Fifty Book Challenge 2014

A few years ago I heard about the 50 Book Challenge, where you challenge yourself to read 50 books in one year, and my first thought was that I could easily beat that number. My second thought was the realization that I actually had no idea how many books I could get through in a year because I had never kept track, so in 2011 I started keeping a list of every book I read. 2011 has coincidentally also been the only year that I've managed to read over 50 books; the grand total that year was 82. I chalk that up to the fact that it was the year I took the survey courses for my English major, and a couple other courses that were pretty paperback-heavy (45 of the books I read in 2011 were for school). Since that golden year my list tends to hover around the high 30s-low 40s. In 2012 I read 37 books, 45 in 2013, and my total for 2014 is 38.

I really like keeping track of my reading this way, it helps me remember what was going on/where I was when I read each book. I've decided that for 2015 I'm also going to write a review of each book I read here on the blog as a way to hold myself accountable to my list and my blogging schedule. If you have any book recommendations, send 'em my way!

Here's the list for 2014:
*re-reads

1. Hardboiled Wonderland And the End of The World- Haruki Murakami*
2. The Fault in Our Stars- John Green*
3. Ready Player One- Ernest Cline
4. Fly on the Wall- E. Lockhart
5. Call the Midwife- Jennifer Worth
6. Ender's Game- Orson Scott Card
7. One of Us- Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal- Alice Domurat Dreger
8. The Unspeakable Thoughts of Jacob Green- Joshua Braff
9. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle- Haruki Murakami*
10. What Every Body is Saying- Joe Navarro
11. Kindred- Octavia Butler*
12. Divergent- Veronica Roth
13. Insurgent- Veronica Roth
14. Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Woman's Prison- Piper Kerman
15. Allegiant- Veronica Roth
16. The Ocean At the End of the Lane- Neil Gaiman
17. Summer Sisters- Judy Blume
18. White Oleander- Janet Fitch*
19. Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone- J.K. Rowling*
20. Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets- J.K. Rowling*
21. Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban- J.K. Rowling*
22. Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire- J.K. Rowling*
23. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix- J.K. Rowling*
24. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince- J.K. Rowling*
25. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows- J.K. Rowling*
26. Veinte Poemas de Amor y un Cancion Desesperada- Pablo Neruda
27. Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America- John Waters
28. The Bean Trees- Barbara Kingsolver*
29. Pigs in Heaven- Barbara Kingsolver*
30. Wasteland- Francesca Lia Block*
31. A Tale for the Time Being- Ruth Ozeki
32. Eleanor & Park- Rainbow Rowell
33. The Leftovers- Tom Perrotta
34. Rant- Chuck Palahniuk*
35. Columbine- Dave Cullen
36. It- Stephen King
37. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks- E. Lockhart
38. Like Water for Chocolate- Laura Esquivel*

Book Club: Ready Player One

I haven't bought a book for myself that was not required reading for a class in a quite some time. Maybe the October before last? I get most of my books from the library (especially convenient now that there's an app, so I can request new books on my phone), but around Christmas the Barnes & Noble by my work closed so I picked up some books in the clearance sale. Ready Player one is the first one I've gotten around to reading.

The plot: it's set in the US in 2044, and most of the population lives their lives plugged into a virtual reality called OASIS. When James Halliday, the creator of OASIS, died he set up a scavenger hunt hidden within the game and announced that the first person to find the easter egg he hid would inherit his estate. The prize is especially important because so much of the population is living in poverty, but also because corporations want to win so they can own and monetize the OASIS platform. The book is narrated by one of the egg hunters, Wade Watts.

I really liked Ready Player one. It's got elements of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Matrix, and John Hughes all rolled into one. Halliday was obsessed with the 80s, so all the characters know obscure facts about music & movies released in the 80s. I'm really glad I read it after You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried; while reading it I kept thinking that Wade would probably have read YCIMIYT for his research.

Also, it made me more interested in Dungeons & Dragons than I've ever been before. So there's that.

Read any good books lately?

<3

50 Book Challenge count: 3

Book Club: You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried

A couple weeks ago I was logging into my library account and I saw that County of Los Angeles Public Library has an app now! I downloaded it immediately and I'm completely in love with it. Basically it's a glorified shortcut to the COLA website, but the thing that makes it amazing is that it has a barcode scanner so you can scan the back of any book and put a hold on it. You can also manually search, and I could really get used to typing in a title as soon as I hear it and immediately putting a hold on it.

I tested it out when I was house sitting recently and The Breakfast Club was on. The movie was running with little facts at the bottom of the screen. When Bender tells Claire, "You couldn't ignore me if you tried" the fact that popped up said that the line was the title of a book about the brat pack and John Hughes. Using my handy dandy new library app I looked the book up and put a hold on You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and their Impact on a Generation.

I was expecting something more like film theory, but Susannah Gora's book reads a bit like an in depth version of an audio commentary that would run over the collected works of John Hughes. Gora tends to focus more on the drama; which actors bumped heads with Hughes, which films almost went unmade because of the tension on set, who dated who during filming. It was all really interesting, but there were times where Gora's own feelings definitely shone through. At several moments she implies that the actors she interviewed felt one way, even if they said something else to her.

Despite that, I still enjoyed it. Like a lot of American teenagers, John Hughes movies have a special place in my heart, so I liked hearing all the backstage gossip as well as hearing the actors comment on their iconic roles. But now I want to re-watch all the movies Gora mentions. Anyone up for a Hughes film festival?

<3

Book Club: Just Kids

Now that my reading schedule is no longer clogged with school-related required reading I'm slowly making my way through the ever-growing booklist I keep at the back of my slingshot. I had put Just Kids by Patti Smith on the list after hearing all the buzz about it and it did not disappoint.

It actually took me a while to get hold of a copy from the library, and once it finally came in it took me a while to pick it up because I had some things going on, but once I had a decent chunk of time to devote to it I was hooked.

I think what struck me most about the book, aside from Smith's descriptions of her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, were her descriptions of the Chelsea Hotel and of her early years in New York. To someone with plans of relocating to New York in the relatively near future, maybe her tales of hunger and near homelessness as she struggled to 'make it' should have been more off-putting, but they aren't at all. I'm mesmerized by fleeting moments in time when tons of artists gathered together; Gertrude Stein's Parisian salon, the Beats in San Francisco, the Chelsea Hotel. If anything, Just Kids made me wish I was in New York right now, experiencing the magic for myself.

As for the relationship between Patti and Robert, I don't think I've ever read such a beautiful account of a friendship. 

If you have yet to read Just Kids, definitely get on that.

<3