52 Books

I did it, peeps! I read 52 books in eight months, four months ahead of schedule.

On January 1st, I made it my intention to choose reading over social media, Netflix and general farting around.

I am simultaneously chuffed and satiated, not the least because, simply put, I love reading soooo much (arms spread as wide and high as possible).

Over the past years, reading has taken a back seat to boring stuff like responsibility and adulting. Not that working full-time, taking care of fids, fur kids, a teen, and aging parents stopped me from purchasing books left, right and centre. Yes indeed, I have a serious literary habit.

A dear friend recently asked why I buy books versus borrowing them from the library. I replied: “Carol, mostly I like to own the books. Like works of art, I treat them with reverence.  At the same time, I hope to support the artists. Libraries are wonderful. I borrowed from them exclusively when I was a child. I simply prefer to read at my own pace now and have the books at hand when I need. So yes, it would save tons of money. And possibly a few artists would starve.” Rest assured, I do cull my book piles. What you don't see here are the stacks in my office, bedroom and living room. 

Here is my book list so far. I don’t have a sophisticated rating system apart from like, love, and blech. Luckily, there was only one major blech so far. For the sake of brevity, I will only identify the blech and the absolute loves on this blog. Anything without a rating merits a "like". I will re-post this list with any new additions at the end of the year.

(For those of you curious about the lone blech, I leave you with this video review. Click here.)

Books Read 2019

1. The Little Paris Bookshop — Nina George
2. I Know You Know — Gillian MacMillan
3. Life After Life — Kate Atkinson LOVE
4. Big Magic — Elizabeth Gilbert LOVE
5. And Then She Was Gone — Lisa Jewell
6. Bridge of Clay — Markus Zusak
7. Grit — Angela Duckworth
8. The Marrow Thieves — Cherie Dimalin
9. To the River — Olivia Laing
10. The Atomic Weight of Love — Elizabeth J. Church
11. Siddhartha — Herman Hesse
12. Lying in Wait — Liz Nugent
13. Less — Andrew Sean Greer
14. The Woo Woo — Lindsay Wong
15. A Noise Downstairs — Linwood Barclay
16. Bird by Bird — Anne Lamott
17. The Organist — Mark Abley
18. Homes — Abu Bakr Al Rabeeah with Winnie Young
19. The Haunting of Hill House — Shirley Jackson
20. Brother — David Chariandy
21. The Best Kind of People — Zoe Whittall
22. It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of War and Love — Lynsey Addario LOVE
23. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye — David Lagercrantz
24. All the Light We Cannot See — Anthony Doerr LOVE
25. Songs for the Cold of Heart — Eric Dupont
26. By Chance Alone — Max Eisen LOVE
27. Life’s too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious — David Dark
28. Agatha Christie — The Mystery of Three Quarters
29. The Travelling Cat Chronicles — Hiro Arikawa
30. Case Histories — Kate Atkinson
31. Gift from the Sea — Anne Morrow Lindbergh
32. Under the Visible Life — Kim Echlin
33. The War of Art — Steven Pressfield
34. A Gentleman in Moscow — Amor Towles
35. The Leopard — Jo Nesbo
36. Gingerbread — Helen Oyeyemi BLECH
37. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine — Gail Honeyman LOVE
38. The Moon Before Morning — W.S. Merwin LOVE
39. The Word Is Murder — Anthony Horowitz
40. My Brilliant Friend — Elena Ferrante
41. The Wild Edge of Sorrow — Francis Weller LOVE
42. Warlight — Michael Ondaatje LOVE
43. Flash Count Diary; Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life — Darcey Steinke
44. Natural Causes — Barbara Ehrenreich LOVE
45. Voices in the Air (poems for listeners) — Naomi Shihab Nye LOVE
46. The Blue Between Sky and Water — Susan Abulhawa
47. One Good Turn — Kate Atkinson
48. When Will There Be Good News? — Kate Atkinson
49. Grief is the Thing with Feathers — Max Porter LOVE
50. Bird Therapy — Joe Harkness
51. Lanny — Max Porter
52. The Tattooist of Auschwitz — Heather Morris

And there you have it, folks. Do feel free to comment about your love of reading below and include any books you are currently reading or ones you recommend I put on my to-read list. The best part of this whole experience has been in the virtual sharing of books, truly an inspiring exchange.

Finally, believe it or not, I am still in search of a real-time book club to join! Nothing like drooling over books with like-minded people.

Dream Job

I stopped by Chapters yesterday after picking up some bird supplies at the adjacent pet supply shop, just for a latte and a little looky around. I wasn’t planning on buying a book. Muah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, I said, rubbing long nailed, monster hands together in the thought bubble above my head.

It wasn’t long before a staff member approached me to ask if I needed help. Her name tag said Miri, just like the girl from the original Star Trek series episode. She was very young, a diminutive figure, with long black hair and dark, intelligent eyes. I thought the name Morag would suit her more and at that moment I wanted to be her, way back at the beginning of my life, helping someone buy books they didn’t need to pile on the piles of books already waiting to be read at home. The longing came in a flash and stayed with me.

“You have my dream job.”, I said, my finger pointing to her name tag. “I have my dream job.”, she replied with a crooked smile. “I’m thinking of applying here once I retire.”  “Do it!”, she said, enthusiastically. “Maybe I’ll see you around then.” “Oh, I don’t know if I’ll still be here.” She sounded doubtful.

But this is your dream job, Miri. Where else would you be? Sigh.

In the end, I bought the book Lanny by Max Porter, because I loved his book Grief is the Thing with Feathers so much, I vowed to read everything he writes. I also purchased two wooly cushions, the same blue-gray-green colour as Ian’s eyes, that were on sale, for the new IKEA sofa in the basement, because I need a cushion at my back so that my feet touch the ground. Miri didn’t help me with my book choice but I purposely asked her for help with the cushions, sending her on a wild goose chase for the same cushions without the cushion stuffing, so that I could say her name again and thank her for having my dream job. 

Have a dream job? Care to share?