The 2015 Veronica Reads Project

As I mentioned in my last post, it has been some serious time since I have actually been an active reader. And if you read the few posts right before that one, they are have the common factor of me bemoaning that same fact. Well, I can complain about it all I want, or I can shut up and do something about it.

As it is a bran new year and just the time for New Years Resolutions, I give you The 2015 Veronica Reads Project.

I am hoping that with a little more structure and a little more direct intention, things will slowly put themselves back to normal. And so I have made a list of all the books (both read and unread) that currently adorn my bookshelf. And in 2015, I'm going to read them. Or, to be more realistic, I'm going to start reading them but probably not finish in 2015. But starting and getting through some is really the goal.

To really keep myself in check - and to get myself back in the habit of regular blogging - I'm going to start a weekly check in. This, instead of just a review at the end, I think will force me to make sure I get something done, that way my weekly recaps aren't quite so pathetic.

I do realize that some of these are not great books. Some of them are books I began collecting back when I was in fourth or fifth grade (I'm looking at you, Ann Rinaldi), some were gateway books into bigger and better things, and some were books forced on me in college. But none of that really matters. Sometimes books that are too young or a little closer to the guilty pleasure side are just what a person needs. And a reminder of where you've come from is always appreciated.

So, here's the list:

• Half of a Yellow Sun: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Winter Queen: Boris Akunin
• The Divine Comedy: Dante Aligheri
• Emma: Jane Austen
• Mansfield Park: Jane Austen
• Northanger Abbey: Jane Austen
• Persuasion: Jane Austen
• Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen
• Sense and Sensibility: Jane Austen
• Saul and Patsy: Charles Baxter
• The Flavia de Luce Mysteries: Alan Bradley
• Angels and Insects: AS Byatt
• The Alienist: Caleb Carr
• The Angel of Darkness: Caleb Carr
• Wise Children: Angela Carter
• The Greatest Knight: Elizabeth Chadwick
• And Then There Were None: Agatha Christie
• Little Bee: Chris Cleave
• The Moonstone: Wilkie Collins
• The Woman in White: Wilkie Collins
• The Dr. Siri Paiboun Mysteries: Colin Cotterill
• A Tale of Two Cities: Charles Dickens
• The Brothers Karamazov: Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Sister Carrie: Theodore Driesler
• Fried Green Tomatoes: Fannie Flagg
• The Good Soldier: Ford Madux Ford
• Memoirs of a Geisha: Arthur Golden
• The Princess Bride: Willaim Goldman
• Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen: Susan Gregg Gilmore
• The Cousins War Series: Philippa Gregory
• The Tudor Court Series: Philippa Gregory
• The Earthly Joys Series: Philippa Gregory
• A Long Way Down: Nick Hornby
• Second Person Singular: Sayid Kashua
• Beloved Bondage: Katherine Kincaid
• The Hisotrian: Elizabeth Kostova
• The Bloodletter’s Daughter: Linda Lafferty
• Devil in the White City: Erik Larson
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: Gregory McGuire
• Mirror Mirror: Gregory McGuire
• A Company of Lairs: Karen Maitland
• La Mort d’Arthur: Thomas Mallory
• Dr. Faustus: Christopher Marlowe
• Amsterdam: Ian McEwan
• Atonement: Ian McEwan
• Everlasting Love: Ian McEwan
• Saturday: Ian McEwan
• The Shape of Mercy: Susan Meissner
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet: David Mitchell
• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal: Christopher Moore
• Madam Tussaud: Michelle Moran
• The Book of Unholy Mischief: Elle Newmark
• The Scarlet Pimpernel: Baroness Emmuska Orczy
• When Christ and His Saints Slept: Sharon Kay Penman
• The Brother Cadfael Chronicles: Ellis Peters
• Out Stealing Horses: Per Petterson
• The Song of the Lioness: Tamora Pierce
• Confessions of Georgia Nicolson: Louise Rennison
• My too large collection of Ann Rinaldi books that I think I started collecting in fourth grade
• Harry Potter: JK Rowling
• Scaramouche: Rafael Sabatini
• Scaramouche the Kingmaker: Rafael Sabatini
• Peony in Love: Lisa See
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: Lisa See
• Shanghai Girls: Lisa See
• Dreams of Joy: Lisa See
• Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: Rob Sheffield
• Daughter of York: Anne Easter Smith
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: Muriel Spark
• The Red and the Black: Stendhal
• Miss Buncle's Book: DE Stevenson
• Miss Buncle Married: DE Stevenson
• Treasure Island: Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Merlin Quartet: Mary Stewart
• Gulliver’s Travels: Jonathan Swift
• Anna Karenina: Leo Tolstoy
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Mark Twain
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Mark Twain
• Candide: Voltaire
• Beautiful Ruins: Jess Walter
• Innocent Traitor: Allison Weir
• The Enchanted Forest Chronicles: Patricia C Wrede

Wish me luck!