Mission #1 - Deserts and Insects And Hobbits, Oh My!

Ok, SO...
After going to apparently the wrong library first, because of something with my library card being expired which I didn't even know was possible, and then the correct library and also a little old library next to the wrong one that sells books for dirt cheap, I have 4 books from the list:
~ The Kite Runner (already had at my house, actually) by Khaleed Hossini
~ A Thousand Splendid Suns by the same guy
~ The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien
~ Metamorphosis (and other stories) by Franz Kafka

I'm planning on starting (and finishing most likely) Metamorphosis at work tonight because it seemed like it was pretty short when it was on its own, having strange dreams tonight because of it, and then probably moving on to Kite Runner, followed by A Thousand Splendid Suns, and then Silmarillion as time goes on. Those three alone should last me a while, and i'll probably end up reading some of Kafka's other stories because I have the book anyway.

So let the first documented mission of Operation Bookstorm begin.

The List

So
As a writer and someone generally interested in all things written and story-related, it has often been said to me that the best way to get better at writing and to appreciate written word more is to read. And you know what? I'm good with that.
Books are awesome. If you can get yourself into them, they bring you into new worlds and give you new experiences; let you escape reality for a while, become someone or something else. They open the mind and let it run free for an afternoon, creating a world akin to the one your eyes are interpreting from the page.
Reading is fantastic, and I see no reason why anyone should stop, even if society collapses into Fahrenheit 451-type dystopia and we start burning books. If that day comes, i'm clipping on my "I Read Books" pin, grabbing the novel i'm working on, and sitting on a bench somewhere in plain sight not giving a damn, because reading is my drug.
...a drug that I keep a poor schedule with and am still a little unfamiliar with.

And so I have semi-recently elected the help of a few friends, especially one in particular who poured his childhood book list out to me one night and still occasionally drops me a new title (and who also is why this blog is named what it is. Thank you, Chrome. I told you i'd give you credit one day :p)

The result of this pouring out along with some others of my own personal interest is a gigantic list of novels, books series, probably a couple non-fiction works, I don't even know what really. It is large, the books are long, and I want to read them ALL... or... most of them at least.
So what else is a blog good for if I don't make some goal for it, right? That's what this will be: tracking my journey through the Book List Of Doom, providing commentary during or after each book or something, to keep me on track in some regard.

So without further time-wasting, here is the list, in no special order:

The Procrastination Equation

The Singularity Is Near

The Art of War

Dune

House of Leaves

The Casual Vacancy

basically anything by Vonnegut (but already did "Breakfast of Champions")

The Perfect Victim

---------

LotR

Chronicles of Narnia

The Dark Tower

Insomnia

Harry Potter

Foundation

I Robot

Diskworld

The Giver

Kite Runner

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A song of ice and fire

1984

Brave New World

Metamorphisis

The Arsonist

The Mist

Jurassic Park

Andromeda Strain

The Shining

The Green Mile

Shawshank Redemption

The Silmarillion

American Gods.

Metro 2033.

Salvation War

The Time Machine.

"Damn near anything written by Lovecraft"

Nueromancer.

2001

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Catch 22

Robot Visions.

The End of Eternity.

Firestarter.

Red Dragon.

Silence of the Lambs.

The Road

So yeah... wish me luck
As I complete books, they will get crossed out. Unsure if by just editing this post, or making a new one each time... still not sure how to work this, which I will work on working on.

Sincerely yours,

Cornelius

P.S- The list goes on. I don't care if I never reach the end because it keeps expanding, that's awesome, I can never have enough books to read. So suggest away! Clearly there is a theme of dystopia and such going on, but if it was a good book and you recommend it even if it's not with this theme, give me the name and i'll add it on.

Advenæ (“New Arrivals”)

[Pronounced "add-ven-eye"]

They came like foxes

In pack upon pack,

Engulfing every inch of land

In a growling, glaring mass.

They attacked like lions:

Quick, precise, deadly;

Taking out the poor and the weak first,

Then circling the rest on all four sides

No escape,

No hopes

Then they moved in and finished the job.

They disappeared like birds

Slinking back to whence they came

With news of their triumph,

The only trace of their presence

Being the desecration and carnage

They left behind.

(If you take the first line of each stanza, you get the quote this was inspired by.... if I remembered it correctly. Was just a pretty awesome quote I thought, so I figured, why not make a poem out of it?)

((In other news, I am attempting to start to update this on at least a weekly basis for a while, then it should clear up and get more involved after next week, because then I should be done with tests, and that means lots of free time to write and read and whatever. So soon as well I should be traversing the dreaded, near-50 item book and book series list, with which I shall document my reactions to the books or what they spark in that brain of mine or whatever. So yeah, it'll get fun in here soon enough, I promise))

Canticum Antecessorum (“The Song of the Ancestors”)

She stands atop the grassy hill

Her black hair flowing in the evening wind,

Gazing off into the blazing orange of the setting sun.

Taking a deep breath, she lifts her bow and violin to her chin,

Closes her eyes,

And begins to play for the setting sun and the world around her.

She plays not of love,

Not of loss,

But of beauty and nature

Letting her fingers dance along the strings like a performer on a stage

Jumping from end to end, note to note

Piecing them all together in a quilt stitched for the ears of the few

The free

The fantastical.

On the land bellow,

A small group of woodland creatures amasses

To listen to her tune,

Ears twitching in time with her strokes,

Birds joining in to provide some light vocals,

Creating a soundtrack Mother Nature herself would weep to hear.

As the sun sinks deeper bellow the horizon to make room for the moon,

She slows

Lifts the bow

And opens her eyes to meet those of her crowd.

She smiles as they stare with ears bent back and heads cocked to the side,

The birds floating in the air, as if they were notes left unplayed on a page

Looking, listening, waiting for the song to go on.

The violinist just smiles down at them.

“Maybe I’ll play you some more tomorrow,” she giggles to the excitement of the creatures,

Then gives them a wink

Turns

And walks off into the moonlight

In search of somewhere

only she knows.