A few months ago, one of my friends asked me if I would be interested in doing a 100 book challenge with her. We scoured all sorts of lists and websites looking for the right combination of classics, genres, authors, and subject matter. Most seemed a little too conventional for our tastes and as my friend pointed out, it is rather hard coming up with a list of must-reads when one of the participants was a lit major in school. Fair enough. So, we decided to cobble together our own syllabus. Sarah came up with the categories, and each of us is responsible for selecting 50 books. Fun, right?
My first selection was TERRIBLE! I can only assume that it was an expectation thing. A number of years ago, I read Into Thin Air -- Krakauer's personal account of a disastrous day on Mount Everest -- and loved, loved, loved it. While I found the story of Christopher McCandless' journey into the wild moving and could relate to his need to reinvent himself, I hated how Krakauer inserted himself into the narrative and made the book about him and how he related to McCandless' story versus just about the story itself. A matter of personal taste, I suppose.
Check back here for occasional updates. I think Sarah and I are going to create a new blog to document our reading odyssey. I'll link to it once we're ready to go. Next review ... The Leftovers by Tom Perotta. I have some catching up to do!
