Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving! My boyfriend made a big spread, and played Guitar Hero III. Ahh, the holidays without family. I think that I opened my big mouth to his mom about this being the last one we would stay away for. Oops.

I am hating reading. I have read about 50 pages in Sotheby's: Bidding for Class, about 30 in The Alienist, and about 20 in another. I am horribly horribly behind, and I care less and less. I know I am going to care as soon as I am about 3 months from finishing and it will be a disaster. I hope something happens to make me care again, but I am being very rebellious from my little project.

Fever

I just finished Fever 1793 by Anderson. Why do I love reading about disease? Ever since I did a history report on the Black Plague in the 8th grade it has been love between me and filthy pestilence. And yes, it was a kid's book and I am counting it.

So, I am ready to say screw it to this project, not because I can't do it, but it is just silly. I want to read what I want to read when I want to read it. I don't want to take in consideration how many pages, how fast, etc...I am not quitting though.

Why read 10 shitty book instead of 1 good one, what was I thinking? I should have made the project to only read books from my list, regardless of how many I read. One book from my list should make me happy, not 50 crap books.

Maybe next year I will only re-read my favorite books, or read one book 2 times, or something.

Stress is yummy

Just in case I wasn't busy enough with being a full time student, taking care of my ailing, yet hyper dog, reading 100 books in a year, being a perfect homemaker, taking care of my bombshell body, hobbling the long walk from school with a painful and annoying broken toe, my childhood bff and I have decided to write a book, and I am making my first attempt at looking into an internship.

Mania is beautiful, until it isn't. I am starting to feel a little over-taxed, but I have come to the Zen conclusion that if something doesn't get done, then something just doesn't get done. The world won't cease to turn. At least I don't think that the world is turning because I figure out SQL or my dishes are done by bed time, let's hope not.

The Roomating Season

The title of this book is atrocious, but I read the first page and decided to give it a go. I still have a ton of stripped books left over from my previous bookstore career, so every once and awhile I try to go through the pile to see if there is anything left to salvage.

the Roomating Season by Jona Raffe was pretty good. It was a girly book, I guess it was chick lit but I reserve that term for books I hate. It was a story told by an old lady about her and her roommates in the 1960's in New York City. Amidst the searching for a husband and the task of readying up the hope chest, it was a nice look at how single girls operated right before the era of free love. I found it delightful.

Now I am having an epiphany. I hate this project. I hate that I said I would read 100 books in a year. Because I am reading a lot of crap that I would have never even picked up, and my lonely to-read list is just looking at me like "remember me?"

Some days I decide screw it, and only plan on reading what I want, other days I think, but i SAID 100 books, I can't just stop. So I am perplexed. the difficulty lies in the fact that most my to-read books I still have to buy, or they are 1000 pages, or just difficult.

Now I am starting Out of Africa, it IS on my list, so that makes me happy.

Rubbish

Book #32 was A Calculated Risk by Katherine Neville. Now this book was way way way outdated. The computer things were very funny. Normally I love Neville's books because they are so well researched and so smart. Even if she is talking about a gal taking a shower, she is drinking scotch and listening to Vivaldi before she cuddles up in her Egyptian sheets with her Vizsla. There was a little hint of this in that the main character was obsessed with white orchids and chess, but it just wasn't enough to overpower the horrific love scenes.

Ewww. The were awkward and just awful. I kept picturing the dude about 30 years older than he was and the dialog was just embarrassing. I actually had to squint to block out the horror of it all. Gag. I will add a quote when I get home, just so you can feel my pain.

It is chilly here and the boy sitting beside me smells like hot wing sauce. My cue to leave.

Odd Thomas

I finished Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz, and despite the fact that I really and truly enjoyed his characters, I have no real desire to real any more of his books. There was just something I didn't like about his writing.

Always she has sought a life utterly without stress, without contention, She acknowledges no duty to another, no responsibility to anyone but herself.

She would never call this selfishness. To her it is self-defense, for she finds the world enormously more demanding than she is able to tolerate.-Odd Thomas-Dean Koontz

I had wanted to be 40 books in by now, but as you see I am a mere 31. I plan on reading 10 books very fast. I am half way through A Calculated Risk by Katherine Neville. It is funny because it is all about technology/security and bank robbery, but it is set in 1992. So she is describing what a "Techie" is an stuff, it is cracking me up. Being a tekkie myself, it is pretty funny, but I remember well the days of hackers and cyberpunks. I couldn't have cared less about technology then though. Two years ago all I could do was check my email, things can change so fast.

Yay, I hit 30!

1. The Pilgrimmage- Paulo Coehlo
2. The Opposite of Fate- Amy Tan
3. Bookends- Jane Green
4. Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters, and Seymour and Introduction- J.D. Salinger
5. The Hours- Michael Cunningham
6. I'm a Stranger here Myself- Bill Bryson
7. And Then There Were None- Agatha Christie
8. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- J.K. Rowling
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- J.K. Rowling
10. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim- David Sedaris
11. Take the Cannoli- Sarah Vowell
12. Philosophy for Beginners-Osborne
13. Stuart:A Life Backwards-Alexander Masters
14. The Empty House- Rosamund Pilcher
15. How to Cook a Wolf- MFK Fisher
16. The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Decorum-Izzo
17. A Slender Thread-Diane Ackerman
18.Rebecca- Daphne du Maurier
19. Triple-Ken Follett
20.Sleeping Tiger-Rosamund Pilcher
21.French Women for all Seasons-Mirielle Guilano
22. A Year in the Merde-Stephen Clarke
23. An Open Life-Joseph Campbell
24. Yellow Jack- John R. Peirce
25. Ender's Game- Orson Scott Card
26. Embraced by the Light- Betty Eadie
27. The Quiet American- Graham Greene
28. Nickel and Dimed-Barbara Ehrenreich
29. Possible Side Effects- Augusten Burroughs
30. The Historian- Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian was not the worst time I have ever had, but looking back I feel like that could have been 600+ pages of time better spent. It wasn't bad, really. It just didn't get to that place you thought it was getting to. I think she could have wrote all that into 300 pages, then told us more about the actual plot, and it would have been good. I don't have a quote, it wans't that kind of dazzle you language. It kinda is pissing me off the more I think about it because it should have been a good book. It was a great idea and she messed it all up.

This week I have been feeling like this project is stupid. I am reading a lot of books this year, but I think next year I will focus on reading 50 important books, or even just 50 from my list. My list is rough, and I had wanted to whittle it down a bit, but it isn't a speed competition sort of list. I am seeing the error of my ways. Now I am going to end up reading a ton of crap that I would have never even read instead of working on my to-read list. I am a dummy