Reading List for 2H18

Like many people I have a list of books I’ve been meaning to get around to.  Some have been on the list for years, others for a month or two.  Some I’ve chipped away at recently, hoping to complete them and check that box.  Others I’ve ignored indefinitely.  Three of the books in this stack are books I’ve been meaning to get to for years.

Reading lists are deeply personal things.  My reading list is a stack of books I want to read to feel like I’ve accomplished something significant.  I read all the time and love to immerse myself in a great book, but some books are more evasive than others.  Representing 5,001 total pages of non-fiction and fiction, these books are my ultra-marathon reading challenge.  With 169 days left in the year that represents just under 30 pages per day to complete this reading list.  Simple right?  Some reading is easier than other reading.  There’s a reason a few of these have been sitting on the shelf for awhile.

Here’s my list for the balance of 2018:

• Benjamin Franklin – Edmund S Morgan
• Antifragile – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Mindwise – Nicholas Epley 
• Surveyors of Empire – Stephen J Hornsby
• Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
• Cultural Amnesia – Clive James
• The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexander Dumas
• Ulysses – James Joyce
• Don Quixote – Miquel de Cervantes
• Letters to a Young Poet – Rainer Maria Rilke

Some heavyweight business books, some classics, a biography, some history and stoic philosophy.  Like most things I do, it’s got a dose of eclectic in it.  So be it.  Averaging 30 pages a day is attainable, and candidly I’ve been putting several of these off for too long.  I’ve got a stack of books after this to tackle too, but these are the books I’m going to finish in 2018.  Ready?  Let’s go.