Reading Goals

[Dan, deadpan man]

Ry, the last part of your sentence is key: I can read a lot of books while still taking time to appreciate their beauty, more power to me!

I think I have been too "numbers driven" to take the time to appreciate them as much as I should. It was more about making sure I eclipse the 52 book mark.

Next year I want to slow down and read more closely.

[Patty, free birdeaucrat]

i read a lot of essays and other non-fiction in 2009. i enjoyed it, but i'm hoping to get back into the fiction grove in 2010.

(and hi robert!)

[R.a.]

Dan wrote: "Ry, the last part of your sentence is key: I can read a lot of books while still taking time to appreciate their beauty, more power to me!

I think I have been too "numbers driven" to take the time..."

I see to have the opposite problem. I spend way too much time w/ any particular book. To the point of breaking down the order and style of sentences. Ridiculous.

Maybe a "numbers thing" will help me from what I now consider a bad habit.

For awhile, I could lie to myself by saying things like: "I'm more like Webster . . . a slow writer."

Well, there's slow; and, there's slow.

I'm ridiculous.

I'll never catch up to Joyce Carol Oates, now.

[Ry]

All right, I'm onto Book 50! "Crime and Punishment" will be the last novel I read this year, I think, which will bring me right to 50...unless I get ambitious and decide to read something small like "I, Lucifer"...anyways, cheers!

[Patty, free birdeaucrat]

wow, congrats ry!

[Ry]

Patty wrote: "wow, congrats ry!"

Thanks Patty! And at the last instant I did in fact add "I, Lucifer" and "Blood Meridian" to end the year at a whopping 52 books--one for each week!

[Ben, uneasy in a position of power; a yorkshire pudding]

so, i thought i would report in on my 2009 reading system, in case anyone cares in the least... i did this thing where, for every ten books, one had to count for one (and only one) of the following categories: foreign, short stories, poetry, non-fiction, funny, contemporary (since 1980), old (pre-WWI), re-read, and then there were 2 slots for whatever i felt like.

first surprise was, i totally stuck to the plan all the way through the year. it was really great; the non-fiction was really good because i never used to read non-fiction. i read Miles, miles davis' autobiography, which was one the best books i ever read, and lionel trilling's The Liberal Imagination , which made me want to get real smart about books, and this book Shallow Water Dictionary, which was totally fascinating, and bios of borges and pkd, which were informative if not particularly cheerful, and james jim james othmer's Adland , which made me both want to go into advertising and move to tibet circa 1700, not necessarily in that order.

but the thing i am super happy about was the "funny books" category. generally speaking, before this year i was totally stuck on the dark and disturbing thing. reading funny books turns out to be a lot of fun! i found myself looking forward to that category most of all. i read some victorian-era comedies, like Three Men in a Boat and The Diary of a Nobody, which were both hilarious, in the vein of wodehouse but not as ingeniously plotted, will cuddy's The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody: Great Figures of History Hilariously Humbled, which was just plain amazing, a MAD magazine movie parody collection (Mad About the Movies Special Warner Bros Edition), which obviously was great, a randall jarrell satire of academic life, Pictures from an Institution, which was razor-sharp although a little unfocused storywise, an elmore leonard (Maximum Bob), which was a lot fun although not particularly funny, and then, the major discovery, two novels (the only two novels) by j.f. powers, Wheat That Springeth Green and Morte D'Urban, both of which were wonderful, and the first of which was one of the best books i've ever read, and which i highly recommend to everyone. yes, they're about priests in the midwest, but please don't let that stop you. think of the priests as plumbers; that's essentially how powers treats them.

so, yeah, funny rules.

the worst category was poetry. i didn't like the poetry very much. but that was no surprise. i think i am picky about poetry. if it's not the love song of j. alfred prufrock, or kenneth koch's the art of love, i don't like it, basically. that's actually a lie, but hey, so what. and actually, now that i think of it, i did read Spoon River Anthology, which was brilliant in conception and execution.

best books of the year, otherwise: the huge and amazing western Warlock, the absolutely perfect and seriously hilarious and disturbing The Tenant, the cartoonish mathematical metaphysics of Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, and, you guessed it, Tarzan of the Apes, a stunning jewel of pure unadulterated adventure.

so. that was my year. it was great. but now i am moving on. 2010: the year of the 400+ page books. wish me luck. i'm starting with One Hundred Years of Solitude. which is already stunning.

