Reading List: Book 1-20

I finished my first 20 books in my quest to read 100 books in 2010. I'm ahead of schedule. It's only three days into March and I've already read 21 books. I wanted to write this commentary before the impression of the first 20 left me. I learned a lot about myself over the course of reading these 20 books of various genres. Firstly, that I can finish most books unless I consider them too stupid to complete. This takes a lot of effort. I've given up on five books so far in this reading series. Two of them really surprised me. The first was In This World Or Maybe Another by Bob Johnson. She won the 50,000 A Room of Her Own Fellowship and after reading the first two stories in this collection (I think there were about eight) all I could say was, "why?" Granted, I'm not much of a literary fiction girl but really it was boring. I tired to read it because the book club I belong to was reading it but after story number two I just counted continue and stay sane. The second surprisingly abandoned book was Spock Vs. Q in the Alien Voices series. I loved the Lost World rendition in the series, and I love Star Trek. So, when this book didn't do it for me, I think I was one of the most surprised people in Massachusetts.

I've thought a lot about what someone who discovered this reading list who didn't know me would think of me. First, they would conclude that I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with A.J. Jacobs. He's the only person who either wrote or edited more than three of the books I've read so far. They would also conclude that I like John Darton. This conclusion would be funny because I had not heard of him until I started this challenge and it was accidental. He writes about a few of my favorite things. I like hearing what writers say when they write about writers as part of their fiction. Darton always writes about writers and science. I'm not much of a science girl but he makes it understandable. Thirdly, they would conclude that I like science fiction. This, of course, is true. There are seven science fiction titles in my list of 20. That's about a third. There's also a few mysteries and some non-fiction. This list is not as diverse as I thought it would be. There are way too many white people on my reading list which is odd because I'm not. There are also way too many men owing, of course, to my pension for Jacobs and Darton. There's not enough classic literature. Although, I read Robinson Crusoe which I didn't enjoy as you may recall.

So, it's on to the next 20 books. Goals for these books include finishing the Pendragon series, becoming more diverse in my reading, and discovering some new authors. The Pendragon series, unfortunately, is also written by a white man but what are you going to do? J.D. MacHale can tell stories and that's basically what I care about. I might give classic literature another try. I hear that Jane Eyre is a really good book, and I'm looking forward to reading Austin. Wish me luck! See you in 19 books with a second commentary!