My List of Betterment

Having almost finished (and enjoying, might I add) A Year of Reading Dangerously, by Andy Miller, I have competed the somewhat inevitable task of composing my own list of books that I feel I should have read, and have always intended to read, but have as of yet not got around to. As a list fan, and indeed fan of books, this is something of an enjoyable cherry picking exercise (the cherries being items on many existing lists of things to read of which I have waaay too many)...and also a semi-formal solidifying of many vague thoughts and intentions.

Hopefully I can cross a couple off this year. It's all about prioritisation *deep breaths*.

I've limited my list items to "cannon" established classics and modern-ish classics, just because newer titles haven't been out long enough for me to feel bad about being a book lover that hasn't read them...new titles (including YA and other delightful offerings) I'm working my way through in a kind of  haphazard frenzy as and when they come out (and for a few years after). There's loads of new books that I want to read but there seems more time for that...I find I'm reading more new releases than ever. Which is a total 'about face' from this time 10 years ago when I only read Victorian stuff. Funny how that happens. Also it's my list, so y'know. I get to set the criteria ;)

I just want to make a disclosure at this point too; I've never, ever pretended to have read these at all. I don't do that and the people that do do that baffle me to the point of hilarity. If someone mentions a book that sounds impressive or interesting it goes on my mental to read list, I don't pretend that I've read it, even if I've had a copy sat on a shelf for 8 years. But it goes on the 'One Day' list.

So in no order other than the order in which I thought of them, here are the books I feel sorry for my eyes and brain for never having read.

The Blind Assassin- Margaret Atwood
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter- Carson McCullers
The Border Trilogy- Cormac McCarthy
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings- Maya Angelou
The Winter of Our Discontent- John Steinbeck
The Stand- Stephen King
The Sound and the Fury- William Faulkner
Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison
Oscar and Lucinda- Peter Carey
The 39 Steps- John Buchan
Something by Dorothy Parker
The Cloud Atlas- David Mitchell
1Q84- Haruki Murakami
The Sea, the Sea- Iris Murdoch
White Teeth- Zadie Smith
Catch 22- Joseph Hellier
The Colour of Magic- Terry Pratchett
Gormenghast- Mervyn Peake
The Magus- John Fowles
Middlesex- Jeffrey Euginides
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy- John la Carre
V For Vendetta- Alan Moore
The Weaker Vessel- Antonia Fraser
Hard Times- Charles Dickens
The Double- Jose Saramago
Batman: Arkham Asylum- Grant Morrison
Vilette- Charlotte Bronte
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy- Lawrence Sterne
The New York Trilogy- Paul Aster
Tripping the Velvet- Sarah Waters
American Gods- Neil Gaiman
Maus- Art Speigelman
Possession- AS Byatt
Moby Dick- Herman Melville
Cloud Atlas- David Mitchell
Sandman vol 1- Neil Gaiman

I'm in two minds about Middlemarch, Will it kill me? Is it as baffling as the first 3 pages of Daniel Deronda that I read in Uni, suffered a virtual head explosion and then switched modules?

I'll probably add stuff to the list as I think about them...and hopefully cross a couple off!

Does anybody have any titles in particular that they can't believe they've never read? Or things they've always meant to read but haven't yet?