Anais' 2009 75-book List

Until I got on LibraryThing (recently), I had tried a few times to keep book journals and such, but usually fell off that wagon quickly - I have been treating LibraryThing as a kind of book journal - adding only books I've read in the year or so before I joined (right word? Began to Thing?).

I really have no idea how many books I read per year, but I suspect it is close to 75ish...

So far this year, I have read:

Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer - the story of Chris McCandless, a young man who eschewed society to try his abilities in the Great North. It is an exploration of this impulse of young men (or, perhaps, just certain people) to subject themselves to nature, as well as the story of a son and brother being taken away from his family without any hope for an explanation.

I have started Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, which chronicles her experiment in living off of minimum wage. This one is an easy read, but will likely continue to annoy me...

I am currently already in the middle of Rising Up and Rising Down by William T. Vollmann - not an easy read, to say the least and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest - also challenging in some ways.

I also plan to read Megan Daum's book of essays, My Misspent Youth, Sara Nelson's reader's memoir, So Many Books, So Little Time and May Sarton's Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing presently...we'll see how that goes.

I have been enjoying narrative non-fiction lately, like Devil in the White City, or basically any book by Tracy Kidder. Suggestions would be welcome :)

Welcome to the group, Anais! You certainly have made an ambitious start to the New Year.

As for nonfiction, you might check out the 'What We Are Reading - Nonfiction' thread. It is located here: http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=51467

Great stuff -- I enjoy your writing style and shall be back :) You even got a real live chuckle out of me

Cheers -- Susan

I've heard very positive things about Infinite Jest and David Foster Wallace in general but I've yet to read any of his books, so I'll be very interested in your thoughts of it.

Thanks, alcottacre, for your suggestion. I've poked around in the What we are Reading thread and will continue to do so.

Stuck in a silent classroom with 20 high school students all day on a Sunday (proctoring the SAT is almost as good a time as taking it), I read most of Avoiding Prison and Other Noble Vacation Goals by Wendy Dale. She is funny, but perhaps tries a bit too hard. I likely won't be searching her out in the future, but am nonetheless enjoying the book, which chronicles Dale's travel adventures through Lebanon, Honduras, Cuba, and Costa Rica (so far), as well as many men in all these locations.

I've also finished My Misspent Youth since my last post, and added a few to the TBR pile:

The Peabody Sisters
Zarafa
Housekeeping

I should be reading things that encourage me to keep going to work every day. Megan Daum and Wendy Dale are dulling my work-a-day existence.

I'll be looking forward to your comments on Housekeeping. I bought it a while back, but it's sitting on the shelf. I thought just last week that I should take it down and read it soon, but the TBR pile builds faster than I can read the books in it!

If you enjoyed Devil in the White City by Larson, you might try Isaac's Storm by the same author, about the 1900 hurricane which leveled Galveston, but led to the solid establishment of the National Weather Service. I have Larson's Thunderstruck on my TBR for the year.

Hi Anais, I've enjoyed reading your comments - I'm curious about one, though:

I have started Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, which chronicles her experiment in living off of minimum wage. This one is an easy read, but will likely continue to annoy me...

It sounds like it might be interesting, so I was wondering what was annoying about it?

OH, wow. This year has gotten away from me. Thanks for your comments. I'd like to try Isaac's Storm, Prop2gether. I heard a lot of press on that book when the hurricane hit Galveston last year. I haven't done so well with Housekeeping--I am mostly done with it, but it's now found its way back to the shelves--out of my at-hand TBR pile...I was enjoying it while reading, but I haven't thought of it once since putting it aside, which can't be a good thing.

LisaMorr, I found Nickel and Dimed irritating because it is such a contrived experiment. Ehrenreich is an amazing journalist and writer, but I thought some of her attempts at class identification were irritating. Wouldn't it have been more on point to investigate people actually living this way? There are just so many things that someone from an upper-middle class background can't fake.

Here are a few more that I've put down since posting wayyy back in January.

A Prayer for Owen Meany -- I was reading this on a recent trip, and people stopped me telling me this was their FAVORITE book over and over again. I couldn't comprehend its popularity until the last--what?--3 or 4 pages? It pays off like crazy at the very end. My theory is that this is such a psychic pay-off that people are left with lasting satisfaction.

The Housekeeper and the Professor --good book, touching story. I had trouble with the translation early on, since it made for some real elementary school sentences (I thought).

Lowboy -- highly recommended, but I may think that John Wray is a bit over-hyped lately.

many more, more later (like later today, not in three months).

9: Regarding A Prayer for Owen Meany: While I liked the book, it is not destined to be a favorite for me. Several people in the group told me how wonderful it was, and one of my very good friends here on LT rates it as one of her favorites, but it just wasn't all that for me.

Lowboy looks very good. Thanks for the mention!

#9 & #10--I've never been able to get through any of Irving's novels, but I love the film version of Prayer for Owen Meany which is Simon Birch. It's beautiful to watch and the story is well told. That said, I'm trying once again to read the book some time this year.