[Dan, deadpan man]

Thanks for the review of your reading system Ben. I was wondering how it worked out for you.

My only goal this year was to read more nonfiction which I did (at least 10 books!). Also, if I am not mistaken I read more books (60!) this year than any previous year.

I hope 2010 works out as well. I am going to try to ditch the idea of reading a minimum of 52 books in order to focus better and take on some larger works.

[Micha]

Cool challenge...

Lauren wrote: "I'm trying to read all the novels that characters in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are from. I've read:

the Picture of Dorian Gray
the Adventures of Tom Sawyer
the Strange Case of Dr. Jeky..."

[Ry]

Ben wrote: "so, i thought i would report in on my 2009 reading system, in case anyone cares in the least... i did this thing where, for every ten books, one had to count for one (and only one) of the following..."

Well, Ben, I thought it only fair to let you know that after doing my 50 book challenge (and completing it) I will now be stealing your idea so thoroughly explained here for this year's new reading resolution!

[Kerry, flame-haired janeite]

Ben, since 400+ page books are your plan this year, you should read McMurtry's Lonesome Dove (if you haven't already). I know your sister just read it and loved it. I love it too.

[Ben, uneasy in a position of power; a yorkshire pudding]

it's already on my nightstand, kerry! although i gotta say, i don't know if this Big Books thing is gonna work out. that hundred years of solitude really just kicked my ass. never read so much filler in my life. i'm not sure if i can take an entire year's worth of bloat.

ry, good luck! i think you'll like it! it's nice to mix things up a bit.

[Andreea]

^Really? Maybe it was the translation. I read One Hundred Years of Solitude in one day. Well, I started reading in the morning and literally couldn't stop until I finished it around 2 or 3 am. I guess I read so many books -before all my free time was swallowed by exam revision I could read 3-4 medium length novels/short-stories collections a week, even more if I didn't have a lot of school work to do- because I can read for long periods of time even books that I'm not particularly passionate about. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything by reading a lot though, on the contrary. By reading more, I get a more detailed ..perspective on the things I read. I think you understand (and appreciate) One Hundred Years of Solitude differently if it's the only Garcia Marquez book you've read or if you're familiar with his writing style, views/ideas and the South American cultural climate in general (for example, one of the things that made the novel so enjoyable on first read for me was the way it picks up all kinds of techniques and stereotype events/actions from soap-operas).

I have to read a lot of things too. I'm a really passionate student and I can't stand the thought of not going through as much background reading as possible for my World Lit class so I have to read at least one book a week for that class. I also take philosophy and I can't not be curious about different thinkers/philosophy works after discussing them in class. I'm starting university in the fall so I'm trying to get as many books from the recommended reading list (re)read too. And I simply love to read. Now and again I'll see a wonderful book in a library or bookshop and won't be able to stop myself from picking it up. I would never be able to keep up with all the things I want/need to read if I read at a slow pace only an hour or two a day. Not that I think everybody should read like I do. I'm merely explaining why at the moment reading fast and a lot is the only way I can approach literature.

[Brian, just a child's imagination]

my big book plan is still going on and beckett is giving me both a headache and a joy that i cannot quite explain... i mean this old crippled fart has defecation issues (as most of beckett's characters do) and he just rambles on and on. beckett is doing away with paragraphs and is slowly dropping the full stop. i feel like i've been living with an old bum for a few weeks and he won't shut up but i'm kind of hoping he won't shut up. he's both annoying and funny. i think i'm starting to smell and i need to shit now. question is where.

on another note... heard on wait, wait don't tell me that beckett sometimes gave andre the giant, the wrestling mammoth, a ride to school. that just cracks me up and i'm not sure why.

