A Little Reading List

I came across this passage in the book we are reading with the reading group, 'Emma' by Jane Austen. 

"Emma has been meaning to read more ever since she was twelve years old.  I have seen a great many lists of her drawing up at various times of books that she meant to read regularly through -- andvery good lists they were -- very well chosen, and very neatly arranged -- sometimes alphabetically, and sometimes by some other rule.  The list she drew up when only fourteen -- I remember thinking it did her judgment so much credit, that I preserved it some time;  and I dare say she may have made out a very good list now.  But I have done with expecting any course of steady reading from Emma.  She will never submit to any thing requiring industry and patience, and a subjection of the fancy to the understanding. [...] -- You could never persuade her to read half so much as you wished. -- You know you could not."

Well!  Gosh, who does THAT look like?  ha ha ha ha ha  I have made endless lists myself. 

But really, I have been trying to read quality books.  

Starting in September last year, I went on a six-month Patrick O'Brian binge.  Read the entire twenty-book 'Master and Commander' series.  Captain Aubrey and Doctor Maturin are fabulous characters.  O'Brian is very hard to top.  Very addictive. 

That ended in March of this year.  I was completely lost for a while, unable to find anything that held my interest as well as O'Brian.  But I came out of it and since then, here is what I have read: 

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
Emma by Jane Austen
The Red Tent by Anita Daimant
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor (short stories)
Re-read:  The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
Re-read:  The Battle of the Villa Fiorita by Rumer Godden
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
Brunelleschi's Dome:  How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architechture by Ross King
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

I don't think it is too bad of a list (she said defensively)! :-)