Reading My Age: 2024 Stats

 Once upon a time (maybe 8 or 9 years ago?) I was struggling to figure out a reading goal for the year. I had tried for 100, and come up short and frustrated. Then I saw or heard about someone reading the same amount of books as their age, and it was such an elegant solution that I've adopted and used it ever since. Most years I exceed the goal, but this year, I barely made it, and I know why: Too much phone. Can I fix this? Can I manage my addiction? Neuroplasticity is a wonderful thing. Stay tuned.

Here are a few stats from my reading year:

Books read: 63

Fiction:27

Nonfiction: 36

Audiobooks: 18

Graphic novels: 3

Library books: 50

My books: 12

Gift: 1

First book of 2024: Being Henry: The Fonz and Beyond - Henry Winkler (memoir)

Last book of 2024: Animals Make Us Human - Temple Grandin (nonfiction)

Longest book: The Sunne in Splendour - Sharon Kay Penman (novel) 936 pages

Shortest book: Granny Smith is NOT an Apple! - Sharon Glen Fortson (picture book) 32 pages

Funniest book: Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan (novel) and I Must Be Dreaming - Roz Chast (graphic novel)

Saddest book: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing - Matthew Perry (memoir)

Most helpful book: Animals Make Us Human - Temple Grandin (nonfiction)

Bridge books (started in 2024, will finish in 2025: One of Ours - Willa Cather (novel), Be Ready When the Luck Happens - Ina Garten (memoir), and A Really Good Day -Ayelet Waldman (nonfiction)

DNF I don't think I DNF'd anything this year. I wanted to, but I didn't, which brings me to the next category...

Give me back my time: Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens (novel), Sociopath - Patric Gagne (memoir), and Leave Her to Heaven - Ben Ames Williams (novel). In the case of the two novels, watch the movies instead.

Smooth Bookworm Moves: 

1. Discovering Sharon Kay Penman's books

2. Discovering Temple Grandin's works

3. Finishing the Kopp Sisters series

4. Quitting lame-o book group 

5. Finding new book group where organic discussion is prized 

6. Joining university library -- so vast and delightfully niche-y at the same time.

Next up: The fiction I read in 2024

2023 Nonfiction

 When did I become such a nonfiction girl? The answer starts from decades back. In second grade and part of third grade, I was an avid reader of fairy tales. Then in third grade, the girl sitting in front of me told me about Helen Keller, and I found myself in the biography section on Library Day that week. Once I was there, I saw other names I recognized Daniel Boone! Geronimo! Florence Nightingale! Amelia Earhart! and that began my second bookish obsession. The Little House series, that beautiful and problematic bonnet string tangle of fiction and fact, was still two years in my future.

 As an adult, Tracy Kidder seems to have been the author that helped open the nonfiction door wide for me. Two years in graduate school led to reading that was almost exclusively nonfiction, and added polish and confidence to my reading self. (Surprisingly, I found myself swooning over tomes about linguistics. Steven Pinker. Sigh.) 

Age has also helped because I've acquired a good amount of background knowledge about  historical and cultural events, so everything feels connected in some way. Is schemata the word I'm looking for?

 I'm convinced that 2024 will be yet another year in which nonfiction dominates my reading.

Let me also mention the Who Was...? books, because they are very much a part of my reading list. The Spawn is always finding new books in the series for me to read. (My current one is about Salvador Dali.) The series can be uneven -- a little bit like the little girl with the curl -- some are very very good (World War I) and some are horrid, (Hello, Kitty) but I'm always eager to have a new one in my hands. I wish that those books had been around for eight and nine-year-old me.

So anyway, below is list of nonfiction read in 2023. I've noted my favorites in green.

1. The Man Who Invented Christmas

2. Who was Michelangelo?

3. Opening the Road: Victor Hugo Green and His Green Book

4. Who is Shaquille O'Neal?

5. Starring Steven Spielberg

6. Ducks

7. Spare

8. Last Rampage

9. Hey, Kiddo

10. The Year of Less

11. Who was Alex Trebek?

12. Who was Maria Tallchief?

13. The Rainbow Comes and Goes

14. Who is LeBron James?

15. What is the Story of Nancy Drew?

16. Forget the Alamo

17. Ice Cream Man

18. Library Girl

19. A Perfect Fit

20. Blast Off!

21. The Brilliant Calculator

22. What was The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921?

23. Happening

24. All You Can Ever Know

25. Shy

26. What is the Story of Anne of Green Gables?

27. What was World War I?

28. Who was Frank Sinatra?

29. Who was Jim Thorpe?

30. Scrappy Little Nobody

31. Sharp

32. Napoleon vs. The Bunnies

33. Jerry Changed the Game!

34. Who is Simone Biles?

35. Who is Nathan Chen?

36. The Wager

37. Good Books for Bad Children

38. What is the Story of the Headless Horseman?

39. Five Days at Memorial

40. Who is Harry Styles?

41. What Do We Know About the Winchester House?

42. Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy

43. Who was Betty White?

44. You Could Make This Place Beautiful

45. What Do We Know About the Children's Blizzard of 1888?

46. Hollywood: The Oral History

47. Madly, Deeply

48. Abridged Classics

49. How to Keep House While Drowning

50. The Man Who Loved Books

51. Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte

52. What was The Donner Party?

2023 Fiction

Not much fiction here, but I'm happy with the list. Classics, new authors, happy discoveries, a few surprises and a little re-reading.

Favorite: City of Girls

Least Favorite: The Girl Puzzle

1. Sons - Pearl S. Buck (audiobook)

2. Molok'ai -Alan Brennart (book group book)

3. Joan is Okay - Weike Wang (book group book)

4. Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver

5. Anne of Green Gables: The Graphic Novel

6. Young Man with a Horn - Dorothy Baker

7. A House Divided - Pearl S. Buck (audiobook)

8. Sooley - John Grisham (book group book)

9. Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen - Sarah Bird (book group book)

10. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (audiobook)

11. At the Edge of the Orchard - Tracy Chevalier (audiobook)

12. The Last Confessions of Sylvia P. -Lee Kravetz

13. The Farewell Tour - Stephanie Clifford

14. Writers & Lovers - Lily King

15. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (audiobook)

16. City of Girls - Elizabeth Gilbert (audiobook)

17. The Girl Puzzle - Kate Braithwaite (book group book)

18. Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus

19. Haven - Emma Donoghue (audiobook)

20. The Guncle - Stephen Rowley

21. The Signature of All Things - Elizabeth Gilbert (audiobook)

22. Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

23. Gain - Richard Powers (audiobook)

24. Freaky Friday - Mary Rodgers (re-read)

25. Playing for Pizza - John Grisham (audiobook)

26. The Call of the Wild - Jack London (re-read, book group book)

27. Yellowface - R.F. Kuang

28. Lessons - Ian McEwan (audiobook)

29. The Lager Queen of Minnesota - J. Ryan Stradahl (re-read, book group book)

30. Happiness Falls - Angie Kim

31. Tom Lake - Ann Patchett (audiobook)

2023 Reading: The Breakdown

 

