2010: The Whole Damn Shootin' Match

106. Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things - Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee

105. The Long Gone Lonesome History of Country Music - Bret Bertholf

104. Composed - Rosanne Cash

103. We Shook the Family Tree - Hildegarde Dolson (re-read)

102. The Quiet Little Woman - Louisa May Alcott (All Things Alcott Challenge)

101. Ride The River - Louis L'Amour

100. The Rule of Saint Benedict - St. Benedict

99. Dream Story - Arthur Schnitzler

98. Holidays On Ice - David Sedaris

97. In The Woods - Tana French (Bookleaves Book Club)

96. Dead Poets Society - Tom Schulman & N.H. Kleinbaum (Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge)

95. Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh (Bookleaves Book Club, re-read)

94. Letter From Peking - Pearl S. Buck (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

93. Beloved - Toni Morrison (Cracked Spinz Book Club, The Pulitzer Project, Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge)

92. Embroideries - Marjane Satrapi

91. The Women - T.C. Boyle (Bookleaves Book Club)

90. The Real F. Scott Fitzgerald: Thirty-Five Years Later - Sheilah Graham (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

89. True Grit- Charles Portis (Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge, re-read)

88. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon - Crystal Zevon

87. The Lost City of Z - David Grann (Bookleaves Book Club, Cracked Spinz Book Club)

86. The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane (Support Your Local Library Challenge, Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge)

85. The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer (Banned Books Week)

84. The Giver - Lois Lowry (Newbery Project, Banned Books Week)

83. After Dark, My Sweet - Jim Thompson

82. A Death In Belmont - Sebastian Junger

81. Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

80. The Twits - Roald Dahl

79. Noah's Compass - Anne Tyler

78. Hank Williams - Colin Escott

77. Shortcomings - Adrian Tomine (re-read)

76. Piling Blood - Al Purdy (Canadian Book Challenge 4)

75. The Diviners - Margaret Laurence (Canadian Book Challenge 4)

74. You Gotta Have Wa - Robert Whiting

73. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Mordecai Richler (Canadian Book Challenge 4)

72. Gone To An Aunt's - Anne Petrie (Canadian Book Challenge 4)

71. The Getaway - Jim Thompson

70. Savage Night - Jim Thompson

69. Pop. 1280 - Jim Thompson

68. Royal Flash - George MacDonald Fraser

67. My Sister, My Love - Joyce Carol Oates

66. Flashman - George MacDonald Fraser (Cracked Spinz Book Club)

65. Somewhere To Belong - Judith Miller

64. Nurse Nancy - Kathryn Jackson, Corinne Malvern

63. Blockade Billy - Stephen KIng

62. Tinkers - Paul Harding (The Pulitzer Project)

61. The Plump Pig - Helen and Alf Evers

60. The Killer Inside Me - Jim Thompson (Cracked Spinz Book Group)

59. Korea: A Walk Through The Land of Miracles - Simon Winchester

58. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (The Pulitzer Project)

57. How Soccer Explains The World - Franklin Foer

56. The Black Pearl - Scott O'Dell (Newbery Project)

55. Love and Hate in Jamestown - David A. Price (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

54. Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby

53. Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn

52. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons (Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge, 1930s Mini-Challenge)

51. Out of the Dust - Karen Hesse (Newbery Project)

50. BUtterfield 8 - John O'Hara (1930s Mini-Challenge, Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge)

49. Thimble Summer - Elizabeth Enright (Newbery Project, 1930s Mini-Challenge)

48. The Warrior's Path - Louis L'Amour (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

47. Shanghai Girls - Lisa See (Talya's Book Group)

46. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson (Bookleaves Book Club)

45. Paper Towns - John Green

44. A Cab Called Reliable - Patti Kim (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

43. Flirting with Pride & Prejudice - Jennifer Crusie, editor. (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

42. Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

41. Laura Ingalls Wilder and The American Frontier: Five Perspectives - Dwight M. Miller, editor. (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

40. Clear Pictures - Reynolds Price (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

39. Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney

38. Crazy Heart - Thomas Cobb (re-read, Read the Book See the Movie Challenge)

37. Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh (Bookleaves Book Club)

36. A Wish After Midnight - Zetta Elliott

35. Yi Sun-Shin - Korean Spirit and Culture Series

34. St. Mawr - D.H. Lawrence (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

33. Little House on the Prairie: A Reader's Companion - Virginia L. Wolf (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

32. Home: American Writers Remember Rooms of Their Own - Sharon and Steve Fiffer, eds.

31. Good Grief - Lolly Winston

30. Say You're One of Them - Uwem Akpan (Bookleaves Book Club)

29. The Way West - A.B. Guthrie, Jr. (The Pulitzer Challenge, Read the Book See the Movie Challenge)

28. Virginia Woolf - Hermione Lee (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

27. Dodsworth - Sinclair Lewis (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

26. Grendel - John Gardner (Cracked Spinz Book Group)

25. The Turn of the Screw - Henry James (Support Your Local Library Challenge)

24. Zoom - Istvan Banyai

23. Don't Look Back: Satchel Paige In The Shadows of Baseball - Mark Ribowski

22. Wicked - Gregory Maguire (Bookleaves Book Club)

21. Zen In The Art of Archery - Eugen Herrigel

20. The Foreign Student - Susan Choi (Talya's Book Group)

19. Frozen In Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition - Owen Beattie & John Geiger (Canadian Book Challenge 3)

18. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

17. The Catcher In The Rye - J.D. Salinger (re-read)

16. Bud, Not Buddy - Christopher Paul Curtis (Newbery Project)

15. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (audiobook)

