Because she did it, I wanted to, too.

My cousin, Stephanie, created a Reading Log 2010 on her blog, and after perusing her list, I realized I might want to make one for myself. She puts me to shame, really, in terms of numbers read. but we're not in competition, you see. We just both love reading. Granted, my reading list from 2009 was much more substantial and impressive, but in 2010 a lot happened to prevent me from reading like I probably would have typically. For example, I had eye surgery in February (so I was wearing wrong-prescription glasses and therefore NOT reading for January through the beginning of March). I started school, then, in May, which made it so I read quite a bit, but it was literature determined by professors including a plethora of articles that I won't record on here (even if some of them were interesting). The first real break from school I've had since May came in the last two weeks of December, during which time I did NOT feel like reading. My poor eyes wanted a break. Yet, I have found myself reading, since the new year began, and enjoying it immensely.

Without further ado, here is my reading list from 2010.

Catcher in the Rye - Salinger

Call of the Wild - London
Cry, the Beloved Country - Paton

Their Eyes Are Watching God - Hurston

Windesburg, Ohio - Anderson

Stuff Christians Like - Acuff

Emma - Austen

Sense & Sensibility - Austen

Sense & Sensibility & Seamonsters - Winters

Warhorses - Komunyakaa (poetry)

Dien Cai Dau - Komunyakaa (poetry)

Going after Cacciato - O'Brien

If I Die in a Combat Zone - O'Brien

The Things They Carried - O'Brien

In Pharaoh's Army - Wolff

Home Before Morning - Van Devanter

The Unwanted - Kien Nguyen

Achilles in Vietnam - Shay

From Vietnam to Hell - Dicks

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Twain

Frankenstein - Shelley

Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, 6th ed. - Guerin, et al.

Obviously the last on the list is from class, but so are the previous 15. Insane, right?! And I'm not even including the 40+ articles and book chapters I had to read for each paper, of which I wrote five since May. Reading seems to be ALL I do, and yet it's not always enjoyable. I detested both Frankenstein and Huck Finn, that is, until I wrote the papers. I wrote a couple pretty good papers about those novels!

I began the year with a list of 40 must-reads, all books that are considered classics in one circle or another. I found the list on the Internet and decided I'd work my way through the ones on it that I hadn't read before. I didn't like Catcher in the Rye (sorry, Liz) or Their Eyes Are Watching God, but I really enjoyed the Call of the Wild and Cry, the Beloved Country. I don't remember Winesburg, Ohio at all.

So far this January, I've finished Mansfield Park (Austen), which I started in August (embarrassing, but true), and I've picked up Under the Banner of Heaven and Jesus Land. Not sure if I'll finish those two before reading gets too heavy for class, but I find them both fascinating in a very sad sense.

That's it for now. Maybe you'll find something interesting on the list that you might like to pick up!