Obligatory "what I've been reading" report

Like most of the U.S., we had a record-breaking heat streak over the last couple of weeks, with 11 days above 95 degrees and heat indexes (indices?) over 110. It was ridiculous. I stepped outside yesterday morning to a downright cool 75 degrees with a light breeze, and I nearly wept with joy.

The good thing about it being too hot to move is that I haven't felt the least bit guilty about taking to my couch with the AC on full blast and a book on my lap. Up to this month I'd been keeping pace with my annual book goal (60 books in 2012, up from 50 in 2011, but just barely. Over the last few days, I'm finally ahead again.

I'm currently 34 books down. Here are some of my favorites from the year so far:

State of Wonder (Ann Patchett): My book club read this book by the author of Bel Canto (among other things) earlier this year, a fascinating tale of a pharmaceutical researcher who heads deep into the Amazon in search of her mentor, who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug. Amazon describes it as "a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, and a neighboring tribe of cannibals ... where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss. It is a tale that leads the reader into the very heart of darkness, and then shows us what lies on the other side." Great description, gripping book.

The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern): Man, this book is beautiful. The story of a magical circus that appears out of thin air and a duel between Celia and Marco, two young magicians who have been trained by two rival instructors. The imagery is breathtaking, and the story is enthralling. I didn't want it to end.

Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand): The true story of Louis Zamperini reads like a thriller: an Air Force bomber pilot crashes over the Pacific during World War II, survives weeks on the open water while battling sharks, a floundering raft, debilitating thirst and starvation, and enemy airplanes, only to be captured and imprisoned by the Japanese.

The Fault in Our Stars (John Green): I quite literally read this book in five hours. The author is one of the two guys who wrote the awesome Will Grayson, Will Grayson (which I read last year), and I'm now firmly on the read-everything-John-Green-has-ever-written train. Yes, it's about teenagers with cancer, but it's also funny, irreverant, and raw. This is my #1 favorite so far this year.

Other stuff I've read and enjoyed:

The first two Game of Thrones books (George R.R. Martin): They take for-ev-er to read, but they're good.

The first two novels of The Spellman Files (Lisa Lutz): Totally enjoyable fluff, perfect for the beach or for when you've just spent weeks on a massive, dark Game of Thrones tome.

Jonathan Tropper's This Is Where I Leave You: Holly is a big Tropper fan, and it's not hard to see why.


So tell me--what are you reading and loving this summer? I head to the beach soon, so I'm amassing my stock of books for the week.

UPDATE: The 50 Books Project

Hello! What's up, buttercups?  I tell ya what, it's just been a thrill a minute over here recently. For instance, at present I'm sitting on my couch, in pigtails, drinking orange juice out of a crystal goblet, and watching Friends onDemand. I mean, yes, I COULD be out seeing that Contagion movie, but--as I told my friend Angela--I am exactly the right combination of informed and paranoid for that to be a really bad idea.  And did I mention the Friends?

But anyway. Besides all the Friends-watching (there has been a lot of it), I've been working on various capital-P Projects (some wedding related, others in an attempt to rid my apartment of many ancient issues of Real Simple), making 'Countdown to "Downton Abbey"'s Season 2 Premiere in the U.S.' calendars, and searching for gold wedding-appropriate shoes online.  And spending too much time on Pinterest.

Also reading. The 50 Books Project continues apace, to the point where the adorable, rather dorky fellow at my neighborhood library doesn't even have to ask my name when I pop in to pick up the books I have on hold. It's my very own Cheers. Some people are known at their neighborhood bar. I am known at the library.

Anyway, I am ahead of pace with the reading, and I think I'm likely to exceed my goal for the year. I've been reading a lot of different types of stuff, including, randomly, a good bit of young adult fiction. There is some quality literature out there for youth, which is nice to know.  It's not all Twilight.

Anyway, I'm currently 43 books down. Here are a few of the highlights:

One Day: This book is the story of two people who meet on the evening of their graduation from college. It follows them through their lives, year by year, in the anniversary of the day they met. I loved it, except for a part about two chapters from the end, when I literally threw the book across the room. But it redeemed itself at the end. (A movie version of this came out recently starring Anne Hathaway, and while I don't really feel particularly strongly about her in general, I am MOST displeased with this casting decision.)

Will Grayson, Will Grayson (John Green/David Levithan): Hard to explain, but a great young adult novel.

Caleb's Crossing (Geraldine Brooks): Brooks, who I've mentioned before, is possibly my favorite contemporary author. This book, her most recent--it only came out in May-- is a fictionalized account of the first Native American student to graduate from Harvard in the 1600s. Brooks is a particular favorite of all of the members of my book club. We all went to hear her speak here in DC a few weeks before the book was released, and and was our pick a few months ago.

The Lacuna (Barbara Kingsolver): This was another book club pick. Most of us had read and loved The Poisonwood Bible, and no one tells  a story quite like Kingsolver, so we thought we'd give another if her novels a try. Dramatically different from Poisonwood, though no less dramatic, The Lacuna is about communism, identity, loyalty, Mexico, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. It's long, it's complex, and it's thoroughly engrossing.

The entire Hunger Games trilogy (Suzanne Collins): I was so enamored of both of the first two Hunger Games books that I forced myself to save the third one for the beach. I hate that they're over, but hey, at least a movie version is in the works!

The FitzOsbornes in Exile (Michelle Cooper): Early this year, I read A Brief History of Montmaray, the first book in the trilogy, and i've eagerly awaited the release of the second one. It has also contributed to my current obsession with early 20th-century England, though I mostly blame that on "Downton Abbey."

I Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith): This book is pretty old, compared to most of what I've been reading. I think it came out in the 1940s.  Loved it for much of the same reason I loved FitzOsbornes in Exile. It's similar in theme, too.

So what have you all been reading? Any recommendations?

The 50 Books Project

My old high school friend Brian is in town, and last night he came over for chili and Spirited Conversation, which is our specialty. We spent high school firmly entrenched on the opposite ends of the political and theological spectrums and would argue for hours over everything from the 2000 presidential candidates to whether the sky is blue. He is one of my most loyal and awesome friends, and we can talk for hours.  Last night we covered:

• Hockey (If you had to pick, who would you draft, Ovechkin or Crosby?)
• The Harry Potter books (Which is the best and why?)
• Public scandal by famous figures (specifically Ben Roethlisberger, Michael Vick, and the Dixie Chicks)
• The relevance of the British royal family (contemporary vs historical)
• Gustavo Dudamel (What? I can work him in anywhere.)
• Marriage, and regional attitudes toward it
• Oscar-nominated films (Which is more deserving of Best Picture, The King's Speech or The Social Network? Neither of us have seen Black Swan.)
• Books

Which brings me to the point of this post. I'm not much for new year's resolutions, as I generally abandon them two weeks into the year, but this year I set a goal for myself.  After a relatively lazy year of reading in 2010, I've commenced what I've dubbed The 50 Books Project. In 2011, I resolve to read at least 50 books--nearly one a week.  I feel that it's a realistic goal, notwithstanding the fact that one of the books on my to-read pile is--still--the 1,488-page A Suitable Boy. That alone will take me a month at the least.  So I've got work to do.

I'm keeping track of my reading through the very addictive Goodreads, with which I am obsessed, and so far I've read six books this year:

Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel)
Safe Passage (I. Cook)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (R. Skloot) -- Fascinating, thought-provoking study on medical ethics and race relations.
Eighteen Acres (N. Wallace)
One Day (D. Nicholls) -- Loved, until three chapters from the end, when I nearly threw it out the window.  But then I loved it again.
The Hunger Games (S. Collins) -- Ya'll.  This book.  I hadn't heard of the Hunger Games trilogy until the third one came out a few months ago and people were like "FINALLY! IT'S HERE!" Clearly I'd missed something.  But oh, this book. I read it in 24 hours.  So, so excellent.

So tell me, everyone, what have you read and loved recently?

Beach. Books. (Battlestar Galactica.)

Last night, I commenced my official pre-beach countdown, because as of next Sunday evening, that is where I will be for a week, along with my parents, grandparents, G, and G’s boyfriend Ryan.   It can’t come soon enough. 

For many people, a week at the beach includes activities like spending hours in the sun, perhaps some fishing, maybe the consumption of quantities of frosty beverages.  Mom, Grandma, and G usually have some sort of project going on—painting or necklace-making or knitting or what-have-you.  My dad and my grandfather nap a lot.  As Dad says, “The biggest decision I have to make today is whether I should read now and nap later, or nap now and read later.”  Many books are read.  Many games of Michigan rummy are played.  Many of Dad's made-to-order milkshakes are consumed.

