She may be cursing me about now for bringing it up, I am not sure.
The idea was to run a really lot. Either 500 miles, or 500 hours, I don't remember because there was virtually no need, nor would their ever be, for me to retain information about running in any way. Again, unless there is a handbag sale or a bar at the end of my run, I just don't.
However, the 50 was for 50 books. Being as I had had exactly 3 minutes of free time the previous year, I knew 50 was going to be way over my head. Rachael is a lovely woman (I mean, I think she probably is in real life of which I would not know) and she was very encouraging to those who felt overwhelmed at just the thought of 50 books so she said anyone who wanted to set a reading goal could just pick a number. Well, that is my kind of goal people! So I decided to try for half. 24. But.
In my head, I put a qualifier on my goal. Placed my own personal handicap on it if you will. They had to be 24 enjoyable books. No adoption books. No attachment books. No therapy books. No Knitting books *gasp*. Books about anything but those topics, for this challenge. Fiction.
Didn't make it. BUT, if you include non-fiction type books, then I think I did make it. Here are the books. All available on Amazon, which is where I got most of them, and coincidentally, you too can order from Amazon right there on my right sidebar and they squeeze out a little Associates fee to me if you do. So MWAH, for that! Anyway.
The Associate
The Accidental Mother (I KNOW! LOL)
Scarpetta
Thank You for All Things
The Glass Castle
The Garden of Last Days
The Road
Atonement
Into the Wild
In the Woods
The House at Riverton
Echoes
The Quickie
The Lovely Bones*
By the way, I am not counting it if I got partway through and it sucked because the character just went on and on whining mercilessly about her life and I never finished it. This means you, Eat Pray Love. Also, if the characters were so unbelievable and selfish that every line annoyed me no end and I started to resent their intrusion into my life, I also did not include that one you know who The Condition.
Non- Fiction books that don't really count
Beyond Consequences I,
and II,
and Dare to Love
Knitters Book of Yarn
Clinical Neuroanatomy Made Ridiculously Simple
Shawls and Something I forget
100 year Anniversary of Vogue Knitting
Painters Pallette
The Bipolar Child
Hurry Down Sunshine
omg, that is exactly 24 if I include the ones that don't count!
If magazines count, then I went over.
And then, I was re-bestowed upon with this....... by a new blogger going by Sojourner Truth. See, a person just cannot have enough happy. Seriously.
This is cool because I thought up a bunch more happy things after I did the first one! So here they are....
1. SLEEP
2. NAPS
3. My ROOMBA!
4. Cheesecake
5. Sleeping babies
6. My bed
7. A nice restaurant for dinner
Now, sleep rocks. I have always been a big fan of sleep. Even as a little kid, when most refuse to take naps my mom says I always went without a problem. My Roomba, that might deserve it's own post. I got the super cheap one with a gift card. It truly makes me happy, wiggling its way around the room, picking up all the nastiness of our day. So far it hasn't saved me any time, because I just sit and watch it go. Why do I enjoy that so much? Paging Dr. Freud? Send me Dr. Murray (Michael Jacksons doctor)!
*Just a warning, if you read The Lovely Bones it could very well ruin knitting for you. I had to frog a little hat I was making for one of the girls. I don't ever even want to see the yarn again.
Is 24 half of 50?
ReplyDeleteLMFAO----- Okay, sorry, I went to public school in Chicago! Ms Math Whiz there!
ReplyDeleteHa ha, I am going to leave it like that too. I made it to 24. That's all there is to say.
*snort* LMAO!
I was going to comment on all-things-booky
ReplyDeletebut you'll like this more:
In drama school, my friend Liza shared this wisdom:
Sleep is our only luxury.
She meant because we were poor acting students who couldn't afford any other luxuries. I think it may stand on it's own regardless of student-status.
(Eat was okay. Pray--NO!. Love--passable. It was in English so I finished it. AH-maybe not finishing sub-par books is a luxury, too!)
24 is close enough to half...especially counting those two half-read books.
And running? No. Not unless something dangerous is chasing me. And maybe not then.
I had an entirely different comment until I got to Roomba. Do those things really work? Seriously.
ReplyDeleteknitting books totally count, shall I send you some knitting novels that even have patterns in them!
ReplyDeleteYay for you! That's quite an accomplishment. 24 is way more than I did!!
ReplyDeleteOh YEAH, Roomba rules. I love it more than I can say without looking like a wingnut. It is not perfect, but it does a "good enough" job for every day.
ReplyDeleteIt does a way better job than me doing it and it appears to be far more motivated than I.
I will happily accept any and all books sent my way. Knitting and reading together? Just give me a big slice of cheesecake and I will watch my Roomba go around and be in heaven.
I'm so glad you posted this! Funny, I was just about to post my progress report. I read 41 of my 50 goal. Which is about the closest I've ever come to keeping a resolution! And, if you count books I read to my kids or added up all the unfinished sucky books I read, I'm SURE I'd be at 50. I'll post mine today.
ReplyDeleteHalf? I did not read a SINGLE book in it's entirety in '09. I am not kidding. I have a stack of books that I read maybe the first chapter, maybe two. This year isn't looking real good either.
ReplyDeleteIn 2009, I signed up for a reading challenge of 52 books. It was to include a book title beginning with every letter of the alphabet A-Z and then author names from A-Z. I have nearly finished, but it drove.me.mad!
ReplyDeleteI did read some interesting authors such as Xinran Xue. (Seriously, "X" authors are very hard to find.)
I keep a reading diary where I write one sentence for each book I read; here is what I wrote for "Eat, Pray, Love:" "Every religion's good discipline - hone your virtues, be a good neighbor, respect yourself and others, master your cravings." Gilbert has a new book on matrimony that looks interesting.
Oh, YES!!!!!!!!!!! a nice restaurant for dinner!!!! Yes!!!! On a gift certificate!!!!! Yes!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI, the eternal reader, the one who values reading above all things, I the religious one, who one year realized that while she often failed to pray, she ALWAYS read.....This year I just about stopped reading. Why? Exhaustion, that's why. Midnight teaching. New/old job. No husband. It all took away my greatest pleasure; no Masterpiece Theater, either....poor, poor, poor me. Not even sleep for much of the year - not even that "last luxury". OK, since I'm whining I bet you've stopped reading. Bye!
I didn't stop!
ReplyDelete