Read 50 books this year.

I’m going to consider this goal successfully achieved for 2007 cause I came so dang close, despite major upheavals in multiple areas of my life this year. Potentially more important than what I’ve read is what I’ve learned about my reading habits by tracking them so methodically.
(1) i love science-type books and cannot resist adding them to my wishlist, but…
(2) I need to be in the right state of mind to crack open one of said books. generally, I need to start them on a free saturday or sunday morning when I am fresh and can get far enough in to be hooked. i will never begin one of these books on a weekday evening.
(3) If I request literature/fiction, I start it almost immediately and finish within a day or two.
what i’ve determined from all of this is that I like to read to escape and fiction does that for me. popular science is extremely interesting to me in theory, but just seems like too much effort. the evidence is in the stack of largely popular science books next to my computer that have accumulated throughout the year and the absence of fiction which I race through and swap immediately. so, until the pile shrinks down a bit, I’m placing a moratorium on any additional nonfiction. i’m pretty sure this will get to me 50 much more easily and enjoyably in 2008. let the reading begin!

this is my least favorite of the books I’ve read by this author. i really like the concept/theme, but I got a little bored in the middle with the character dialogue.

I didn’t realize until the very end that I was reading a take on Plato’s allegory. Which is one of the cool things about this author. You can read his books on so many levels, from the very philosophical to the straightforward well-written novel. i’ve also really come to enjoy his quirky style – no quotes for dialouge, sentences that go on for a page, tangental thoughts of the characters and the author. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as Blindness, but it was still pretty darn great.

2nd book I’ve read by this author, who is becoming a favorite. essentially a story of a young woman working for the man and coming to the realization that she is no longer up for that. being vegan and anti-corporate myself, this was a nice little lifestyle validation for me.

a fast read because it focuses more on outlining practices for each section, rather than lengthy philosophy explanation. i’m going to give the manomaya practice (linked to chakras) a try, working with a different chakra each week for the next seven (or so) weeks. this is the first book i’ve laid my hands on that really outlines some solid pranayama practices (not saying they’re not out there, just that I haven’t picked them up) so I’m excited to give them a try.

Recommended and loaned to me by one of my new co-workers, this was a great introduction to the arena I’ve entered, whether I like it or not. This book certainly removed any romantic notions I might have held about the next leg of my career path and made me do some hard thinking about “hunger-relief” efforts.

I came across this book by accident. I joined our neighborhood library branch shortly after we moved thinking, with the massive stack of books I have to read at home, to use it as a free video rental option (we’ve since joined netflix, but I digress). BUT…you can’t use movies as your first rental. an attempt to elevate reading over the boob tube? so I decided to go to the library, walk in, find a book – any book – check it out, bring it back a few days later, and promptly begin renting movies. anyone that knows me would have laughed and shook their head at my naivety. I didn’t get past the new release section and went home with 5 books, including this (and my previous two reads). and it was worth the sore shoulder. I was in neighboring Namibia during the Zimbabwean land redistribution in which most of this memoir is set, but I certainly didn’t follow it closely enough to get as full a picture as this author portrays. what a horrifically sad state of affairs. books like this make me long for Africa.

A rollicking good read, jam-packed with fun little tid-bits that I will never remember. perfect for light reading before dozing off at night. makes me want to drink, regularly, and feel good about it:)

I am blown away by this guy’s ability to write such an amazing novel from a woman’s perspective. His writing is so thoroughly engrossing that I completely forgot about dinner until I finished the book at 9pm tonight. Fantastic!

i want to mail this book to every non-vegan I know! tons and tons of evidence that makes eating meat, eggs or dairy seem not only cruel, but kind of dumb. he pulls in health, environmental and social support for a “true vegetarian” lifestyle. all while not really beating the “go vegan” drum. he’s just simply laying out what’s known and letting readers decide. i love that his tone is non-confrontational and he frequently reiterates that people are different and have different paths to follow. but I, for one, find his evidence entirely too compelling (in 1987!) to ever think of eating something from an animal again.