I, however, take the reading thing to a whole other level.  The whole point of the beach is to see how many books I can devour in a week, and a highlight of my summer is the careful cultivation of my beach-reading pile, stocked through leisurely ambles through the stacks at the library and the perusal of summer reading lists compiled by everyone from the New York Times to NPR to Entertainment Weekly to Glamour.  Unless Harry Potter is involved (or, God help me, A Suitable Boy), I tend to average one book a day. 

As such, I’ve been assembling on my beach-reading pile for the last two weeks, requesting books from the library; monitoring waiting lists in the hopes that the 17 other people in D.C. who are ahead of me on the list for The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake will, I don’t know, get tired of waiting and buy it (which I refuse to do) or for SOMEONE to return How Did You Get This Number, because I’ve been #1 on the waiting list for three weeks; perusing the catalog for audio books on cassette (because Lola is old school and doesn’t have a CD player) for the endless hours on I-81.  But that’s necessary when I spend an entire week moving from here...

… to here … 

... to here … 

...to here … 

... to here. 

Usually with this ...

or this.

It is glorious. 

Anyway, suffice to say that the countdown has begun, the book pile currently numbers 11, and I’m itching to load up Lola and hit the road.  Unless… does anybody know of a flight from D.C. to Charleston, SC that doesn’t cost $500?  Or some frequent flyer miles that they’d like to unload?  Because that would be excellent, too.

Daunted

These are next on my to-read list.  I am slightly freaked out by their sheer size, especially the top one. Neither qualifies as light reading.(Ha! Ha! See what i did there?)

Oh, and also...

I got an email from Amazon today, suggesting that, as someone who has purchased or rated books by Louisa May Alcott, perhaps I would like to preorder....Little Vampire Women.  Which is apparently the latest in the "turn classic literature into horror novels" craze begun by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  Don't get me started.  So I emailed Ash, who had left an Ash-shaped hole in the ceiling when she heard about the first one (I believe the email she sent me that time was titled "Blasphemy"), to see if she had heard about this latest development.


Me: ...and then Louisa May Alcott rolled over in her grave. Pun intended.
Ash: Do you think Jo gives up her teeth?  After all, in this version that may be her one true beauty. 

New Year's Cop-Out

This has been all over the interwebs in various forms (including on Jules’ blog), and as it does not require any creativity on my part, I will reproduce parts of it here:

Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more next year?
Heh, well, I just found my list of resolutions from last year, and while it was a bit ambitious (25 resolutions!), it was nevertheless an unequivocal FAIL. I kept exactly three of them in their entirety.

What countries did you visit?
None other than this one, but I spent quite a bit of time on the road!

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A new TV. How long have I been saying that?

What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 20, the day the world watched Barack Obama take the oath of office.
September 12 and 19, when four of my best friends got married.

What was the best thing you bought?
My new slippers are pretty awesome.

Where did most of your money go?
Rent. Though more of it went to Ann Taylor Loft than probably should have.

What did you get really excited about?
The inauguration/new administration.
My Christmas miracle boots.
Weddings, weddings, weddings.

What song(s) will always remind you of 2009?
“Fire Burning” and “Poker Face,” due entirely to Jules and M’s wedding. Also, the Glee versions of “Somebody to Love” and “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

What was your favorite TV program?
Glee, obviously, tied with Bones.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Hate is a strong word, but I am utterly disgusted by the Gosselins and Tiger Woods. What an ass.

What was the best book you read?
Oh, man. Where to start? Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese) was fantastic. I finally read, and enjoyed, Wuthering Heights and Rebecca. Tana French (In the Woods and The Likeness), Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), and Geraldine Brooks (People of the Book and Year of Wonders) kept me engrossed with their thrillers and historical fiction.

What was your greatest musical discovery?
(All together now!): The Glee soundtracks! Also, I’ve gotten pretty into Mahler, though I don't think I can count that as a discovery.

What was your favorite film of this year?
It was NOT It’s Complicated. But other than that, nothing really sticks out.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Went out for Lebanese food with seven of my best friends for my 26^th birthday.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more statisfying?
Immeasurably? Winning the lottery, I guess. But I’d say it was pretty satisfying year.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Two things popped into my mind when I read this: "What a stupid question" and "John Krasinski."