I read 83 books this year. This is my highest total since 2015. The numbers are getting bigger each year and that's encouraging. I'd like to think that I have another 100+ year in me.

fiction 31

nonfiction 52

 audiobooks 21

graphic novels 2

library books 73

my books 9

borrowed/gift 1

first book of the year: Sons - Pearl S. Buck

last book of the year: Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte -Kate Williams

longest book: Hollywood: The Oral History - Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson

shortest book: The Man Who Loved Books - Jean Fritz

funniest book: Abridged Classics - John Atkinson and Napoleon vs. The Bunnies - J.F. Fox and Anna Kwan

saddest book: Five Days at Memorial - Sheri Fink

most helpful book: How To Keep House Without Drowning - KC Davis

bridge book (started in 2023, will finish in 2024): Child Star - Shirley Temple Black

reading revelations: I'm not intimidated by Richard Powers anymore! Elizabeth Gilbert is a goddess.

next post: My fiction, 2023 list

Happy Book Year!

2022 Reading: The Breakdown

Total # of Books Read in 2022: 71

 Fiction: 29

Nonfiction: 42

Audiobooks: 16

Graphic Novels: 1

Male Authors: 25

Female Authors: 46

19th Century Books: 1

20th Century Books: 8

21st Century Books: 62

Who Was...? Books: 17

Authors From Other Countries:

 10 (Canada, Spain, England, Germany, Australia, and South Africa)

Longest Book:

  Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark 1,118 pages

Shortest Book: 

Who Was Chloe Kim? by Stefanie Loh  49 pages

You Go Back, Jack, Do It Again (Rereads): 

 The Thorn Birds, The Book Thief, Daisy Jones and The Six, The Good Earth, and My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Library Books: 52

Bybeeary Books: 14

Borrowed: 5

DNF: 

Midnight on the Orient Express, Resistance Women, and  Demon Copperhead

DNF & Good Riddance: 

Kings Row by Henry Bellamann. Rusty prose. Labored psychological stylings. I fled.

Give Me Back My Time: 

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by Bob Odenkirk and Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Eyeroll: 

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Utterly Delicious: 

Taste by Stanley Tucci, Home Baked by Alia Volz and Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Pop Culture Thrills Galore:

  Everybody Thought We Were Crazy by Mark Rozzo

Jaw Hit The Floor Repeatedly:

  I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy 

Better Late Than Never: 

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt  But really, I ask you: who but who sleeps on a book for almost THREE g0##@%& decades???

Yes, I Cried Buckets:

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, Half Empty by David Rakoff and Red Comet by Heather Clark

Yes, I Was Pissed Off Enough To Jump Into The Book:

French Braid by Anne Tyler, Never Let Her Go by Ann Rule, True Biz by Sara Novic, and Red Comet by Heather Clark

Road Trip Yes Please:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (Savannah, Georgia)

Reading Hangover: 

Red Comet by Heather Clark and Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Claustrophobic Flare-up: 

The Witches: Salem 1692 by Stacy Schiff 

Upraised Middle Finger: 

Who Was Ponce de Leon?  All those conquistadors, yuck.

Seriously Good Seriously Serious Fiction: 

The Leavers by Lisa Ko ,The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and True Biz by Sara Novic

I Was Meta Cool When Meta Wasn't Cool: 

A View From The Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor

Favorite True Crime Reads:

The Murder Book by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell and The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale

Badass: 

Constance Kopp from The Kopp Sisters series, Meridy Volz from Home Baked, and Marie de France (?)  from The Matrix

Favorite Pet:

 Desmond the cat from French Braid

Strangest Narrator:

 Death from The Book Thief

Bridge Books (started in 2022 but won't finish until 2023):

Poison by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, Sons by Pearl S. Buck, The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford, and Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography by Gail Levin

I'm starting to see splinters, so I think I've broken down 2022's reading about as far as it will go. Now, it's time to make some book resolutions for 2023.

2021: A Beautiful Stack of Nonfiction

I can't believe how much nonfiction I read this year! Of course all those Who Was...? books swelled my numbers, but still.

1. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Mark Manson. Self-help.

2. Who Was Lucille Ball? - Pam Pollack and Meg Belviso. Biography.

3. Who Was Mark Twain? - April Jones Prince. Biography.

4. Atomic Habits - James Clear. Self-help.

5. Essentialism - Greg McKeown. Self-help.

6. Always Young and Restless - Melody Thomas Scott. Memoir.

7. Solutions and Other Problems - Allie Brosh (graphic novel) Memoir.

8. Who Was Catherine the Great? - Pam Pollack and Meg Belviso. Biography.

9. Who Is Kamala Harris? - Kirsten Anderson. Biography.

10. Who Was Walt Whitman? - Kirsten Anderson. Biography.

11. Eat A Peach - David Chang. Memoir.

12. Who Were The Beatles? -Geoff Edgers. Biography.

13. Who Were The Brothers Grimm? - Avery Reed. Biography.

14. Eleanor - David Michaelis. Biography. 

15. Who Was Levi Strauss? - Ellen Lebrecque. Biography.

16. Who Was Julia Child? - Geoff Edgers and Carlene Hempel. Biography.

17. Who Was Milton Bradley? - Kirsten Anderson. Biography.

18. Who Was Davy Crockett? - Gail Herman. Biography.

19. Who Was Benedict Arnold? - James Buckley, Jr. Biography.

20. Shrill - Lindy West. Essays.

21. The River of Doubt - Candice Millard. History.

22. The Witches Are Coming - Lindy West. Essays.

23. Blitzed - Norman Ohler. History.

24. What Is The Panama Canal? - Janet B. Pascal. History.

25. Who Was Norman Rockwell? - Sarah Fabiny. Biography.

26. What Is The Story of Alice in Wonderland? - Dana Meachen Rau. Literary History.

27. Who Is Ken Jennings? - Kirsten Anderson. Biography.

28. Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust - Loretta Lynn. Memoir.

