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These books have been selected from a variety of lists. I hope to read them all in 2018.

1) 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami 4.5 Stars
2) A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe 3.5 Stars
3) A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Ōe 4 Stars
4)A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud 4 Stars
5) A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood 4 Stars
6) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 3.5 Stars
7) A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin 3.5 Stars
8) Amok by Stefan Zweig 4 Stars
9) An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro 4.5 Stars
10) At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien 3.75 Stars
11) Battle Royale by Koushun Takami 4.5 Stars
12) Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy 5 Stars
13) Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh 4 Stars
14) Burial Rites by Hannah Kent 3.5 Stars
15) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 4.75 Stars
16) Chess Story by Stefan Zweig 4 Stars
17) Coming Up for Air by George Orwell 4 Stars
18) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 4.25 Stars
19) Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa 4.5 Stars
20) Dune by Frank Herbert 4.5 Stars
21) Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton 4 Stars
22) Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer 3.5 Stars
23) Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy 4.5 Stars
24) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson 3.75 Stars
25) Fifth Business by Robertson Davies 4 Stars
26) Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 4 Stars
27) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon 3.5 Stars
28) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 4.5 Stars
29) Hunger by Knut Hamsun 4.75 Stars
30) In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick 4Stars
31) Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino 4 Stars
32) Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 4.5 Stars
33) Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson 4 Stars
34) Kim by Rudyard Kipling 4.75 Stars
35) Lady Susan by Jane Austen 3.5 Stars
36) Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman 4.5 Stars
37) Middlemarch by George Eliot 5 Stars
38) Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre 4 Stars
39) Nicotine by Nell Zink 3 Stars
40) Night by Elie Wiesel 5 Stars
41) Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami 3.5 Stars
42) Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams 4 Stars
43) Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy 4 Stars
44) Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov 4.25 Stars
45) Passing by Nella Larsen 3.75 Stars
46) Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay 3 Stars
47) Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov 4 Stars
48) Sidhartha by Hermann Hesse 5 Stars
49) Silence by Shūsaku Endō 4 Stars
50) Steps by Jerzy Kosiński - 4 Stars
51) Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach 3 Stars
52) Summer by Edith Wharton 4 Stars
53) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 4.25
54) The Call of the Wild by Jack London 4 Stars
55) The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark 4.5 Stars
56) The Dying Animal by Philip Roth 3.75 Stars
57) The Fall by Albert Camus 4 Stars
58) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 3.5 Stars
59) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 4 Stars
60) The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton 5 Stars
61) The Immoralist by André Gide 4.5 Stars
62) The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson 4.5 Stars63) The Liars' Club by Mary Karr 4.75 Stars
64) The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham 4 Stars
65) The North Water by Ian McGuire 3.75 Stars
66) The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene 3.75 Stars
67) The Princess Bride by William Goldman 4 Stars
68) The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño 3.25 Stars
69) The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch 4.25 Stars
70) The Secret History by Donna Tartt 3.75 Stars
71) The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad 4.25 Stars
72) The Summer Book by Tove Jansson 3.5 Stars
73) The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen 4.25 Stars
74) The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith 4 Stars
75) The Violent Bear It Away byFlannery O'Connor 4.5 Stars
76) The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks 4 Stars
77) The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 5 Stars
78) Time's Arrow by Martin Amis 4 Stars
79) To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway 4 Stars
80) Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller 4.5 Stars
81) Ulysses by James Joyce - 4 Stars
82) Voss by Patrick White 3.75 Stars
83) We by Yevgeny Zamyatin 3.75 Stars
84) White Noise by Don DeLillo 4.25 Stars
85) White Teeth by Zadie Smith 4.5 Stars
86) Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson 4.5 Stars
87) Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath by Kate Moses 3 Stars
88) Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon 3.75 Stars

Excellent list Tammy!
I have already read 20 of those, most of which I loved,
4 I'm planning on reading in 2018
and about another 20 "hovering" for their chance
so looking forward to our Compare Books rising even higher than its current 78%...

Quite the ambitious and varied list! You have some of my favorites (Princess Bride, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Power and the Glory) on here; I hope you enjoy them too! :)

Best of luck Tammy! It's an exceptional list!

Nice List! Good luck! :)

You are far more organized than I. Wow! I have an author or two that I will concentrate on, and several different book clubs which choose books but beyond that I mostly choose books as I go.

