Read 12 books in 2006

I haven’t logged in in so long. I can’t remember much of last month, much less two years ago. I have no idea if I accomplished this one, but I have a feeling I got very close. (I had both parents in two hospitals at overlapping times and had lots of time to read.) I’ll “give up” on this one since I am unsure.

I know I did not read 12 books in 2007, nor in 2008—and I am fairly confident it won’t happen with what is left. I think I’ll put up the goal of 12 in 2009 and try again!

Last year i also read Grant Naylor’s Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers.

I loved the Red Dwarf TV series, and reading the first book was like seeing the series’ again, with new adventures and twists and turns thrown in. I’ll read the other Red Dwarf books for sure :)

I read 11 books this year according to my All Consuming list. I might have read more, but some of my older books weren’t tagged with the exact date that I finished them. I am not upset since I did a lot of quilting, but I have an ambitious goal of 24 books next year.

I just finished this goal without realising it! I thought i still had 2 to go for some reason.

After The agony and the Ecstasy i read Lord of the Flies. It was the educational version, with notes at the end. I really enjoyed this book too, but i didn’t really like the way it ended. The notes at the end says that the ending serves some higher purpose in the meaning of the book, and i can see where it’s coming from, but it still felt weird, like waking up from a dream. And maybe that’s the point. It’s funny, i said quite similar things about the last book.

Then i read My Sister’s Keeper. This book was easy to read, and hard to put down, but there was something about it i didn’t quite buy into. The plot was interesting, and the twists were all fairly surprising, but it wasn’t really ground-breaking. A little too easy to read. But, enjoyable, and i am glad i read it. I had wanted to.

I just now finished Girl, Interupted. I started it this morning on the bus to work, so it was a quick read too. I don’t know what to say about this book. I have owned it for a while, having aquired it by accident when a friend left a whole lot of books at my house for me to read, and never took them back (i did offer). I saw the movie once, when another friend had it on, and was underwhelmed. I never intended to read the book, until i realised it was actually by the woman it is about. I didn’t realise it was non-fiction. The book was interesting, but not really thought provoking. Anyway, it led me to the end of my goal!

So, 12 books, no great feat, but, i started with out even trying, and finished without even realising.

I wonder how many i should aim for next year?

I just wrote an entry about this, and accidentally clicked a link, and it’s gone! ARRRRGGG! I HATE that!

Anyway..

I finished The agony and the Ecstasy last night.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think i will read it again sometime in the future. I found the Italian names a bit hard to follow at times, especially as so many of them are similar. I think it will be easier to follow when i read it again.

I did feel that the book was a bit rushed towards the end, but then time is like that, and i guess the end of life is like that. I think that that was the feel the author was trying to get, but i did feel that i would have liked a bit more detail of the events towards the end of Michelangelo’s life.

Now i am reading Lord of the Flies. Although i had already started it a while back, i have started again. I should be finished this one within a few days, maybe even today.

So now i have 19 days to read 3 books. Not too bad.

I am almost finished reading “The agony and the ecstasy”, but i haven’t picked it up in several days, and now i can’t recall where i last had it. So at the moment i am at a stand still, but hopefully i will remember to look for it when i get home. There honestly can’t be more than a couple of hours left in it.

A friend of mine just finished “My sister’s keeper”. I had seen this book in the shops when it first came out, and thought about buying it, but decided not to (I don’t often actually buy many books, but i think about buying many!).

SC absolutely loved it, and said she’d lend it to me to read. It only took her a few days, as she couldn’t put it down. She wants to return it to her sister when she goes to see her at Christmas, so it should be a quick one.

Another happy part of this goal is, i have more than $10 credit on my Dymocks reward card, so i think that is an excuse to buy myself a new book! I’m going to get “Love in the time of cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I’m excited to read another of Marquez’ books.

Hope i can make this!

(I know i can, i just don’t know if i will find the time. I’ll probably spend all of New Year’s Eve reading!)

:)

may need to re-evaluate next year’s reading goal.

After caravans i read The Last Tribes on Earth by Paul Raffaele. Paul Raffaele is a Sydney journalist who travels to see some of the most threataned cultures in the world. A lovely read. I enjoyed it, and although i didn’t necessarily agree with everything he was doing and saying, it was fun to delve into the way some people still live, in the 21st century.

But i have already read several books this year, i just need a few more.

First, what i have read;

1. Fiesta – The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
2. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I actually read this twice, does that count as one or two?)
4. Caravans by James A. Michener
5. The Night Tolkien Died (and other short stories) by Nadia Wheatley
6. The Bride Stripped Bare by Anonymous
7. The Dolphin Rider (and other Greek myths) by Bernard Evslin

The last one i read on the train home last night, it was a book i got from the bookclub at school, but it still counts, even though it’s not very long. The Bride Stripped Bare i bought a while ago, and only got part-way through, so i decided to read it until i got myself some more to read. It was fun to read, but i think you have to be in the right situation/ frame of mind to get into it. The Night Tolkien Died is another one from when i was at school, that i picked up off my shelf in boredom one day.

I read One Hundred Years of Solitude because i came across it twice when i was overseas, on seperate occasions, and that was enough for me to decide i had to read it. I enjoyed it so much, that after reading Caravans (which my mum had given to me years ago and i had not yet gotten into) i decided i had to read it again.

The Metamorphosis was great, and the perfect book for how i was feeling after i arrived back from overseas. I bought it when i was in Prague, and i think it was a great souvenir.

Now, books i plan to read;

8. The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
9. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
10. 1984 by George Orwell

I bought The Agony and the Ecstasy and Lord of the Flies this weekend at a second hand bookstore, and i’m really excited, because i have never read either of these books, and really want to. 1984 i have read before, but would like to read again.

So that equals 10, or 11 if i count One hundred Years of Solitude twice. I’d like to just count it as one. I’ll see how i go, and if i come across two other great books to read and the time to read them in. I’m actually going to have much more spare time over the next few months, so it should be a cinch. I’m sure i’ll swallow the next couple, i am really in the mood for reading lately. A friend also just finished White Swans and really enjoyed it, mabe i will add that too.

I’ve read the following books this year:

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Souls of Animals by Gary Kowalski
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

A couple of these were long so I’m ok with my progress right now. This does not include the first of my pre-pregnancy books that I read. I’m currently reading Burmese Days by George Orwell. It’s getting very interesting!