29. Still Woman Enough - Loretta Lynn. Memoir.

30. Who Is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson? - James Buckley, Jr. Biography.

31. The Mayor of MacDougall Street - Dave Van Ronk. Memoir.

32. Cheeky: A Head-To-Toe Memoir - Ariella Elovic (graphic novel) Memoir.

33. Who Is RuPaul? - Nico Medina. Biography.

34. Who Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? - Kirsten Anderson. Biography.

35. Who Is Aretha Franklin? - Nico Medina. Biography.

36. Who Is Elton John? - Kirsten Anderson. Biography.

37. Who Was Andy Warhol? - Kirsten Anderson. Biography.

38. Who Is Judy Blume? - Kirsten Anderson. Biography.

39. Who Was Juliette Gordon Low? - Dana Meachen Rau. Biography.

40. Best Food Writing 2003 - Holly Hughes, ed. Essays.

41. Who Is Dolly Parton? - True Kelley. Biography.

42. The Andy Warhol Diaries - Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett, ed. Diaries.

43. Who Was Frida Kahlo? - Sarah Fabiny. Biography.

44. American Cheese - Joe Berkowitz. Food.

45. The Office - Andy Greene. Entertainment.

46. Inside Peyton Place - Emily Toth. Biography/Literary History

47. Fresh Off The Boat - Eddie Huang. Memoir.

48. Grandma Pottymouth's Fast as Fuck Cookbook - Peggy Glenn. Cookbook.

49. The Boys - Ron Howard and Clint Howard. Memoir.

50. What Is The Story of Dracula? - Michael Burgan. Literary History.

51. Dancing At The Pity Party - Tyler Feder (graphic novel) Memoir.

Notes:

You make me feel like a natural bookworm: 

Always Young and Restless, American Cheese, The Boys, Lindy West, Grandma Pottymouth, The River of Doubt, Blitzed, Fresh Off The Boat, Cheeky, Loretta Lynn, The Andy Warhol Diaries, Eleanor, The Mayor of MacDougall Street

Made me think: 

Atomic Habits

Yes, I cried:

  Dancing At The Pity Party

Give me back my time:

  The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck, Eat A Peach, Best Food Writing 2003, Inside Peyton Place

Meh: 

Levi Strauss, Walt Whitman, Norman Rockwell, Essentialism

Favorite Who Was...? books: 

CATHERINE THE GREAT!!! Benedict Arnold, Juliette Gordon Low, Davy Crockett, The Story of Dracula, RuPaul, The Rock, Elton John, Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton, Julia Child, Milton Bradley, The Beatles and The Brothers Grimm

DNF Sorry/Not Sorry files: 

What She Ate, Philip Roth biography

DNF We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when files: 

Doorstop-sized Andy Warhol biography, How To Change Your Mind

My first nonfiction book for 2022 will be Taste by Stanley Tucci, and it's a mouthwatering way to ring out the old and ring in the chew...I mean...new.

Breaking It All Down: Reading Stats 2014

Total # of books: 139

Pages read: 40,276

Library books: 31    Thanks, BEL! xoxo

Kindle books: 81

Audio books: 2

Tree books:  56


Fiction: 61

Nonfiction: 78

Graphic Novels: 15

DNF:  8

Should I stay or should I go?:
Van Gogh - Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith (page 258)

Always come back to you: (author I read the most in 2014)
Maya Angelou - 7 books

I read the book, I saw the TV show, got the t-shirt:
Orange is the New Black

Shortest book:
The Strongest Man in the World: Louis Cyr (27 pages)

Longest book:
A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True (1,056 pages)

Newest book:
What's Living in My Knickers?  (December, 2014)

Oldest book:
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

You go back, Jack, do it again (rereads):  9

Doorstop Dreams (500+ pages): 12
Small Packages (-100 pages):  8

Translated books: 3

Funniest book:
Hark! A Vagrant! and Dear Coca-Cola

Saddest book:
My Brother Sam is Dead

Blood pressure spike:
 The Devil's Knot

WTF?!:
Touching The Void
What's Living in My Knickers?

Frustrated, Incorporated:
The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk
American Rose - Karen Abbott
Highway with Green Apples - Suah Bae
Bark - Lorrie Moore
Landline - Rainbow Rowell
Labor Day - Joyce Maynard
You Are What You Wear - Jennifer Baumgartner

Favorites  - Fiction:
My Name is Mary Sutter - Robin Oliveira
Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver
Rifles for Watie - Harold Keith
A Mummer's Wife - George Moore
The Nether World - George Gissing
Silas Marner - George Eliot
The Street - Ann Petry
Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
The Homesman - Glendon Swarthout
Stoner - John Williams
Hangover Square - Patrick Hamilton
Lila - Marilynne Robinson
Euphoria - Lily King

Favorites - Nonfiction:
The Devil's Knot - Mara Leveritt
Food of a Younger Land - Mark Kurlansky
Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
The Total Money Makeover - Dave Ramsey
Maya Angelou memoirs
Lessons From Madame Chic - Jennifer L. Scott
Five Came Back - Mark Harris
Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay
The Lost Art of Dress - Linda Przbyszewski
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo
Beverly Cleary memoirs
Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? - Roz Chast

When it was 2014, it was a very WOW year:
Euphoria (fiction)
Lila (fiction)
The Lost Art of Dress (nonfiction)
Bad Feminist (essays)
Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (graphic novel)


I remember doing the Time Warp:
Books written before 1800:  1
Books written 1800-1899:   8
Books written 1900-1960:   12
Books written 1961-1999:   29
Books written 2000-2014:   89

On the road again (Author Birthplace):
Australia: 1
Austria:  1
Canada: 3
Dominican Republic: 1
England:  19
Ethiopia:  1
France:  2
Ireland:  4
Japan:  2
Scotland:  1
South Korea:  2
USA:  102

Books with male authors: 48
Books with female authors:  73
Books with co-authors:  4
Books with...not sure of gender: 1


Time to make some book resolutions!

Reading 2013: The Long and Short of It

Total number of books:  137

Pages read:  43,366

Average # of pages per book:  316

Library books:  26

Kindle books: 74

Audio books:  3

Tree books: 59


Fiction:  75

Nonfiction:  62


Graphic Novels:  5


I read the book, I saw the movie, got the T-shirt
Les Miserables
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang
Up the Junction


Shortest Book:  The Snowman - Alfred Castelli and Milo Manara (48 pages)

Longest Book:  Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (1,115  pages)

Newest Book:  Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell (September 10, 2013)

Oldest Book:  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass (1845)


You go back, Jack, do it again
(books I reread)
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
Betsy In Spite of Herself - Maud Hart Lovelace
Nana - Emile Zola
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang - Joyce Carol Oates
Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail - Louise Shivers


Chunky Monkeys (books with 500+  pages) :  15

Skinny Minnies (books with fewer than 100 pages) :  6



Translated Books: 18.  [I love Brian Nelson.  He makes Zola's characters jump from French to English and right off the page, right into your face.]


