My 2013 goal was to read 100 books. I read 102! Not that I earned bragging rights. Scan the list, you'll see several Asimov's, Dahl's, Hornby's and even two Kinsella's...the classics!
Favorites
Here's a list of the 16 books I gave a full five stars on Goodreads. My absolute favorites are Someone Somewhere, Beside the Sea, The Jungle, Rebecca and Friend of my Youth. I read Dune for the third or fourth time. Just seeing Dune on the list makes me want to read it again. The author Jean Rhys was the best discovery of the year. I will read more Barnes, du Maurier and Munro. I am also reading children's books to my son...many of them for the first time.
- Beside the Sea - Olmi, Véronique
- Blindness - Saramago, José
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Dahl, Roald
- Dune - Herbert, Frank
- Friend of My Youth - Munro, Alice
- Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas - Fagan, Cary
- Rebecca - Maurier, Daphne du
- Seeing - Saramago, José
- Someone Somewhere - Mills, Dana
- Swimming Home - Levy, Deborah
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Twain, Mark
- The Bell Jar - Plath, Sylvia
- The Jungle - Sinclair, Upton
- The Secret Garden - Burnett, Frances Hodgson
- The Sense of an Ending - Barnes, Julian
- Wide Sargasso Sea - Rhys, Jean
I picked up some knowledge here and there, although that's not really the point of reading fiction. I'm looking for insight and great sentences. When the author has a greater understanding of themselves or this world than I will ever. Take Barnes...when he talks about life in The Sense of an Ending:
"But time...how time first grounds us and then confounds us. We thought we were being mature when we were only being safe. We imagined we were being responsible but were only being cowardly. What we called realism turned out to be a way of avoiding things rather than facing them. Time...give us enough time and our best-supported decisions will seem wobbly, our certainties whimsical."Then there is Rhys' Paris set of novels, we meet discarded women who cling to men for support and think of beauty (aging beauty at that) as their only means for survival. In Good Morning Midnight, she is walking about Paris, haunted by memories. The first person narration invites you deep into her melancholia, and it's wonderful:
“...I know all about myself now, I know. You've told me so often. You haven't left me one rag of illusion to clothe myself in.”Of course, I also read to be entertained by stepping into a story and taking part in another world. When I read Asimov, I enjoy the plot and strange reality. Other times I need a lighter story after reading something particularily dark, and this is when I turn to Hornby.
Finally, I select books that you are supposed to read. The ones that land on the 'Top' lists. I read them to understand why they are considered great. I want to have my say. If there was a checklist to complete in order to be given the title 'well-read,' I would steadily work through it. Unfortunately, it's not that easy. So many lists, so many different genres. Then, of course, biographies and other non fiction as well. So many books!
Now what?
I'm glad I meet my goal, but I won't repeat it in 2014. I want to spend more time with each book to digest it. Read some Victorian novels (currently reading Bleak House, by Dickens, I doubt I will finish before year end). I'd like to be able to discuss literature intelligently, so I plan on reading critical essays or analysis after the book. Well, this is the plan, anyways. The goal in 2014 is to get more out of what I am reading.
The list:
| Title | Author | Rating | |
| 1 | The Five People You Meet in Heaven | Albom, Mitch | 3 |
| 2 | Bastard Out of Carolina | Allison, Dorothy | 4 |
| 3 | Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson | Anderson, Sherwood | 4 |
| 4 | Foundation and Earth | Asimov, Isaac | 1 |
| 5 | Foundation's Edge | Asimov, Isaac | 2 |
| 6 | Second Foundation | Asimov, Isaac | 3 |
| 7 | Foundation and Empire | Asimov, Isaac | 3 |
| 8 | Foundation | Asimov, Isaac | 3 |
| 9 | Prelude to Foundation | Asimov, Isaac | 3 |
| 10 | The Currents of Space | Asimov, Isaac | 3 |
| 11 | Pebble in the Sky | Asimov, Isaac | 3 |
| 12 | The Stars, Like Dust | Asimov, Isaac | 3 |
| 13 | Forward the Foundation | Asimov, Isaac | 4 |
| 14 | Alias Grace | Atwood, Margaret | 3 |
| 15 | Arthur & George | Barnes, Julian | 1 |
| 16 | The Sense of an Ending | Barnes, Julian | 5 |
| 17 | Zuleika Dobson: or An Oxford Love Story | Beerbohm, Max | 3 |
| 18 | Jane Eyre | Brontë, Charlotte | 3 |
