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Since it's officially 2010, it's time to start my thread.

I have (had) 2 goals for my 50 books/to-read this year:
1) I had wanted to read roughly 5% of my current to-read list this year, but after adding all of the books from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list that I want to read, my to-read list skyrocketed. Five percent of my list as of 12/31/09 would mean reading 67.75 books *just from my existing to-read list*. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that.... but I'll try :)
2) Read 3-10 of my 1001 Books YMRBYD to-read list

Pretty lofty goals, but I'm going to try! Or, I might break #1 and #2 into separate categories--read 5% of my to-read list, excluding the 1001 Books (which would mean reading 40.75 of my 12/31/09 to-read list), and read 3-10 of my 1001 Books. Hmmm.... that might be more realistic.

Here we go! Whee!!!

For 2010,

1. The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant

2. The Future of an Illusion

3. Seattle's Greenwood-Phinney Neighborhood

4. Theater Shoes

I needed something light and fluffy to get me through the other book I was reading, so I decided that listening to a kids book at work would be fun. The book is very formulaic/similar to Ballet Shoes, but it was fun to listen to.

5. The West Wing: The American Presidency As Television Drama

The book I was having trouble getting through. It was good, and it was about The West Wing, but around the middle it started to drag. Some of the essays in the middle were very analytical and full of theory, and I think I was getting bogged down in all of the details. Still good, though, especially once I got passed the rough spot.

6. Shakespeare's Secret

Oh my, what an adorable book! Hero, a sixth-grade outcast, goes on a quest with Danny, the eighth-grade "It" boy, and her neighbor, Mrs. Roth, to find if a diamond from Elizabethan England is hidden in her home in Maryland.

This was SUCH a cute book, and the story was really exciting... I never wanted to put it down. Even when it was 2 or 3 in the morning, and I was FINALLY getting a chance to go to bed, I still wanted to read a chapter or two before I went to sleep. Such a cute book! And the end includes an Author's Note to help explain to the reader (the ten-year-old target audience, as well as those of us who are ... slightly older :) ) what was fact, what was fiction, and what was hypothesis.

7. The Pooh Perplex

A humorous mocking of literary theory and criticism, using the Winnie the Pooh stories as the subject of analysis.

I thought the book was okay, but it wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be. There were a few moments that were completely hysterical because they were so absurd, and I love the Questions and Study Projects at the end of each essay.

8. Postmodern Pooh

When I first titled this year's reading list as "Good, Bad, and Ugly," I was planning on designating each book as "good," "bad," or "ugly." Then I realized that if a book were "bad" or "ugly," I probably wouldn't finish it, therefore wouldn't put it on my list.

Well, these 2 Pooh books (Postmodern Pooh and The Pooh Perplex) weren't good (to me, at least). I do see the humor and satire in them, but maybe I just hold Winnie the Pooh too dearly and couldn't completely enjoy the things that were written. I can appreciate the mocking of literary theorists, but it just hurt my heart to read some of the things about the Pooh books, even if they were in jest.

9. Bathroom Book of Washington Trivia: Weird, Wacky and Wild

Fun trivia about Washington state.

10. Dancing Shoes

*sigh* Not good.

Even though I finished the book, I wish I hadn't. With just a few chapters left, I felt like I was wasting my time, but I was so close, I might as well finish it. The last couple of chapters were uplifting and feel-good, but I don't think they completely make up for the majority of the final half of the book.


11. The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History

A good book, funny in some parts, informative about characters from movies I haven't seen and books I haven't read, but not a book I'd read again. More of a reference-type of book.

12. The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance

My second H.G. Wells book in less than a year (less than 6 months, I think). I started to read The Time Machine in fifth grade, but never finished it. Now that I'm older, I'm more able to really concentrate on the stories that Wells writes (wrote).

I think I kind of like H.G. Wells. His stories, so far, aren't stories that I'm in love with, or would necessary feel the desire to buy so I could re-read them at a moment's notice, but I do like the writing style. I like the science fiction, and I enjoyed The Invisible Man. It was a quick read, but an engrossing story, the kind that makes you ponder what would happen if there really were an invisible man, or what you'd do if you could become invisible.

13. The Picture of Dorian Gray

REEEEEEEAAAAAALLY good.

Oh my God, I thought this was amazing. I LOVED Wilde's writing...it was poetic and descriptive, and totally sucked me in. Plus, the last few pages were so gripping and so "!!!!!" that I had to reread them a few times to let the effect fully sink in.

