The Whole Enchilada: My Reading Stats For 2009

It's already midafternoon on December 31 here, so I'm just going to go ahead and announce that I had a fantastic reading year -- 104 books! This beats last year's record of 100 books and it's my all-time personal best. It's also a far cry from 1999 (graduate school daze) when I read just 23 books.
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I'd like to thank the Seoul Metro for providing me with hours and hours on the subway. I'd also like to thank Erewhon University for providing me with a well, if quirkily stocked library. Finally, I'd like to thank my 3 book groups, BOOKLEAVES, Talya's Book Group and Cracked Spinz for always suggesting reads that are outside either my comfort or awareness zones.
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Here's what my stats look like:

Pages read: 29,480 (I thought this would be higher for some reason)

Average # of pages per book: 283

Fiction: 56 (Hmmm...same as last year)
Nonfiction: 48 (my nonfiction reading list for 2009 kicks ass. As always, I'm sorry that there wasn't an even split. I did this once, back in 2000 -- 17 fiction and 17 nonfiction)

Audiobooks: 1

Graphic Novels: 8 (I love Rick Geary's work and I'm pleased he's from Kansas City, Missouri.)

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Shortest Book: The Paper Bag Princess - Robert Munsch (24 pages)
Longest Book: Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry (945 pages)

Newest Book: Burnt Shadows - Kamila Shamsie (2009)
Oldest Book: The Old Curiosity Shop - Charles Dickens (1841)

Rereads: 2

Chunky Monkeys (books with more than 500 pages) : 8
Skinny Minnies (books with fewer than 100 pages) : 8

Funniest Book: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith
Saddest Book: Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Give Me Back My Time! (books I finished but didn't really care for) : 6
Shanghai Baby - Wei Hui
Go Down, Moses - William Faulkner (with apologies to my friend and coworker Faulkner Guy)
The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
Girlfriend In A Coma - Douglas Coupland
Clay - Suzanne Staubach
Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje

Countries: 13
USA: 69 (sigh...this number is always too high)
Canada: 13
England: 10
Korea: 2
Scotland: 1
South Africa: 1
Australia: 1
New Zealand: 1
China: 1
Japan: 1
Russia: 1
India: 1
Iran: 1

Male authors: 65
Female authors: 39

Books written 1800-1899: 5 (an improvement over last year's 3, but my Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm is keening to beat the band. Cheer up, Tuffi -- I've got a surprise for you in 2010...I just hope it doesn't kill me...)

Books written 1900-1950: 17 (this is the time frame that I aspire to most strongly, so Tuffi and I are destined to be at loggerheads forever.)

Books written 1951-1999: 35

Books written 2000-2009: 47

Pulitzer prizewinners: 3 (I've built a pretty good shelf of these and I need to get back to it.)

Happy discoveries: Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Dashiell Hammett, Aravind Adiga, Linda Sue Park and Peter D. Sieruta's excellent blog Collecting Children's Books

2009 Challenges completed: The Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge, The Canadian Book Challenge, The Support Your Local Library Challenge, The 100+ Reading Challenge

Flushed with success and on vacation until March 1, I've got grand (grandiose?) plans and resolutions for 2010, which I'll elaborate on in an upcoming blog post.

Best of luck to Jessica at Both Eyes, as she strives for her goal of 500 books. She explained quite lucidly in a recent post how she does it, but I still don't know how she does it. My mind boggles to think of what she could accomplish if she had access to a subway.

Happy Book Year! See you in 2010!

Let's Just Kiss and Say Goodbye: The DNF Files

I can't believe how many books I didn't finish this year. Most of the following I've given up on utterly and completely, but a couple were accidental DNFs and I'll rectify the situation in 2010.

Anne Of Windy Poplars - L.M. Montgomery. Anne is the principal of a school in the land of those windy poplars. Gilbert is in medical school. They're engaged, but in a holding pattern until Gilbert completes his studies. Anne is an avid correspondent, but I was eager to skip ahead in the series and see them happy and together, so I abandoned AOWP after about 3 chapters. After reading Montgomery's superb Anne's House of Dreams, I'm not sorry, either.

Dusty Answer - Rosamond Lehmann. I think it was my mood at the time. Everyone was teenaged and gloomy and British upper? middle? class and I just couldn't care. Back to the library. Damn shame -- I do love that title.

Dressing Up For The Carnival - Carol Shields. Shields used a lot of the material in these stories for her excellent novel, Unless, which I had just recently read and enjoyed.

