My List (Finally)

Okay, so my original plan was to make a list of 50 to read over the 5 years, but...well, you know...once I started listing, I was like a kid in a candy store.  ;O)  My intent:

Read the 81 Non-Fiction books listed 
Time frame:  April 2, 2012 - April 2, 2017

The List 
Categorized, but in no particular order, although book number 58 under Religion is a library book and will be my first read from the list (will try to read this month).  As in the Classics Club, I own every book on this list with the exception of the number 58 book I mentioned above.

Biography/Memoir
1.   Art and Madness: A Memoir of Lust without Reason by Anne Roiphe
2.   David Bowie: Starman by Paul Trynka
3.   Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan
4.   Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie
5.   John Adams by David McCullough
6.   King Arthur by Norma Lorre Goodrich
7.   Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Riesen
8.   Lucrezia Borgia by Sarah Bradford
Alison Weir
9.   Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings (Weir)
10. Queen Isabella (Weir)
11. The Princes in the Tower (Weir)
12. Marie Antoinette by Evelyne Lever
13. Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd
14. Called Out of Darkness by Anne Rice
15. Vincent Price by Victoria Price
16. Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography by Marion Meade
17. Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt
18. The Brothers Grimm: Two Lives, One Legacy by Donald R. Hettinga
19. Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
20. The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis-A Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler
21. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
22. A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and Its Aftermath by Jeanine Cummins

Customs/Folklore
23. Sagas of Icelanders
24. In Search of Dracula: History of Dracula and Vampires by Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu

History
25. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
26. The Burning of Bridget Cleary by Angela Bourke
27. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
28. In the Footsteps of Alexander by Michael Wood
29. The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston
30. The Murder of Helen Jewitt by Patricia Cline Cohen
31. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
32. The Queen's Necklace by Frances Mossiker
33. Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen
34. She-Wolves by Helen Castor
35. The Vikings by Robert Ferguson
36. The Life and Death of a Druid Prince by Anne Ross and Don Robins
37. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
38. The Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury
39. Royal Panoply: Brief Lives of the English Monarchs by Carolly Erickson
40. The Ancient Celts by Barry Cunliffe
41. Chronicle of the Roman Republic by Philip Matyszak
42. Chronicle of the Pharaohs by Peter A. Clayton
43. Imagining Atlantis by Richard Ellis
44. Finding Atlantis: A True Story of Genius, Madness, and an Extraordinary Quest for a Lost World by David King
45. The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World by Luciano Canfora
46. The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger
47. How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
48. Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock
49. The Enemy Within: 2000 Years of Witch Hunting in the Western World by John Demos

Parapsychology/Occultism
50. A History of Ghosts by Peter Ackroyd
51. Piercing the Darkness by Katherine Ramsland
52. Don't Kiss Them Goodbye by Alison DuBois

Philosophy
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Lectures on the History of Philosophy
53. Greek Philosophy to Plato (Hegel)
54. Plato and the Platonists (Hegel)
55. Medieval and Modern Philosophy (Hegel)
56. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
57. Writings by Thomas Jefferson

Religion
58. The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book by Timothy Beal
59. Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler
60. The Bible is History by Ian Wilson
61. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
62. Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Harry Lincoln
63. Cracking the Bible Code by Jeffrey Satinover
64. The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English by Geza Vermes
65. Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans by Malachi Martin

Science
66. Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder by Holly Tucker
67. Gods, Graves, and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology by C.W. Ceram
68. The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson
69. The Illustrated Origin of Species by Charles Darwin--Abridged and Introduced by Richard E. Leakey (will read in conjunction with the original Origin of Species)
70. Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul by Kenneth R. Miller
71. The Lost Tomb by Kent R. Weeks, Ph.D.
72. The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins
73. Neanderthal: Neanderthal Man and the Story of Human Origins by Paul Jordan
74. Dinosaur Hunters: Eccentric Amateurs and Obsessed Professionals by David A.E. Spalding

Travel/Geography
75. Venice: Pure City by Peter Ackroyd

Women's Studies 
76. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
77. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
78. Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Miscellaneous
79. The Joy of Books by Eric Burns
80. Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg
81. History of American Literature by Reuben Post Halleck, MA (my edition was printed in 1911! It's a wonderful old book.)

A Non-Fiction Adventure--Introduction

*Updates to the challenge info below, marked with an asterisk

Taking the lead from the awesome creators of the Fill in the Gaps: 100 Project and The Classics Club, I have decided to create a similar challenge focusing on non-fiction books.  The fruition of this idea came to me yesterday as I was looking at my shelves of non-fiction books.  In my library of 3000+ books, non-fiction makes up about 1000+ of that total.  I focus so heavily on fiction I never take the time to squeeze in some non-fiction reads which I do love to read.  So I thought, why not follow the lead of those I mentioned above and create this challenge for the non-fiction genre.

Here are the guidelines:

• choose 50+ non-fiction books; the number is up to you.  Choose 50, 75, 100, 200.  It's entirely your choice
• Books must be non-fiction--biography, autobiography, history, memoir, cooking, travel, science, etc.
• list them at your blog (or on Goodreads or another social media site, if you do not have a blog)
• choose your completion goal date five years in the future and make note of it with your list of titles (like this:  reading goal--50 books  goal dates--March 20, 2012 - March 20, 2017)
• come back here and post the link to your list in the linky below
• write a review (or a short summary) on the book when finished and link it to the title in your list (or link to your review on Goodreads, again, if you don't have a blog)
• there will be pages posted at the top of the blog for you to link your reviews
• when you have completed the challenge, come add your link to the Completed Challenges page
• there will be a blog roll in the sidebar where I will list you/your blog linked to your lists
• grab the button in the right sidebar and link it back to this blog
• check out this PAGE which contains links to various online sources with lists of reading ideas
• I might host a read-a-long from time to time.  If you are hosting one, or an event or challenge surrounding a non-fiction title, post about it at this PAGE

A couple more important details:

• this challenge can be crossed over with any other challenges
• your link in the linky below must lead to your list, not just your main blog address.  Any links that are blog links only will be deleted

Updates:
*I was asked if the list has to be made in advance.  The idea is to work toward reading non-fiction that you've been wanting to read so the list is mandatory. However, the list does not have to be set in stone. You can change out titles as the mood suits you.

I hope I haven't forgotten anything.  If you think I missed something, please let me know.  I'm aiming to make this challenge as low maintenance as possible.  There will be no mini-challenges or prizes.  This challenge is all about challenging ourselves to read more and to expand our horizons.  I truly hope you will join me on this adventure.

If you're interested in reading the classics or filling in the gaps in your regular reading, why not check out the two challenges I mentioned above.  I'm participating in both and they are both great concepts in challenges.

Happy reading!