Tuesday, March 23, 2010

A setback in reading

I have this goal of reading 100 books in a year.  I think it's totally do-able. But I'm definitely behind right now.  Generally, I only read one book at a time.  I'm behind because I have been picking dud books lately.  I start them and they are just not interesting so I'm not excited to read them, thus it takes me longer to finish them.  Or I start a book and it is so not interesting that I don't finish it at all.  Here are books (and number of pages I read in them) that don't count towards the 100 books because I have not finished (and don't plan on finishing) them.

"The Thyroid Solution" by Ridha Arem, M.D. - 300 pages - long story about why I read this book, but it had a lot of good information and I skipped around a lot.

"As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner - 50 pages - hard to follow.

"The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers" by Thomas Fleming - 250 pages - not thorough enough and even though these men were very interesting the author makes them incredibly dull.

"The Templars: The History and the Myth" by Michael Haag - 100 pages - lots of boring history before the Crusades and Templars even start - plus he argues that Moses's exodus from Egypt never happened and that the Children of Israel were assasins for hire.

Books I actually finished:

17.  "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver 507 pages
       I read "The Lacuna" because Barbara Kingsolver wrote a book called "The Poisonwood Bible" that is
       one of my favorite books of all time.  I have tried to read other books by Kingsolver ("Pigs in Heaven,"
       "The Bean Tree," and "Prodigal Summer") and didn't like any of them enough to finish them.  So I
       probably should have known better than to have high hopes for "The Lacuna."  I kept thinking this book
       would get better and it never did.  It took me a long time to finish this book.  I would not recommend it at
       all. 
18.  "The First Ladies" 4th Edition by Betty Boyd Caroli 302 pages
       I like American History a lot so I thought this book (and the founding fathers book) would be interesting.
       But I was wrong.  I was expecting more of a biography about each first lady but it was more of a
       summary of her White House years and parties.  There was no historical context at all.  How can you
       talk about Eleanor Roosevelt and not mention World War II?!  How can you talk about Lady Bird
       Johnson and not mention Vietnam?!  How can you talk about Pat Nixon and not mention her husband's
       resignation?!  It left a lot to be desired.  This one also took me a long time to finish.
19.  "Shoe Addicts Anonymous" by Beth Harbison 327 pages
       Another book that took too long to finish that I wouldn't recommend.
20.  "Breaking Dawn" by Stephanie Meyer 754 pages 
       I liked the whole series and I liked this book.  Again, the books are not literary masterpieces, but they
       are entertaining and that is all I am looking for.  I still think Bella should end up with Jacob, but I was
       more satisfied with the ending (and the whole book) than I expected to be.  

Please tell me what books I should read!  Obviously, I haven't been choosing the right ones...

1 comment:

  1. I recommend...
    -The Host
    -The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
    -Jane Eyre
    -a Mignon Eberhart mystery book
    -Ender's Game
    -The Eyre Affair (if you want something strange)
    -something by Sarah Dessen (I liked This Lullaby)
    -East of Eden (although I will warn you there is some pretty cruel/evil stuff in this one)
    -something by Dan Brown
    -maybe City of Bones
    -Ella Enchanted (if you've never read it)

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