What political issue stirred you the most?
Healthcare reform; gay marriage (it’s impossible to live in DC and not feel strongly about this)

Recommended reading

This book? The one that was over there on the right for a while?








REALLY GOOD. Quite the page-turner. I recommend it. Although now I don't know what I'm going to take on my trip this weekend--my current read is a bit large to haul around in my purse.

Overdue

So… the Month of Everything caught up with me. I was busy, yo. But now it’s August (the MIDDLE of August, sheesh), so I no longer have an excuse for not posting.

Since my last substantive post, I have done many things:

• The Month of Everything, Weekend #3 in Ohio, which included two lovely wedding showers for Jules. Many gifts were opened, and Marissa (Miguel’s sister and a fellow bridesmaid) and I proved quite proficient at fashioning bridal bouquets out of ribbons and bows. I also met many, many of Jules’ family members, ate several hot dogs, and saw the newest Harry Potter movie. ‘Twas fun. (During the course of the weekend, I also received assorted text messages from the boys, who were in Nashville for Ed’s bachelor party festivities. Apparently, I am the resident expert on all things southern and Tennesseean.)
• Hosted book club (our one-year anniversary!) at my place. This month’s book was Julia Child’s memoir, My Life in France. I prepared her own potato-leek soup recipe for the occasion—admittedly an odd choice for mid-July, but it was one of the few recipes I could find online that didn’t involve de-boning a duck or marinating something for three days. So soup it was, and it turned out rather well, though it seemed a little too easy.
• The Month of Everything, Weekends #4 and #5: G and I drove a million and six hours to and from the beach. During the intervening week, I sat on my rear (in various locations: rocking chair, hammock, porch swing, in beach chair under an umbrella) whilst consuming quantities of lemonade and reading four and a half books.
• Had jury duty for exactly five hours (and was not picked).
• With Jules and the other attendants, resolved the Great Bridesmaids’ Dress Debacle of ’09, and subsequently returned all the extra dresses that I had acquired (to the great relief of both me and my credit card)
• Fell off the wagon at Ann Taylor Loft again, though it had been a long time since the last time, nor did I fall too badly this time. I only bought two dresses (both work-appropriate!), and I got 30% off.
• Saw my old pal Liz, who is back! from! Germany! after a year.
• Discovered a new eatery—THE WEST WING CAFÉ, how awesome does that sound?!—a block from my office. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m super excited. Wonder if they have Fresca.
• Developed middle-of-the-night insomnia, but only every third night or so. I have yet to determine what is causing it.
• That’s it, I think.
• Oh no, wait. HA. There was also that other little thing, where I got promoted. Minor detail, that one. It was a killer, too, because I found out the day after I got back from Ohio, but I couldn’t tell anyone for THREE WEEKS. Amazingly, I managed it. So I got a big, awesome, exciting promotion, and More Monies, and a title that has the word “director” in it. I mean, okay, yes, there’s a word in front of “director,” but it’s still very exciting.

It was also part of the impetus for my wagon-falling at ATL—‘twas a reward to myself! Okay, not really. But that was how I justified it. The real reward, once I actually see the More Monies, will be a new tv. When I got promoted at the Old Job, I bought myself an iPod. Apparently I like electronics.

Okay, so. Now it’s August, which means weddings are NEXT MONTH. Yikes. It’s actually a little ridiculous how much time I spend thinking about weddings, considering none of them are mine. The following, for instance, is part of my rather epic to-do list for the coming weekend and week:

• Take bridesmaid’s dress to tailor (J&M wedding)
• Finish ceremony program (J&M wedding)
• Print and stamp programs (J&M wedding)
• Obtain gifts (J&M, E&V)
• Get shoes (J&M)
• Pack for [REDACTED!!] next weekend. Can’t discuss! Secret!
• …other stuff that I can’t talk about…
• Serve as photographer for E&V, who need more engagement pictures taken for some project.

And then there’s all the non-wedding stuff, like a haircut, a desperately-needed Target run, and laundry. As of Saturday, I’m out of clean underwear.

And then next week is my birthday (woo!) and the aforementioned [REDACTED!!] event.

And then one week later, it’s September, holy pete. Where did summer go?

Guess what time it is?!

Summer is upon us, as evidenced by the unrelenting frizz that the humidity is wreaking on my hair. With summer come large stretches of spare time in the evenings and on weekends, sitting on the beach or the porch (theoretically…if I had a porch) or in my soon-to-be-stifling apartment. With the exception of The Closer and So You Think You Can Dance, the evening TV schedule is void of anything worthwhile. What to do?

