Reading is Sexy!! Goodreads.com 2011 Reading Challenge

Behold a sampling of our massive collection of books

As part of the 2011 Reading Challenge for Goodreads.com, I've decided to tackle some literary works that I normally wouldn't read. Usually I'm all about fiction, memoirs, classics, the occassional graphic novel, or nothing. This year as part of my 28-book reading goal, I'm going to try to change that by adding science-fiction, fantasy, and even *gasp* romance.

The photo above is only a sampling of the books we bought at our favorite used book store, Camelot Books in Fountain Valley, California. There are a few in there I received as birthday gifts, and a couple others I purchased from Barnes & Noble and/or Borders. 

Image courtesy of goodreads.com

Right now I'm spending most of my time reading The Rain Maiden by Jill M. Phillips, a historical-fiction novel about Isabel Hainault, the young queen of France who used her feminine wiles to seduce her husband and bed other men for the benefit of her kingdom. Clearly not the classiest novel I've ever read but man! Am I having fun reading it! :)

Image courtesy of TuckerMax.com

I'm also reading I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max. One of my buddies got this gem as a birthday present for me. I guess this would count as a memoir, but I also read somewhere that this was the book that started the whole"fratire" (fraternity + satire) genre...funny how I can't find that section at B & N. Wonder why.

Anyhoot, some of the stories are hilarious, but because Tucker prides himself on being such a major (place proper expletive), I can only handle a couple stories at a time before wanting to use the book as a doorstop. I heard that Hollywood even made a movie out of this book...how!? None of the stories relate with one another.

Thank you goodreads.com!

I've also been reading The Escapement by K.J. Parker....since September of 2010. This book is part of a trilogy and I really, really liked the first one (Devices and Desires), felt that the second one (Evil for Evil) was too drawn out, and for some reason I can't bring myself to go on with this one. It's pretty sad considering this trilogy was what piqued my interest in exploring the sci-fi genre in the first place. I should just finish it, huh?

Here's a list of what else is on the shelf:

• Star Wars: Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina - edited by Kevin J. Anderson
• Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (both tsudoku and my brother have recommended this book to me on several occasions)
• The Perfect Wife - Victoria Alexander (another bodice-ripper with a pretty cover)
• Dragonflight - Anne McCaffrey (tsudoku loved the Pern series a lot when he was a kid and he's been nominating this book as a "must read" for years)
• We the Living - Ayn Rand (I'm too intimidated to read Atlas Shrugged and figured I had better start with a much smaller novel, which also happens to be her first novel)
• Pygmy - Chuck Palahniuk (one of my favorite authors)
• On the Road - Jack Kerouac (this was a birthday gift from @DavidisALLright)
• And Then - Natsume Soseki
• Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Bird Artist - Howard Norman
• Mentally Incontinent - Joe Peacock (this was given to me around my birthday by @chickenlittle; she's friends with the author so she bought a few copies to give away as gifts...or just to have them)
• The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
• Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence (another one of my favorite authors)
• Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Fury - Aaron Allston (actually, I don't think this one's for me...must be tsudoku's pick)
• The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Children of Hurin - J.R.R. Tolkien (I picked this and The Silmarillion  because I found myself missing Middle Earth after I finished The Lord of the Rings trilogy)

It's only the end of February and so far I've read a total of 4 books - I'm 14% into my goal! If you want to see how I'm doing with the Reading Challenge, check out goodreads.com/vickipedia.