45 books before 45

After the Rapide Fire Book tag which Nicole had inspired me to, she once again inspired me to blog an entry about books to be read... Her video was about 21 books she wants to read before she turns 21 - specifying her 20, and asking her viewers to suggest #21. (She also suggested one or two of the feminist books I listed).

I am far more than 21 years old, and to make it more realistic than the beautifully sounding 44 before 44 (as that'd mean 44 books in 15 or so months, which I cannot do unless I find short ones), I'll chose 45 books that I want to read in the next 27 or so months, which leaves me breathing space. 

Here comes the 45 books that I want to read before I turn 45 :

My biggest reading project for when I can find them in affordable prices are Tolkien's History of Middle Earth book series. There are 12 + an index that I won't count as such, and I've read book 1 last year. So, my project is for books 2-12, and to re-read The Silmarilion, The Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as The Children of Hurin, and to find also the newest publications, Beren and Luthien, and The Fall of Gondolin, which makes a total of 19 books!

I'll post only the covers of the editions I actually own, or just about to. 

Books 20-21 on the list are Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room, and Orlando - I read the first chapter over a year ago and had to give up, since my edition had really small print, and I'd have to start over.

When I was a kid, I read bits and pieces of several classics, or some in full, that I want to read or re-read fully as an adult, and they are :

22 Louisa May Alcott's Little Women 
23 Goeorge Orwell's 1984 
24-25 Alexandre Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo : I read these translated as a boy and loved the story ; I want to read the original in French 
26 Dickens' Great Expectations

I already own this particular Dickens :

There are books I bought months, years ago, and have been waiting on my shelves, that I want to finally get around to read :

27 George Eliot - The mill on the floss
28 John Fowles - The French lieutenant's woman (although the title makes me scared that it's quite a misogynist story... )

I have both of those

Speaking off, there are some books that I want to read because they discuss a non-fiction topic I'm passionate about : Feminism, or Mental Heath/ Psychology, but I don't know in advance which psych book I'll get, so I'll list feminism ones which have been suggested to me: 

29- Jacky Flemming - The trouble with women 
30- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - We should all be feminists 
31- Laura Bates - Everyday sexism 

As a Scifi lover, I've always wanted to read Asimov's Foundation series, and now that I've read his I, Robot 9 short stories which became the 1st in the Robot series, and that he merged both universes, I want to read both series. This makes 14 books, covering 32-45 very nicely! All I need to find is not only the proper order (for example this recommendation) but also, if I can find edition respecting his originally intended future-dates. I say that, because just like Bradbury's Martian chronicles, I, Asimov's I, Robot and am sure others in this double-series were affected as well, had been edited with updated dates to suit a further future to the new present, and I don't like this. 

I didn't display images of the books I didn't already own or ordered by now, as I don't know which editions I'll end up with. 

I won't read them in this specific order, but probably start with one of those in 26-28, to give me time to find at least book 5 of History of Middle Earth, so I can start reading at book 2 and have no interruptions till end of 6, which I already own, and by then, shall hopefully get the missing 7-12. 

I hope that in the next couple of years, I'll find those Asimov books as well. 

These won't be the only books that I'll read - I have plenty, either on the shelves that I know I'll read, others waiting to be borrowed at the libraries or bought - but nothing tells me which I'll get and when. These, however, are the ones that I wish, either to make space by clearing out (I'm thinking of 27-28 that have been up there for over a year), and the rest just depends on momentary decisions, on the spot. 

In fact, I'm currently reading both a fiction (fantasy, based on the Elder Scrolls videogames) and a non-fiction french psychology book, and have 2 more psych books and a Stephen King book with 2 short stories, that I borrowed in libraries, and waiting to be read. But, they hadn't been part of this project, born after I had taken them, so I won't count them at all for this. 

And you, do you also set any goals to read books in challenges with #'s or a certain number before a birthday ?