Today I finally sorted through the boxes of books that have been boxed since we left Abilene. I still don't know where to put them all, but at least I've culled the ones I'm willing to part with, grouped the others according to category, and made the following list of books that I've been dragging around for years with the intention of reading. Now is the time. I'll read these books next so that I can finally make a place for them on the shelf of my life or pass them on down the river. The next books:

Herzog by Saul Bellow (I put it down after the first two chapters.)

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt (done 10/25/09)

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver (Four chapters into it, I gave it up.) 

Journey to the Center of the City by Randy White

The World Made Straight by Ron Rash

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris

Ironweed by William Kennedy

Giant by Edna Ferber

The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales by Forrest Carter

Machine Dreams Jayne Anne Phillips

Suttree by Cormack McCarthy

The Stand by Stephen King (done 12/31/09)

There are a few books that I have resolved to read but for whatever reason I have not read yet. I continue to hold these resolutions, and every time I see these titles on a shelf somewhere I am reminded, with shame, that I haven't crossed them off the list yet. 

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 

Alaska by James Michener

Coming Into the Country by James McPhee

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky