Late-breaking resolution

On this blissfully wintry day in January, I have an additional 2011 resolution to add: I'm going to (informally, and with the rules changed to suit my own purposes) be joining Roof Beam Reader's 2011 TBR Pile Challenge.

The goal of the TBR Pile Challenge is, in Roof Beam Reader's words, to finally read 12 books from your "to be read" pile, within 12 months. One of the rules of the official contest is that all of the books have to have been on my TBR pile for at least one full year, but I'm changing that because I got a lot of nice books for Christmas. No point in sending those to next year's TBR pile! However, I have plenty (PLEHENTY) of older books that can help round out this challenge. The key to the challenge is to post the list of 12 in advance, along with two alternates (in the event of a book starting to feel like punishment).

My list:

1. Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl

2. At Home, Bill Bryson

3. Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

4. Collected Short Stories of Raymond Carver

5. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz

6. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

7. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace

8. Slouching Toward Bethlehem, Joan Didion

9. Little Heathens, Mildred Armstrong Kalish

10. Aeneid, Virgil, translated by Robert Fagles
11. Of Wolves and Men, Barry Lopez
12. The Story Behind the Story (various)

Alternates:
Raw Edges, Phyllis Barber
The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiesen

You know what I love when it gets so cold, like it has been for the past few days? The way the mountains and foothills never seem to wake up. The snow on the trees and rock cliffs doesn't melt, so that white, closed look of wintry dawn lasts all day.