Good thing you have that giant book of Poe!

December (this is it for 2009?!?!?)

Fiction: The Last Dickens
Non-Fiction: Confessions of an Eternal Optimist (MJ Fox's new book)
Classic: Poe (something)

Additional:
Size 12 is Not Fat
The Girl Who Played with Fire

HAHA! I knew something didn't look right. And, the best part, I kept thinking to myself, "don't type throne." HA! I made my own day, so far.

Whoo-hoo! Though, you did write of Mammaw's stove is a "throne" in your side. But, I'll forgive you that typo since you misstyped thorn but still typed a real word! (Unless you really did mean throne and are using the stove as a seat in your newly refurnished living room!)

Yes, I'll need the Lust Lizard

I'm proud of neither of us writing The Stupidest Angle on here. ;-)

I still need to dig out The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove for you.

It's typical Christopher Moose. Not what you'd expect from a story about a Christmas Angel, but exactly what you'd expect from him (once you've read a bit from him).

Sure does! So, what do you think of The Stupidest Angel? I think once I'm done my library books, I'll pick that up. I definitely need to read it this year!

Melissa wrote: "So, has this extended past 8/09, or are you now doing 9/09-9/10? I know I wouldn't be able to do the classic part of your challenge!"

I just decided to keep going. It's a good challenge for me, though I am not doing nearly so good with the classic part (though still better than what I used to do, which is nothing!). I'm almost done with Aunt Dimity's Good Deed and The Stupidest Angel, so I'm doing pretty good this month (course, a 1 hour commute one way makes a big difference for the audiobooks!)

So, has this extended past 8/09, or are you now doing 9/09-9/10? I know I wouldn't be able to do the classic part of your challenge!

November

Fiction: Dead and Alive
Non-Fiction: In a Sunburned Country
Classic: ???

Other:
The Stupidest Angel
Aunt Dimity's Good Deed
Bloodsucking Fiends
Neverwhere

October

This will be a slow month. We moved on Oct. 3, so almost all of my free time is spent unpacking the house, etc. Plus, we have our scrapbooking weekend this month!!!

Fiction: Interred with their Bones
Non-Fiction: Notes from a Small Island
Classic:

Other:
Peter and the Starcathchers
Remember Me
Dave Barry's a Brief History of the Millenium
The Spellman Files (again)
Frankenstein 2 (Koontz)

I know. She said she had fun anyway. I got to tell, you, though, if Dad hadn't gotten John Grisham I think we would have had two totally ticked off parents.

Just reading the Paula Deen thing again makes me sad. Grrr. And mad! :-P

Went to the Library of Congress Book Festival today. OMG--it was not crowded like this last year!! I couldn't believe how many people were there. But, with the help of my family we were able to collectively get the following signatures (ones obtained by yours truly marked by an *)

1. John Grisham (Dad was one of the last to get this one!)
2. Michael Connelly*
3. David Shannon
4. Jon Sczieska
5. Junot Diaz* (an awesome person)
6. Craig Hatkoff*
7. David Baldacci*

Mom tried for Paula Deen, but get this--the LOC staff told her that Paula Deen was only signing her newest book. So...Mom ran over to the tent and bought it (even though she brought 2 other Deen books). She got back in line and was ~50 people from getting a signature. While in line Mom was informed that Paula was signing any of her books that you had. I was so disappointed for her! If she hadn't gone and picked up the book in the massively crowded book tent she definitely would have gotten the signature. But she got to hear Paula Deen speak, so it wasn't a total buzz kill.

September

Non-Fiction: Dog Days
Fiction: Click
Classic: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Other:
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
The Help
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

SUMMARY OF AUGUST 1, 2008-AUGUST 31, 2009:

Fiction books read: 68
Non-Fiction read: 16
Classics: 6

Total books read: 90

Wish I had gotten more classics done, but 50% of my classics goal isn't terrible. And it's 6 more classics than I've read in the last 10 years.

Ugh! Just in case I thought my life was back to normal, we put the house on the market. The stress of closing on 2 homes (the one we're selling and the one we're buying) means I'm having a hard time focusing my brain away from the stress to get any reading done.

I finally became engrossed enough in a book to finish it--The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not at all what I would have expected by the title, and it was easily one of the best things I've read this year. I'm quite unfamiliar with anything Swedish, so this was intriguing for me to learn more about their society, and their involvement in the Nazi movement in the 30s-40s.

Wow! lol, that's kinda sad. And that would be why I don't attempt to read classics very often. I commend you!

Melissa wrote: "Glad to hear you didn't fall asleep before you could finish Treasure Island. Woohoo for getting back on track. "

Umm...no, I did fall asleep. So I had to wait an additional day before I finished the last eight pages!!

Glad to hear you didn't fall asleep before you could finish Treasure Island. Woohoo for getting back on track.

Yeah!!!!!! I finally did my Book Challenge for a month! Finished Treasure Island, so I'm back to the 1 classic, 1 fiction, 1 non-fiction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm also excited to finish Treasure Island, because it's been like 6 months since I've actually finished a classic novel. Gotta get back to my challenge!!

Okay, so even though my reading is stalled, I can't stop buying books...even though (I think) I have 50+ unread books at home. But all of them were on sale except for the Berenstain Bears ones, and those are for Sam (and only 3.99 apiece!!)

