Saturday 22 January 2011

Reading list for 2011 so far

Okay, so I've spent a lot of the last few days on planes, in airports, and muttering to myself about everything that's been going wrong. I am happy to report that I'm finally in Cranbrook, B.C., where my little brother will be getting married later in the month. Yay!! Now I get to relax...when I'm not drinking beers with the bride to be's parents, snow-shoeing or doing any number of other fun things.

But let's not talk about that. I want to mention my goal for this year (which is a new goal, not one of those I made back in 2010). Last year I read...let's see...21 books. Tiny, tiny number! So this year my goal is to read at least 22. Hehe.

There was talk in this blog earlier of my maybe joining a book club in the new year, but like many things that may fall by the wayside. However, at an online community I belong to I am participating in a "classics" read (one classic novel per month, plus discussion of said novel, is what we're aiming at). This project was cooked up after I shared with the folks there my blog entry about classic novels we're told we're supposed to have read. The first book on the list (our February read) is To Kill A Mockingbird. And yes, I know it's shocking, but I've never read it. So I'm looking forward to it. But other than that, I've read these books so far this year:

  1. The Gathering Storm - Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
  2. Towers of Midnight - Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
  3. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer

And currently I am reading Anita Shreve's Body Surfing, and am loving it! I am nearly done with that one.

My mother and I met my friend Jenny at Borders today in Coeur d'Alene, and I bought four new books. It cost me$30.00 (with use of Jenny's Borders card anyway). In Australia, this is unheard of. I'd estimate that these 4 books would have cost me $70-$80 in Australia. And they're all small format books!

Yeah, don't visit Australia for cheap books. Or cheap anything, really.

So anyway, just wanted to check in with everyone, and report on my reading habits so far.

Oh, and to mention that my latest Chrysalis story, I Pronounce You...Dead! is posted and ready for the reading. ;) I had a lot of fun writing it, even if I made the character of Ryder way too nice in the first draft and had to rewrite his part so he was more...Ryder, I guess. ;)

Okay, this is me signing out. I'm going to try and catch up on your blogs now! I still owe a lot of people comments on the latest blogfest, and have not forgotten that at all!

5 comments:

  1. The classics-read seems like a nice focus for a book club. There will definitely be lots to analyze and discuss in those literary works! Happy Saturday to you ...

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  2. Honestly, I don't read. xD That's terrible, but I don't. My mom doesn't buy books fast enough and our library is terrible. I wish I read more. Have fun reading classics! ;D

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  3. I've had times when I haven't read much...namely during my studies (well, I've read during those times, but often nothing I would ordinarily CHOOSE to read :P)...and for quite a while after my studies ended, I was so burned out I didn't read at all. But I'm back into it again now :)

    Still, I'm a pretty slow reader. lol

    Joanne, yeah it should be interesting, though I'm sure I won't like everything we read. Still, for a few years it's been a mission of mine to try and expand my reading.

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  4. I've had a lot of luck buying classics second hand. That probably sounds awful, but if the work is already on Guttenburg and the author is already dead, then no one gets hurt. Around here, used books run about a dollar (USD) or less.

    You are going to LOVE To Kill a Mockingbird.

    Because I have archaic movie playing devices (a VCR and a Laserdisc player) I'm doing the same thing with classic movies this year. I've already seen Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Maltese Falcon, Hitchcock's Rebecca (highly recommended), From Here to Eternity and Jesus Christ Superstar.

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  5. In Australia, second-hand books are as much as $15.00 each, usually more. really sux ;)

    I like your plan for this year with the movie classics too :) I recently bought a set of 3 Hitchcock movies, only watched one so far. The other two are still waiting for me, ready to creep me out. hehe. I don't think Rebecca was one of them though. The others you mentioned there, I haven't seen either. I think I saw a musical of JCS one time, but not a movie. ;)

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Thanks for your words, me hearties! and don't forget to leave a link to your blog somewhere I can find it!