read 100 books in 2006

Got a new job and stopped taking the bus. Also had a bunch of other things going on that interfered with my reading.

I’ll try again one day.

Bullfighting + Hemingway = Match made in Heaven

I always thought of bullfighting as cruel, inhumane, and barbaric. Hemingway’s book did nothing to dispel those beliefs and may have actually made them stronger.

However, after reading “Death in the Afternoon”, which is a fantastic, opinionated, bloated, and stirring ode to Spain and its pastime, I want to see a bullfight and revel in its artistry and passion. Did I just say that?

Anyway, the book is great, especially when Hemingway is critical of the more “cowardly” bullfighters. Like this example:

“Cagancho’s cowardice whe he has to kill is more than disgusting. It is not the sweating, dry-mouthed fear of a nineteen-year-old boy who cannot kill properly having been too frightened…..... It is the cold-blooded gypsy defrauding of the public by the most shameless, anger-arousing obtainer of money under false pretenses, that ever went into a bull ring”.

27 Madison – Gary Wills
28 Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
29 Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut
30 Naked – David Sedaris

I have wanted to read Siddhartha for quite some time. I enjoyed it but I am not sure why some people are so affected by this book.

Birding Babylon consists of entries from a popular blog kept by a soldier stationed in Iraq. He discusses his bird sightings and other insights.

I admit that I have said nothing good about this book to customers (I work at a bookstore) based on my reading prejudices.

I was wrong. It is a very enjoyable book and I loved reading it.

1 more this month and I will still be on pace.

Whew! This is not an easy thing to do.

In 1953, American naturalist Roger Tory Peterson (the namesake of the Peterson Field Guides) and British Ornithologist James Fischer went on a 2+ month tour of the United States and wrote about the people, places, and birds that they saw.

I seem to be reading nothing but young adult and graphic novels so far this month. Hmmm…..

I picked this one up because I remember liking it as a kid and because it is about nature and Peregrine Falcons.

The original graphic novel.

Not the novel based on the movie screenplay, which is based on the graphic novel.

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