Funniest Book:  How To Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran

Freakiest Book:  The Beast Within - Emile Zola

Scariest Book:  Stitches - David Small
                     
Saddest Book:  The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank


Frustrated, Incorporated
(Unfavorite reads)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
Swamplandia! - Karen Russell
American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story - Cynthia True
My Mortal Enemy - Willa Cather
Zanuck: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Last Tycoon - Leonard Mosley
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
What Maisie Knew - Henry James
Confessions of a Sociopath - M.E. Thomas
Anchored In Love - John Carter Cash
My Korean Deli - Ben Ryder Howe
Flowers in the Attic - V.C. Andrews
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets - Stephen Crane
The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards
If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly - Sun-Mi Hwang


Breaking up is hard to do 
(The DNF Files)
His Excellency, Eugene Rougon - Emile Zola
The Brothers K - David James Duncan
A Rage to Live - John O'Hara
Mirror Talk - Barbara Alfaro

Should I stay or should I go?
The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk (Page 220)
Flashman and the Redskins - George MacDonald Fraser (Page 158)

I remember finding out about you
(really good reads)
Confessions of a Prairie Bitch - Alison Arngrim
Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel
How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran
Parnassus on Wheels - Christopher Morley
The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
English Teacher X Guide to Teaching Abroad - English Teacher X
L'Assommoir - Emile Zola
Quiet - Susan Cain
One For the Money - Janet Evanovich
Finn - Jon Clinch
Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer
The Star Machine - Jeanine Basinger
117 Days Adrift - Maurice and Maralyn Bailey
It's Not Really About the Hair - Tabatha Coffey
Nana - Emile Zola
Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America - Amy Suntherland
Society's Child: My Autobiography - Janis Ian
Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell
Twelve Years a Slave - Solomon Northup
Shadow of the Moon - M.M. Kaye
Johnny Cash: The Life - Robert Hilburn
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner
Brother One Cell - Cullen Thomas

Teacher, Teacher Teach Me More 
(Books I found instructive):
Speaking Activities That Don't Suck - English Teacher X
The Thin Commandments - Stephen Gullo


I'll be reading you in all the old familiar places 
(Authors I read multiple times)
Emile Zola - 11
Joyce Carol Oates - 4
Rainbow Rowell - 3
Jeanine Basinger - 3
Betty McDonald - 3
Maud Hart Lovelace - 3
English Teacher X - 2
Hilary Mantel - 2
Janet Evanovich - 2
Wallace Stegner - 2


On the road again
(Author Birthplace)
Australia- 1
Canada- 2
England- 12
France- 13
Germany- 1
India- 2
Italy- 2
The Netherlands- 1
The Philippines- 1
Russia- 1
Ukraine- 1
Unknown- 2
USA- 85


Books written by male authors:  66
Books written by female authors: 65
Books written by an author whose gender I'm not sure about: 2
Books written by co-authors:  4


Books written before 1800: 0
Books written 1800-1899:  17
Books written 1900-1960:  16
Books written 1961-1999:  25
Books written 2000-2013:  79


Pulitzer prizewinners: 1


Happy discoveries:  Rainbow Rowell, Hilary Mantel, Zola's Rougon-Macquart series, Busan English Library!

Happy Book Year -- Time for some reading resolutions!

2012 Reading Stats

Total number of books:
125


Pages read:
36,019



Average # of pages per book:
288


Library books:
 0


Kindle books:
57


Fiction:
79

Nonfiction:
46


Graphic Novels:
7


Book/Movie Experiences:
3


Shortest Book:
Something Good - Robert Munsch  (23 pages)


Longest Book:
11/22/63 - Stephen King (853 pages)



Newest Book:
Korea: The Impossible Country - Daniel Tudor (November 18, 2012)



Oldest Book:
The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot (1860)


Hit Me Baby One More Time (books I reread):
The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane - Laird Koenig
Daughter of Darkness - J.R. Lowell
Ex Libris - Anne Fadiman
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
Heartburn - Nora Ephron
Endless Love - Scott Spencer




Chunky Monkeys (books with 500+  pages) :
9

Skinny Minnies (books with fewer than 100 pages) :
7



Funniest Book:  
Crap Chronicles: When IBS Strikes in all the Wrong Places - Diana Estill

Saddest Books:
Life's That Way - Jim Beaver
Mortality - Christopher Hitchens
Half-Empty - David Rakoff



New Miserable Experience
(books I finished but didn't really care for) :
Philip Hall Likes Me. I Reckon Maybe - Bette Greene
I Want That! How We All Became Shoppers - Thomas Hine
Tales of the South Pacific - James A. Michener
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick
Dead End in Norvelt - Jack Gantos
Brother Fish - Bryce Courtenay


Book I feel guilty for not liking:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky


Breaking up is hard to do: (The DNF Files)
In The Garden of Beasts - Erik Larson
The Other Side of Eden: Life with John Steinbeck - John Steinbeck IV
Texas Hold 'Em - Kinky Friedman


I'll Tumble 4 Ya (books I really enjoyed)
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
Drifting House - Krys Lee
Canada - Richard Ford
Korea: The Impossible Country - Daniel Tudor
License To Pawn - Rick Harrison
Inspired: A Novel - William Sartore
Flanagan's Run - Tom McNab
Lady Audley's Secret - M.E. Braddon


You From Around Here? (Author Birthplace):
Algeria - 1
Australia - 1
Canada - 6
England - 14
Germany - 3
India - 3
Ireland - 1
Poland - 1
Russia - 1
Scotland - 1
South Africa - 1
South Korea - 1
Sri Lanka - 1
United States - 90


Male authors: 81
Female authors: 41
Co-authored: 3

Books written before 1800:  0
Books written 1800-1899:   2
Books written 1900-1960:   19
Books written 1961-1999:   39
Books written 2000-2012:   65


Pulitzer prizewinners:  7

Newbery Medal winners: 11


Happy discoveries:  Krys Lee, Daniel Tudor, William Sartore, Gillian Flynn


Canada Try:
5th Canadian Challenge: Yes, success!  I need a ride to Tim Horton's!


Happy Book Year -- Time for some reading resolutions!

2012 Reads: All Together Now

2012 was my best year ever, or at least since I started keeping track back in the early 1990s.  I've boldfaced the books that really stood out for me.

125. The Red Pony - John Steinbeck

• 124. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
• 123. Korea, The Impossible Country - Daniel Tudor 
• 122. Don't Trade The Baby For A Horse - Wendy McClure
• 121. Endless Love - Scott Spencer 
• 120. Brother Fish - Bryce Courtenay
• 119. Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
• 118. Canadian Inventions - Lisa Wojna 
• 117. Disturbances in the Field - Lynne Sharon Schwartz
• 116. Lady Audley's Secret - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
• 115. Lit - Mary Karr
• 114. The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman - Meg Wolitzer
• 113. Bottom of the 33rd - Dan Barry
• 112. Clock Without Hands - Carson McCullers
• 111. Factotum - Charles Bukowski
• 110. Kira-Kira - Cynthia Kadohata 
• 109. The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot
• 108. Mortality - Christopher Hitchens
• 107. Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski
• 106. Post Office - Charles Bukowski
• 105. Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Salman Rushdie
• 104. Paula Spencer - Roddy Doyle
• 103. A Long Way From Chicago - Richard Peck
• 102. Circles In A Forest - Dalene Matthee 
• 101. Burr - Gore Vidal 
• 100. The Lazy Paleo Enthusiast's Cookbook - Sean Robertson
• 99. Chocolat - Joanne Harris
• 98. Sounder - William H. Armstrong 
• 97. Dead End In Norvelt - Jack Gantos 
• 96. Flanagan's Run - Tom McNab
• 95. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
• 94. More Baths, Less Talking - Nick Hornby
• 93. Inspired: A Novel - William Sartore
• 92. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn 
• 91. Joseph Anton - Salman Rushdie
• 90. Midnight's Children -Salman Rushdie 
• 89. Fifty Great Essays - Robert DiYanni, Ed.
• 88. Escape From Camp 14 - Blaine Harden
• 87. Baja Bullets - George Snyder
• 86. Not The Israel My Parents Promised Me - Harvey Pekar and JT Waldman
• 85. The Lay of the Land - Richard Ford
• 84. Lamb In His Bosom - Caroline Miller 
• 83. A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick
• 82. Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? -Marion Meade
• 81. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules - Jeff Kinney
• 80. Tough Sh*t - Kevin Smith
• 79. Lovers Lane: The Hall-Mills Mystery - Rick Geary
• 78. Half Empty - David Rakoff 
• 77. Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
• 76. The End of the Affair - Graham Greene
• 75. A Simple Plan - Scott Smith
• 74. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
• 73. Our Valued Customers: Conversations From the Comic Book Store - Tim Chamberlain
• 72. License to Pawn - Rick Harrison
• 71. The Three of Us - Georgette Jones
• 70. Canada - Richard Ford 
• 69. Caddie Woodlawn - Carol Ryrie Brink
• 68. Lamb - Christopher Moore
• 67. Growing Up Amish - Ira Wagler 
• 66. I Remember Nothing - Nora Ephron
• 65. I Feel Bad About My Neck - Nora Ephron
• 64. Heartburn - Nora Ephron 
• 63. Number the Stars - Lois Lowry
• 62. Drifting House - Krys Lee
• 61. When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead 
• 60. Fun Home -Alison Bechdel 
• 59. Running In The Family - Michael Ondaatje 
• 58. Are You My Mother? - Alison Bechdel
• 57. American Pastoral - Philip Roth 
• 56. The Fault In Our Stars - John Green
• 55. Sweet Thursday - John Steinbeck 
• 54. The Town - Conrad Richter 
• 53. Tales of the South Pacific - James A. Michener 
• 52. Still Alice - Lisa Genova
• 51. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson
• 50. The Edge of Sadness - Edwin O'Connor 
• 49. Forrest Gump - Winston Groom
• 48. Under The Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer
• 47. The Mysterious Stranger - Mark Twain 
• 46. East of Eden - John Steinbeck 
• 45. Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters - John Steinbeck
• 44. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything - Christopher Hitchens 
• 43. The Fran Lebowitz Reader - Fran Lebowitz
• 42. The Winter of Our Discontent - John Steinbeck
• 41. Shane - Jack Schaeffer
• 40. It's Like This, Cat - Emily Cheney Neville 
• 39. Shadow of a Bull - Maia Wojciechowska 
• 38. The Higher Power of Lucky - Susan Patron 
• 37. In This House of Brede - Rumer Godden
• 36. Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark - Brian Kellow
• 35. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
• 34. 11/22/63 - Stephen King
• 33. American Splendor: Our Movie Year - Harvey Pekar
• 32. The Story of Charlotte's Web - Michael Sims
• 31. Crap Chronicles: When IBS Strikes In All The Wrong Places - Diana Estill
• 30. Ex Libris - Anne Fadiman 
• 29. At Large And At Small - Anne Fadiman
• 28. Damned - Chuck Palahniuk 
• 27. Daughter of Darkness - J.R. Lowell
• 26. The Dead Zone - Stephen King 
• 25. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy - Eric Metaxas 
• 24. Cannery Row - John Steinbeck 
• 23. So Big - Edna Ferber 
• 22. Who Was Elvis Presley? - Geoff Edgers 
• 21. Get Carter - Ted Lewis
• 20. Life's That Way - Jim Beaver 
• 19. The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman 
• 18. How Did I Get Here From There? - Claire Rayner 
• 17. Mr. Popper's Penguins - Richard and Florence Atwater 
• 16. I Want That! How We All Became Shoppers - Thomas Hine 
• 15. The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane - Laird Koenig 
• 14. View From The Cellar - R.W. Watkins 
• 13. The Man With The Golden Arm - Nelson Algren 
• 12. Philip Hall Likes Me. I Reckon Maybe. - Bette Greene 
• 11. Shutting Out The Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation - Michael Zielenziger 
• 10. Julie of the Wolves - Jean Craighead George 
• 9. Something Good - Robert Munsch 
• 8. The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood 
• 7. Ronald Reagan: A Graphic Biography - Andrew Helfer 
• 6. Now in November - Josephine W. Johnson 
• 5. The Bad Seed - William March 
• 4. The Lonely Polygamist - Brady Udall 
• 3. Strength in What Remains - Tracy Kidder 
• 2. The Stranger - Albert Camus 
• 1. The Wide House - Taylor Caldwell 

October, 2012: So Very Reading!

Eyeballs on fire!  October has my best reading month of the year.  I'm into triple digits now, and there's still two months left in the year.  My goal is in sight.  I'd like to thank the long Korean Thanksgiving holiday, the 24-hour Readathon, my favorite park bench on campus coupled with beautiful fall weather, a two-hour wait for a haircut in an Angels-In-Us coffee shop, and my old standby, the Seoul Metro.

Reading trends:  The Depression era cropped up in 4 out of the 15 books.  13 out of the 15 were by male authors.  I also got a little bit more international, reading authors who were born in Russia, England, Scotland, India, Ireland and South Africa.

