2010 Reading Wrap Up

I embarked upon 5 reading challenges for 2010.  I completed 3 of them, but I also learned a lot about my reading habits!  1st of all, I don’t think I’m a “100 Books in a year” gal.   I LOVE reading, however I don’t like reading with such a lofty goal hovering over my head!  I found myself reading mainly books that I could finish quickly so I could get in more books.  This frustrated me because there were a lot of longer/harder to get through books that I know I would have enjoyed, but I didn’t feel like I could take the time to read!

The other challenges were fun at 1st, but by the end it was a drag.  Reading books just to satisfy an arbitrary challenge got tiresome.  I found the challenges becoming more important than the reading.  I didn’t read books that were on my TBR shelf because I had to read library books to satisfy the challenge. 

For 2011 I plan on reading what I want when I want (with the exception of book club books – but even those I won’t finish if I hate it!) and I probably won’t be blogging here much either.  If I feel the need to comment on a book I’ll just add it to my Goodreads! http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/764452-melissa 

Here’s the lowdown on all the challenges I undertook this year and how I did (click on the picture to see the books I read for that challenge)

  FINISHED!

  FINISHED!

  FINISHED!

  86/100

  1/6

As Good As It Gets

Well, I didn’t make it to 100, but I came close!  86/100 isn’t too shabby!  A B or even a B+ on a grading scale!  I always was a B student!  The sad thing is that if I hadn’t fallen off the wagon and only read 1 book in July I would have been within striking distance and could have made it!  Oh well!

Here’s what I did read:

1. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen - by Susan Gregg Gilmore
2. Angels – Marian Keyes
3. Leave the Grave Green – Deborah Crombie
4. The Double Bind – Chris Bohjalian
5. Last Chance Saloon – Marian Keyes
6. Blind Courage – Bill Irwin
7. Family Tree – Barbara Delinsky
8. The Tooth of Time – Sue Henry
9. Blessings – Anna Quindlen
10.  Hey Ranger!: True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America’s National Parks – Jim Burnett
11. A Northern Light – Jennifer Donnelly
12. Time Bandit: Two Brothers, The Bering Sea, & The World’s Deadliest Job – Andy & Jonathan Hillstrand
13. Viola in Reel Life – Adriana Trigiani
14.  The Girl Who Played with Fire – Stieg Larsson
15.  The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder – Rebecca Wells
16.  Encore, Valentine – Adriani Trigiani
17.  Secrets of Eden – Chris Bohjalian
18.  Someday My Prince Will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess – Jerramy Fine
19. Murder on the Iditarod Trail – Sue Henry
20.  The Friday Night Knitting Club – Kate Jacobs
21.  The Moving Finger – Agatha Christie
22.  Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States – Pete Jordan
23. Stealing Buddha’s Dinner – Bich Minh Nugyen
24. Green Witch – Alice Hoffman
25.  Flush – Carl Hiaasen
26.  How Reading Changed My Life – Anna Quindlen
27.  Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie
28.  The Queen’s Fool – Philippa Gregory
29. The Nanny Diaries – Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus
30.  Sushi for Beginners – Marian Keyes
31. Shanghai Girls – Lisa See
32.  Somewhere off the Coast of Maine – Ann Hood
33.  North by Northwestern – Capitan Sig Hansen
34.  Sleeping Lady – Sue Henry
35. Those Who Save Us – Jenna Blum
36.  Miss Julia Renews Her Vows – Ann B. Ross
37.  Knit Two – Kate Jacobs
38.  In Beauty May She Walk – Leslie Mass
39.  Mourn Not Your Dead – Debbie Crombie
40.  The Girl Who Stopped Swimming – Joshilyn Jackson
41.  Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man – Fannie Flagg
42.  The Dive From Clausen’s Pier – Ann Packer
43. Valley of the Dolls – Jacqueline Susann
44.  A Year in the Maine Woods – Bernd Heinrich
45.  Solving Thorny Behavior Problems – Caltha Crowe
46.  Termination Dust – Sue Henry
47.  Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams 
48.   Hooked on Murder – Betty Hechtman
49. Death Takes Passage – Sue Henry 
50. Sizzling Sixteen – Janet Evanovich
51.  Hey Ranger 2 – Jim Burnett
52. The Painter from Shangai – Jennifer Cody Epstein 
53. Dead Men Don’t Crochet – Betty Hechtman
54. Tall Pine Polka – Lorna Landvik
55. A Stitch in Crime – Betty Hechtman
56.  Patty Jane’s House of Curl – Lorna Landvik
57. Parents & Teachers Working Together – Carol David & Alice Yang
58.  Moloka’i – Alan Brennert
59.  The Sugar Queen – Sarah Addison Allen
60.   Park Ranger - Nancy Eileen Muleady-Mecham
61.  The Knitting Circle – Ann Hood
62.  Fire & Ice – Dana Stabenow
63.  My Most Excellent Year – Steve Kluger
64.  Burn – Nevada Barr
65. Garden Spells – Sarah Addison Allen
66. The Ornithologist's Guide to Life – Ann Hood 
67.  The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake – Aimee Bender
68. Rise and Shine – Anna Quindlen
69. Gunn’s Golden Rules: Life’s Little Lessons for Making it Work – Tim Gunn
70. Black and Blue – Anna Quindlen
71.  The Opposite of Me – Sarah Pekkanen
72. Comfort Food – Kate Jacobs
73.  Knit the Season – Kate Jacobs
74.  Deadfall – Sue Henry
75.  By Hook or By Crook – Betty Hechtman
76. The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles: A Woman’s Fight to Save Two Orphans – Hala Jaber
77. You Better Knot Die – Betty Hechtman
78. Christmas Eve in Friday Harbor – Lisa Kleypas
79. You Better Not Cry – Augusten Burroughs
80.  Wishin’ and Hopin’ – Wally Lamb
81. Journey North: One Woman’s Story of Hiking The Appalachian Trail – Adrienne Hall
82.  RV There Yet? – Julia Roberts
83.  Sick Puppy – Carl Hiaasen
84.  Holidays on Ice – David Sedaris
85.  Smoky Mountain Magic – Horace Kephart
86.  The Mighty Queens of Freeville – Amy Dickerson
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The Mighty Queens

