My friend Jane asks for her readers' to-be-read lists. I don't have one written up, so I guess I need to make one. This is by no means whatsoever exhaustive, because I follow tangents upon tangents in my reading, and any one of these books is likely spawn a whole subset of TBR books.
First, some car-related books off of my Amazon wish list:
Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans
Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business, by Bob Lutz
If I can find one, a book on the history of BMW.
A book of fiction:
The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. I'm not limiting myself to one single book of fiction, but I would like to make a concerted effort such that the fiction I do read this year is beautiful and stunning.
Some political & sociological books,
Watermelons: The Green Movement's True Colors, by James Delingpole.
The Rational Optimist, by Matt Ridley
The New Vichy Syndrome, by Theodore Dalrymple.
Some memoir and biography, at the very least which should include:
Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and his Revolutionary Comic Strip, by Nevin Martell
Some books about Africa:
The Flame Tress of Thika, by Elspeth Huxley (I read this about 20 years ago and remember little of it, so I'm couting it as a new-to-me-book.)
Out of Africa, Isek Dinesen. No, I've never read it. I read part of it many years ago, but did not finish the book.
Don't Let's Go To the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller. Again, one I read quite a while ago but really need to re-read.
The Last Resort: A Memoir of Mischief and Mayhem on a Family Farm in Africa, by Douglas Rogers.
The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe, by Peter Godwin.
Surrender or Starve: Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea, by Robert Kaplan.
I think, even more than a stack of specific books I'd like to read is having a list of things I'd like to learn more about. For example, this fall I read The Road To Fatima Gate, by Micheal Trotten and found it fascinating. I'd like to learn more about Lebanon's history. I'd like to read some more about China, perhaps beginning with this:
Empire of Lies: The Truth about China in the Twenty-First Century, by Guy Sorman.
Of course, the trouble I always run into when making lists of books to be read is finding the books. Our library system (which encompases several county's worth of libraries) hasn't been the best at having the various strange and obscure sorts of things I want to read.* So poor, in fact, that over the last six months I've gotten out of the habit of weekly or monthly visits to the big college-town libraries that are within driving distance of me. Isn't that terrible?
*Do not tell me about inter-library loans. Those cost money, and you have to wait for the books. I'm not really a wait-ey sort of person.
I'm right there with you on the waiting. I hate waiting for interlibrary loans. But, in Illinois, you don't pay for ILLs. I think you may have to pay in Wisconsin, but, in Illinois, they are free. Not only that, but, when an Illinois resident borrows from ANY library in the state, that book can be returned at ANY library in the state and it will get back to it's original home. So I can go on vacation to Cairo, borrow a book, and return it in Rockford. Or Marengo. Or Effingham. It doesn't matter. I've done IILs many times, and returned books through my local library many more times than that!
Posted by: Melody | 03 January 2012 at 10:31 PM