A List

We have snow.

Plenty of it already - as far as I'm concerned - and more on the way. We might have a total of 20 inches by this weekend. I am so thankful for my new tires we bought last winter.

I have a habit of browsing my bookshelves as though they are a bookstore. Sometimes I do it when I'm looking for my next read, sometimes when I'm just waiting for someone to arrive. But what I always realize is, why haven't I read all these amazing looking books? I bought them, and now they're just sitting here. So I've decided to make a list. A list of books that I will make some sort of attempt to get to in 2008, and I hope that having this list will prompt me to go back and look at it. The books on this list are on it for a reason. Some have been on my shelves for years, some are newer but I made a big fuss about obtaining them. Some were obtained when I was on a kick about something that has now passed. In any case, all deserve a chance to be read and I hope to give it to them. I've chosen 24 books, 12 fiction and 12 nonfiction. Interestingly I had a much easier time choosing the nonfiction list. And for the record, this is not a challenge, just A List.

Fiction

Maggie Now by Betty Smith
The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower
Cranford by Mrs Gaskell
The Real Charlotte by Somerville & Ross
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
A London Child of the 1870s by Molly Hughes
Something by Shirley Jackson
Something by Elizabeth Taylor



Nonfiction

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Hungering for America by Hasia R. Diner
Much Depends on Dinner by Margaret Visser
Consuming Passions by Judith Flanders
Period Piece by Gwen Raverat
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
Triangle by David Von Drehle
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Maximum City:Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta
Diane Moseley by Anne de Courcy
Nightingales by Gillian Gill
The Working Poor by David Shipler

What books do you want to read in 2008?

The rest of my collection. Well, almost.

A while back I shared my new bookcases and their contents here. Here are the rest of my books in various locations around the house. There are yet more in the basement and scattered around the house. Also, these do not include my husband's or daughter's collections.

These are built in shelves in my living room. These books are mostly memoirs, divided loosely by country/continent.


These is my (mostly) American non-fiction section. You might notice how much smaller it is than the British non-fiction section of my large bookcases.



My Virago collection. I bought this vintage bookcase years ago at a flea market. I think it suits these books well since it was built around the same time many of them were originally published.


These are some of my books about books, located on top of my desk.



This bookcase is in the corner of my bedroom. Everything is double shelved and stacked all over the place. There used to be huge stacks on top, before my new shelves arrived.


I almost forgot these! This console table is in my living room. Those baskets? Yep, filled with books. I thought they would be a good place to hide toys, but that never happened.


I'm off to clean my kitchen. I have an upcoming delivery of something that will hold some of my other favorite items....

P.S. I should add, I didn't edit these bookcases at all - I just photographed them as they were.