si reading his own books

Start with a joke -

A day without sunshine is like, you know, night. Steve Martin.

I'm always visiting my local library, libraries in fact, and I rarely leave without a book or two. So I think I'll try coming up with a shortlist of 10 of my own books. Maybe a reachable target will spur me on.

Welcome, Si. And good luck with your challenge.

Thank you connie53. I've been working on a shortlist of titles. I am adopting your idea of excluding books from 2012. So Staying On is a late substitution for The Hunger Games.
So in alphabetical order -
It by Stephen King
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers by Roger Lewis
The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
Monkey's Uncle by Jenny Diski
The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin
Pinball by Jerzy Kosinski
Repossessing Ernestine by Marsha Hunt
Staying On by Paul Scott
Sugar Rush by Julie Burchill
Walking On Glass by Iain Banks

The newest book on the list is Sugar Rush, which I bought in 2011. The oldest resident is Walking On Glass, bought back in 1986.

That's a very nice shortlist, Si. And adopt all you like!

Good luck with your efforts!

Shortlist looks very interesting. I hope you enkoy IT, it may look rather big, but it's worth it. It freaked me out when I read in a couple if years ago.

Thanks cyderry & Tallulah_Rose.
I've started Staying On, which I'm enjoying. I have a hardback copy of IT - 900+ pages. The Peter Sellers biography I picked is over 1100 pages!
'Number of Pages' can be deceptive at times and apart from The Tailsman, which I didn't like, I've always read Stephen King fairly quickly. Famous last words!

1. Staying On by Paul Scott
Set in Pankot, India in 1972. Tusker and Lucy Smalley are the last English couple still remaining from the days of British rule. Which ended in 1947. Money is in short supple and the owner of their home - a annexe of Smith's hotel - wants them out.
This is a sad and funny novel written from changing perspectives and time periods with great skill. Never less than enjoyable, often remarkable. Lucy Smalley's long, imagined conversation with a stranger ( a friend of an old British Army family) due shortly to visit Pankot for the first time is a highlight.
Staying On continues the story of people who were minor characters in Paul Scott's Raj Quartet. It works as a stand along book, but reading a little about what happened to Guy Perrin and Sarah Layton after the end of A Division of the Spoils is an added bonus.

2. Sugar Rush by Julie Burchill
Great idea, but not developed fully. A case where the television version is leaps and bounds better.

3. It by Stephen King
Suffers from a stop/start narrative in the first half of the book, but persistent readers are rewarded with a grandstand finish.
Some sections are written with the compactness and completeness of short stories, while later short chapters are a series of cliffhangers. There's is an interesting linking/cross-cutting of the funny and the frightening. But the actual humour in the book is one of it's weakest elements. While Beverly's solution, when 'The Losers' are lost in the sewers is ... odd, to say the least. This perhaps jars because Stephen King works hard to ground his stories in the real world of small town New England. The domestic violence and the bullying scenes are the toughest and most disturbing to read.
The fact that a book written over a four year period, and which reads like a scrapbook collection of material, hangs together so well is remarkable. A compelling finale boosted my opinion from mixed to good.

4 Walking on Glass by Iain Banks
Three stories told in rotating chapters which intersect and affect each other while the characters live seemingly unconnected lives.

6 books to go, Si. Keep it up.

5. Monkey's Uncle by Jenny Diski
After a breakdown part of Charlotte takes off to an alternative world where she talks with Marx, Freud and Darwin - while in hospital she reads and rereads a biography of Robert FitzRoy, captain of the Beagle.

6. The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
One of my favourite reads of the year. Ann Patchett leaves a lot of space for the reader to speculate on the characters and their future lives. Fortunately I found the characters interesting and the story involving enough not to be disappointed, as some reviewers on LT, by the open-ended conclusion.

Didn't reach my target this year. Will pick up the remainder next year.

Nothing you can do about that, Si. You have tried. Beter luck next year.