{Picture above is of unread books on my left sidetable. A veritable feast, thanks mainly to # 1 Daughter}
Books read in 2009.
I would have said 75 maybe 70.
My goal was to read 100 books in 2009, but I actually fell far short of that by reading 51.
Here they are from my sidebar:
Singing Lessons - Judy Collins
Through Black Spruce - Joseph Boyden
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen *
Payback - Margaret Attwood
Forty Words for Sorrow - Giles Blunt *
October - Richard B. Wright *
Marley & Me - John Grogan *
Mama Makes Up Her Mind - Bailey White
The Camera My Mother Gave Me - Susanna Kaysen
84 Charing Cross Road (for the umpteenth time!) - Helene Hanff *
The Domino Principle - Adam Kennedy
Faith - Jodi Picoult
The Road - Cormac McCarthy *
The Feast of Love - Charles Baxter *
Somewhere Towards the End - Diana Athill *
Fair & Tender Ladies - Lee Smith *
Deadly Appearances - Gail Bowen
The Amateur Marriage - Anne Tyler *
A Colder Kind of Death - Gail Bowen
A Delicate Storm - Giles Blunt
The Secret Scriptures - Sebastian Barry *
Surface Tension - Patrick Ocampo
Belong to me - Marisa de los Santos *
The Outport People - Claire Mowat *
The Custodian of Paradise - Wayne Johnston *
The Soloist - Steve Lopez *
R.E.A.L. From the Edge of the Rock - Rita Mary Stamp
In the Middle of Life - Richard B. Wright *
Fruit - Brian Francis *
The Chameleon's Shadow - Minette Walters
Helpless - Barbara Gowdy *
The Last Coyote - Michael Connolly
Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn *
Me & Emma - Elizabeth Flock
Displaced Persons - Margie Taylor *
The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connolly
92 Stories - James Thurber
Weekend Man - Richard B. Wright *
A Great Deliverance - Elizabeth George
Kill The Messenger - Tami Hoag
Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon *
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn *
Too Much Happiness - Alice Munro *
T is for Trespass - Sue Grafton
Love & Summer - William Trevor *
From the Ashes of my Dreams - Ed Smith
Come Thou Tortoise - Jessica Grant *
Cloud of Bones - Bernice Morgan
Children of Eve - Deirdre Purcell
The Bishop's Man - Linden McIntyre *
Brooklyn - Colm Toibin
The best are asterisked.
One a week, eh? Not bad.
However, in my old age, I’ve discovered a new skill. I have this sturdy leather book holder I use for recipe books. Now I use it for propping the book I’m currently reading and knit as I read in front of the fire.
Highly recommended - for those who invariably multi-task.
Maybe I’ll crack 60 books this year. Along with 51 pairs of assorted cashmere, silk and cotton hand knit socks completed?
Oops, oh, and did I mention my Lexulous addiction?
I am very impressed :-) I've not the foggiest how many I've read this year!
ReplyDeleteI read 84 CCR for the first time this year - I'd never even heard of it before a friend leant it to me, and I devoured it in a day and a half - absolutely amazing book! I've now got to find a copy of my own...
Is Lexulous what Scrabbulous became after the lawsuit? (The Scrabble App on Facebook says that it can't be used in the US or Canada...)
I'd love to play with you if you would like (I'm Jo Foster Toon on Facebook) - I know from earlier posts that you are wary of friending random people, so I won't be offended if you say no!
My knitting plans so far for the year are to finish the shawl that I started back in the summer (it's now nearly 400 stitches along in ladder yarn, and takes 45 mins to do each side, so I don't actually pick it up that often any more :-( ), restart a beret in wool that doesn't snap every ten stitches (mutter mutter sale wool...) and make the neck warmer that I got for a Christmas present... And then (and only then!) go exploring our local wool shop...
Better than me, I read very slowly in fits and starts. I managed 42 last year, which was a lot more than 2008. But out of those 42, I would say the number of first-raters was only in single figures. Jenny's got much bigger piles of unread books than you, but then she has academic ones as well.
