so dickumbrage and i now have a bet wherein the one who doesn't successfully blog 50 books of 2004 must buy the other one sushi (details of the book challenge are in his entry.

i feel i should warn you, though, that i am a notoriously voracious reader. i just hate reviewing books! i will easily read over 50 books this year, but will i remember to write something about all of them? we'll see.

i have already read a bunch of books in the last month, but of course i can't remember what all of them are. here are the ones i am positive i've read since january:



anne fadiman's ex libris
this was a fairly short anecdotal memoir about growing up in a book-loving household and marrying another booklover. i could totally relate to her lust for the written word and i found her discussion of carnal booklovers (vs the ones who treat books more pristinely--i forget the word she used) to be pretty amusing, and true. her chapter on merging collections with her husband was really lovely and made me wonder what will happen to my books if i too someday marry a booklover. i highly recommend this one to anyone who likes to read, or who likes memoirs. fadiman is intelligible, intelligent, and witty.

all 5 harry potter books
rick says rereadings count and i re-read these to get through my snowdays. i love the world of harry potter--i actually can't understand people who don't. even my parents love the books, so there. i think all the themes of the great myths and stories can be found there . . . and plus i just love hermione. and she knits now! we had a big discussion about music staff the other day about how the 3rd one was the best. i actually think 5 is probably the best, but b/c rowling portrays surly teen harry so effectively, it's not as easy to sympathize with him, which makes for a less enjoyable read. not that i didn't love every second of it anyway. that is the 4th time i've read it, after all.

the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay
sorry rick, i'm one of the many who adores this book. i'm always surprised non-jewish non-comic book geeks love it, but they do, which is a testament to its powerful writing and moving storylines. and exciting comic book adventures! this was only my second time reading it; i wanted my class to read a couple chapters and got sucked back into it after xeroxing. of course most of them refused to even look at it, but the ones who did were riveted too.

haven kimmel's something rising (light and swift)
i think most people think her last novel, the solace of leaving early, was better, but i actually enjoyed this one a little more. the other one wrapped up too neatly for my tastes--this one wrapped up neatly too, but somehow it worked better. anyway, who can not love the story of a young woman who makes a living by winning at pool games? of course there's a weird family and some tragedy and a hint of romance and stuff to keep the reader involved, but really this is a very sweet book, very nicely written, very engaging story of a girl trying to find her place in the world. i know i don't make it sound very intellectual, but it is.

zz packer's drinking coffee elsewhere
GREAT collection of short stories--i swear i've read at least one in the new yorker, so that's some indication of the level here. she addresses race, class, gender, sex, miscommunications, prostitution, people struggling to make it in the world, love, loneliess--everything, really. i was entirely blown away by these stories, especially the one about the girl scouts and the one about the girl starting at yale. don't worry, boys, she has some male characters to for you to relate to. i swear the books i read aren't all girl-heavy (though i've read that the majority of readers are women, so it makes sense for so many great books about chicks to be out there). anyway, yeah, read this book.




there's five already (i'm counting all the harry potters as one to be fair).