Well, I’ll tell you!

It’s SUMMER READING TIME, ya’ll.

I don’t know what it is about summer that makes me INSANE about reading, but I find myself making endless lists of books, assisted by the ubiquitous “Suggested Summer Reading” lists provided by everyone from The Washington Post to Entertainment Weekly. Nothing makes me happier than a Sunday afternoon spent wandering through the stacks at the tiny library branch across from my house, and in the past two weeks I’ve accumulated a giant stack of library books, just waiting to be devoured (or discarded, if they turn out to be boring. Which does happen, occasionally).

While reading a truly awesome book is, you know, truly awesome, I also get great joy from sharing those books with others. And so! I present to you today...

Books You Should Read This Summer Because I Said So,
Categorized for Easy Reference

The One On All The Best-Seller Lists: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Schaffer/Annie Barrows)
I have to give my mother credit, as she discovered this book last summer, long before it hit the New York Times best-seller list. She picked it up--if I'm not mistaken--simply because of the quirky name. The epistolary novel, primarily set on the small English island of Guernsey during WWII, tells the story of a book club born as an impromptu alibi when its members were caught breaking curfew by the Germans occupying the island. And boy, is this a delightful book.

The Literary Book: The Tender Bar (J.R. Moehringer)
This book was recommended to me by three people who could not be more different—my old roommate Al, my friend J, and my former boss. These three could probably not agree on a pizza topping, let alone a book, which only illustrates the quality of this memoir. The author tells of his fatherless childhood on Long Island and the community that helped raise him—most notably, the men who frequent a bar called Dickens. Frankly, I think this is a book that college lit classes will be discussing in years to come, full of richly-drawn characters and vivid prose. My copy has been continuously on loan for over a year.


The Girly Book: I Was Told There’d Be Cake (Sloane Crosley)
This isn’t really chick-lit, but it’s not really a guy kind of book. Crosley’s essays (“The Pony Problem,” “Bring-Your-Machete-To-Work Day,” and, uh, “F*** You, Columbus” are my favorites) are full of irony and self-deprecating wit. For any female who came of age during the 1990s, this book is sure to prompt the kind of hysterical laughter that comes from completely and utterly identifying with a character.


The Book About a Book: People of the Book (Geraldine Brooks)
My literary tastes are wide-ranging, but I love books about history and books about books. This is both. It follows Hanna Heath, a rare book conservator, and the Sarajevo Haggadah that disappeared during the city’s siege in 1992. The story traces the history of the book from its creation in the 15th century Seville through WWII Bosnia as it passes through the hands of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. My book club read it a few months ago and it was unanimously enjoyed. It’s a quick read, and a good one. Highly recommended!


The Page-Turner: The Romanov Prophecy (Steve Berry)
This book is probably not going to win the Pulitzer or anything, but I just finished it, and darned if it’s not a great read… even if you’re not a Russian history nut like me. Sort of in the vein of The Da Vinci Code—a fast-paced, globe-trotting thriller—The Romanov Prophecy brings the intrigue of Nicholas and Alexandra’s Russia to the 21st century.


The One I Haven’t Read, But Am Most Excited About: The Angel’s Game (Carlos Ruiz Zafón)
About three years ago, I stumbled across a book called The Shadow of the Wind. I don’t remember how I found it, nor do I remember much about the plot, but I LOVED IT. It was spooky and romantic and utterly gripping —and about a book! yay—and I could not get enough of it. Every so often I see someone reading it on the Metro or wherever—often in the original Spanish (La Sombra del Viento sounds so much more exotic, doesn’t it?)—and it makes me want to read it all over again. Which I may do this summer. But anyway! Two days ago, I discovered that the author has a new book coming out this week! It’s like CHRISTMAS! I’m so excited.

Coming soon! Summer TV on DVD recommendations. Because periodically you just need a break from all that reading.

Audience Participation Time!

I have a baby shower to attend in a couple of weeks, and each guest has been asked to give a book. I’ve been mulling over this for a while, and I am considering the following:

1) The Classic: Charlotte’s Web. Obviously, every child needs this book.

2) The One No One Else Would Ever Think Of: The Philharmonic Gets Dressed. Awesome book! Also where I first learned the word brassiere. In case you were wondering that.

