20 Books from 20 Friends

One of my Day Zero Project goals is “Ask 20 friends to suggest one book, and read them all”.

I originally thought I’d personally ask 20 people, and the more I thought about it, the more I decided it was a bad idea – I’d just be asking people whom I knew would suggest books I knew I’d like and be comfortable with.

So, yesterday, I posted a call on Facebook and Twitter asking my friends to suggest books. This resulted in two things: a good mix of genres/authors/themes and overwhelming love for my friends. So many people came out of the wood work to suggest titles – it makes me so happy to know that I'm very much surrounded by other readers.

The suggestion came from a huge mix of people: members of my family, members of Mark’s family, friends I speak to daily, friends I haven’t spoken to in years, high school friends, college friends, book club friends, writing group friends, current coworkers and former coworkers.

And, they all look fantastic:

• The Children’s War by J. N. Stoyar
• The Headmaster’s Wager by Vincent Lam
• John Adams by David McCullough
• Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Watership Down by Richard Adams
• Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
• When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
• Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
• Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
• The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
• The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
• Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

It looks like 2013 will be a good year for reading!