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Some of my unread books.

So, why am I keeping a reading log beginning in July 2008? Pretty arbitrary date, right? The thing is, before then, I was a casual reader. I picked up a book every few weeks or so (though I bought them pretty regularly), and I hardly knew my local library. Then, a friend of mine recommended a satirical novel to me, Maneater by Gigi Levangie Grazer (a spoof of chick lit). Money was tight, so I was thrilled to discover that the library had a copy. So I took out Maneater and read it in a day. Five years out of college and woefully out of practice, I could still inhale a book in a matter of hours. I took out several more books, and then several more, and the rest is history. In just sixteen months, I had devoured over 260 books (199 books in one year–I just missed the 200 mark).

What follows is a chronicle of my sixteen-months-and-counting book binge. My pace varies depending on my workload, but it is fair to say that I average 12-15 books per month (though, at one point, I was reading as many as 25-30). I have made a huge dent in my “bucket list” of books to read.

Warning/apology: There are some embarrassing titles in here. Some friends and I decided to read the 17 free e-books offered by Harlequin as an experiment, so you will see several of those in here. I also read some romance and chick lit last summer to get a feel for the modern romance market, as my manuscript will likely fall within the parameters of a contemporary literary romance. So if you see a lot of campy titles in the first part of the list, now you know why.

Here they are, in ascending chronological order:

