Ok... I'm back after a year and a half to try again...

After re-lurking for a bit and in the interest of avoiding my physics I'm taking a crack at this again. Not that I don't read A LOT it's just that I have developed a habit of reading 1000 page biographies and they take forever. Plus, I can't sem to read a book where a historical figure is mentioned without running out and reading all about them (in the mentioned 1000 page biographies) so I can better understand the character in the FIRST book. I blame the internet. I've "solved" this deciding to read several books at a time, a chapter at a time. We'll see how that goes...

So here is what I'm reading so far this year:

A Rage To Live by Mary S. Lovell
War Against The Weak by Edwin Black
The Wilderness Warrior by Douglas Brinkley
The End Of Overeating by David A. Kessler, M.D.
The Human Disguise by James O'Neal

Hi Wendy, welcome back! I'm reading a lot of LONG books too right now, so my numbers aren't going to be very high for the first couple months of the year. But everyone says it's not really about the numbers, so that's what I'm telling myself...

Welcome back!

Glad to see you back with us again, Wendy!

Well, I've quickly finished The End of Overeating and The Human Disguise which I rated with 5 and 3 stars respectively and now I'm trying to burn through A Rage to Live. The problem with these really long biographies on Burton, Roosevelt, and Twain (I felt the need to read Twain's biography so I could better understand his non-linear autobiography) is that by the time I've worked through what feels like 5000 admittedly compelling pages, I find I don't like the person as much as I used to and I'm so saturated with them that I'm thankful they're dead so that they can't add any more pages to the damn book.

And why is that 500 pages into the most sympathetic Burton biography ever written the author can't cop to the idea that he was most likely an asshat. Brilliant, but an asshat. I mean if that many contemporaries don't like you then there has to be something going on. Is it possible for an author to be paranoid on behalf of their subject?

But that may just be me.

*waves HI back to everyone*

HI Wendy, welcome back. I love the writing of Mark Twain. I recently discovered eight boxes of books that were in storage and two of those large boxes were filled with Mark Twain books.

Okay, here's my finished list so far:

1. Hyperion. Absolutely dreadful.
2. The End Of Overeating. Fabulous, if brief, explanation of how processed food and it's marketing works on our brains.
3. The Human Disguise. This one did NOT live up to the synopsis on the back cover.
4. A Rage To Live. A great biography but the author spends so much time commenting on how wrong previous biographers got it that now I feel the need to read the others for a more balanced view. *sigh*

Now I am off to finish War Against The Weak and Wilderness Warrior.

#7: Thanks for the reminder about The End of Overeating. I need to get to that one soon.

7,8 - I read the Overeating book last year and I liked it as well. :)

#8,#9: If you are interested in a more in depth look at much of what gets covered in The End Of Overeating as far as the food industry goes, you might want to pick up some of Marion Nestle's work such as Food Politics or Safe Food, assuming you've already read Fast Food Nation.

Asshat. For that word alone I am starring your thread. Mind if I use it here on the east coast? I know so many of that ilk, that it would be a shame not to entertain my fellow cubicle-denizens with it.

Yep, by all means you may use it. Out here the pejorative "Asshat" is considered the middle form between the harsher "F**kwaffle" and milder "Empty-headed-pole-dancer" and is most often heard floating about when stuck in traffic behind the person who drove up a 1/2 mile of offramp before cutting across the gore point and back into traffic at the last minute so as not to have to wait with the rest of the unwashed masses.

Yay! I'm so glad you're back.

And forget the book count... it's all about the journey.

Yes, it is about the journey, hence I am returning Miss Hargreaves to the library. I was trying to power through it before it became due back at the library but I figure 150 pages is enough of a chance. Instead I picked up a copy of The Naturalist on The River Amazons for $3.00 at our local used bookstore.

Ok, back to War Against The Weak before that one is due back as well. And maybe some Twilight Zone episodes...

#14

Ooh, this year I'm keeping a list of 'rejects'. Maybe you might like to do the same :)
So far this year only Sanderson's The Way of Kings.

Well, despite being sick and sleeping most of the night and day I did finish War Against The Weak. It's a fascinating book but seems to focus so much on the minutia of the inner workings of the various eugenics organizations that I found myself skimming over some parts.

My list so far:

1. Hyperion
2. The End Of Overeating
3. The Human Disguise
4. A Rage To Live
5. War Against The Weak

Despite an absolutely embarrassing front cover and an inclination to veer off alarmingly in a "bodice ripper" on the plains direction, I finished a quick read of Ride The Wind, a fairly interesting fictionalization of the abduction and life of Cynthia Ann Parker, mother of the last chief of the Commanches, Quanah Parker.

1. Hyperion
2. The End Of Overeating
3. The Human Disguise
4. A Rage To Live
5. War Against The Weak
6. Ride The Wind

Still working on finishing Wilderness Warrior and Hell.

Sorry you aren't feeling well. I hope you are better soon.

Thanks :)
I'm all better now. I whipped up one of my patented "flu smoothies" (Kale, chard, bell peppers, celery, tomatoes, garlic, jalapeno and onion) and it killed the cold by the next day.

19- Wow. What a recipe. I'll have to try something like that. I enjoy trying natural healing thru foods and homeopathic medicinces when I'm sick, but I've never made anything like that! I suspect it would work very well, although the detox would probably make me feel worse for a little while, until I felt better.

#20 - Yeah, and I forgot to include a juiced lemon in that recipe. It actually tastes pretty good, a bit like a salsa smoothie, but it absolutely clears your head and sinuses. I swear by the stuff. That and a shot of Honey Gardens Cherry Bark and Raw Honey in grain alcohol with a shot of elderberry extract before bed and you will feel like a new person the next day.

I have finished another 2 books, YAY!

1. Hyperion
2. The End Of Overeating
3. The Human Disguise
4. A Rage To Live
5. War Against The Weak
6. Ride The Wind
7. Hell - Great beginning and middle but I hated the end. I thought the author totally missed the mark and shot himself, or rather the story, in the foot.
8. Makers - Fun. Lots and lots of fun and likable, realistic characters.

Still working on The last 100 pages of Wilderness Warrior, and starting The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, My Neck Of The Woods and The Age of Wonder.

#21: That and a shot of Honey Gardens Cherry Bark and Raw Honey in grain alcohol with a shot of elderberry extract before bed and you will feel like a new person the next day.

Actually, I think that would kill me! I would feel like a new person - a dead one :)

I finally finished Wilderness Warrior!! Yehawwwww!

On the downside I've lost a library book.

*hangs head* I lost 3 :(

#24 Well that just SUCKS. Sorry. I offered to replace the one I lost, which I can do new. But they won't accept that I have to pay a flat $25.00 fee, which is twice, if not 3 times, what I can get it for.

On an upside, I finished The Age of Wonder but then got carried away and added Mieville's The Scar to my "currently reading" list because i wanted something totally distracting to read while on jury duty. And the today I picked up the new dystopian anthology 'Brave New Worlds', (which isn't showing up in the touchstones) because, well, because I'm hopeless and I proceeded to read the first 2 stories in THAT. So now i have 7 or 8 books going at one time. Oh, and let's not forget The CAFO Reader that I picked up at the library and started as well. So make that 9 or 10. Oh, yeah, and Moose: A memoir of Fat Camp. So 10 or 11. Somebody stop me before my head explodes.

And what is REALLY cool, one of my fellow jurors came up to me while we were waiting to be called and said she was a librarian and that she was giving me a Starbucks gift card for reading in public. I guess it's a program our county library has to reward adults who read in public places. I was ridiculously pleased. Imagine being rewarded and thanked for doing your favorite thing ever. Now if only someone appreciated my toast consumption and cat tummy rubbing capabilities. Or napping. Because boy can I nap like a pro. Any time, any place.

#25: Imagine being rewarded and thanked for doing your favorite thing ever

I wish my local library did that!

I somehow stumbled on your thread and found myself laughing at your rant at the top about your reading habits, etc. I do the same sort of thing and I guess I've "solved" the issue the same way, by reading multiple books at a time. For example, I started reading a history of The New York Times and right this minute I have no less that seven books about various aspects/people/etc. of the newspaper industry sitting on my desk. {grin} Oh well. I also love the "salsa smoothie" recipe--I'll have to give it a try the next time I'm under the weather. Happy reading.

The Starbucks gift card story is really cool...way to go...

Here is my updated list of finished books:
1. Hyperion
2. The End Of Overeating
3. The Human Disguise
4. A Rage To Live
5. War Against The Weak
6. Ride The Wind
7. Hell
8. Makers
9. Wilderness Warrior
10. The Age of Wonder
11. A Neotropical Companion

I'm still working on Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, The CAFO Reader, The Voyage of The Beagle, and The Scar.

1. Hyperion
2. The End Of Overeating
3. The Human Disguise
4. A Rage To Live
5. War Against The Weak
6. Ride The Wind
7. Hell
8. Makers
9. Wilderness Warrior
10. The Age of Wonder
11. A Neotropical Companion
12. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack - This was just... awful. Truly awful.
13. Brave New Worlds (touchstones aren't working) - This is John Joseph Adam's new dystopian anthology. If you wonder whether you might like it because you are not a big fan of short stories then I urge you to try it out. The very first story is The Lottery. That inclusion alone makes this an awesome pick!

I am behind on all the other books currently on my list "reading list". I stopped at Third Place Books yesterday and traded in a number of finished books for some new ones, including Jonathan L. Howard's Johannes Cabal the necromancer which I couldn't help but start and which is hysterically perfect so far.

Stopping in to see what you are reading and to say hello.

*Waves enthusiastically*

Pardon me while I multi-task... I'm getting some tuna for a very demanding 20 lb maine coon with separation anxiety, poking around online, and whipping up a delightful batch of "Green" gumbo with a side of baked kabocha squash in honor of Mardi Gras. Oh and admiring my nifty new second-hand bookcase. The one that has allowed me to get the last of the books off the floor! *snoopy dancing*

And what are you up to?

Haha...I keep tripping on your user name. I keep wanting to say something else and you probably can guess what it is!

1. Hyperion
2. The End Of Overeating
3. The Human Disguise
4. A Rage To Live
5. War Against The Weak
6. Ride The Wind
7. Hell
8. Makers
9. Wilderness Warrior
10. The Age of Wonder
11. A Neotropical Companion
12. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
13. Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories
14. Johannes Cabal the Necromancer - This was hysterically funny.
15. Ship Breaker - I actually enjoyed this more than I liked Windup Girl.

I'm running a bit behind my goal if I'm gonna get 75 done by the end of the year. I need to step it up some. Or pick skinnier books....

1. Hyperion
2. The End Of Overeating
3. The Human Disguise
4. A Rage To Live
5. War Against The Weak
6. Ride The Wind
7. Hell
8. Makers
9. Wilderness Warrior
10. The Age of Wonder
11. A Neotropical Companion
12. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
13. Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories
14. Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
15. Ship Breaker
16. My Neck Of The Woods

Now I'm trying to finish up P.G. Downes, Sleeping Island as well as More Readings From One man's Wilderness and The Voyage Of The Beagle.

Okee dokee... I finished Sleeping Island and now I'm working on too many to list because I have the attention span of a fruit fly and I can't seem to settle on any one thing.

So I went online and bought something.... a new backpack. Something to carry my many books-in-progress in. Makes sense, no?

Now I have to go through and collect all my older Jansport and Timbuktu bags and sell them online to make back the money I just spent on an Osprey Kestrel 32 bag with internal hydration and on-the-go rain cover. Perfect for "can't seem to pick a weather pattern" Seattle.

Come to think of it, I think I'll try reading Desert Happy.

Congrats on the new backpack/book carrier. Makes perfect sense to me. :)

Speaking of Jansport...I still have and use my green jansport backpack from high school. It's been on several overseas trips with me too. And it barely even looks worn. Those things are great. I wish my parents would have found one like that for me when I was in elementary school...I wouldn't have had so many backpacks break or tear during school.

*Doing the Snoopy dance* My new book and cookie carrier... errr.... backpack is arriving day after tomorrow! Plus I received 2 new books yesterday, The Central Australian Expedition, a very beautiful Hakluyt Society edition and the gorgeously translated Limnoecology, a book that according to my wife, shot me to the top of the list in measurable dorkitude when I started going on about Tillman's Mechanistic Theory of Resource Conservation. Some people. Like she should point fingers.

Anyway, I finished Weisman's thought experiment, The World Without Us, which I actually started on a flight to Lihue, Kauai but got distracted from after a visit to the National Tropical Botanical Gardens gift shop (where they had a wondrous selection of books on ethnobotany. I'm just saying.) Now I'm back to my usual problem of a wealth of riches and an indecisive nature.

*sigh* Sick as a dog over here but I have managed to finish Hellhole, Arms Wide Open, and Desert Wife.

There might be others I've forgotten to mention. I might have to go back and check.

1. Hyperion
2. The End Of Overeating
3. The Human Disguise
4. A Rage To Live
5. War Against The Weak
6. Ride The Wind
7. Hell
8. Makers
9. Wilderness Warrior
10. The Age of Wonder
11. A Neotropical Companion
12. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
13. Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories
14. Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
15. Ship Breaker
16. My Neck Of The Woods
17. Sleeping Island
18. The World Without Us
19. Hellhole
20. Arms Wide Open
21. Desert Wife

Oh dear. Sorry to hear you are under the weather.

Hope you recover super quick.

Yep, and now it's bronchitis. Happens every time. I need to do some research to find out why and how to avoid it. In the meantime I've finished 4 more books, The Old Patagonia Express, Crusoe of Lonesome Lake, We Live in Alaska and Halibut Schooner.

Got a few new ones to add. I'm only 3 books away from tipping the halfway point!