3) The One I Read With My Mom: Little House in the Big Woods. I read (all? most of?) the Little House series with my mother at night before bed. Seems like a good tradition to pass along.

Any other suggestions? I want to avoid obvious choices—Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Everybody Poops*, etc. Also, I recognize that two of the books above are for a slightly older audience, but that doesn’t bother me.

Well, it's a post, anyway.

Oh. Hello! I…sort of forgot I had a blog. But G reprimanded me last week for not posting recently: “SOME of us use your blog to procrastinate at work.”

Um, yeah, that’s what I use it for, too. Which also why I have not been writing. My work days have been packed from top to bottom. No time for blogging or, you know, reading People.com.

(Know how long it’s been since I’ve had a spare minute to read People at work? I somehow managed to totally miss that Jen and Ben had their new baby. ON JANUARY 6. I just found this out last week. I saw “Seraphina Rose Elizabeth Affleck” and was like, eh? who? what? So I’ve been in a hole, is what I’m saying. But I digress.)

Spring is here, which I know because in the last week I’ve found holes or runs in three pairs of pantyhose and tights. I never run my hose, so clearly this is the universe’s way of saying enough already with the winter clothes!

Anyway, I have done one or two other things in recent weeks, which I shall recount for you now.

**********

Finally saw Slumdog Millionaire a few weeks ago. I enjoyed it. However, I find that the much-hyped “best movie of the year” type films rarely live up to said hype. Not that they aren’t good—even great—but I’m frequently just a tad disappointed. I felt the same way about Juno. (The exception to this is Little Miss Sunshine, which was completely delightful.)

**********

I discovered an almost-new canister of Country Time pink lemonade in my cabinet and consumed the whole thing in the course of a weekend.

**********

Normally I’m a novel person, but I’ve plowed through three non-fiction books—Blink (Malcolm Gladwell), 1776 (David McCullough), and A Year in the World (Frances Mayes) in a row in the last few weeks, plus the John Adams HBO miniseries. I cannot say enough about how good it is.

**********

Last weekend I went to see JS compete at the National Trumpet Competition in Fairfax. It was fun. He, as usual, was incredible. The judges obviously agreed, as he got 3^rd place in his division.

**********

I had the good fortune to pick up the wrong bag of chips at the store, which led to my first experience with Ruffles Baked Cheddar and Sour Cream. They are entirely addictive, yet not all that unhealthy! You know, as potato chips go.

**********

In the course of exactly one day—specifically, Friday, March 13—I went from two planned trips this summer to about seven. Which means I will probably not be getting that new TV just yet.

**********

Lots of wedding-y fun these days, too. Bridesmaid dress purchased, hotels booked, flights researched (WHY THE HELL IS IT SO EXPENSIVE TO FLY TO ATLANTA?!), showers and bachelorettes scheduled, hours-worth of music listened to and scripture researched for Jules, and one oboe player tentatively booked.

**********

How great have the little teams been in the NCAA tournament so far?! I was so proud of American and ETSU in their first round games against Villanova and Pitt. In the interest of full disclosure, though, my bracket would have been completely busted if ETSU had won—I have Pitt winning the entire tournament. We’ll see.

**********

Oh, and I still have not taken my Christmas tree down. Not because I’m trying to hang on to the holiday season, but because keep forgetting. At this point, I barely notice it. And yes, I realize how ridiculous this is.

2.5, 1, and .25

Because I'm sure you're wondering, those are the numbers of:

a) books I finished while at the beach, which is low for me, but one of them was 700 pages [completed: Outlander (D.Gabaldon) and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Shaffer/Barrows); halfway through: Neither Here Nor There (B. Bryson)]
b) the number of audio books completed on the drive [Comrades (S.Ambrose)]
and
c) the number of cassettes-worth of The Lord of the Rings that I made it through [specifically, one half of the first side of the first cassette; there were 20 in all, I think]. Thus, UTTER FAILURE on the Tolkien front. I shall give it a go sometime with the actual book.

Three very exciting (to me) pieces of news:

1) I am leaving for the beach To! Mor! Row! I know you are as pumped as I am. I went to the library yesterday and stocked up for the trip (3.5 day vacation? 6 books, not including audio for the car ride). This year's Book En Route for my 18-ish hours in the car? The Lord of the Rings. I will either be enthralled or I will reeeeally regret it. Time will tell.