| 19 | The Secret Garden | Burnett, Frances Hodgson | 5 |
| 20 | Bliss | Carey, Peter | 4 |
| 21 | A Year in the Merde | Clarke, Stephen | 2 |
| 22 | Eleanor Rigby | Coupland, Douglas | 3 |
| 23 | The Red Badge of Courage | Crane, Stephen | 3 |
| 24 | The Witches | Dahl, Roald | 4 |
| 25 | Fantastic Mr. Fox | Dahl, Roald | 4 |
| 26 | James and the Giant Peach | Dahl, Roald | 4 |
| 27 | The Twits | Dahl, Roald | 4 |
| 28 | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Dahl, Roald | 5 |
| 29 | White Noise | DeLillo, Don | 4 |
| 30 | The Sisters Brothers | deWitt, Patrick | 4 |
| 31 | Heartburn | Ephron, Nora | 2 |
| 32 | I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections | Ephron, Nora | 3 |
| 33 | I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman | Ephron, Nora | 4 |
| 34 | Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas | Fagan, Cary | 5 |
| 35 | How to Read Novels Like a Professor | Foster, Thomas C. | 3 |
| 36 | The French Lieutenant's Woman | Fowles, John | 3 |
| 37 | Ellen Foster | Gibbons, Kaye | 4 |
| 38 | I, Claudius | Graves, Robert | 3 |
| 39 | The Dispossessed | Guin, Ursula K. Le | 2 |
| 40 | Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames | Hạnh, Thích Nhất | 4 |
| 41 | A Moveable Feast | Hemingway, Ernest | 4 |
| 42 | Dune | Herbert, Frank | 5 |
| 43 | In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed | Honoré, Carl | 3 |
| 44 | High Fidelity | Hornby, Nick | 3 |
| 45 | A Long Way Down | Hornby, Nick | 3 |
| 46 | About a Boy | Hornby, Nick | 4 |
| 47 | Their Eyes Were Watching God | Hurston, Zora Neale | 4 |
| 48 | The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry | Joyce, Rachel | 4 |
| 49 | The Bean Trees | Kingsolver, Barbara | 4 |
| 50 | Mini Shopaholic | Kinsella, Sophie | 2 |
| 51 | Shopaholic and Baby | Kinsella, Sophie | 3 |
| 52 | Travelling Light | Kittle, Katrina | 3 |
| 53 | Swimming Home | Levy, Deborah | 5 |
| 54 | The Call of the Wild | London, Jack | 3 |
| 55 | Love and the Mess We're In | Marche, Stephen | 3 |
| 56 | Rebecca | Maurier, Daphne du | 5 |
| 57 | The Paris Wife | McLain, Paula | 2 |
| 58 | Someone Somewhere | Mills, Dana | 5 |
| 59 | Black Swan Green | Mitchell, David | 3 |
| 60 | Friend of My Youth | Munro, Alice | 5 |
| 61 | Starter For Ten | Nicholls, David | 3 |
| 62 | Z for Zachariah | O'Brien, Robert C. | 4 |
| 63 | Appointment in Samarra | O'Hara, John | 4 |
| 64 | Beside the Sea | Olmi, Véronique | 5 |
| 65 | Lullabies for Little Criminals | O'Neill, Heather | 4 |
| 66 | The Hidden Persuaders | Packard, Vance | 4 |
| 67 | The Bell Jar | Plath, Sylvia | 5 |
| 68 | The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals | Pollan, Michael | 4 |
| 69 | Good Morning, Midnight | Rhys, Jean | 3 |
| 70 | Voyage in the Dark | Rhys, Jean | 3 |
| 71 | Quartet | Rhys, Jean | 3 |
| 72 | After Leaving Mr. MacKenzie | Rhys, Jean | 4 |
| 73 | Wide Sargasso Sea | Rhys, Jean | 5 |
| 74 | Jacob Two-Two-'s First Spy Case | Richler, Mordecai | 3 |
| 75 | Allegiant | Roth, Veronica | 2 |
| 76 | The Little Prince | Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de | 4 |
| 77 | Death with Interruptions | Saramago, José | 3 |
| 78 | Blindness | Saramago, José | 5 |
| 79 | Seeing | Saramago, José | 5 |
| 80 | The End of Your Life Book Club | Schwalbe, Will | 3 |
| 81 | Me Talk Pretty One Day | Sedaris, David | 2 |
| 82 | Funny Boy | Selvadurai, Shyam | 4 |
| 83 | The Jungle | Sinclair, Upton | 5 |
| 84 | Zen and the Art of Faking It | Sonnenblick, Jordan | 3 |
| 85 | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | Spark, Muriel | 4 |
| 86 | East of Eden | Steinbeck, John | 4 |
| 87 | The Hollow Hills | Stewart, Mary | 3 |
| 88 | The Last Enchantment | Stewart, Mary | 3 |
| 89 | The Wicked Day | Stewart, Mary | 3 |
| 90 | The Crystal Cave | Stewart, Mary | 4 |
| 91 | The Joy Luck Club | Tan, Amy | 4 |
| 92 | The Flying Troutmans | Toews, Miriam | 4 |
| 93 | A Boy of Good Breeding | Toews, Miriam | 4 |
| 94 | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Twain, Mark | 3 |
| 95 | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Twain, Mark | 5 |
| 96 | The Glass Castle | Walls, Jeannette | 3 |
| 97 | Billy Liar | Waterhouse, Keith | 4 |
| 98 | Stuart Little | White, E.B. | 1 |
| 99 | Charlotte's Web | White, E.B. | 4 |
| 100 | The Dutch Republic and the Civilisation of the 17th Century | Wilson, Charles | 3 |
| 101 | Mrs. Dalloway | Woolf, Virginia | 3 |
| 102 | Chocky | Wyndham, John | 2 |
ps. now you know what I have been up to! I am out of the habit of blogging. I am not sure how many posts I have left in me!