blossoming & brilliant \05.21

blossoming & brilliant \05.21

Posted by Lauren at 11:28 PM ✪ No comment yet

These days, I have so much time to let my mind run wild that I keep coming up with ideas and promptly forgetting about them.  Sometimes it's a job or business idea.  Other times it's a project I want to work on.  It can also be a topic I want to write about.  Of course, there's also the list of things I want to learn or accomplish. I try to write them down, but sometimes I'm convinced that I'll remember the idea later.  That's rarely how it works.

So, to throw a light on one of those many noted and forgotten goals and ideas: I want to attack the list of 100 novels that everyone should read.  Clearly there will be differentiation from one list to another.  From what I can find, the most "official" list comes from the Modern Library board.  Listed alongside the board's list is the reader's list (check out both lists here).  I'll warn you that sifting through these lists is an easy way to feel inadequate.  I'm an avid reader and even love classic literature.  My final tallies: 10% of the board's list completed and 13% of the reader's list.

When comparing the lists, they have only 30 novels in common.  That indicates the top 30, in my opinion.  I already have seven (only seven?!) of those under my belt.  Well, maybe 6.25 - I'm in the midst of reading Of Human Bondage now.  So, those other 23 will be my starting point.  There are 31ish weeks left in 2012, so my mission is to have the top 30 checked off before the calendar year changes.  I suppose that means I'll have to become friends with the Chicago Public Library again (and make good on the $0.31 in overdue charges still lingering).