Barbara's Random Thoughts

Here's the year-end tally on my 2006 reading, broken down by genre/category. Starred titles were for book club.

Children's (4)
Love That Dog – Sharon Creech
The Children of Green Knowe – L.M. Boston
Saffy's Angel – Hilary McKay
Haroun and the Sea of Stories – Salman Rushdie

Nonfiction (8)
Bella Tuscany – Frances Mayes
The World According to Mimi Smartypants – Mimi Smartypants
Are You Dave Gorman? – Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace
The Celtic Way of Evangelism – George Hunter
The Return of the Prodigal Son – Henri Nouwen
A New Kind of Christian – Brian McLaren
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim – David Sedaris
Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith – Anne Lamott

Fiction (17)
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists – Gideon Defoe
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
The Disorderly Knights – Dorothy Dunnett
July’s People – Nadine Gordimer*
The Passion of Artemisia – Susan Vreeland
The Secret History – Donna Tartt*
The Tent – Margaret Atwood
The Dive from Clausen's Pier – Ann Packer*
Divided Kingdom – Rupert Thomson*
Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez*
Wickett's Remedy – Myla Goldberg*
The Thin Place – Kathryn Davis
A Thread of Grace – Mary Doria Russell
Gilead – Marilynne Robinson*
Children of God – Mary Doria Russell
The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell*
Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro*

Graphic Novels (3)
Blankets – Craig Thompson
Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi*
Persepolis 2 – Marjane Satrapi*

Poetry (2)
Fuel – Naomi Shihab Nye
Wild Iris – Louise Gluck

Re-read (6)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
The View from Saturday – E.L. Konigsburg
Jacob Have I Loved – Katherine Paterson
The Girl with the Silver Eyes – Willo Davis Roberts
Coffee and Kung Fu – Karen Brichoux
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – Barbara Robinson
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

Still only partially read:
Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them - John Ortberg
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

The bottom line:
34 books, plus 6 re-read
4 were borrowed from friends
5 were from my to-be-read shelf (+ 1 more partially read)
8 were purchased this year (+ 1 more partially read)
15 were library-borrowed
2 were gifts

Last year's list is here. My non-fiction reading is up from last year, I read fewer children’s books this year, and I added graphic novels to the list this time around. But other patterns are about the same. My buying doesn’t seem to be going down, but at least my borrowed/library reading has gone up; that has to say something. Next year’s reading list will look a little different, I think, at least when it comes to where I get my books. Justin once suggested that in order to make a dent in the books I've bought but not read, I should take all the books I want to read and leave the country with them. Hmmm.

One more reading note, on the whole Winter Reading Challenge thing. I'm totally cutting my losses and will here cease to pretend it's going to happen. I've got too much else to do. (Like re-reading Cry, the Beloved Country--that whole pre-reading thing I'm supposed to do before I get to South Africa.)

Here's what I accomplished:

1. Atonement – Ian McEwan. This might go on another journey to South Africa.
2. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens. Dickens will probably stay home.
3. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman. Might travel with me, might not.
4. Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen. Check. Great fun, quick read. And since I read it, the below, and Jane Eyre right around the same time, I felt very...female. Also, my vocabulary use improved.
5. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott. Working on it, and really enjoying it.

My alternate selections:
The Disorderly Knights – Dorothy Dunnett. Finished. To borrow a phrase from one of my textbook reviewers, it was a "ripping good read." Highly recommended. (Julie, I will mail this back to you. Really.)
No Promises in the Wind – Irene Hunt. Nope. Kristy, I will read this someday. But not before January 15, so I will return this to you.

Labels: reading