Note: This post is under construction. I intend to include annotations for all of these items. My original idea was to have this done by January 1 but as I made the list I realized that I'd undertaken a huge job so I'm going to work on it a little at a time. Keep checking back for updates.
I have always been embarrassed to admit that I forget the details of most things I read. At the beginning of 2005 I decided to do something about it and started a reading journal. It's a 6 1/2" by 9 1/2 " spiral-bound green med grad recycled notebook in which I jot down my thoughts upon the completion of a book. Most times I am very on top of things and write as soon as I finish something. Other times I'm not so with it, let a few books pile up and then have to reconstruct my thoughts and try to remember when I read what. And sometimes, like the second half of this year, I forget about my reading journal all together.
Earlier this week I read Stephen King's On Writing. He talks about how important it is for writers to read constantly. He says that he reads 80 - 90 books a year. My reaction? Oh man, that's a lot of books. King's book inspired me to look back at what I've read this year and because of my reading journal I am able to present to you, ladies and gents, the following annotated (or currently partially annotated) list.
Wherever possible the links point to the actual edition that I read, not necessarily the easiest to find. I tend to buy books and let them sit on the shelf for a long time before I read them. I also buy a lot of used books so they may be out of print or older editions. If the book was borrowed then I've linked to what seems to be the easiest to find.
Books read cover-to-cover
January
Alexander McCall Smith The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Detective Agency
(note to mka - OP?)
Sue Monk Kidd The Mermaid Chair
Sue Monk Kidd The Dance of the Dissident Daughter
(note to mka - read library copy)
Anne Tyler The Accidental Tourist
(note to mka - different edition)
Milan Kundera The Unbearable Lightness of Being
(note to mka - read library copy)
February
Thich Nhat Hanh Being Peace
Pamela Duncan Moon Women
(note to mka read library copy)
March
Elizabeth Peters Naked Once More
Ellen Degeneres My Point... And I Do Have One
Charlotte Kasl, PhD if the Buddha dated: A Handbook for Finding Love on a Spiritual Path
Scott Ely The Angel of the Garden - Stories
Mark Epstein, MD Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart
April
Barbara Kingsolver Small Wonder
May
Bryan Peterson Learning to See Creatively
July
Joyce Carol Oates Black Water
Barry Lopez Apologia
Sometime between July and October
**Louise Hay You Can Heal Your Life
October
Catherine L. Hobbs The Elements of Autobiography and Life Narratives
**Anne Lamott Bird by Bird
December
bell hooks All About Love: New Visions
Without change, we cannot grow, our will to grow in spirit and truth is how we stand before life and death, ready to choose life. Chapter 11 Loss: Loving into Life and Death, page 205
**Stephen King On Writing
Books in the study that currently have a book mark in them
Alison Chisholm The Craft of Writing Poetry
Elisabeth W. Schneider Poems and Poetry
**Julia Cameron The Artist's Way
Homer A. Jack, ed. The Ghandi Reader
Anne H. Hoy The Book of Photography
Erich Schiffmann Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness
**Eckhart Tolle A New Earth
** Sarah Ban Breathnach Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Barry Lopez River Notes
Paulette Mitchell The 15 Minute Vegetarian Gourmet
**Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson The Wisdom of the Enneagram
Louise Hay Meditations to Heal Your Life
Claudia Emerson Pharaoh, Pharaoh
Sylvia Plath The Colossus & Other Poems
Coleman Barks with John Moyne, translators The Essential Rumi
C.F. MacIntyre, translator Rilke Selected Poems
Rainer Maria Rilke Letters to a Young Poet
Sue Monk Kidd The Secret Life of Bees
And on the bedside table with a book mark
E. Annie Proulx Heart Songs
Donna Ball, Sandra Chastain, Debra Dixon, Virginia Ellis, Nancy Knight, Deborah Smith Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes
Elizabeth Spencer The Southern Woman: New and Selected Fiction
Magazines
Alternative Medicine
#New Yorker
#Ode
Shambala Sun
Spirituality and Health
#The Sun
Utne
#Vegetarian Times
Okay, so I have touched about 1/2 of the number of books that King reads in a year and completed about half of those. There's some magazine reading in there too and since I don't read trashy magazines I think that counts for something. Not too shabby for a commuting, full-time library technical assistant and part-time writer for fun, huh? I must say I am proud of me. Now to just finish the ones I've started and try to keep up with the mags. I hope that your 2007 is filled with good reading.
** = from Christine's Post Retreat Reading List
# = new subscription
I have always been embarrassed to admit that I forget the details of most things I read. At the beginning of 2005 I decided to do something about it and started a reading journal. It's a 6 1/2" by 9 1/2 " spiral-bound green med grad recycled notebook in which I jot down my thoughts upon the completion of a book. Most times I am very on top of things and write as soon as I finish something. Other times I'm not so with it, let a few books pile up and then have to reconstruct my thoughts and try to remember when I read what. And sometimes, like the second half of this year, I forget about my reading journal all together.
