What I Didn't Read In 2006 (Incompletely)

Darby Dixon's list of books he didn't read in 2006 was so hilarious and true that I had to do one of my own. Mine is much less complete, I fear, because I don't always write down books that I check out of the library and subsequently return, or books I pick up at a store thinking of buying and after 10 pages think "Hell no!"

This list is culled from my paper journal for books read (I guess the analog version of Wormbook?) I started such a journal two years ago at the suggestion of my boyfriend who had given me an adorable pocket-sized notebook for Christmas while I was visiting him. Visits to his place always involve an insane amount of book shopping, so it was the perfect time to start. But by the time a book gets listed in my paper journal, I have already made a good start on it and was planning to finish it, until something happened. That's why my list isn't as long as Darby's -- it's certainly not because I am more patient than he. In any case, the list:

Jose Luis Gallero, SOLO SE VIVE UNA VEZ -- No, I didn't not read it because it was in Spanish. I didn't read it because it had been recommended to me as a comprehensive history of the movida, Spain's 1980s cultural revival, and instead it turned out to be a series of interviews with people who must have been instrumental in the movida but how was never explained. I got frustrated pretty quickly.

Daniel Handler, WATCH YOUR MOUTH -- How Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, manage to land one book on the best-of list I posted yesterday and one on this list? WATCH YOUR MOUTH is about taboos, and unfortunately after 75 pages I reached my personal limit. The writing was great, it's just... I couldn't get past it.

Rona Jaffe, MAZES AND MONSTERS -- Another author with a place on the best-of list, and yet as soon as I opened up this book and read the preface about how Dungeons and Dragons kills people, I knew I would never actually read it. On the bright side, I figured out why my parents never wanted to play D&D with a neighborhood friend (after this book was made into a movie).

Cecelia Ahern, LOVE, ROSIE
Alison Pace, PUG HILL
I'm not ashamed to read chick lit. Hey, it's out there, a lot of people buy it, it's not wrong in and of itself. But I am rather picky about what chick lit I read, just as I am about any book. I adore Jennifer Weiner, for example, but I just couldn't get into these two books.

A.S. Byatt, THE VIRGIN IN THE GARDEN -- I tried. I tried, people. I loved the second book in this series (STILL LIFE) but I just couldn't get into the mind-frame of this one. Maybe next year?