Year of Books: Weeks 36-50
Dec. 20th, 2006 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taerowynSo it's getting perilously close to the end and I don't think I'm going to make the full "book-a-week-for-a-year" since it's already week 51 and I'm only on book 46. Maybe I'll consider it a work year...I get 4 weeks vacation; that means only 48 weeks and only 48 books. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Really, either way I'm quite happy with how I did. I'm going to try it again next year and only slightly modify the second half of the resolution, instead of not being allowed to buy any books (and I"m as shocked as you are that I stuck to this), I'm allowed to buy one book a month. I still have too many unread books on my shelves to allow myself to go back to my old book-buying habits.
Week 36
33. Colour of Magic by Terry Prathett: I keep saying that one day I'm going to sit down and read through all the Discworld books in a row...I never manage it. Love them to death, but something new and shiny comes along to distract me
Week 37
34. Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett: These two are so linked that you really can't read just one. Total cliffhanger ending at the end of Colour of Magic. I think part of my inability to just read through them all consecutively is that I start to OD on the fiction and need a dose of nonfiction
Week 38
35. Soul of the Night by Chet Raymo: Really do love his stuff. The literary style of writing about science is just so engaging. This one's a great exploration of all things astronomical. Just as pleasurable as all his other work.
Week 39
36. Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War by Deborah Copaken Kogan: A great autobiography by a female photojournalist who I think I'd get along great with, but who, in any number of ways, is my exact opposite. My boss loved the book, but was totally disappointed in the end. I can't figure out how you can be disappointed by the life that somebody you don't even know chooses...I was quite satisfied with the whole thing. There's a few really great passages that work just as well as a photograph to put you right in that moment in history.
Week 40
37. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman: Here's the start of a long stretch of teen fantasy. Visiting Roommate was appalled that I'd never read Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series. She's been puching it for over a year. She was right.
38. The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman: These are just real page-turners. He's not the best writer stylistically speaking, but he weaves some amazing worlds with rich, believable characters.
Week 41 My birthday week! Too busy for reading....or something.
Week 42
39. The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman: Brief reading break for birthday festivities, but then quickly back to finish the third installment of the trilogy. I can't recommend these enough...they're so good!
Week 43
40. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer: Still more teen fantasy...a birthday present from last year that I had to reread to refresh myself for the birthday present from this year:
41. New Moon by Stephanie Meyer: This books are pure fluff, but so entertaining. Just the right mix of drama, fantasy, and fluff (with a touch of angst thrown in). I'm embarrassed to admit that they're vampire books (this from a girl who avoided Anne Rice like the plague). There's one section in this one where Meyer uses the simplest of literary concepts so beautiful that it took my breath away. Like I said, total fluff, but sooooooooo good.
Week 44![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
schwa242 and mezdeathhead were a-visiting.
Week 45mezdeathhead reminded me how much I like sudoko, so my reading time was eaten up by arranging numbers in all sorts of variations of a grid.
Week 46
42. Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life by Steven Johnson: A bit more reader-friendly than Figments (week 24) and interesting in a different way. This one is almost like a user's guide for your brain. Lots of fun.
Week 47
Week 48
43. The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs: Autobiography of a writer who decides to read all of the Encylopedia Britannica. I know I've overused the word, but this book really is fun. Jacobs has a great sense of humor and does a great job of weaving the facts he's learning into the things that happening in his life as he embarks on his "humble quest."
Week 49
44. Naked by David Sedaris: Like all Sedaris books...a great romp. Makes me glad I'm not part of his family, but also makes me wish they'd been our neighbors growing up :oP
Week 50
45. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde: I liked his first, Eyre Affair better (possibly cause Jane Eyre is my favorite book), but this was still good...though the non-resolution is irksome. Hate when authors FORCE you to read the next one, I'd rather they just entice you. He does do a great job of developing a rich, complicated world with a minimum of exposition. Besides, it's fun to think of having the power to jump into your favorite books.
So that's it...we'll see how many books I can get read in the next two weeks. And hey, with that blizzard going on out West there's some good odds I'll be spending loads of time in the airport on Friday so maybe I can get a book or two done there (she says while frantically looking for a silver lining. As I toldschwa242, White Christmas is fine... "taerowyn stuck in Dallas cause $&#@ing DIA is snowed in" Christmas is not.)
