Read all the books in my "must read" pile

I have slowed down a little lately… I keep falling asleep on the train when I could be reading.

I skipped posting one book… After Abundance (which was awesome if you like historical fiction), I read Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. It sounds like a sad story of a jewish family impacted by the Nazi invasion – but it is actually a funny and almost magical account of a bizarre family tree.

Now I am about half way through Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami… so far it is great… exploring the concept and constraints of the mind as only he could.

So I LOVED the Poisonwood Bible. It was one of the best books I read all year. Highly recommended!!!

Next up – Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund. I started this Friday and so far so good. I really enjoy historical fiction – I have no memory for dry facts but when I explore them as characters within the context of their history I understand who they are and their part of history.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion was sad but good – an incredibly personal account of grief. I enjoyed it but am happy to be back to fiction. Now I am reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and I am really digging it. It is a story about a family of Baptist missionaries in the Congo during the 50s.

... this was one of those books that was newly added to the ‘must read pile’ and got picked up before many that have been sitting there for years collecting dust. Therefore, I don’t know if this is technically making any progress on this goal. I keep on buying faster than I read so theoretically this goal will never be completed.

I finished The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen… it was very good and a real page turner. Now I have started The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

Right now I am reading The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen… what a page turner. If only all the books in the pile flew by like this. The funny thing is that it is about a flu epidemic back during WWI – it is so vividly written that any time I hear someone cough I get a little panicked – oh no… the Spanish Flu!

10/23/07: Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

10/10/07: In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant

9/24/07: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

9/13/07: The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

9/1/07: The Zero by Jess Walter

I have had some of the books in this pile for so long but I just keep adding to it. Some of them simply never surface to the top. This past week I added 5 more. At this rate I will never read all the books in the pile.

I have found that half the books in this pile I simply don’t want to read anymore. I finish a book, hit the shelves and pass them by time and time again. I think I might remove some of these from my queue for good.

If anyone wants to visit my queue and tell me what is worth keeping around, please feel free. Thanks!

...and I have read 23 books from the pile… although it did grow a bit from Christmas. I think I halved the stack at least.

I just started a new job which requires me to commute by train an hour each way. I am already putting a huge dent in my ‘must read’ pile.