I won't have time to finish another book before November 1, so I'll go ahead and post my reads a little bit early:

1. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn.  I've finally found a Russian author that I really enjoy.  (I like Chekhov, but his stories and plays are kind of hit-or-miss with me.)  I mentioned the book and movie here.  My partner in literary crime, Paul also read One Day... during October.  He said that one part he "really liked was when he [Ivan Denisovich] was building the wall of a new power plant.  His heart was really in it as he was trying to fix up the mess the last guy had left it in, and looking at how straight he was building it and admiring his own speed and skill.  He almost got into trouble because he stayed on it late to finish a line and because he didn't like to waste mortar.  He could still be proud and take pleasure in things -- he got lots of small pleasures during his day, things that would mean nothing to us."

2. Inspired: A Novel - William Sartore.  An entertaining and original first novel with all the elements for success -- friendship, inner and outer journeys and an exotic location (Vietnam).  I've never seen a premise like the one in this book.  It feels really fresh.  Sartore has seasoned  the whole thing with a fine, dry wit.

3. More Baths, Less Talking - Nick Hornby.  I simply can't stay away from Nick Hornby when he's talking about books he's bought and read.  I'm delighted to the point of squee! at the mutual admiration society that he's got going with Sarah Vowell; I've got lit-crushes on both of them. Meanwhile, Hornby helped me add volumes to my wishlist.  Isn't he thoughtful?

4. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote.  When I'm on optical cruise control, my inner bookworm is in bliss.  Was Truman Capote even capable of writing a bad sentence?  He wrote so beautifully that I can't help thinking that one thing about To Kill a Mockingbird...you know what I mean.  The novella Breakfast at Tiffany's is a million times better than the movie (although I love Audrey Hepburn) and the copy I read also included Capote's short story masterpiece "A Christmas Memory".

5. Flanagan's Run - Tom McNab.  In 1930, when America was first in the iron grip of the Depression, a promoter named Charles C. Flanagan comes up with the idea of a footrace from Los Angeles to New York City.  Word gets out, and men and women from all over the world show up.  McNab put all of his know-how about running (he was the technical advisor for Chariots of Fire) into this exhilarating, enjoyable and wrongfully overlooked novel.  It's wonderfully cinematic, too.  I hope the movie rights aren't languishing somewhere in Development Hell.  If you find a copy at the library or in a rummage store, don't hesitate to pick it up.  It's also available on Kindle.  Thanks to my friend Teri for bringing Flanagan's Run to my attention!

6. Dead End in Norvelt - Jack Gantos.  I liked the part about how Norvelt was founded by then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt during the depths of the Depression, and how the town's roots were firmly in Socialism and how it worked well for them. I also liked the tension added by Jack's father, who embodied the restless wrongheaded side of capitalism.  What felt awkward to me were the obituaries that Miss Volker dictated to Jack which became lengthy history lessons that the newspaper editor actually published.  The mystery aspect of the novel didn't thrill me either.  I'm sure I would have loved this book when I was slavishly devoted to Northern Exposure in the early 1990s -- Norvelt and its inhabitants reminded me so much of Cicely, Alaska.  In the end, I have mixed feelings of irritation and affection for Dead End in Norvelt.

7. Sounder - William H. Armstrong.  Beautiful but so grim.  The prose in Sounder has the haunting and commanding cadence of a Bible story from the Old Testament.

8. Chocolat - Joanne Harris.  My friends Becka and Teri had been encouraging me to read Chocolat for a couple of years, but I'd been shying away from it.  I'm sorry I waited so long.  Chocolat is as delicious as its name, and the juxtaposition between warm and vivacious chocolate artist Vianne and the bitter, fearful and emotionally disturbed priest Reynaud as they square off during Lent gives the book a good balance.  Too much of one or the other would have made it much less.  I suggested this as a perfect Readathon read, and I'm sticking with that recommendation.  Add your favorite chocolate confection, of course.

9. The Lazy Paleo Enthusiast's Cookbook - Sean Robertson.  I'm fond of cookbooks with "lazy" in the title because that means the recipes will be short and punchy.  Some of Robertson's concoctions look pretty tasty, although he seems to have a mania for mayonnaise that my heart just can't follow.  He swears a lot too, which pleases me, and it never gets in the way of his instructions.  On the minus side, he declared in the introduction that he was going to tell the reader a few things about himself, but someone must have hit him on the head with a frozen piece of meat and taken over his computer, because his direct style suddenly went all blathery for about 25 pages until he woke up, wrested the computer back and started serving up the recipes.    Everything was paleOK after that; his prose was as well-greased as his no-bun bacon cheeseburger.

10. Burr - Gore Vidal.  I enjoy American history, and I was engrossed in Burr's take on the Founding Fathers, but there was a little too much detail that rendered Vidal's prose a trifle dry and dusty at times.  (Sarah Vowell would probably have been all over those parts.)  The characterizations were brilliant and sharp as diamonds and I laughed myself silly over his bitchy and witty asides.  Curiously, as Aaron Burr's presence in the book recedes towards the end and the focus is on his young protegee (and the main narrator of Burr) Charles Schuyler, the story resumes the brisk pace of its beginning.  I'm looking forward to reading more of Gore Vidal's work, particularly Lincoln.

11. Circles In A Forest - Dalene Matthee.  Move over, Mr. Darcy.  Saul Barnard is even more crushworthy than yourself.  I attempted to convey my love for him and this novel here.

12. A Long Way From Chicago - Richard Peck.  During the 1930s, Joey and his sister, Mary Alice visit their grandmother who lives on a farm somewhere between Chicago (their hometown) and St. Louis.  The visits only last a week, but during their short stay, Grandma Dowdel always seems to be part of some colorful action involving the townspeople.  Although I'm not there yet, I'm looking for grandmother figures in literature that I can model myself on, and Grandma's the beatinest granny I ever did see.  She's always three steps ahead of everyone else.  I imagine her as a grown-up Addie Pray.

13. Paula Spencer - Roddy Doyle.  After the harrowing experience of reading The Woman Who Walked into Doors, it was great to catch up with Paula a decade later.  She has put her life in order and is now in the process of quitting the bottle.  What I love best about Roddy Doyle's writing is the way he expresses how people constantly revise their thoughts from one minute to the next.  Can't resist the Irish lilt either; his characters sound like they're singing even when they're slagging each other.

14. Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Salman Rushdie.  Haroun's father, Rashid, is a legendary storyteller who one day loses his ability to tell stories.  Haroun holds himself responsible, and wants to be the one to restore his father's gift.  The two end up on an adventure in the land where the Sea of Stories exists, and evil forces are out to poison the source.  Rushdie's imagination is fantastic and his vocabulary, as always is lush and playful.  Because of the richness of its tapestry, I found it a little hard going at first until I adjusted, but it was worth it.