2) The Olympics start in FOUR DAYS, folks. Opening Ceremonies are on Friday night, and I will be taking time out from my packed schedule of reading and hammocking to watch them.

3) Washington Post sportswriter Dan Steinberg's Olympic blog, the Beijing Sports Smog (get it?) is up and running! (You may remember that I wrote about his Torino blog a month or so ago.) If the Torino blog is any indication, the Beijing Sports Smog will not disappoint (unless you're looking for actual coverage of the sports, in which case you may want to look elsewhere).

Yes, AGAIN with the book thing (or, The Longest Post of All Time)

(Beware, lots of scrolling on this one!)

Probably nobody gives two hoots about what I've read except me and perhaps my mom and maybe Jules' mom (whose total would, I'm sure, put mine to shame). But I don't care!

I stole this book quiz from another blog. Below is a list of books printed by the NEA-sponsored The Big Read, which apparently seeks to "restore reading to the center of American culture." They say, though, that the average American has only read six of the following hundred.

Key
1) Bold the books you have already read
2) Italicize the books you intend to read
3) Add asterisks ** to books that you LOVE
4) Added bonus! Snarky comments by me are in parentheses.

***********************
1) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen**
2) The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
3) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (I have not technically finished this book, I am counting it anyway. I have gotten halfway through it THREE TIMES, but I cannot seem to get through it. Effort made. Ultimate failure.)
4) Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling** (Um, duh.)
5) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee**
6) The Bible (Is it wrong that I'm not putting asterisks by this one?)
7) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8) Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell (I'm not sure how it's possible that I'm nearly 25 years old and have not read this. But it's true. See also: #41)
9) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (Have read 2 of 3, and the last is on my beach reading pile.)
10) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
11) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott** (Favorite Book of All Time)
12) Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
13) Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
14) Complete Works of Shakespeare (Don't know if I've read EVERYTHING--I mean really, every last sonnet? Doubtful--but I've come close.)
15) Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
16) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
17) Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
18) Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
19) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger* (This book pretty much rocks. It is not on my Best Books of All Time list, but I'll give it one asterisk.
20) Middlemarch by George Eliot
21) Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
22) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
23) Bleak House by Charles Dickens
24) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
25) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Seriously? This is on the list? I finally read this one summer while home from college because several of my male friends in high school were horrified that I had not. So I read it, and we discussed it during many late-night Ultimate Frisbee games.)
27) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28) Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
29) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll** (Would you like me to recite The Walrus and the Carpenter for you? Because I can.)
30) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
31) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
32) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
33) Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis (Have read a few. Own them all.)
34) Emma by Jane Austen (I am working my way through all the Austens, so I'll get there. Currently on Mansfield Park.)
35) Persuasion by Jane Austen**
36) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis (How is this different from Chronicles of Narnia?)
37) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
38) Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres (Started once. Read 1/3. Got bored. Made effort, so am counting it.)
39) Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
40) Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne****** (They should totally add Now We Are Six to this list, also.)
41) Animal Farm by George Orwell (See also: #8)
42) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
43) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44) A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving
45) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
46) Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
47) Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
48) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
49) Lord of the Flies by William Golding (I can't remember if I read this or not...)
50) Atonement by Ian McEwan
51) Life of Pi by Yann Martel
52) Dune by Frank Herbert
53) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
54) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
55) A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
56) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon** (Loooved.)
57) A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
58) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
59) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
60) Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez**
61) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (No, but I've seen the opera, which is NOT GOOD.)
62) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
63) The Secret History by Donna Tartt
64) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
65) Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
66) On The Road by Jack Kerouac (Similar situation to #25. Seriously overrated, in my opinion.)
67) Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
68) Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
69) Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
70) Moby Dick by Herman Melville
71) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (HOLY COW, does Dickens really make up half of this list?!)
72) Dracula by Bram Stoker (Either this or Frankenstein, I can't actually remember...)
73) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
74) Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson (Liked a lot, but Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is by far the best. Recommended to anyone!)
75) Ulysses by James Joyce
76) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77) Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
78) Germinal by Emile Zola
79) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
80) Possession by AS Byatt
81) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (FINALLY, a Dickens book that I've read!)
82) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
83) The Color Purple by Alice Walker
84) The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
85) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
86) A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
87) Charlotte's Web by EB White** (I think this might be my mom's favorite book.)
88) The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom (Nope, but I've read Tuesday's With Morrie!)
89) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90) The Faraway Tree Collection by Enid Blyton
91) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (I started this once, but it wasn't exactly beach reading--which is where I was at the time--so I stopped. Will try again sometime.)
92) The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93) The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
94) Watership Down by Richard Adams
95) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
96) A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
97) The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98) Hamlet by William Shakespeare (Again...doesn't Complete Works of Shakespeare cover this?)
99) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
100) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
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Total: 39 (sort of)
Not bad. I think this list is pretty weird, though, considering that practically the Complete Works of Charles Dickens are on there (yet not in one single category, a la Shakespeare) and several things that I would consider worthy are not. I, for instance, would include the magnificent The Tender Bar, which has some of the most richly drawn characters in literature. Also, where is Hemingway? I'm not the hugest fan, but no The Sun Also Rises or The Old Man and the Sea or SOMETHING? That one surprises me. And I could add numerous others. But whatever, it's kind of fun anyway.