Earlier this week I read Stephen King's On Writing. He talks about how important it is for writers to read constantly. He says that he reads 80 - 90 books a year. My reaction? Oh man, that's a lot of books. King's book inspired me to look back at what I've read this year and because of my reading journal I am able to present to you, ladies and gents, the following annotated (or currently partially annotated) list.
Wherever possible the links point to the actual edition that I read, not necessarily the easiest to find. I tend to buy books and let them sit on the shelf for a long time before I read them. I also buy a lot of used books so they may be out of print or older editions. If the book was borrowed then I've linked to what seems to be the easiest to find.
Books read cover-to-cover
January
Alexander McCall Smith The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Detective Agency
(note to mka - OP?)
Sue Monk Kidd The Mermaid Chair
Sue Monk Kidd The Dance of the Dissident Daughter
(note to mka - read library copy)
Anne Tyler The Accidental Tourist
(note to mka - different edition)
Milan Kundera The Unbearable Lightness of Being
(note to mka - read library copy)
February
Thich Nhat Hanh Being Peace
Pamela Duncan Moon Women
(note to mka read library copy)
March
Elizabeth Peters Naked Once More
Ellen Degeneres My Point... And I Do Have One
Charlotte Kasl, PhD if the Buddha dated: A Handbook for Finding Love on a Spiritual Path
Scott Ely The Angel of the Garden - Stories
Mark Epstein, MD Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart
April
Barbara Kingsolver Small Wonder
May
Bryan Peterson Learning to See Creatively
July
Joyce Carol Oates Black Water
Barry Lopez Apologia
Sometime between July and October
**Louise Hay You Can Heal Your Life
October
Catherine L. Hobbs The Elements of Autobiography and Life Narratives
**Anne Lamott Bird by Bird
December
bell hooks All About Love: New Visions
Without change, we cannot grow, our will to grow in spirit and truth is how we stand before life and death, ready to choose life. Chapter 11 Loss: Loving into Life and Death, page 205
**Stephen King On Writing
Books in the study that currently have a book mark in them
Alison Chisholm The Craft of Writing Poetry
Elisabeth W. Schneider Poems and Poetry
**Julia Cameron The Artist's Way
Homer A. Jack, ed. The Ghandi Reader
Anne H. Hoy The Book of Photography
Erich Schiffmann Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness
**Eckhart Tolle A New Earth
** Sarah Ban Breathnach Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Barry Lopez River Notes
Paulette Mitchell The 15 Minute Vegetarian Gourmet
**Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson The Wisdom of the Enneagram
Louise Hay Meditations to Heal Your Life
Claudia Emerson Pharaoh, Pharaoh
Sylvia Plath The Colossus & Other Poems
Coleman Barks with John Moyne, translators The Essential Rumi
C.F. MacIntyre, translator Rilke Selected Poems
Rainer Maria Rilke Letters to a Young Poet
Sue Monk Kidd The Secret Life of Bees
And on the bedside table with a book mark
E. Annie Proulx Heart Songs
Donna Ball, Sandra Chastain, Debra Dixon, Virginia Ellis, Nancy Knight, Deborah Smith Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes
Elizabeth Spencer The Southern Woman: New and Selected Fiction
Magazines
Alternative Medicine
#New Yorker
#Ode
Shambala Sun
Spirituality and Health
#The Sun
Utne
#Vegetarian Times
Okay, so I have touched about 1/2 of the number of books that King reads in a year and completed about half of those. There's some magazine reading in there too and since I don't read trashy magazines I think that counts for something. Not too shabby for a commuting, full-time library technical assistant and part-time writer for fun, huh? I must say I am proud of me. Now to just finish the ones I've started and try to keep up with the mags. I hope that your 2007 is filled with good reading.
** = from Christine's Post Retreat Reading List
# = new subscription
Comments
Biggest difference: I read lots of trashy magazines! Lots and lots. They are in huge piles in my living room. I hate to use the word addicted. . . but the shoe may fit here. . .
--LisaJay
I picked up the Artist's Way twice this year - the fist time I stopped was when I started preparing to move, the second time was while I was taking a class. I love it and hereby vow to you today to make it through in 2007! Julia Cameron is one wise chick. Morning Pages are my best friend. Seriously. Simple Abundance, I started sometime in June so that won't be finished until the summer. And Anne Tyler - adore her work - I read Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant in college and now own most all of her novels in paperback. She's amazing.
If you're reading all this good stuff it's gotta balance out the trashy magazines, right? And we know that it's all about balance. ;)
Hope your day is lovely.
mka
The way I found your blog was by following links re: the "5 things you don't know" meme. (Which is a way cool meme, I think. Though I have NO idea what I'd post if I got tagged!)
Happy New Year!
--LisaJay