The Angel's Game
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
The Berenstain Bears' Moving Day
The Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed (Sam knows so many of these books, it was hard to pick which one to buy!)
Top Chef Cookbook Original Interviews and Recipes from Bravo's hit show

(Had a 40% off coupon for Dexter, and Top Chef & Angel's Game were 30% off)

August:

The TU semester is over, so I'm looking forward to reading some more.............

Fiction: Coraline
Non-Fiction: Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
Classic: Treasure Island

Other:
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Fluke
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle-I don't think I'll finish this one. I'm just not interested in where the story has twisted, and not sure I want to know how it ends anymore.
Click
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

July:

Looks like I'll have to kick up the reading and tone down the scrapping, since my house will be going on the market. Reading is cleaner than scrapbooking.

Fiction: The Reader
Non-Fiction: Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
Classic: Treasure Island

Other:

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Fluke
Coraline
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

June:

Fiction: Revenge of the Spellmans
Non-Fiction: Outliers
Other:

Like Water for Chocolate
The Yiddish Policeman's Union
Living Dead in Dallas
Finger Lickin Fifteen
Look Again

MAY:

Non-fiction:I'm a Stranger Here Myself
Fiction: Simple Genius
Classic:

Son of a Witch

May not get anything else read this month. I've got super busy workish stuff and ScrapMorial Weekend

APRIL:

Non-fiction: A Drunkard's Walk
Fiction: Alive in Necropolis
Classic: Great Expectations (maybe I'll finally finish!!!!!!!)

Also:
Loch Ness and Raining Frogs
Smashed, Splattered...
Aunt Dimity and the Duke
Shadow of the Wind
Watchers

Easter is the second weekend, I'm pretty sure. We'll figure something out!

Cool! I'll look at my calendar -- the first weekend is out, because I am going outlet shopping with Sue, Becky, Chris, Tyler and Samantha in Williamsburg, but I'm pretty sure the rest of the month is open.

I think I can do it! I'll be sure to send an email to everyone in the office to make sure they know. :-) I'm excited, because I really want to keep somewhat up with things.

I'm hoping to not go to the library for a while, either. I was going to go this weekend, but decided I'd better not. I do have so many books at home! And the thing is, most of them aren't mine!!

I hear ya! I have all these books that I've had since at least November and haven't read yet. I need to just hunker down. I always do a bit of the TNBBC seasonal challenges, but I need to maybe skip the summer challenge and focus on getting rid of the books I have on my shelves!

I'm planning on getting to A Voyage Long and Strange soon. I just need to focus on what I have on my shelves for the time being, but I'm very easily distracted. Like I've said, I have book ADD. :-D

Yeah, pretty good book, huh? I'm reading a not so fun book (Angela's Ashes) right now, then I think I'll either move to Lamb or Lust Lizard. I think I need some Christopher Moose soon. :-P

I'm scared to actually read the book now! lol

Did you finish Sweet Far Thing? I swear, it picks up after a while. It took me longer than I expected to finish it, but it picks up.

You spent an entire weekend scrapbooking! Then you had a sick kid! I'm not moving too fast this month, either.

OMG I am sooo slow this month! What is wrong with me? And 2009 was going sooo good...

March:

Fiction: A Dirty Job
Non-Fiction: The Wordy Shipmates
Classic: Great Expectations (NEVER GOING to finish)

Also:
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
The Shack

Dunno about Jonathan Strange. Not really into the story and I'm 6+ hours into the read (OUT OF 26). That's a BIG committment for something I'm so-so about.

I've been listening to Stardust, by Neil Gaiman (saw the movie first). Finished it this afternoon

Good job for this month. I hope to finish Gifted Hands tonight or tomorrow morning, so I can count that for January. What other book are you going to read?

So, I'm counting myself as done for January. It's the 28th, and I should be able to finish one more book (that isn't even on my list), but won't finish either Great Expectations OR Sweet Far Thing. But, I will have 8 books done for the month, which is quite respectable!

Sounds like a good idea.

Mel wrote: "I will be done The Sweet Far Thing today. Only 50 pages left. Parts drag and parts fly -- just to warn you!

So, are you actually reading The Other Boleyn Girl or listening? You had said liste..."

I think I'm gonna listen. I did HP #6, which is a doozie, too, and it was do-able. Plus, I figured I can rip the CDs onto my iPod and won't have to keep the discs from the library for AGES!

I will be done The Sweet Far Thing today. Only 50 pages left. Parts drag and parts fly -- just to warn you!

So, are you actually reading The Other Boleyn Girl or listening? You had said listening would take forever. The read isn't too bad.

February:

Fiction: Odd Hours
Non-Fiction: Johnstown Flood
Classic: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Great Expectations

Bookclubs:
A Sweet Far Thing
The Historian
(maybe) Love in the Time of Cholera

Also:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell
Naptime is the New Happy Hour
Plum Spooky
20th Century Ghosts

Finished 2 books before the weekend started--scrapped and puked all weekend (not a great recipe for getting my reading done!!)

I have finished just one so far, I think, but I read that in just about 24 hours -- that includes sleeping and working for a few hours! :-) Yay for being more productive!

So, January is already much more productive than Dec.--3 books completed by 1/6 (that's an average of one book finished every other day!!)