50 Books in 2013

Made it to 40 books in 2013. Many of which were pretty lowbrow. (The Woodcutter and Sisterhood Everlasting were truly horrible. I don't know what I was thinking.) Books in bold below are recommended. Back in the saddle!

1. Under Wildwood by Colin Meloy

2. Potty Training Boys the Easy Way by Fertlman & Cave

3. The Woodcutter by Kate Danley

4. The Twelve by Justin Cronin

5. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

6. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

8. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

9. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

10. Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer

11. Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares

12. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

13. Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

14. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

15. In the Woods by Tana French

16. Does this Baby Make Me Look Straight? Confessions of a Gay Dad by Dan Bucatinsky

17. The Magicians by Lev Grossman

18. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

19. Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

20. Growing Up Amish by Ira Wagler

21. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

22. Everything is Perfect When You’re a Liar by Kelly Oxford

23. Spooner by Pete Dexter

24. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

25. The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

26. The Magician King by Lev Grossman

27. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

28. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

29. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

30. Divergent by Veronica Roth

31. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

32. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

33. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

34. Shut Up About Your Perfect Kid: A Survival Guide for Ordinary Parents of Special Children by Gina Gallagher and Patricia Konjoian

35. Allegiant by Veronica Roth

36. The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

37. The Dinner by Herman Koch

38. The Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Rabble* (Left off at pg. 136. I just could't get into it.)

39. My Baby Rides the Short Bus: The Unabashedly Human Experience of Raising Kids with Disabilities. Ed by Bertelli, Silverman, and Talbot.

40. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

“I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

50 Books in 2012

50 25 Books in 2012

Otherwise known as the year of textbooks. Or the year I discovered the wonderment of Bill Bryson.

1. The Passage by Justin Cronin

2. The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

3. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

4. Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

5. Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

7. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

8. Broken Pieces: A Library Life, 1941-1978 by Michael Gorman

9. Developing Library and Information Center Collections by G. Edwards Evans

10. Fifty Shades of Gray by E L James

11. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

12. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

13. This Lovely Life: A Memoir of Premature Motherhood by Vicki Forman

14. Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

15. Wildwood by Colin Meloy

16. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Ed.

17. The Evaluation and Measurement of Library Service by Joseph R. Matthews

18. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

19. Meaningful Learning with Technology by Howland, Jonassen, and Marra

20. Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson

21. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

22. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

23. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

24. Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

25. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

"There are things you just can't do in life. You can't beat the phone company, you can't make a waiter see you until he's ready to see you, and you can't go home again."

-Bill Bryson

50 Books in 2011

Make that 29. 

2011 was the year we became parents, and my personal reading time took a decidedly juvenile turn. A little less Proust, a lot more Llama Llama Red Pajama.

1. Preemies: The Essential Guide for Parents of Premature Babies by Dana Wechsler Linden
2. Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood by Michael Lewis
3. Man Walks Into a Room by Nicole Krauss
4. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
5. Bossypants by Tina Fey
6. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
7. A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
8. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
9. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
10. A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
11. Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
12. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
13. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
14. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
15. The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday
16. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
17. M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton
18. Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
19. Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
20. Blue Boy by Rakesh Satyal
21. Obasan by Joy Kogawa
22. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
23. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
24. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
25. Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
26. A Step from Heaven by An Na
27. Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos
28. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
29. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel by Jamie Ford

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” 

-Rainer Maria Rilke

50 Books in 2010

2010: otherwise known as the year of the guilty pleasure read. Funny how grad school makes you crave the low-brow, like the Sookie Stackhouse series I became obsessed with mid-summer. Series fiction abounded, with a few notable exceptions, like McCann's "Let the Great World Spin" and Atwood's "Oryx and Crake". Most disappointing was Palahniuk's "Tell-All", which I'd looked forward to but found self-indulgent and predictable. Dare I say, I'm over you Chuck. The reverse-plot-surprise-ending-with-a-heap-of-the-vulgar-to-keep you-off-the-sent formula he uses in every book feels played out at this point. The man who got famous for taking so many risks needs to, well, take more risks. So here we are, 41 mediocre reads in 2010. (I resolve to make better selections in 2011.)

