I Read Books... Sometimes

So I was over on my brother-in-law Scott's blog yesterday and he was talking about all the books he'd read over 2009. He'd "only" hit 44 (which he said was low in comparison to George W. Bush and I thought was incredibly high). I began to wonder how many books I'd read and knew it was no where near 44. Seth said I'd probably be surprised and that I'd be up around 20. No way. I said I'd be lucky if I could find 10. Sadly, I was right. Sort of. I was able to name 9 books I'd read all the way through. If you count the 450 pages I read of War and Peace, you can round that out to 10 books. Here's the list in no particular order: (Um, Scott, I'm going to rip off your rating system *Ok **Good ***Great)

***Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

***Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders by John Gierach

**Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

*A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity by Kathleen Gilles Seidel

**The Call of the Wild by Jack London

**The Little Lame Prince by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

**White Fang by Jack London

***The River Why by David James Duncan

**Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese by Brad Kessler

:-P (That's the sign for BORING) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Now, to be fair, during the time I was reading War and Peace, it was the only book I read. I could not get into it and found it incredibly boring. For the most part, instead of supplementing my reading with something else, I slowly chugged through it... usually at less than 1 chapter a day. So those several months were unusually low in books. 450 pages of War and Peace is easily equal to like 2000+ pages of a normal book. So there... I'm not illiterate.

Although, Scott did light a fire in my belly so to say. I really could read a lot more than I did last year. So, I'm going to set a GOAL. That's right... Me, the hater of goals, is making one right now. By this time next year I want to have read at least 30 books. I know, this number may be low for some, but that's at least a couple of books a month. That's quite a bit for me and I think it'll be pretty challenging.

A Window to My Soul

I've had some requests to post a list of my favorite music and books. Ok so maybe it's not quite a window to my soul, but it's at least peep-hole.

My music tastes are really quite random. I normally like softer nerdy type stuff, but I also love some of those bands that your mom's wouldn't let you listen to. I'm not much of a rap or pop fan, but I would say that there are still songs/artistis in those genres that are tolerable and even enjoyable. I'm going to make a list of my top ten artists. I LOVE all of these and highly recommend them. (I added links to each artist in Amazon.com, most of which have clips of the songs on the pages for each individual CD)

My Top Ten Artists
In no certain order....

1.Brandi Carlile (NOT Belinda Carlisle though she's not bad) ( I have The Story and her self-titled album Brandi Carlile and love both)

2. Alison Krauss (I own "Lonely Runs Both Ways" and "Now That I've Found You")

3. Fiona Apple (Extraordinary Machine)

4. Fleetwood Mac (The Dance)

5. Jeff Buckley (Grace-Legacy Edition)

6. Johnny Cash (I like most of his stuff, but his American IV is really good)

7. Oingo Boingo (Skeleton's in the Closet)

8. Devotchka

9. Pet Shop Boys

10. Pink Floyd

Wow that was hard to choose just ten. Here is a list of other artists I like...

Live
A Perfect Circle
Velvet Revolver
The Cult
The Cure
Ben Folds
Depeche Mode
Violent Femmes
Alice in Chains
Anne Murray
The Carpenters
Big Wreck
Bonnie Raitt
Carly Simon
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Clint Black
Tim McGraw (Mostly older stuff)
Dan Fogelberg
Dixie Chicks
Don Williams (The Best of Don Williams)
George Strait
INXS
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
James Taylor
Midnight Oil (Diesel and Dust)
Modern English
Neil Diamond
Nirvana
Norah Jones
Pearl Jam
Queensryche
Soul Asylum
Sting
Tears for Fears
Tool
U2 (esp. Achtung Baby)

This isn't all the music I like, just groups that are at the top of the list. There's always one-hit wonders and those types of things. As you can see I love what I grew up on, including some guilty pleasures such as Anne Murray that are influenced by my parents. My sister Corinne also had a lot of influence on me as seen by the Violent Femmes and Neil Diamond. There really is only a handful of newer artists on my list, because they just don't make 'em like they used to!

As far as books go, I typically like non-fiction. I will read fiction, but usually only if it's recommended by someone. I'll just make a list of the books I've read and liked. By the way, I did read Twilight... this was before the real Twilight explosion and I didn't know it was a teenage girl-type book. It was alright, but not my style. No I will not be watching the movie.

Books I Like

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (had this on audiobook-loved it... thanks for the recommendation Mom!)

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

Naked by David Sedaris (I've read almost everything from him including "When You Are Engulfed in Flames", "Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim," and "Me Talk Pretty One Day"- all of these books are very funny)

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (thanks for the recommendation Mom Hanson!)

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Emerson: Essays and Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Matilda by Roald Dahl

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

Varieties of Religious Experience by William James

Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey

Death, Taxes and Leaky Waders by John Gierach

Well, that's it for now. If you have any questions about anything I've listed here let me know. I'd be happy to share details!

Tolstoy? Why Yes, I've Heard of Him...

About a year ago I was wandering around in Barnes and Noble looking for something to read. I came to the classics section where I was drawn to the ever famous monstrosity, "War and Peace". I've always thought it would be cool to say I'd read "War and Peace"....it's kind of the nerd equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. At just over 1400 pages, it's three pounds of pure intimidation. Needless to say, I had to have my very own copy.