ReplyDeleteJo:
ReplyDeletePlse tell me what 84CCR is, I checked on Amazon...
I would abandon the beret, not worth the trouble with faulty wool. Plse post pics of finished products....
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Nick:
ReplyDeleteThat front pile hid my back pile which is equally high, does Jenny still beat me? Ha-Ha.
You did very well for a slow reader, my good lad. I would consider myself a medium reader so I should have done much better.
I get far too hooked on The New Yorker and other good magazines.
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I love your ambition. Keep reading! Over my 11 day vacation I read a few books. I was proud of myself. One was 400 pages long and I did it in TWO days.
ReplyDeleteThat looks very similar to my side table, must post a pic. Well done you, reading all those books WWW. clever lady.
ReplyDeleteI need some more wise film recommendations as my list has run out. Your suggestions were excellent last time. Any more?
I recently joined the library after many years absence.
ReplyDeleteLately I read and enjoy about three books a week. This rate will probably increase now that I read while walking on our treadmill.
Impressive list of books.
Rhea:
ReplyDeleteAny recommendations? the 400-er in 2 days was a remarkable feat!!
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Love the photo! I have shelves where I put only the "haven't read yet" books and other shelves for the "reading now" books, and I'm usually reading 2 or 3 at a time. Like you, I also read (parts of) The New Yorker, and I continuously read Pema Chodron's Comfortable with Uncertainty, one of two pieces a day. I feel like I'm reading constantly, but when I add up the number of books, it seems like so few: 25.
ReplyDeleteI'm keeping your list so I can try some of those you *-ed. Thanks!
Hull:
ReplyDeleteHere is the list of movies I saw in 2009, some were repeats, i.e. seen before, those I would recommend are asterisked:
1. The Architect (2006) 19 December 2009 *
2. Gran Torino (2008) 19 December 2009
3. The Soloist (2009) 19 December 2009
4. Emotional Arithmetic (2007) 18 December 2009
5. The Boynton Beach Bereavement Club (2005) 18 December 2009
6. The Reader (2008) 18 December 2009 *
7. Scarlet Street (1945) 6 December 2009 *
8. "Mad Men" (2007) 1 November 2009 *
9. Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) 25 October 2009 *
10. "The Wire" (2002) 25 October 2009 *
11. The Bigamist (1953) 13 September 2009 *
12. The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) 12 September 2009 *
13. Age of Consent (1969) 6 September 2009
14. Interview (2007/I) 19 July 2009
15. Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (2007) 19 July 2009 *
16. Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) 6 July 2009
17. The Boat That Rocked (2009) 10 June 2009
18. In the Gloaming (1997) (TV) 12 March 2009 *
19. The Stone Angel (2007) 12 March 2009
20. The Hanging Garden (1997) 12 March 2009 *
21. Harry and Tonto (1974) 11 March 2009 *
22. Diverted (2009) (TV) 10 March 2009
23. Doubt (2008/I) 26 February 2009
24. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) 7 February 2009
25. North Country (2005) 30 January 2009
26. Milk (2008/I) 30 January 2009 *
27. Witness for the Prosecution (1957) 29 January 2009 *
28. Last Chance Harvey (2008) 29 January 2009
29. The Brave One (2007) 7 January 2009
30. About Adam (2000) 4 January 2009 *
31. The Visitor (2007/I) 4 January 2009 *
32. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) 4 January 2009
33. Secret Agent (1936) 4 January 2009
34. Number Seventeen (1932) 4 January 2009
35. Rich and Strange (1931) 4 January 2009
36. Baby Mama (2008) 4 January 2009
37. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) 4 January 2009
XO
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GFB:
ReplyDeleteI hope you write about them on your blog and make recommendations. Great idea for treadmill-book read multi-task!!
XO
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Verna:
ReplyDeleteI also do so meditative reading every morning. AND have art books, etc. in bathroom. Like you I feel like I'm reading constantly. Note to self: take better care of eyes.
