Saturday, July 02, 2005

love = books

I love books. I horde them, covet them. I read whenever I have a free moment, which isn't often these days. I also love to knit (my newest hobby), but when I'm knitting I feel guilty for not reading. I started a database of my book collection. Several years ago, I discovered I was reading things twice and three times without really realizing it till I was halfway through the book, so now I also write down in a notebook the titles I've finished and the dates I finished them.

Anyway, I was just now reading the blogs I visit usually every day. On on of my stops, I noticed that Jennifer has read 38 titles this year. Jeez! Now I feel inadequate. Where does she find the time? I have a lowly 9 to my credit. I can't really read more than 2 at a time, and sometimes not even that. Anyway, here's a list of what I've read this year, so far:

1. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris(02/05)
2. Sleeping with Schubert by Bonnie Marson (02/05)
3. Driven to Distraction - Recognizing and Coping with ADD by Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, MD (03-04/05)
4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (04/05)
5. America's Women - 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, & Heroines by Gail Collins (05/05)
6. Leap of Faith: Memiors of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor (05/05)
7. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (06/05)
8. Intrusions by Ursula Hegi (06/05)
9. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (06/05)
10. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (07/05)
11. Mrs. Kennedy by Barbara Leaming (08/05)
12. Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout (08/05)
13. A Lady, First: My life in the Kennedy White House and the American Embassies of Paris and Rome by Letitia Baldridge (08/05)
14. A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion (09/05)
15. The Ebony Tower by John Fowles (09/05)
16. The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan (10/05)
17. Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler (10/05)
18. The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike (10/05)
19. Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler (11/05)
20. The Aguero Sisters by Cristina Garcia (12/05)

Maybe I'd better step it up a notch!

Addendum:
I need to clarify something for all concerned parties. When I say I love and horde books, that is with the exception of $500 worth of flight books, technical text books about electricity and currents and other stuff that has absolutely no meaning for me. I don't horde these kinds of books.

It was Franz Kafka who said, "I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."

3 comments:

All Things Jennifer said...

:) Hee hee!

First of all I was unemployed until um, MAY, which SHOULD mean I have read many many more, but I have not!

Secondly, I have at least 10 books I am reading at any given time. All over the place. And I frequent the book/coffee shop up the street at least once a week for hours, reading magazines and new books.

Oh yeah,no husband, boyfriend or kids either!

Hope that makes you feel more, well NORMAL!!! I am the abnormal one!

Cassandra Kinaviaq Rae said...

Out of your '05 reads, I have read #4 and #7. I absolutely hated Life of Pi. However, I love talking about how I abhor it.

Secret Life of Bees was a good read. It made my list of favs for awhile. Now, I file it under the "entertaining" category.

I am tempted to read Sedaris.

Seems like your list has quite a bit of non-fiction. I used to refuse to read anything but fiction. Lately, I'm expanding my horizons.

David Collett said...

Love the quote.

"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."