The List

So here's my basic concept: I ask a bunch of friends to recommend three books to me, and then I read them. This is because I like to read, but I almost never pick a book for myself, while I generally read things people thrust into my hands.

To partake in this monumental (for me, anyway) task, I decided to bite the bullet and finally commit to the Houston Public Library. I got my very own Power Card! (Power Card = Library Card with a name more appealing to young people) The power is mine indeed.

So here is The List, as compiled by me through suggestions from numerous friends. I cut out a few books because I'd already read them, and I cut out a few others because I wanted to keep the list at fifty, but otherwise this is just about everything. I'm not generally a fast reader, either, so this may take a couple of years. Nevertheless, here it is:

#1: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
#2: Fluke, or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore
#3: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
#4: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
#5: Through Painted Deserts by Don Miller
#6: Illium by Dan Simmons
#7: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
#8: Walking on Water by Madeline L'Engle
#9: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
#10: Boy by Roald Dahl
#11: The Cestus Deception by Steven Barnes
#12: Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Jacob Ellis
#13: Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold
#14: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
#15: Prophet by Frank Peretti
#16: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
#17: Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema
#18: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
#19: Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
#20: High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
#21: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
#22: Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salmon Rushdie
#23: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
#24: Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Sallinger
#25: Powers by Brian Michael Bendis
#26: Woyzeck by Georg Buchner
#27: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
#28: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Davild Oliver Relin
#29: Lamb by Christopher Moore
#30: The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God by John Eldridge and Brent Curtis
#31: A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
#32: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
#33: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
#34: A Midsummer Night's Dream by Neil Gaiman
#35: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
#36: I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle
#37: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
#38: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
#39: The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore
#40: Red by Ted Dekker
#41: The Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
#42: Persuasion by Jane Austen
#43: Eragon by Christopher Paolini
#44: Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
#45: Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
#46: The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers
#47: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Brooks
#48: Captain Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth by JV Hart
#49: The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm by Nancy Farmer
#50: All Over But the Shoutin by Rick Bragg

I have about eight others that didn't make the cut. In case I get through this and decide I want to do it again, they'll go immediately to the top of the next list.

So there it is. Fifty books. Approximate number of pages: Eight-hundred million billion. Nevertheless, I'm really excited about this. I tried to pick books friends suggested that I would never have picked up on my own (here's looking at you, Beth Cooper). I will also try to go as close to this order as I can, mostly because I think ending with "All Over but the Shoutin" is pretty funny.

So, I guess there's not really any more to be said. I'll post on here as I start and finish a book to give my opening and closing thoughts and keep track of my overall progress. It probably won't be that interesting for anybody else to read, but I love to keep records and I love statistics and such, so I'ma do it anyway. This can be a blog for me.

And if you've just sorta stumbled across this while searching for something entirely different on Google or something...hey, why don't you read along!

I'm just kidding. But if you are looking for a good book to read, I have it on pretty good authority that this here list is a great place to start.