1. Maneater - Gigi Levangie Grazer
2. Living on the Edge: The Realities of Welfare in America – Mark Robert Rank
3. Eden Close - Anita Shreve
4. Where or When - Anita Shreve
5. The Real Deal – Lucy Monroe
6. The Pink Ghetto – Liz Ireland
7. The Symposium - Plato
8. On Bullsh** – Harry G. Frankfurt
9. When I Think of You – Liz Ireland
10. Goodnight Nobody – Jennifer Weiner
11. Sea Glass – Anita Shreve
12. Light on Snow - Anita Shreve
13. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
14. Dream of the Walled City – Lisa Huang Fleischman
15. Romantically Challenged – Beth Orsoff
16. The Accidental Virgin - Valerie Frankel
17. The Girlfriend Curse - Valerie Frankel
18. Close to Perfect - Tina Donahue
19. The Boy I Loved Before - Jenny Colgan
20. The End of Marriage - Nina Vida
21. Snowed In - Christina Bartolomeo
22. Empress Orchid - Anchee Min
23. The Last Empress - Anchee Min
24. The Return of Jonah Gray - Heather Cochran
25. Falling for Mr. Wrong - Caroline Upcher
26. Snuff - Chuck Palahniuk
27. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
28. Love, Work, Children - Cheryl Mendelson
29. Mike, Mike & Me - Wendy Markham
30. I’m Your Girl - J.J. Murray
31. The Love Letter - Cathleen Schine
32. Bump - Diana Wagman
33. The Snow Fox - Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
34. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
35. Diary – Chuck Palahniuk
36. Beginner’s Greek - James Collins
37. Stranger Than Fiction - Chuck Palahniuk
38. A Little Love Story - Roland Merullo
39. Something Borrowed - Emily Giffin
40. Something Blue - Emily Giffin
41. Rant - Chuck Palahniuk
42. All’s Fair - Julie Coulter Bellon
43. The Winter of Our Discontent - John Steinbeck
44. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
45. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
46. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
47. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
48. The Gospel According to Sydney Welles - Susi Rajah
49. After the Leaves Fall - Nicole Baart
50. Lux - Maria Flook
51. Wild Ginger - Anchee Min
52. My Legendary Girlfriend - Mike Gayle
53. Just Friends - Robyn Sisman
54. Baby Proof - Emily Giffin
55. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
56. Love the One You’re With - Emily Giffin
57. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
58. The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure - Adam Williams
59. Shelter - Susan Palwick
60. Peony in Love - Lisa See
61. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez
62. The Idea of Perfection - Kate Grenville
63. The Host - Stephenie Meyer
64. The Painter from Shanghai - Jennifer Cody Epstein
65. The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
66. Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
67. A Clergyman’s Daughter - George Orwell
68. Perfect Agreement - Michael Downing
69. Becoming Madame Mao - Anchee Min
70. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
71. The Pearl - John Steinbeck
72. The Silent Cry - Kenzaburo Oe
73. Happiness - Will Ferguson
74. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
75. Life Before Man - Margaret Atwood
76. The Necessary Beggar - Susan Palwick
77. Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card
78. Across the Nightingale Floor (Otori #1) – Lian Hearn
79. Grass for His Pillow (Otori #2) - Lian Hearn
80. Empress - Shan Sa
81. Talking to Addison - Jenny Colgan
82. Brilliance of the Moon (Otori #3) - Lian Hearn
83. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
84. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See
85. Loves Me, Loves Me Not - Libby Malin
86. The Harsh Cry of the Heron (Otori #4) - Lian Hearn
87. Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
88. Death of a Red Heroine – Qiu Xialong
89. Heaven’s Net Is Wide (Otori prequel) - Lian Hearn
90. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
91. Lost & Found – Jane Sigaloff
92. A Trip to the Stars - Nicholas Christopher
93. Eros - Helmut Krausser
94. The Post-Birthday World - Lionel Shriver
95. Brothers - Da Chen
96. Veronica - Nicholas Christopher
97. Angels & Demons - Dan Brown
98. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
99. The Bestiary - Nicholas Christopher
100. There a Petal Silently Falls - Ch’oe Yun
101. Crossings - Chuang Hua
102. A Bad Bride’s Tale - Polly Williams
103. The China Lover – Ian Baruma
104. The Secret Vampire - L.J. Smith
105. Daughters of Darkness - L.J. Smith
106. Soul Mountain - Gao Xingjian
107. One Man’s Bible - Gao Xingjian
108. The Wild Geese - Ogai Mori
109. Shinju - Laura Joh Rowland
110. Snow – Orhan Pmuk
111. The Hakawati - Rabih Alameddine
112. Red Dust - Ma Jian
113. Red Poppies: A Novel of Tibet - Alai
114. The Song of Everlasting Sorrow - Wang Anyi
115. Cloud of Sparrows – Takashi Matsuoka
116. Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present - Peter Hessler
117. The Map of Love - Ahdaf Soueif
118. Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata
119. Heaven Lake - John Dalton
120. The House of the Sleeping Beauties - Yasunari Kawabata
121. Go Ask Alice - Anonymous
122. Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare - Bertrand Russell
123. And Then - Natsume Soseki
124. The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
125. Sunday at Tiffany’s - James Patterson
126. The Noodle Maker - Ma Jian
127. A Dirty Job - Christopher Moore
128. Bloodsucking Fiends - Christopher Moore
129. You Suck - Christopher Moore
130. The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
131. Sharmila’s Book - Bharti Kirchner
132. I, the Divine - Rabih Alameddine
133. Secret Ceremonies - Deborah Laake
134. The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness - Lori Schiller
135. Perfect Chemistry - Simone Elkeles
136. Escape - Carolyn Jessop
137. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
138. The Chinese Room - Vivian Connell
139. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
140. Stolen Innocence - Elissa Wall
141. Testimony - Anita Shreve
142. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
143. One Nation Under Gods - Richard Abanes
144. An Equal Music - Vikram Seth
145. Baby Bonanza – Maureen Child (Harlequin experiment)
146. The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie
147. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
148. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
149. The Ground Beneath Her Feet - Salman Rushdie
150. Waiting – Ha Jin
151. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
152. Shalimar the Clown - Salman Rushdie
153. The Moor’s Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie
154. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
155. Portnoy’s Complaint - Philip Roth
156. East, West - Salman Rushdie
157. The Lake - Yasunari Kawabata
158. Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Salman Rushdie
159. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
160. Pygmy - Chuck Palahniuk
161. What Love Means to You People - NancyKay Shapiro
162. The Ocean in the Closet - Yuko Taniguchi
163. Mosquito - Roma Tearne
164. Love in a Dead Language - Lee Siegel
165. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
166. The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
167. The Temple of the Wild Geese & The Bamboo Dolls of Echizen - Tsutomu Mizukami
168. Mating - Norman Rush
169. Beauty and Sadness - Yasunari Kawabata
170. The Other Side of the Sky - Farah Ahmedi
171. A Very Special Delivery - Linda Goodnight (Harlequin experiment)
172. Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa
173. Obasan - Joy Kogawa
174. The Sound of the Mountain - Yasunari Kawabata
175. This Is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn - Aidan Chambers
176. The Stranger – Albert Camus (re-read)
177. The Wedding Day – Catherine Alliott
178. Dancing in the Moonlight - Raeanne Thayne (Harlequin experiment)
179. Fool’s Errand – Louis Bayard
180. The Romance Reader - Pearl Abraham
181. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
182. The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon - Sei Shonagon
183. The Rebel Doctor’s Bride – Sarah Morgan (Harlequin experiment)
184. Koolaids: The Art of War - Rabih Alameddine
185. Beijing Coma – Ma Jian
186. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
187. First Love and Other Stories - Ivan Turgenev
188. Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut
189. Feathered Serpent - Xu Xiaobin
190. Running Mother and Other Stories - Guo Songfen
191. Brothers - Yu Hua
192. Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
193. Arrow of God - Chinua Achebe
194. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
195. Homespun Bride - Jillian Hart (Harlequin experiment)
196. Stranded with a Spy - Merline Lovelace (Harlequin experiment)
197. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
198. Snowbound - Janice Kay Johnson (Harlequin experiment)
199. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
200. Sea of Lost Love - Santa Montefiore
201. Present Value - Sabin Willett
202. Once the Shore – Paul Yoon
203. Kiss Me Deadly – Michele Hauf (Harlequin experiment)
204. Burnt Shadows – Kamila Shamsie
205. The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem - Kanan Makiya
206. An Obvious Enchantment - Tucker Malarkey
207. Seventeen & J - Kenzaburo Oe
208. Strangers When We Meet - Evan Hunter
209. Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids - Kenzaburo Oe
210. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (1,000th book)
211. Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy #1) - Naguib Mahfouz
212. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
213. The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
214. Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
215. Palace of Desire (Cairo Trilogy #2) - Naguib Mahfouz
216. Lime Tree Can’t Bear Orange - Amanda Smyth
217. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
218. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
219. Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather – Gao Xingjian
220. Oh Pure and Radiant Heart – Lydia Millet
221. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
222. Sugar Street (Cairo Trilogy #3) – Naguib Mahfouz
223. The Subterraneans – Jack Kerouac
224. Kartography - Kamila Shamsie
225. South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami
226. The Rug Merchant - Meg Mullins
227. Everything Asian - Sung J. Woo
228. A Monster’s Notes - Laurie Sheck
229. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion - Yukio Mishima
230. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
231. Call Me by Your Name - Andre Aciman
232. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
233. High Noon - Nora Roberts
234. Howl and Other Poems - Allen Ginsberg
235. Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
236. A Change in Altitude - Anita Shreve
237. Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
238. The Consequences of Love - Sulaiman Addonia
239. Slow Hands – Leslie Kelly
240. Bone China - Roma Tearne
241. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
242. The Great Pursuit - Tom Sharpe
243. Hide in Plain Sight - Marta Perry
244. The Worst Intentions - Alessandro Piperno
245. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
246. The Most Beautiful Book in the World - Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
247. The German Mujahid - Boualem Sansal
248. Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl - Susan Campbell
249. Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs
250. Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
251. Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
252. The Secret Life of Laszlo, Count Dracula - Roderick Anscombe
253. Censoring an Iranian Love Story - Shahriyar Mandanipour
254. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
255. A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami
256. Bright-Sided - Barbara Ehrenreich
257. The Republic of Love - Carol Shields
258. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
259. Old Filth - Jane Gardam
260. The Man in the Wooden Hat - Jane Gardam
261. Supermarket - Satoshi Azuchi
262. La Confession Impudique - Jun’ichiro Tanizaki (in French)
263. The Tokaido Road – Lucia St. Clair Robinson
264. Nine Parts of Desire - Geraldine Brooks
265. Lamb – Christopher Moore
266. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
267. Dearly Devoted Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
268. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay
269. Firethorn – Sarah Micklem
270. Kushiel’s Dart - Jacqueline Carey
271. Dexter by Design – Jeff Lindsay