Tuesday, November 17, 2009

If this is chemical.

And so, it is the 46th week of 2009, and guess what? I'm on book 49 of 52! BOOM! I last updated this list back in September, and I never know what's going to be picked next or what I'm in the mood to read, so it turned out a bit differently than expected these last few books -

01 A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin (01.05.09)
02 World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks (01.18.09)
03 Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer (01.20.09)
04 The Road, Cormac McCarthy (01.22.09)
05 Y: The Last Man, Brian K. Vaughn (01.27.09)
06 Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyers (01.31.09)
07 Infinity Blues, Ryan Adams (02.12.09)
08 The Best American Magazine Writing 2008 (02.28.09)
09 First Love, Ivan S. Turgenev (03.08.09)
10 Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (03.15.09)
11 Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (03.16.09)
12 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera (03.24.09)
13 Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro Kazuo (03.29.09)
14 The Last Vampire, Christopher Pike (04.05.09)
15 Whisper of Death, Christopher Pike (04.13.09)
16 Monster, Christopher Pike (04.21.09)
17 A Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin (04.30.09)
18 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith (05.15.09)
19 Crimson, Brian Augustyn (06.15.09)
20 2666, Roberto Bolaño (06.07.09)
21 The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson (06.17.09)
22 The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett (06.19.09)
23 The Lover, Marguerite Duras (06.22.09)
24 The Sound of My Voice, Ron Butlin (06.25.09)
25 Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy (07.07.09)
26 L.A. Confidential (Film Criticism), Manohla Dargis (07.10.09)
27 Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea, Chelsea Handler (07.12.09)
28 Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card (07.18.09)
29 The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (07.26.09)
30 Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger (08.05.09)
31 Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion (08.09.09)
32 Seven (Film Criticism), Richard Dyer (08.15.09)
33 Delta of Venus, Anais Nin (08.17.09)
34 The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende (08.23.09)
35 The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters (09.05.09)
36 To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf (09.10.09)
37 White Teeth, Zadie Smith (09.27.09)
38 Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote (09.29.09)
39 Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Márquez (10.02.09)
40 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson (10.08.10)
41 Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson (10.12.09)
42 Perfect Fifths, Megan McCafferty (10.13.09)
43 The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (10.19.09)
44 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson (10.27.09)
45 Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill (11.03.09)
46 Come Together, Fall Apart, Cristina Henriquez (11.09.09)
47 Daughters of the North, Sarah Hall (11.15.09)
48 Night, Elie Wiesel (11.16.09)
49 I, Lucifer, Glen Duncan (CURRENTLY READING)

Possibly next:

50 Delirium, Laura Restrepo
51 Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
52 1984, George Orwell

Also, I know I had the Sherlock Holmes books in there before, but do you know how hard it is to relax comfortably and read with an 800+ page, mini-font size, hardcover anthology?! For me, it's next to impossible. I'm seriously considering buying the books individually. Or perhaps I will attempt it again! I feel like I need to be sitting in a library with a big wooden table and a reading light to get through something in that format. No? Am I being weird? I tell you what - that book sits on my bedside table mocking me every time I go to bed. Sometimes I pick it up and then grunt at its weight. The cats have watched me struggle to "curl up in bed" with it. It has sharp corners and resting it on my stomach literally (HA) causes enough pressure to induce an ache.

Last night I finished the harrowing memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel - it recounts his time in concentration camps during WWII and though it's only about 120 pages long, it's incredibly heavy. Afterwards, I needed to pick my next book so I lay a few unread titles on my bed and then Pee Wee jumped up and lay in my lap, apparently wanting to help with my decision.


Here is Pee Wee pondering over the titles and book covers with me.


After reading the back cover, he pushes away Bukowski.


He decides Glen Duncan's I, Lucifer should be my next read, over Laure Restrepo's Delirium.


He hopes that I am pleased with his decision, as he certainly is satisfied with his literary prowess.

6 comments:

  1. literary "meowess" ????
    (fuck, i had to.... sorry....)

    in skimming over your list above, my initial reaction was "three christopher pikes is CHEATING," but those are most certainly cancelled out by the likes of tolstoy, woolfe, and thompson...

    ps: every time i hear how awesome your kitty is, i feel happy inside... :)

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  2. I am super impressed! I'll be finishing Daughters of the North on my lunch break so we can discuss...

    You will love Bovary.

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  3. Tobes!! Hahahaha - you make me laugh :) Well, I did READ the Chris Pikes. Plus I'm counting the 10 books I read in the Y: The Last Man series as 1 book, though I think that may have been a poor decision as they were pretty lengthy to read. Plus, I kept Bolano's 2666 as 1 book though it's really 5. AND it looks like I may beat the 52 anyway. BOOM! Just saying.

    I always think of you when I post pics of Pee Wee :)

    Zan - can't wait for discussion over cocktails tonight!! I feel like I've been waiting to read Bovary for years...now is the time!

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  4. Night was so good and so intense and I loved 1984! I think you should make a top 10 list when you're done. I'm always adding books to my reading list. I just finished Fear of Flying, which I totally recommed, and I'm a couple chapters into The Time Traveler's Wife.

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  5. Aw, what a clever kitty!!! ;)

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  6. This post was adorable. Your cat is adorable.

    Congrats on practically finishing 52 books! I wish I could commit. Perhaps next year.

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