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Book Meme

I'm never one to pass up a good book meme. 

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote

Moby Dick (shouldn't other Melville count?)
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies (on my shelf)
War and Peace

Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma (on the shelf)
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex (on the shelf)
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera

Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch (on the shelf)
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo (in French!)
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King

The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel (on the shelf)
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility (on the shelf)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (on the shelf)
Mansfield Park (on the shelf)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince

The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita

Persuasion (on the shelf)
Northanger Abbey (on the shelf)
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow (used to have a copy of it somewhere)

The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

I'm not sure whether to be embarrassed or amused at the number of things I probably should have read, but just haven't gotten around to it. 

If I may vent for a moment, I've had allergies all my life.  They don't make me sneeze and have a drippy nose, they make me itch.  This is fine with me.  I never have to make sure I have tissues in my pockets or assure people that "it's just allergies".  This year, I have apparently "grown into" eye allergies.  I've been wishing I could dig my eyes out of my head to rinse them off.  Not only do they itch constantly, I look like I have a nickel-bag-a-day habit.  Even the eye drops aren't doing it for me.  I was so happy to see spring come and now I'm completely over it.

Born Standing Up

I know, I know, it's a knitting blog, not a book blog.  I have to say, this is my last day of vacation before my last weekend before going back to work again.  I can't say when I've enjoyed 2 weeks off more than I just have.  It's been day after day of deciding whether to read, knit, spin, or nap.  Heaven.

So, I've finished another book.  I heard Steve Martin talk about this book a couple of weeks ago on NPR and he was brilliant.  He's so low key about his celebrity it makes me want to sit and have a cup of coffee with him.

In Martin's own words this book is "a biography, because I am writing about someone I used to know."  It chronicles his childhood entrance into show business and follows him all the way through playing stadiums in the 1980s. 

What interested me most is his approach to doing stand up.  I've often wondered what it's like to essentially create your own job out of nothing.  Martin didn't want a new routine to flop, so he would break it down into tiny pieces and begin by putting the tiniest piece into his act.  If it worked, he would add another piece.  If it continued to work, it continued to grow; if not, he dropped it.  This is such a common sense approach to creating an act.  I guess I assumed that many comedians worked more like Robin Williams does - movement and zaniness until you drop.

Martin also talks about the downside of fame.  How once he was playing to such huge audiences, he worried that the people in the back could only see him as a white dot on a stage very far away.  It stopped being fun - there was no time to do something new or to experiment.  I guess that explains why it seems like he just disappeared.  I can understand just wanting to be done.

At the end, he talks about writing the book and listening to some of his old routines.  He wondered if they were even funny anymore.  I have to say, Little Big Man LOVES Steve Martin.  He jumps up and down when the new phone book comes in.  We joke back and forth about "cup-a-pizza".  Hub will look at me every now and again and say, "...and then we throw dog poop on their shoes" and laugh like a maniac.  Yeah, it's still funny.

Bo's Lasting Lessons

I finished my second book of 2008.  In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that I received an undergraduate degree from UM ('87) as well as my Masters ('06).  I saw Bo Schembechler coach and I remember thinking that he was old school and didn't care who knew it.

When I was a freshman, my mother forced me to buy season football tickets, so I slogged to almost every game that year and sat in the student section.  This was about the time the wave was becoming popular and let me tell you, when 100,000+ people start screaming in a giant bowl - it makes a big noise.  The players on the field couldn't hear the audible calls and it was a problem.  Bo sounded off and the next week, we were all supposed to be more controlled during the game.

When a particularly important play was being run, the students used to pull out their keys and jangle them (key play - get it?).  The Saturday after the "too much noise" game, we all reached into our pockets and pulled out ... nothing.  We shook our hands and were (relatively) silent.  The student newspaper even ran the words to Coach Schembechler's "new" fight song - it was an empty box on the front page.  He was a hard ass.

My mother has always been a fan.  She knows more about football than a lot of men I know.  When this book came out last fall, I sent her a copy.  She read it in less than a week - which is a huge feat for my slow-as-molasses reading mother.  The next time I saw her, she said, "I'm giving you Bo's book.  You should read it and then you should give it to your boss to read."

The subtitle of this book is "The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership".  I have to tell you, I've read a lot of leadership books in my time.  This one feels real.  Not only does the old coach talk about what it means to be a leader, he gives example after example after example of how he dealt with staff, players, administration, alums, press, and anyone else who managed to fall into his orbit.  He knew how to pick people, how to motivate them, how to set goals, and how to meet those goals.  This books feels like Coach Bo is sitting in the room with you talking (okay, sometimes shouting). 

I must admit, I'm a Wolverine and I'm proud of my connection to the University, but I've never been a giant Bo fan.  I never made an effort to go to a book signing or attend any of his speeches.  I'm a little sad now that I didn't meet him while he was alive.  I think I really missed something.  I am grateful that someone was paying attention and managed to get this man to put his secrets down on paper.

Buy this book if you're interested in leadership.  Buy it if you're a former Wolverine.  Buy it if you're not a Wolverine.  Buy it if you hate the Wolverines ... buy the book.  You're bound to find something in here you can apply to your own life and work.

The Early Arrival of Dreams

I've finished my first book of 2008.  Okay, so I started it in 2007, but finishing is what counts, right?  The Early Arrival of Dreams:  A Year in China, was my last Rosemary Mahoney book, but the first one she wrote.  Mahoney traveled on a cultural exchange to teach English at Hangzhou University.

Her style is a little confusing because she moves forward and backward in her narrative quickly and frequently.  It took me a while to keep up with her without having to flip back several pages to remind myself where she was.  What she is brilliant at, is description.  There is nothing I like more about reading a book than feeling like I'm walking into someplace I've never been before.

The room was so vigorously swept I thought I could see the tracks of the broom's bristles in the hard cement floor. (page 159)

Like their teachers, the students had dim light bulbs and cold showers, and they washed their clothes in long sinks in the bathrooms.  On clear days the dorms were brilliant with laundry draped on drying-racks outside the windows.  (page 49)

Her descriptions of traveling within China made me question my desire to travel there.  I've always felt that there are things one should see in China (the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Emperor's Terra Cotta Army, etc) and have a half-baked itinerary that I've carried around in my head for several years.  What has put me off is every packaged trip includes a 3-day cruise to see the Three-Gorges Dam.  I'm not interested in seeing a dam, or spending 3 days cruising up a river.  I figured as long as I could get the visas, I'd be able to design the trip I wanted to take without the Chinese government showing me what they wanted me to see. 

Mahoney's descriptions of travel within China are making me re-think this plan.  On a weekend trip to Shanghai, she and a couple of colleagues were so packed into a slow moving train that the passengers without seats simply took to lying down to sleep on the filthy floor.  Another time, she took a trip to Tokyo with a fellow teacher and returned alone just before the Chinese New Year.  Her 3 day ordeal of being trapped in Guangzhou and trying to get a ticket back to her university made my stomach hurt.

In addition to the descriptions, Mahoney also has an amazing ear for dialogue.  She makes much of strangers approaching her wherever she goes to "practice their English" on her regardless of what she's doing or where she is.  While it tends to be annoying, she makes the most of it on several occasions by engaging with these strangers and asking them questions about their own lives.  Her students open up to her and connect with her in a way that is breath-taking and heart-breaking at the same time. 

I'm still in love with the idea of traveling in China, but I feel a bit better prepared at this point.  It's a worthy read and I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

Hangover

Little Big Man and I went yesterday in search of Harry Potter.  The first bookstore we stopped at only had reserved copies in the store.  "The owner is out getting more copies ... I can call you when they get here."  He looked crestfallen when I replied, "Um, I think we're going to keep searching, thanks."

Even though LBM has his driver's license, he insisted I drive home.  I insisted he read aloud.  He was thoroughly pissed when I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some things before we went home to disapparate and gorge on the book.

It was amazing.  There were extremely sad parts and parts that made my heart soar.  I fell in love with Harry Potter all over again.  Today, instead of feeling so sad that the journey is over, I am eager to find the first book and start it all again.

Thank you Ms. Rowling.  It was a wonderful ride.

Book Review - Winter RIF

I have been reading.  Since the broken leg, it's been convenient to have something to do besides watch TV, knit, surf the web, and nap. 

The first book I finished was Patricia Cornwell's Predator.  When I first started reading about Kay Scarpetta, I loved her.  What's not to love?  A strong, professional woman who doesn't let anyone intimidate her.  As the books have progressed, Scarpetta gets more and more morose.  She's bitter and cynical and has a persecution complex.  I suppose it may be a natural progression that someone in her profession (pathology) becomes hardened after a while, but reading about it gets old very quickly.

That said, I enjoyed the book, in a "betcha can't eat just one" way.  I refer to books like this as 'potato chip books' because I read the whole thing very quickly and then feel kind of sick afterwards.  Very similar to the way I feel after I eat a bowl of potato chips.  I couldn't wait to see who the killer was and how it all turned out.  Yes, Scarpetta was bitter, Lucy committed self-destructive behaviors, Marino was an ass, and Benton was distant.  I still enjoyed the book and I'll probably read the next one when it comes out.

I started reading As Meat Loves Salt, by Maria McCann before I actually broke my leg, so it made sense to take it to my parents' house when I went there.  Unfortunately, I hated the book, but since it was the only one I had, I read it. 

My main complaint is that it took forever for the action to start.  Then once I got into it and started to feel something for the characters, one bad thing after another happened.  While I don't want every book to be butterflies and kisses, something good has to happen every now and again.  I want some hope, dammit.

It was beautifully written and the descriptions were vivid and gorgeous.  Ultimately, however, I never liked any of the characters.  The main character was deeply flawed and I found it very difficult to sympathize with his actions.  At the same time, the reactions other people had to him and his actions seemed overly dramatic and somewhat petty, like they were designed to shame him into toeing the line and being a "normal" citizen.  I'm tempted to see what else McCann has written to see if she's progressed as a writer.  I'll definitely have to see it in person before buying it, though.

The other book I read from my Winter RIF list was from the non-fiction section.  It was Blink:  The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell.  It was a short book and should have taken me less time than it did, but I found that I wanted to read a chapter and then think about it for a while before I read more. 

Essentially, the book is about trusting your first instincts about things.  When something gives you a weird feeling, there's probably a valid reason for it, even if you can't verbalize what it is.  Your subconscious brain works at speeds that your conscious brain doesn't understand and feeds that "this guy is icky feeling" within the first few moments of meeting someone.

I'll be hiring someone within the next couple of months to replace a student who just left our office. It's not a difficult job and requires mostly on-the-job training, but I haven't had the best of luck relying on someone's resume and interviewing skills.  I have disregarded my gut in the past and have paid for it.  I don't plan on making the same mistake again.  At least now I have some documentation to back up my gut.

So, did making a reading list work?  Sort of.  I finished 6 of the 10 books and started another one.

What I didn't finish:
Birds of a Feather, Jaqueline Winspear
Marie Curie:  A Life, Susan Quinn
A Mind of Its Own:  A Cultural History of the Penis, David Friedman
The Daring Female's Guide to Ecstatic Living, Natasha Kogan
At the Abyss:  The Insider's History of the Cold War, Thomas C. Reed

While at my parents' house, 2 large boxes came from my favorite fiber ho Jillian.  Let me tell you, I tore into those suckers and gorged myself on her largesse.  What was in the boxes?  Lots - plus food and DVDs.  Am I lucky or what??  These are the ones I read first:

No Sheep for You, Amy R. Singer
Lace Style, Pam Allen & Ann Budd
Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs, Interweave Press
Knitting Memories, Lela Nargi (ed.)
Through the Wall, Patricia Wentworth
Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

I'll have reviews for them in the next couple of days.  I will say, Kite Runner?  Mother-of-god was it a good book!  Seriously, couldn't put it down.  I started it when I woke up one morning and finished it before I went to bed - then mourned because I was finished.