1. Hyperion
2. The End Of Overeating
3. The Human Disguise
4. A Rage To Live
5. War Against The Weak
6. Ride The Wind
7. Hell
8. Makers
9. Wilderness Warrior
10. The Age of Wonder
11. A Neotropical Companion
12. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
13. Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories
14. Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
15. Ship Breaker
16. My Neck Of The Woods
17. Sleeping Island
18. The World Without Us
19. Hellhole
20. Arms Wide Open
21. Desert Wife
22. The Old Patagonia Express
23. Crusoe of Lonesome Lake
24. We Live In Alaska
25. Halibut Schooner
26. The Strain
27. The Fall
28. Taming Mighty Alaska
29. The Wilder Life
30. Go North, Young Man

Nice list!

Thanks! I forgot to add one:

31. Far North. I have to call this one a disappointment as a week after I finished it I couldn't even remember for sure that I had read it.

Just finished my first book for the month of May, #32. Hater. I picked it up at the bookstore yesterday while trading in some used books. I was SO excited. It had a fantastic synopsis on the back describing rampant societal paranoia and comparing it to Richard Matheson. It made me think of I Am Legend and the way that at the end you realize the "hero" is only a hero depending on your perspective and maybe HE is the real monster. Needless to say I found Hater not to be anything like that. The protagonist is such a miserable spineless half-assed failure that I found it impossible to relate to or even care about him, the premise so ill explained or plausible as to disallow me suspending my disbelief ( and this is a stretch for somebody half looking forward to wielding a 9-iron during the "Zompocalypse") and the ending an apparent homage to every 13 year old boys love of video games and explosions that I nearly threw the book down in disgust. There goes 4 hours of my life I'll never get back.

Finished #33, We Who Are About To Die, written in 1935 by a man who spent 13 months on San Quentin's death row, sentenced to hang for a crime he didn't commit. It's fascinating to the see that the same issues and arguments we see today were just as evident and prescient 75 years ago.

Jenkies! I finally finished #34, over 500 pages of Appetite For Life, the biography of Julia Child and I am wore out!

Finished #35 The Living Dead and #36 Allison Hewitt Is Trapped. It's a zombie sort of week what with the coming apocalypse this Saturday.

Way behind on your thread, Wendy, but I must comment that, if you are in the mood for more of Julia Child, her book of correspondence with Avis DeVoto is well worth reading if you have not done so already. It is entitled As Always, Julia.

Well, much has happened, not all of it good but we have emerged from the other side in one piece and have been reading throughout so I must update my list although the order is going to be a bit cattywompous (sp?).

37. Mysterium
38. Fun On The Farm In Alaska
39. Onions In The Stew
40. Feed More zombies...!
41. The Court Of The Air
42. The Dead Janitors Club
43. Eutopia
44. Directive 51
45. River Of Gods
46. Kosher Chinese
47. Barn In New England
48. Consider Phlebas
49. Wilderness Homesteaders
50. Helix
51. Ill Wind

So it seems as though I may hit my 75 book mark this year. Fingers crossed!

It's hard to come back when somebody has violated your space. It seems that you're doing well and you should have no problem reaching 75. Stay with us!

Some good stuff! Have you heard there's a sequel to Feed that's out now? I haven't read it yet, but it's lined up to go at some point soon.

Fingers crossed for 75, Wendy!

#53 - Yes, and I have the second one, it's called Deadline. I just haven't started it yet because I'm working on Mieville's King Rat, Appetite For Profit, Live In A Better Way and The 13 1/2 Lives Of Captain Bluebear. I have SO MANY books in my TBR pile that I can't in good conscience start a recently purchased book until I wade through some of the older ones. I literally have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to books.

#54 - Thanks :-)

#55: I literally have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to books.

Nice problem to have, is it not?

Yes it is! Except our house really is overrun with books. I have started to really get serious about re-homing books I know that I either won't re-read or that I can easily get at the library. I tried a Nook a couple of years ago and hated it so much that I fell over myself returning it the next day but I'm thinking it might be time to rethink that attitude for the majority of my library that isn't hard to find, autographed or collectible.

Yeah, I am making a concerted effort this year to dispose of books if I think the book is one I will not re-read. I understand the problem all too well.

3 more finished. One on my Nook even!

52. Gone
53. King Rat
54. Room

Cool beans, Wendy!

What did you think of Gone? I have that book hanging around my house waiting for me to get to it.

#60 - Ya know, it was fun. It required a pretty high degree of suspension of disbelief in terms of both the characters and the scenario but it was fun. This series strikes me as one that I would get from the library rather than buy though since I don't see myself reading them over when i'm done.

In the meantime, I have finished:

55. The World Ends In Hickory Hollow. If you read and liked Earth Abides or Alas, Babylon! then this one is a similar read. It has a pretty healthy selection of character cliches that can be a little difficult to overlook at times, but again, engaging your suspension of disbelief makes for a much more enjoyable read. And reader now that I think about it. Less crabby and critical. I splurged for it on the Nook because it was only $3.99 and I refuse to pay over $9.99 for am eBook.