I always make a detailed list, then I veer off at every opportunity! Then comes the guilt :/
I'm thinking of trying to go away from a specific plan next year...but then I see all my lists and I start to get excited! ;)

Terris wrote: "I always make a detailed list, then I veer off at every opportunity! Then comes the guilt :/
I'm thinking of trying to go away from a specific plan next year...but then I see all my lists and I sta..."

I enjoyed looking at your list and there are many on this one that I need to read.

Kelly and Terris, I've never made a challenge list before this year. Even my Bingo list was made up of books that I'd already read this year (aside from five that I needed to complete the black out). I'm curious to see if I will complete the list or go completely rogue. I know I can do the reading, but there are some real doozies on this list. Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses scare the absolute poop out of me! Thanks to all for the support.

Terris wrote: "I always make a detailed list, then I veer off at every opportunity! Then comes the guilt :/
I'm thinking of trying to go away from a specific plan next year...but then I see all my lists and I sta..."

I started making list this year Terris and I find I agree with you about impulse reads..I have some books to carry over from this years challenges...
But its so nice to gopher and make a list...

Tammy wrote: "Kelly and Terris, I've never made a challenge list before this year. Even my Bingo list was made up of books that I'd already read this year (aside from five that I needed to complete the black out..."

There are just some books that I'm just not going to ever read & those are two of them! ;)

Terris wrote: "Tammy wrote: "Kelly and Terris, I've never made a challenge list before this year. Even my Bingo list was made up of books that I'd already read this year (aside from five that I needed to complete..."
I don't blame you one bit, Terris!

Darren wrote: "Excellent list Tammy!
I have already read 20 of those, most of which I loved,
4 I'm planning on reading in 2018
and about another 20 "hovering" for their chance
so looking forward to our Compare B..."

Darren, which ones were your favorites? I'd like to know so that I can start with a bang.

5-Stars: Hunger, Master & Margarita, Invisible Cities, Savage Detectives, Dune

I really enjoyed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and The Grapes of Wrath. I agree with Darren about Hunger and The Master and Margarita.

Thanks to both of you. I think I'll start with The M & M!

I'll agree that M&M is good, but it is a crazy ride. It is very odd so don't worry if you don't understand what is going on for quite a while.

I loved The yellow wallpaper and Tre grows in Brooklyn.Both are good.TYW is short but creepy and very good.
Sidhartha was so so for me.

Yellow Wallpaper 5-Star also! small but perfectly formed!

not sure I properly understood M&M, but it was an amazing rollercoaster, and I'm sure I'll appreciate it even more on re-reading...

One of the questions on the main page of this forum is something along the lines of, "What makes a classic a classic?" Most people said time, but for me it is whether or not the book can be studied. Does it make you want to find out about the author's personal life and philosophies? Does it make you ponder, think, or pull your hair in confusion? Those kind of books are the books for me, so Bulgakov...here I come!

Wow. You have 11 books here that I have already read and quite a number that are also on my TBR. Good luck with the list. I'll be watching your progress and (like Darren) thinking we will be reading some books at the same time this year.

Tammy wrote: "One of the questions on the main page of this forum is something along the lines of, "What makes a classic a classic?" Most people said time, but for me it is whether or not the book can be studied..."

I like your definition.

#52 Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson - 4 stars
Junkies, alcoholics, prostitutes, dwarfs, ex-jocks, and mennonites...this collection has a little something for everyone. These short stories are beautifully interwoven and told by one unnamed junky/care-giver/orderly/husband/father/boyfriend/thief/peeping Tom.

Let's Go-Go Crazy 88 is off to a great start.

#85 - Fifth Business by Robertson Davies - (4 and maybe a little extra stars)
#41 - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - what an insane book (I'm not insane...YOU'RE INSANE....says the book back to me) 4.75 Stars (.25 deducted for making me stay up late to finish it)
#15 - Hunger by Knut Hamsun - I flew through this one and loved it. 4.75 Stars (I took off .25 because the narrator drove me nuts giving away all his money every time he happened to get some)

Haha, I love your star reasonings! Glad you've enjoyed your recent reads :)

Gave me a good laugh. You're off to a great start with all those 5 (uh 4.75) point reads.

I have more books to check off the list. Six books down on this list so only 82 more to go!

75: Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath. I didn't really love this one I think this is just a middle of the road book for me. 3 Stars.

