#100!

It's my hundredth post! I thought about combing through the archives to bring you a top 10 of my entries, but I thought that was a little egotistical. So instead, here are some books I've read recently, in haiku form.

Steve Pond, THE BIG SHOW

Big fuss but small crowd:
If Oscar falls in L.A.,
does anyone care?

Cheryl Mendelson, LOVE, WORK, CHILDREN

She's in a coma.
Do we want her to wake up
While we fall in love?

Janet Hirshenson and Jane Jenkins, A STAR IS FOUND

Casting agents get
No respect. Also, no one's
Like Whoopi Goldberg.

Judy Renee Singer, STILL LIFE WITH ELEPHANT (advance review)

No pachyderm can
Replace your cheating husband.
Elephants are better.

Julie Powell, JULIE AND JULIA

Merde!Aspic's gross! But
in the making, fulfilling.
Wish that I could cook.

Joseph Conrad sure loves the ladies!

Well, at least I could laugh at it:

It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over.

Oh, Joey. (From Heart of Darkness)

Seven

...is the number of books I've bought so far this year. The latest is Steve Pond's THE BIG SHOW: HIGH TIMES AND DIRTY DEALINGS BACKSTAGE AT THE ACADEMY AWARDS, swiped off the 75-percent-off shelf at Barnes & Noble last night while I was shopping with my friend Jen.

In the same amount of time, I have
Checked out 27 books from the library
Gotten 9 books to review

I don't feel sorry about buying THE BIG SHOW, not only for its unbeatable price of $4 but because I was caught out with it last night for a long time and it kept me entertained. (Locked out of the apartment. Sigh.)

79. E.M. Forster, A ROOM WITH A VIEW

Well, I said I was going to go back to my Modern Library dreams, and I just finished my first book of the year, E.M. Forster's A ROOM WITH A VIEW.

The room in question is a hotel room in Florence, Italy, in a hotel where two women, Charlotte and Lucy, are staying. Charlotte is older and is sort of Lucy's chaperone. Their first night at the hotel they meet a man and his son George who have the view, and offer it to the women. Charlotte turns them down, saying it wouldn't be proper for the two women to say where two men had been staying. Eventually she relents, and they take the room and become acquainted with the man and his son (the Emersons), as well as other characters staying at the hotel. Somewhat later, Lucy and Charlotte go home and the book changes to a more domestic scene.

I "got" this book via e-mail (Dailylit), which may be why I had a hard time getting into this one at first. Sure, we all have first and last names like the characters did, but keeping track of whose last name belonged to whom was a little distracting. And halfway through we get a whole new cast of characters as the trip ends. Still, there was a point at which it all fell into place. I only wish I could tell you where in the 89 e-mails that point lay...

If published today, I think this book may have been shelved under chick lit. "Lucy thought her life was perfect... until one trip to Italy and a sexy new suitor forced her to rethink it all." I'm thinking Marian Keyes. (And don't take that as a negative! While I lived in Spain I read a lot of Keyes books in Spanish, to pick up some slang and get a break from my course reading.) Then again, the whole social critique aspect of the book -- especially dealing with tourists abroad and the changing state of unmarried women -- would have to be updated substantially, although its questions are often still pertinent.

As for Dailylit, I'm going to keep using it, but I think it's best for shorter books. Some weeks I would let Monday through Friday's e-mails pile up, and I think if I had seen "Part 27 of 403" in the subject line I might have just given up entirely. So I'm going to take one of the shortest books, and one that I really should have read by now, Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS. Speaking of educational must-reads, I think everyone else I know was forced to read this in school at some point. Better late than never!

Ellen VS. The Modern Library: 41-59

I joined a book club! And a website.

I haven't belonged to a book club since I was in high school, and that was a right irregular outfit driven more by the snacks our faculty sponsor brought to morning meetings than by actual books. So one of the first things I did when I moved is sign up for a book group through a networking site I visit a lot.

The book they picked (and had free copies of, luckily) was Grant Stoddard's WORKING STIFF: THE MISADVENTURES OF AN ACCIDENTAL SEXPERT. Stoddard is a British guy who moved to the US for love and fell into a customer service job at the highbrow sex magazine Nerve.com, where he was forced to try all kinds of crazy things for his column "I Did It For Science." (To give a relatively innocuous example, for one column he flew to southern California, interviewed porn stars and had a walk-on role in a porn movie.) The whole book is laced with Stoddard's dry humor and his disbelief at being regarded as a sex guru just because he was willing to try almost anything for his editor, and only much later thought, "I'm developing a bit of a reputation, aren't I?" If I ever meet him, I would like to ask him whether, in fact, there was anything he would not do for science.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but when I was reading this on the subway yesterday I felt rather more disapproving glances than usual. Okay, the title is kind of a dirty joke, but the cover isn't inappropriate to carry around... right? It's not a book for kids, surely, but it's not as if there are pictures (although Stoddard is bare-chested on the back cover... horrors!) Maybe they were just staring at me alternately cringing and laughing with each new scrape Stoddard got himself into. I don't think I've ever felt the urge to censor my reading on public transit before. Then again, it's not every day an "accidental sexpert" writes a memoir.

