Jean advised, if a book doesn't grab your attention within 100 pages, it probably won't and life is too short to suffer through a book you do not enjoy. Finishing a book, just to finish it is not the reward you think it is.

With that in mind, my pledge is to read at least the first 100 pages of each book.