The Day of Reckoning

And so we have arrived. It is New Year's Eve, the end of the year, and time to be weighed in the balances. Last January, dismayed that I had fallen off the literary wagon and become recreationally illiterate, I resolved to take it one day at a time and read 50 books in 365 days. I admitted that I was powerless over Recreational Illiteracy and that my life had become unmanageable; I came to believe that a Power/Bookstore/Library greater than myself could restore me to sanity; I made a decision to turn off my TV and turn my life over to the care of Amazon. I did not fully succeed. With 7 hours of reading time left in 2010, I have read 48 books--2 shy of my goal. They are:

1. And Only to Deceive - Tasha Alexander
2. A Poisoned Season - Tasha Alexander
3. A Fatal Waltz - Tasha Alexander
4. Tears of Pearl - Tasha Alexander
5. The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
6. Possession - A.S. Byatt
7. Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
8. The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracy Chevalier
9. Remarkable Creatures - Tracy Chevalier
10. The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
11. Diary of a Provincial Lady - E.M. Delafield
12. Great Cases of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
13. The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
14. A Beautiful Blue Death - Charles Finch
15. The Magicians - Lev Grossman
16. What Angels Fear - C.S. Harris
17. The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
18. Ripley Under Ground - Patricia Highsmith
19. Ripley's Game - Patricia Highsmith
20. The Mist in the Mirror - Susan Hill
21. The Small Hand - Susan Hill
22. Never Let Me Go - Katsuo Ishiguro
23. The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova
24. Dressed for Death - Donna Leon
25. Through a Glass Darkly - Donna Leon
26. A Sea of Troubles - Donna Leon
27. Willful Behavior - Donna Leon
28. Doctored Evidence - Donna Leon
29. About Face - Donna Leon
30. Death in a Strange Country - Donna Leon
31. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
32. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
33. My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier
34. The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn - Robin Maxwell
35. Mademoiselle Boleyn - Robin Maxwell
36. Evening - Susan Minot
37. The Night Bookmobile - Audrey Niffenegger
38. An Instance of the Fingerpost -Iain Pears
39. Lush Life -Richard Price
40. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
41. A Glass of Blessings - Barbara Pym
42. Some Tame Gazelle - Barbara Pym
43. The Dead Travel Fast - Deanna Raybourn
44. Silent in the Grave - Deanna Raybourn
45. Silent in the Sanctuary - Deanna Raybourn
46. The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
47. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily - Lauren Willig
48. The Mischief of the Mistletoe - Lauren Willig

Though I would have liked to have the "full set," as it were, with 50, I'm proud of this accomplishment. It's certainly leagues beyond my normal yearly "book count." These 48 include authors I wasn't familiar with before and now adore (Barbara Pym, Deanna Raybourn, Charles Finch, Katsuo Ishiguro), books I'd been meaning to read but hadn't gotten around to (Possession, The Name of the Rose), books I hadn't planned on reading and found greatly disappointing (The Power of One, Lush Life). I've discovered new genres--gothic/horrid novels, Victorian mysteries--that will now be mainstays. And I look forward to trying again in 2011 and continuing to expand my horizons.

Maybe putting a number--50--on reading isn't really the answer. I don't want to start rushing through books or picking "easy" ones just to meet a quota. Maybe a better attitude/approach is to always be reading something. Before this year I could go months at a time without an answer to "so, what are you reading now?" or even "read any good books lately?" I love that I've changed this. I love that I always have a novel in my bag and on the bedside table. I love being able to update my status pretty much every single day on Goodreads. I have loved almost every minute of this year of reading "dangerously," and I know that 2011 will be no different.

In light of this overwhelmingly maudlin positivity, I will close out my last post of the year with the top 10 best of the 48, in no particular order:

1. Possession - A.S. Byatt
2. The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
3. Remarkable Creatures - Tracy Chevalier
4. The Magicians - Lev Grossman
5. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
6. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
7. Never Let Me Go - Katsuo Ishiguro
8. The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
9. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily - Lauren Willig
10. A toss-up between The Dead Travel Fast and Silent in the Grave - Deanna Raybourn

2010, it's been real.

Procrastination is the Greatest Nation

Well, this hasn't gone so well, has it? Some weekend soon I'll sit down with the stack of books I've read and actually write the reviews I said I was going to write, thus escaping from the cloud of ignominy and disgrace that my procrastination has cast over my lazy head.

Shortly after the beginning of the new year (when I blithely resolved to read 50 books and review them for the Masses), I did both a very good and very foolish thing: I resumed work on my dissertation. Good because it's important to have a career and spark your passion; foolish because it significantly cuts down on blogging time. It is probably also decimating my self-esteem and giving me carpal tunnel/a hunchback, but that's another story.

My days now look like this:

1. I get up and procrastinate with the internet and NPR
2. I go down to the library to expand my mind/footnotes; I manically refresh my favorite gossip blog to see if Lindsay Lohan/Miley Cyrus/Mel Gibson has done anything shocking
3. I eat a sandwich in the park with brazen and predatory pigeons and read a novel (see, I'm trying!)
4. Repeat library
5. I go to the gym in an attempt to make my clothes fit
6. I negate good works at the gym by eating dinner
7. I put lotion on my feet, watch one of the several Masterpiece Theater/BBC dvds that I have checked out from the public library, and marvel at the fact that my long-distance relationship has turned me into a total spinster. At least I do not crochet and have only one cat.
8. Exhausted with Library and Spinster-ing, I read a chapter or two of the above novel and think despondently about my lack of blogging before drifting off into fitful slumber.

