To begin...

So, I am going to try to start a new blog. Last one did not hold up so much, but hey, I didn't have a focus. This time I do, and it is one I am passionate about. All my life I have been an avid reader. I cannot remember a time in which books were not involved. I will spare you the "as a child, I would stay up with a flashlight to read" story; I don't want to bore or make this too much about me. The purpose of this blog is to discuss what I am currently reading, and why the book is something you should/must/absolutely-have-to right-this-now read. I love nothing more than talking about books and recommending them to others. So many of my favorite books are no longer in my possession because I have given them to others, all so we can share the experience, the pleasure, of a particular book. Reading is a solitary journey, an experience between the person and the written word. Sharing books expands that pleasure to the social, and that is what I hope to accomplish here. I read almost a book a week, which will make my commitment to updating this site weekly rather effective. I am a lover of modern fiction, which I will mostly focus on, but also am an avid reader of The New Yorker as well as the online magazine Salon. I can tell you my reading taste varies, but a list of my favorite books will paint the clearest picture of who I am as a reader. In no order, here are the books I love love love:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (where this blog takes its title from)
Friday Night Lights by H. G. Bissinger
What is the What by Dave Eggers
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Middlesex by Jeffery Euginedes
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
Let the Great World Spin by Colum Mccann
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please by Raymond Carver
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

Here are 20 that I love. There are tons of books that have moved me in someway not listed, and I apologize to those I forgot. (A more telling list would be those books that I detested, but that will have to be for another day.)

So, let's begin this. I just got back from a trip to Powell's and have a ton of books to read and discuss. Here's to books!