Starting the list

Even though I am just about 5 months away from the massive undertaking, I am starting the preparations. Mainly, the list will consist of two categories, books I want to read, and books I feel I should read. All of the books, however, will be books I have not read before. That last rule makes me kind of sad, because that means it will be a summer without reading some of my favorite authors (James Frey, Douglas Adams, etc.) Of course it is possible for Frey to release another book before school starts up in August, but I am pretty sure Adams won't.

Now on to this list (which is in the order that I will be reading them, because it will really bug me not to have a completed list in order before I start.) And this isn't set in stone, I can change my mind anytime I want. Like a woman.

1. Swine Not? - Jimmy Buffett (256 pgs) This book I bought in a bargain bin about a year ago, and I know nothing about it except it is written by Jimmy Buffett and is about a pig. But, it should be a fun and easy read, a warm up before I have to read Moby Dick, which is going to be horrible. 9,744 pages to go.

2. Moby Dick; or The Whale - Herman Melville (614 pgs) I hate this book. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I have tried to read it before, and never gotten past a page and a half. But it is the literary equivalent of my Everest (my white whale if you will; wink wink, nudge nudge). It drives me crazy that I have never read it, and I think finally reading it will give me a huge sense of satisfaction when I am done. I put it at the beginning so I can just get it over with, it won't be looming over my head and taking the fun out of this for me. (One time I put it in the bathroom, thinking even if it took me 10 years, if I read it a little bit every day I would  finally have it read. That was the year I learned how interesting ingredients were on shampoo bottles.) 9,130 pages to go.

3. The Stranger Beside Me - Ann Rule (672 pgs) This one kind of falls into the wants and needs to read categories. Besides comedies, my favorite types of books are true crime, and Ann Rule is my favorite true crime writer. (I have a personal vendetta against Patricia Cornwell, and even though I have been told it is extremely petty, I won't read her books. I have heard she is good, but I refuse to read them. Even after I heard O.J. Simpson's glowing endorsement, it wasn't enough to bring me to read it.) But, like I said, I love her true crime books, but never read the one that put her on the map. 8,458 pages to go.