After hitting a low this past weekend, over the last week, I've slowly been feeling better about life in general. I've been watching The (American) Office back to back to back on Netflix streaming, I finished reading The Girl Who Played with Fire, I've been listening to my whole Beatles collection on shuffle, and I got to spend time with Lynn. I'm leaving tomorrow for Pennsylvania to see my family for Christmas. I'm looking forward to spending time with my brother, sister in law, grandma, and some old high school friends. Chances are, my mother will corner me on Christmas and talk to me about our past. I'm going to try to keep my emotions in check so that Christmas will not be ruined like it was last year. I will listen to her, but let her know that her actions need to match her words.
I enjoy making lists and keeping track of certain things every year. I have a "101 in 1001" list which is a list of 101 goals you'd like to accomplish in 1001 days. I'm currently on my second such list. Since we're nearing the end of 2010, I figured now would be a good time to post two of the things I keep track of on my 101 in 1001 list: the books I read and the places I traveled. A few months ago, I discovered the website the Day Zero Project that was made for exactly these 101 in 1001 lists. I transferred my list from LiveJournal (haha yes, LiveJournal. I only use it now to hold my 101 in 1001 list and to have a place to publish my yearly book list) and, of course, the Day Zero Project website is down right now, so I'm going to go off of the list I have on LJ that hasn't been updated in a few months.
One of my 101 in 1001 goals is to read at least 30 books a year. Last year, I managed to read a whopping 45 books. This year, I only read a measly 13. I'm fully blaming grad school for my poor performance. If I manage to finish any more books before January, I will update my list. Here are the books I read in 2010:
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Howards End by E. M. Forster (reread)
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Ambient Findability by Peter Morville
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Awkward and Definition by Ariel Schrag
Potential by Ariel Schrag
Likewise by Ariel Schrag
The Tempest by William Shakespeare (reread)
A few of my 101 in 1001 goals revolve around travel: visit more noteworthy places, increase the number of states I've visited, travel to Europe again. Since this list of traveled places is a few months old and I know I expanded upon it since, I will update it once the website comes back up. I will also update it if I go anywhere else before New Year's. I don't include when I go home to PA since I don't really consider that a travel destination. I'm happy to report that I visited a new state- Tennessee- and a new country- the Czech Republic- in 2010.
Washington, DC- twice
Harrisburg, PA- three times
Williamsburg, VA
Prague, Brno, and other towns, Czech Republic
Sandbridge (Virginia Beach), VA
Chick's Beach (Virginia Beach), VA
Knoxville, TN
Asheville, NC
Cowpens and Spartanburg, SC
Charlotte, NC
Cumberland County/Bear Creek Lake State Park, VA
Charlottesville, VA
Norfolk, VA
What did you think of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? I tried to read it back in July and couldn't get into it. I think all the fuss put me off it.
ReplyDeleteThe library was fussing over Johnathan Safran Foer a few months ago when his name was thrown around for a possible community read, and then admin found out how much his fee was and his name was duly scratched off the list. (They ended up selecting The Book Thief.)
Also 13 is not that bad a number! It's better than last year when I read nine. Books are tricky things, because sometimes reading one means a great lot more than reading one hundred.
I liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I read it for a book club early in 2010, otherwise I probably wouldn't have picked it up. I don't usually read books that are like that. It gets pretty dark by the end of it and turns into one of those I-can't-put-it-down-because-I-need-to-know-what-happens-even-though-this-is-highly-disturbing books. It's definitely not my favorite book ever, but it's good for what it is. I read the second book in the series when I finished my semester because I needed a no brainer book to flip through. I'll probably read the third one just so I can finish up the series.
ReplyDeleteOh man, that would have been awesome if Foer came to your library. I'm really looking forward to reading more of his stuff, especially is book about vegetarianism.
I hear you on quality over quantity. I can't decide if all the stuff I've been reading for classes is quality or just quantity. Haha, I kid. I kid.