Bucket Lists

Along about the fifth or sixth decade of a person’s life, they start thinking about bucket lists – you know, those things you want to do before you “kick the bucket.” Many times the list includes places you want to see, things you want to accomplish, and so forth.

For the past few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’ve read and what I haven’t read. You’ve probably seen the Facebook posts going around on the topic: “Best books to read in your lifetime – most people have only read six”...there are a few variations. As I reviewed the lists (as of course I had to), I was pleased to discover that I have indeed read more than six - but sadly not very many more. Perhaps a dozen. And the exercise made me realize that I’ve missed out on a wealth of literary richness – a wealth that is fortunately still within my grasp. And so I have decided to create a bucket list of my own - a Reading Bucket List.

As a child, I never cared much for reading. I don't remember ever reading anything of significance that wasn't required for school... until junior high. My eighth grade English teacher was fond of reading aloud to her students for the first fifteen minutes of class and strongly encouraged us to explore the world of reading. Interestingly (and much to the probable chagrin of my parents, had they known), the book she chose to start the year with was Rosemary's Baby. While I wouldn't necessarily recommend that book to anyone, it was intensely interesting to me at the time, and it hooked me once and for all on reading.

Over the course of my high school years, I read a few of the classics:  Of Mice and Men, anything I could get my hands on by Dickens, 1001 Nights, and even a little Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet (it didn't hurt that the movie by the same name was playing in the theaters at the time).

After my children were born, I read to them and encouraged them to read as they got older. We obtained a large bookcase and filled it with books for every age. We read E.B. White's children's classics and C.S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles, Black Beauty, and many others.

But as the kids grew up and left home and my busy work life took over, my reading passion ground to a halt for many years. When I took up reading again, my focus was on nonfiction and has been that way up until now.

Of course, nonfiction is tremendously important for broadening one’s scope of practical knowledge and developing the skill of critical thinking. But nonfiction is where we go to enrich our imaginations. In nonfiction, we often find hidden philosophical concepts and ideologies that might not match our own but give us an opportunity to see beyond the box we’ve created in our own minds. Nonfiction takes us places we can never go in the real world. It often teaches lessons of moral relevance. It sometimes takes us into darkness and terror and sometimes delights us with comedy or romance or swashbuckling adventure. It entertains using words and our own unique imagination.

Why read when we can watch a movie or TV show based on the book? Two reasons.

• Reading engages the mind in a way that visual representations never can.
• Movies can never capture the full scope of a book.

So, what about my bucket list? In order to get a good rounded recommendation for the “best” books to read, I pulled up about eight or nine different lists that I found on the internet and compiled them into one, ranked by how often a title occurred among the lists. What I ended up with was a little more than 175 books. I figure these will keep me busy for the next seven to ten years – maybe more, since I keep adding my own selections along the way (not to mention the nonfiction titles that will push their way into my list on a fairly regular basis). 

Below are the top 15 that I will attempt to read this year. Most of the titles are familiar. Some from the lists I used don’t appear because I have already read them (among them: The Lord of the Rings, Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Harry Potter books, Animal Farm, and others). 

• DON QUIXOTE, MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
• ALICE IN WONDERLAND, LEWIS CARROLL
• CATCH-22, JOSEPH HELLER
• HEART OF DARKNESS, JOSEPH CONRAD
• PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, JANE AUSTEN
• THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, J.D. SALINGER
• THE GREAT GATSBY, F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
• WATERSHIP DOWN, RICHARD ADAMS
• LORD OF THE FLIES, WILLIAM GOLDING
• WUTHERING HEIGHTS, EMILY BRONTE
• ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, MARK TWAIN
• ANNA KARENINA, LEO TOLSTOY
• HAMLET, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
• ON THE ROAD, JACK KEROUAC
• ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ

So, what’s on your bucket list? Places to see? Things to do? Do you have one? You may not be riding down the other side of the “hill” just yet, but the longest life is still incredibly short in the big scheme of things. There's never enough time. Start now to do the things that bring joy.

Maybe 2016 is the year to forget the resolutions, put together some buckets and start filling them up.

God bless, and have a very meaningful and happy new year!


P.S. For the morbidly curious, I have published my full list as a supplementary page. 

Image Credits:

privateschoolreview.com

ehlenplum.org