Friday, November 26, 2010

Short List # 2: Books I want to read

This is a list of books that I have seen and want to read and that people said I should read. I am listing only titles for most books I will list authors where I know it.

Leaves of Grass- Whitman
Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist
The Things They Carried
Hugo Cabert
Night- Wiesl
The Weather of the Future- Hedi Cullen
Something by Charles Dickenson
Orgin of Species-Darwin
The Stand- King
Misery-King
Salem's Lot-King
Eric Rex
Peter and the Star Catchers
City of Bones
Shiver
Dash and Lilly's Book of Dares
Warrior Heir
Sarum
Never Let Me Go
The Zookeepers Wife
Revolution
Walden
Extremly Loud and Incredibly Close
The World is Flat

Thats all I have for now. My full list of 52 books will be made soon so stay tuned.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Short list #1

Hi! I meant to get this up last week but did not have a chance.This is my first of about 3 or 4 shortlists. All these books are from one person. I have not looked deeply in to any of these books yet but have heard of quite a few of them. Expect the next short list next week and another shortly after. In December I will have a final list of books in an approximate order. I do want to try to theme the books, Horror in October, Poetry in April but I do not know how well it will work out well without further ado here is the list.


FICTION:
Johnathon Franzen - The Corrections
                                Freedom  
Caleb CarrThe Alienist
                    The Angel of Darkness
Khaled Houssani:  The Kite Runner                                  
                            A Thousand Splendid Suns  
Alex Haley - Roots 
Alice Walker:  The Color Purple
Amy Tan:  Possessing of the Secret of Joy -
                  The Joy Luck Club
George Elliot - Silas Marner
Charles Dickens:  The Pickwick Papers
 Rohinten Mistry - A Fine Balance
Eli Wiesel - Night 
NON FICTION:
Heinrich Harrier - Seven Years In Tibet
Barbara W. Tuchman - The Guns of August  
David McCoulough -Anything He wrote 
Joseph Ellis - First Family
Edmund Morris - Theodore Rex
Howard Zinn - Peoples History of The United States
Dr. Jeffery Canada - Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun
                                 Reaching up for Manhood
Johnothan Kozol:  Rachel and Her Children
William Maddox and Stuart Lilie - BEYOND LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE
Frank McCourt - Teacher Man 
                           Angela's Ashes
Malachy McCourt - A Monk Swimming
Joan Dideon: The Year of Magical Thinking

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Books on My List so far!

Hi. I have been very busy and have not been able to blog but I have a chance now and I am not letting it go to waste. So this is a list of books that will mostly make my final list and are definitely on my list of 52 books. So for each book I will post the title and then a link to the Wiki page if there is one and occasionally a pic of the cover.

1. Life of Pi- My friend will be pretty pissed if I don't read this one so I am going to read it. This is a book about a boy who gets stuck on a boat with a tiger. For more info go here.

2. War and Peace- My god mother gave me this one to be obnoxious but I will take her up on the challenge. For information about this classic book go here http://dft.ba/-2e0.

3. Kite Runner- I have been intending to read this for a long time but I have not yet.  The pic of the of the cover is too the right of this. The book is about a boy in Afghanistan during its time of political turmoil.Wiki Page here

4. Misery- I enjoy the King I have read so far but you can never get enough King. This one I got for a few bucks on my nook so I will read it. This book is a horror about a psycho who makes an author re write a book because her favorite character dies. See more on Wiki

These are just 4 books. Within the next week I hope to have a short list of about 50 books up, give or take maybe 20. Week after another short list and then maybe 1 more short list. Then starting December 1st consolidating it into a short list of around 100 or so books and eliminating books to make the final list. Thats the plan so come back next week for more books.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

How this blog is going to work.

Hello. This post is going to be more about the blog then the project. First though about the project. While I am going to read a lot of different types of books expect a good amount of YA books as that is what I primarily read. Now how the blog is going to work. Before 2011 I will be putting up reviews of various books I have already read as well as short lists for the 52 books project. Starting January 1st 2011 I will begin reading my final list of 52 books. Each Saturday I will post the name of that weeks book and each Sunday a review of the previous weeks book. For example book 1, which I promised my friend will be Life of Pi, will be posted up as the book of the week with a link to a blurb about the book on January 1st. On January 8th the second book's title will be posted. On January 9th a review of Life of Pi will be posted. In between I will write little notes about how my reading is going. Expect this about 3 to 4 times a week maybe more. That's all for now. Leave a comment with any suggestions. Also just to let you know all comments have to be moderated so if you don't see your comment for a day or two I haven't read it yet. Thanks!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

The Idea and The Rules.

Hi. So I really don't know how to start this so maybe an Intro is in order to start. My name is Zach Wolff and I am a high school junior who has decided to read 52 books in 52 weeks hence the title of my blog. I don't know what really made me decide to do this. I think I read some where that Stephen King wrote in his book On Writing that a writer should read 70-80 books a year. As I am a writer, anyone who writes for fun or as a job is a writer, I thought I should try to do that. However I am not that quick of a reader. Then I thought what about a book a week, 52 books. After talking with my parents I decided that it was a good idea to do this for a year and blog about it much like Julie & Julia, great movie by the way. So here I am writing this introductory entry.

Now I said in the title of this entry that this entry would include the rules. What I mean by this is I don't just want to read 52 books that I have already read in 52 weeks. I am going to read 52 new books in 52 weeks. There is a few more rules so I am just going to post them all here. (Note: except for rule 1 in the rules for books eligible are all of those rules are subject to be broken. In other words they are not non binding I am just attempting to follow them.)

Rules for books eligible to be on the list:
1. No re reads, every book on my list will be 52 books I have never read before.
2. No sequels. This applies to both books I have read before and books on my list.
3. No books by authors I am familiar with. By this I mean if I have read 1 or 2 books by that author before its ok to read another but if I have read an entire series by them I am not reading another book by them for this. In addition only one or two books by an author will be on this list.
4. All books must be of a respectable length. This rule is the most likely to be broken. I put a respectable length at 250 but I will read shorter books provided there is a reason for reading them.
5. Speaking of length no book will book longer then 1500 pages. Opposite of the last rule this is the rule least likely to be broken.

Now the only rule for when the project begins (which is in January 1st 2011) is that all books must be read in 7 days. If I fail to read the book in those 7 days I fail the project.

So why should you care about all of this well I need your help. I want suggestions as to what books to read and they need to follow these rules. I understand you will obviously not know what I have read so post any suggestions in the comments. Anyone can comment if you have a log in don't be afraid to log in and comment but if you don't have a log in just comment anonymously. I want to read a variety of books so just suggest your favorite books. I will compose a short list of about 100 books in early December with the final list being made the last week of December. So start getting those recommendations in soon and maybe you can have a say of what books make the short list as well as the final list