So, I call the reading list a qualified success.  I read lots (even without the broken leg).  So, here's my Spring RIF list:

Fiction:
Maisie Dobbs, Jaqueline Winspear
Birds of a Feather, Jaqueline Winspear
The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie R. King
Deja Dead, Kathy Reichs

Non-fiction:
Unclutter Your Life, Katherine Gibson
At the Abyss:  The Insider's History of the Cold War, Thomas C. Reed
Marie Curie:  A Life, Susan Quinn
A Mind of Its Own:  A Cultural History of the Penis, David Friedman
The Daring Female's Guide to Ecstatic Living, Natasha Kogan

Book Review - Inkspell & Inkheart

I don't read children's books as a rule.  I gave my kids the books I had when I was their age and on the whole it worked out okay.  They liked some of them (The Phantom Tollbooth, Dr. Seuss) and hated others (Sassy won't even look at the Laura Ingalls Wilder books).  I didn't even read the Harry Potter books until my boss raved about how good they were and how much I would enjoy them.  I've recently finished the first 2 books on my RIF list:

             

When I sat down with Inkheart, it was with great anticipation.  I was underwhelmed.  The idea for the story is fabulous.  It's told from the perspective of a pre-teen girl who discovers her father can read characters out of books.  Unfortunately, the execution left a little to be desired.  I put some of my disappointment down to the fact that it was originally written in German and I was reading a translation.  There were passages that were stilted and just didn't "sound" right.  Some of the plot twists were repeated and suffered in the re-telling the second time around.  The kiss of death for me was that I didn't really like any of the characters.  Maybe it's because I'm in the throes of teen-aged angst, but the main character, Meggie, was just a little too much of a drama queen for me. 

The best part about reading it was that Sassy would sneak into my room and steal it from my night stand to read in her room.  She's about half-way right now and when I ask her why she isn't reading, she says, "I'm in a dull spot and just can't get going again." 

My mother discovered my Amazon wish list and for every occasion has been buying from it (woohoo!!).  I received Inkspell as a Christmas gift.  It was wonderful!  The premise behind this book is that Meggie discovers she can read characters out of books like her father - in addition, she can read people into books as well.

Perhaps the translation was better, perhaps the original writing was better.  Whatever the reason, the text in this books sometimes sings.  The descriptions of the inkworld are amazing, recalling some sections of Harry Potter for me (as well as the hundreds of fairy tales I read as a little girl).  I liked the characters better and felt they were more action oriented rather than the endless passages of talking and thinking in Inkheart.  It was a little darker, but not so terrible that I'll worry about Sassy reading it.

When I finished, she asked me, "Well, how was it?"

I said, "It was wonderful!"

She said, "That's what everybody says!!"

I give Inkheart 1/2 a snap and Inkspell 2 snaps.  They're cheap, they don't take long to read, and the images they left in my head are worth the time spent.

RIF

One of my favorite bloggers, Mac, does a Reading is Fundamental List for every season.  I love reading about what she's reading and getting her take on any particular book.  Since my reading has fallen off a great deal over the past year or so, I need a kick to get me started again.  I do love to read, but I find that I don't make enough time for it.  So, here's my reading list for the rest of winter.  The titles are what I already have on my shelf (hey, just because I wasn't reading doesn't mean I wasn't collecting books!).

Fiction:
Inkheart, Cornelia Funk
Inkspell, Cornelia Funk
Predator, Patricia Cornwell
Birds of a Feather, Jaqueline Winspear
As Meat Loves Salt, Maria McCann

Non-Fiction:
Blink:  The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell
Marie Curie:  A Life, Susan Quinn
A Mind of Its Own:  A Cultural History of the Penis, David Friedman
The Daring Female's Guide to Ecstatic Living, Natasha Kogan
At the Abyss:  The Insider's History of the Cold War, Thomas C. Reed

Will this work for me?  I don't know.  Half of my brain thinks it's a great idea to have a reading list.  The other half says, "You know you don't like deadlines, won't you resist this and want to read things that aren't on the list?"  I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens.

Any suggestions for future lists?