By far, my favorite character in the book is Lord Henry Wotton. He's pithy and cynical, and has the best quotes in the book.

Tiffany, I am a (moderate) fan of HG Wells and have read a book that includes many of his short stories, the longest being 'War of the Worlds'. Someone made a mini-series of his short stories, which were all very entertaining...it made me want to read the books they were taken from. I'm guessing that The Invisible Man is probably not a very long book. I also am somewhat a fan of Oscar Wilde, although I haven't read anything BY him, his flamboyancy (is there such a word?) is what attracts me and I've heard a lot about his stories and writings...I will have to add him to my list of TBR. Perhaps Dorian Gray would be a good place to start.

Yeah, The Invisible Man wasn't long at all. Plus, I really got into the story so I just kept reading and reading, and it didn't really take me long to get through the book.

As for Oscar Wilde and Dorian Gray, I really liked the book, but a friend told me it creeped her out. Although, if you like his flamboyancy (Yeah, I think that's a real word :) ), then you also might really enjoy Dorian Gray. It's very poetic, and Dorian and Lord Henry are both very out there and have grand ideas of life :)

14. Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge--And Why We Must

I can get behind the sentiment of the book, but the lengths and adamancy that Lasn suggest seem a little too over-the-top and inflexible. Still, the idea of how to get out of the consumer-culture rut and the buying-in-to-the-commercial/corporate-ideals sounds good.

15. Pooh and the Philosophers : In Which It Is Shown That All of Western Philosophy Is Merely a Preamble to Winnie-The-Pooh

Good - much better than the Crews Pooh/literary theory satire books. This one's much more reverential towards Pooh :)

16. Shakespeare Wrote for Money

Oh, Nick Hornby. For every 1 of your Believer compilations, I end up adding about 20 (or more) books to my to-read list.

Tiffany wrote: "16. Shakespeare Wrote for Money

Oh, Nick Hornby. For every 1 of your Believer compilations, I end up adding about 20 (or more) books to my to-read list."

Isn't he brilliant! I've had The Complete Polysyllabic Spree on my shelf for a while and have yet to read it; are his book suggestions good or pompous?

So far, I've enjoyed the suggestions that I've read. Between his 3 Believer books, I've added 36 to-reads to my list (which, I suppose, comes out to nowhere near ~20 books added per book read, but it feels like it!). Of the ones I've read already, I've loved them! Of the ones that I've purchased or browsed, but haven't fully read yet, they look like I'd enjoy them. So yes, he has good suggestions.

And even if you never end up reading any of the books he writes about, he's just fun to read :)

17. The Trials of Socrates: Six Classic Texts

17.5 How to Become Ridiculously Well-read in One Evening: A Collection of Literary Encapsulations

BAD. I had to give up on this one. It's meant to be brief synopses of classics, so you supposedly don't have to read the books yourself, but they really only make sense if you've already read the books. Plus, most of the synopses had the same format -- usually written as a poem, either a limerick or with a standard ABAB rhyme scheme. It got boring after the first few pages. But I made it about halfway in, so I'm giving myself half-credit for it :)

18.5 Genesis of the Grail Kings: The Explosive Story of Genetic Cloning and the Ancient Bloodline of Jesus

Errmmm.... The first few chapters are a history of the Bible, translation, geography, etc.; the next few chapters deal with human evolution and how that's related to the Bible; then it goes in to alternative history/religions/thought; then eventually returns to Bible history. However, somewhere in there, his theories tend to get a little out there (aliens, the philosopher's stone, alchemy). I'm no theology scholar, but it seems like the conclusions he draws and his logic are fuzzy. But the redeeming qualities are his history of the Bible and how the Bible compares to Sumerian and Egyptian history/religion. The book wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't waste my time on a re-read, or with the other books in his series.

19.5 Seattle Curiosities: Quirky characters, roadside oddities & other offbeat stuff

Good. I love books about my region, and this would be a good little tour book of historical and quirky places in Seattle :)

20.5 The Message In the Hollow Oak

Not one of my more favorite Nancy Drew books, but it was good.

21.5 Encyclopedia Brown Keeps the Peace

Fun to read while brushing my teeth at night :)

22.5 The Exploits of Arsene Lupin - Maurice Leblanc

I love these stories! Arsene Lupin is the famous French thief, or, the gentleman burglar. The stories aren't so much Whodunnits, but How'dhedunnits - we know (or, we can pretty well guess) that Arsene Lupin is the mastermind behind the thefts, but the interesting aspects are *how* he commits the crimes. Fun stuff!

23.5 The Haiku Year

The 2004 edition of the 1998 book of poetry by Grant Lee Phillips, Michael Stipe, Tom Gilroy, Anna Grace, Jim McKay, Douglas A. Martin, and Rick Roth.

24.5 The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec

25.5 The Double

Good! The style made it difficult to really get into at first (Saramago seems to love commas and hate quotation marks) so it was slow-going in the beginning, but it was a great story! A history teacher watches a movie and sees a bit actor who looks exactly like him, and he becomes obsessed with finding out who the actor is.

26.5 Seattle's Green Lake

27.5 The Island of Dr. Moreau

Meh. For me, it was a little slow at the beginning, but got better. I didn't end up loving the book, but I also didn't hate it. Strangely, I kept reading it, even though I always felt like I could walk away and not be devastated by never finishing it.

28.5 Pardonable Lies

Good :) I really like the Maisie Dobbs series -- young, female detective in post-WWI England. The series is very charming and intelligent, as is Maisie.

29.5 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

LOVED it. I liked this even more (WAY more) than I liked Reservation Blues. It made me laugh, and feel bad for Arnold, and gave me that warm-and-fuzzy feeling, and made me sad. And Ellen Forney's illustrations were wonderful!

30.5 R.E.M.: Inside Out: The Stories Behind Every Song

Meh. Rosen is supposedly explaining R.E.M. songs from "Radio Free Europe" to New Adventures in Hi-Fi, or possible interpretations of the songs, but too often it feels like he's stretching to create interpretations, or connections between other songs or events or influences. Yes, I'll read the updated version, which adds Up through Around the Sun, but only to be thorough with my R.E.M. biographies.

Plus, the typos and layout issues were frustrating. And no, they weren't corrected for the update! Ugh!

It's been a successful few days for me finishing some of the books I've been reading --

31.5 Drina Dances on Stage

It was okay. Not as good (in my mind) as the first book, but tolerable.

32.5 "R.E.M." Inside Out

Oh my God. This felt even worse than the first edition (see above), and it only had 30 new pages. I would not recommend these two books, even for diehard R.E.M. fans. There are much better books out there!

33.5 I Am the Messenger

I have to admit, I almost gave up on this book. As I progressed through the beginning, it just wasn't grabbing me. The swearing seemed too much (I swear like a sailor in real life, but that doesn't mean I want the books I read to be filled with obscenities and foul-mouthed 19-year-olds), and Ed's mother aggravated me so much, I wanted to jump into the pages and smack her across the face. I began looking at the book with Nancy's Rule of 50 in mind -- if you're under 50 years old, give the book until page 50, and if you still don't like it, toss it. Let me tell you, I was on page *41* before the book started to pull me in.

But then... it started to pick up. Of course, then it would fall again, then pick up, then sort of falter ... but I eventually got completely sucked in, so that I didn't want to put it down at night. It ended up being a sweet, heart-warming story. It made me think that maybe we can all be heroes, even just doing a small thing for another person, like buying them ice cream. And the last few sections (Ed's last message onward) made me a little teary.

34.5 A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory

Meh. Kind of dry in places, but good and/or informative in places.

35.5 Phantom

Good! A "prequel" to Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera.

36.5 The Silver Chair

A "re-read". I thought I'd read all of the Narnia books in elementary school (I'm *sure* I did), but this one didn't ring any bells when I was reading it this time around. Of course, that could be because I didn't like it as much as I've liked the others in the series, so maybe it just didn't stick in my memory like the others did.

37.5 Austenland

A cute, light read. I can't believe I read this book in one day! It was sweet, and Jane reminded me so much of myself -- at the point in life when she thinks it's time to give up on waiting for The One (for her, Mr. Darcy) to come. It was so much fun to read about her vacation in throwback Austenland ... It was just a really sweet, adorable book. A good summer read! :)

38.5 Barenaked Ladies : Public Stunts, Private Stories

39.5 Flight

Another piece of beautiful and touching writing by Sherman Alexie. Better than Reservation Blues, but not as good as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

40.5 The Clue in the Diary (Nancy Drew Mystery Story #7)

Not a bad story, and hey, this is when Nancy met Ned Nickerson! Ah, love! :)

41.5 America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction

Uh... surprisingly, I didn't like this. It just ... it wasn't ... it was just ... I don't know. I think maybe it was *too* snarky for me, which is amazing.

Tiffany wrote: "39.5 Flight

Another piece of beautiful and touching writing by Sherman Alexie. Better than Reservation Blues, but not as good as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian."

Have you read The Lone Ranger & Tonto Fistfight in Heaven? I enjoyed that one a lot.

Hi, Donna.

No, I haven't read that one yet. It's been on my to-read list for quite some time, though. But I seem to be on a bit of an Alexie kick this year, so maybe I'll get around to it soon! :)

42.5 Aslan's Call: Finding Our Way to Narnia

Good summary of points in the series, but not as much analysis of religious parallels as I'd expected. *Some* analysis and parallels, and how the author (Mark Eddy Smith) relates moments and plots in the Chronicles to his own spiritual life, just not as much as I thought there'd be.

Tiffany wrote: "Hi, Donna.

No, I haven't read that one yet. It's been on my to-read list for quite some time, though. But I seem to be on a bit of an Alexie kick this year, so maybe I'll get around to it soon! :)"

It's full of little gems. I think it must have been reissued recently because I keep seeing it everywhere. And if you haven't seen it, pick up a dvd of "Smoke Signals" which was based on some of the stories in Lone Ranger. The traffic report is a cinema classic.

43.5 Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain

44.5 Bluebird Canyon

Not a bad book. About a very screwed up family -- Rex, the tipping-off-his-rocker soap opera star and producer; his intelligent young son, David; his (ex-)wife Joslin; his famous architect father, J.O.; and his ailing mother Leela -- and the friend of the family, police officer Oliver "Triphammer" Bodley, who gets mixed up in the family's disfunction. The language was a bit coarse at times, sounding like a '70s cop drama with all their naughty language, especially about women's anatomy, but overall, the book wasn't bad.

45.5 White Noise

This books seems to be really hit-and-miss with reviewers. The reviews tend to be either intensely "Here are my reasons why this is the WORST BOOK EVER," or intensely "Here are my reasons why I love this book and thought it was brilliant."

I liked it. I thought it was quirky. I don't think I particularly saw the Greatness of the book, but I thought it was a good read.

46.5 Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

Meh, it wasn't bad. I don't know if I wasn't a huge fan of this book because I'm 2-3 times the age of the target audience, or the wrong gender, or because I listened to an audio version (I still have trouble distinguishing between the reader's influence and the author's influence), or because it just wasn't for me. I could understand where certain parts would be really funny to kids (Yes, I loved all the ironies of librarians trying to hide the truth from us, and jokes about how reading is bad for you [When a book ends, you're either disappointed that a book you like has ended, or disappointed that you wasted so much time reading a book you didn't like. Either way, you end up disappointed. Maybe you should spend your time doing something else, like Algebra.]), and the plot was interesting and unusual, I just didn't *love* the book. 2.5 stars.

47.5 Dancing for Degas

Not bad. Not a deep book, but a good enough story, and a nice, light, easy read.

Okay, so I got these backward. 47.5 should actually be Into the Wardrobe: C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles and Dancing for Degas should be 48.5.

The Narnia book was good and informative. It was well-written and had lots of interesting points and connections.

49.5 Messenger Bird

By the same author as Bluebird Canyon (above). This one is full of sadness and heartbreak -- everything seems tragic in Mescalero, on Apache land in New Mexico.

50.5 Big Star: The Short Life, Painful Death, and Unexpected Resurrection of the Kings of Power Pop

51.5 Triphammer

More from my Dan McCall kick (Bluebird Canyon and Messenger Bird, above).

52.5 The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

I read this as a companion to Triphammer because I'd been told that the love interest in Triphammer was based on Melissa Bank, and that one of the love interests in The Girls' Guide was then based on the author of Triphammer. It was interesting to see how the 9 years between the two books and the two different people's perceptions were reflected in their respective books.

53.5 Silence of Bartleby

More Dan McCall, this time non-fiction. Critical essays about Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener."

54.5 Man Says Yes

Ugh. More from my Dan McCall adventure, but this one was PAINFUL. In the list of Good, Bad, and Ugly reads, I'd give this one somewhere between BAAAAAAAAAAAD and Plain, Flat-Out UGLY.

It got better as it moved further on, but I thought the beginning was SO BAD that I almost gave up at page 40. I just couldn't take it. The only reason I kept reading was because it took my library system so many months to find this book through Inter-library loan, I would have felt bad if I gave up on all of their hard work after only one day. This is not a book I'd recommend to anyone. I'm also hoping I forget it quickly, so I can recover that brain space and use it for something better :)