Book Lust; Sean's Version

So I long ago promised something resembling an introduction to my taste, and I suppose I need to offer some sort of frame of reference for my comments and contributions. I’ll update my Amazon Wishlist eventually, but for now, you’ll just have to be satisfied with a brief overview of my favorites and current reads.

Let me point out, first of all, that the best resource for my book current booklust can be found on my Facebook Visual Bookshelf, which is tracking every book I’ve read/am reading/want to read here in China, or rather, since June of 2007. The tracking includes books I’ve borrowed from friends or my cohort, Mike’s bookshelf. It also keeps you posted on the unread books on (only) my bookshelf, and the books I’m working on at any given moment. As of this entry, it shows me as currently reading Songbook by Nick Hornby (finished since I wrote this entry), A Sideways Look at Time by Jay Griffiths, Walking On Water by Madeleine L’Engle, and A Beginner’s Guide to the World Economy by Randy Charles Epping. I’m also registered as in the middle of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, but I haven’t so much as glanced at that book in months. As a matter of course and commitment, I’m also “currently reading” The Bible.

Seeing as how Mike has turned the Visual Bookshelf into a competition of sorts, I can guarantee you it will be updated frequently. The reads I’m most looking forward to this year are mostly from my bookshelf since I can’t count on getting home by 2009. I’m really excited to read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene, and I’m thinking I’ll take on The Brothers Karamazov if I can fit it in. More generally off this list, my favorite authors in no particular order are Mark Twain, William Shakespeare, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. I probably ought to add Leo Tolstoy to that list after falling completely in love with both War & Peace and, so many years ago, Anna Karenina.

Anyhow, soon I'll also post my Movie Lust and Music Lust, but I didn't want to flood the blog. Catch you later.

-S

An Introduction

Hi, all, and welcome to The List.

My name is Sean and I live in China. So as I noted in the other half of the The Awesomeosity Project (TAP)—Blogworthy, if you are ever reading an entry where I seem like I’m not trading in the same cultural currency you are, then it’s because I’m not.

For me, The List is an especially bold undertaking, since I’m going to have a hell of a time getting the books I need for it—reading material on-demand in China is out of the question at this point, so I have to rely on a planned trip home in May, meaning that I’ll be far behind on the novels. In the meantime, I’ve started tackling the only fiction that’s on The List for Year 1: Tolstoy’s War & Peace, so you can expect some posts on that soon, and Mariel has been generously sending me the essays as she obtains them, so I can also keep up there.

In the meantime, for me, The List is not so much about a sense of accomplishment as it is about the absolute drive to know everything. Of course I don’t expect to obtain omniscience, but if you were to look at my Facebook profile under interests, you would find the intentionally ubiquitous word “everything.” And it’s true. So as far as my minor contributions to the literary content of The List goes (I’ll probably have a lot more to say once we start working out the Music and Movies part), I’m much more interested in literature that operates as a mirror of the human experience and a repository of collective knowledge and the simple necessities, such as The Odyssey. Music and Movies will also reflect that interest as well, I hope.

And that’s my biography pertaining to my participation here. I hope you all join in, and if you’d like to contribute, either to the blog or a view on some media that should be added to The List itself, please contact us at our addresses listed on the side.

I’ll post again by Tuesday with something resembling my Booklust 2008. ‘Til then, happy reading!

-S

Welcome

Welcome to The List.

The List is both our shared reading list and a place to discuss the included books and essays. The idea of The List came developed over a year’s time (2007) after Mariel mentioned to Sean that as part of organizing her massive reading list (over 40 pages), she intended to compress 50 000 years of human history and literature into a 15-20 year reading project. Sean, being who he is, insisted she actually do it, and that she share. Eventually they (meaning Mariel) sorted through The List, which is posted by year. This year, 2008, is the first year of The List.

This is a work in progress. While The List is organized in a (mostly) logical manner, neither of us have read these books. Many are included simply because they were recommended, or looked interesting, and so were sorted into their respective years. With this in mind, expect that The List will grow and evolve over time, as we actually begin reading the books, and deciding if they are truly worthy of inclusion.

Additionally, The List is only one part of a much larger project to categorize everything we and our friends find interesting and important. This project is broken down into two smaller parts: Awesomeosity and Blogworthy. If The List is everything you need to know to be human, Awesomeosity is everything you need to know to be in the know, and Blogworthy is everything else worthwhile you might have missed in your daily life. Eventually, we’ll actually build a webpage and start sharing our knowledge and thoughts with the rest of the world.

Until then, enjoy.