What to Read?

I'm having a difficult time staying focused on a book. McCullers' is the second book which I've picked up, read 50 pages, and then left at my bedside for weeks and weeks (though, in all honesty, this is a character flaw I've had for a great many years, this book being perhaps the last of an upwards of 100 which have befallen the same fate).

In an effort to address this atrocity, I'm reminding myself of the list of what I'd like to read in 2009. It has grown some since its conception, but I'm hoping the selection will make it easier to produce results (as in, completed books in a timely fashion).

As it stands now, these books are on the forefront:



Now, I've read some of these and plan to revisit them. Others I've never managed to get through or find the chance to read. A lot of this whole List of 2009 business is to acquaint myself with supposed canonical "classics" for which I never was exposed to in my English studies (and for which I'd like a working knowledge of in case I, for example, manage to get my head out of my ass and begin writing critical work again).

The Joyce and the Hemingway will be read alongside the husband in an effort to both have quality, critical discussions and see the work from a trained poet's viewpoint rather than just my novel-loving brain (and besides, it's way classier than challenging one another at Jeopardy).

I'd also like to mix in a bit of Turgenev because of his influence on Miller and Bukowski.

Beyond that, I'm lost. I've got shelves on shelves at my disposal; American, British, World Lit and Theory:



And then the Poetry, Pop Culture, Media and Travel Sections:



Then there's the Mythology and Religion shelves and the Reference Shelves that are on their own, but perhaps are not the most riveting or commanding in page-turning.

And then there's the TV.