75 Books Challenge for 2011: Bafflegabber

Hello everyone! My name is Gabbi - and I thought after lurking around here for a few days I should introduce myself. I live in Seattle, although I'm originally from south Texas. I'm a student, double-majoring in Cultural Linguistics and Russian. I'm the decedent of two librarians, and credit my book obsession to my mother and grandmother. When I'm not reading I love to hike, soak up the Seattle rain, drink coffee, dance and listen to music, play with any dog or cat I come across, read the paper and watch 30Rock and Scrubs. I also love to travel and learning new languages, hence my majors.

So far this year I've been reading a lot of Haruki Murakami for school. I'm currently in a class that is all about his literature, so we've been reading him all quarter; Hear the Wind Sing, The Elephant Vanishes, A Wild Sheep Chase, Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and The Windup Bird Chronicles At the moment we're almost done with Kafka on the Shore.

Outside of him I've read Things I've Been Silent About, All Quiet on the Western Front, Starship Troopers, a few works by Ayn Rand, Paulo Coehlo, Neil Gaiman and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I'll have a definitive list once I look through my bookshelf properly. I've very excited about the 75 Books challenge! I've never been challenged to read like this before, so not only does it give me a good excuse to do my favorite activity, but I'm really looking forward to sharing ideas with people about what to read. That's always been the hardest part for me lol - deciding what to read. So many choices!!!

I look forward to meeting everyone! :)

-Gabbi

Looks like a great list! I'm a Gaiman fan as well. And of course, Starship Troopers. Welcome!

Welcome to the group, Gabbi!

Gabbi, welcome to the group!! I am vastly envious of your course on Murakami!! I've been rationing myself (not that that makes sense even to me when I think about it) and have read only *Wind-up Bird* and *Kafka*. *W-uB* was my book of the decade in whatever decade it came out. I'd love to hear a little more about the course.

Thanks guys!

Lizzie, it's been an awesome course. I just took my final in it yesterday though :( We started with "Hear the Wind Sing", his first novel that was published in the '70's and read most of them through "Kafka" (except for "Norwegian Wood") . In between we read articles about him and book reviews. My professor was very interested in unraveling the meaning behind many of Murakami's motifs and symbolism. In particular we spent a lot of time discussing the shadows, animals, conscience/subconscious divides, the meaning of names and the appearance of wells, ears, war, forests ect. in his novels. It was challenging, Murakami isn't always very easy to figure out, but I feel that I learned a lot. I've never read all the books of an author in chronological order back to back so quickly, so it was cool to watch his style evolve. I really liked "Wind up Bird", although the Rat trilogy (four of his earlier books that all contain the character "Rat" and an unnamed protagonist), was my favorite. If you ever get the chance to read "A Wild Sheep Chase" - do it! It was my favorite, as was his collection of short stories because that guy is amazingly gifted with short stories! Not a big "Kafka" fan, but I attribute that to mental fatigue haha....I think after reading so much Murakami, I don't think I could appreciate it as much.

-Gabbi

Thanks for the *Wild Sheep* recommendation, Gabbi. I need another book, so it's been bumped up my obese wishlist.

Welcome to LT and this challenge. It will be interesting to follow your reading.

#6 Anytime :) I'm happy to make your wishlist plumper lol

#7 Thanks, now that schools out I can finally get started.

As of right now I'm reading Russia people and empire 1552-1917 as background for my upcoming trip to St. Petersburg. It's a pretty hefty read and it's been a while since I've attempted such a large tome of historical knowledge...but with all this free time I find myself having, it shouldn't be too bad ;)

I am also reading two other books at the moment. Yeah, I'm one of "those" people who need multiple books to read so I can change back and forth depending on my mood. I'm about a quarter of the way through The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and about half way through Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I read her other book Infidel a few years ago and enjoyed it. I was very excited to get "Nomad", particularly since it was a "free" book due to the rewards program I'm on in the local bookstore :D ...I know that library books are free, but I love reading with a highlighter and I can't deface library books like I can my own lol.

#8: I am one of "those" people too. You are not alone. Actually there are quite a few of us just in this group!

#9 Haha, I can imagine. Perhaps that's why we're so keen to take on the 75 book challenge. :P Do you ever suffer from severe indecision sometimes? I had that problem last night, trying to decide what to read before bed. I think I spent more time trying to figure out what I was going to read than the amount of time I actually read...*sigh* 'tis my curse....

#10: Yes, I have the indecision bug at times too. Par for the course, I guess.

To quote the great philosopher Jimmy Buffet: Indecision may or may not be my problem.

#12 HAHA yes! Dude, I love Jimmy Buffet. That man is genius! That's actually one of my favorite CD's of his, the "Barometer Soup" one. I can't remember what song he says that line in though.... o.0

It's from "Don't Chu Know", the riff at the end. Barometer Soup is one of my faves too.

The eighth deadly sin? PIZZA!