As the Year Turns

It seems like I started this blog only a little while ago, while in fact it’s been just about a year. There’s so much to talk about that I don’t even know where to begin.

First, I guess, the vitals of 2006:

I capped off the year with 150 books read, which is about three per week. While this fell short of the four-a-week goal, I’m happy enough with it, given my new life circumstances.

Of those, 46 were fiction, 22 were audiobooks, and 19 were in French.

The most I read in one month was 18 books, in April.

My favourite books read this year were:

Fiction:
Beauchemin, Yves. Charles le Téméraire (just published in English as Charles the Bold)
Coe, Jonathan. The Rotter’s Club
Connelly, Karen. The Lizard Cage
Goldberg, Myla. Bee Season
Khadra, Yasmina. The Attack
Levy, Marc. Et si c’était vrai…
Liss, David. The Coffee Trader
Martel, Yann. The Life of Pi
Park, Jacqueline. The Secret Book of Grazia Dei Rossi
Rushdie, Salman. Shalimar the Clown

Non-Fiction:
Abu-Jaber, Diana. The Language of Baklava: a Memoir
Bader, Sara. Strange Red Cow and Other Curious Classified Ads from the Past
Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
Levitt, Steven D, and Stephen J. Dubner. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Manguel, Alberto. A Reading Diary: A Year of Favourite Books
Moehringer, JR. The Tender Bar
Rapaille, Clotaire. The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People around the World Live and Buy as They Do
Salzman, Mark. Iron & Silk
Walls, Jeanette. The Glass Castle
Wheen, Francis. How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions

This coming year brings many new challenges and projects. I’ve already mentioned the classics one in a previous post, but I have people projects too. In 2006, it was my father who, despite having read only a few books in the last decade (all of which were business-related) became a pure Reader. He finished the year at 50 books, rendering me misty-eyed with pride and proving to me that I am a decent librarian. This year I have a colleague and friend to work on, and a series of people to get using the library. My work is cut out for me on more levels than you can imagine.

Happy New Year!

Comments

[Dad]

I did indeed complete the 50 books, but it took a sustained effort brought home by a last minute blitz…kind of like squeezing a 600 pound gorilla under the wire. The Library Girl did not let up on me for even a day, up to and including the last one. This says a great deal about her and, since it was undoubtedly necessary, I suppose about me as well.

Over the 12 months, I discovered first time authors like Goldberg and Martel and became reacquainted with old ones like Steinbeck. And Dylan…I knew him well.

Thanks to Bee Season and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, I was able to get inside the illogically logical heads of those who others find inscrutable and their afflictions insurmountable.

I visited The Glass Castle and The Tender Bar. I listened in on Literary Feuds. I learned that The World is Flat (something I suspected all along) and how minimum wage earners get Nickled and Dimed. I have come to realize I don’t Know It All and I’m okay with that. But I do at least know the Rule of Four.

I got the inside scoop on the Chamber of Secrets, the Wicked Witch and an endless variety of Angels and Demons. I’ve spent Dictionary Days and passed through the Life and Times of Franklin, Churchill and so many enterprising others. Teacher Man is hot (yeah, yeah), while Stiff left me cold…shivering in fact.

“There is a great deal of difference”, wrote Winston Churchill, “between the tired man who wants a book to read and the alert man who wants to read a book.” Okay, Library Girl. I am paying attention.