Yet Another New Column

I'm not done with the questions yet, I promise! There are still eight good ones coming your way...and any others people might choose to send me.

But as I told someone recently, it is getting harder and harder to find topics for blog posts. I think the problem is that I'm trying to please two different entities. I'm trying to write something interesting for my readers so they keep reading, and I'm trying to hone my skills as a writer. I'm also trying to keep my blog from becoming a tedious part of my life. I never want to feel like I have to do this. It should be something I want to do.

I love lists and challenges, so I think I've found a fun one. I find myself pinning all kinds of reading lists--I'm sure you've seen ones similar. 25 Books you Should Have Read in High School...65 Books you Should Read in your 20s...etc.

Well, I've found one I think I can feasibly get through in the time frame it allots. It's thirty books, and I have six months to read them. Why only six months? Because in six months, I will turn twenty-six and will no longer be only a quarter-century. And because it is called...


I'm really excited to finally read some of these books. I've had some of them on my list for a very long time--I just needed something to kick me in the butt and tell me to read them. Thank you, Pinterest!

So here is the list. I've only read one of these so far, but I'm never going to complain about reading it again. The plan for the column is to post what I thought of the books...like a book review! I'm going to read them in the order below; some are probably not what one would call "great literature," but I'm up for taking recommendations.

1. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen :)
3. Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close
4. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
5. Bitches on a Budget:  Sage Advice for Surviving through Tough Times in Style by Rosalyn Huffman
6. What I Know Now:  Letters to my Younger Self  by Ellyn Spragins
7. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
8. What Did I do Wrong? by Liz Pryor
9. 20-Something, 20-Everything: A Quarter-life Woman’s Guide to Balance and Direction  by Christine Hassler
10. Single:  The Art of being Satisfied, Fulfilled, and Independent by Judy Ford  
11. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
12. Daughters of the North by Sarah Hall
13. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
14. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
15. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
16. The Portable Dorothy Parker
17. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
18. The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
19. A Place of Yes:  10 Rules for Getting Everything you Want out of Life by Bethenny Frankel
20. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
21. Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
22. Bossypants by Tina Fey
23. Let's Pretend this Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson
24. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
25. Night by Elie Wiesel
26. Heartburn by Nora Ephron
27. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
28. Are you there, Vodka? It's me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
29. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
30. The Rise of Enlightened Sexism:  How Pop Culture took us from Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild by Susan Douglas

And I'm serious about taking recommendations. If you have any suggestions of great twenty-something, female-directed books, lay them on me! Or if you just have book suggestions in general, again, lay them on me. I'll try to get them read in a reasonable amount of time!

Stay gold!

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