Now I've read book reviews for "War and Peace" and all of them rave what a delightful, amazing book it is. So far I've read about 130 pages (I started two weeks ago) and not much has happened. I was really hoping it would be the kind of book I couldn't put down. I set a goal to get through at least one chapter a day. If I can stay awake long enough, sometimes I'll read two. I'm going to read this whole book even if it kills me.


I plan to follow up later on this enormous goal of mine. I'm hoping I won't embarass myself by quitting or finally finishing it when my as yet non-existent children graduate from college. Although, if I keep up with the current rate I'm at, you should hear back from me around my birthday (which is July 23rd in case you wanted to get me anything).

Eat, Pray, Love

I don't normally do book reviews. I don't know why. People always talk about reading books that they can't put down. I've read several of these kind of books and I'm never as impressed as everyone else is. Maybe I have unreasonable standards.

For Christmas 2007 (yes a year ago), my sister Annie gave me the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I had actually almost bought the book myself and so I was looking forward to reading it. Fast forward more than a year later to when I actually got around to reading it. I honestly could not put this book down. I lost at least an hour of sleep every night because I stayed up reading. I read on lunch breaks. I read as soon as I got off work. I read whenever I could. I'm not that fast of a reader so it took me about two weeks to finish, but that's pretty good for me.

This is a non-fiction book about the author who goes on a journey to three different places: Italy, India, and Indonesia. Her purpose is to basically find herself and get over some of the trials she's been through. Kind of a spiritual journey. I think I could relate to a lot of the things she'd been through which probably made it even better for me. Her journey was very interesting and she was very likable and funny.

Anyway, I highly recommend it and thanks again Annie for picking out a winner for me!

The Purist

Lately I've been reading a book by John Gierach called "Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders." It's the first book I've read about fishing and I really love it. Not only do I love his style (personal stories with a humorist twist) but his stories are also true (well, as much as possible considering he is a FISHERMAN).

Quite often I read in bed at night before going to sleep and Seth is there with me reading a book of his own. Those who know me well know that I don't often do much more than smile when I think something is funny. Books rarely make me laugh out loud. But this book has me laughing constantly. Seth is always looking over at me like I'm crazy. I laugh at stuff that regular sane people wouldn't bother to bat an eyelash at. It's so funny to me that I can read this guy's stories and think that I have had the exact same experiences. It actually makes me jealous sometimes because I wish I had thought to write about it first. I'd like to just cut and paste his words as my own but the law calls that "plagiarism"... government... always trying to hold me down.

Anyway, back to my point. In one of the chapters of his book, Gierach talks about fly fishing 'purists'. He labels a 'purist' as one who "fishes exclusively with a fly rod, .... he owns a spinning rod and sometimes uses it, but he doesn't take it seriously, doesn't talk about it much (is, to tell the truth, a little embarrassed about it), and stores it separately from his fly tackle." OK, so maybe I'm a purist. Are you happy? I said it. I'M A PURIST!

I guess fly fishing is kind of like religion. Whatever YOU believe is 'right' and you wish that everyone would just see the light and realize that your way is best. It's not that you look down on other people, you just feel sorry for them because they are missing out on something so much better. Then you try to secretly convert them to your way of thinking by using some sort of tricky covert tactics. They don't realize this of course until it's too late.

In all honesty, up until Thanksgiving weekend this year I thought I was a purist. Fly fishing was the only way to go. I owned a spinning rod, but I thought of it as you would a bike with training wheels. I was too old for that now... too smart... too talented. I'd use it occasionally maybe, just to goof around with, but I was a serious fly fisher now, I couldn't be bothered with that sort of childish riff-raff.

As part of the Thanksgiving weekend plans, my father-in-law thought it would be fun to take Seth and I out trolling in his flat bottomed canoe. I had never been fishing in a boat before, let alone trolling, so I decided to at least try it. Maybe I'd get lucky and catch one of those giant lake fish or something.

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical though. The thought of just sitting on a slow moving boat all day waiting for some fish to bite the line didn't sound like it'd be my cup of tea. I'm not much of an ice fisher because I don't like to just sit and watch a bubble all day. Ditto for the worm and bubble setup on a lake. The bubble is my enemy. I prefer to constantly be casting and moving.

So, there we were, the three of us out on this little boat in the middle of a deserted reservoir. It took a minute to get used to the fact that there was a seemingly endless abyss of frigid water right underneath me, but soon I was relaxed and was just along for the ride. I had to admit it was beautiful.

We trolled along the outside edge of the lake with our copper spooned leaders dragging in the water. I finally learned the reason for the reverse setting on my spinning rod. Wait a minute... did I just say SPINNING ROD? I thought I'd swore those off for life! I was a purist now. Only fly rods right? Wrong.

OK I admit it. I used a spinning rod and I liked it. I liked sitting there in the boat lazily fishing and gazing at the deep green water and blue sky. It was one of the few times that I honestly did not care if I caught a fish or not. I lounged around in a cramped little boat all day eating Hostess chocolate donuts with worm guts on my hands and drinking Dr. Pepper and I liked it. We did catch some fish by the way, but it was more of a pleasant side note. The icing on the cake.

So maybe I'm not a purist. Not quite anyway. Crazy things happen when you keep an open mind and try new things. I better watch out.