I'm passing it along via BookMooch, something I finally signed up for after hearing on blogs like A Work In Progress about this never-ending parade of free books. Of course, I don't have much to be mooched at the moment, after the big pre-move weed-out, but I've now given away two books and have one on its way. I tried Paperback Swap and found it a little dictatorial (what with the, "Send it in 24 hours or we'll cancel it and slap you on the wrist" policy); BookMooch looks much more realistic for those of us who don't want to go to the post office every day.

Quotable Forster

Well, it isn't exactly quotable, but I enjoyed this section from A Room With A View:

He became self-conscious and kept glancing round to see if they were observed. His courage had gone.

"Yes?"

"Up to now I have never kissed you."

She was as scarlet as if he had put the thing most indelicately.

"No--more you have," she stammered.

"Then I ask you--may I now?"

"Of course, you may, Cecil. You might before. I can't run at you, you know."

At that supreme moment he was conscious of nothing but absurdities. Her reply was inadequate. She gave such a business-like lift to her veil. As he approached her he found time to wish that he could recoil. As he touched her, his gold pince-nez became dislodged and was flattened between them.

Such was the embrace. He considered, with truth, that it had been a failure. Passion should believe itself irresistible. It should forget civility and consideration and all the other curses of a refined nature. Above all, it should never ask for leave where there is a right of way. Why could he not do as any labourer or navvy--nay, as any young man behind the counter would have done? He recast the scene. Lucy was standing flowerlike by the water, he rushed up and took her in his arms; she rebuked him, permitted him and revered him ever after for his manliness. For he believed that women revere men for their manliness.

One resolution gone decently; others to follow?

In January I resolved not to buy any more books before I moved. Now that the move is complete (in the "All my boxes are in the state" sense, not in the "I can have guests over" sense) I can say that... I failed, because I have bought books, but I also got rid of more than I kept.

Most of my move was accomplished in the last week of February and the first two weeks of March. Before that I bought six books -- the Janice Dickinson one I blogged about, and five more at the employee bookstore where I was working at the time. (What can I say? The discount was killer.) At the same time, I left eight books on the swap shelf at the office library and returned several more galleys I'd borrowed from the free table while I worked there. I even left a book in Philadelphia's 30th Street Train Station, and sincerely hope someone is out there enjoying it. Since moving I have bought... one book. Either I am becoming more fiscally sensible, or the local branch of the New York Public Library is doing its job.

(I'd actually vote for the latter, because I currently have seven books out and a load of requests in the system. There's nothing like stopping in to pick up a request and finding five with your name on them. And my bookshelves look so dignified!)

I do foresee at least one more book purchase this month, but this one's my own fault: I borrowed the Anthony Lane collection Nobody's Perfect from my friend B. back in October, and I spilled coffee on it during a trip to IKEA. I should blame the discount manufacturers' commodification of lifestyle, but I am a klutz, and I'm going to buy him a new copy and keep the stained (but otherwise un-annotated) one for my library. B., if you're reading this, sorry.

One of my other resolutions? To update more regularly. I swear, this time's the charm.

I Haven't Been Reading?!

I was always confused when people said they "just didn't have the time to read" -- until this week when I became one of them.

It's true, friends. In the past week since I finished my temporary assignment, I have been busier than I thought possible. I've been getting a lot of things done -- but reading hasn't been one of them, mostly. The only time I've been reading is on the bus (and bus, and subway) back and forth between Current Apartment and New Apartment, and still, that isn't that much.

I am woefully behind on my reading blogs. I still haven't written up my third From the Stacks read which I finished in December, and I still have two books left to read (by, um, next Wednesday?) Any time I have I've been squeezing into reviews, and I'm still behind on those. I just got a letter from the library reading "Why haven't you come to see us lately? We miss you!" Actually, it was to let me know that I have a book that's two weeks overdue, but same thing, right?

Anyway, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I am updating the sidebar as we speak, and posting should I hope be back to normal next week, when I get into New Apartment (although moving will probably continue forever).

Junk food of the mind.

This weekend I broke my New Year's Resolution not to buy any books until February 1st. (And I was more than halfway there!) But I'm not sorry at all, although I'm going to try and keep it to one. Monday and yesterday I was traveling again, which is always fun and always tiring. The twinge in my shoulder from carrying a too-heavy bag turned into a wince-worthy ache and the balls of my feet whined softly with each flight of stairs and hill. I had finished the first book I brought with me, but just didn't feel like reading the second one -- and I had a 2.5-hour bus ride ahead of me.