UPDATE (9:05PM): Jules thinks that I should create my own list of must-reads, so I believe I just might do that.

Books, again

I am having a bit of literary A.D.D. right now, because I am in the middle of no less than FOUR books. (In addition to the two listed at left, the first of which is for Book Club, I'm still reading The Maytrees and The Secrets of a Fire King, which is actually short stories.) It is driving me batty, yet I'm far enough along in each of them that I don't want to stop reading and resume later.

Then again, I might get through them faster if I read for more than the ten minutes before I fall asleep each night. But I've been NetFlixxing SportsNight (which brings up another topic, Why Are TV Network Executives Determined to Cancel Awesome Shows?, which we will cover another time), so my evenings have been pretty booked up.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to beach time in August. I think I'll be there for four full days this year, so I should be able to power through three or four books in that time.

Book nerdiness, part II

I have to post something to get that heinous picture of me off the top of the page, so...

If anyone wants to take me on a trip, they can take me here or here. The good thing is, you can pack lighter because reading material is provided.

(Did she really just write a whole post on book shopping?)

I left for work this morning with zero books. I returned home with FIVE. I am extremely excited about this.

Number of books departed home with: 0
Number of books arrived home with: 5
Number of bookstores visited: 2
Number of books purchased at full price: 2
Number of books purchased at less than $6: 3
Number of books purchased at less than $6 that came out of the bargain bin: 2
Amount on the pricetags of those two books: $3.99 each (a bargain! and they were actually 50% off the marked price, so...)
Number of books purchased for $1.98 each: 2

Um, yes, I did purchase five books today, and two of them were $1.98. And not crappy books at $1.98, but actual, potential-to-be-good books. (And, hello, if they're not? I only paid $1.98. Win-win situation!) Word. (HA! I made a pun. Books...words....okay.)

Despite my serendipitous bargain finds, I do think it's a little bit of a sickness, my book obsession. I left home this morning planning to stop at Kramerbooks on the way home from work, because I have a gift card and I needed to get the next book for book club. But then there was nobody at work today (okay, actually, me and my boss and the IT guy were there; the office was technically closed, but I'm going to be out for two days next week, plus Memorial Day, so I came in anyway)....where was I? Right, it was dull as tombs at work, and my boss was out for lunch. So I went for a walk and to get lunch, and my walk happened to take me by Borders. Where I went in, just for kicks. And discovered the bargain bin, where I thought, hm, you never know (because I have gotten great stuff in bargain bins before, like overstocks of random classics). So I looked, and I found three things! Including a (hardback!) copy of an Anne Lamott that I haven't read (though Gretchen and Mom have, and they love it). I don't know why they're marking Anne Lamott down to $5.99, but I'll take it.

And then after work I went to Kramerbooks anyway and got my book club book and another book of essays called I Was Told There'd Be Cake. I can totally get behind that sentiment. With me, it's usually cookies, but whatever.

Anyway. This is dangerously close to a "what I did today" post, which I've generally tried to avoid. (I got up. I didn't eat breakfast, because I was out of blueberries. I briefly considered having ice cream, but didn't. I took a shower, got dressed...and then went to work and got five! new! books! And now I'm telling you about it. The End.) I'm going to spend the next two days attempting to spend zero dollars in preparation for my trip to New York next week. (Woot! I am pumped.) But I have five new books and two NetFlix (NetFlixes? Netflixx?) and half a tub of neapolitan ice cream. Also, blueberries. And apricots. So I'm set.