Since I have a hard time choosing a new book to read anyway, I have somehow turned to reading lists of different sorts to help me make my choices.
The first and most important one is the list of recommendations I got from blog readers. Of the 12 books recommended I have already read five and am just reading the sixth. So far I haven't been disappointed with a single one recommended.
Then there are the 2004 Puddly Awards, another list with the fifty books readers voted their favorite book in 2004. Since there is another fifity books the staff of Powell's considered their favorite books, we altogether have another 100 books that I can (and will) read. Fortunately there are some books in both lists and even more fortunately I have already read quite a few, so I guess it comes down to, what?, about 80 books to read this year.
Then, of course, there's the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century bookmark I got when I was in New York nearly six years ago and still carry around and carefully mark the little boxes whenever I have read a book that's on it. I also have the Nonfiction bookmark, but I don't know if I will ever dare to even try to complete that one. The Varieties of Religious Experience by Williams James? Yeah, right.
And last but not least I have the complete kommentiertes Vorlesungsverzeichnis (basically a list with all the seminars held with short descriptions) of the English Department of Cologne University which offers me another nice reading list, both for lingustic books and novels.
That said, I have a lot to do this year. And I don't even have to choose any books myself. I just have to choose which book from which list I am going to read next. And that's surely hard enough for someone like me.
