Plus 69

I’m glad I never took the “experiment” out of the title of this blog, because it’s now January 16, 2005 (I’m going to backdate this) and I’m giving up the illusion that I’m going to “catch up.” (Good decision, hard to make). At least I have a list of all the books I read but didn’t write up, and here it is:

  • French Spirits: A House, a Village, and a Love Affair in Burgundy – Jeffrey Greene, 2002
  • Understanding the Borderline Mother: Helping her Children Transcend the Intense, Unpredictable, and Volatile Relationship – Christine Ann Lawson, 2000.
  • Sense and Sensiblity – Jane Austen, 1811
  • Pride and Predjudice – Jane Austen, 1813
  • Mansfield Park – Jane Austen, 1814
  • Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen, 1818
  • Emma – Jane Austen, 1815
  • Persuasion – Jane Austen, 1818
  • Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte, 1847
  • The Alphabet of Modern Annoyances – Neil Steinberg, 1996
  • Don’t Give Up the Ship: Finding My Father While Lost at Sea – Neil Steinberg, 2002
  • Up On Cloud Nine – Anne Fine, 2002
  • The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen’s Novel to Film – Emma Thompson, 1995
  • The Other Wind – Ursula K. LeGuin, 2001
  • Victorian Doll Stories – Brenda, Mrs. Gatty, and Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1969 (1879, 1862, 1907)
  • The Lost Prince – Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1915
  • Requiem for Twelve Cows George Rehm, 1962
  • The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1911
  • A Little Princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1905
  • Little Lord Fauntleroy – Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1886
  • The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer – David A. Whitsett, Forrest A. Dolgener, Tanjala Mabon Kole, 1998
  • T. Tembarom – Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1914
  • September – Rosamunde Pilcher, 1990
  • The Fan – Bob Randall, 1977
  • Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell, 1960
  • The Girl Who Heard Dragons – Anne McCaffrey, 1994
  • The Telling – Ursula K. LeGuin, 2000
  • The Dawn of a To-Morrow – Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1906
  • A Fair Barbarian – Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1880
  • Pretty Polly Pemberton – Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1877
  • Louisiana – Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1914
  • Other Times, Other Worlds – John D. MacDonald, 1978
  • The Star Beast – Robert Heinlein, 1954
  • Have Space Suit, Will Travel – Robert Heinlein, 1958
  • Red Planet – Robert Heinlein, 1949
  • Podkayne of Mars – Robert Heinlein, 1963
  • Double Star – Robert Heinlein, 1956
  • Time for the Stars – Robert Heinlein, 1956
  • Between Planets – Robert Heinlein, 1951
  • Tunnel in the Sky – Robert Heinlein, 1955
  • Starman Jones – Robert Heinlein, 1953
  • The Menace From Earth – Robert Heinlein, 1959
  • Space Cadet – Robert Heinlein, 1948
  • The Empire of Tea: The Remarkable History of the Plant That Took Over the World – Alan McFarlane & Iris McFarlane, 2003
  • The Puppet Masters – Robert Heinlein, 1951
  • Waldo – Robert Heinlein, 1950
  • Magic, Inc. – Robert Heinlein, 1940
  • Piano Lessons: Music, Love & True Adventures – Noah Adams, 1996
  • The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier – Thad Carhart, 2000
  • Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life – John McCain with Mark Salter, 2004
  • The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles – Julie Andrews, 1974
  • Christmas Ghosts – ed. Seon Manley & Gogo Lewis, 1978
  • Tim – Collen McCullough, 1974
  • Beezus and Ramona – Beverly Cleary, 1955
  • Ramona the Pest – Beverly Cleary, 1968
  • Ramona Forever – Beverly Cleary, 1984
  • Ramona and Her Father – Beverly Cleary, 1977
  • Ramona Quimby, Age 8 – Beverly Cleary, 1981
  • Duran Duran – Susan Martin, 1984
  • 3 To the Highest Power: Bradbury, Oliver, Sturgeon – ed. William F. Nolan, 1968
  • Kiss Kiss – Roald Dahl, 1959
  • The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More – Roald Dahl, 1977
  • Follow the River: A Novel Based on the Ordeal of Mary Ingles – James Alexander Thom, 1981
  • Blown Sideways Through Life – Claudia Shear, 1995
  • The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories – ed. Tom Shippey, 1994
  • No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days – Chris Baty, 2004
  • A Treasury of Modern Fantasy – ed. Terry Carr & Martin Harry Greenberg, 1981
  • Seven Footprints to Satan – A. Merritt, 1928
  • Vice Versa, or, A Lesson to Fathers – F. Anstey, 1882
  • The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle – Hugh Lofting, 1922

I have draft posts on the first two, so I could actually finish those at some point. The re-reads (Burnett, Heinlein, LeGuin, Cleary, Lofting and a few more) I’ll no doubt read again in a few years or a few decades, and I could always write them up them. The library books I could borrow again. The hardest to give up on are the few I’m getting rid of. The perfectionist in me feels like this is an opportunity I’m letting slip away. And it is, but I can’t take advantage of all opportunities. To feel bad as I fall further and further behind would be silly. Books I’ve read six months ago I’d have to re-acquaint myself with anyway. So, yes, I had some thoughts about books on this list that it would have been good to write down, and it’s too bad that they’re lost–but that’s life, which rolls on and doesn’t wait no matter how much I might wish it would. I’m forty now and I’m learning!

So that’s about 144 books I read in 2004. Not that many? Too many? I’m not sure. Probably too many…