Megi53, flying through 2011

I won't aspire to read 75 works of Great Literature in one year.

I work in a middle school library and live with the left-behind bookshelves of my grown children (who gave me strict instructions not to discard a single one). It follows that I have access to frothy clusters of featherheaded reading material.

Since I've found this group to be refreshingly nonjudgmental, I'll join and list each book I finish in 2011.

The latest title I've finished is All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, found free in a box of Cheerios. My current book is dd's copy of Breaking Dawn.

There may be a couple dozen Bookers or selections from the various 1001 lists, but don't count on it!

Hi, Megi - nice to see you here! Happy Holidays.

Hi Megi! I look forward to all of your eclectic reading in 2011!

Hey, Megi! Welcome back!

Happy Holidays!

Welcome!

This morning over breakfast I finally finished the 84-page Darkness Visible by William Styron. (started 1/1/11; finished 1/4/11). He packed a lot into just a few pages: references to Romain Gary, Camus, Jean Seberg, Dante, Emily Dickinson, Abraham Lincoln ... when he got to the chapter about his mother and Brahms' "Alto Rhapsody", I had to get out a collection of short stories, A Tidewater Morning, in which he wrote about her death, so I could get some background.

This sounds really interesting, Megi. I've only read Styron's 'Nat Turner' - many years ago in college, yikes - and now I will look for his other work.

I agree with Judy. Darkness Visible does sound interesting.

I just finished All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. I love the way he writes! The terse cowboy talk juxtaposed with the soaring paeans to "the dias of the earth" was beautiful.

Just a touch of Sea Wolf Syndrome in Alfonsa's tale and the scene between John Grady and the Ozona judge. (SWS is what I call it when authors cause their secondary characters to make long, incongruous political speeches in conversation with the hero -- named for the socialist Captain in Jack London's story.)

Three featherweight books were finished in the past couple of weeks:

ETA: since touchstones aren't working well for me this year, I added asterisks BookCrossing-style.

*Clothing: Image and Impact* by Jeane Johnson and Anne Foster, along with *Decorating Rich* by Teri Seidman and Sherry Suib Cohen, were self-help books from the self-help obsessed late 80s. I got a few tidbits of helpful advice from each, but they were embarrassingly outdated.

*Bride of the Far Side* by Gary Larson provided a nice break for an evening or two.

OK, that's 5 out of 75.

Hi There

I'm compiling a list of birthdays of our group members. If you haven't done so already, would you mind stopping by this thread and posting yours.

Thanks.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/105833

Hi!

I posted to the birthday thread pretty early on. Good luck with your task!

#9: I have owned All the Pretty Horses for a while now. I really need to get it read one of these days.

Happy Birthday Megi. I hope Sunday is a special day for you.

Happy Birthday!

Hope you have a fantastic birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Thanks for the wishes! How nice to see them here.

I spent Sunday in Richmond (VA) and got to eat at Weezie's (meatloaf hoagie, mac 'n' cheese, and a fantastic spinach/artichoke/crab dip for starters) plus use my Groupon at Barnes & Noble. Great birthday!

I have an opportunity to catch up today -- off from work for a long Thanksgiving holiday, son home from college and sleeping past noon; just hanging around waiting for insurance appraiser to call (hit a deer on the way home from airport last week).

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene -- wonderful; this title reminded me of Vonnegut's dark humor (not to mention his funny illustrations).

Keep Your Car Running Practically Forever by Mort Schultz -- outdated; all I remember of the advice is to keep it garaged, which I can't do, not having one. At least now I'll get a brand new quarter panel.

Valley of the Far Side by Gary Larson -- humor for days between longer reads.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran -- recommended by coworker; already forgot most of it; weird illustrations.

Jahanara: Princess of Princesses by Kathryn Lasky -- had some interesting Moghul history, filtered through the author's bias.

Walkabout by James Vance Marshall -- not nearly as good as the movie.

Guts by Gary Paulsen -- had to read it for school; violent.

Brian's Hunt by Gary Paulsen -- ditto.

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren -- books about sassy redheaded kids exasperate me; had to read for work.

Pippi Goes on Board by Astrid Lindgren -- ditto.

Pippi in the South Seas by Astrid Lindgren -- ditto.

How the Forest Grew by William Jaspersohn and Chuck Eckart -- frameworthy illustrations.

It Came From the Far Side by Gary Larson -- I like reading these short comic books when I can't decide which long book to begin.

This gets me current through mid-March. Back later this weekend with more!

Nice to see you here again! although the news about hitting a deer is rather terrifying. My brother once totalled a car when that happened - he said he felt like he had a deer in his lap. Glad you seem to be ok - and poor deer, of course.