So there you have it. And I'll let you in on a little secret: this is not the first time I've had a blog and not the first time I abandoned a blog after just a few posts. But this time is different, this time I will not walk away, this time I will finish. It will happen!! (That nifty little rhetorical device of pairing three parallel statements is called a tricolon, by the way, and Cicero thought they were totally sweet.)

Here's a list of the books I've read so far this year. It's a poor substitute for reviews, I know, but I hope it will satisfy for now.

The Betrayal of the Blood Lily - Lauren Willig
The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn - Robin Maxwell
Mademoiselle Boleyn - Robin Maxwell
Great Cases of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
Lush Life - Richard Price
The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracy Chevalier
My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier
The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
An Instance of the Fingerpost -Iain Pears
The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown (yes, I know...I am heartily ashamed)
Through a Glass Darkly - Donna Leon
Willful Behavior - Donna Leon
Dressed for Death - Donna Leon
A Sea of Troubles - Donna Leon
Possession - A.S. Byatt

I also read about 6 issues of Real Simple but I don't think that counts.

Reviews to come I swear!!

(Image: Caravaggio, The Penitent Magdalene, ca. 1597, oil on canvas)

Entering The Lists

In medieval tournaments, the "lists" or "list field" was the arena in which jousting (or other tournament fighting) took place. To enter the lists, therefore, meant to accept a challenge or engage in a contest. In more general and contemporary usage, a list is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a "catalogue or roll consisting of a row or series of names, figures, words, or the like."

In this case, both definitions strike me as fitting. I am accepting a challenge, although perhaps not one that comes with a risk of losing my eye to a splintered lance. My prize upon my successful completion of this feat will not be gold or the favors of the fair princess, only a handful more books on the shelf and a somewhat depleted checking account (and possibly a mild case of eye strain). But I am, with this "catalogue or roll," entering the lists, ready to bravely combat my notorious procrastination and the occasional dragon of obtuse prose. I can do this!

I think.

Incidentally, "list" can also refer to "the flank (of pork); a long piece cut from the gammon." Who knew? The OED never ceases to amaze.

Before we engage in mortal combat, the rules of engagement: Books, even with The Strand, Amazon, and Powells, are expensive. The library is amazing but sometimes unreliable and those overdue fines will get you every time. So, I will be sticking primarily with books I already own but have not yet read. This will not be difficult, as I cannot walk away from any used bookstore or "bargain" table and always feel the need to spend $25+ on Amazon to get the free shipping. My shelves are like a Russian orphanage, overflowing with wonderful, unexplored tomes begging me to take them down and love them.

Of course, all rules have exceptions. Book club selections (when not my pick) will be outside of my control. Likewise, the parameters of the Tournament of Reading dictate that I complete two new volumes each of history and medieval literature, emphasis on new. I own many medieval books (thanks to school), but being the good little student I was, I've read them already. So those will be new, too.

Enough with the definitions and details. To the tiltyard!

*****

The List (alphabetical by author):

1. Lucrezia Borgia - Maria Bellonci
2. The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio*
3. Possession - A.S. Byatt
4. The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracy Chevalier*
5. Great Cases of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
6. My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier
7. In the Company of the Courtesan - Sarah Dunant
8. The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco*
9. Leonardo's Swans - Karen Essex*
10. Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and Times - Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally*
11. Howard's End - E.M. Forster
12. Incarnadine: The True Memoirs of Count Dracula - R.H. Greene
13. The Weight of Silence - Heather Gudenkauf
14. 84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
15. Gentlemen and Players - Joanne Harris
16. The Aviary Gate - Katie Hickman
17. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century - Ibn Battuta*
18. Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery - Eric Ives
19. The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
20. The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova
21. Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
22. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
23. The Lais of Marie de France - Marie de France*
24. Mademoiselle Boleyn - Robin Maxwell
25. The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn - Robin Maxwell
26. The House at Riverton - Kate Morton
27. Cluny: In Search of God's Lost Empire - Edwin Mullins*
28. Going Rogue: An American Life - Sarah Palin (thanks, gag xmas gift!)
29. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
30. The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl
31. Lush Life - Richard Price
32. A Glass of Blessings - Barbara Pym
33. Crampton Hodnet - Barbara Pym
34. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
35. Some Tame Gazelle - Barbara Pym
36. Immortal - Traci Slatton*
37. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
38. Tales out of School - Benjamin Taylor
39. Affinity - Sarah Waters
40. The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
41. The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn - Alison Weir
42. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily - Lauren Willig
43. Book Club TBA
44. Book Club TBA
45. Book Club TBA
46. Book Club TBA
47. Book Club TBA
48. Book Club TBA
49. Book Club TBA
50. Book Club TBA

(* denotes a Tournament of Reading selection. The rules of the challenge define the medieal period as anything from 500 to 1500 A.D. Several of my picks are really more Early Renaissance than Medieval, but they are set before 1500... Am I cheating? Maybe just a little.)

The gauntlet is laid. Let us begin.