Getting towards the end

Now, it is definitely down to the wire and time to really be picky about what books to put in. 1,624 can easily be covered by three books, and where before I was trying to think of any three books to put in just to get to the ridiculously high number of 10,000, now I don't want to waste the precious little space I have left on my list with anything I won't absolutely love.

22. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins (464 pgs) Robbins wrote one of my top three favorite books of all time Jitterbug Perfume, and I also really enjoyed Villa Incognito, Skinny Legs and All and others. But I have also started some of his books and lost interest halfway through and never finished. Let's hope this is one I will really enjoy. 800 pages to go.

23. Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs (304 pgs) Not much to say about why I chose this book, I just really like Burroughs. 496 pages to go.

24. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote (343 pgs) Not much to say about this one either. I have just always wanted to read it, and I found it once at an estate sale for a quarter. 153 pages to go.

Now here is where it gets tricky. I am going to read 10,000 this summer, and only 10,000 pages. (Of books anyway, I am not going to count website, newspaper or magazine pages.) So now, I have to find one or more books that add up to exactly 153 pages. And I am going to be honest, the first 153 page book I find, I am probably buying, no matter what.

1. Swine Not? - Jimmy Buffett; 256
2. Moby Dick; or The Whale - Herman Melville; 870
3. The Stranger Beside Me - Ann Rule; 1,542 
4. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick; 1,773
5. Duma Key - Stephen King; 2,384
6. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself - Alan Alda; 2,608 
7. Greenwich Killing Time - Kinky Friedman; 2,774
8. Murder in the White House - Margaret Truman; 3,009
9. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay; 3,312
10. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky; 4,080
11. The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner; 4,544
12. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe; 4,753
13. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris; 5,025
14. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo; 6,401
15. A Collection of H.P. Lovecraft Short Stories - H.P. Lovecraft; 6,612 
16. Gadsby - Ernest Vincent Wright; 6,768
17. Pulp Fiction Selections - L. Ron Hubbard; 7,456
18. The Final Testament of the Holy Bible - James Frey; 7,856
19. Chili Dawgs Always Bark At Night -Lewis Grizzard; 8,125
20. The Greek - Pierre Rey; 8,573
21. The Pleasure of my Company - Steve Martin; 8,736
22. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins; 9,200
23. Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs; 9,504
24. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote; 9,847