15. Post Office - Charles Bukowski.  I first became aware of Bukowski because of Mickey Rourke, my crush for several years in the 1980s.  When Barfly came out, I was there merely for Mickey.  A few years later, Bukowski himself caught my interest through a handful of poems I'd read and a documentary about him that I watched on YouTube.  I've tried to study out why I find him appealing.  Irreverence and earthiness, I suppose.  Anyway, when I saw that Brenna had read and liked Post Office, suddenly nothing else would do but that I had to read Bukowski right then and there.  Anyway again, I loved the way Henry Chinaski rails against the system, challenging, bending and breaking their rules repeatedly and they will not fire him, no matter how outrageously he acts. There's an extra layer to my amusement -- both of my maternal grandparents worked for the US Postal Service for 30 years and they considered it sacrosanct.  They would be horrified at Hank and horrified at me for laughing so hard.  Next up:  Ham on Rye.

Readathon: Final Update

That's a wrap for this Readathon, and I'm both glad and sorry.  It feels like I didn't get my stuff together until the waning hours.

Hoped to get in a 4th book, but was happy with what I read, especially my last book, Chocolat.  Thanks to Teri for recommending it to me, and to Becka, who insisted I borrow it from her last year.

Time for the traditional end-of-Readathon reflection:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?  The whole thing seemed daunting, right from the beginning.  Never underestimate the power of a pre-Readathon nap, even just 1-2 hours, especially if you have an awkward start time, like we do here in Asia.

2. For the next Readathon, could you list a few high-interest books that would keep a reader engaged?  That's easy:  Read Chocolat.  Read Chocolat.  Read Chocolat.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Readathon for next year?  For as big and unwieldy as this event has gotten, it's been managed superbly.

4. What do you think worked really well in the Readathon this year?  I liked the dance songs and the jokes from the hosts.

5. How many books did you read?  3, for a total of 777 pages.

6. What were the names of the books you read? 
Dead End In Norvelt - Jack Gantos
 Sounder - William H. Armstrong
 Chocolat - Joanne Harris.

7. Which book did you like the most?  Chocolat!

8. Which book did you like the least?  Dead End In Norvelt.  I was surprised that I didn't like it more.  I've been saving it up like candy (chocolate, for example) for this occasion.

9. Do you have any advice for next year's Cheerleaders?  None.  I didn't realize how much I relied on your comments.

10.  Do you think you'll participate next time?  In what role?  This time, I was just a reader.  Usually I split my time between reading and cheering.  If I participate again, I'll go back to the dual roles.

September 2012 Reading Recap: There Once Was A Girl Who Liked To Read

....and that girl was me, but I only managed 7 this month.  It's hard to concentrate on reading.  The weather is gorgeous and the St. Louis Cardinals have a chance to be in the wild card spot for the playoffs.  There's also my online Scrabble rating to attend to.  Then there's work, of course, which entails thinking up new and exciting ways to serve up yummy grammar and vocabulary.  2012 is winding down, though.  Can I make my goal of 113 this year?

So glad the Readathon is coming up in a couple of weeks.  I've got a stack of children's literature I'm dying to lace into, including the latest Newbery, Dead End In Norvelt by Jack Gantos.

I'm also trying to use reading as diet motivation.  I have a copy of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn on my Kindle, but I'm not allowed to read it until I get below A Certain Evil Number.  Nearly there, I'm happy to report.  There have been back-and-forth skirmishes on the digital scale.  Advance, retreat, advance, retreat and whoops, here comes the English pound cake I got for Korean Thanksgiving.  But wait!  There's 12 flights of steps up to my apartment.  And so it goes.

Anyway, here's what I read last month:

1. The Lay of the Land - Richard Ford. This is the third book in the Frank Bascombe trilogy.  I'm reading them all out of order.  I read Independence Day, the middle one, first because it's a Pulitzer fiction winner.  Then, I was so blown away by Ford's offering this year, Canada, that I had to have more.  Now I'll have to read The Sportswriter to appease my Inner OCD Bookworm.  Surprisingly, this is just as much a love song to New Jersey as it is Frank Bascombe trying to make sense of his life at the age of 55 (during Thanksgiving Week in 2000, while the United States waits for the results of the botched presidential election) as he enters what he calls The Permanent Period, which is, if you die now, the way you are now is the way you'll be remembered.  I prefer Ford's starker pieces like Wildlife, Rock Springs and the abovementioned Canada, but I found myself warming to the garrulous Mr. Bascombe and wishing him well.

2. Not The Israel My Parents Promised Me - Harvey Pekar.  Harvey Pekar's parents were Zionists to their very core and rejoiced when the Jews seemed to find a homeland in 1948.  Over the years, as Israel engaged in conflict with neighboring Palestine, Harvey's illusions were stripped away.  He struggled to make sense of it all by tracing it all back through history and sacred texts.  In this portion of the book especially, the artwork by J.T. Waldman is excellent.  I miss Harvey Pekar.  He never stopped growing as an author or pushing the boundaries of what could be explored through the graphic novel form.

3. Xxxx  Xxxxxxx - Xxxxxx Xxxxxx.  This is an unpublished novel.  I'm looking forward to the day it is published and I can go back and fill in the name and author.  It's a lot of fun, and the author did something totally unexpected at the end that gave this action thriller an added layer of depth.

4. Escape From Camp 14 - Blaine Harden.  I wrote about getting to meet human rights activist Shin Dong-Hyuk in a previous post.  I was so honored.

5. 50 Great Essays - Robert DiYanni, editor.  Sometimes, nothing but an essay will hit the sweet spot for a reader.  A book full of them is even better.  I started this one because I was in search of some Joan Didion.  This volume included her 1967 piece, "Marrying Absurd" about the wedding industry in Las Vegas.  Other standouts include: "Graduation" by Maya Angelou; "Burl's" by Bernard Cooper; "Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass; "About Men" by Gretel Erlich; "In The Kitchen" by Henry Louis Gates, Jr; "On The Pleasure of Hating" by William Hazlitt; "Under The Influence" by Scott Russell Sanders, "Coming Home Again" by Chang-Rae Lee; and "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell.  There are a dozen more I didn't list and also loved.  This book is nourishment for the brain and the soul.

6. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie.  A wild ride of history and magical realism.  I have no words.  This was my introduction to Rushdie's fiction.  Brilliant and inexorable.