I should have foiled temptation by not going into a bookstore at all, but I was looking for a bag to help me redistribute the weight in my bag (of my shoes, mostly, not any extravagant purchases). While I was there, I saw a mass-market paperback I'd always wanted to read but which I'd thought went out of print. And readers, I bought it.

And I kid you not when I say, I had my nose in No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel all the way home. In my other life in which I am not a ginormous book snob, I am a huge fan of "America's Next Top Model." This is not an apology; it's sublime television. And the day they fired exquisitely loopy judge Janice Dickinson was a sad one. And her book? Probably the product of a ghostwriter, but heck, it was entertaining, and it got me through the rest of the day.

I'll get back to that other book eventually. This was just empty calories, but it was what I was craving.

Off the Shelf: How long to write, and whether.

In which I clean out my Bloglines folder and highlight some neat stuff I've been saving.

Know a good New York book? Danielle of A Work in Progress has some, and wants some more.

John Updike writes every day, but only until he gets hungry. (Critical Mass)

"It’s one thing to be corrupted by, say, the pressure of writing for the New York Times Book Review, or the prospect of employment somewhere, or a blurb. But to sell your birthright for a couple of review copies and a link on a blogroll!" That's Keith Gessen, the editor of n+1, on litbloggers (sigh), as quoted in Maud Newton's blog. Of course, if you heed TIME book critic Lev Grossman, not selling out isn't that much fun either, according to Edrants.

And finally, the perfect present for a book lover? A bookstack, of course! Bloglily shows you how. Of course, with enough bookstacks you may end up with a book pile like the one at Eve's Alexandria -- o, frabjeous day.

Palate cleanser?

Sometimes there's nothing like a great negative review -- this one for David Bret's JOAN CRAWFORD: HOLLYWOOD MARTYR. (Washington Post, via Gawker)

Quiz: What kind of a reader are you?

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.
Dedicated Reader
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

[Because the color bars aren't showing up, that's high on Dedicated Reader and Literate Good Citizen, halfway on Book Snob.]

My favorite question had to do with your reaction to losing your luggage. I picked the only applicable answer, which was, "Thank god I have extra books in my carry-on!" I got yanked in security a few months ago and pulled five books out of my shoulder bag, which clearly was not intended to carry so many. I am all about never running out of reading material on the road.

My 2007 Reading Resolutions

Okay, so we've talked about what I read, what I didn't read, and what I really should have read before '07. Now, my reading resolutions, and a few blogging resolutions:

1. I will not buy any books for myself before I move. This one's pretty easy. I have a ton of unread books in my apartment; the more I buy, the more I have to truck with me at the end of the month. Plus, one of my other real-life resolutions is to save more money.
2. I will give away more books than I take in. I've been getting better at culling my shelves, and I want to keep it up. On Saturday I passed two books off to a friend who asked for recommendations.
3. I will pick up on the Modern Library list again and read 10 more books off it this year. I had such big plans! But I got discouraged and stopped tackling the list because I was too tempted to read other things, so I've shrunk it down to size. Ten books will put me at half-read. Ten books I can do, especially when I'm getting one of them in e-mail every day from Dailylit. If I read more, why, great!
4. I will give more credit where credit is due, by linking to my fellow litbloggers and creating a blogroll. I read a fair amount of great reading Weblogs, but I hardly ever comment or link back. This makes me a bad blogger (or at least one who isn't using the communal Web to its fullest).
5. I will get on a regular posting schedule.
I hardly posted here at all until this fall, and now some days I post a lot. I'm not sure what I'm aiming for; I have to think about it a while longer.

New Year, Old Shelf

I am embarrassed to admit that of all the year-end "to-dos," finishing up books I started in '06 somehow fell by the wayside. (Along with half of my holiday cards. Sorry, everyone I know!) Here are the books I'm carrying into the new year, along with the approximate month I got them. What a procrastinator am I.

It was so good, what's wrong with me?
(September) Francine du Plessix Gray, THEM

Critical picks
(October) Leslie Epstein, THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD
(December) Barbara Ehrenreich, DANCING IN THE STREETS

Borrowed from friends
(October) Anthony Lane, NOBODY'S PERFECT: WRITINGS FROM THE NEW YORKER (from my friend Brian Orloff -- sorry, Brian! I didn't forget!)
(Oct.) Pauls Toutonghi, RED WEATHER (from my dad)
(November) Katharine Weber, TRIANGLE (from mom)
(Nov.) David von Drehle, TRIANGLE (from mom as well, only nonfiction)

The library books
(Dec.) Carol Shields, LARRY'S PARTY (which became my first book of 2007)
(Dec.) Melanie Rehak, GIRL SLEUTH

From the Stacks Challenge
(May) Ben Yagoda, ABOUT TOWN (I had read about 2 chapters and then put it down until the challenge)
(May) Herman Wouk, MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR

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?