The interest in this challenge has proved wildly greater than anything I expected! So far we have 181 unique titles and 164 unique authors on our reading list. David Foster Wallace is the most popular author, with 4 titles to be read, and Infinite Jest is the most popular title, with 3 committed readers. We have 30 odd participants based on responses to my post(s) and to the posts of my respondents. This challenge seems to have gone all meme-like, though, so if you’ve come from further afield, or if I missed you, please feel free to leave a comment or email me to get added to the first round-up!
Reviews will be posted all over the place, as was suggested in the original challenge. At the end of each month, I’ll work my way through the Internet to round them up, and will post highlights and links here. I’ve added links to participants’ blogs or websites in the sidebar over here ————————————–> so please feel free to pay your co-participants a visit! You can also click through to view their publicly posted lists here: Amber, Eric, Grace, Heidi, J Harker, Jackie, Jenny, Jill, Leah, Linda, Mark, Meghan, Mike, Shane (in comments), Stacey, The Girl Works
I’m still looking for lists from: Amy, Dan, Eva, Jenn, Karin, Kasia, Lanea, Mary, Nanette, Rebekah, Stephanie
Happy reading, and I’ll check in with you in about a month!
I know, I know – I’m jumping the gun a little, I’m in the Eastern time zone, and it’s barely even lunchtime here, but I’m leaving in half an hour to drive across the state and then fly across the country, so cut me some slack, will ya? I’ll return the favor when it’s September 6, 2011, and you’re still posting your final reviews. :)
Wow, guys, you’re totally blowing me away with your enthusiasm and also your impressive reading lists!
Shane and I are off to San Francisco for our honeymoon on Wednesday, so look for the sign up round up post towards the end of the week, and for reviews from both of us of our first books when we get home! For the record, I’ve started with The Winter Queen, while Shane is reading Kitchen Confidential on his new and fancy-pants Kindle.
It’s on! Since 6 people have expressed interest, I think we have a quorum. After some discussion with Shane, here are the rules:
12 Books, 12 Months Challenge
Pick 12 titles from your To Read Pile. These should be titles you currently own in whatever format you prefer.
Acquisition of other formats or translations is permitted. So, if you have a paperback but want to read on your Kindle, you can get a Kindle copy. If you have a library copy but want to buy your own, that’s kosher. Heck, if you own a copy and want to check another out from the library, I’m not gonna stop you.
Post your list in your public space of choice by September 1, 2010. If you prefer not to post, you can just leave a comment with your list.
Read all 12 titles between now and September 5, 2011. Might as well tack on an extra long weekend at the end for cramming.
When you finish a title on your list, post about it in your public space of choice. If you prefer not to post, you can just leave a comment with your review.
Once a month, I’ll post a round-up of the reviews posted from that month so that we all know what everyone else has read.
My list:
Boris Akunin – The Winter Queen
I don’t remember how I came to have this one on my wishlist, but it looks interesting, and I don’t read enough fiction.
Mikhail Bulgakov – The Master and the Margarita
We each brought a copy of this to our collection, but I don’t know that either of us have read it.
Lawrence Durrell – Reflections on a Marine Venus
Durrell’s prose is intoxicating, and I’ve been intending to read more of his work since ~2003.
William Least Heat-Moon – Blue Highways
I loved River-Horse, and would like to read more of his work.
Henry Miller – Tropic of Cancer
I’ve owned and intended to read this book since college. By my calculations, that means I have moved it at least 12 times.
Barack Obama – Dreams from My Father
I meant to read this in advance of the 2008 election. Now we’re 2 years into the Obama presidency…
Michael Pollan – The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Because every other foodie person on the planet has read it, but it put me to sleep.
J.R.R. Tolkein – The Hobbit
I’ve read Lord of the Rings, but not The Hobbit. It’s time.
Anne Tyler – The Accidental Tourist
Need to confirm that I actually own this one. The movie based on the book was nominated for Best Picture, not that that means it’ll be a good book.
David Foster Wallace – Infinite Jest
I missed Infinite Summer. This is also one of Shane’s favorite – if not THE favorite – books. No more excuses. See also: The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Duncan Watts – Six Degrees
I picked this up my first year of grad school because Duncan Watts’s research is interesting and also he is dreamy.
