Resolved

I'm not one for making New Year's Resolutions. There's nothing special about the first of the year that will miraculously transform me into an efficient, competent go-getter. But after reading dozens of lists from other people, I thought I'd give it a shot. Start of a new decade and all.

1. Over on Salon.com, book editor Laura Miller makes a case for getting out of your literary comfort zone. Read something different from the ordinary. Choose a new genre. So I'm going to see if I can't expand my horizons a wee bit. Since I read very little fiction, I think I'll try to read one new bestseller every month.

2. Miller is also enthusiastic about writing down everything you read. She claims it's as effective as keeping a diary. While it's true that I do enjoy going back over books I have read, it's even more true that I really dislike making book lists. Probably stems from some grade school summer reading program trauma. You can see how diligent I am about this blog, right? But I'll try.

3. More than one resolution list I've read has had something along the lines of "Fewer blogs, more books." Sounds good in theory. I probably spend at least an hour a day reading stuff online. I doubt that will end any time soon, but I do resolve to keep up with the posts in blogs I love. I did purge a few non-essentials from my Reader, and if I notice too many unread posts stacking up I will happily delete them.

4. I refuse to waste any more time reading books I don't like just because I've started them. I've already ditched a couple this year: Mitch Albom's Have a Little Faith and An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. The first was so poorly written I couldn't get through it no matter how hard I tried (I have a special hatred for book chapters two pages or less). I enjoyed Gabaldon's other books, but it's been so long since I've read the rest of the Outlander series that I just can't remember who's who. Not to mention that at nearly 900 pages I can barely lift the thing. Think I'll wait until it's out in paperback so I can just buy a copy and take my time.

5. I could add my perennial resolution of getting all my books entered in LibraryThing, but it won't happen (I AM over 1000 books though!). Instead, I swear that this will be the year that all my books will have a home on a shelf somewhere. No more piles on the floor. Maybe.

Sigh...

Leo and I are sharing the same energy level these days.


Looks like Nora Roberts has managed to publish not one, not two, but damn it, three books since I updated last. This is why I never join those summer reading programs that make you keep track of what you read.



Speaking of Nora, there was a great article about her in the New Yorker last month. When asked the secret of her pretty amazing productivity, her simple answer was "Ass in chair." One of the many reasons I love her.

What about the books? The first one was Promises in Death (written as J D Robb). If you like Eve and Roarke, you'll like it--if you don't, you won't. I think of the In Death books as one really, really long story anyhow.

Next up is the first story in the latest paperback series: Vision in White. This one is going to be a quartet, and it's about four friends who own a wedding business. It was entertaining, which is all I ask of my escape literature.

Wish I could say the same for the new full-length novel, Black Hills. This one started out well, but by about half way through I got slightly (hate to admit it) bored. We're told who the killer is mid-book, which takes care of any suspense. And I've pretty much had it with cops who've gone through a traumatic experience and need a lifestyle change as a plot device. My biggest problem is that the heroine, in spite of being on hell of a kick-ass, brilliant woman, gets absolutely no credit or respect from her family or lover. This one reads like it was written twenty years ago.

Fortunately for me, Nora Roberts will probably have another book out before I manage to blog again. And I'm looking forward to it.

What's a Picture Worth?

Just read Annie Leibovitz At Work by Annie Leibovitz. In this book she describes the history and technique behind some of her most famous works, starting with the pictures she took for Rolling Stone through today's images for Vanity Fair.

Leibovitz is certainly one of the more recognizable photographers out there today. I wouldn't go so far as to say all her pictures look the same, but they do share many elements. Reading about the research she does and how she sets up each shoot helps explain this.

One of the more interesting things about this book was learning how photography has changed so much in the past forty years. Even little things like a change in page size or paper quality at Rolling Stone made a huge difference in how a picture looked. I was really fascinated by how Leibovitz makes all those composite pictures for Vanity Fair, and how difficult those were to create before digital came into being. Someone who understands a bit more about the technical process than I do would appreciate this book. I enjoyed it very much.

The buzzard picture is mine. It has nothing at all to do with the book. I just enjoy them!

Food for Thought

I don't read much fiction, but The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister was recommended on a blog I follow so I though I'd give it a try. This turned out to be a lovely story. Set in a restaurant cooking class, each chapter focuses on one of the students and how the food they prepare is a reminder of something important in their lives. The book has an easy pace. Bauermeister has a beautiful way with descriptions (the sort of writing often described as "lush") and there were many paragraphs I went back and read again just for the sound they made. The theory that food has magical qualities and is a reflection of the soul isn't new, but when handled correctly can be a great reminder of the many levels of nourishment we receive at the table. If you liked Chocolat (the book, not that pathetic excuse for a movie) or Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (note to self: read more Anne Tyler) you will like this book.

Eat, Memory is a collection of essays from the Sunday New York Times. The authors of these stories were given a simple task: write about an important event in your life that involved food. The results include the heartbreaking (cooking for a dying mother), the hilarious (a summer job spent in the B&M baked bean factory) and the historical (Julia Child's failing her Cordon Bleu final exam). Fun to read, but if you always read the Times Magazine you've seen them all before. Edited by Amanda Hesser with lots of recipes.

The subtitle of this book is "A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes." Sigh. In The Year of Eating Dangerously, British food critic Tom Parker Bowles travels the world looking for extreme things to eat. It's been done before, and done better. At least Parker Bowles comes straight out and admits that he's no Bourdain. Tom seems like a nice enough man, and he writes very well, but I just didn't need another story about durian and dog. For me, the most interesting part was the introduction when he talks about the food his mother cooked (Camilla, as in wife of Charles, as in Prince) and the crap he was fed at boarding school. If you haven't OD'd on food/travel literature the way I have give this one a try.

No time for books!

Seriously, both Survivor and Amazing Race are starting new seasons this week. Who has time to read? Not to mention Last Restaurant Standing (new sets this year, and subtitles for Raymond), Hell's Kitchen (so far no shirtless Grrr shots), and now that they're finished with tryouts, American Idol.

It's hard to believe that this is the eighteenth season of Survivor. Thankfully no beach this year. Brazil is gorgeous! But is it just me, or are the players getting a bit dimmer as each season goes by? And could Jeff be any more obvious with his interfering comments? Let them play the game, Peachy!

Whew!

I know, I know! My attention to this blog has been shameful lately. Just haven't really been in a reading mood. Not sure if it's the weather or the fact that I've got a dozen other things hanging over my head, but I haven't managed to finish a thing in over a week. But I've got seven or eight books going now and should have some stuff written up by next week.

To try and get myself excited about books again, I took an afternoon and entered almost 100 of them into LibraryThing. Sad to say it was only ONE bookshelf:



Now obviously I left a couple of stacks off the shelf just so you could see all the others tucked up in the back. And quite a few of Mike's books (a dozen Graham Greene and John LeCarre thrillers) got shelved elsewhere with the hardbacks by those authors. But who would have thought that so many books could fit on one shelf?

I'm really trying hard to pare down and organize things this year. I did find one book to put in the donation pile (a duplicate), which makes me feel very tidy.

Only ten bookCASES to go!

The Name Says it All

Can we just say I'm really not feeling the love right now?