The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickerson

This was a book club book, I probably never would have read it otherwise! I wasn’t familiar with Amy Dickerson before and I keep meaning to google her and see what she’s all about.  This book read like so many other books written by celebrities, which is sad because so often the celebrities aren’t writers and she is.   I found it to be a generic story about a mother and a daughter. 

Mystery and Intrigue

Smoky Mountain Magic by Horace Kephart

I don’t have a cover picture for this one, sorry!

Last Fall I watch Ken Burn’s The National Parks: America’s Best Idea and heard Horace Kephart’s name over and over as an advocate for and creator of Great Smoky Mountain National Park, so when I saw that he’d written a fiction story set in the mountains I had to have it!

I finally got around to reading it and it was very good!  It told the story a man who was trying to get what was rightfully his in the mountains of North Carolina!

Holidays on Ice

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

I LOVE David’s Sedaris’ non-fiction essays.  He makes me laugh out loud!  I just don’t get his fiction stories though, they don’t make any sense to me.  I’d read some of the stories in Holidays on Ice when I read Barrel Fever, but others were new.    The book did kinda peak with it’s first story: SantaLand Diaries, but all in all a great holiday read!

Sick Puppy

Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen

I LOVED Carl Hiaasen when I first started reading his books.   He was hysterical – the characters and the predicaments has me laughing out loud!  However, now that I have read almost every book he’s ever written they are starting to blur together.   What seemed unique at the beginning isn’t so unique now.  In fact, many of his books feature the same character – Skink.  I like Skink a lot, he’s a wacky dude, but he’s getting old.   This book was so similar to other Carl Hiaasen books that it was very hard to get through!

More Traveling Stories

RV There Yet? by Julia Roberts

This was a quick read that I’d had on the shelf and I decided to pull it down to get in one more book for 2010, get me that much closer to my goal.    It’s the story of a family who heads off in a used RV to drive across the country and back!  Much mid-adventure ensures but all parties are better for the experience in the end!  Inspired me to think about making my own cross country trip!