Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

Update 06/29/09, 6:45am: Even though the results are somewhat tied below, I concede that listening to someone read a book to me is not the same thing as me reading that book. Sort of. I'm having trouble accepting the fact that I have to make two lists now: "Books I've Read This Year" and "Books Someone Else Read To Me This Year." Seems awkward.

What Now?

Reading: Roasting In Hell's Kitchen by Gordon Ramsay. It was a blast to see him in person this past week. It was a little disappointing to not have him yell at me. I'd probably cry though, so it's for the best.

Listening: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon. This is a great album and I can't stop listening to it. We saw them live a couple of weeks ago and they were fantastic. I was really happy they had a horn section on stage.

Watching: Pushing Daisies, one of the newer shows I like and will miss when all of the current episodes have aired. It's wonderfully quirky.

Selling: Hamster balls and Hamster Haiku with the Tired Girl Collective at the Handmade for the Holidays Craft Fair.

Dreading: Work tomorrow. Ugh. I'd rather be at the craft fair (see above).

Dreaming Of: Sleep. I will be fulfilling this very, very soon.

Accio Good Health

I've succumbed to the sickness so many seemed to contract upon returning from the San Diego Comic-Con. I have no nifty report on fun things I did this weekend because I spent much of it sleeping and trying to fight off the nasty virus that's been plaguing E.

The only bright side of it is that I've had some down time to really dig into the last Harry Potter book. I'm trying to savor it, but can't seem to put it down for too long. Just long enough for those 2-3 hour naps.

By The Book

Yes, another meme. Beats discussing the phlegm and wretched coughing which are otherwise consuming my life. I've seen this on a couple of blogs recently. I do like to read, but certainly don't consider myself "well read." I mean I'm currently reading a 3rd grade book about a golden hamster! I'm sure Ren will not laugh at me upon reading this.

Anyway, here's the key for the following list:

In the list of books below, bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of:

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)-one of my favorites
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. + The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. + The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. + The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. +Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. +Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall On Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. +The Stand (Stephen King)-I read this years ago. I read a lot of Stephen King when I was in middle school and early high school.
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkien)-I've tried and can't finish this book!
22. +The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)-love this and read it multiple times
23. +Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. +Life of Pi (Yann Martel)-I have this on my stack of "to read" books.
26. +The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)-tried to read as a kid, but couldn't finish.
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)-I love Steinbeck, but never read this one for some reason.
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. +Dune (Frank Herbert)-I've tried and failed to get into it.
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. +Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. +1984 (Orwell)
35. *The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much Is True (Wally Lamb)
39. *The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. *The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. +Bible-well, I've read some of it
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. +The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. +The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. *Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65.*Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. +Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. +Les Miserables (Hugo)
70.+The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)--I have this in French!
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)-one of my all-time favorites. Not sure why I don't have a copy.
76. *The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79.*The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81.*Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. +Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. *Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. +Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)-I really enjoyed this in high school
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)-read multiple times
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Wow, more mortifying than I thought. I haven't even read a quarter of the books listed. Granted, I'm not even sure what this list is, but I know there are many on here that I should have read by now.

A Good Read

This probably isn't a good way to get National De-lurking Week* comments, but I just have to recommend this book. To the one or two of you who might enjoy it. Some of you may have kids that would like it, as it is technically for them. Even though I'm not a parent, I love children's books and have collected quite a few. This one was high on my wish list and E found a used copy for me.

I, Freddy by Dietlof Reiche

I, Freddy is the first of five in a series by a German author. It's the story of Freddy, a golden hamster (like Ami!) who is quite precocious. His adventures, which include learning to read and befriending a tomcat and two smelly guinea pigs, are described from his point of view. I laughed out loud a lot. It's clever and, though I hate to use the word, precious.

Now I just need to get my hands on the rest of the series!

*That was supposed to be a hint for anyone lurking here to say 'hi!'

The First Rule Of Book Club Is...

....you do not talk about Book Club. Well, that's just according to a silly t-shirt I have, so I'm going to talk, at least a little bit, about my book club. I really enjoy the group of people that get together on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Something that may be somewhat unique is that we are a mixed gender group, often 50/50. Tonight we had 7 men and 5 women.

Our reading selections vary and often involve topics such as religion, science, or philosophy. As I mentioned before, not everyone in the group finishes the book before we meet. Sometimes what we pick is not as good as we thought or had heard. Other times, people are just too busy in their lives to complete it. My problem is that I'm often reading more than one thing at a time. And I'm a slow reader.

As I've heard is true with other book clubs, we start our discussion based around the current read. The conversation then drifts from there onto various other topics of interest. This evening we talked about all kinds of things from the recent elections to population growth in America to the past and current social and economic climate in Cuba.

Our meeting wraps up with future selections. Various members make suggestions and we vote. I've dubbed our club "The Laziest Book Club Ever," as someone will ask,"Well, how thick is that book?", "Is there a movie we can watch?" (yes, we've done that!), or the snarky question I asked tonight, "Yeah, well how big is the font?"

One member summed it up best though when he said, "It's like picking what we're not going to read next." I am making a solemn effort to read ALL of the next one though, as the author is coming to our December gathering and I'll be really embarrassed if I haven't finished!

All's Well That Ends Well

It turns out I was not the only one in my book club who had trouble getting through the selection we've been working on for the last couple of months. We discussed what we could and are putting it aside. We were reading Collapse by Jared Diamond, which has some very interesting things to say, but needs to be edited down severely. For all of his talk of societies destroying the environment, he sure did kill a lot of trees for this book!

Anyway, I've ordered a used copy of our next couple of choices, so while I await their arrivals, I can dive into Duran Duran: Notorious without guilt. I got it for Christmas and have really wanted to get going on it, but felt obligated to finish the book club one first. So much for that.

Before I get into the history of The Fab Five though, I must watch the final episode of Battlestar Galactica from the first season and then start hunting down the episodes from this season I've missed. We either have them sitting on the Tivo or unmarked dvd's.

Good hunting.

Oh Frack!

I really need to stop watching Battlestar Galactica! I just remembered I have my book club meeting tomorrow night.

I'm really, really behind in the reading.

And, I read slowly.

But I only have one-and-a-half episodes from the first season left to watch.

Frackity frack frack!!!

Recent Literary Purchases

Okay, the "literary" adjective can probably be disputed in a few of these cases.

Books:

• The Sandwalk Adventures
• The Skeptic's Dictionary
• The Origin of Species (pocket sized unabridged edition)
• Collapse

Magazines:

• Giant Robot (Issue 38)
• Other (Issue 8)
• Magnet
• Hollywood Dog
• Ability Magazine

Now, I just have to make some time to sit down and read all of this, along with my current reads Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan, Spiral Bound by Aaron Renier, and issues 3-6 of Tramps Like Us.