1 - Lost by Gregory Maguire
2 - Tess of D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
3 - My Antonia by Willa Cather
4. The Angel Experiment: Maximum Ride Series, Book 1 by James Patterson
5. School's Out Forever: Maximum Ride Series, Book 2 by James Patterson
6. Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports: Maximum Ride Series, Book 3 by James Patterson
7. The Final Warning: Maximum Ride Series, Book 4 by James Patterson
8. Max: Maximum Ride Series, Book 5 by James Patterson
9. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
10. Reference and Information Services by Richard E. Bopp and Linda C. Smith
11. Foundations of Library and Information Science by Richard E. Rubin
12. The Oxford Guide to Library Research by Thomas Mann
13. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
14. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
15. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
16. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
17. Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
18. Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
19. Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
20. All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
21. From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
22. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
23. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
24. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
25. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
26. The Appointment by Herta Muller
27. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
28. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
29. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
30. The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
31. The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
32. Soulless by Gail Carriger
33. Changeless by Gail Carriger
34. Blameless by Gail Carriger
35. You: Having a Baby by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz
36. Cataloging and Classification by Lois Mai Chan
37. Internet Technologies and Information Services by Joseph B. Miller
38. Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk
39. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
40. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
41. The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

"Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
-Groucho Marx

There is no one alive who is youer than you.

We made a human! Hence, I've been pondering children's books lately. As a child, my mother read to us every night until third or fourth grade. At first it was things like Golden Books and Dr. Seuss, and then we moved up to a chapter of Alice in Wonderland each night. I'm sure this is part of what fostered my own love of reading, and I want the same love for our child. I read some poetry (e. e. cummings) to my belly the other night, as they say it can hear in there now. I was born without the singing gene, so I thought I could at least give this- a rhythmic lullaby of beautiful verse. I hope he/she heard me and moved his/her tiny hands. ("nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands"...)

As I set about creating our wee thing's first library, I'm left wondering which children's books we should include in the baby's collection. Having slim-to-no contact with children in recent years, I'm not sure what people read to their kids these days. When I think children's books, I think Green Eggs and Ham (the first book I read by myself), Goodnight Moon, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs... One friend swears by How to Potty Train Your Monster and another by Click Clack Moo. There is much work ahead of us. So many books, so many gleeful trips to Borders...

Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.
-Dr. Seuss

Reading maketh a full man

Hot Guys Reading Books: It's an entire blog dedicated to nothing but pictures of real men caught in the act of reading. The simplicity is beautiful. So are the men. Enjoy.

50 Books in 2009

And by 50, I mean 41. Foiled again!

Unexpected enjoyment this year - Josh Bazell's debut novel, Beat the Reaper. I'm not usually into punch-em-ups, but Reaper's scrappy wit kept me on the edge of my seat and wanting more from Josh Bazell. I also really dug Brave New World. (You know I love me some dystopian fiction.) Expect more science fiction on the plate for this coming year. I have a hankering for space-y goodness in 2010. (2010! This is the future.)


1 - Endurance; Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
2 - The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
3 - Mozart’s Wife by Juliet Waldron
4 - A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
5 - The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
6 - The Host by Stephanie Meyer
7 - Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
8 - Me : Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn
9 - The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes by the Editors of McSweeney's
10 - March by Geraldine Brooks
11 - Crazy Cock by Henry Miller
12 - Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
13 - The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
14 - America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction by Jon Stewart
15 - Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
16 - Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
17 - Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
18 - Wifey by Judy Blume
19 - American Gods by Neil Gaiman
20 - The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin
21 - Year Zero by Jeff Long
22 - Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
23 - Emma by Jane Austen
24 - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
25 - A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
26 - The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
27 - Possession by A.S. Byatt
28 - The Last Apprentice - Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney
29 - The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
30 - Storm Front by Jim Butcher
31 - Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
32 - Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
33 - The Pluto Files by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
34 - The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
35 - Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
36 - The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike
37 - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
38 - The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
39 - Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
40 - The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke
41 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson