Books I Read in 2010...or...All I Did in 2010 Was Read

In 2010 I read 63 books. It started off as a goal to read 50 books over the course of the year. I thought it might be an obtainable goal since in 2009 I read over 40 books.

I picked 50 books because...

1. It seemed like a nice round number.
2. 50 books is 2 short of 1 book for each week of the year.
3. 50 books was the goal several of my book club friends had in 2009 and many of us read at a similar pace, so I thought why not.

Part way through the year I realized I was not only on pace to meet my goal but would undoubtedly exceed it. My husband encouraged me to bump my goal up to 52, which evens out to a book a week. Eventually, I exceeded 52 books and after that I told myself I should be able to read at least year 60 books by the end of year. My sister-in-law teased me that I could hit 100 books by the end of the year. I ended up at 63.

I spent most of New Year's Eve glued to my laptop trying to finish book #63, an ebook I checked out from the library where I was working at the time. It was was unusual, but beautifully written book called, "The Museum of Innocence" by Orhan Pamuk. I finished it with an hour or two to spare before midnight.

Of the 63 books I read in 2010, my three absolutes favorites were, "Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky, "Fire in the Blood" by Irene Nemirovsky, and "The Housekeeper and the Professor" by Yoko Ogawa.
 
This is the complete list of the books I read in 2010:

1. Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman

2. Mental_Floss: Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets by the Editors of Mental_Floss

3. Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success by Penelope Trunk

4. Forever by Pete Hamill

5. An Education by Nick Hornby

6. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

7. Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga

8. The Housekeeper and the Professor: A Novel by Yoko Ogawa

9. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

10. A Year Without "Made in China" : One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy by Sara Bongiorni

11. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

12. Across the Bridge of Sighs: More Venetian Stories by Jane Turner Rylands

13. What Happened to Anna K. by Irina Reyn

14. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

15. Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald

16. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

17. Lucky Everyday: A Novel by Bapsy Jain

18. The Shack by William P. Young

19. Fire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky

20. East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

21. The Heights by Peter Hedges

22. You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons - The World on One Cartoon a Day by Mo Willems

23. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

24. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

25. Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

26. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

27. David Golder by Irène Némirovsky

28. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

29. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen

30. What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

31. Numbers by David Boyle

32. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

33. Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence - and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Irene M. Pepperberg

34. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

35. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

36. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

37. Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart

38. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

39. Band of Angels: A Novel by Julia Gregson

40. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

41. The Wish Maker by Ali Sethi

42. Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji

43. How It Ended by Jay McInerney

44. Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman

45. The Simple Dollar : how one man wiped out his debts and achieved the life of his dreams by Trent Hamm

46. Long for This World by Sonya Chung

47. A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay

48. Eros, Philia, Agape by Rachel Swirsky

49. First Flight by Mary Robinette Kowal

50. The Diving Pool: Three Novellas by Yoko Ogawa

51. Overtime by Charles Stross

52. On the Divinity of Second Chances by Kaya McLaren

53. Barefoot in Baghdad by Manal Omar

54. The Keep by Jennifer Egan

55. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

56. Quarterlife Crisis by Alexandra Robbins & Abby Wilner

57. A Memory of Wind by Rachel Swirsky

58. The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner

59. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

60. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

61. The Cheapskate Next Door by Jeff Yeager

62. My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

63. The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk

That Which Is Life...an introduction

That which is life is a tittle I've been kicking around for 10-15 years. Over the years I've been debating attaching it to a novel, a short story, a poem, and a play. It might have actually been attached to a one act play I workshopped in college, but I can't seem to locate the file to verify that information. When I sat down to create my blog That Which Is Life seemed to be the most fitting title, as that is what it is, that which is life, my life in particular.

Although the scope of this blog may evolve overtime for now I plan to blog about the books I read (in 2010 I read 63 books and so far in 2011 I have read 21 books), my creative writing, culinary arts (I love to cook and bake), general life antidotes, travel, and possibly my trials and tribulations of trying to teach myself to knit (so far I can't get pass the starter stitch).