Just an introduction

I have no problems admitting it: I am a consumer whore.

Working at a bookstore has provided me with far too many opportunities to buy books I really don't need, or even necessarily want but bought them I have, and it's high time I sit down and actually plow through them.

I'd like to keep a schedule of how often I post reviews of the books, but how quickly I read them will be dictated by my work schedule and my social life, which varies from hectic to non-existent.

So, here is the list of books I plan on reading in the next year or so:

Bissell, Tom - The Father of All Things (My love of books dealing with the Vietnam War lead me to pick this book up. I never really started it.)
Carr, Caleb - The Alienist (I got this book the first year I started working at the bookstore based off of a co-worker's recommendation. I have no idea why I never started it, but I trust her opinion, so I have high hopes for it.)
Chabon, Michael - Werewolves in their Youth, Maps and Legends (I read Werewolves quite a few years ago, but I enjoy a lot of Chabon's work so I'll re-read it. Maps and Legends was just not engaging, so I never finished it. Maybe this time I'll like it.)
Dostoevsky, Fyodor - The Idiot, Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment (I bought these one summer when I was trying to read as many classics as possible. The language is fairly dense, so I never devoted time to it. My bad. As it stands, I use them to trick people into thinking I'm smart when they see my bookshelf.)
Ellroy, James - The Big Nowhere, Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz (With the exemption of The Big Nowhere, all these books were $3 and my love of noir wouldn't let me pass up the chance to buy them. I've read a couple of his other books but haven't been overly impressed, but they were lesser works from what I gather.)
Ferguson, Niall - The War of the World (I love non-fiction history books, but they can be daunting and all too easily put away.)
Grahame-Smith, Seth - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (I started reading it but the jokes stopped being funny about 100 pages into it. This book has the distinction of being the one I least look forward to reading.)
Haldeman, Joe - The Forever War (I enjoy sci-fi when it's done well, so I'm at a loss as to why I never finished this one. I remember enjoying it before I just stopped reading it.)
Hammett, Dashiell - Nightmare Town (I bought this for a couple of dollars at a used bookstore, but I had already read a few of the stories in other collections. One day, I'll sit down and figure out which ones I haven't seen before.)
Heinemann, Larry - Close Quarters (Once again, I bought this because of my forbidden love of the Vietnam War. The writing wasn't great and I put it down, never to pick it up again. Until now.)
Hemingway, Ernest - For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, To Have and Have Not (I've read all of these, but several years ago. I remember nothing!)
Huxley, Aldous - A Brave New World (Another one of those books I read years ago but deserves a revisit.)
Johnson, Denis - Nobody Move, Tree of Smoke (I bought Tree because it was $5 and sounded good, while I bought Nobody because I had a bunch of gift cards. Of the two, Tree was actually pretty good while Nobody was a plodding mess. The first halves of the books, at least.)
Kidd, Chip - The Learners (I actually DO judge books by their covers and this one was pretty sweet.)
Larson, Erik - The Devil in the White City (I got this book for free so I never felt obliged to really read it. My logic is infallible.)
Mailer, Norman - Why Are We in Vietnam, The Naked and the Dead, The Executioner's Song, The Armies of the Night (Jesus, why did I buy so many Mailer books? I've been using The Executioner's Song as a doorstop, it's so thick. I'm not entirely sure why I can't get into The Naked and the Dead.)
Maraniss, David - They Marched into Sunlight (Another Vietnam book, but with a lot of hippies. Cursed by my own hubris!)
McCarthy, Cormac - The Orchid Keeper (I was reading the back of the book and I couldn't recall if I've read it. If that's the case, I probably didn't, right? Which is weird since I've read all his other ones.)
McNamara, Robert S. - In Retrospect (HUBRIS.)
McSweeny's - One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box (I've read the Dave Egger's portion, but not the others.)
Miller Jr., Walter M. - A Canticle for Leibowitz (A good sci-fi novel that I read years ago and warrants a revisit.)
Mitchell, David - Cloud Atlas (A free book I never muddled through. I have no excuse.)
O'Brien, Tim - Going After Cacciato (I have enjoyed a few of his other books, but this one never clicked with me. BAH.)
Packer, George - The Assassin's Gate (I used some gift certificates to buy this book when I was reading a lot of books about the Iraq War. I got burned out on the subject, but that was a couple of years ago.)
Parker, Matthew - Monte Cassino (Another victim of my war burnout. A really interesting battle during the Second World War though. I look forward to this one.)
Pirsig, Robert M. - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (I bought the paperback because I was missing the days of philosophy class, but wasn't missing the prospect of reading textbooks.)
Price, Richard - Lush Life, Clockers (I got these books because of my deep, abiding love of The Wire. I've tried reading both books a couple times and enjoyed them but they always end up being put down. Once again, I have no excuse.)
Pynchon, Thomas - The Crying of Lot 49 (This book was a gift, and it doesn't keep on giving.)
Ricks, Thomas E. - Fiasco (Damn you summer of war books. Thank god for giftcards.)
Shaara, Michael - The Killer Angels (I've never had a real fondness of the Civil War, but I bought it because it is a classic.)
Stark, Richard - The Man with the Getaway Face, The Outfit (I bought these at the same time as The Hunter, but stopped reading the series after that. This would probably make a good theme week.)
Thompson, Jim - The Getaway, The Killer Inside Me, Pop. 1280 (I got two of these books as a gift and haven't actually received them yet. I'll make this another theme week if I can put aside my dislike of reading too much of the same writer's work in too short a time period.)
Westlake, Donald E. - 361 (I read it, but can't recall a gosh darned thing.)

Actually, it turns out I do have a problem admitting I'm a consumer whore. That's a lot of books.

There's a list to make about movies I haven't watched either, but that can wait for now.

ETA - It seems that I've listed many authors, but not a single one of them is a woman. This is a glaring oversight on my part and not an intentional one.
As such, I will make it a point to try finding more books written by females.

So far I have:
Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice (I meant to pick this up when I bought the zombie version, but neglected to do so. I could give this an honest go.)
Highsmith, Patrica - The Talented Mr. Ripley (This is another book I've been meaning to read, since it seems to fall on the fringes of noir that I enjoy. I honestly think I could go either way on this one based on the description, but at least it would be something different.)
Atwood, Margaret - The Handmaid's Tale (I've been told this book is comparable to Brave New World, so I'm fairly excited.)
Wharton, Edith - Age of Innocence (Up until ten minutes ago I had never even read the description of the book, but it comes highly recommended and there's no one I trust more, so I'm more than willing to read it.)