New Thoughts

As anyone who can read can tell, it's been a while since I've posted.  I've since moved, settled into a new apartment and begun some new hobbies and revisited some old ones.  I've become active in Goodreads again, and I am finding my love for reading all over.  And on that topic, I've decided to once again document my reading journey, as I read (or sometimes devour) books that I come into contact with. I have been so impressed with the online book world.  And I'm making another attempt to become apart of that world and share the interesting finds I come across.

Since I have graduated college and gotten a "big girl job," I've found myself frustrated with the lack of a goal.  Though not something as monumental as getting a bachelor's, I have decided to make a goal of reading.  And, as I'm a list person, I cannot stop at simply one goal - but I must overdo everything, and make several lists (then I never have to read a book NOT on my lists).  You'll see what I mean in a sec.  A personal life goal of mine has been to read with purpose, with the general idea of becoming a well-rounded reader.  I began this goal with the book of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die.  Though I am not sure I will finish all of the books in my lifetime, especially since some of them do not interest me AT ALL, I am still using the book as a guide to appreciate some of the authors that have helped create literature today.  From an algorithm, I am to read approximately 17 books per year from the list.  So here are my 17:

2010 1001 Books to Read:
1. Brave New World  by Aldous Huxley
2. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
3. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
4. Little Women (Signet Classics) by Louisa May Alcott
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (P.S.) by Barbara Kingsolver
7. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
8. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
9. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
10. Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
11. The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Classics) by Henry James
12. Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) by Leo Tolstoy
13. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
14. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
15. The Brothers Karamazov (Bantam Classics) by Fyodor Dosteovsky
16. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
17. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Whew.  Sounds like I need to get to work.  Maybe I'll pick shorter ones next year...  

Another personal goal that I have set, simply due to the small amount of available book funds, is to read books I already have.  I cannot even count the number of times I go to a used bookstore (or even B&N), get so excited about one book or another, buy it, come home and completely forget about it.  So I am working on reading the books I have on my bookshelves already.  Some of these are repeats of my 1001 books, but I've not listed them to keep the list seemingly manageable.  This list I have not given a "due date" so that I feel the freedom to read a new book if I so please.

Bookshelf Books to Read:
1. Wives and Daughters (Oxford World's Classics) by Elizabeth Gaskell
2. A Separate Peace by John Snowles
3. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
4. The Dirty Secrets Club (Jo Beckett)by Meg Gardiner
5. The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Classics) by Henry James
6. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
7. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters : A Novel by Elisabeth Robinson
8. The Bourne Supremacy (Bourne Trilogy, Book 2) by Robert Ludlum
9. Eragon (Inheritance) by Christopher Paolini
10. The Emperor's Children (Vintage) by Claire Messud
11. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
12. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
13. House Rules: A Novel by Jodi Piccoult
14. The Second Coming (Words of the Prophecy) by David Burton
15. The Apothecary's Daughter by Julie Klassen
16. HISTORIAN / A NOVEL by Elizabeth Kostova
17. The Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark
18. The Shack (Special Hardcover Edition) by William Young
19. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska

My final list is mainly a formality.  Due to my type A personality, if I do not have a "freedom" list, I would get so bogged down reading what I "have" to read, that it becomes no fun.  And reading's supposed to be about fun, right?  So, this is my fun list, which I can add to and subtract from at will.  I find that reading other blogs and goodreads, my TBR pile grows by leaps and bounds.  I consider this my "focused TBR" pile, which books I want to read soon rather than later.  I recently ordered some books from Goodreads book swap, so most of them are here.

Fun Books:
1. Blue Bloods (Blue Bloods, Book 1) by Melissa De La Cruz
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
3. A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox Mysteries) by Charles Finch
4. The September Society (Charles Lenox Mysteries) by Charles Finch
5. The Bourne Ultimatum (Bourne Trilogy, Book 3) by Robert Ludlum
6. Heart of Stone: A Novel (Irish Angel Series) by Jill Marie Landis
7. Seducing an Angel (Huxtable) by Mary Balogh
8. The Rose Red Bride by Claire Delacroix
9. Sooner or Later (Deliverance Company #2) by Debbie Macomber
10. A Whole New Light by Sandra Brown
11. The Manning Sisters: The Cowboy's Lady\The Sheriff Takes a Wife (Mira Romance) by Debbie Macomber
12. Under Her Skin (Lone Star Sisters) by Susan Mallery
13. The Inn At Eagle Point (Chesapeake Shores) by Sherryl Woods
14. Harbor Lights (Chesapeake Shores) by Sherryl Woods

As you can see, most of my fun books are "fluff" so to speak.  I work as nurse on a floor where many of my patients are dying, so my desire to read heavy books has vanished for the present.  Instead of beating myself up about it, I decided to just go with it.  My fun list is exactly what it is called.  It's my small OCD way of keeping reading fun and staying excited about the vast world of books.

So those are my goals.  I need to come up with a prize or something when I finish.  Prizes are always fun.  But mostly, living in a new place is lonely.  I worked almost full time during college, with a full class load, so now that I am only working one job, I find myself bored.  I have not really made many friends yet in my new city.  So, I am going back to the ageless friends of my books to keep me company.  And my lists help me feel as though I have accomplished something.

Finally, I've been trying to think of a clever name for my blog.  I'm trying this one out.  It's significance is two-fold.  One: my favorite book is Pride and Prejudice, and I consider myself an Elizabeth Bennett type person.  Secondly, my dog is named after the Bennetts of Jane Austen.  So technically, I am Bennett's girl.  I'm not sure if I'm happy with it, but I'm trying it out.  Feel free to share thoughts.  I am finishing The Scarlet Pimpernel, so I hope to have a review posted up later.