Books for the New Year *updated*

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am a failure in my 2008 New Year's Resolution. It was to read 50 books in a year - all the way through. Yes, I read a lot, but I did not make this seemingly easy goal. I always have a stack of books by my bed, couch, in my suitcase, purse; and a list of books in my head that I need to purchase at Half Price Books (if they are old or out of print) or Barnes & Noble (if they are new or I just want that little thrill of a fresh smelling book). I go to the bookstore to relax. It is a place where I am myself. I am a complete nerd. I'll admit it. I love books. And all these gadgetry things like eBooks and Kindles and such are blasphemous to me. But that's another issue entirely. The problem I seem to have is that I start a book and I read about 75% of it before I decide it sucks and I shouldn't waste my time on it and then I realize that I could have been using that valuable reading time with a great book. So although I have easily started probably 80 books in 2008, I only actually finished 37. Here's the list.

1) The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn 304p
2) Bella Tuscany by Frances Mayes 304p
3) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck 288p
4) The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble 429p
5) Year in the World by Frances Mayes 420p
6) Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden 448p
7) A Year Without Made in China by Sara Bondgiorni 256p
8) Bad Dogs Have More Fun by John Grogan 247p
9) Silk by Alessandro Baricco 132p
10) Swan by Frances Mayes 323p
11) Me & Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter 356p
12) Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield 224p
13) The Red Pony by John Steinbeck 112p
14) Catholicism for Dummies by John Triglio et al 414p
15) Helping Me Help Myself by Beth Lisick 265p
16) How to be Lovely: The Audrey Hepburn Way of Life by Melissa Hellstern 195p
17) Now That You Are a Catholic by John J. Kenny C.S.P. 119p
18) 100 Words to Make You Sound Smart by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary 118p
19) Bringing Tuscany Home by Frances Mayes 228p
20) Sex Begins in the Kitchen by Dr. Kevin Leman 272p
21) The Seven Levels of Intimacy: The Art of Loving and the Joy of Being Loved by Matthew Kelly 272p
22) The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger 180p
23) Alphabet Weekends by Elizabeth Noble 425p
24) The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice 349p
25) It's All Greek to Me! by John Mole 342p
26) Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote 111p
27) Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella 310p
28) Weddings from the Heart by Daphne Rose Kingma 188p
29) The 100 Simple Secrets of Great Relationships by David Niven 223p
30) Nickle and Dimed; On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich 230p
31) The Friendship Test by Elizabeth Noble 437p
32) Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding 271p
33) Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Hanry Dana, Jr. 405p
34) Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler 291p
35) A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity by Bill O'Reilly 256p
36) People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks 372p
37) Audrey Style by Pamela Clarke Keogh 240p
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Total 10,356 pages read.


The literary year of 2008 made me realize a few things. First, always stick with your favorite authors. Mine happen to include Frances Mayes. I read Under the Tuscan Sun a few years ago and it was such an inspirational work (unlike the movie - so unlike the movie), and that stuck in my head as one of the authors that I would aspire to be like, if I were to write - which I intend to later on in life. In fact, I want her life - part-time English professor during the school year, living in Tuscany enjoying La Bella Vita and writing on her time off! So in 2008 I read almost everything else she has ever written. And it has deepened my admiration for her style. Swan is her first piece of fiction to be published, and I must say that I am in awe.

Also, don't just read books for their length (or lack thereof). I thought I would throw in a few 100 paged classics in there because they were easy to read and I should have read them anyhow (The Red Pony by Steinbeck is especially in my brain at this point). Yeah, that is a f*cked up piece of literature, and I do not see how 100 pages can illicit such emotional and psychological damage in myself, and be required 5th grade reading in a lot of schools. I do not recommend, unless you want to alternatively cry yourself to sleep and lie awake for a few nights.

Also, learn what you like to read, and do not rely on others for suggestions. I should have really trusted my gut on this one: Confessions of a Shopaholic. This title was thrown out as a suggestion for me to read because apparently people know of my obsession with Tiffany's, and therefore think they know me. When I located it at Barnes & Noble my instinct told me "lowest-common-denominator drivel," and to go peruse the British history section; but I didn't, and guess what? I was right, and am currently kicking myself for not reading Georgiana the Duchess of Devonshire all the while. Confessions of a Shopaholic sucked, but I felt obliged to read it, so I trudged through. I hate chick-lit. Any book that one can buy at a CVS or Walgreen's probably isn't good literature and probably won't expand your mind. I work with a lot of misinformed people out there who believe that Nicholas Sparks is a novelist on par with Dickens. Uh, if there are any - ANY - Nicholas Sparks books on your bookshelves at this moment, I encourage you to rethink that decision. Please. (As a side note, the book about Tiffany, My Summer at Tiffany, was a great memoir of a girl in the 60s who interned there. Wonderful read! And completely on a different level then Confessions of a Shopaholic).

