My Summer Reading Challenge

I want to do more reading. I haven't read for fun in years. Thus begins my reading challenge. I posted this on my Facebook page, but I'll post here too. On one of my statuses, I asked my FB friends for their"must read" opinion. WELL, just because I have listed only these books here it doesn't mean I won't go to the library and get what they suggested...

Anyway I plan to read as many of these books as possible, not in the order listed here, but I'll read a fiction, and then a non fiction and then a history (while studying for comps and some Chinese in between or at the same time... maybe...yeah)

Books:
Fiction:
1- Troilus and Criseyde and Selected Short Poems- Geoffrey Chaucer (my <3 and soul)
2- The Phantom of the Opera= Gaston Leroux
3- Kinshu: Autumn Brocade- Teru Miyamoto
4- Snow Flower and the Secret FAn- Lisa See (I might have read it but don't remember)
5- Death and the Penguin- Andrey Kurkov
6- Evolution, Me and other Freaks of Nature- Robin Brande (a surgery gift from a wonderful friend and I never got to read it!)
7- The Porcupine - Julian Barnes (sorta got obssessed with him thanks to Greg Salyer)
8- Anil's Ghost- Micael Ondaatje
9- A Lesson Before Dying- Ernest Gaines
10- The Violent Bear it Away- Flannery O'Connor (I can't remember if I read this... I also read her novel, which I have, called Wise Blood, but can't remember what it's about)
11- LIGHTNING SPLICED by ZELLIE BLAKE- I will read this before the anniversary of her death- I will have the strength!
12- The Witch of Porterbello by Paulo Coelho- I read 80% of this like 3 years ago and never finished, so I am starting over...
13-  Lighthousekeeping - Jeanette Winterson (also obsessed with her thanks to Greg Salyer)
14- Art and Lies- also by JW
15- Time's Arrow- Martin Amis- it was a required novel for one of my classes and we never got to it...
16- Flaubert's Parrot- Julian Barnes
17-Bitter Fruit  by Achmat Dangor

Memoirs, etc
1. The Painted Bird, Jerzy Kosinski
2. Lao She- Beneath the Red Banner
3. The Way for the GAs, Ladies and Gentleman- Tadeusz Borowski
4. The University: an Owner's Manual- Henry Rosovsky (had to read this for my Organization/Admin class and liked it so much I just have to read it again- he was Dean of Faculty at Harvard)
5- Stride Toward Freedom- MLK
6- Three cups of Tea- Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin- given to me by another fab person for my surgery/recovery and will finally read it this summer!
7- Under Fire- Henri Barbusse
8- Give Me The World- Laila Hadley - given to me by the same wonderful gal who gave me Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature- read 90% of this and never finished, soo I will re-read, it's amazing
9- Why I am Not a Christian - Bertrand Russell
10-The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way- Bill Bryson
11- Universities in the Marketplace: the Commercialization of Higher Education - Derek Bok (prez of Harvard at one point)- not for a class, Just found it in a bookstore!
12- The Meaning of Everything- Simon Winchester
13- A guide to Chaucer's Language - David Burnley
14- The Opening of the American Mind- Lawrence Levine
15- Unspeak- Steven Poole
16- The Inarticulate Society: Eloquence and Culture in America- Tom Shactman

History
1. The Art of War- Sun Tzu
2- How The Irish Saved Civilization- Thomas Cahill
3- Ecclesiastical History of the English People- THE VENERABLE BEDE
4- Mont Saint Michel and Chartres- Henry Adams
5- New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485-1603
6- Elizabeth and Mary: cousins, Rivals, Queens- Jane Dunn

+ the titles I was told/suggested to read
+ trying to study Chinese here and there
+ I'll be prepping for comps


So of the 39 books (plus the 6 or so you recommended...) + Chinese + comps prep


I might be in over my head....

As for BOOKS, how many do you think I'll get through??? Place bets- winner will maybe possibly win something...

My deadline is September 1. I start tomorrow, June 3. Yep. Once I get through 3 books (not in the particular order I listed), I will write a small synopsis blog. Yep.

PS I had my first cavities filled today and my mouth still feels weird :-(. I have to say novocain is weird. I felt my mouth un-numb like every 15 minutes and when it un-numbed- I felt a sizzzzzle and a small pop and then I would get some feeling back. Quite strange! K bye!