bye bye 2006 ~ hello 2007!

[lookingland]

i stayed up, rang in the new year by telling the dogs to stop barking at the firecrackers, then promptly went to bed. 2006 was a year full of trials and blessings. more blessings than trials. i have much to be grateful for.

: D

yesterday was a good writing day (13 pages, 4,000 words). i have a feeling very little of it will make any sort of cut, but it was good to just write and fill my head and pages with ideas and explorations.

it also snew ~ a good proper snew of a few inches, which had a nice becalming effect. i went out and drove in it, of course.

today is a day of ordering out of chaos. i doubt i will do much cleaning proper, but i would like to organize a few piles and maybe have a short geography lesson (i couldn't, for the life of me, remember where Laramie is yesterday ~ that's pretty pitiful).

i was going to read a bazillion books this weekend to race toward the end of the 50bookchallenge but instead let it go. i suppose i could count the three Giacomo books i read (i said i would last year when i bought them, and i read them, and they are in french, so twice the work). and i didn't count the one library text that i read (matthew battles's An Unquiet History), and i didn't count john ransom's diary because it was mostly a re-read. so if i wanted to be picky, there's my last five.

some notable total misses this year that i didn't finish and probably won't:

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord by fraser ~ love the conceit and love the writing, but strangely i don't find the main character at all charming and that's the kiss of death.

Waterworks by doctorow ~ good writing, boring story. just couldn't get past chapter one. cops and journalists. not for me.

The March by doctorow ~ wow. utter garbage. even the writing itself was horrific. doctorow just sucked this year. twice.

notables that i didn't finish but probably will:

The City by barrico ~ just wasn't in the mood for the story he was telling in this one, but i'll give it another stab because i was enjoying the writing.

Quicksilver by stephenson ~ if stephenson can call this cycle seven books, i'm counting it as seven books. hahahahahaha ~

notable bad books that i finished:

Middle Passage by johnson ~ no more National Book Award winners for me. the book insulted my intelligence, and i'm pretty sure my mother too.

Caddie Woodlawn by brink ~ booooring. and lame. and hackneyed.

Who Comes with Cannons? by beatty ~ cripes, what trash. also, see above.

The Silent by dann ~ an embarrassingly bad book. one of those you just shake your head in wonder at.

(and all four are excellent examples why i don't read exclusively in my genre of interest)

notable good books which i celebrate this year (so many!):

Lying Awake by salzman ~ simple, beautiful and evocative.

Silk by barrico ~ hands down my favorite new discovery. i gifted this one twice this year. i've only ever done that with ondaatje before (not even fermine!)

Beasely's Christmas Party by tarkington ~ love love love tarkington. there's no explaining my affection and most people would probably hate this book, but i just adored it.

Gunnar's daughter by undset ~ a shocking good yarn. fantasy lovers on my list should read this one. it's got all the elements of a great Gilgamesh.

The Painted Bird by kozinski ~ terrible and lovely. hands down the most shocking book of the year.

Bull Run by Fleischmann ~ wonderfully elegant and minimalist. the kind of book that makes you ravenous.

and a whole lot of wonderful research books.

i've already got a pile up for the coming year (and yes, i am counting the leftovers from this year into the new year. i think it's fair.) dunno how well i'll do in 2007 because i hope to be writing tens times as much as last year.

: D



happy new year, friends!

Comments

[ryan-howse.livejournal.com]

If the CoEx Mall near my place sells enough English books, I may do the 50 book challenge. It sounds really cool, but if I can't get a hold of 50 books, there's little point; I've only got about fifteen left to last me until November.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

oh nooooo ~ ! i would die! there must be a library somewhere, or perhaps a bookswap (www.paperbackswap.com) kind of program where other people in your predicament can find new stuff to read!

you could also download stuff online, God knows there's tons of excellent literature in the public domain.

: D

[sparowe]

Happy New Year! :)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

you too ~ yay!

: D

[lanyn.livejournal.com]

Oh man... "The Painted Bird" - read that one in college and it still haunts me. It's one I've never been able to put out of my head, and it sometimes surprises me the clarity with which I can recall so many scenes from it (that sometimes I'd rather not). Terrible and lovely is a very apt way of describing it.

Happy New Year!

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i sometimes almost feel like there are stories that no longer need telling because jerzy kozinski has said all that needs to be said and that the world could not bear any more of it.

i can't imagine ever wanting to read it again, but it will haunt me without a doubt as well.

and on that grim thought:

happy new year to you too!

: D