E.B. White – The Points of My Compass
My good intentions for this book date back to my first attempt at organizing a book club.
One of the things I really enjoy about Goodreads is getting regular emails about the things my friends are reading. (No offense, LibraryThingers – Goodreads is just what clicked for me.) I’ve also been enjoying the long-form reviews over at letters and sodas. In a recent post, Heather linked to Emily’s Attacking the TBR Tome Challenge – basically, a challenge to pick 20 books off your To Be Read pile or shelf or list and commit to reading them in the next year.
This got me to thinking about our failed attempt at a DC book club and various other virtual book clubs I’ve attempted to organize or participate in – which led me to wonder if a virtual book club where everyone committed to reading something that THEY wanted to read might work better. Here’s roughly how I imagine it working – drawing heavily from Emily’s previously posted challenge:
12 months, 12 books from the To Read pile. The pile can be physical or electronic.
All titles should be ones you already own in your format of choice.
Your titles are selected in advance, and posted on your blog, Facebook, Goodreads or LibraryThing or your book site of choice, by an arbitrary date to be determined. If you don’t do any of these, email me with your list, and I can include it in a round-up of participants.
Upon finishing each book, you post a review – long or short. If you don’t blog or do Facebook, etc, find your own way of notifying the world that you’ve just read something and you loved/hated it.
At the end of 12 months, we rejoice in our shared good fortune.
Actually a little past mid-year, but who’s counting? Besides, I usually give myself until my birthday to finish up the previous year’s list.
1. Focus on my relationships and be a more patient and loving partner and friend. Also cat parent to Basil, who is adorable but drives me freakin’ nuts.
Working on it, but then this will be a work in progress for the rest of my life. I feel – if I haven’t mentioned it before – like the biggest change I’ve noticed since getting engaged/married is an increased focus on just this issue. Like it’s more worth the work, and less like ‘work’, you know? So that’s pretty awesome.
2. Get married. This should be action item #1, but item #1 on this list is actually much more important.
Done and done, and I still haven’t posted about it. Wedding photos are up, though, and I can give you a guest pass if you’re not on Flickr.
3. Save aggressively for a house and for overall financial stability.
We’re working on it! Wedding gifts helped us pay for new tires rather than having to gouge our savings, and we’re plugging away each month with the intention of buying next summer.
4. Go camping and generally explore our new state.
No camping yet, but we have been to Muskegon and Detroit a couple of times, plus stops through Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Marshall (all cities/towns that coincidentally house great breweries).
5. Get over my fear of DPNs and knit the kittyville hat.
I’m feeling more competent with DPNs, but have yet to make the hat. Lots of other hats, though.
6. Write two more issues of my zine.
Thought about it but haven’t done anything in that direction in a while.
7. Run 500 miles. This works out to roughly 9.5 miles per week.
My fitness tracker on SparkPeople says I’ve gone 416.7 miles, but a fair chunk of that has been walking. I’d hoped to be able to use data from Nike+ or RunKeeper, but both have been unreliable. Either way, I’m back to running 2-3x per week regularly after recovering from a knee injury in May, so that’s a good thing.
8. Learn CSS. I mean really learn it.
Launching the new site helped considerably towards this end. I still have a lot to learn, but am a great deal more competent than 6 months ago.
9. Read 30 books. This works out to 2.5 books per month.
14 books so far, including books of craft and cookery. Totally counts if you read them cover-to-cover, as I did.
A big success, though it has resulted in a few people complaining that our blog is all food, all the time. I’m glad this is a one-year project, though. As much as I’ve enjoyed it, I look forward to the days of being able to eat a lousy dinner and not having to figure out how to get a good blog post out of it.
I feel like this is very much where I was two years ago as we were getting ready to move from the awful high rise to Alexandria, as I had turned down what might’ve been a good job in order to stay in a job where I was frustrated but productive, as we were starting to really feel settled. I’m not quite there yet, but Rob Brezsny is giving me hope.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The poet Jean Perrin dreamed “of marrying the dawn with the light of the moon,” and I invite you to do the same. The darkness you’ve been immersed in will leave you soon. As it does, please don’t forsake the pale, moon-like radiance that has provided you with a bit of guidance and consolation. Rather, bring along what it has taught you as you head into the far brighter phase you’re entering. In other words, retain some of the wisdom the dim light has compelled you to learn.
