I've had a perpetual problem with owning books that I never get around to reading, even going so far as to relegate the unread books to their own shelf. I'm constantly finding new books I want to read, despite having a sizable backlog, and decided that this year I should try to clear the pipes. I decided to set aside 30 minutes before bed each evening for reading, and going at a little over a page a minute, with an average book being about 400 pages (a little bit of a high estimate, but there are a few long ones on the shelf), that brings it to about 27 books per year. I've got 32 on the "unread" shelf, but thankfully airports provide an excellent environment for distraction free reading; in the first three weeks I've already gone through three books, putting me at about twice the baseline pace. If everything stays on track, this should be my most literary year in a long time.
My partial list for this year is below, the finished ones are crossed out. Once I've got my bookshelf in front of me I'll add the rest I've already got lined up, but I'm definitely open to suggestions if something integral is missing! I've only got 7 non-fiction books on the list at present, so if you have a favorite, let me know!
Proof: The Science of Booze by Adam RogersStuff Matters by Mark MiodownikCibola Burn (Expanse, #4) by James S.A. CoreyHow Not to Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg- The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
- That is All by John Hodgman
- Care of Wooden Floors Will Wiles
- Cold Hand in Mine: Strange Stories by Robert Aickman
- The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman
- The Science of Good Cooking by Guy Crosby
- Wool by Hugh Howey
- Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
- Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
- Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
- Meat Eater by Stevem Rinella
- The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
- Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
- Endymion by Dan Simmons
- Salt: a World History by Mark Kurlansky
- Understanding Physics by Isaac Asimov
- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
- Dawrin's Radio by Greg Bear
- Faust (German-English edition!) by Goethe (Peter Salm translation)
- Cathedral by Raymond Carver
- The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking
Note: I've also got a handful of Asimov's Foundation books on-hand, but not the original. I've been told to read them in order while ignoring the prequels (e.g. foundation, empire, second, edge, earth), so I'll probably put them off until I find a used copy of the first one.