#11
Anyone who knows me knows I read a lot. If you recommend a book to me, I’ll pretty much read it (or at least add it to my growing list). I belong to 2 book clubs, yup 2. Luckily I have a daily, hour plus, round trip commute to work. And I read fast. I’ve read 8 out of 20 of today’s NY Times Best Seller List. Plus 4 more that are beyond the top 20. The books I haven’t read yet are on the list.
I realized I haven’t read a lot of the top classics in literature. Really only the ones that I’ve read was in high school English class. There were some good ones that I would like to re-read someday. But there are a LOT that I haven’t read, so I added them to my 30 list.
I googled the top classics and found a number of lists and used one as a guide. I decided to pick 10 novels that I would read over the course of the year. The list I narrowed it down to, in no particular order, is the following:
- 984 by George Orwell
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Catcher in the
Rye - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
After I picked the top 10 (with some help from friends), I noticed that first of all there are no women on this list and second of all George Orwell is on here twice. This will change. I figure this list will evolve as the year goes on, but will provide a good starting point. 
Fortunately, one of my book clubs fully supports my 30 Before 30 list, and since none of us have read the book, we chose Catch-22. I’m more than halfway through the 463-page, very dense book. Luckily it was suggested that we take an extra week to read it. And I’m taking it! I may need to read the cliff notes or watch the movie before we meet in 2 weeks….
I am not a book critic and will not bore you by providing commentary on the books I read. But I will say whether I like the book and recommend it once I’ve read them.
