My 2018 Reading Challenge Fail

If you've been following my blog for a while, you may recall that for the past 4 years I post about my year in books. I've set a goal to read a number of books that coincides with the year; no real reason other than that it's been doable and I figured why not? So last year, my goal was to read 18 books in 2018. Prior to that 17 books in 2017, and so on.

This is the first year I did not meet my goal. I only read 13.

I have to admit, I have not been reading nearly as much as I used to since my diagnosis. I think part of it is because I'm more tired, and reading while tired is hard to do. And part of it is that I've definitely fallen into a habit of watching more TV, it's just easy to do.

But aside from all of that, coincidence or not, I've just been having a really hard time getting into books. The past 5 audiobooks I rented were started and never finished because... ehn. They just didn't really interest me that much. The last book I actually finished was in September. Ever since, I've been kind of aimless, picking up and putting down so many books trying to find something that grabs my attention.

So for this year, I didn't increase my goal as I have years before and instead set it again at 18. I am currently reading a book that I'm actually into, so hopefully that can kick me back in the right direction. But, here are my thoughts about the books I read in 2018:

Tell Me Where It Hurts — Written by an animal surgeon, this one promised to be good, but didn't really deliver the kind of 'heart' I was looking for.

Orphan Train — 3 stars, not sure what all the hype about this one is about. It was good, but not that good.

A Walk In the Woods —I have not chuckled so much at a book in a very long time. I loved his writing style and learned quite a lot as well. I mean, there is only so much you can say about endless walking. This book was peppered with wonderful anecdotes, ecology facts, botany, and history. It was a very enjoyable, quick read.

Ready Player One — Full of 80s nostalgia and references of all types, this book was really good! The movie version, though, is nothing like it and is awful. Avoid the movie lol.

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye — Really slow, way too many plot lines that oh-so-coincidentally tie-in with each other. Sadly, my road with Lizbeth Salander may have come to an end here. If this hadn't been part of the Millennium books I know and love, I probably would have put this down and not finished. Will I be curious for the next one, just the same? Who knows.

Exit West — The writing style was weird and difficult, but aside from that it just wasn't that interesting. Huge disappointment.

The Great Alone — A bit predictable at times, but the story was told so well that it didn't even matter. I really enjoyed this one. A great story of love, loss, and the hardships and beauty of life.

All the President's Men — I very much enjoyed Bernstein and Woodward's book, and it is crazy how so many of the things that happened parallel with things happening today.

10% Happier — I re-read this one. Good as always.

Finding Gobi — Delightful! This was a well-written, beautiful, feel-good dog story.

Girl, Wash Your Face —  I devoured this book. And loved it. If I could, I would give a copy of this book to every young woman my age that I know. There are things to nitpick about it, but the overall message was so good and so well done.

All Creatures Great and Small — This one was alright, but wasn't entirely what I expected. It is a collection of stories from a vet in the British countryside, back in the day. The stories were good, but many of them were frank tellings of, well, medical things, so there's a lot of blood and pus and whatever else you could imagine you'd encounter when you have to take care of farm animals.

Little Fires Everywhere — Really good book! A little too "of the now" at times, but great story telling. I highly recommend the audiobook version.

Friday Fast 5

Five quick things!

1. I've discovered a couple new uses for the library that have me pretty excited. I'm happy to see our library has been really beefing up their collection in the past couple years. So here goes:
1. Movies—turns out the library has a pretty robust collection of popular movies. They also have most all recent seasons of popular TV shows people are talking about. So if you can't find what you want at Redbox, try the library.
2. Cookbooks—a TON of cookbooks. Who knew? I've already put a request on a few of them. I am always keeping an eye out for new recipes to try. But I've also learned that most all recipe sites are user-contributed, meaning anyone with an account can share a recipe on there. That's not to say they're not good recipes, but my point is there is zero expertise required. Cooking blogs can be helpful in this area, but I still believe in the old-fashioned ideology of: if it was published in a book, it means someone had to read it over, approve it, therefore it's better. However, I do not have the shelf space for lots of cookbooks. Plus, most times I only find a handful of recipes I'll make in one book, so I'm looking forward to this.
2. I have to put in a plug here again for the audiobook apps from the library. I'm still surprised how few people know about them. Jarrod's listening to audiobooks now, and another friend just started too. It's so easy and so nice. You just stream it from your phone, or you can download it and not have to worry about a wifi connection.
3. I am always reading more than one book at once, and most times I have 1-2 paper books, and 1 audiobook in progress for car rides, lunchtime, and exercising. Those are the times I listen to books and podcasts the most. Right now, I'm listening to Moby-Dick.
4. I also discovered my new favorite coffee drink: the breve. It's made with half and half instead of milk, frothed like a latte, but so much creamier. Mmmmmm! My backup: a dry capp.
5. I had my annual eye checkup this week, and learned about the concerns with your eyes when it comes to diabetes (since now I have to check yes on the diabetes box.) In essence, diabetes highly raises your risk for blindness. But, if caught and treated early (as in, going for my yearly checkup) it almost always can be prevented. That being said, I'm not at high risk for this complication anyways because: 1, my diabetes is under control; 2, I'm barely diabetic as it is; and 3, I see my eye doctor every year, I never skip it. Even so, he wanted to take a photo of my retina just to have a baseline for me, if ever things should change. I totally agreed, and sat down at a new machine that was like a camera flash an inch from my eye. He showed me the results and it was pretty cool, seeing the back of my eye up close like that!

17 Book in 2017

Time for my annual re-cap in books I've read this year! I once again surpassed my original goal of reading 17 books in 2017. I ended up reading 21, so I will press on with the trend and set a goal of 18 books for next year. I also started three other books, but haven't finished them, so those will end up on next year's totals.

Enjoy.

Better Than Before — This one is about habits and learning about yourself and your tendencies, but unlike most self-help books, does not proclaim one singular way to achieve whatever it is you are wanting to accomplish. The author Gretchen Rubin acknowledges, and celebrates, that there are fundamental differences in how people operate and what works for one might not work for another. A great book!

Four Seasons of Marriage — Meh. The first part, describing the seasons, was somewhat interesting. But the last two parts were very repetitive and long-winded.

Pride and Prejudice — I know many of my women friends love this book, and love Mr. Darcy, and love Jane Austen's writing in general, but it's just not my cup of tea. I tried, but didn't like this book.

The Dorito Effect — Also meh. The initial information presented was interesting, especially learning about how food has progressed and changed through recent decades. But the author gets a little too wrapped up in his analogy that practically everything is a victim of "the Dorito effect." I kept waiting and waiting for the author to present a solution or some sort of upward, motivating thinking to solve the problem or get real flavor (not fake flavors) back into our foods, but it never really came. (So basically we're all screwed, ha.)

Scent of the Missing — Loved this book! Very interesting to learn about search and rescue; well-written, a great book for animal lovers.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up — This book is not even that long, but it is way too long. What could have sufficed as a well-written essay was drawn out, repeated over and over, for 4.5 hours (in audiobook.) This book details Marie Kondo's self-made method for picking up your house, but she is so self-righteous. She feels this is the ONE and ONLY way to truly "tidy" your house. There is no other way. Final answer. This was presented as the end all, be all method. I have a problem with that. The book drove me nuts for a few days, trying to adhere to her advice, until I decided to promptly forget it. I've been happier since. Read at your own risk... some people love this book. I am not one of them.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — Re-read this book in preparation to read the new, 4th installment in the series. Still holds up, still really enjoyed it.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — Underwhelming. The plot was predictable but I think the format is what really bothered me. I'm even a theater person, I've read many a script, but this one is lacking, written as a script. It's like-able enough, but I definitely did not love it. In a perfect world, I would have much rather Rowling write this on her own, work with the other two to create the script for the stage, and they can coexist as both a full blown novel AND as a play.

The Girl Who Played With Fire — Again, re-read this one. Probably my least favorite, so far, in the series. It's just kind of slow to build up the plot, in comparison with the others.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest — Also re-read this. I had forgotten the most about what goes on in this one, so it was nice to rediscover it.

Not My Father's Son — One of the best 'celebrity memoirs' I've read in recent years. For me, this is because it is actually a story about a particular subject rather than the mish-mash of cheap jokes, gossip stories, and life advice most celebrities compile into a book (which are not my thing.) Though tragic, the story was told beautifully. I think the audiobook was even better since it was read by the author.

We Bought A Zoo — Boring. This is one of the rare cases where the movie is much better than the book. I really like this movie and it's uplifting, positive message. The book is hardly like the movie, and how the movie producers were able to come up with such a fine story from such lackluster source material is to be commended. After 2/3 of the book, I completely lost interest.

Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials that Shape Our Man-Made World — As someone who is constantly fascinated by physics and chemistry (though did not have an aptitude for those school subjects) I loved this one! Written by a materials scientist, this book is not dumbed down, and therefore won't be for everyone. But for those curious about 'stuff' on an atomic and molecular level, it is very interesting. Full of detail, yet concise and well-written.

The Girl in the Spider's Web — A continuation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books, but with a new author since the original author passed away. Slow to get going, but once it did, it was hard to put down. A worthy continuation.

Pax — My first foray into YA lit in a long time. It's about a boy and his pet fox, Pax. It was good, I guess, but not great. I expected so much more from this book.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — This is the source material for Blade Runner, and what an interesting story this was! The version I read was a graphic novel adaptation of the original book, but it was really good. I enjoyed it so much more than Blade Runner. 

Lord of the Flies — Never had to read this in school, so this was my first time. I thought it was very good too. It's a great commentary on how societies and communities are built, what they're built on, and how they can so easily fall apart. Short read.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir — Meh, nothing special about this one. This was one man's story of his upbringing in a dysfunctional, poor, white family.

The Green Mile — The book was good. It was originally released in pieces as a serial novel. But now that I've read it, I can tell you that the movie is SO well done. Everything is almost to the letter of the book, which is to be highly commended for a movie. There's not much to be gained from reading the book in this case, but it was still a good book.

Color Me Beautiful — Since I love color theory, this one interested me when a friend told me about it years ago. The writer posits that the color of your hair and your skin tone (warm or cool) determines your "color season." You will look This book was published in 1980 and has never been updated, but I actually appreciate that. The rules and theory never change, so it didn't matter if it was stylistically outdated. Not for everyone, but if you're curious why you look great in the color blue, but something just seems 'off' when you wear the color orange, this might be for you.

The Innovators — This book book details the history and collaboration behind some of the most important technological advances in history, starting with Ada Lovelace, punch cards, transistors, and onwards. A fascinating story for nerds like us (Jarrod actually listened to this one on audiobook and enjoyed it.)

Friday Fast 5

1. I stopped by H&M the last time I was at the mall. In my younger years, I liked H&M. Maybe it was because my first introduction to the store was during a New York trip in high school. At the time, H&M was a European import store, only found in major cities. Then they expanded to malls, and they are fairly common stores now. Anyways, back in the day I loved that store. It was hip, the clothes were cute and cheap. But now, not so much. Maybe it's because I am willing to spend a little more on my clothes now for better quality, or maybe it's because I'm a pickier shopper, or maybe it's because I'm an adult now. Everything in there is just so cheap, and I can't help but wonder if after like 5 washes it will look like a piece of junk.
2. I stopped in another store I went to in my teen years: Hot Topic. In high school, as I started to create my own weird style, I definitely dived into the punk attire. Plus Hot Topic was my store where I found all of my sarcastic buttons. I don't really resemble their main target customer anymore (that day I was wearing a striped fitted shirt, skinny jeans, and floral Nikes), but I ducked in there to check out the t-shirt walls. I was greeted by a worker wearing blue lipstick. It was kind of nice.
3. This week I took a self-imposed hiatus from my iPad. I just felt like I was on my phone and iPad too much lately. I turned it off on Monday morning. At first, I took note of the times I would have usually reached for my iPad (especially when I did my vest) but fortunately I didn't feel any withdrawal issues not using it. It hasn't been that bad, honestly. 
4. I've cut myself twice in the past two months, which is more than I have in the past ten years. Ugh!
5. Does anyone else find it hard to concentrate when reading a book? My friend and I were talking about this the other night. As kids, we both were able to read for hours (her even more so than me) but now, we're lucky to make it a few pages without losing focus, thinking about all the stuff we need to do soon, or dozing off. I'll probably expand on this in another post of its own, but I'm wondering if others have this problem too?

Friday Fast 5

Five quick things!

1. During my weekday mornings, I used to make a point to watch CBS This Morning. But for at least the past month now, I don't even turn the TV on in the morning anymore. And I gotta say, I'm not missing it. I used to enjoy watching Charlie Rose and the rest of the hosts, but now I'm perfectly good not even watching. 
2. I decided to try a few of those Naked juices... in efforts to, I don't know, pretend I'm being a little healthier? But like all fruit juices, they are packed with sugar, so in reality they're not that healthy. And I'm pretty sure the company has been sued for false advertising by making their product look and sound extra healthy, when it's got like twice the daily recommended limit of sugar. 
3. Spring officially started. I'm happy about that and also not, since my allergies really bog me down. I can't spend any bit of time outside otherwise I pay for it by coughing all night long so... yeah. Boo. I gotta stay cooped up in the house like a hermit to survive the season.
4. I just finished the book Scent of the Missing, a book about search and rescue dogs. What a great book! If you are a dog lover, like me, I highly recommend this one. Finally, a dog book that isn't an emotional roller coaster that makes you cry! (I'm looking at you A Dog's Purpose...) It's quite fascinating to learn about everything that goes into the finds, training the dogs, and what sorts of jobs these dogs are called to do. If you are interested and live near, I can lend you my copy.
5. I have started to be very picky about the content I consume. I love books, movies, good tv dramas, and podcasts, but fitting any of that into my life has become a bit of a contest. What do I listen to first? Would I rather watch an episode of this show or read a chapter in my book? So I have decided to be much more picky about what I watch, read, and listen to. I used to always, always want to finish every book I read, or every movie. I am finally at a point in my life where I am okay with not finishing something. I know, it sounds silly, but it was a hard self-imposed stigma to overcome. I have wasted too much of my time on shows and books that were not enjoyable. I guess there was always something about actually finishing it, learning the ending, feeling accomplished. But why continue to read a book that isn't enjoyable? If you dread reading it, why not just put it down and move onto something else? I've kind of created a rule for myself regarding TV shows which is: If I am not hooked onto the plot by the 5th episode, I bail. I'm sorry but if it takes that long for a TV show to develop a plot or characters, it is not worth my time. And if I'm just not interested, that's fine too; we all have different tastes and what might be "The best show ever" for someone might just not do it for me, and that's fine. Moving on, DNF.

Friday Fast 5

1. I'm so glad those storms on Tuesday didn't amount to much. They kept saying they would likely be severe, and a few places did have some devastating tornadoes, but it missed us. Thank goodness. Josie still woke up once the storm was almost here. I swear, she can feel the air pressure change or something because when it is supposed to storm, she tends to act funny, sometimes a whole day in advance. She did better this time, though, and didn't pee anywhere in the house when she was scared. So that was improvement!
2. I started 2017 off by reading Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin, who studies habits and habit formation and how they can help us live happier, better lives. One habit she really believes in is setting a bedtime for yourself. We all have one as kids, but most of us don't have one as adults. I decided to give it a shot, and I made a concerted effort to be in bed by 10:30 during weekdays. Obviously, my nighttime routine is a little different than most. Depending on what we're doing, I may or may not get to bed late because I need to do my vest for 30 minutes, then sometimes an extra neb after it that will take 4-10 minutes. The point is: it takes some planning ahead. Well, more and more lately I've actually been meeting my goal. And most nights this week, I was in bed well ahead of 10:30. It seems to be a little easier for me to fall asleep, but I'm not sure if I'm actually getting more sleep because now I'm having trouble sleeping past 5am. I'm also finding I get tired earlier, which kind of sucks. So yeah... not sure how this is going to pan out for me. I 'feel' good about myself for going to bed earlier, but I'd honestly rather stay up a little later than wake up a little earlier. 
3. I have had Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's song "The Crossroads" stuck in my head for 3 straight days now. It's getting a bit old...
4. Lent really snuck up on me this year (side note: apparently "snuck" is not a word. But to say it sneaked up on me just sounds really weird...) Anyone else? I had no idea what to do for Lent until Wednesday afternoon. 
5. A new season of Survivor starts next week!

16 Books in 2016

I was able to continue my theme of reading the number of books to match the year this year, and I play to set a goal of reading 17 books for next year! I even surpassed my goal this year, way back in the beginning of October. Recently, I've been slowly re-reading the Harry Potter books, and at this point I'm not going to finish all 7 this year. We've had so much else going on that I've barely had much time to sit and read.

But, without further ado, I give you my small reviews of my books in 2016:

Batman: The Killing Joke — Hailed as one of the essential stories in Batman and Joker lore, this graphic novel had great artwork and a great origin story to boot.

Modern Romance — I started listening to audiobooks with this one (adding audiobooks into the mix this year certainly helped me reach my goal quicker). It was read by the author, Aziz Ansari, and if you're a fan of his humor you will enjoy this book. It was comical yet poignant at the same time, and listening to the author read their own book is a nice treat.

It's A Long Story — This new biography of Willie Nelson was good. I'm not even the biggest fan of his music, but I thought his would be an interesting story. And it was. If you are a fan, this is a must-read.

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works — This book was all about meditation. But it was written in a no-nonsense way that made the topic very accessible. There was no fluffy voodoo crap, no stories of people sitting around going "Ohmmmmm", just straight-forward talk about this man's situation and how he came to use meditation in his life to control his anxiety and stress, and it was really well done.

Yes Please — Amy Poehler's humorous book... another entry in the obligatory "comedian writes a funny book about life lessons" category. It seems every comedian or celebrity feels they need to write a book like this, and they are all essentially the same. Aziz's Modern Romance book was slightly different, because he actually looked into research and studies about one central topic: relationships in the modern world. This book was fine, but afterwards I decided I was kind of over these types of books; I don't care how hilarious you claim Amy Schumer, or Chelsea Handler, or whoever's new book is, I'm done with this specific genre.

The Fellowship of the Ring — I attempted to read the LOTR books a long time ago and failed. This time, I made it through the first one, but I've been at a dead stop on page 20 of the second one. We re-watched the movies, which are great, and I am glad I am getting around to reading these, but it's been slow.

All the Light We Cannot See — As much as I wanted to like this book, I never could get into it. I'm glad I stuck with it, as the ending was at least somewhat satisfying, but it was hard. The writing style was too drippy-poetic for my tastes, sentences were choppy. Cut up. Like paper scattered on sunlit sand. (See what I did there?) I found the book at times confusing because I wasn't sure which character I was reading about, but mostly I found each character's story too dissonant. The loose theme of always coming back to everything being about light was thin at best and, again, mostly a bunch of poetic flim-flam I wasn't really in the mood for.

From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava — My cousin passed this book onto me, because she knows we both like dog books. It was an interesting story about a soldier who 'adopts' a dog while in the military over in Baghdad, and the hoops he has to go through to bring her home. Not bad, especially for a dog lover.

When Breath Becomes Air — I'm going to declare this my favorite book of 2016. It's a memoir from a neurosurgeon who suddenly ends up with terminal cancer. He is extremely introspective and reflective on what life is about, what makes life worth it, and other deeper musings. It was a quick read, but a really, really good one. Grab a tissue box. Even for someone who deals with these topics more often than the average person, it had me in tears more than once.

Little Bee — A slightly different book, but rewarding. It's hard to say what it's about, but I thought it was good.

Animal Farm — I'm glad I finally read this classic. Once again, as most distopian or satirical classic novels are, this book proved true in multiple ways. It was also especially interesting to take note of different things in the book and different things that happened during the election campaigns.

I Am Malala — Malala's story is an interesting one, and one worth telling, but I didn't find this book phenomenal like some people did.

Inside of a Dog — Fairly intriguing ideas and concepts, but I began to lose interest about 2/3 through. This book is extremely detailed and reads kind of like a psychology study published in a medical journal, so it's not for everyone. It was a tad too long-winded.

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things — A new book from a new author this year, this one was really good. The story is not exactly pretty, as it is about a child who lives with drug-addicted parents, but it was worth the read.

The Joker — This graphic novel was a darker take on the Joker. The artwork was simply stunning; one of the early pages with the Joker walking out of Arkham Asylum was beautifully done. The story was pretty good too, but the artwork was so great!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks — This book got to be long-winded. The author weaved in her own story of investigating HeLa cells and the family of Henrietta, which I understand to a point, otherwise the book would have been too dry and medical. But the details upon details about the author's daily life were not needed. The audiobook version also became very grating with the voices the reader was using. All in all, just meh.

The Book Thief — Great book! It was creatively told from a very different voice and kept the story very interesting and enjoyable. 

And after that, I've been reading the Harry Potters. So there you have it! 

Friday Fast 5+5

It's been so long since I've blogged, I'm going to have TEN things this time!

