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ETA: Didn't meet any of my goals for 2010. Came close with some, not so much with others. It's still nice to see where I was at though. We'll see how I do this year. :o)

My goal last year was to read 100 books and I ended up doubling that. This year I'm going to focus more on pages read.

Goals/Stats

- 50 books from the 1001 list (17) hahahaha! soooo not close
- 30 classics - (24)
- Knock 10 'big' books off of my TBR (6)
-Finish Lost Lit List (only the books that are on my TBR) (11)
Read as much of the works of Dickens and Irving as possible
-Participate in more group reads (3)
-Read as many as I can from my owned tbr (35)

Written by men:54
Written by women: 30

84 books, 28,772 pages

I also have a number of authors that I would like to try and read this year:

Martin Amis
Don DeLillo
David Foster Wallace
Michael Chabon
Paul Auster
David Mitchell
Nicole Krauss
Mark Helprin
Thomas Pynchon
Ian McEwan
William Trevor
Günter Grass
Leo Tolstoy
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Glen Duncan
Lance Carbuncle
Salman Rushdie
Jorge Luis Borges
Lionel Shriver
Cormac McCarthy
John Wyndham
Charlotte Brontë
Thomas Hardy
Wilkie Collins
Jhumpa Lahiri
Arundhati Roy
Margaret Atwood
Alexandre Dumas
Tim O'Brien
William Faulkner
Umberto Eco
Albert Camus
John Updike
Mikhail Bulgakov
John Banville
Jim Crace
Mark Twain
John Fowles
Nathanael West
Daphne du Maurier
Louisa May Alcott
E.M. Forster
W. Somerset Maugham
Milan Kundera
T.C. Boyle
J.M. Coetzee
Gustave Flaubert
Willa Cather
Irène Némirovsky
Ford Madox Ford
Ernest Hemingway
Kate Chopin
Matt Ruff
Matt Haig
Kathryn Davis
Lauren Groff
David Czuchlewski
Vladimir Nabokov
James Joyce
Adolfo Bioy Casares
Agatha Christie
Gary Shteyngart

Wow, Cait, you read 200 books last year? That's unbelievable! Good job!

Bhumi wrote: "Wow, Cait, you read 200 books last year? That's unbelievable! Good job!"

I did, although a few were very YA (which I read for the seasonal challenges) and some were pretty short, like
The Pearl, The Old Man and the Sea - but thank you!



1. The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters *4 Stars* (466p)
2. The Diaries of Adam and Eve - Mark Twain *5 Stars* (112p)
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson *1 Star* (590p)

4. The Wasp Factory: A Novel - Iain M. Banks *3 Stars* (184p)

Cait wrote: "3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson *1 Star* (590p)"

What did you think of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? You are one of the first people I have seen to give it one star, so I would be interested to know what you thought of it.

Monef wrote: "Cait wrote: "3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson *1 Star* (590p)"

What did you think of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? You are one of the first people I have se..."

I just did not care for it at all. The beginning was extremely slow, then it got a bit interesting, then incredibly slow again, then there was so much talk about computer specs that I thought I was reading a Mac commercial, then there was the BDSM stuff which to me just came across as cheesy. It all just felt very amateurish and I thought the characters were flat, boring, and interchangeable. I have no idea how he was such a ladies man. The ending was one of the most anticlimactic I've ever read. I was expecting so much and it ended up being a huge letdown. But like I said before, I am definitely in the minority. I really wish I felt differently.

5. Await Your Reply: A Novel - Dan Chaon *3 Stars* (336p)

6. Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?: Bodies, Behavior, and Brains--the Science Behind Sex, Love, and Attraction - Jena Pincott *4 stars* (384p)

7. The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares *4 Stars* (103p)

8. Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters *3 Stars* (472p)

9. Ulysses - James Joyce *2 Stars* (783p)

10. Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Living - Declan Kiberd *4 Stars* (415p)

11. Evil Under the Sun - Agatha Christie *3 Stars* (224p)

12. Laughter in the Dark - Nabokov *5 Stars* (308p)

Cait wrote: "Monef wrote: "Cait wrote: "3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson *1 Star* (590p)"

What did you think of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? You are one of the first peop..."

I do know what you main about the overly commercialised description of everything. It was not only like a commercial for Mac, but Billys Pan Pizza, IKEA etc. Although I did enjoy it much more than you did, I have to admit that really bothered me as I found it so jarring. I wonder if something was lost in translation.

It very well could be the translation. Or is it possible that those things were added in posthumously? I am by no means a conspiracy theorist, but it makes me wonder...

13. Under the Dome - Stephen King *5 Stars* (1,074p)
14. The Survivors of the Chancellor - Jules Verne *2 Stars* (132p)
15. After the Quake: Stories - Haruki Murakami *3 Stars* (192p)
16. The Year of the Hare - Arto Paasalinna *3 Stars* (135p)

I haven't updated in forever!

