Those of you who were wondering (a.k.a. none of you) if the lack of updates on this page meant I had abandoned it, rest assured, no. That is stupid. This is a page about reading a list of books in the summer. The list was completed and the summer isn't here, there is no reason to post.
That being said, here is a new post. I am removing two books from the list, and adding five, but keeping the page count the same. The first three books are off of the required reading list for the masters program I am starting. (I started the 10,000 Pages of Summer before being accepted into the program, btw.) It just seemed so silly to have this massive reading list that I am supposed to be familiar with, and not including any of it (besides Moby Dick) in this undertaking. The fourth book is there because it is relevant to the direction I would like to take my individual graduate research, and the last book is simply the only book that fit the page counted I needed to keep it at 10,000 that I had actually heard of.
To add the new books, I had to remove two from the list, Les Miserables and A Collection of H.P. Lovecraft Short Stories. The Lovecraft had to go because when I made the list, I did not realize that it was only available as an eBook, and Doug don't play that game. I mean, I sit in front of electronics almost all day every day. I read books to get away from it. The last thing I want to do is bring electronics into book reading. And Les Mis, I know it is a book I will read one day, but there are two reasons to take it off this list. First, I see absolutely no way I am going to enjoy the book as much as Adam Gibbs says I will. It just sounds so boring. And maybe I am being unfair to the book, but I have read the synopsis, I know the plot and themes, and it is just not the kind of thing I can see myself taking interest in. Second, when I got home with my copy of it, I noticed the title page contained the word "abridged." And if I was already dreading having to devote my time and attention to the book in my hand, I couldn't imagine having an unabridged, longer version in my hand and having to read that.
And last thing, this is another one of those weird times where instead of looking for the version of the book with the biggest page count, I actually went for the smallest one. I actually could have grabbed these five books at over 600 more pages, but I couldn't make the numbers on the first four come out to exactly the page count to keep with the 10,000 (even though I did come within five pages of it), so I went with the smallest page count for each one to have enough pages left over to add a decent book to the list to keep the 10,000 pages.
14. Middlemarch - George Eliot (736 pgs) There are only two things I know about this book. 1.) It is on my required reading list. 2.) Despite being named George, the author is a woman. And not named George.
15. Beloved - Toni Morrison (275 pgs) Again, I just have basic knowledge of this book besides the fact that it is required reading and written by a woman.
16. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne (192 pgs) It feels weird that this book is on the required reading list for my masters degree, and it was also required reading when I was a sophomore in high school. But, despite that, I am not breaking my "no reading a book I have already read" rule, because in high school, I just read the Cliffs Notes.
17. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle (140 pgs) Planning on doing my independent research on the Robin Hood legend, and I can't really compare the old stuff to the latter if I haven't read the latter.
18. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (244 pgs) I am actually somewhat familiar with Plath. Having said that, I know her life story and I know of her poetry. But when it comes to the content of this book, I really don't know much. That being said, if it is not literally about a jar full of bells, I am going to throw a hiss fit.
And what I am pretty sure is the final reading list....
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 Taking - Dean Koontz; 4,544
12. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe; 4,753
13. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris; 5,025
14. Middlemarch - George Eliot; 5,761
15. Beloved - Toni Morrison;6,036
16. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne; 6,228
17. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle; 6,368
18. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath; 6,612
19. Gadsby - Ernest Vincent Wright; 6,768
20. Pulp Fiction Selections - L. Ron Hubbard; 7,456
21. The Final Testament of the Holy Bible - James Frey; 7,856
22. Chili Dawgs Always Bark At Night -Lewis Grizzard; 8,125
23. The Greek - Pierre Rey; 8,573
24. The Pleasure of my Company - Steve Martin; 8,736
25. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins; 9,200
26. Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs; 9,504
27. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote; 9,847
28. The Daybreakers - Louis L'Amour; 10,000
