100 Best Books

This morning I was reading some literature from Wordstock and discovered a list of Modern Library's List of 100 Best Novels. I excitedly got out my little marker to tick away all the titles I had read, and came up with.....19.

How can this be? The list is a good one....books I really should have read by now. I was a Literature major(ish...I went to one of those colleges without majors, and read approximately one billion pages each week. How did I not read Invisible Man? The House of Mirth?

Granted, it's just a list....biased (all the novels were written in English after 1900), I'm sure, but a start nonetheless.

Today I am going to pick up a copy of Ulysses, the first book on the list. What a way to start! But hey, there's no time like the present, and I feel like digging in.

This will be a journal of this task. I really want to complete this list...so many wonderful titles to sit quietly with while the baby naps, between customers at the cafe, during any peaceful moment. I think I need a little structure in my reading life right now, and this seems like the ticket! I used to read such great books, and now I seem to pick up whatever decorating magazine is nearest (nearest the TV, I'm afraid) and leave it at that.

So here's to good books! I'm going to make up the rules as I go along, but hopefully in a couple of years (gulp) I'll make it through. I think it'll be a great way for me to wake up my tired new mom brain.

I'll list the books I have read in the next few days, and if they feel really foggy to me I'll reread them, as well.

Anyone care to join me?