Things to Do Before You Die

My new favorite t.v. show is 'An Idiot Abroad' on the Science channel. If you've been over to our house recently, there's a good chance you were forced to watch it. The basic premise is they (Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant) make the 'idiot,' Karl Pilkington, choose activities to do based on a list of the top 100 things people say they want to do before they die. These aren't things Karl wants to do before he dies. He's more of a homebody type. So to see him put into all these crazy situations is pretty dang funny.

This got me thinking of what would be on my list. My "Bucket List." I've actually done a lot of things that'd be on your typical list, so I think I'd have to get a little creative and/or specific. I don't have any desire to do things involving large amounts of adrenaline. At least the type that comes with risking life and limb. No bungee jumping or sky diving for me, thanks. I think most of my to-do's would involve outdoor activities, traveling, and food. So... let's see what we have...

1. Fly fish for Browns in New Zealand
2. Eat an authentic French & Italian meal (ideally in each of those countries...)
3. Visit New England in the fall
4. See the Northern Lights & an iceberg
5. Have an article or book published
6. Go backpacking in the backcountry for at least a week

It's actually really tough for me to think of things I'd want to do before I die because usually if I want to do something I just do it! Most of the things I haven't done are simply because it takes a little extra cash to accomplish them.

So what do you think? What do you want to do before you die?

January Book Reviews: West of the Tularosa, The Hunger Games, and Peace Like a River

To start out the new year I thought I would revamp my book reviewing system. I started using a new website called Good Reads to keep track of the books I've read in the past, books I'm currently reading, books I want to read, and books I've finished. I've posted a couple different book lists on my sidebar: books I'm currently reading and books I've finished this year. This way you can easily see the ratings I've given for any book without having to dig through all my book posts.

Because I started using the Good Reads website, my rating scale will also change. I will now be on a 5 star system instead of 3. Here's the breakdown:

 *= Didn't like it; **= It was ok; ***=Liked it; ****=Really liked it; *****=It was amazing

West of the Tularosa

by Louis L'Amour

Rating: **

West of the Tularosa is about... well... let's see. This guy comes into town and finds some dead guys in a cabin. Then the bad guys try to frame him and they gotta figure out who done what.

This was my first attempt at reading a western. I listened to this on audiobook and thought it was entertaining, though maybe not quite my style. I'm typically not big on westerns and this just seemed to be a little too... I don't know. It's a good book to read on the beach. There. I think that says it.

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

Rating: ****

For those of you who haven't read it yet, The Hunger Games is about a girl named Katniss who is involved in a deadly survivalist reality t.v. show. Every year, two children (a boy and a girl) between the ages of 12-18 are drawn in a lottery from each of 12 districts. These children are then sent into an arena to fight to the death. The winner gets immunity from later games as well as food and a home for the rest of their lives, something that is very valuable in a semi-communistic society where starvation is common. 

I didn't want to like this book, what with it being so popular and all, but I couldn't help it. I had it on loan from the library for two weeks, a shorter period than normal because there's such a long waiting list. Seth and I were both able to finish the book in the two week period. It was a very engaging book... I found that I kept reading and reading... something I rarely do. This was a great easy read and I'll definitely be reading the whole series.

Peace Like a River

 by Leif Enger

Rating: *****

I know. This book looks like it would be incredibly boring. The title does not do it justice. However, this was one of the best books I've read in a while. It's hard to say what this book is about without giving away too many plot details. Mainly it's about a man named Jeremiah Land who goes through a moral dilemma of whether he should turn his 16 year old son, Davy into "the Feds" after he is charged for murder and escapes from prison. The book is told from Davy's 11 year old asthmatic brother, Reuben's perspective.

I really loved Enger's writing style. He gave each of his characters such an individual personality and voice. You can't help but love each of the characters, even the "evil Fed" who is after Davy. This book is definitely on my Top 5 list for the last year.

p.s. I listened to the audio version of this book and really enjoyed it. Great narrator.

I Did Something This Year!

I made a goal for the 2010 year to read 30 books. This was three times as many as I'd read the year before so I thought it'd be pretty hard to accomplish. I'm happy to report that I didn't read 30 books. I read 45. Yay me!

I kept a running list of all the books I finished and made a note of the ones that were audiobooks. Turns out I finished 23 books just by listening to them during my commutes and road trips. This was a great find for me. Not only was I able to "read" more, but it was a great way to use time that would normally be filled with meaningless chatter. And since I got all the books from the library, it was completely free! The library has a huge selection of audiobooks available and it's so easy to go online, search their collection, and reserve what I want.

I also kept track of books that I started and didn't finish. Most of these books were audiobooks that weren't very well suited to car listening and/or had annoying narrators. I'm always looking for good audiobooks so let me know if you have any favorites!

Another thing I tried to do this year was to broaden my horizons a bit as far as the types of books I read. I typically like non-fiction, usually in the humor realm. This year I managed to read at least one book in each of these genres: biography, autobiography, sci-fi, classic fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, humor, fiction, nature, and science. Pretty good eh?

Ready to see my list? Behold!

My List of Books Read in 2010
*Audiobook

1.Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Retin
2. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
3. The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost
4. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
5. Last Words by George Carlin
6. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
7. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
8. The Brothers K by David James Duncan*
9. Know Your Cat: Understand How Your Cat Thinks and Behaves by Francesca Riccomini
10. Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton*
11. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon*
12. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini*
13. My Life in France by Julia Child
14. My Old Man by Amy Sohn
15. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt *

16. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner*
17.I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project by Paul Auster*
18. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers*
19. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin*
20. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer*
21. Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank*
22. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
23. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger*
24. Anthem by Ayn Rand
25. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
26.Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore*
27. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
28. Teacher Man by Frank McCourt*
29. Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall and Lisa Pulitzer
30. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
31. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
32. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson*
33. Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis*
34. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
35. Carrie by Stephen King*
36. Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet*
37. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
38. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway*
39. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung
40. Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway*
41.A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway*
42. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah*
43. The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
44. In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks: And Other Complaints from an Angry Middle-Aged White Guy by Adam Carolla
45. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach*

Half-Read

Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell*

The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton*
Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami*
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley*

The funny thing is, when I started this goal, I made a list of 30 books I wanted to read so I wouldn't ever waste time trying to choose my next book. I actually made it through a lot of the books I wanted to read, but much to my surprise, the more I read, the more books made it onto the list of ones I wanted to read. I find it very frustrating that I can't read as many books as I'd like to. And even if I could read all the time, I'd still have a huge list of books I hadn't read yet. The list just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

So have you read any of these books? What books were your favorites this year? Anything I absolutely need to add to my list?