#67: The Driver's Seat - This was my first Muriel Spark book. It had very mixed reviews and I was a bit worried that it might be a real stinker. Well I totally dug this nasty, little novella. 4.5 Stars (.5 off because other people didn't like it and sometimes I can be swayed by the crowd...even when I think they are wrong).

I love reading your reasons for your ratings. It is very brave to admit you can be swayed by the crowd...but you were only swayed a tiny little bit!

I aim to please, Sara! I am certain that my crazy 88 challenge will lead to a great number of wacky ratings and absurd deductions (and maybe even additions) in stars.

#44 The Yellow Wallpaper - 5 Stars - Perhaps I should deduct a tenth for not having any reasons to deduct anything. This was a tense trip to cuckooville. Loved it.

#21 The Killer Inside Me - 4.5 Stars I wonder how much of Dexter was taken from this story. (.5 deducted for all the characters who had it coming but didn't know they had it coming and certainly didn't deserve to have THAT coming)

Side Read: Libra by Don Delillo - Really good JFK conspiracy fiction. I'm still limbering up for White Noise and Underworld.

Tammy - this is getting scary now - our "compare books" is up to 81%!
White Noise was my first DeLillo (which I enjoyed), I then went on to Underworld (which is one of my fave books ever) and I just got a copy of Cosmopolis in the post today!

Darren...I have been working on a mini-DeLillo crush for the last year. I started with End Zone, Falling Man, Point Omega, Zero K, and now Libra. I have White Noise on my list this year and am saving Underworld for after that. I'm certain that we'll be matching up on quite a few more books this year considering you have read about 20 off my current personal challenge. I look forward to getting that compare books up to 85%!

January Wrap-up

I am off to a good start with my first full year of goodreads challenges! Last year, in January, I read 2 books. This year I read 26 (and 1/2 of a pesky one I just couldn't quite finish). I completed 13 books for this challenge and 13 off of other challenges and side reads.

Tammy's Let's GoGo Crazy 88 Personal Challenge:

The Fifth Business 4 Stars
An Artist of the Floating World 4.5 Stars
Hunger 4.5 Stars
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas 3.75 Stars
Wintering A Novel of Sylvia Plath 3 Stars
The Driver's Seat 4.5 Stars
The Prague Cemetery 4.25 Stars
Catch-22 4.75 Stars
Jesus' Son 4 Stars
The Yellow Wallpaper 5 Stars
Battle Royale 4.5 Stars
The Dying Animal 3.75 Stars
Burial Rights 3.5 Stars

Stats:
Books Completed: 26
Total Pages: 7357
Average # of Pages in Books: 283
Average # of Pages a Day: 237 (I can do better than this...gonna aim for 250)
Female Authors: 9 (35% is really good for me)
Male Authors: 17 (65%)
Non US Authors: 11 (42%)
Average stars: 3.8

Wow, nice going! I like your stats, breaking it down into average pages per book and read per day. I'd love to know the word count for the books I read. It would be a more reliable gauge than pages. (Although Ulysses is going to bring down my average reading per day for a while no matter how I count!)

Wow! 237 pages/day is amazing! I managed an average of 110 in 2017, peaking in Nov/Dec at 150 and really felt like I had no other spare time whatsoever!

Pretty amazing from 2 to 26! You have already had some superb reads this year.

Another good month of reading. I completed 24 books this month, 12 of which were on the crazy 88 challenge.

FEBRUARY 2018 BOOKS

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach 3 Stars
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov 4.25 Stars
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks 4 Stars
Night by Elie Wiesel 5 Stars
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson 4.5 Stars
Summer by Edith Wharton 4 Stars
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino 4 Stars
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick 4 Stars
The North Water by Ian McGuire 3.75 Stars
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 5 Stars
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy 5 Stars
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay 3 Stars

STATS (Includes other challenges):
Books Completed in Feb: 24
Total Pages: 7,066
Average # of Pages Read Per Day: 252 (Up from 237 in January)

Female Authors: 6 (25%)
Male Authors: 18 (75%)
Non US Authors: 11 (46%)
Average stars: 3.8 (lots of good books this month)

Short (<225 pages): 8
Medium (226-450 pages): 13
Long (451-675 pages): 2
Very Long (>676 pages): 1
(Shortest �� 101)
(Longest �� 849)
Average # of Pages in Books: 294

THE BEST OF FEBRUARY:
Night by Elie Wiesel
The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor (not from this challenge, but so good I felt it was worth mentioning)
Siddhartha by Herman Hess
Blood Meridian, Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

FEBRUARY FLOP:
Theft by Finding by David Sedaris (from another challenge)

Wow, you are a reading machine. Lots of good books here. At this rate you will be looking for something to read before the year is done. :)

It really was a great month for books, Sara. I could have put Wharton's Summer, Nabokov's Pale Fire, and Winesburg, Ohio by Anderson on my best of list and still had some honorable mentions to list. I don't think there was a stinker in the bunch.

