Binge Reading

Happy New Year!!!

I don't make New Year’s Resolutions because I don't like to disappoint myself.  Historically, I’m a failure at following through, so in recent years I have decided not to set myself up.  

No Resolutions

However, I am a list-maker and record-keeper.  That habit sometimes borders on resolutions.  Take my BookList for example.  I did sort of set a goal to read one book a week in 2015.  That’s only 52 books and I had come close to that in previous years.  On December 29^th, when I counted up the titles on my BookList, I was at 47.  Only five books short of the magic number and three days before the year was over. 

Countdown

Fuelled by an overdose of WTN movies, a bout of insomnia, and a compulsion to fulfill my goal, I went on a reading binge.  I was craving solitude.  Houseguests gone, social engagements fulfilled, a day or two of reading sounded inviting.  If I can binge on TV and chocolate, why not reading.

One Starry Christmas

Favourite WTN movie of 2015

I did reach my goal, of course, or I would not be writing this blog.  I did not cheat, but I was strategic in my choices.  I was halfway through a fast-read romantic novel so I finished that during the first night of insomnia.  It was like reading a WTN movie.   

Romantic Easy Read

The next day, I pretty much stayed in bed and read one of three books I had just gotten out of the library--the one with the fewest pages.  I was inspired to read Beryl Bainbridge whom I had heard interviewed by Eleanor Wachtel on Sunday.  I look forward to reading more of her.  

Eleanor-Inspired

My Christmas book is only 112 pages long so it only took an hour to read.  Well, maybe two hours.  Anne Lamott is so wise and down-to-earth.

Quick and Good

I then looked through the various piles of unread books in my bedroom for a skinny one.  Jane Urquhart’s Storm Glass won the draw.  That book has been staring me in the face for years.  Happy to move it off the "To-Read" pile.

Short Stories

Today I finished up #52 with How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous a non-fiction work about the deaths of 19 famous people from King Tut to Albert Einstein.  Although it was the 168 pages and several illustrations that initially attracted me to this book, I really enjoyed it!  Informative and entertaining!

Entertaining Non-Fiction

So here is my 2015 BookList for your viewing pleasure.  I realize it includes two Nancy Drew books but The Goldfinch should balance them out!!

.....Until Next Time.....

Books Read in 2015

• How They Croaked by Georgia Bragg
• Storm Glass by Jane Urquhart
• An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge
• One True Theory of Love by Laura Fitzgerald
• Help, Thanks,Wow by Anne Lamott
• Turtle by Gerard Beirne
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (again)
• The Eskimo in the Net by Gerard Beirne
• The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
• Sleeping Funny by Miranda Hill
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
• The Water's Lovely by Ruth Rendell
• The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
• The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas
• Full of Grace by Dorothea Benton Frank
• The Birthday Lunch by Joan Clark
• Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon
• The Truth About Herself by Wendy McLeod MacKnight
• Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
• Deadly Nightshade by Mary Freeman
• Farewell my Subaru by Doug Fine
• Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
• Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
• Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje
• Garden Meditations by Peggy Holt
• A Lockdown Murder by Mary Sawyer
• In the Company of Others by Jan Karon
• The Clue of the Dancing Puppet by Carolyn Keene
• La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Clue in the Old Album by Carolyn Keene
• At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
• The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin
• Crime and Punishment (abridged) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
• Adrenal Fatigue by James Wilson
• The Handmaid and the Carpenter by Elizabeth Berg
• Once Upon a Time, There Was You by Elizabeth Berg
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• Friend of my Youth (again) by Alice Munro
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• The Corrigan Women by Jean Dohaney
• A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin
• Harbour Street by Ann Cleves
• The Memory Chair by Susan White
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Road Ends by Mary Lawson
• All Wound Up by Stephanie Pearl-McGee
• A Passion for Narrative by Jack Hodgins
• A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber
• Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
• Just One Evil Act by Elizabeth George
• Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler
• The Giver by Lois Lowry