It’s December. Can you believe it? Where did the year go? I took the night off from blogging yesterday because I was feeling a little stressed about my final project. It is due this coming Sunday and I was not feeling confident about having only two of fifteen pages written. After last night I feel much better so it was worth the extra time.

That is why I am a day late with the book list for Emily’s TBR Challenge. The books I chose also include books for my binge reading vacation. And even though I only needed twenty books for Emily’s challenge, I went over by a couple because, well, once I got going it was hard to stop! Here’s the pile:

Not Dickens’ best side. Let’s try again:

Waldo hates to be left out. After convincing them to go chase each other around, I finally got a clear photo:

Starting at the bottom of the pile and moving up and then going from left to right for the standing books:

  1. Gongora by Luis de Gongora y Argote. Sixteenth century Spanish poetry illustrated by Pablo Picasso. Is any further explanation needed?
  2. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood. Does one really need a reason to read Atwood?
  3. The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley. I heard the author talking about the book on NPR and the next day got an email from the publisher asking if I would like a review copy. It seems the publisher was psychic or it was a big happy coincidence.
  4. A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland. Litlove mentioned this and then my Bookman got it for me. He pays attention that guy does.
  5. Blankets by Craig Thompson. Dear Emily of the TBR Challenge picked this book out for me last year? the year before? When she had a giveaway of any book she had read that year. When she drew my name and I was completely unable to decide amongst so many good books, she was kind enough to make the selection for me and I have been feeling guilty ever since for not having gotten to it sooner.
  6. Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee. After the Vice of Reading essay I decided I wanted to read more about Wharton and then she was chosen for the January Classics Circuit blog tour and I have had this book for a while so it seemed silly to be daunted by its bulk any longer
  7. The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I loved Shadow of the Wind and my Bookman got a review copy over the summer and read it and I have been patiently biding my time.
  8. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. My Bookman got a review copy of this one over the summer too and read it and I have been patiently biding my time.
  9. Evil in Modern Thought by Susan Neiman. I have had this book for a couple of years and discovered a few months ago when I was looking at her book Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists on the library shelf where I work that it was in response to her book on evil so I thought I should read that first.
  10. The Forbidden Rumi by Rumi, translated by Nevit O. Ergin and Will Johnson. Love, heresy, poetry by Rumi, can’t go too far wrong there.
  11. The Tyranny of E-mail by John Freeman. My Bookman brought this one home for me and I wasn’t sure about it at first but then I realized that it wasn’t just about email but also the nature of correspondence through history. My Bookman snickered that he would never give me a book I wouldn’t like. I’m going to leave that statement alone.
  12. The Gates by John Connolly. My Bookman sat next to me last month reading this while I worked on school. He loved it and is sure I will love it too.
  13. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. I’d been lusting after this and then had the good fortunate to win a copy in a giveaway at Magnificent Octopus
  14. Moo Pak by Gabriel Josipovici. He’s like Margaret Atwood in needing no explanation.
  15. That’s my Kindle. I’m reading Elizabeth Gaskell’s novella Lois the Witch on it.
  16. That’s Sophocles. I’ve read two of the three plays and intend to read Oedipus at Colonus.
  17. A Human Eye by Adrienne Rich. I intended to read these essays right when the book came out back in April but neither the time nor the mental focus have come together at the same time. Until now.
  18. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. A scifi classic, I’ve meant to read for ages. My Bookman promises I will like it.
  19. Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf. Neurology meets reading. Irresistible.
  20. How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. Books like this either make me mad or get me charged up. I’ve heard this guy is actually funny and quite good so I am hoping for a charged up experience.
  21. The Master by Colm Toibin. This one landed on the pile along with the Edith Wharton book.
  22. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. That’s the used Oxford edition I bought for my Austen seminar in grad school. Since I am going to try and like the book this time around, I will studiously ignore any snide commentary I may have left in the margins.
  23. The Winter’s Tale by Shakespeare. That’s the Signet Classic edition. I have a special place in my heart for Signet Classic Shakespeares. I intended to read this one last winter but didn’t manage it.

Whew! I don’t know about you, but that tired me out. Lots of yummy reading ahead though! Ending the year with a big bang of books. What could be better to set the tone for 2010?

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