A Cry From The Heart: The Biography Of Edith Piaf - Margaret Crosland. Big, big BIG disappointment! I love Piaf's music, I loved the movie La Vie En Rose (AKA La Mome), and in the A&E Biography episode about Piaf, author Crosland made so many witty and insightful comments. Impressed, I rushed out and ordered this book, but it was a mistake. The prose is so heavy, turgid, dreadful -- not worthy of Piaf at all. If you haven't read this book yet, you should run right out and avoid it.

Crossing Border Street: A Civil Rights Memoir - Peter Jan Honigsberg. Honigsberg is a lawyer and I'm sure he writes one hell of a brief, but memoir is just not his thing.

Land - Park Kyung-Ni. I'm disappointed with myself for not being able to get through Volume I of The Great Korean Novel, but Park jumps around too much from character to character and there's no time and no effort made to help me identify with anyone or to even keep about 30 characters straight. After reading 42% of the book, I couldn't go another step. In order to make amends to Korean literature, my plan is to procure a copy of Who Ate Up All The Shinga? an autobiographical novel by Park Wan-Seo, who also wrote Three Days In That Autumn, a novella that I read and loved.

The Borrowers - Mary Norton. I started this children's literature classic, but my mood was off and I couldn't get into the story. I intend to take another whack at it this year. It's become one of my primary goals to fill in my KidLit gaps.

Hemingway - Kenneth S. Lynn. This guy's main idea about Hemingway is that he was all obsessed with manliness and machismo because for the first 5-6 years of his life, his mother dressed him like a little girl. That's very interesting, but when Lynn tries to apply this to every effing thing that Hemingway ever did in his entire (1899-1961) life as well as every damn thing he ever wrote, it's maddening and boring, although I have to admit that for a while, it was perversely entertaining to watch this guy contort himself unmercifully, as he struggled to make it all fit neatly. I finally had enough of watching him strain towards the end of Hemingway's Paris years and returned the book to my colleague, Brian.

Dodsworth - Sinclair Lewis. I checked this out shortly after I became acquainted with the Bybee-ary. Unfortunately, after nearly 5 years of not having a library, I had forgotten about nasty things like due dates. Shortly after Dodsworth and his wife got to Europe, I had to return this 1929 novel to the library. I'm sorry, Red. You know I love your novels. I'll be back to fetch Dodsworth out again.

Really Reely Reading

I'm really looking forward to C.B.'s challenge. Haven't yet decided how many books and movies I'm going to read and view, but this is a tentative starting list of books and movies that I haven't experienced yet but want to:

1. Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince -My son has the book and probably the movie. Even if he doesn't, it's not hard to find.
2. No Country For Old Men -both book and movie are easily findable here.
3. Gone Baby Gone -I hope I can find this Dennis Lehane novel. My son has a DVD of the movie.
4. Slumdog Millionaire - I have the book and the movie should be easy to locate.
5. The Mosquito Coast - This novel has been on my TBR for a couple of years, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to find the movie easily.

Next stop: The popcorn aisle at E-Mart.

Book Presents

Another book birthday in Korea has rolled around, but surprisingly, I didn't run amok in the bookstore this year. I ran, but not amok. This will be really hard to believe -- I emerged from What The Book? with exactly ONE book. I didn't even pick it out -- My Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm did: Lady Audley's Secret (1862) by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Tuffi loved that 19th century date and I have to concur that it looks like great fun. Although I'm dutifully working my way through The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens right now, Tuffi's bound to get pissy in these next few weeks about my pre-1900 reading totals for the year. If I don't get Lady Audley's Secret read by the end of 2009, it'll be something to stuff in Tuffi's cake hole at the dawn of the new decade.

But yeah, weird of me to hit the bookstore in such a restrained manner, right? I confess that I was a bit distracted and I was in such a good mood that I probably would have let Tuffi talk me into Pierre by Herman Melville, a novel that I actively love to despise -- it's my 19th century Atlas Shrugged. Tuffi could have pulled all sorts of classical bull and it wouldn't have mattered; I was an extremely happy bookworm.

Why so happy? Earlier that afternoon, I had gone to the book swap at my beloved Wolfhound and discovered a whole new author. Todd, the heart and soul of the book swap, had brought a copy of Ask The Dust by John Fante. I'd never heard of Fante, but when I saw that he was an American whose first novel, Wait Until Spring, Bandini was published in 1938, I was instantly captivated. Ask The Dust is part of Fante's "Bandini Quartet". How has Fante escaped my notice up to this point? I adore feeling like Magellan, but I'm also appalled and a little worried about what I don't know and what I haven't discovered yet -- what I may never discover.

My interest in Fante was piqued because of his time frame and also because Charles Bukowski viewed him as a mentor. Bukowski discovered Ask The Dust at the library when he was a young and starving drunk and writer, in that order. He was at the library because he was hiding from his landlady who wanted back rent. He said that finding Ask The Dust was like ""finding gold at the city dump" and that from that moment, Fante became "a lifetime influence" on his writing.

Later, when Bukowski got some acclaim, he urged Black Sparrow Press to bring Fante, long neglected, back into print. I've always kind of liked Bukowski, and now I like him even more because of that story. (There's no way to work this tangent in gracefully, but I feel compelled to mention that the reason I first became interested in Bukowski was because Mickey Rourke played a version of him in Barfly, and when I was young, Mickey Rourke excited my tenderest feelings, not all of them literary -- although when he played The Motorcycle Boy in Rumble Fish, that sealed the deal all the way around.)

Anyway, I'm really thrilled about my new discovery. I'm trying to keep myself from peeking at random pages in Ask The Dust, but it's really difficult. I tried putting it away from me, but somehow it has ended up wedged between my left hip and the La-Z Boy chair I'm sitting in right now. I've got to make seriously giant strides with Dickens this week since BOOKLEAVES is meeting on the 20th. What if I put Fante's novel in the freezer? Just for a few days. In a Baggie. Do you suppose it would be okay?

2010: Lots More Library Love

For regular readers of NWB, this cannot possibly come as a surprise. Perhaps I should retitle this blog "Naked Without Libraries".

In the upcoming challenge, there are four levels:
The Mini – Check out and read 25 library books.
Just My Size – Check out and read 50 library books. (This is the level I'm going for, since I successfully completed my goal of 25 in 2009 even though I didn't start till late March or early April.)
Stepping It Up – Check out and read 75 library books.
Super Size Me – Check out and read 100 library books.
Aim high. As long as you read 25 by the end of 2010, you are a winner.

3. Audio, Re-reads, eBooks, YA, Young Reader – any book as long as it is checked out from the library count. (That's nice about the re-reads. Could come in handy.) Checked out like with a library card, not purchased at a library sale. (My faculty ID card doubles as a library card.)

4. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed. (That's good -- new stuff seems to pop up on the shelves all the time. There are also plenty of classics that I haven't gotten to yet. My Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm is wriggling with joy.)

5. Crossovers from other reading challenges count. (Whew.)

6. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010. (I'll be ready with a big old stack o' library love!)

Books I've Watched Lately

The next best thing to reading a book is watching its film version. With my busy schedule during November, and the pressures of NaNoWriMo making me give up and say "calf rope", I retreated into a spate of extreme movie-watching.

Revolutionary Road (2008)

Why I watched this movie: I've wanted to see this movie since it came out. I was driven to look for it after season 3 of Mad Men ended and I was having 1960s withdrawal pains.

My impressions? After more-viewings-than-I-care-to-admit of Titanic, it was strange and heartbreaking to see Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in a difficult marriage. Everything felt a little off-kilter. Kathy Bates as the landlady wasn't onscreen too much, but when she was, she was brilliant at signalling those complex emotions about her son. She also seemed to subtly act in a manner befitting the period, calling up memories of GE Theatre. The ferociously intelligent story was well-directed by Winslet's husband, Sam Mendes and the set design was perfect postwar suburbia.

Will I read the book? I already did, back in either late 2003 or early 2004, and in doing so, became a great fan of Richard Yates' writing. After seeing the movie, I'm definitely up for a reread. Do you suppose I could sell one of my book groups on the idea?

The Reader (2008)

Why I watched this movie: Kate Winslet is fast becoming one of my favorite actresses and well, how can I resist that title? Duh!

My impressions? Kate was beyond great, but the story didn't rock my world. I had difficulty believing that when Hanna was on trial she wouldn't give up her secret when faced with the possibility of life in prison.

Will I read the book? My books-from-foreign-countries totals are in the crapper this year, and it would be a boost to claim a book from Germany, but in the end, I'm pretty sure I'll give it a pass.

The Maltese Falcon (1931)

Why I watched this movie: I just finished a book that examines everything about Dashiell Hammett's novel and its movie versions, right down to the minutest detail. Great fannish fun.

