I am new to LT and the 50 book challenge. Every year I start with the intent of reading a lot more and every year I don't come close. I am addicted to buying good books and it is about time to start reading them. Here is my list of 50 that I am going to read this year:

1. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
2. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
3. Animal’s People by Indra Sinha
4. Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken
5. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
7. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
8. Broken Prey by John Sandford
9. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
10. City of Thieves by David Benioff
11. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
12. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
13. From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman
14. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
15. Grendel by John Gardner
16. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
17. High Crimes by Michael Kodas
18. Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman
19. In the Woods by Tana French
20. Invisible Prey by John Sandford
21. John Adams by David McCullough
22. The Know-It-All by A. J. Jacobs
23. The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
24. Love is the Killer App by Tim Sanders
25. Made to Stick by Chip Heath
26. The Who Loved China by Simon Winchester
27. The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester
28. More Sex is Safer Sex by Steven Landsburg
29. Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails by Tom Wheeler
30. Naked Prey by John Sandford
31. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
32. Netherland by Joseph O’Neill
33. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
34. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
35. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
36. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
37. Saving the World at Work by Tim Sanders
38. Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
39. Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
40. Song Yet Sung by James McBride
41. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
42. This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
43. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
44. Touch the Top of the World by Erik Weihenmayer
45. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
46. Watchmen by Alan Moore
47. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
48. Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong
49. The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
50. World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler

Feedback and recommendations are greatly appreciated! I am looking forward to doing a lot of reading this year.

J

Message edited by its author, Jan 7, 2009, 11:27am.

Ooh! You have a lot of great titles; I've read a lot of them or have them on my list too. How are you going to start? Are you going to go for the easier reads too, or get some of the more challenging ones out of the way? I vowed I was going to read some of my challenges first, but... I'll star you to see what happens! :-) Happy reading!

This is a great list. I admire those who anticipate their reading. I'm more of a "what mood am I in?" kind of person. Welcome to 50 book challenge!

I normally read a book depending on what mood I'm in but that, for me, leads to procrastination and usually a quick and easy mystery/thriller (ie John Sandford/James Patterson). I figured that if I made a list of 50 books in my library to read this year I wouldn't have any excuses and have plenty of options depending on my mood.

I just finished Naked Prey and Broken Prey by John Sandford so I think I will try to tackle one of the more challenging reads next. I can't decide between Shadow Country and 2666. Any recommendations?

J

Message edited by its author, Jan 6, 2009, 3:10pm.

I've read neither, but am debating on whether to buy 2666. I'll be interested to see what you decide. BTW,my husband is a big Sandford fan.

I read the three books that Peter Matthiessen re-wrote to create Shadow Country. I heard him say that Shadow Country is a whole new book with some of the characters given voice and whole new parts to play. These books were dark, but I was really engrossed by them, maybe because they gave me so much to think about. That's why I'm going to read Shadow Country. I bought 2666 for my son (actually, it's a collection of three books, and published after the author's death; but maybe you already know that), but it had themes that I'm generally adverse to.