Each year, I set a goal for the number of books I’d like to read.  This year I’m targeting 40 books, which – at a little less than 1 per week –  is enough to keep me on my toes, but allow for the inevitable distractions of work and life to creep in.

The secret to success with this for me is having a go-to reading list so that as soon as I drop one book, I know which one I’m picking up next.  I’ve also started reading two books at a time.  One novel (usually compliments of the Brooklyn Public Library) for when I’m home and have time to sit down with a book for an hour or so and one nonfiction or short story book on Kindle app on my iPhone for when I’m dangling from a handle bar on the crowded F train and only have ten free minutes and one free hand.  I thought it’d be tough bouncing from story to story, but I’ve actually found that it engages me more in each book since I never get that “I’m just trying to get through this book to get to the next” feeling.  It also limits the time I spend mindlessly scrolling through social media apps  or re-reading emails to kill time on my commute.

So, here we go.  I sat down today and started my list.  It’s a combination of a wishlist that has accumulated over the course of 2015, a few recommendations from friends over the holidays, and from a quick scan of the Man Booker Prize lists frm the past few years.

I’m starting with 20, knowing that Prose and Hos(e) (our fabulous book society)  and new releasese and recommendations will fill this out along the way.

1. Me Before You by JoJo Moyes
2. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
3. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
4. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
5. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
6. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
7. This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
8. Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
9. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
10. All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
11. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
12. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
13. The Power Broker by Robert Caro
14. On Looking: 11 Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz
15. Unfinished Business by Anne-Marie Slaughter
16. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg
17. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
18. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
19. The Power of Unreasonable People by John Elkington, Pamela Hartigan
20. Susan Sontag The Complete Rolling Stone Interview by Jonathan Cot

What’s on your reading list this year?  Any recommendations for me?

&d