I’m not going to pledge to make all of my gifts this year – I do, after all, have a status-conscious 14 year old brother – but I am hoping to make the majority of my gifts for the myriad babies, birthdays, and holidays between now and the end of the year. To that end, I’ve started a list, and have been trying to pick up supplies here and there. Thus the subject of this post: my quest for size 4 circular needles with a 16 inch cable.
I have an interchangeable needle set that I love, but the shortest cable is 24″. I wish I’d realized how big of an issue this was going to be when I picked this set out, but that’s neither here nor there, and I’ve gotten a good amount of use out of the needles since the holidays, so let’s stop with the complaining on that front. ANYWAY.
My first stop on my yarn store adventure was the Yarn Sellar, a new-to-me knitting store on Riverside in Rockford. The store was packed full of gorgeous yarns and fun projects, and the owner was happy to chat with me about mutual acquaintances (yes, even after 7 years away from Rockford this happens on a regular basis) and my nascent knitting obsession. No size 4s with the right cable, though. 9″ or 29″ cables were on offer, neither of which would really work. I left with some lovely yarn (and a discount thanks to viewing their Yelp page), but no needles.
Next stop: Unique Yarns, amusingly (to me) located in the former Computer Renaissance location at Edgebrook. I think the last time I was in that particular shopfront was in 1998, when I was first dating my ex and still working at Wonderland myself. It’s a fantastic space for a yarn store – lots of room for a work table, comfy chairs, and a room for classes – plus loads of yarn, of course. I had been warned that their prices – and merchandise, to some extent – was higher end, but I was mostly excited to see batts and skeins of yarn from local sheep and alpaca farms! I bought a skein of yarn from Alpacas de Rio Rosa – specifically from alpaca # 30334489, aka Rocky. Thanks, Rocky! Unique Yarns DID have bamboo size 4s with the right cable, but the price was a bit steep, so (figuring they were cheaper, which they almost always are) I asked for a set of metal ones and paid without looking at the price.
As it turns out, the price was easily double what I would’ve paid elsewhere, and about 30% more than the bamboo needles. I shrugged it off – “At least I’m supporting a local business!” – then, when I continued to suffer from buyer’s remorse, asked my mom to return the needles when next she’s at Edgebrook.
Which brings me to tonight’s venture: JoAnn Fabrics. The only size 4 circulars had a 29″ cable. Not wanting to make another trip, I just picked up a set of size 4 DPNs for half the price of the needles Mom is returning. DPNs still make me anxious, but I’m trying to get over it.
And then I got home and discovered that I already had a set of size 4 DPNs.
On the Media is a recent addition to my podcast regime. It airs at inconvenient times – 7am Saturday or 7pm Sunday – meaning that I’ll sometimes catch a story en route to the market or while making dinner, but rarely the entire program. What did we do before podcasts, you guys?
Every week I look forward to OtM’s interesting and incisive coverage of the media landscape – recent episodes have discussed the newspaper and publishing industries, the McChrystal debacle (and an interesting discussion of freelance vs beat reporting), the digital divide, and a particularly hilarious Twitter hoax. The podcast runs about 50 minutes, making it perfect for my walk into work and the first 10-15 minutes of getting settled in, drinking my coffee, and catching up on email – or for a long weekend run.
I mention OtM today, though, because there were two particularly interesting pieces in this week’s episode – one that will appeal to all my information access nerds in the crowd, and the other that will appeal to my NPR nerds. I suspect there’s a lot of overlap in that group, come to think of it.
First, an interview with Carl Malamud about his efforts to make government information accessible to the people that pay for its production (i.e. the taxpayers). I’m not an information access nerd, but Malamud is fighting the good fight and is also an entertaining interviewee, so I recommend checking out this clip and also Yes We Scan!:
Second, OtM’s tribute to the late Dan Schorr. By now everyone who listens to NPR has heard the Dan Schorr stories and tributes, but this one features a particularly funny story in tribute: