Top 10 in 2010

Again, in no particular order (I'd find it hard to put these in order; sad that only four are by women)

The Light of Day – Graham Swift
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
The Plague – Albert Camus
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
Between the Acts – Virginia Woolf
Time’s Arrow – Martin Amis
Daniel Deronda – George Eliot

First runner up: Silk – Alessandro Baricco

So, yeah, go read these! But remember how I feel about skills at recommending books.

Bottom 10 in 2011

In no particular order (trust me, if these were in order, Interview with the Vampire would either be at the top or the bottom depending on the order). Special shout outs to Roth and Coetzee for getting on this list twice this year!

The Human Stain – Philip Roth
The Unfortunate Traveller – Thomas Nashe
Elizabeth Costello – J.M. Coetzee
Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee
Operation Shylock – Philip Roth
Interview With the Vampire – Anne Rice
The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Strait is the Gate – André Gide
Tropic of Capricorn – Henry Miller
Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi

First runner up: Enigma of Arrival – V.S. Naipaul

Are you okay?

Oh, Fugitive Pieces. It's been awhile since I've cried so much while reading a book. This led to two personal trainers at the gym and a stranger on a bus asking the titular question. The answer may be debatable.

That said, the book description should give anyone a fairly good sense of how upsetting it will be. Essentially, it is about the shattering effects of World War II and the Holocaust, and how they reverberate in the lives of three men from different generations. That set-up is certainly powerful in and of itself, but what really drives the novel is the language/prose and description of how the characters perceive the world and make sense of their experiences.

Here is a quote from the dustcover that sort of sums up what I mean "And in this layered process of re-entering life, Jakob learns the power of language - to destroy, to omit, and to obliterate; but also to witness and tell, conjure and restore." The novel explores this duality and is concerned with other seemingly contradictory dualities and how we make sense of them in the face of terrible trauma and tragedy.

Now, I realize like many of the books that I love, this makes it sound bleak and sad. And it certainly is, but it is also so. . . I'm not sure the right word. Beautiful was what first came to mind, but I do not want to imply on any level that I think there is anything beautiful about acts of atrocious, unspeakable violence. And yet, there is something awe inspiring, tender, and exquisite in the ability to survive, to endure, to not try to cover over these tragedies or forget, but to fully face and fully grapple with them and their impact on lives. I do find something beautiful in that, but obviously it's very complicated.

Here are some favorite quotes:

"To be proved true, violence need only occur once. But good is proved by repetition."

"I can't save a boy from a burning building. Instead he must save me from the attempt; he must jump to earth."

"Perhaps the electron is neither particle nor wave but something else instead, much less simple - a dissonance - like grief, whose pain is love."

10 Things I Can't Do

So, I realize this has nothing to do with the list project - except it does reflect my love of lists - but that said I've been thinking about a variety of things that I imagine most adults/people can do that, quirkely enough, I cannot. I wanted to write these down, since they've been jangling around in my head.

1. Whistle
2. Tie my shoelaces the regular way
3. Blow a bubble with gum
4. Juggle
5. Drive a car
6. Make coffee
7. Dance
8. Braid my hair
9. Unlock most doors without struggle
10. Light a match (this may be more fear based than anything)

Now, clearly the bubble blowing impacts my daily life the most. The car one tends to surprise people the most, but that said, no one really wants me to drive. Trust me on that one. I would be an awful driver.

The Girl Who's Read One Million Books

So, in my head this is more of a story, but as I write it I realize it is more of an anecdote than a full-up story, as it were. Oh, well. Maybe it's still a bit amusing.

Mini background: part of my job involves a lot of communication with various law enforcement (LE). In this capacity I was exchanging emails with an LE contact who happens to know about the list project (another story for another day).

First he wanted to know where I was at on the list and then how many I had read this year. Armed with that knowledge, he then told me that he hoped I was also making some time to enjoy life and not just read (says the guy who is sending work related emails late on a Saturday night). I pointed out that a lot of my reading happens on public transportation, which is hard to enjoy; he conceded this point.

From this exchange, I also learned that around this particular LE agency I am known as the girl who has read a million books, which a) not exactly what I was going for, and b) not at all accurate. I mean, even if you read for 80 years you would have to read about 35 books a day (a day!) to do that. While apparently I may appear older than I am, I don't think that I appear to be 80.

What is your book about?

I think that I am losing my ability to summarize books based on their plots. Lately, when asked to describe what I am reading, I've started saying things like "It's about his inner struggle to accept mortality" or "It's about the way we create meaning from experiences." I think this is a very annoying new tendency of mine, but seriously, that's how I've started thinking about novels.

I imagine that this is all leading to me just saying "It's an exploration of what it means to be a person/to exist," since hey, boil everything done and that's really what they're all about (example a: Green Eggs and Ham).

So, yeah, I'm really bad at this blogging thing

I could give a variety of excuses (I've been busy, or something?), but bottom line, I've been an awful blogger lately. The problem is that I keep right on reading, and then I just get so behind that it is overwhelming to try to catch up.

Since last I wrote, I have read 27 books, putting me past my 100 goal for 2011. Go me! Still on track to finish by the time I am 35. I even read Don Quixote, which I consider quite the accomplishment (who knew the windmill part came so early in that tome?). Please insert your own quixotic joke here, since I'm not feeling super creative.

Only one of these books made me so frustrated that I started hitting myself in the face with it. While on the metro. Awkward, I know (but hey, my seatmate got up and left me, so that's a win if nothing else). I also read one that when I summarized it for one of the women I see a lot at the gym, led her to say "Well, I like books, but I don't like that sort of book." These weren't the same two books. Super, magic bonus points if you can figure out which two lead to these experiences!

Let's see, some highlights: still love Kundera, Black Water was very upsetting, the Sayers was just fun, Marya was painful, I cried so much with Timbuktu, really enjoyed Daniel Deronda (so many questions about what it means to be a "good" person, what makes life worthwhile, etc.), and Silk is just devastating and amazing and beautiful.

That's all you're getting on these works, but I'll try to be better generally with blogging. I have one funny story to share in another post, and I'll do a bottom ten and top ten for 2011 soon as well.

In case you're wondering, here are the 27:

The Victim – Saul Bellow
Tropic of Capricorn – Henry Miller
Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe
Ignorance – Milan Kundera
Gargantua and Pantagruel – Françoise Rabelais
Black Water – Joyce Carol Oates
The Cement Garden – Ian McEwan
Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
Cakes and Ale – W. Somerset Maugham
City of God – E.L. Doctorow
Murder Must Advertise – Dorothy L. Sayers
Eva Trout – Elizabeth Bowen
Tarzan of the Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs
Marya – Joyce Carol Oates
The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
Timbuktu – Paul Auster
The Romantics – Pankaj Mishra
The Plot Against America – Philip Roth
Virgin Soil – Ivan Turgenev
Of Human Bondage – William Somerset Maugham
Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco
Silk – Alessandro Baricco
Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi
Daniel Deronda – George Eliot
The Untouchable – John Banville
The Secret Agent – Joseph Conrad
Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra