Day 2: "I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things."
-- George Robert Gissing
FGR
After three years of trying, I finally did it. Fifty books in one year. Some were re-reads, some were flashbacks to middle school, a few were recommendations, and a couple were random pick-ups. Favorites and recommendations appear in bold.
1. Diary, Chuck Palahniuk
2. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
3. Beautiful Stranger, Hope Donahue
4. Dracula, Bram Stoker
5. Women in the Shadows, Ann Bannon
6. Love That Dog, Sharon Creech
7. Why Marriage?, George Chauncey
8. She's Not There, Jennifer Finney Boylan
9. The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Turn Me On, Cherie Jeffrey
11. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
12. The Reader, Bernhard Schlink
13. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
14. Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking, Aoibheann Sweeney
15. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
16. Loose Girl, Kerry Cohen
17. Steal This Book, Abbie Hoffman
18. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
19. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Mary Roach
20. Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote
21. Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk
22. P.S., I Love You, Cecelia Ahern
23. Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, Chelsea Handler
24. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
25. Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas, Louise Rennison
26. Certain Girls, Jennifer Weiner
27. Beautiful Boy, David Sheff
28. Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants, Louise Rennison
29. Beezus and Ramona, Beverly Cleary
30. Rubyfruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown
31. Why I Wore Lipstick to my Mastectomy, Geralyn Lucas
32. Smashed, Koren Zailckas
33. Beginning the End, Brigid Marz
34. Ecstasy, Miriam Joseph
35. Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich
36. Cunt, Inga Muscio
37. Walden Two, B.F. Skinner
38. The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein
39. Smack, Melvin Burgess
40. The Last Time I Wore a Dress, Daphne Scholinski
41. Prozac Nation, Elizabeth Wurtzel
42. The Purity Myth, Jessica Valenti
43. Marley and Me, John Grogan
44. Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk
45. Gender and Culture, Melford Spiro
46. Americans Abroad, Arnold Dashefsky
47. Flat Broke with Children, Sharon Hays
48. As I Sat on the Green: Living without a Home in New Haven, Alice Mattison
49. The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
50. Ramona the Pest, Beverly Cleary
Oh and as far as books I would never touch again and you probably shouldn’t either?: Walden II, Among Other Things I’ve Taken Up Smoking, and Turn Me On. One was read for a Sociology class and the other two were all I had on me during a plane ride to California. Otherwise, they would have been chucked after the first few pages & sent to the library donation box.
And as far as this year’s reading? Well, I’m not sure. I’m going to try for 50+ but am not going to stress over it if I realize I don’t have time. We’ll see.
EXPLORED 01/02/10 - 35