1. I have barely been on my laptop, so I realize I never caught you all up regarding my recent hospital stay (and to the people I need to email back, I will get to it soon I promise :). I'm DONE, I finished my meds at home on the 31st, and am feeling really good. Actually, I had the best PFT I've had in years! The last time I had numbers this high was in 2011! I was able to achieve a 38% FEV1, which is just crazy. I can't stress how awesome and important this is. Now, I just hope to keep it up.
2. I felt the power of prayers this time, I must say. I started out with very, very resistant bacteria as stated in my previous blog. But midway through the course of treatment, the results came back with my cultures and showed my bugs had become more tolerant, and lo and behold they were responsive to the drugs we chose to use! I also have to really hand it to the parishes of Columbia. I was visited by a priest twice, who administered a blessing, a deacon, and volunteers who brought me communion. All told, I was there for ten days, and for probably 6 of those days someone came by my room to pray and bring me communion. Really great.
3. I've finally started reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I really like the movies, and the story. I'm really excited to read it and it's keeping my interest.
4. Once again, I have really struggled with a Lenten resolution this year. I think part of it is that I feel like I should do something new and different year to year, but I've pretty much run out of ideas. Honestly, last night I still hadn't come up with anything—I know, Lent started on Wednesday! Augh! But this morning, I decided. It'll help give me some needed inspiration day-to-day. 
5. I started a new prayer shawl the other day with a new, fancy stitch! I'm very excited. Jeff & Johanna gave me a book for Christmas with 500 crochet stitches in it! So I'm trying a new stitch from the book, and it's turning out quite nice.
6. I've complained on here before about the TV news just perpetuating fear, and the other day was proof again of what I've been saying. CBS This Morning had a report about the zika virus, and it was titled Zika at Mardi Gras. They sent a reporter down to New Orleans to talk all about the zika virus and the mosquitoes. The report went on and on for about 5 minutes, then at the very end he said "Now, officials say that they're not concerned about mosquitoes at Mardi Gras because it's simply too cold. But the threat of the zika virus will continue as the year goes on." So basically the report was about absolutely NOTHING because it's not even a concern anyways. But it might be. At some point in time. Everybody stay scared!
7. I've often thought Josie looks very fox-like. I looked it up, and contrary to popular consensus, dogs are split in two groups: those related to wolves and those related to foxes. Josie is definitely from the fox category. Just look at her!? 

   

   Josie shows her good side to the camera, haha.

8. Does anyone else forget to drink your coffee in the morning, haha? Almost every morning, I pour myself my cup of coffee, take two sips of it, then I forget about it. And then it's cold, and I reheat it, and forget about it again. 
9. I feel like our tolerance for snow here is going down, likely it's caused by the TV weather people, and we're all drinking the Kool-Aid, including myself. I'd love to watch a weather broadcast from the 90s or 80s, and see what they said then. Because now, even the mention of snow in Missouri sends schools canceling classes sometimes. Many people freak out over 1 inch of snow. But I don't feel this was always the case. Snow-freaking-out-ness is definitely relative and dependent on where you live. If you live more north, it takes a great amount of snow for things to shut down, if you live more south it takes a dusting to freak everyone out. We've always been in the middle with snow totals, but it's still expected that it will snow a few times a year here. Why are we all such wimps about it now?
10. With our recent snow, I've had a TON of birds on my deck and coming by the feeder. I assume it's harder to find food when snow blankets the ground, so I've been happy to give them some easy-to-find bird seeds :).

15 Books in 2015

I continued my book reading challenge this year, and upped the ante by one. And I even reached my goal in November! I plan to keep on track with matching how many books I read with what year it is, and am planning to read 16 books next year. I'm not sure when I'll reach my threshold, when it'll be too many books, but so far I haven't had too much trouble reaching my goals. It's one small thing in my life where I actually set a goal and attain it.

Without further ado, here were the books I read in 2015 and a few thoughts on each:

Born to Bark—The big reason I read this book is because it's about a cairn terrier, and it was a joyful story about a feisty little dog.

Everything Is Illuminated—I liked the movie, but I had a hard time getting into this book. The main reason was the writing style, which was very different and full of run on sentences, conversations, and paragraphs. The style did not help the story, it hindered it. Would not recommend, but if you're up for a quirky movie, check that out.

Memoirs of a Geisha—This one was good, it's really interesting to read about the geisha culture from long ago. The story is fiction but based very much in history.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns—This book was supposed to be the créme de créme of graphic novels, along with Watchmen (which I loved), but I found this one hard to follow due to the extremes in illustration.

The Martian—When I finished this book I said "It'd make for a good movie", and little did I know they already were filming it (Matt Damon wouldn't have been my first choice for the character.) This book is Apollo 13 meets Castaway. Really good modern sci-fi.

The Rosie Project—Not sure what I expected from this one, but it didn't really wow me like it did for many other people. A guy creates a test to find the perfect woman for him, you can probably guess how the rest goes. Intriguing characters, an easy read, but not mind-blowing.

A Dog's Purpose—I continued my guilty pleasure for dog books with this one, and it did not disappoint. I cried multiple times and really enjoyed it. This book is about multiple dogs, and the ending is really satisfying.

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland—Some find this book delightful, I couldn't stand it. I've never been a big fan of the Disney movie, I don't know why I thought this might be any better. It's just SO darn weird.

