one of my goals for 2010 was to read fifty books within the year. we're about nineteen weeks in and i'm only on number thirteen. whelp. but here's what i've read so far this year:
1. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
2. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
3. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
4. A Circle of Quiet - Madeleine L'Engle
5. Beauty - Robin McKinley
6. A Live Coal in the Sea - Madeleine L'Engle
7. The Soloist - Steve Lopez
8. Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer
9. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Neifenegger
10. The Other Side of the Sun - Madeleine L'Engle
11. Two-Part Invention - Madeleine L'Engle
12. Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman
i have also read a book for a class that's not a textbook...if the count gets down to the wire by december, The Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker may weasel its way on to the list.
number thirteen is The Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne. well, that and My Life in France by Julia Child. and Man Walks Into a Room by Nicole Krauss. i tend to read more than one thing at a time. so sue me. maybe that's why i'm not getting through my list as fast as i could be. because if you added up all the parts of those books that i have read, it would probably be an extra book and a half. oh well.
hopefully i'll read a lot this summer. hmmmm or maybe i'll just go read now instead of studying for my two exams that are on thursday. how bad could they be, right? i've gotten this far through college without studying, why not finish strong?
(some recommendations/reviews from the above list. first off, i'm going to recommend anything by madeleine. she's my absolute hands-down favorite author of all time. bird by bird is really great if you're interested in becoming a writer or an artist in general. she has a really beautiful outlook on life. jonathan safran foer rocks my life, in a post-modern way. usually i'm not a fan of postmodernism (in literature, at least) but foer attacks convention in a way that brings out the beauty in non-convention, not just the ugly in convention. if that makes any sense whatsoever. all that to say, please go out and read extremely loud and incredibly close. the help was really cute. a very easy read. and not all mushy and fake like most popular reading books. beat the system! "beauty" was verrrrrry silly. but an easy read. pretty romantic/mushy. not usually my jam. the soloist was so, so, so good. if you like music, journalism, or the topics of homelessness and mental disease, you will love this book. i promise. seriously. check it. the time traveler's wife was pretty silly/mushy, but in a very hipster way. the cultural references were, i think, my favorite thing about the book. i also like her clean writing style. and leaves of grass is a classic. if you like poetry, cities, love, woods, beaches, or war you will probably gain something from reading it.)
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