Introduction, or I Choose Funny Ways to Put off Studying for Finals

Well, we all do stupid things. Sometimes you it's leaving the house without a raincoat, or lying to the border patrol about all the cheap liquor you're hiding in the trunk. But if I can pull off this stupid thing, then I will be one pleased (and well-read) idiot.

I call your attention to THE LIST.

Now, this has been attempted by many people (including a couple people on this very site!) but I have reason to believe that I might actually succeed at reading all 1001 books on this list, and here are a few reasons why-

1) I love to read. I'm one of those kids that asked for books for Christmas instead of barbies or ponies or whatever else it is that normal children want.

2) I am a very very fast reader. I can read a typical book (let's say, 250ish pages) in about 3 hours, if I really put my mind to it.

3) I am currently in university pursuing a rigorous degree and therefore do not need any excuse to procrastinate in crazy ways.


Here are my guidelines:

1) I've already read about 50 of these 1001 books, but I will read them again as I pass them, because many of them I read a long time ago and only once and haven't the faintest idea what they were about.

2) The list is divided into 5 sections: 2000's, 1900's, 1800's, 1700's, and pre-1700's. I very much prefer modern books to what I refer to as "olden-timey" books, so to prevent myself the insanity of reading thiry-odd 1700's books in a row, I've decided to not to read the books in order and instead to read the first one from each section, then the second, then the third, etc. When I run out of titles in a section, I'll skip it and move onto the next section.

3) This is allowed to take me a very long time.

The purpose of this blog is basically so I can record this milestone in the unlikely event that I do pull it off and so I can write down my reactions to the books. I read a lot, like I said, but sometimes I read a book once and then forget everything about it. It would be nice to have some sort of record, I think.

So first up: Never Let Me Go, Kazuro Ishiguro!