Fall semester classes are over, and I’ve got a few days off before the New Year. I have big plans to say goodbye to 2012: curled up on the couch, racing through the books I didn’t get to read this year. It’s like a Christmas gift to myself.

And when giving gifts to oneself, it’s best to be ambitious. I know I probably won’t get through all of these–1Q84 and Deathly Hallows both approach 1,000 pages–but I’m sure I’ll make a dent and enjoy my holidays to boot.

Besides, the Mayans could have been a few days off in their predictions. I don’t want to have any regrets.

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
The past few months, I’ve been re-reading the Harry Potter series, and the end is in sight. I began reading HP for the first time when I was 14, and I’ve enjoyed reading the series again as an adult; there is a lot that I missed in my quest to get to the end of each book.

2. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
I’m planning to travel in India early next year, so my 2013 TBR list is heavy in India-related titles. If you have suggestions for must-read books better to understand the country, please tell them to me in the comments! (S. Krishna, I’m looking at you.)

3. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
I’m very excited to join a book club in 2013, and this is the inaugural title. Ambitious? Yes. But what else would force me to tackle this book, finally, other than peer pressure?

(But seriously, guys. 944 pages? Do you want this book club to fail?!)

4. How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
I’m hoping to pick up a few tips. (Ha, ha.)

Also, Millie says Moran is hilarious and that I’ll love this book, and Millie hasn’t been wrong yet.

5. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I’ve heard such good things about this book that I’ve felt guilty for not knowing anything about it. And guilt is always a precursor to enjoyment, right?

So, yeah. I obviously nothing else to say about this book. But… bandwagon!

6. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
I bought this book back in May, but haven’t cracked the (ebook) cover yet. I’m looking forward to discovering excuses for my antisocial behavior, though–just in time for the holidays! I’m hoping Cain knows the answer to my most burning question: Why is there never any Xanax at all these gatherings?

7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
This is one of the books I’d planned on reading in 2012, but completely forgot about. (It is in good company; my literary eyes were too big for my book-obsessed but busy stomach. I don’t know if that image works. It’s late at night as I write this, and I’m hungry.)

I thought about this book all through the month of November. Morgenstern wrote the first draft during the infamous NaNoWriMo, which I try to do every year. Mad props!

8. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Seriously, how have I not read this book yet? I adore Cheryl Strayed, I enjoyed the excerpt I read of this book, and it’s been at the top of my TBR list since it came out. Oprah restarted her book club for it, for Pete’s sake. Honestly, sometimes I feel ashamed of my self-appointed bookworm moniker. But I can change, I swear!

9. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Another title that I should have had under my reading belt long ago. I really liked Patchett’s Bel Canto, and I’ve heard this is even better. I’ve tried to start it a few times and didn’t really get into it, but I am ever optimistic.

10. Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr
I’m enrolled in a Memoir and Essay Reading class next semester, and I thought I’d get an early start with one of Karr’s much-beloved memoirs. After all, there’s a good chance she’ll be on the reading list, anyway.

I’m such a Hermione.

What will you be reading in your downtime at the end of the world–er, year?

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