At the beginning of last year I set myself a goal to read 30 books, and I used my Goodreads.com page to track all of the titles and rate them as I finished. I literally closed the 30th book the day before New Year's. Reading and me have always been like peas and carrots, but life and technology and glossy fashion magazines had sidetracked me for awhile so I'm happy to have rekindled my affair with books and to have let the magazines get dusty and pile up on my bedside table for awhile. Plus, as an aspiring writer, I'd be a fool not to be reading other writers so I can steal their shit for inspiration. Thirty books in a year is a measly drop in the bucket for many serious readers, but I'm happy to have completed this many titles. And I'm grateful to my mom for passing on most all of these books to me. She's a voracious reader and so often tucks a new book in Tessa's bag for me when she returns her from her weekly visit. I tend to read every night before bed and lots of times in the middle of the night when I'm up with insomnia or nowadays nursing lil Liv.
Here are the books I read in 2012:
I read four Jodi Picoult books this year; hers are bestsellers for good reason. They're fascinating and easy. And Anna Quindlen is a new favorite. I read three of hers and hope to finish reading the rest of them this year. I love her voice so much. The best books I read were "Cold Mountain" and "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and "Still Alice" (a gift from my friend Faith). The worst books were "The Virgin of Small Plains," "Gods in Alabama," and Joan Didion's "Blue Nights." I normally love Didion but this one was so disjointed and sparse and detached. I also read a couple of books on postpartum depression, which was a Mac truck that fortunately zoomed right past me this time. ("What Am I Thinking?" was an awesome one on the topic; "The Pregnancy and Postpartum Anxiety Workbook" was not so awesome.)
I'm setting the same 30-book goal for 2013, which I'm starting off with a bang with Lisa Genova's "Still Neglected." Got any recommendations for me?
Here are the books I read in 2012:
I read four Jodi Picoult books this year; hers are bestsellers for good reason. They're fascinating and easy. And Anna Quindlen is a new favorite. I read three of hers and hope to finish reading the rest of them this year. I love her voice so much. The best books I read were "Cold Mountain" and "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and "Still Alice" (a gift from my friend Faith). The worst books were "The Virgin of Small Plains," "Gods in Alabama," and Joan Didion's "Blue Nights." I normally love Didion but this one was so disjointed and sparse and detached. I also read a couple of books on postpartum depression, which was a Mac truck that fortunately zoomed right past me this time. ("What Am I Thinking?" was an awesome one on the topic; "The Pregnancy and Postpartum Anxiety Workbook" was not so awesome.)
I'm setting the same 30-book goal for 2013, which I'm starting off with a bang with Lisa Genova's "Still Neglected." Got any recommendations for me?
