Having finished book 60 yesterday, I am quite confident that I will reach my goal of reading 100 books by December 31st.This Section was a very mixed bag. There were a few books written for teenagers, more Artemis Fowl, more Sarah Vowell and Barbara Ehrenreich. There was also the discovery of Steve Alton whose crazy science fiction adventure series that features a prehistoric shark is way better written than I thought it would be. I'm on the third installment of the book and it's holding its own. Not like so many serialized novels that should have been killed off in one volume.
I'm happiest that I discovered Crisper Bojalian. His book Tran-Sister Radio is the best book I've ever read in my life and I've read a lot of books. The only reason I didn't give it a ten is because I felt one must leave a little space in case something truly spectacular comes along. Therefore, I gave it a 9.95. The funny thing is that now he's my friend of Facebook because I wrote him a big gushy fan letter. I almost had a heart attack. I sent him a friend request, but I never thought he would respond. I also, in another act of daring, sent him my review of his book which I posted here. I want to read his other books, but I'm afraid that they would just be a big let down after T.S.R. which is how he refers to the book.
In my fourth 20 books, I will read more works by the authors of Naomi and Eli's No Kiss List which was my 59th and very funny even though it was kind of tawdry and written for teenagers. Who says that a girl can't have a little fun? I also vow to finally finish Pen Dragon. I have the ninth and tenth book to finish. I also plan to finish James Harriot's biography which has five books in it, For most people, that would sound obnoxious, but he has a lot to say. It's not all about him either. Sometimes it's about his veterinary practice, his friends, his wife, and so on. I resolve to finish the last two books in the Meg series as well as the last book in the Thursday next series. Jasper Fforde is growing on me.
If I finish five more books this month, I will only need to read seven every month to reach my goal by the end of the year. I can do that easily. I think I'm already in the middle of seven books. Let me count: The Big Overeasy, Fairy Wars, First Among the Sequels, The Dave Barry Audio Book Collection, and Take the Cannoli. Wait that's only five. My biggest problem is that I start new books before I finish old ones. Never mind that this is logical as the older ones are due first or that someone from the audio book club may be waiting for it as I am with Helen Keller autobiography which has been on my shoot to me list for two months in the number one position, but the silly person who has it has not returned it. I just excited about some new topic and start reading that. Never mind what I was reading before. I have 49 items checked out of the library now. That ridiculous! I have one book from the audiobook club and I'm in the middle of those five books. But I know myself. I'm going to start reading Bus Girl by Gretchen Josephson en route the gym tomorrow. She's a poet with Down syndrome and I've been waiting for months to read her book. I couldn't find it on Alibris.com and I'm currently boycotting Amazon.com because they refuse to pay their affiliates in Colorado because Colorado requires Amazon to pay taxes for items they ship into Colorado. My honorary niece asked me to sign this petition on Facebook because a lot of the money that Colorado was collecting was going to disability services. I've never been a big fan of the corporatized publishing world anyway, so signing the petition was no problem until this book which I really want to read. I went to my favorite bookstore and discovered it was out of print. I called the publisher, but never heard back. I looked in my local library system and the one in central Massachusetts. I was getting to point where I decided I was never going to be able to read the book, so as a last ditch effort I searched the Massachusetts virtual catalog which has every library in the state of Massachusetts connected and you can borrow from them and have it delivered to your home. I thought I had checked this before, but I spelled something wrong or a copy just got donated recently because on my second attempt, I found it. The very skinny volume is presently at my house. I am looking forward to it immensely.
I think my fourth 20 books will be finished by September 15th. I say it will take me so long because a lot of the books I want to read have over ten discs and some are in print which takes longer for me. I also won't have a lot of time to read because I'm going to the U.S. Social Forum and to Denver to see Shannon, Laura, and Robin. Hopefully, I will also be selected to go to the Lambda literary emerging writers retreat in San Francisco. This will greatly reduce my reading time.
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