17. Secrets of Eden: A Novel - Chris Bohjalian *4 Stars* (400p)
18. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson *4 Stars* (146 p)
19. A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway *4 Stars* (211)
20. Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Salman Rushdie *3 Stars* (224p)
21. A Certain Slant of Light - Laura Whitcomb *4 Stars* (282)
22. Looking for Alaska - John Green *5 Stars* (221p)
23. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Other Stories - Ambrose Bierce *5 Stars* (36p)
24. The Painted Veil - W. Somerset Maugham *5 Stars* (256p)
25. The Ghost Writer - John Harwood *4 Stars* (369p)
26. Something, Maybe - Elizabeth Scott *3 Stars* (217p)
27. A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway *5 Stars* (332p)
28. Bloom - Elizabeth Scott *3 Stars* (231p)
29. A Good and Happy Child: A Novel - Justin Evans *4 Stars* (336p)
30. Demons in the Spring - Joe Meno *5 Stars* (300p)
31. Throw Like A Girl: Stories - Jean Thompson *4 Stars* (304p)
32. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot *5 Stars* (369p)
33. Deep River - Shusaku Endo *5 Stars* (220p)
34. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins *3 Stars* (668p)
35. Fear and Trembling - Kierkegaard *4 Stars* (108p)
36. Nightlight: A Parody of Twilight - Harvard Lampoon *3 Stars* (160p)
A Briefer History of Time - Stephen Hawking *5 Stars* (176p)
37. Paper Towns - John Green *5 Stars* (305p)
38. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes *5 Stars* (311p)
39. House Rules - Jodi Picoult *3 Stars* (532p)
40. The Girl Who Chased the Moon - Sarah Addison Allen *3 Stars* (269)
41. If I Stay - Gayle Forman *5 Stars* (199p)
42. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen *5 Stars* (335p)
43. The Cider House Rules - John Irving *5 Stars* (552p)
44. Beatrice and Virgil - Yann Martel *4 Stars* (213p)

45. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert *4 Stars* (411p)

46. The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson *4 Stars* (246pp)

47. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson *3 Stars* (144p)
48. Tethered - Amy MacKinnon *3 Stars* (275p)
49. Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent - Anthony Rapp *3 Stars* (309p)

Damn it, I hate when I get behind in my updating.

50. The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie *2 Stars* (256p)
51. Tinkers - Paul Harding *4 Stars* (192p)
52. My Fair Lazy: One Reality Television Addict's Attempt to Discover If Not Being A Dumb Ass Is the New Black; Or, A Culture-Up Manifesto - Jen Lancaster *2 Stars* (384p)
53. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote *3 Stars* (343p)
54. The Passage - Justin Cronin *4 Stars* (766p)
55. So Much for That - Lionel Shriver *2 Stars* (448p)

56. Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson *3 stars* (256p)
57. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas *5 stars* (1168p)

58. The Boy Detective Fails - Joe Meno *4 stars* (320p)
59. Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver *4 stars* (470p)
60. The Nobodies Album - Carolyn Parkhurts *4 stars* (320p)
61. Stories: All-New Tales - ed. by Neil Gaiman, Al Sarrantonio *3 stars* (428p)
62. Ape House - Sara Gruen *2 stars* (352p)
63. Dismantled: A Novel - Jennifer McMahon *2 stars* (304p)

64. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen *4 stars* (576p)
65. The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli *3 stars* (128p)
66. And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie *4 stars* (264p)
67. The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas *2 stars* (480p)
68. Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho *2 stars* (240 p)
69. A Briefer History of Time ^^^^from post #16, forgot to number this

Cait wrote: "I haven't updated in forever!

17. Secrets of Eden: A Novel - Chris Bohjalian *4 Stars* (400p)
18. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson *4 Stars* (146 p)..."

I was reading through your list of books and noticed you didn't number A Brief History Through Time. You have read one more book than your numbers show. :)

Lahni wrote: "Cait wrote: "I haven't updated in forever!

17. Secrets of Eden: A Novel - Chris Bohjalian *4 Stars* (400p)
18. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson *4 S..."

Thank you so much!!!

70. Persuasion - Jane Austen *5 stars* (224p)
71. The Bad Seed - William March *5 stars* (256p)

72. A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare *4 stars* (144p)
73. The Seance - John Harwood *3 stars* (350p)
74. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins *4 stars* (374p)
75. Catching Fire (Hunger Games, #2) - Suzanne Collins *4 stars* (391p)
76. Room - Emma Donoghue *3 stars* (321p)

77. Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis - Lisa Sanders *4 Stars* (304p)
78. Skippy Dies - Paul Murray *4 Stars* (672p)
79. David Copperfield - Dickens *4 Stars* (896p)
80. Hypothermia - Arnulder Indridason *3 Stars* (320p)
81. The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories - Ed. by Peter Haining *3 Stars* (512p)
82. A Room With a View - E.M. Forster *4 Stars* (240p)
83. Faithful Place - Tana French *4 Stars* (400p)
84. HELP! A Bear is Eating Me! - Mykle Hansen *4 Stars* (132p)