College Students! discussion

Those of you who know me have probably heard me mention that I own about 84,000 books that I haven't read (OK, it's probably not THAT bad). Anyway, my plan is to not buy any more new books until the end of June 2011. I can acquire used books from used book stores (NOT Amazon marketplace), books as presents, books from gift cards, and books from those rare 40% off coupons from Borders. I'm not going to set a limit of having to read so many books because it's more about needing to watch my spending than needing to weed through my books. I'll continue reading at the same rate as I always have, which is reading whenever I can.

Anyway, I'll start keeping track with the next book I finish and keep going until June 30, 2011.

1. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan--I'm not quite sure how I feel about part of this book. Other than one part of the book, I rather liked it. It was an interesting take on 4 children who are orphaned, how they react and how they take care of each other.

2. On the Road by Jack Kerouac--I read this to participate in my first ever group read. (Yeah, I know: I'm a moderator but I've never done a group read before) It's been on my to-read list for a long time. I had a love-hate relationship with this book. I really liked parts of it. I loved the concept of traveling that way. And I liked Dean. But parts of the book dragged and I felt the book could have ended in a better place, about 30 or 40 pages earlier.

3. The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield--I've seen the movie a few times and I loved it. Especially the character of Adele. When I picked it up, I was looking forward to reading more about her. Except...she wasn't hardly in the book. It was way more of a fantasy novel that I like reading. And it focused a lot on golf, which nearly put me to sleep. Instead of in the movie when it shows a few of the shots, the book described several holes in acute detail. If you're like me and avidly dislike golf, this will put you to sleep.

4. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman--I thought this book was pretty good. I'm looking forward to reading the third book most of all because I've heard it was just fantastically beautiful. But this one was suspenseful and had a pretty good story. I can't wait to start the second book, which I'll be doing in a few minutes...