Really, either way I'm quite happy with how I did. I'm going to try it again next year and only slightly modify the second half of the resolution, instead of not being allowed to buy any books (and I"m as shocked as you are that I stuck to this), I'm allowed to buy one book a month. I still have too many unread books on my shelves to allow myself to go back to my old book-buying habits.
Week 36
33. Colour of Magic by Terry Prathett: I keep saying that one day I'm going to sit down and read through all the Discworld books in a row...I never manage it. Love them to death, but something new and shiny comes along to distract me
Week 37
34. Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett: These two are so linked that you really can't read just one. Total cliffhanger ending at the end of Colour of Magic. I think part of my inability to just read through them all consecutively is that I start to OD on the fiction and need a dose of nonfiction
Week 38
35. Soul of the Night by Chet Raymo: Really do love his stuff. The literary style of writing about science is just so engaging. This one's a great exploration of all things astronomical. Just as pleasurable as all his other work.
Week 39
36. Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War by Deborah Copaken Kogan: A great autobiography by a female photojournalist who I think I'd get along great with, but who, in any number of ways, is my exact opposite. My boss loved the book, but was totally disappointed in the end. I can't figure out how you can be disappointed by the life that somebody you don't even know chooses...I was quite satisfied with the whole thing. There's a few really great passages that work just as well as a photograph to put you right in that moment in history.
Week 40
37. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman: Here's the start of a long stretch of teen fantasy. Visiting Roommate was appalled that I'd never read Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series. She's been puching it for over a year. She was right.
38. The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman: These are just real page-turners. He's not the best writer stylistically speaking, but he weaves some amazing worlds with rich, believable characters.
Week 41 My birthday week! Too busy for reading....or something.
Week 42
39. The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman: Brief reading break for birthday festivities, but then quickly back to finish the third installment of the trilogy. I can't recommend these enough...they're so good!
Week 43
40. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer: Still more teen fantasy...a birthday present from last year that I had to reread to refresh myself for the birthday present from this year:
41. New Moon by Stephanie Meyer: This books are pure fluff, but so entertaining. Just the right mix of drama, fantasy, and fluff (with a touch of angst thrown in). I'm embarrassed to admit that they're vampire books (this from a girl who avoided Anne Rice like the plague). There's one section in this one where Meyer uses the simplest of literary concepts so beautiful that it took my breath away. Like I said, total fluff, but sooooooooo good.
Week 44
schwa242 and mezdeathhead were a-visiting.Week 45
mezdeathhead reminded me how much I like sudoko, so my reading time was eaten up by arranging numbers in all sorts of variations of a grid.Week 46
42. Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life by Steven Johnson: A bit more reader-friendly than Figments (week 24) and interesting in a different way. This one is almost like a user's guide for your brain. Lots of fun.
Week 47
Week 48
43. The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs: Autobiography of a writer who decides to read all of the Encylopedia Britannica. I know I've overused the word, but this book really is fun. Jacobs has a great sense of humor and does a great job of weaving the facts he's learning into the things that happening in his life as he embarks on his "humble quest."
Week 49
44. Naked by David Sedaris: Like all Sedaris books...a great romp. Makes me glad I'm not part of his family, but also makes me wish they'd been our neighbors growing up :oP
Week 50
45. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde: I liked his first, Eyre Affair better (possibly cause Jane Eyre is my favorite book), but this was still good...though the non-resolution is irksome. Hate when authors FORCE you to read the next one, I'd rather they just entice you. He does do a great job of developing a rich, complicated world with a minimum of exposition. Besides, it's fun to think of having the power to jump into your favorite books.
So that's it...we'll see how many books I can get read in the next two weeks. And hey, with that blizzard going on out West there's some good odds I'll be spending loads of time in the airport on Friday so maybe I can get a book or two done there (she says while frantically looking for a silver lining. As I told
schwa242, White Christmas is fine... "taerowyn stuck in Dallas cause $&#@ing DIA is snowed in" Christmas is not.)![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-21 05:16 am (UTC)But flying out on a Friday is probably still going to be ok for you, so I hope I didn't just send you into a panic or nuttin'
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-21 11:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-21 04:07 pm (UTC)But otherwise that situation with the snow out there totally sucks!! All my hopes for safe and effective travel for ya!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-21 05:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-21 05:27 pm (UTC)