My impressions? Ricardo Cortez seemed all wrong as Sam Spade -- he's a slick ladies' man and there aren't enough edges on him. The camera work seemed dull and stagy. As for dialogue delivery, the crackle of tension that is present in Hammett's work is absent here.

Since this movie came out before the Hays Code was in full swing, the director and the crew were able to throw in some "shocking" bits: At the beginning of the movie, a woman stops and straightens her stockings right after leaving Spade's office, and Spade is seen tossing a pillow back onto a disheveled couch inside the office; it's crystal clear that Spade and Iva Archer are having an affair; ditto crystal about Ruth Wonderley (played by Bebe Daniels who is a mixed bag, but comes off better than her co-star Cortez) and Spade spending the night together; Ruth takes a bath, and she's not modestly covered with a bottle full of bubble bath bubbles; Sam makes Ruth strip so he can see that she's not hiding a $1,000 bill that has gone missing.

The scene in which Spade tosses Wonderley's apartment while she's still asleep at his was lifted straight from the book and very well done, but everyone seems to have run out of energy by the final reel and there's a stupid tacked-on ending that is decidedly un-Hammett-like that had me rolling my eyes.

Will I read the book? I was lucky to find a copy of this 1929 classic in the Bybee-ary, and I devoured it in a day. Dashiell Hammett is my new literary crush.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Why I watched this movie: Being a staunch Bogart fan, I've seen this movie a few times, but I wanted to refresh my memory as I compared it with the 1931 version and the novel.

My impressions? By 1941, the Hays Code was in full swing, but John Huston was so clever in making this film that he's able to suggest things without going against the tedious strictures outlined by Joseph Breen. The camera work -- angles and lighting, particularly -- is as brilliant in this version as it was dull in the 1931 version. It may be the main thing that has kept the movie fresh.

The casting choices were impeccable. Bogart is Spade. Cairo and Gutman were just as Hammett wrote them. Mary Astor comes across as a little too respectable in her hair and dress, but as Ruth Wonderley/Brigid O'Shaughnessey, she's got a cornucopia of subtle liar faces she pulls throughout the movie.

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This version's ending is perfection. In fact, it ends even better than the novel which has Spade alone in his office and shivering with revulsion as he waits for Iva, his former partner's widow. I wonder if Hammett wished he'd thought of paraphrasing Shakespeare for the last line.

Will I read the book? See my comment above. Did I mention that I replaced my Facebook profile photo with Hammett's picture?

Women In Love (1969)

Why I watched this movie: The 1920 D.H. Lawrence novel of the same name has been on my TBR shelf for about 3 years. I also have a girl-crush on Katherine Mansfield, who was Lawrence's inspiration for Gudrun Brangwen.

My impressions? The movie was beautifully photographed, although it seemed to go on and on, especially in the last half-hour when Gudrun and her sister Ursula and their lovers take a vacation to the Alps. Things begin unraveling for Gudrun and Gerald there, but I was all worn out from all that love and spontaneity and beautiful scenery that had gone before.

Allan Bates as Rupert Birkin was obviously the Lawrence character, and his dialogue about love and being spontaneous felt forced in some places and fretful in others, especially his dialogues with Ursula. (I always have the impression that women absolutely could not win with Lawrence, no matter how free-spirited and kind they were.)

The scene at the picnic with the fig was really cringeworthy -- as soon as the fruit was split in quarters, I got where Rupert was going with it, but viewers are bludgeoned and thrown through the door of knowledge. Eve Ensler would've been ecstatic, but not me. I exclaimed at this point: "I'm really [very] glad that I'm watching this movie instead of having to wade through pages and pages of the exact same [stuff]!"

I don't think viewers were supposed to feel too warmly towards Gerald Crich, played by Oliver Reed. Good thing -- I couldn't get over my dislike of Reed from when he played Bill Sykes in Oliver! (Weren't these two movies made at about the same time?)

The infamous nude wrestling scene between Bates and Reed was a little long and self-indulgent, but I can't complain. They were pretty easy on the eyes.

Why does Lawrence always have to turn his characters into artists? The conversations about painting and sculpting sound a little archly self-conscious. He should just let them be writers, since he's mining the autobiographical for all it's worth, anyway.

Will I read the book? In spite of my annoyed comment above, yes. I want to read this novel as well as the 1915 prequel about the rest of the Brangwen family, The Rainbow.

I'm going to try not to over-challenge myself in 2010, but I am interested in joining the challenge in which one writes about the experiences of reading the book and watching the movie.