Books on the Nightstand discussion

Whoa, Emily--490 books in your To Read list alone??? No wonder you're feeling overwhelmed! If you want to catch up, I'd strongly suggest you not read anything that leads you to further books. For a couple of weeks, stick to fiction and essays, but not history or biography or reviews. The stories in John Mortimer's The First Rumpole Omnibus are thoughtful and funny and wise and I think you'll love them. Likewise Charles Portis' True Grit and Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories is an incredibly cynical collection but beautifully written. You list several titles suitable for Halloween reading, inc. The Haunting of Hill House and Uncle Silas. Whatever you do, don't turn to your Anne Fadiman or Zadie Smith or Nick Hornby choices. Otherwise, your next request to this list will be help in winnowing down a list of 900...

Oh, I feel your pain (though most of my list is on a private Amazon wish list). I think Kathy's advice is good! Also: I pare my list down by taking sets of whatever is next out of my public library. I find that a lot of books I list end up not being my cup of tea, which means I can check them off and move on.

Key to this of course, is being someone who is willing to give up on books after a few chapters! Too many excellent ones in the world to waste time with those that don't quite do it for you.

That said: The Glass Castle was very good, if painful. And it didn't add anything to my list.

I did a quick browse through your list so I,m sure I didn;t see everything but the ones Ive read and liked-Juliet, Intesity, The Hangmans daughter, 11/22/63, the art of fielding, the night circuc(one of my favorites), sole surviver, The time travelers Wife(another favorite) the road good but not for the squimish, I couldn't get through the last Warewolf wasn't interesting to me,state of wonder-decent,the family Fang-I liked but its not for everyone,I disliked the Great Gatsby even though it's highly rated

I liked Let the Great World Spin, Life of Pi, My Antonia, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Galapagos.

The Things They Carried - I started this one and put it down because I just couldn't get into it. I will try again a little later this year, but I didn't find the first few chapters to be engaging. I am doing a 2012 challenge and needed to make some progress!

The Ken Follett books, Brothers Karamozov and Anna Karenina are long - I love AK, Dostoevsky and have heard good things about the Follett books, but maybe hold off if you are trying to make progress quickly.

Several of your list are on my TBR list as well, so I can't help much with those.

you might consider eliminating books that are below a specific rating. i usually go with 3.5 and delete books that are below this rating. i will keep them on only if they are a particular author or a topic i want to read.

that might help get rid of a large chunk of the books.

The PRI radio show Selected Shorts aired a staged reading of the title story from The Things They Carried several years ago. If you want to get a sense of O'Brien's writing style, listen to the podcast version and see what you think: http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podsh.... To my knowledge, there's no charge.

I second Life of Pi. Do you ever listen to audiobooks? If so, I would really recommend getting Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything that way. I felt it was more fun as a listen. If you're looking strictly for quality, you can't go wrong with Jon Krakauer. Easy to read AND has weight and interest.

Also, hello! I'm new to the podcast and the group.

I'm reading Life of Pi right now. Don't know why I waited so long. It's like Midnight's Children meets the Old Man and the Sea. And you'll be surprised at all the story you can get out of a boy stranded at sea. Plus the movie version is coming out in December, even more motivation to read it before then!

Please keep The Great Gatsby, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Jane Eyre. If you are looking to remove any, I suggest Freedom....

Emily wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Please keep The Great Gatsby, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Jane Eyre. If you are looking to remove any, I suggest Freedom...."

Thank you, Lisa. You're in good company with your suggesti..."

I'll second or third The Great Gatsby and Breakfast at Tiffany's, but I wouldn't bother with Jane Eyre unless you are a romantic, or at least relate to romantics (or are a Lit major). Little girls falling in love with old men (and vice versa) knowing virtually nothing about each other is just unrealistic to me. But, everyone I know who likes other romantic older novels does like Jane Eyre (and Rebecca and Pride and Prejudice, etc).

I didn't go through your whole list at the risk of adding to my own to-read list (416 right now). My recommendations: Before I Go To Sleep, Life of Pi, The Book Thief, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and The Elegance of the Hedgehog should be moved to the top of your list.
And I'm in the minority, but I couldn't finish The Night Circus and I was less than thrilled with both Mr. Peanutand A Visit from the Goon Squad so I'd say you could pass on these books.

You will find that everyone has a different opinion based on their reading tastes. I empathize because I have about 1500 unread books myself, I used to keep track but the task became too daunting. I always say I'm planning to read them when I'm no longer ambulatory...lol.
If I were you, I'd knock out a few of the short ones and funny ones, just to feel like I've accomplished something and get in the right frame of mind. To that end, I'd say read the Jen Lancaster and Laurie Notaro books, then We the Animals...that's really short. Then read Lamb, and if you liked Lamb, A Dirty Job. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan was great, also the Tana French books, State of Wonder, Defending Jacob.
I know I'm in the minority but I did not like Life of Pi, The Book Thief, The Things They Carried, or A Visit from the Goon Squad. To expand your range, I think Peter the Great, Ready Player One and The Devil All the Time are all great testaments to their genres. Although, I love, love, love Outlander and it is the best series of all time IMHO, do not read it unless you have time to read all 7 books. It will seriously stall you out.

Janet wrote: "You will find that everyone has a different opinion based on their reading tastes. I know I'm in the minority but I did not like Life of Pi..."

Emily wrote: "I've also been questioning Life of Pi. Its good to know I'm not alone there."

I liked the first 1/3 of Life of Pi, but once it changed from a more philosophical story to one of simply surviving on a boat with a tiger (trying not to get eaten), it was a struggle.

Susanne wrote: "Janet wrote: "You will find that everyone has a different opinion based on their reading tastes. I know I'm in the minority but I did not like Life of Pi..."

Emily wrote: "I've also been questioni..."

Huh! I had exactly the opposite reaction. First 100 pages was difficult, but I realized it laid the foundation for what followed.