vneely

73. The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds
74. The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
75. Hiring Library Employees: A How-To-Do-It Manual by Richard E. Rubin

69. Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
70. An American Plague by Jim Murphy
71. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
72. Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters by Jay Conrad Levinson, David Perry

38: All those “science experiments” living in my fridge. It’s clean now.

All about dealing with jealous neighbors who hate your guts if you have ambition and nice things they can’t afford.

Just to preserve my sanity, even the absolute worst micro stories that aren’t even a page long are going to count… as long as they have an ending. The point is to get in the habit of writing, and maybe produce at least one or two halfway decent stories.

And maybe I’ll be all primed for this year’s NaNoWriMo, too.

62. The Wish Giver by Bill Brittain
63. Three Tales of My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
64. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
65. Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
66. The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
67. Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
68. Blue Willow by Doris Gates

SOME pussyfooting. But I finally sent the blasted thing off. I doubt it will get printed, but hey, I finally did it and can cross this off my list.

37: Some piles of miscellaneous junk I’ve been meaning to get rid of for some time. I’m going to count them as one thing.

Was sure I wouldn’t like it, but it grew on me after a few pages. You just have to get used to the Medieval language (thou, thee) and enjoy a slow-paced story.

Well, I made the reservations. I’ll get there before the year is over.

36: An empty laserjet ink cartridge. Handed it off to Staples for recycling.

The adventures of a little wooden doll named Hitty, whose life began in the 1820s. Although the story itself is almost pure fiction, Hitty herself is real—she inspired the tale. http://hitty.org/ is an interesting page about the real Hitty.

Cute enough. It’s a classic.

I’m finally going to do it. Once I get that new printer cartridge in the mail, anyway. But at least I’ve got something written up. No more pussy-footing around.

32: A whole bunch of junk in the bathroom (each thing so old and useless it may as well count as one)
33: Several books
34: A thin and flimsy backpack
35: A slightly battered leather pouch with broken zippers that isn’t likely to be mended. Over 11 years old. Its twin that I saved as a backup is in perfect shape, so I can’t justify keeping this. Goodbye, old friend.

31: Picture frames that I can’t hang on the wall. I have no room in my life for frames that can only be placed on a table.

15: Some old pens that ran out of ink
16: Old makeup (never worn for the past three years)
17: A small plastic zip-up container
18: Three bars of soap
19: Jewelry that hasn’t been worn in over four years
20: Horribly scratched CD
21: Expired bottles of aspirin and medication
22: A tiny bottle of hand sanitizer
23: Empty bottles hiding under the sink
24: A glasses case
25: An eraser
26: Junky old papers, envelopes, and manuals
27: A leather checkbook cover that won’t close
28: Some cardboard boxes
29: A gluestick
30: A plushie

This was the only book I could find at the library about the history of the Newbery Medal. Unfortunately it was published in 1957, so it’s VERY outdated.

51. Life Without Lawyers by Philip K. Howard
52. Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James
53. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
54. The Tale of the Swamp Rat by Carter Crocker
55. Walter: The Story of a Rat by Barbara Wersba
56. Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
57. Joyful Noise by Paul Fleischman
58. Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel
59. The Grey King by Susan Cooper

Most of the other books I read this year are listed under another goal I completed earlier, Read 50 books in 2009

A fantasy story based on Arthurian legend. Unfortunately this is the fourth book in a series, so I’m missing a lot of the context.