I’m a multi-tasker, so when it comes to reading books, I can’t read just one. I’m always juggling a couple books at a time. Usually, I read while watching TV or eating dinner. When reading articles online, I’m almost always chatting with friends and checking e-mail in between paragraphs. As a child, I walked two miles to and from school (uphill both ways, in the snow), and always read a book. Somehow, I never walked into any telephone poles.
Sitting on my nightstand tonight are “Lucky” by Alice Sebold, “The Changing South of Gene Patterson,” edited by Roy Peter Clark and “100 Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Every night I try to decide which one to read, but with three books going at once, it takes three times as long to finish any of them. Maybe I just need to stop going to Borders and the library, especially the Poynter library, which is filled with books about journalism.
I’m about to start “Atonement,” which I have to read half of by next week. My friend, her sister and I started a book club so that we would be forced to actually read an entire book within a reasonable amount of time. I’ve tried starting book clubs in the past but haven’t had much luck with them. This one seems to be working so far, though, probably because my friend and I are using our book discussions as a way of keeping in touch.
Below, I’ve listed some of the books I’ve been wanting to read. What books do you think I should add to the list?
The Looming Tower
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
The History of Love
For One More Day
A Room of One’s Own
The Waves
The Historian
My Sister’s Keeper
East of Eden
White Noise
The House in Paris
The Folded Leaf
Lonesome Dove
The Best and the Brightest
The Member of the Wedding
The World According to Garp
Sickened
Meridian
Eat, Pray, Love
All Souls
The House of Mirth
A Long Way Gone
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Dreams From my Father (Barak Obama’s Memoir)
Water for Elephants
Marley and Me
The Namesake
The Glass Castle
The Life of Pi (Recommended by St. Pete Times writer Tom French)
The Pact
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
The Thirteenth Tale
The Other Boleyn Girl
October Sky
Atonement
The Joy Luck Club
Being Charlotte Simmons
Teacher Man
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Word on the Street 
What an ambitious list! AM reading Glass Castle after I finish Linked. In recent years, I have stopped reading multiple books at the same time! I think I just have too much others stuff to do, not that my mind is turning to jelly!
Thanks, Joe. I’ll have to add Glass Castle to my list!
Definitely keep the Woolf books on there! Also, try How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez. I just read it, and I really think you would like it!
if your going to read the pact, you should add on your list all of Jodi picults other books as well because they are all amazing, Plain truth and my sisters keeper are my favorites. another book to consider is called ahab’s wife, i finished it and it was so amazing i wanted it to go on forever, i felt like the main charcter was my best friend. I hope you’re doing well!