14. Wild Swans - Jung Chang

13. Caucasia - Danzy Senna (Talya's Book Group)

12. The Rough Guide To Classic Novels - Simon Mason

11. An Angel At My Table - Janet Frame (Read The Book, See The Movie Challenge)

10. Haiku - Basho

9. A Boy Of Good Breeding - Miriam Toews (Canadian Book Challenge 3)

8. Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began - Art Speigelman

7. Maus I: My Father Bleeds History - Art Speigelman

6. Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson

5. The Painted Veil - W. Somerset Maugham (Bookleaves Book Club, Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge)

4. The Life You Can Save - Peter Singer (Bookcrossing Bookring)

3. Moby-Dick - Herman Melville

2. Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell

1. Ask The Dust - John Fante

Bookstore Birthday #7

OK, I didn't get to a bookstore on my actual birthday, but because of the huge, gaping time difference, it was still December 11 in the United States (the scene of the crime 49 years ago) when I stumbled into What The Book? early this afternoon. So maybe I did have a bookstore birthday. You decide.

Birthday or no, I was pleased with today's score: A copy of A Fable by William Faulkner. No, Faulkner's not my cup of mint julep, although I wish I could appreciate him more, but A Fable is the 1955 Pulitzer fiction winner and has been an elusive little bugger. When I saw it, I pounced. Then I called Faulkner Guy. Well, I had to tell someone. I expected him to get all crazy and Yoknapatawphan on me, but he stayed pretty calm. Perhaps he's saving up the jubilee until work on Monday.

As for me: Squeeeee! A choice addition for my Pulitzer shelf!

TBR Dare

C.B. at Ready When You Are, C.B. is hosting a TBR challenge. This challenge lasts from January 1 until April 1, 2011 and readers can go the distance or pledge to read only the tomes on their own damn dusty shelves for as long as they feel they can hold out whether it be an hour, a day, a week or more.

I really need a nudge like this. My TBR is in danger of turning to dust because I'm terribly slow about getting around to it, so I'm going to resist shiny new objects and other play-pretties dangled before me for the entire month of January. There's enough on my TBR to keep me both entertained with fun stuff and focused on my challenges. Hell, there's even work stuff lurking there should I start feeling ambitious.

C.B. also said something about creating a Western challenge, so I reckon I'll be moseying back over his way while the trail's still pretty fresh.

November 2010: Buying

During November I didn't do much bookstore-hopping so I made up for it by ordering online. Most of these selections are for work. Since I'm going to teach Children's Literature next semester, I'm looking for a suitable text. Also slated is a children's camp at my university that will run for three weeks in January. I'll be teaching Newspaper. Upon hearing this news, I scrambled for some books about kid journalism. Here's the entire haul:

1. Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh. I needed this one for book group. It's really great that the movie tie-in cover has almost disappeared and the "classic" cover is back to stay. Also, I'm pleased to have Harriet M. Welsch on my shelves again. Makes me hungry for a tomato sandwich.

2. Anna LMNO - Sarah Glasscock. I have a copy of this novel about a small-town Texas hairdresser in my U.S. collection -- I bought it at Larry McMurtry's bookstore in Archer City -- but I feel rather sentimental about the book, so I bought a copy for my collection here. Back when this 1988 novel was brand-new, I read a library copy and liked it a lot. When the trade paperback appeared in stores, I wanted it really bad, but it was close to Christmas. I didn't have much money and had to buy presents, so I bought it for one of my friends who lived in another state. A couple of weeks later, she sent me a thank-you note that included her lengthy and scathing review. She tore Anna LMNO apart. I shredded her note but at the time, I believed that her opinion was infinitely more valuable than mine, so I felt uneasy about loving the book. Most of that uneasiness has worn off though, but there's still a residual feeling of defiance and protectiveness.

3. Kids in Print: Publishing a School Newspaper - Mark Levin. Some of the technological information is outdated, but I've got to be ready for anything, especially if the supplies committee tells me we won't have any computers at our disposal. Where's my chisel?

4. Children's Literature, Briefly - Michael O. Tunnell, James S. Jacobs. Upon hearing about getting the children's literature class, my first wild impulse was to totally steep the English majors in everything. Fortunately for them, I dialed it back a bit and decided on this 320 page text which promises to hit the high points. I can't wait to see it. If it's not enough, I'll supplement with some material that Faulkner Guy used last year and offered to share with me. I also had a brainwave about featuring Linda Sue Park's books in the class, but that's another shopping trip, isn't it?

5. Create Your Own Class Newspaper: A Complete Guide to Planning, Writing and Publishing a Newspaper - Diane Crosby. You can probably tell that I feel a little nervous about teaching newspaper to kids. Especially in an EFL situation. I want to have an abundance of materials in case something tanks. Two hours is a long time and if things aren't going well in the classroom, it can be an eternity.

6. School Newspaper Adviser's Survival Guide - Patricia Osborn. Yes, I'm over preparing for camp, but I can also use this book in the future. The English department is thinking about offering journalism classes and starting their own newspaper. Plus, there's something so cozy and comforting about building a resource library.

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7. Into the Woods - Tana French. BOOKLEAVES is reading this for the December 12 meeting. Ordinarily, I don't like mysteries, but I've been pleasantly surprised. I'm enjoying the suspense and the psychological aspects of this story.

I haven't yet counted up exactly how many books I've bought. I'm a little scared to look, but next month, I'll see the evidence of my book gluttony. It's been an interesting experiment.