2008 Book List
The goals this year are similar: 30 books in a year, approximately 10,000 pages.
January
1. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (170 pages)
2. Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah (205 pages)
3. The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan (403 pages)
February
4. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman (288 pages)
5. The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, The “Good Parts” Version abridged by William Goldman (398 pages) [I feel the need to mention here, that this novel is entirely the creation of William Goldman. It is not an abridged version of some longer novel or history textbook, as the narrator claims. All of that is part of the story. Thus, Goldman continues a long tradition of frame stories, a technique that can be seen at work in such novels as Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.]
March
6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (466 pages)
7. Stardust by Neil Gaiman (336 pages)
April
8. Poetry After 9/11: An Anthology of New York Poets, edited by Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians (103 pages)
9. The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy (400 pages)
10. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss (204 pages)
11. The Wave by Todd Strasser (138 pages)
May
12. King of Shadows by Susan Cooper (186 pages)
June
13. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald–reread with students (189 pages)
14. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (244 pages)
15. Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald (309 pages)
July
None.
August
None.
September
16. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, translated by Ralph Manheim (445 pages)
October
17. Incantation by Alice Hoffman (166 pages)
18. Feed by M.T. Anderson (300 pages)
19. Fairest by Gail Carson Levine (326 pages)
20. Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons by Tim Russert (273 pages)
21. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (reread) (309 pages)
22. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (341 pages)
November
23. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban by J.K. Rowling (435 pages)
24. Wringer by Jerry Spinelli (228 pages)
December
25. Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (408 pages)
26. Wait for Me by An Na (169 pages)
27. The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (270 pages)
Current page count: 7,709
Goals: 10,000 pages; 30 books
Up Next:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Six Wives of Henry VIII