Countdown to Comps, DEFCON 1.75

Guess what, blogfiends. Your faithful Bibb has completed his Ph.D. coursework, and he's headed for the ominous comprehensive exams in the spring. In the meantime, he has to read around 140 books to prepare. Can you friggin' believe it?! What the crap, dudes? You'd think I was trying to get a degree in reading stuff...or something.

Anyway, I thought it might be a gas to record my progress, and since no one reads this blog and I need a visual reminder of how far I've come (and how far I've left to go), I've decided to keep tabs on my reading here on the old E&C. Haven't you always dreamed of getting an inside look into the exciting world of the doctoral graduate student? Well, here's your chance. Let me tell you, it's not all girls, glamour, and rock n' roll. Actually, it's very little of those. It's mostly dust, papercuts, and coffee mugs.

So here we go...

FINISHED
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Adam Bede by George Eliot
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Vanity Fair by W. M. Thackeray
Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill
Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Dubliners by James Joyce
In Memoriam, A. H. H. by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw
Selected Poems by Robert Browning (Dude Kicks Some Righteous A)

IN-PROGRESS
Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw
AND Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (audio file via Librivox)

NEXT-IN-LINE
Howards End by E. M. Forster

Check back for updates as I slog through the list of doom. And feel free to ask me questions about the books as I finish them. It will be good practice for the exams.