“She told me I should keep reading – that books were mirrors, reflective in sometimes unpredictable ways.”
–I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb

Pajiba is hosting the second year of the Cannonball Read. Last year’s task was arduous: read 100 books in a year. I read 7.

So yeah: fail. This year’s is more manageable: read a book a week. 52 books in a year. Nothing under 150 pages. No graphic novels. I’ma try valiantly once again to read my ass off and write reviews in the process. We’ll see how it goes. The 100 contestants have been determined. The starting gun goes at November 1. May the best man win (though, with a donation going to charity for everyone who crosses the 52-book mark, anyone who finishes can count themselves a winner).

These are the books I’m thinking of reading. My caveat for myself this year is that I’m only reading books that I own. If I knew I could hold to it, I’d also say that I am banning myself from buying books for the year, but I know that won’t be possible. I’m going to do my best, though, to stick to books that I’ve had around and have been meaning to read for a long time.

TO READ (and this is more of a “Suggested Reading” list for myself):
A Problem From Hell by Samantha Power
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman
Jpod by Douglas Coupland
Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America by Brian Francis Slattery
On Writing by Stephen King
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery
Spook Country by William Gibson
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkein
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkein
Was by Geoff Ryman
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

My thoughts on the first year of the Cannonball Read are here. Below are the books I read with grades and links to my original reviews.

CANNONBALL READ, YEAR ONE:
1. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (C)
2. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (C+) 
3. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb (A+)
4. Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg (B-)
5. The Mysteries of Pittsburg by Michael Chabon (C+)
6. The Elephants of Style by Bill Walsh (B)
7. Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon (B+)