I always enjoy looking for new stuff to read. Maybe I'll start checking off the 1001 books list once I complete my challenges!

I loved Summer, but haven't read either of the others. Winesburg, Ohio is already on my list, but I guess this means I have to add one. lol. Poor TBR never shrinks at all.

I am reading East Lynne for my Women's challenge and I am so into it at 70 pages! I am hoping it keeps going the way it has started. Love to have such an unexpected wonderful find.

MARCH 2018 BOOKS
CRAZY 88 Challenge
1. Wonder Boys by Chabon, Michael 3.75
2. Invisible Man by Ellison, Ralph 4.5
3. A Single Man by Isherwood, Christopher 4
4. Orpheus Descending by Williams, Tennessee 4
5. Silence by Endo, Shusaku 4
6. White Noise by DeLillo, Don 4.25
7. Amok and Other Stories by Zweig, Stefan 4
8. White Teeth by Smith, Zadie 4.5
9. The Power and the GloryGreene, Graham 3.75
10. A Personal Matter by Oe, Kenzaburo 4
11. Chess Story by Zweig, Stefan 4
12. We by Zamyatin, Yevgeny 3.5
13. The Liars' Club by Karr, Mary 4.75

Side Reads/Other Challenges
14. Behold the Dreamers by Mbue, Imbolo 3.75
15. Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Lawson, Jennifer 2.75
16. The Breast by Roth, Philip 3.5
17. 1984 by Orwell, George 4
18. To the Lighthouse by Woolf, Virginia 4.5
19. Ghost Story by Straub, Peter 3
20. Delta Wedding Welty, Eudora 3.75
21. How to Start a Fire by Lutz, Lisa 3
22. The Sea Wolf by London, Jack 4.25
23. Interpreter of Maladies by Lahiri, Jhumpa 4.25
24. The Fifth Witness by Connelly, Michael 3.25
25. Xingu by Wharton, Edith 4
26. Olive Kitteridge by Strout, Elizabeth 3.75
27. The Strange Library by Murakami, Haruki 4
28. The Life All Around Me By Ellen Foster by Gibbons, Kaye 3.25
29. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Sloan, Robin 3.75
30. Tampa by Nutting, Alissa 2
STATS:
Books Completed in March: 30
Books Completed for Personal Challenge in MARCH: 13
Total Pages: 7,950
Average # of Pages Read Per Day: 256

Female Authors: 12 (40%)
Male Authors: 18 (60%)
Non US Authors: 12 (40%)
Average stars: 3.83 (seems to be my running average each month)

Short (<225 pages): 12
Medium (226-450 pages): 16
Long (451-675 pages): 2
(Shortest �� 48) Xingu by Edith Wharton
(Longest �� 567) Ghost Story by Peter Straub
Average # of Pages in Books: 265

THE BEST OF MARCH:
The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (I’d put this one off for a long time and I’m glad I finally got around to reading it. Excellent!)
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (I had a really hard time with Mrs. Dalloway, so I didn’t have very high hopes for this one. More than loving this book, I respected it. Woolf managed to tell this story from each character’s perspective and captured their thoughts in a way that had the ring of truth. Nothing was pat or formulaic. People lived, died, were alone, were unhappy, were happy��.kind of like life)
White Teeth by Zadie Smith (I don’t think I’ve enjoyed the start of a book as much as this in a long time)
The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr (Beautifully written, brutally honest and just fantastic. I don’t know why I should care about Mary Karr, but I do and I did, and it was worth the time spent getting to know her.)

Progress Update: Fifteen weeks into the year and I have completed 47 of the Crazy 88 Challenge. I'm in good shape to finish the last 41 books by the end of the year.