The Girl On the Train—This was one of 2015's 'hot books' for the year, but I wasn't overly impressed. The story wasn't bad, but it was very dark. The main character was hard to sympathize with, and that's a big deal for me. If I don't find myself caring about the main character, then I don't really care what happens to them, ergo I'm not really hooked into the story.

I, Toto—This was a quick little read about the dog who played Toto, and it was cute and short. Kind of like the dog, haha.

To Kill A Mockingbird—I read this back in high school and wanted to re-read it now as an adult. The book still holds up, and some of the themes had more relevance now than they did back then. This one is a good one to revisit.

The Nightingale—I really enjoyed this one. It's about women living in France during WWII. Not much is written about all of the women who had to stay home while their husbands went away to war, so this was a great story about a different perspective of the war. It made me think.

Merchants of Doubt—This non-fiction book details how companies and organizations through the years have worked to sew doubt when scientists try to say their product/what they're doing is wrong. Example: big tobacco campaigning to prove second-hand smoke isn't bad, or politicians saying global warming can't be true. It was ironic that I started this book the same week Coca-Cola was caught paying scientists to say that sugar doesn't make you fat, diet doesn't matter, it's exercising that matters. It was quite the eye-opener, and I now see these scenarios playing out all the time. Highly recommend if you want to understand how big corporations and big government work these days.

Room—It's been a while since I've had a book grip me like Room did. A good suspenseful, interesting book that should make for a good movie.

City on Fire—Officially the longest book I've ever read at 944 pages. The story was kind of intriguing, taking place in 1970s NYC, which was a bleak time in the city's history. But it could have been cut down 200-300 pages easily, and made for a better, more refined novel. By the end, it was a bit of a bummer to realize I'd just wasted so much time reading this enormous book that I only found "intriguing." Read at your own risk, it's a long haul.

14 Books in 2014

I'm happy to say that last week, Monday night, I reached by goal of reading 14 books this year! I'm pretty much one month ahead of schedule too, so that's cool.

Last year I read 10 books, and this year I upped it to 14. Next year, I'm going to do 15.

Sadly, I didn't have any books that I felt deserved a 5-star rating. Most all of them I rated 3 or 4 stars. Although, looking back over things, the same can be said for the books I read in 2013, too. I'm just a tough critic.

So there, if anyone asks me in the upcoming month about a New Year's resolution, I guess I already have one: to read 15 books next year. Woo hoo!

If you're looking for something to read and find me a trustworthy book recommender, I'll add a few comments at the bottom about the books I read. :)

Crossroads—Written by the same guy who wrote The Shack, it was another story of reflection and thinking about your spiritual health. The Shack is better, though, read that one.

V for Vendetta—The second graphic novel I've read. Also heavily influenced by the same guy who created Watchmen, the illustration was spectacular. The story, however, differs from the movie version, which we are fans of. It was alright.

Bitter Brew—This book was really great! It is about the Busch family, and a well-rounded look at the history and scandal that has plagued their massive beer empire. I highly recommend this one.

Is This Tomorrow—This one was the most surprising. I read it on a whim and turned out really liking it. It's a fairly easy read, the story is about childhood friends dealing with a tragic accident that happened in their childhood but haunts them into their adult lives.

The Hunger Games Trilogy—For me, this series was good, but didn't really blow me away like I expected it to. After reading it, I'm kind of done with the teen trilogy thing for a while. It starts out really strong, but by the end I was just over it. The last book was a drag.

The Fault In Our Stars—Somehow, I only cried once. But this is a solid book with a less-BS approach to disease, dealing with it, and the struggles that loved ones face with you.

Steve Jobs—I've only been slowly reading this ever since it came out three years ago... but his life sure is a fascinating story. It's good, if you like biographies.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time—Really good book about a child with some sort of autistic-spectrum-disorder. The neighbor's dog is killed, and the young boy sets out to solve the mystery.

Orange Is the New Black—Part 'insider's account' of being in prison, part 'platform to tell everyone what she thinks is wrong with the prison system', this started to feel a little snobby by the end. The writer's concern for her fellow inmates started to feel less and less sincere. Also, this book is nothing like the Netflix show; the show is loosely based on it, and I mean very loosely.

Brave New World—I finally read this classic, and just like other futuristic dystopias, it is frightening how much this holds true in the present day. Great book. I never want to live in a brave new world.

Bossypants—Tina Fey's book started strong, simply due to her wit and jokes. The book was written almost like one long standup routine, and by the end it was getting a little boring. Who wants to read a standup sketch? Put it this way, if there's an audiobook version of this with Tina Fey reading it, listen to that. I guarantee it will be better.

The Fault In Our Stars

I just finished the book The Fault In Our Stars last week, which is sweeping the teen world by storm. It's a young adult novel by this John Green, and it sounds like ALL of his books are sweeping the teen world by storm. Teen super fans of his call themselves "Nerdfighters" and they are obsessed.

The book is about a girl and a boy who meet at a cancer support group. The girl has lung cancer, the boy had cancer that made him lose his leg. They like each other, and the story goes on from there. You can probably guess how most of it goes, quite frankly.

I became interested in the book once I started hearing about the movie buzz. The movie version just
came out a couple weeks ago. With images of a girl walking around with oxygen tubes in her nose, I figured 'Hey, I can relate to that. I'll read about a character with lung problems.'

