Great White Dispatch
Notes From Damn Near Canada
No. 47
0722
01/08/10
Sigh. I used to be such a fast reader. Once upon a time, I averaged a book+ a week, but now I'm lucky to finish one in a month. In the three years I've been tracking what I read every year (yeah...does anyone else do this? Please tell me someone else does this.), my annual number has decreased every year. 42, 33, 28 1/2.
I'd like to blame the steady decline on the fact that I had much more free time back in the day, but, jaysus, I used to go to school full-time, work full-time and drive an hour both ways to work, and I still managed to knock out at LEAST five books a month. I'd like to blame it on the fact that I'm reading more 'substance' these days, learning more and taking time to reflect on what I've learned. But shit like Men With Balls and all the random sci-fi on this list blow that argument out of the water. I'd like to blame it on the fact that I live in a natural wonderland and I spend all my time Enjoying Nature and Being Active. Yeah. That's the ticket.
I'd like to blame it on a lot positive, progressive reasons. The real answer? Comic books. I hammered back damn near 100 graphic novels this year, in an attempt to catch up on everything I missed last year. Hey, words is words, right? Right?
It's either comic books, or I'm just getting dumber. Valid arguments could be made in either direction. Anyway, here's the list of book-type-books I bagged in 2009. BECAUSE I KNOW YOU GIVE A SHIT.
A Year in the Main Woods, Bernd Henrich
Beat the Reaper, Josh Bazell
Dear American Airlines, Jonathan Miles
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
How I Became a Famous Novelist, Steve Hely
In the Lake of the Woods, Tim O'Brien
Men With Balls, Drew Magary
Minions of the Moon, Richard Bowes
Mr. Clarinet, Nick Stone
Old Man's War, John Scalzi
Population: 485, Mike Perry
Prince of Thieves, Chuck Hogan
Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk
The Book of Basketball, Bill Simmons
The Book of Joe, Jonathan Tropper
The Digital Photography Book 1, Scott Kelby
The Digital Photography Book 2, Scott Kelby
The Longest Winter, Alex Kershaw
The Lost City of Z, David Grann
Understanding Exposure, Bryan Peterson
Walking Dead, Greg Rucka
Wastelands, Anthology
White Jazz (reread), James Ellroy
Whitetails, Erwin Bauer
Winterbirth, Brian Ruckley
Partial reads
Black Echo, Michael Connelly
Drama City, George Pelecanos
Dune, Frank Herbert
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2 comments:
I've been doing about the same thing, honestly. I used to read all the time, but I feel like it's tougher for me to sit down and do it. I'm going to blame the Internet and indirectly, you for writing this post that I am reading instead of doing other things.
I've only read "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" out of that list, and I was glad I did. Not a big of that author otherwise, but that was such a solid story.
Things must be going pretty decently; I haven't seen a lot of updates. I was chatting with Tammy and was wondering - do you use a site like Goodreads to log your books?
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