In my case, the journey of one thousand and one books begins with one text message. A few days ago, my sister texted me and asked if I wanted to join her in reading every book listed in
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I gave her and her husband a
copy of this book last Christmas. I was totally onboard. So now Emily (my sister), Mike (my brother-in-law) and I are going to read them all. Last night, I bought myself a copy of the book so I could follow along with the reviews and criticisms. The books are listed chronologically, but we're going to read them as listed in the index-- alphabetically. I think this is a great idea because I don't think I'd want to read a whole bunch of, say, Victorian novels all in a row.
This morning, I went through the list and checked off every book I've read from the list and it turns out I've read fifty-two of them. Not bad. That means I've been averaging two books from the list every year I've been alive. Obviously, I wasn't reading any of these books as a small child, but still. I have a list of every book I've read since 2001, so for most of them, I can pinpoint when I read it. If I don't reread any of the fifty-two, I'm already down to nine hundred forty-nine books to read before I die. If we assume that the average woman lives to seventy-eight, I have fifty-two years to read nine hundred forty-nine books. Which means that I need to read eighteen and one quarter books each year from the list. Definitely doable! (And yes, I used a calculator).
The first book is
Aaron's Rod by D.H. Lawrence, originally published in 1922. I've requested it through interlibrary loan. I'll keep you posted on my progress. This is like
Julie & Julia, except it's more like
Emily, Marissa, Mike, & A Whole Bunch of Authors. Oooh, maybe we should have a blog. Interesting...
Ex libris,
Marissa