The book was good, though nothing too ground-breaking. I only cried once, and supposedly this book makes everyone cry multiple times. Honestly, I feel this has something to do with the fact that a lot of what she talked about—dealing with hospitals, PICC lines, and oxygen concentrators—is quite familiar to me, whereas I assume a 'normal' teen might find it totally-oh my gosh-that's so awful-heartbreaking, whereas my internal thought is a flippant "Yeah... that sucks."

However, I do think one thing the book has going for it is a no-BS approach to disease. The girl herself is written as very witty, wise beyond her years (a little too wise, actually), and intolerant of bullshit cheesiness. I have a hunch his other books are written in the same voice, and I also suspect that's why teens are loving them to death. Since the book is written from her perspective, she lays it on the line as to how she feels and what things are like. I think that is helpful, and it in no way covers up the hardships of cancer or dealing with your lungs failing you.

So for that, I'm thankful for this book. I'm also glad this book/movie has taken off with teens like it has because maybe, once I start wearing oxygen full-time in future, I won't get stared at so often and it won't seem so out of place for a young-looking person to wear oxygen 'nubbins' in their nose. Granted, I don't have lung cancer like Hazel does, but still.

The characterization in the book is what disappoints me. It is very typical in teen fiction to have an extremely witty (not just smart but really witty) character. In this case, there were 2 or 3 witty teen characters, and their wisecracks and never-ending philosophical takes on the world get a little old. No one, in real life, is like that. I felt the same way about the movie Easy A; it's a good movie, but every single character was funny and witty. Teens like to think of themselves as quick-witted, I remember that, but in reality hardly any of them actually are. However, I realize that a book about boring ol' characters is also, well, boring.

Book Fair

It's the most wonderful time of the year... for book-lovers in the St. Louis area, haha!

This evening I drove out to West County Mall for the annual St. Louis book fair. This year is the 65th year, who knew? It takes place on the first floor of one of the parking garages. This book fair is fantastic.

My dad and I went here for the first time two years ago. I was released from the hospital that day, and dad came to pick me up. He said he wanted to check out this "book fair" on the way home, so we stopped off to see what it was all about. Lo and behold, what was "just some book fair" soon became the coolest little book gem I'd ever encountered. There are tables and tables of books, hundreds of books, cascades, mountains of books, more books than you can ever read in a lifetime. My dad ended up getting a couple books and some records, I ended up with about six books. Holy cow, I thought, this is awesome! And it looks like this:

Photo from STLtoday.com. Starting to look pretty picked over.

Today was opening day and I decided I would go; I can't go tomorrow, I want to stay home on Saturday, and by Sunday it would be quite picked over. I got in line with probably 400 other book enthusiasts before the gates officially opened. Now, since it's opening day, I'd say many of these people were pretty 'serious' about it—kind of like Black Friday I imagine, except a lot more tame. People had boxes, crates tied to dollies, shopping carts, backpacks, suitcases, shopping bags, whatever to carry the many books they might end up buying. Some people will come and buy over 50 books. Myself, I brought along one very large canvas bag.

I ended up wandering around for over an hour between all of the tables. Everything is divided up by genre, and this year there were a LOT of mystery books, hardly any non-fiction, but a good selection of classics, fiction, and trade paperbacks. But outside of genre, there is no order to the books (there's no point in trying) so your head is permanently bent to the side trying to read titles.

Here's why this is the gem of book shopping here: I came home with 12 books... for 17 bucks ($27 if you include the $10 admission fee I paid for today [it's free every other day, but even so I still could only buy maybe two books for $27 if they were brand new]).

I actually got 13 books, if you count what I am calling the "mystery book"; I'll explain in a bit. And they are all in really good shape. They meticulously choose the books to sell, so they are all good or better quality. I scored a couple that are practically brand new.

However, I also learned a lesson today with my "mystery book". I bought what I thought was going to be The Devil in the White City, but once I got it home I noticed the jacket was just a little too tall and didn't fit the book. I opened it up and took it off... and the book inside was actually Sum of All Fears. So lesson learned: always double check that the cover of the hard-cover book matches the actual book. Oh well, it was only one dollar and at least it's a decent Tom Clancy book and not some off-the-wall book I would never have a desire to read.

Today's haul. 8 paperbacks and 3 hardcover books, woo hoo!

Cold Tuesday

It is a whopping 14 degrees outside, bitterly cold once again. Luckily it wasn't too windy today, or else it would have felt like it did right after New Year's. It sure was windy overnight though.

We got a dusting of snow overnight and schools were called off today. When I woke up, I thought that sounded ridiculous! Once again, it seemed that everyone was scared away by the tiny amount of snow. Then I learned from Jarrod that his drive to work was kinda rough, hitting a solid sheet of ice on the way. And the weather lady said that the snow fell on warm roads, melted, and then refroze as it got colder. Oh... now I get it.

Not wanting to risk it, I cancelled my doctor's appointments today and will do them in a couple weeks. The nurse understood completely and didn't want me to try and venture west (where they didn't get any snow). So I stayed in and worked from home all day and then went to Walmart tonight. I must say, that was possibly the best Walmart experience I've had in a while. Turns out no one shops at 6-7 pm, there was hardly anyone there. It was great, and I was out of there in less than an hour.

I also finished a book that I've been reading like crazy; I don't think I've ever attacked a non-fiction book so quickly. It was Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer. It was such a good book. The author did a fantastic job researching (he listed his sources, broken out by paragraph) and you could tell he strived to give an accurate portrayal of the Busch family, unlike the media coverage that they received in the newspapers (especially in recent years) which sounded as if it was practically dictated by those in charge to spin things in a good light.