I'm currently reading Tropic of Cancer, which is also on my Bingo Challenge (a banned book). Seedy is the word that comes to mind as I read. Initially I thought I might actually put it down, but somehow my opinion changed and now I am enjoying it.

April 2018 BOOKS

Reader’s Block Markson, David 4.5
Love Morrison, Toni 3.75
Limitations Turow, Scott 3.5
A Wizard of Earthsea Le Guin, Ursula 3.5
Zombie Oates, Joyce Carol 2
The Immortalists Benjamin, Chloe 3
Gilead Robinson, Marilynne 4
The Silver Linings Playbook Quick, Matthew 3.75
Outer Dark McCarthy, Cormack 4
The Rosie Project Simsion, Graeme 3.75
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine Lewis, Michael 4
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood Noah, Trevor 4
Coming Up for Air Orwell, George 4
Tropic of Cancer Miller, Henry 4.5
Slide, a Modern Satire on the Excess of GreedViola, Saira 1
Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet Xinran 3
The Phantom Tollbooth Juster, Norton 2.75
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Stevenson, Robert Louis 4
The Sympathizer Nguyen, Viet Thahn 4.25
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter McCullers, Carson 4.5
Little Fires Everywhere Ng, Celeste 3
The Turn of the Screw James, Henry 3
Far from the Madding Crowd Hardy, Thomas 4.5
A Man of the People Achebe, Chinua 3.75
White Nights Dostoyevsky, Fyodor 2.5
Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories Fleming, Ian 3.25
Ethan Frome Wharton, Edith 4

STATS:
Books Completed in April: 27
Total Pages: 6443
Average # of Pages Read Per Day: 215

THE BEST OF APRIL:
Reader’s Block by David Markson �� Very modern and a completely unique writing style. How could I not love a book loaded with trivia about painters, authors, musicians and philosophers?
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers �� Not too shabby for a 23 year old author. Good grief this was good!
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy �� This was my second Hardy book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller �� I imagine this book isn’t too popular with a lot of folks, but I thought it was great. I have no expectations that authors need to be good people.

April Stinkers:
Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates: I usually like Joyce Carol Oates, but this was pretty weak.
White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: This short story was way too maudlin for my taste. Sticky sweet saccharine schmaltz. Yuck!

My goodness you are a reading machine!!

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is one of my favorites and would make my top 100 of books you cannot miss. I am also a huge fan of Hardy. I have not read Tropic of Cancer, but totally agree that good authors need not be good people.

I would never ever recommend Tropic of Cancer to anyone. It is wildly offensive. I'm just not easily offended. Funny...I just realized that all of my top picks are about loneliness in one way or another. Hmmm, very interesting.

Do you have a Hardy favorite, Sara? I'm going to be reading more of him. Tess was great. Have you read Jude the Obscure? I'm also starting to get a little crush on Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence is going to be my next one from her.

We seem to have similar tastes, Tammy. Jude is actually my favorite Hardy...but I still have Woodlanders and A Pair of Blue Eyes unread. I am also a huge fan of Wharton. I'll be interested in how you react to Age of Innocence. Custom of the Country was one of hers that I really enjoyed.

Sara wrote: "My goodness you are a reading machine!!

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is one of my favorites and would make my top 100 of books you cannot miss. I am also a huge fan of Hardy. I have not read Tropi..."


you really are Tammy!!
Congrats on the books you read. ..

Tammy - given our 81% Compare Books rating, I am bumping up Tropic of Cancer in my TBR pile
In return, you need to give Dune 5 Stars ;o)

siriusedward wrote: you really are Tammy!!
Congrats on the books you read. ..

Beep Beep....Must see how book ends....bitty bitty beeeeep...can't stop....beep blippity bloop. Seriously, I am not a machine (though I haven't been given the Dune pain test so I guess we can't be 100% certain).

Darren wrote: "Tammy - given our 81% Compare Books rating, I am bumping up Tropic of Cancer in my TBR pile
In return, you need to give Dune 5 Stars ;o)"

I'm warning you...if you require characters with ANY redeeming qualities then you should stay far away from Tropic of Cancer!!! I have a very high threshold for debauchery. Are we at 81% now! Wowza.

Ha, ha! Love your machine sounds, Tammy, but clearly you give each of these the human thought they deserve. I'm a fan of Heart is a Lonely Hunter and also Ethan Frome--glad you enjoyed those. And thanks for bringing Reader’s Block to my attention--must read!