So, here we go...

Well hello there. If you happened upon this blog, congratulations. Simply put: this blog is meant for me to document my personal challenge to read through all 50 books that Newsweek recommends we read now: http://www.newsweek.com/id/204300. It truly is a diary that I can look back on or share with my children when they get older. However, if people join and start talking about the books, I would love it. Call it a virtual book-club.

A few things about me:

1. While I am always reading, I would not call myself a voracious reader. Sure, my whole day is spent reading emails, marketing materials, blogs, newspapers, magazines, and "tweets" for my job, when I sit down to read a book, I am unfortunately so tired, I end up reading a page and I am out.
2. I keep busy...I have two wonderful young children under the age of 5. My wife is going to nursing school so that means that the bulk of the parental duties are on my shoulders. Not complaining at all, just between work and kids, the free time is not really there.
3. Which is BS...Like most Americans, I finish dinner, put the kids down and then I plop down in front of the TV and zone out for a few hours. Why not devote more time to reading? So, instead of turning on the TV right away, I am trying to get a habit to get in at least an hour of reading every night. I hope that time grows even more. Really, I don't need TV. Cooking shows are fun, a couple comedies are cool too...but after realizing I was not going to get through the last 5 "24" episodes because, well, I don't really care if Jack saves the world again, I made the effort to read more.
4. Which is part of why I am embracing this article in Newsweek. At the same time I said "enough is enough", this issue came in the mail and I said, "ok, Newsweek, it's ON!"
5. The Iran election also is a motivation for this, as well. In the aftermath of the results, I was following a couple sources on Twitter to see what was happening overseas. My heart was with all the protesters and while I understood what was happening on the surface of all the demonstrations, I really didn't quite understand the background to it. I was 8 years old at the time of the Islamic Revolution and saw Iran as many Americans did - They hate America and want to destroy us. The "tweets" and reports from the Daily Show's Jason Jones showed a much different picture. These were people who wanted to be liked in the world, they wanted to be free...I read up on articles in Salon.com, Newsweek, New York Times, pretty much anything that gave some background on how we ended up at this point in history. While I have a basic understanding now, I realized that is a very complex picture there. I was excited to see that there are several books about Iran (including the graphic novel, Persepolis) on the list. I hope these books help me gain understanding of what is going on there.
6. I majored in Psychology and Sociology in school. While I was required to take literature classes, I do not call myself a literary critic. And really, that isn't the point. I will give my thoughts and plot summary to the books, but hopefully I will talk more about why this book is pertinent now. Literature is, I feel, completely subjective. Each person who reads a story will get something different from it. Case in point: in college, we read Hemingway's short story, "Hills Like White Elephants." Our professor was going over symbolism in the story and said that the suitcase that was left behind signified an abortion...Em, wha? Not what I got from the story at all. So, no discussion of symbolism, if you want that, take a class.

Ok, so there is the background. Now the rules:

1. I will not read the books in order, but once I start a book, my intention is to finish it.
2. I don't have a set time frame. It would be great to say that I am giving myself a year to do it, but 50 books is basically a book a week. Could be done, but I am not going to kill myself trying.
3. The intention is to post once I finish a book...I may put posts during reading when I came across something important, or that I find interesting.

So, yesterday, I went to a local used bookstore and started looking for the books on the list. Got 10 of them for about $45. I ended up getting an 11th at Barnes and Noble. Now, the first book:


No. 5 on the list...William Faulkner's, "The Bear". Newsweek calls it: "A boy comes of age in the 1880s by learning the ways of the fast-disappearing Mississippi forests. The best environmental novel ever written." You can get it on Amazon. Now, I have 47 pages left in the book I am reading now (The Mad Ones, if you must know)...should be able to finish that today and then it will be onto The Bear. See you soon.