[Shel, ad astra per aspera]

I just saw Krapp's Last Tape this past weekend and it was heartbreaking. And frustrating. A lot of pathos/thanatos/eros.

[Brian, just a child's imagination]

A lot of what? Are those like cheetos? I like cheetos. Is there a film version of this play?

[Shel, ad astra per aspera]

Not exactly like Cheetos, but close. Pathos - "suffering" or "experience"; thanatos - the human drive toward our own death or destruction; eros - erotic love, all Ancient Greek. I bet you're messing with me and totally know what those things are.

I don't know if there's a film version. There isn't any dialogue, really, unless you count the old man talking at the younger version of himself. It really should be read aloud or seen performed.

The stage version I saw had Brian Dennehy. Right before that he did Hughie by Eugene O'Neill. Both one-act plays were about old men looking back on their lives and realizing what mattered most was love, or the missed opportunity of it. They fit really well together.

[Brian, just a child's imagination]

Damn but I miss culture. Here I live in a big city and we have squat. And I was messing with you 66%. I do have some Beckett films I downloaded from YouTube. Both are on my phone. Maybe it's time to go back and see if I can find some new ones. So this Krapp's Last Tape appears to be the actor pretty much reading from Malloy. I can understand your frustrating and heartbreaking experience.

[Kerry, flame-haired janeite]

My dear friend Megan told me a big secret the other day. Her yearly reading goal is to read 52 books, one book per week. So far this year she's read 54!! She thinks she might need an intervention.

I envy her. I still haven't finished a book this year. I've been backed up against a weird reading wall where I can't seem to finish anything I start.

I am nearly done with The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I'm hoping that is the dam that will finally break and then my voracious reading will flow again.

[Brian, just a child's imagination]

Mr too Kerry... Me too... I pick up a book and that's about as far as I get with it.

[Ben, uneasy in a position of power; a yorkshire pudding]

i totally fucked myself with this year's rule of only 400+ page books. been a third of the way through infinite jest for about five months now. and before that, that horrible 100 years of solitude thing... bad bad year... bad year... then i read a john grisham novel on a plane ride... i don't know what the fuck is going on... i wanna go to disneyland...

[Kerry, flame-haired janeite]

Thanks Brian, glad I'm not the only one.

And Ben, thank you for making me laugh out loud. I wanna go to Disneyland too. And by the way, I'll be in L.A. the weekend of July 18th!

[Shel, ad astra per aspera]

I've decided to focus on sci fi. I've seen a gazillion sci fi movies and tv shows but somehow skipped the fact that a lot of them started out as books?

Point being: ripping good yarns that take place in convincingly created worlds seems like a good influence for my novel.

[[deleted user]]

I just bought those Sookie Stasckhouse books hoping something light with a sense of humor will break this depressing slump I've been in for a while.

[Shel, ad astra per aspera]

I know what you mean, Margaret. I watched The Road recently and will avoid the book at pretty much all costs.

[Kerry, flame-haired janeite]

Margaret wrote: "I just bought those Sookie Stasckhouse books hoping something light with a sense of humor will break this depressing slump I've been in for a while."

I read about seven of those books last summer and they were a fun diversion. And they were really easy, fast reading!

Have you watched True Blood, the HBO show based on those books? It's fantastic!

[Shel, ad astra per aspera]

I'll second that. Haven't read the books but I love the show. Anything Alan Ball does has a quirky aspect to it, fantastic music, and this show in particular is fun and campy. Love love love it.

[[deleted user]]

I don't get HBO. Maybe I'll buy the series on DVD. I sent the books around with my daughter and Daughter in laws so I wont see them for a couple of weeks.

[Shel, ad astra per aspera]

Oh, no reason to buy... I think Netflix/hulu will stream them to you ...

[[deleted user]]

I forgot about hulu...