There are two web sites that I'm aware of that allow you to keep track of the books you read. Thanks to Sarah, I started using Shelfari a year or so ago. This morning I got an email from Shelfari about posting the number of books I read in 2008. My goal for the last 18 years that I have kept track of what I read, has been to read 25 books a year. I have met my goal almost every year. Frankly, the number of books I read decreased when I discovered all the information on the internet. Reading blogs and articles online has certainly taken away from my book reading time. (Then there are also magazines to consider. Tracy just caught up on all the MacWorld and MacLife magazines so now there's a stack on my dresser for me to read.) So I've always thought 28 was a pretty good number, but my accomplishment is pathetic compared to most of those posting on this survey. Oh well, I will never read over 100 books in a year, nor do I want to try. There are too many other interesting things to do!
Matrimony-Joshua Henkins
People of the Book-Geraldine Brooks
Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power-John Harwood
Intuition-Allegra Goodman
Take This Bread-Miles
Belongs To Me-Marissa de los Santos
No One You Know-Michelle Richmond
A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel-Anne Belt
Run-Ann Patchett
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society-Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The best book was People of the Book, followed closely by Intuition and Matrimony. Another interesting insight was that I read a lot more fiction than nonfiction last year, which is unusual.
That's always been a problem for me, but it's really an issue right now. Well before the holiday, I put several books on reserve at the library. You never know when they'll show up. Then for Christmas I got six new books, and I bought one that had received a great review. So I'm reading Listening is an Act of Love while I'm walking on the treadmill, and I'm reading Songs for the Missing at night. I'm also trying to squeeze in a chapter or two of some of the nonfiction books I got as well. Lo and behold, I discover the library has received two of the books I put on hold. I started both of them last night, secretly hoping I wouldn't care for one of them so I could return it. Alas, I like both of them very much, so now I am reading I See You Everywhere at home, and Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, and 21,730 Pages while I'm walking on the treadmill. You might think the latter book would be a bit dry, but I have laughed out loud time and time again. I'll never remember the words Shea found in the OED, but his interpretation of their definitions is a hoot! I'll get back to the others when I've returned these to the library.
I finally got back to the Design Your Life layouts. I had two weeks and a few miscellaneous layout to do. Today I completed both of the Week 11 layouts on Type.
I finally finished the Christmas Journal today. Here are Days 21-31. I ended up skipping a few days before Christmas and a few days after the holiday, but it's a good record of our holidays.
I think Project 365 is probably the very best thing I can do to improve my photography skills. I tried to do it last year, but only made it to March. Off and on I take a lot of photos, but it is not a daily habit, nor do I find it an easy one. Creating Keepsakes has jumped on the bandwagon this year and their pdf. file of ideas will hopefully help me find subjects on days when nothing comes to mind. Not having children at home makes for few photo ops. The first week is posted on the Photo-a-Day blog on the sidebar. I'm planning to update it just once a week so as not to stress myself out! I'm also hoping to do a scrapbook page for each week so I'll have an album as well as a photoblog when it's done.
If you don't subscribe to Photojojo, they've posted a series of great photos from 2008 that are really worth seeing.
Actually I have Days 10-24 done, but not photos to share yet. There were three days when I didn't take photos (days 18-20) and I finally decided to let it go. I really didn't have anything I needed to share. I have at least three or four more days to add and then I will be done. Once again, I 'm glad I participated in the process.
We had a lovely New Year's Eve at Julie Reynold's new home. Dinner and wine tasting at her very elegant table was so much fun.
I got six great books for Christmas—all nonfiction—and I can’t wait to start reading all of them. But I have to finish Flat, Hot, and Crowded for our book group meeting on Friday. I’m finding it slower going than Friedman’s previous three books, all of which I loved. I think it’s because it’s more science than politics or history, and I clearly don’t have the same interest in science as I do in the other two. I’ll be done by Friday though.
But I did start one new book, and I can heartily recommend it: Listening is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the Storycorps Project. The Storycorps began in 2003 in New York City and has now expanded through mobile units across the United States. Its goal is to collect everyday stories of the lives of ordinary Americans. The stories in this collection are anything but ordinary. They are inspiring, touching, tender, funny, and sometimes sad. I’ve been reading it while I work out. It’s a perfect book for commuters, exercisers, people waiting for appointments . . . because each story is just a few pages long. It reminds me a bit of This I Believe, another collection of pieces from an NPR program that I love. I’ve read all of Volume I and have Volume 2 on my nightstand. All three books are worth your time.
I'm now officially one day behind, although I do have the journaling done for today. It looks like I may be doing some substitute teaching for the next few days, so I may be even farther behind soon. I reread the Christmas journal pages from two years ago, and looked through last year's album. Sometimes I'm finding I don't have a lot more to say about a given prompt, and without kids at home, there's not necessarily something interesting enough to document. So for yesterday I decided to do a little flow chart of the wrapping process, which was actually the prompt for today. All the paper, ribbon, tags, etc. are in our basement, and there's a folding table set up for wrapping. I've never documented the process. For the first time (ever) I'm nearly done wrapping all the gifts. I think there are only two more gifts yet to arrive, so I have less than 10 to wrap. Usually I'm still wrapping on Christmas Eve day. I'm sure it's another one of the benefits of being retired.
Another week for Elements, this time focusing on color.
I think I have completed all the Christmas cards for this year. Instead of 50-40 of the same design, there are multiple designs this year. Now to get them all in the mail. Here's today's Christmas Journal entry. I took a lot of photos of the decorations around the house. I didn't think this page needed any journaling, but I added a title to a Hambly overlay. After I took the photo, I added an 8 to the overlay for the date.
Here are the most recent entries for the Christmas Journal. I'm not doing so well on the DYL layouts this week. One is started, but I haven't even found the photos for the other two.
