Book List update

It's been about a year since I first mentioned the book list I embarked on awhile back.  It's NPR's top 100 Beach Reads, but in some cases, the term "beach read" should be considered lightly.  I read many of these this year, some I would definitely consider casual reading, and others that seemed to be a bit more daunting than I consider beach reads to be.  I read a lot more during the winter than I do during the summer, so it seems like an appropriate time of year to mention that I'm still chugging along at this list!  It's actually been wonderful for me because I am never short on ideas for books to grab from the library.  

I've got to say that my favorite book from that list by far is still Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell), followed closely by Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett).  There have been other great books on this list, many that I would have never picked up without being prompted to do so.  There have also been many that I didn't particularly like, but could at least see why they had made this list in the first place.  In almost all cases I was at least glad I read the book, save a few which I really just did not like.

I've now got about a quarter to a third of the list still to read. And no - I didn't read the other 60-70 books on the list all this past year - many I had read before starting this! There are several that I've been avoiding (cough, Ayn Rand) simply due to rumors of them being a difficult read, so I'll have to let you know whether I enjoyed them once I read them.

On another note, my friends and I have started a book club in which we recently read The Help - another great book, and I'm excited to keep up with that. We "meet" on the phone since we all live quite far from each other which has so far proven to be just one more excellent way for us to keep in touch regularly.