I must admit that I have a Jane Austen addiction. It began vaguely my sophomore year of college when I read Mansfield Park in depth and watched Patricia Rozema's film. Since then I have taken college courses about her works, seen every movie, and basically read everything there is to read about Jane Austen and her wonderful works of fiction, which explains the preponderance of Jane Austen-type titles appearing on the list (Me and Mr. Darcy, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, and Bridget Jones's Diary). I can't help myself. Okay, and post script here, I am totally aware of the fact that Jones's is grammatically wrong. But it is the title. You would think that the bigwigs at Penguin Publishing would catch something as obvious as that...

I have discovered in 2008 one of the most moving, lyrical and beautiful books ever written. One of my now all time favorites. Silk. I read it in one sitting. God! It is poetry. It is love. It is music for the soul. I love it. The best part is, it was originally written in Italian! This book is a translation! I can only imagine how exquisite it is in its original tongue, like Neruda's poetry. And the film, though, not up to par with the book, is amazing in it's cinematography and ambitious in it's tone as well. Silk. Silk. Silk. Rapturous Silk!

I also in 2008 have revisited my Catholic roots. Several books have helped me rediscover faith in God, and although it probably makes me seem dense, I really rather enjoyed Catholicism for Dummies. One of my lifetime goals is to eventually get through the Bible. I know, I know. I have tried so many times. The Old Testament always gets me though, with all the histories and lists of names. I try. I have several bibles in fact, and the most interesting one I have found, and have been reading throughout 2008, though not completed to make THE LIST is my Catholic Women's Devotional NRSV. Very nice, and divided into a daily reading and brings out the women's roles in the bible. Highly recommended.

I had the absolute pleasure of reading It's All Greek to Me! on my week and a half long journey through Greece this past summer. I must tell you that this was probably the funniest book I have read, and my mom kept looking at me weird on the plane when I would laugh my loud laugh. She finally just said, "read it to me!" one night, so I started over from the beginning and read aloud to her and it was a great bonding experience. This is a hysterical book, and I tell you that it added so much to my travels. Highly recommended.

I discovered by accident another author that I had to read everything by this year, and that is Elizabeth Noble. She is a Brit, and her works are so good, it's embarrassing that I chose her first book, The Reading Group, because I liked that there was a dog on the cover.

Two Years Before the Mast is a work that I would not ordinarily pick up, but it was on a subject that I knew nothing of, and wanted to learn about- sailing. This is sailing in its most antiquated terms; with spars, masts, rigs, mizzens, forecastles and jibs, on a ship that sets sail around Cape Horn for California in the 1830s. It is a memoir of a man quite famous in his day, and very much a man's book. My dad, a 27 year veteran of the Navy, was quite proud of his daughter when he learned of my reading this book.

Memoirs of a Geisha I decided to read because Todd told me he was reading it, and I wanted to start a sort of long-distance book club. That didn't really work out, because I finished it like 3 weeks sooner than he did, but this book is amazing, nonetheless. The movie didn't do it justice. I was born in Japan, and moved away when I was 2 and a half, so I always feel like there is a part of my subconscious that is influenced in some way by their culture, that I just don't see yet. I love learning the little details of the geisha's life. But there was something that really bothered me about this book - in the end Sayuri is at this tropical island and she says she sees pineapples growing on trees. That really brought me out of the book, I had to reread that sentence about four times to make sure I read it right. I think that's like a general science question in Trivial Pursuit. Pineapples do not grow on trees!

Anyhow, my New Year's Resolution for 2009 is the same as it was for 2008. I have already read Phillipa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl (and tremendously enjoyed it.....I seem to have a thing for historical fiction). Right now I am reading Passion by Jude Morgan which is about the Romantic poets i.e. Byron, Shelley, and Keats, and the love affairs that inspired them. And let me tell you the title lives up to the story! I still have a long list of books to read, and I'll keep you all posted.