But it is a sad tale, really. In a nutshell, I'll give you my thoughts: To go from the founding father Adolphus, with his glamorous over-the-top-ness, to his son who was just as flashy, to "Gussie" Busch, the stubborn man who was respected by most of St. Louis and who turned the company into a booming business, to August III who ousted his father, yes, but still had a good work ethic and believed in quality and being the best, to his son August IV, the hard-partying cocaine-addicted mess of a CEO (and mess of a guy in general) who never really cared enough about the business to take it seriously—that is a sad story. None of these men were perfect people by any means, or very moral, and they spent/wasted a lot of their millions, but they all believed in their business and their community, except for the last guy, IV. A-B was a source of pride for StL where a man could get a job, make a career there, buy a house, send his kids to college, but now that pride is mostly gone and everyone says it's just not the same since InBev bought them out. I feel like I learned so much St. Louis history in this book and like I said, it is a sad story to go from so much pride to so much disgrace and scandal. I highly recommend it especially if you are from St. Louis, like non-fiction, or enjoy a good well-rounded story.

My Year in Books

I discovered a great website earlier this year called Goodreads. I had signed up for Goodreads a long time ago when it was a younger website, you might say, but left when I found it didn't have many images for books and was overall clunky.

In March of this year, Amazon reached an agreement with the site and acquired it, and right after that I signed up. For someone like me who likes lists, likes visualizations of things, and likes books it is a great site. It helps me keep track of my never-ending list of books I want to read, so next time I'm searching for a book or get a recommendation from a friend I'm not like 'Ugh, what was it again that I was wanting to read? What was that book called?' My tastes in books are all over the board, and since I don't lean to one genre over another it can be tough to choose what to read next without a list.

When I signed up, I then saw they had a "2013 Reading Challenge" and on a whim, I set a goal for myself of 10 books.  I'm happy to say I surpassed it, and I'm thinking about what next years goal should be. I started in April this year, so I'm thinking my goal for 2014 might be 14 books. If that's the case, I need to start reading again and quit playing QuizUp :)

As you can see, I had a bit of a 'dog book' trend, haha!

Advanced Reading Copies

This morning upon walking into work I saw a wonderful site: the lunch table was filled with 15 books. I know what this means... our resident book reviewer dropped off her latest bunch of advanced copies.

This happens randomly but every once in a while after a book has been officially published, our book reviewer will put all of her old books on the lunch table for people to take and read. Most times, they're by a bunch of up-and-coming authors, some no-names, or authors that have had one successful book but nothing much of note. However, occasionally there will be an author I've heard of. But this morning was, like, jackpot...

I saw it sitting there on the table, I've known the book cover ever since it was announced, and I made a beeline for it. There, sitting on the table was And Then The Mountains Echoed, the long-awaited new book from Khaled Hosseini, writer of The Kite Runner. For an author with only three novels under his belt, he's been wildly successful. I've really enjoyed his two other books, and was looking forward to reading his newest one.

I was almost giddy. Now I don't have to wait two years until the paperback version comes out; I have paperbacks of the other two... and I'm anal about having consistent paperback/hard-cover versions for an author. And I don't have to wait until I finally get the book after 34 other people at the library. Now that I have it, I'm having a hard time deciding if I should dive into this book next or go with my original plan of reading Gone Girl once I finish Jurassic Park. I've got less than twenty pages left in Jurassic Park so... I need to decide!

Books books books

Last night I finished 1984. It's about time, too... it only took me three years, haha. Anyways, I must say I am glad I read it, though I'm going to take a break from the dystopia books for a while. Had it not been for my true push to finally finish the book, and my self-made rule that I couldn't read anything else until I finished one of my books-in-progress, I might have put it back down. The ending is a very uncomfortable one, and I tell you, when he looked at himself in the mirror, that was the worst of it for me. I can't explain why, but it was. Anyways, still glad I read it and it's 'message' is kind of percolating in my brain right now.

So I woke up early this morning in order to get a good shower in, since I'm heading to the hospital and won't get one for another week. And I had time to start another book. I chose to start reading Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God. I started the book, and after 20 minutes of reading, I closed it. I decided to look up the reviews on Amazon about the book. I was specifically hoping to find someone out there who said something like "Being a Catholic, I still thought this book was great" but I found no such thing. I found one review that said this: "His disclaimers aside, it is my opinion that Francis truly, deep down, believes that the believer's work is mystically tied into their salvation. His denials are only at a superficial level so that he can remain "evangelical" and avoid the necessary soul-searching that might lead him toward a Roman Catholic-esque theology." which I found interesting. Anyways, let me step back and explain this Amazonian search: the book was written to "Christians" and had lingo of "Being a good American Christian" and things like that, and I just can't get into that. Catholicism is still Christian, yes, but there is a huge difference between our beliefs and those of a non-denominational Christian (the author.) Never once has my priest ever, EVER said in mass "as good Christians we should blah blah blah." (he usually says good stewards, servants, or something like that.)

Needless to say, I'm taking this book back. I'm sure there's a nice message in it, but it's just not for me. Plus, the whole thing is just one big ongoing sermon. Nah, I think I'll pass. And if I do feel the need to read it, I'll get it from the library.