MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

And just like that (sort of), I am DONE!!!  Joyce is finished and so is the list.  26 books in 49 weeks - I finished a full three weeks before my deadline, even with a span of eight weeks where I did not get to read a thing.  Very happy with myself and the achievement of my goal.

So - here is a recap of the 26 books on the list and how long it took me to read each one:

Catch-22 - 17 days
Lolita - 10 days
The Great Gatsby - 7 days
Invisible Man - 20 days
Slaughterhouse Five - 16 days
The Catcher in the Rye - 4 days
The Sound and the Fury - 17 days
1984 - 6 days
Beloved - 13 days
The Grapes of Wrath - 9 days
To Kill a Mockingbird - 4 days
The Sun Also Rises - 6 days
An American Tragedy - 10 days
Atlas Shrugged - 37 days (not surprised this one took the longest by far!)
Brave New World - 2 days
Gone with the Wind - 9 days
Midnight's Children - 10 days
My Antonia - 4 days
On the Road - 3 days
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - 3 days
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - 3 days
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - 2 days
The Tropic of Cancer - 8 days
Their Eyes were Watching God  - 6 days
To the Lighthouse - 16 days
Ulysses - 13 days (surprisingly small number!)

And now a couple of thoughts:
Whoever makes up these lists is nuts.  Some of these books are definitely on these lists because people have been hoodwinked into thinking they are good, not because they actually are.

Amazingly, Faulkner was not at the bottom of my list.  Before starting the list, that's exactly where I would have put him.

The worst novel on the list - Ulysses (complete junk to me)
Next worst - Atlas Shrugged (too long and too repetitive)
Next worst - Lolita  (too perverted, even for me! ^_^)
Noneof these should be on any top 100 list - ever, and especially not top 10.

My top three:
Slaughterhouse Five
To Kill a Mockingbird
Their Eyes were Watching God

Biggest surprises (as in, I really enjoyed it when I did not know I would):
Midnight's Children
An American Tragedy

Now - what to do with myself?  Don't worry.  There is plenty still on my plate.  I have a conference this weekend, then I have to get to reading The Serial Set: Its Make-Up and Content because I have a book review to write for publication.  Who knows?  After that book, I may be begging to read Joyce again (but I doubt it!).

After that, I need to get to work on my three 15-page papers for my comp exam for my Master's in English.  That will seem like a cake walk after some of this.