Origins

The idea started like this: why not read all the books on the "100 Best Books" list?  As the years pass, I'd like to say I did more than just fold laundry (noble as it is to clothe my otherwise naked family).  Of course Rebecca was immediately on board.  But as we considered several "100 Best Books" lists, we didn't love them.

So...we combined 11 "Best Book" lists and sorted the titles alphabetically to see how many times each book was listed.  Assumably, the better books would have the most listings.

• 11 lists contained 756 book suggestions
• 444 of these were unique titles
• 38 were listed 8-4 times
• 48 were listed 3 times
• the rest were listed 1-2 times

At this point you're thinking I should have stuck to laundry?  The results are still subjective and some seriously questionable books ranked pretty highly.  But it's helpful to know which books are most frequently recommended.

So the idea became this: Rebecca and I committed to read one of these books each month from September to May, the months our kids are in school.  That makes 9 each year.  We can lean towards books at the top of our list, but we have a lot of flexibility.  We aren't necessarily reading the same books each month.

Since both of our oldest children started kindergarten in 2011, just imagine...by the time they graduate, we will have each read 117 truly notable books.  And by the time my third graduates...36 more.  (And more books than that, when we sneak them in :)  We can construct our own lists of "Best Books" after actually reading them.