Annoyed at not having opened a book (paper or otherwise) in a month, I have a new goal: every day for two weeks, I must read for 30 minutes.
That ought to get me back on the wagon.
(The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes)

Annoyed at not having opened a book (paper or otherwise) in a month, I have a new goal: every day for two weeks, I must read for 30 minutes.

That ought to get me back on the wagon.

(The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes)

9 Mar 2010   2 notes   [ book reading my photos 20 by June ]

Progress: 7 down, 14 to go (list)

Which: How We Decide, Jonah Leher

I love this sort of how-it-works (but-sometimes-totally-doesn’t) reading. So engrossed was I, the book only took 2 days to read. (Lots of “huh!” and “whoa” as I read.)

Leher argues for examining your decisions — the hows and whys — in order to keep your gut reactions sharp. I like that argument; I’m a fan of the hard work, getting the basics right (running drills every time I swim, using a honing steel every time you break out the knives, etc.), so that laying the foundation, doing the grunt work becomes part of how you do.

Nota bene: I finished How We Decide in, uh, early February. I’ve not touched a book since. For a few reasons, one of which is definitely burnout. 7 books in just over 4 weeks? This isn’t senior year, gotta pace myself. (Hellooo Netflix Watch Instantly…)

5 Mar 2010   [ books reading 20 by June ]

Progress: 6 down, 15 to go! (list)

Which: The Tao of Wu, The RZA

What I knew about the Wu-Tang Clan before this book couldn’t fill a thimble. Rappers, Shaolin something-something, and a few of My People dig ‘em. Not that I’m an expert, now, but learning about their (okay, mostly RZA’s) history as a backdrop to RZA’s own philosophies worked for me.

He manages to tell his story and explain what he’s learned without falling down the preachy rabbit hole. Mostly¹. Except even the moments where he teeters on the edge of that descent, he sounds more earnest, fervent, than judgmental.

For all the work his hard work on his path to enlightenment, it’s not until the loss of his mom and later his cousin (ODB) that RZA’s sense of perspective starts to square with my own and I begin to relate to him. That kind of loss has shaped my entire life, observing its effect on someone else is a bizarre and heart-breaking thing.

¹ In a 20-year-old letter he uses to close the book, there’s 1 line that hints at homophobia; it doesn’t ruin the book, but I did think “Come on. 1989, but dude. Sigh.

3 Feb 2010   [ books reading 20 by June the world has broken ]

At least football’s not totally over, yet…

Surely you saw this coming: after plowing through 5 books in a couple of weeks, I want nothing to do with reading.

24 Jan 2010   [ reading 20 by June ]

More progress! 5 down, 16 to go. (list)

Which: Do Not Deny Me, Jean Thompson; Love Walked In, Marisa De los Santos.

I like the idea of short stories but I don’t read many of them (John August’s The Variant is my most recent favorite), so Do Not Deny Me was fun. Well, “fun.” I don’t know, a couple of the women were too shrill for me to like. You know what I liked, though? They were shrill in a “good lord, I have met that woman” kind of way. So, nicely done.

Love Walked In was sweet. I was prepared for it to be saccharine, but it…earns the story and ending. De los Santos doesn’t pull any cheap tricks or try to hoodwink the reader or short-sheet her characters, which is nice.

20 Jan 2010   2 notes   [ books reading 20 by June ]
Sunday, part III
(Breaks for food and football, but really, here all day.)

Sunday, part III

(Breaks for food and football, but really, here all day.)

17 Jan 2010   1 note   [ books reading 20 by June ]
Sunday, part II

Sunday, part II

17 Jan 2010   1 note   [ books football reading 20 by June ]
Sunday.

Sunday.

17 Jan 2010   4 notes   [ books reading 20 by June ]
Only to p. 77, but making progress! (Yes, I do use a Polaroid as a bookmark.)

Only to p. 77, but making progress! (Yes, I do use a Polaroid as a bookmark.)

13 Jan 2010   3 notes   [ 20 by June 2666 books photography reading my photos ]

The thing is every time I read “Archimboldi” in 2666, in my head I hear Rambaldi and wonder for a few seconds when Jennifer Garner’s going to swing in and thwack Norton upside the head.

(She never does. …I know!)

11 Jan 2010   2 notes   [ books reading 2666 20 by June ]
p. 240

p. 240

7 Jan 2010   3 notes   [ books iPhone reading 20 by June ]

Reading: The Coral Thief

I’m finding Daniel (narrator) to be terribly irritating. All his hemming and hawing about Lucienne and “omg she needs to get out of Paris” and “blah blah but I love her”…good lord, man!

Hmm. Perhaps it’s not accidental. He is 23 and away from his beloved Derbyshire and Edinburgh for the first time, after all. That post-college, pre-25 window is fraught with annoying behavior and emotional upheaval, maybe he just can’t help it. (In which case: nicely done, Ms Stott.)

Doesn’t change the fact that I’d be happy to smack him upside the head.

7 Jan 2010   [ books reading 20 by June ]

The challenge: read 20 books by (the end of) June (this year :P).

20 is approximately 80% of the books I have but haven’t read. And like the book-junkie I am, when I got my library card tonight (Seattle Public Library: you are so cool with your self-checkout), I…picked up 2 more books (listed first).

Oh, bother.

The list:

  1. Do Not Deny Me - Jean Thompson
  2. The Coral Thief - Rebecca Stott
  3. 2666 - Roberto Bolaño*
  4. Lincoln: Biography of a Writer - Fred Kaplan*
  5. The Four Seasons - Laurel Corona*
  6. The Creative Habit - Twyla Tharp*
  7. The Tao of Wu - The RZA
  8. The Rest is Noise - Alex Ross
  9. Partly Cloudy Patriot - Sarah Vowell
  10. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
  11. The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
  12. Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
  13. The Portrait of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
  14. The Age of Wonder - Richard Holmes*
  15. The Inheritance of Rome - Chris Wickham
  16. Love Walked In - Marisa de los Santos
  17. How We Decide - Jonah Lehrer
  18. His Excellency: George Washington - Joseph J. Ellis
  19. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
  20. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
  21. The Last Olympian - Rick Riordan

(* - already in progress)

addendum! Almost forgot The Last Olympian!

!

5 Jan 2010   1 note   [ books reading 20 by June ]

In progress: books.

Before college: I read linearly (wow that does not look or sound like an actual word). It didn’t occur to me not to and jr. and high school reading loads didn’t warrant anything else.

During college: on a quarter system, focused on my major, I learned in short order how to flip between a stack of books without needing to finish one before starting another. Note-taking is how I got through it; a brief glimpse to reset my mental Etch-a-Sketch® and away we go.

After college: I’m unable to read one thing at a time. Every so often I’ll warp-speed through a single book, but the norm is: this one for a day or two, that one for a few hours, that other one for a day, etc.

Currently:

23 Dec 2009   [ books reading ]
That there is the middle of a sentence. Those 2 pages.

Quite apart from being mentally out of breath, I’m impressed it all made sense.

That there is the middle of a sentence. Those 2 pages.

Quite apart from being mentally out of breath, I’m impressed it all made sense.

21 Dec 2009   4 notes   [ 2666 books reading ]