59. Ernest Hemingway: Rediscovered and 60. A New Earth

This book was mostly photographs of Papa looking macho with his leather vest and rifle on knee or at the helm of his boat practicing his own brand of politics. I can't help myself, I love this guy. I am glad he isn't a law maker or in charge of governing the world, but I sure am glad he existed.

I haven't completely abandoned my 100 book quest, but I have been very sluggish about my discipline for finishing up anything. I did read A New Earth again, but it just wasn't the same, I was hoping that every time I picked up this book I would be overcome with the urge to clean, like I was the first time. It was not so. Either way, it counts.

I am still lumbering through 5 or so books. We will see what happens.

I am trying to study, really I am...

How can I focus on creating audit trails for medical records with this looping in my head?

Finals

Hello. I can't believe it is time for finals already, this semester just flew by! That means that July 4th is right around the corner and I am screwed. C'est la vie.

My current reading situation hasn't changed all that much.

Dreams from my father- Barak Obama: I am about half way through, and though, I am very ADD when it comes to my presidential candidates right now, I do really enjoy his writing.

Spring Snow- Mishima: I am over half way through with this book, and the story doesn't really seem that incredible, but the prose is so rich and just different from any other that I read it really slow to savor it all.

Book about Hemingway: I am almost done, and I know, Hemingway is an overpraised misogynist blah blah blah. I tell you, I don't care. I adore him. I like his raw, un-flowery style, his silly machismo and his leather vests.

A New Earth- Yeah, I am reading it again, and I will count it again, so shut up.

Brave New World-Aldous Huxley: I barely started it, so far, I am not into it, yet.

Coming Home-Rosamund Pilcher: It is springtime, I need my fix of my special lady. She is the opposite of Hemingway, flowery flowery flowery.

58. Booked to Die-John Dunning

This book has been on my reading list a long time because it is about a tough, gritty detective that is also a collector of antique books. The book selling parts of the book were interesting and it was cool reading about the competitive cut-throat book scouting world, but some of the dialog and phrases were appalling. I may read the second book in the series-Bookman's Wake, but only because I bought it and I feel a certain obligation.

Speaking of certain obligations, that is also why I am still keeping track of what I finish here. But make no mistake, I have all but accepted failure in regards to the 100 books. I feel great about it though; no more guilt when I peruse my favorite magazines or, heaven forbid, just want to play a video game or watch a movie.

I can linger over one sentence for an hour and even make the decision to just stop reading a book if I don't like it. When I was so concerned with the numbers, I would beat myself up for not finishing a book if I already had committed 50 pages; after all, those pages could count...

So today, I am going to enjoying cleaning up my apartment, test my hand at Risotto, go to the market and buy veggies for the week, and IF I feel inspired I will do a little lounging and slowly read a big, fat, wordy novel.

57. Entre Nous, something something inner french girl

I read this book a long time ago, and there was a recipe I was trying to find, so I just re-read the whole thing. And that my friends, is why this "challenge is a total bust" I will do pretty much anything to just rack up a number. I have a huge stack of neglected magazines just rotting away, and I have even tried to devise a way to make them add up to a book somehow. Surely, my J. Peterman stack counts for at least 2 books.

I wanted to measure a year in books, and I still think that that is a wonderful idea. I remember my 11th year perfectly because my best friend Rhonda and I read the first 3 Dragonlance books. I have no idea how long it took to read them, but I remember laying on my couch in our dingy apartment above a store, pretending it was a tree house and that any minute I would set off for some big adventure. As a teenager, I read all of De Sade, The Decameron and Geek Love by Katherine Dunn all in the same year, a year that I was determined to seek after the seedier elements of my tiny southern town. At 21, I discovered my love of all things WASPY with The Secret History by Donna Tartt and Franny and Zooey by Salinger. My mid-twenties were consumed by Proust, Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Against the Grain by Huysmans.

I was crazy to think that a year could be measure in the amount of books I read instead of the content of the books I read. When I look back on this time, I will remember that I read a few good books, Middlesex...I cant really think of any others of hand, but I know I read a few good ones in a row.

Everything but books

I have been reading my mother's hand me down Woman's Day magazines, my favorite blogs: Peterman's Eye and Pink of Perfection , I have been re-reading some old books here and there, and I have been watching many a subtitled film lately. That being said, I am in the middle of seven books and I am not really enjoying any of them, I am re-reading 2 that I will absolutely count towards my 100 IF i finish them, this doesn't bode well. I have reading ADD. If I could harness this voracious reading in one direction, I could actually finish a book or two more, but, alas, I can not be tamed.

56. Chocolat-Joanne Harris

This book was very similar to the movie, sweeping scenes of grinding spices and folksy French people hanging out with the gypsies. I love it, I watch that movie over and over, it makes me want to go buy a billowy red trench coat and traipse though the hills.