I would be interested in your recommendations too!
XO
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Good heavens, woman, where do you find the time? My reading habits are terrible. I read snippets of books, spend time dipping into things like a book on bird behavior or tree identification. Or one on keeping chickens. Then I re-read books I have read many times before. I am addicted to Trollope.
ReplyDeleteI resolve to be a better woman in 2010. I will read books from front to back, and I will read stuff I haven't read before.
Sorry - 84 Charing Cross Road (I shortened it out of laziness!!)
ReplyDeleteI'm going to abandon the beret with this wool but not the pattern - I really do want to make it at some point. I am going to see if a different band is better, and leave this wool for our eventual cat (when we are allowed to get one...) to play with!
20CW:
ReplyDeleteI honestly think making the decision not to have a TV for the last 16 years has helped enormously.
Living alone helps of course too, and I tote a book everywhere.
I get so immersed in reading and derive enormous pleasure from it.
I don't waste my time (too much) on books I'm struggling with.
Good resolution you made!!
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Jo:
ReplyDeleteI should have picked up on that, well duh to me, I'm not overly bright today!
Be sure to read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society if you enjoyed 84CCR. You will adore it.
As to the berets, I knit a whack of them last year and they got faster after the first. I was pleased to see Daughter was wearing hers with matching slip scarf when she was out here recently. Lemon yellow with black and white stripes.
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Extremely impressed! I shamefully read no more than three books last year...maybe that has to do with my scrabble addiction!! Ps I LOVE your blog name :0)
ReplyDeleteHeavens above, WWW ! That's amazing- as well as reading them, you've kept a record of what you read....and movies you've seen!
ReplyDeleteI'm bad on all counts. I can recall only 4 books I read in full last year. I saw a lot of movies but couldn't list them if someone put a gun to my head.
I'm starting 2010 well though - a third of the way through my first book of the year.
I'm a picky reader - if the writing and storyline doesn't grab me quickly I abandon the book at once, after peeking at the last pages (of course). There are and have been very few authors who satisfy me - therefore I don't read much or often, apart from on-line. :-)
WWW, currently I am reading a very disturbing yet an important book called: "The Franklin Scandal: A
ReplyDeleteStory of Powerbrokers and Child Abuse & Betrayal"
Product Description:
A chilling exposé of corporate corruption and government cover-ups, this account of a nationwide child-trafficking and pedophilia ring in the United States tells a sordid tale of corruption in high places. The scandal originally surfaced during an investigation into Omaha, Nebraska's failed Franklin Federal Credit Union and took the author beyond the Midwest and ultimately to Washington, DC. Implicating businessmen, senators, major media corporations, the CIA, and even the venerable Boys Town organization, this extensively researched report includes firsthand interviews with key witnesses and explores a controversy that has received scant media attention.
ED:
ReplyDeleteWelcome and yes I have a massive Lexulous addiction but limit my games.
XO
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T:
ReplyDeleteWell I keep my movies on IMDB so it was easy to screen capture my 2009 list and as to books, I keep them on my sidebar as I was curious. I really had thought I'd read more.
And like you, I don't waste my time (or not too much) on books that fail to capture me.
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Nevin:
ReplyDeleteMy new year's resolution was to remove myself from reading and writing about the global corruption and nightmares that surround us all the time and think locally, write locally. It has helped my blood pressure considerably.
The problems are horrific and they just get more and more outrageous and appalling.
I am completely sickened and disheartened.
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we read a lot of the same books--trevor, tyler (though i read her new one, noah's compass), charles baxter...
ReplyDeletecan't believe you starred marley & me.
if you can find me on facebook, you should challege me to a lexulous game! i have six games going right now. losing most of them.
I love Tyler, must get her new one once I get caught up a bit on the back-stash.
ReplyDeleteI thought the Marley and Me movie was dreck but I so enjoyed the book, laughed and cried thing.
How many Lauries are there on FB exactly? :^)
I'll see if I can email you.
XO
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