7. Joseph Anton: A Memoir - Salman Rushdie.  The title of the book comes from the alias Rushdie had to choose after Ayatollah Khomeni declared his fatwa against Salman Rushie on Valentine's Day of 1989 because of his novel The Satanic Verses.  This book contains everything -- the personal and the political, large and small.  It contains the world and small spaces where Rushdie had to quickly go and hide.  There are the people who rushed in to help and those who hindered.  Joseph Anton is over 600 pages, but a relatively fast read.  It's a magnificent memoir and makes me newly and fiercely proud to be a literate person who loves literature with all my heart.

April: I Get My Back Into My Reading

What a great reading month!  13 books!  Almost 14, but those last few chapters of East of Eden spilled over into the wee hours of May 1.

I'd like to thank the Readathon and Korean transportation and the couch in my living room.  After a couple of months, it finally sunk in that *yes*, I had a couch again for the first time since 2004.  Since then, we've been almost inseparable and I've been able to move mountains...of books. I would be remiss in not thanking both work for its late-morning and early-afternoon starts and the beautiful weather that has allowed me time to dawdle and read at the campus coffee-and-waffle stand.

I also came up with a new name for this blog:  Blue-Hearted Bookworm.  It's a reference to my tattoo and a nod to Hemingway's story "Big Two-Hearted River" and kind of a twitchy half-nod at "The Gold-Hatted Lover" which is part of the poem at the beginning of The Great Gatsby.  It also sounds like an alt-country song title, which is not a bad thing at all.

Yeah, April was productive.  Maybe I will make it to 113 books this year.  The list is below.  I have things to say about these books.  I can't get those things out right now, but I will soon.

1. American Splendor:  Our Movie Year - Harvey Pekar.
2. 11/22/63 - Stephen King.
3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky.
4. Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark - Brian Kellow.
5. In This House of Brede - Rumer Godden.
6. The Higher Power of Lucky - Susan Patron.
7. Shadow of a Bull - Maia Wojciechowska.
8. It's Like This, Cat - Emily Cheney Neville.
9. Shane - Jack Schaeffer.
10. The Winter of Our Discontent - John Steinbeck.
11. The Fran Lebowitz Reader - Fran Lebowitz.
12. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything - Christopher Hitchens.
13. Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters - John Steinbeck.

August 2011 Reading Recap

Thirteen books for August.  Five were picture books, but hey -- it was summer.

1. The Boxcar Children - Gertrude Chandler Warner.  My disappointed and lukewarm response to the Aldens can be found here.

2. Moral Disorder - Margaret Atwood.  I had this one saved up for a couple of years, and I'm so glad I took it with me to the States (its size was a factor)  and finally read it.

3. Sh*t My Dad Says - Justin Halpern.  Halpern's dad reminded me a lot of Florence King's mother (to compare, see King's memoir Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady -- both had a facility with bad language with a generous helping of creativity.  Halpern's book is a little uneven, and his attempt to show his dad's softer side at the ending comes across as a bit contrived. But he got me back again when he mentioned that his dad honestly didn't consider his years of online writing to be real publishing.  That sounds familiar.

4. American Bee - James Maguire.  Buzz, buzz.  Heart. I spilled my word-nerdy love here.

5. Maria's Wedding - Nunzio De Filippis, Christina Weir and Jose Garibaldi.  The graphic novel I paid 2 cents for!  The storyline strained then fell flat from having to introduce and support so many characters in such a short tale, but Garibaldi's illustrations won me over.

6. Nashville Chrome - Rick Bass.  Fictionalized biography of The Browns, a family singing group (two sisters and a brother -- Maxine, Jim Ed and Bonnie) who achieved crossover success in the 1950s.  The book is mostly about Maxine Brown, her hunger for fame and her inability to accept it when their popularity had passed. Some of the passages in the book seemed a little repetitive, but while some readers were irritated at author Bass for this, I interpreted it as a representation of the way Maxine's thoughts kept rolling over the same tired old road in her mind. Favorite parts included their early life in a rural Arkansas logging camp, Jim Ed's forays into nature, where the writing takes on an almost meditative quality, the lovely portrayal of musician/performer Chet Atkins, who listens so intelligently and intently that he can hear the spaces between the notes and Jefferson Eads, the odd, intense boy who appears on Maxine's doorstep as the answer to her prayers for newfound celebrity.

7. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain.  My only regret is that I didn't read this during July when I went to Hannibal, Missouri.

8. I Have To Go! - Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko.  My evening of Robert Munsch is here
 
9. Thomas' Snowsuit - Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko.

10. Show and Tell - Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko.

11. Andrew's Loose Tooth - Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko.

12. Get Out of Bed! - Robert Munsch and Alan & Lea Daniel.

13. Becoming Jane Eyre - Sheila Kohler.  I wasn't expecting to like this novel about the Brontes and how Charlotte came to create her most famous work, (headless cover, that derivative title) but I was captivated by Kohler's writing and I felt so nicely steeped in All Things Bronte.  It made me feel sincere about getting back to Villette and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

The Whole Enchilada: Book and Reading Stats for 2010

Total number of books: 106

Pages read: 27,745

Average # of pages per book: 262

Library books: 17 (a little short of my goal of 50)

Fiction: 69

Nonfiction: 35

Poetry: 2

Audiobooks: 1

Graphic Novels: 5

Book/Movie Experiences: 11

Shortest Book: Nurse Nancy - 24 pages

Longest Book: Virginia Woolf: A Biography - 893 pages

Newest Book: Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things (2010)

Oldest Book: The Rule of St. Benedict (530)

Hit Me Again (books I reread): 7

Chunky Monkeys (books with more than 500 pages) : 7

Skinny Minnies (books with fewer than 100 pages) : 11

Funniest Book: Holidays on Ice

Saddest Book: Wild Swans

.

New Miserable Experience (books I finished but didn't really care for) :

Wicked - Gregory Maguire

The Foreign Student - Susan Choi

Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson

Dream Story - Arthur Schnitzler

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye (The DNF Files)

Fire and Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834 - Nancy Lusignan Schultz

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - Edgar Allan Poe

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

Author Nationality:

Austria 1

Australia 1

Canada 5

China 1

England 13

Germany 1

Hungary 1

India 1

Iran 1

Ireland 1

Italy 1

Japan 1

Korea 2

New Zealand 1

Nigeria 1

Scotland 1

USA 72

Male authors: 64

Female authors: 34

Co-authors: 8

Books written before 1800: 2

Books written 1800-1899: 5

Books written 1900-1950: 15

Books written 1951-1999: 48

Books written 2000-2010: 36

Pulitzer prizewinners: 4

Happy discoveries: Flashman!

2010 Challenges completed:

The 1930s Challenge

All Things Alcott Challenge

100+ Books Challenge

Happy Book Year -- Time for some reading resolutions!