My reading plan is, and has always been since I can remember, to read everything I can get my hands on.
Thanks for the website, Lsura. That does look like a good list.
My library doesn’t have much information on the Summer Reading Program, so I just typed up the list. They’re not all reading, but the list is as follows:
- Attend a library program.
- Read a book by an international author.
- Read a book set in a different region of the United States.
- Read a book set in another country.
- Watch a travel video or read a travel magazine.
- Check out an ethnic or international cookbook.
- Read a book about traveling.
- Check out any audio book, video, DVD, music CD or art print.
- Read a book about another country’s culture or geography.
- Read a book you’d take to the beach.
- Read a book about another country’s history.
- Read a book set in another time period.
In addition to following this list, I’m also trying to read all of the books released so far in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Thanks very much, LgB (can I call you that?). I’m a librarian, though not a currently working one, and my mom is the reference librarian at our public library, so I think she’ll be interested. Maybe we’ll wind up doing it too!
Yep, sounds like what I do. I sometimes go to the library sales and thrift store and used bookstores, so my financial outlay isn’t quite so high, and my husband claims the floors in the house are going to collapse from all the book-weight, but hey, that’s my reading plan. 
Well, I have to read three books for summer reading before September. And I want to read The Da Vinci Code eventually. But I don’t have a specific plan at all. I should read more… sigh
I’m just starting a reading and memorising plan, based on a combination of Shakespeare and Harold Bloom’s book, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.
Bloom has lectured on Shakespeare for years at Yale and other universities. His thesis is that Shakespeare’s way of imagining and portraying individuals fuandamentally changed the way we think about humanity itself. I don’t know if I agree with that, so I’ve decided to read the plays in the order that he deals with them in his book, simultaneously reading his essays on the plays.
The one limitation is that since I believe that the plays are essentially drama, I’m planning on skipping over plays that I’ve not yet seen, either in person or by movie. (That’s actually not much of a limit, since the last time I counted there are only about 10 of Shake’s plays that I’ve not seen, and most of them are on the obscure side. Just recently, I crossed Timon of Athens off the “to-see” list, then read the text.)
As for the memorisation - I want to memorise one set-piece from each of the plays. Of course, for some of them that’s going to be a bit difficult, since Shakes had his off days, just like anyone else. For example, I only found one piece from Timon that I would want to try to memorise, and it’s pretty short.
That’s the plan, anyway. Try me in a few months to see if I’ve kept to it. Ask for me, and you’ll find me a grave man.
After not being very politically-minded for most of my life (I’ve always voted though), I’m going through a political phase and I’m trying to read as many of the “angry leftists/what the hell is going on?” books as I can. I’m even more determined after seeing Fahrenheit 9/11.
Since I’m just starting I’m way behind, and I have a long way to go, but I’ve finished:
“The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President” by Vincent Bugliosi
“Blinded by the Right : The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative” by David Brock
“Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right” by Al Frankin
“Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth” by Joe Conason
“Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror” by Richard A. Clarke
“We’re Right, They’re Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives” by James Carville
Right now I’m reading:
“The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity: A Diplomat’s Memoir” by Joseph Wilson (Valerie Plame’s husband)
and
“Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning America into a One-Party State” by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
(I always have at least 2 books going at once)
Next on my list (not necessarily in this order, I’ve just been keeping a list and adding to it):
“The Republican Noise Machine : Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy” by David Brock
“Had Enough: A Handbook for Fighting Back” by James Carville, Jeff Nussbaum
“What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News” by Eric Alterman
“House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World’s Two Most Powerful Dynasties” by Craig Unger
“Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq” by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
“Thieves in High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country–And It’s Time to Take It Back” by Jim Hightower
“Warrior King: The Case for Impeaching George Bush” by John Bonifaz
“Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential” by James Moore, James C. Moore, Wayne Slater
“Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives Are Putting the World at Risk” by Craig R. Eisendrath, Melvin A. Goodman
“Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and Why the Media Didn’t Tell You” by Paul Waldman
“The Buying of the President 2004 : Who’s Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers–and What They Expect in Return (Buying of the President)” by Charles Lewis
“Bushwhacked : Life in George W. Bush’s America” by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose
“The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception” by David Corn
“American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush” by Kevin Phillips
“Plan of Attack” by Bob Woodward
“Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush” by John W. Dean
“The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill” by Ron Suskind
“Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terrorism” by Anonymous
“The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton” by Joe Conason, Gene Lyons
“The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly” by Peter Hart, Robert W. McChesney
“Is Our Children Learning? : The Case Against George W. Bush” by Paul Begala
“An Independent Man: Adventures of a Public Servant” by James M. Jeffords, Yvonne Daley
“My Declaration of Independence” by James M. Jeffords
“Up From Conservatism” by Michael Lind
“The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth about Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High Finance Fraudsters” by Greg Palast
“The Pre-Emptive Empire: A Guide to Bush’s Kingdom” by Saul Landau
“The Bush - Haters Handbook: A Guide to the Most Appalling Presidency of the Past 100 Years” by Jack Huberman
“The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America” by Eric Alterman, Mark Green, Mark J. Green
“The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them” by Amy Goodman, David Goodman
“Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America” by Robert B. Reich
“Through Our Enemies’ Eyes: Osama Bin Laden, Radical Islam & the Future of America” by Anonymous
(Yes, btw, I do realize the value of getting out there and actually doing something rather than sitting around reading books. I also know that the election will have come and gone long before I get done with most of these. Whether Bush wins or loses, I’ll still want to read them. Historians will be reading these books in the future to try and figure out what the hell happened at this time in history.)
I’m not very interested in the Clintons but at some point I will read “The Clinton Wars,” “Living History,” and “My Life.”
All of your reading plans sound fascinating!
You’re all so ambitious!
My “plan”. Three books at the library at a time.
- A “classic” or something equally “worthy”.
- Something random of which the cover looks good, so I discover new writers.
- “Free” choice. Usually a light read. May have eductational or intellectual value (probably will if I’m to enjoy it), but that is not the point of the free choice.
I fall off the wagon when I’m busy and/or stressed in which case I get three “threes”.
Oh dear… :smack: