palace of winds

So, a bit of a rough start to the reading year. I was halfway through In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks, by Adam Carolla, when it had to go back to the library, and I just haven’t bothered to check it out again. I’ve been listening to a ton of his podcast, which is pretty much exactly like the book except I can just stick an earbud in and have him speak it to me, PLUS Alison Rosen and Bald Brian, both of whom I really enjoy. Anyway, long story short, halfway doesn’t count.

I did have one nice victory: I started my old habit of just plowing into something without actually knowing what it was about — but when I started to suspect I might not like it, I actually went and read the summary. And then (THEN!) I stopped listening. It was the audiobook for Like Water for Elephants, and I could tell in the first few minutes that if it kept going on and on about this sad old guy trapped in a nursing home at the end of his life I would spend the rest of however many hours it took to get through dreading the thing and squirming and feeling really miserable and depressed.

I did manage to finish one book: The Beautiful and Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, read by Peter Marinker. It’d been ages since I’d read any Fitzgerald, and I’d forgotten what a lovely writer he is. This book is packed with gorgeous turns of phrase and pretty images — but almost all of the characters are completely insufferable from beginning to end. I’m sure (or at least hope) that’s part of the point — but they were such nasty, frivolous people that I just didn’t care at all. The strength of the writing kept me engaged, but I kept wishing for an interesting plot or some glimmer of redemption to show up. Still, I liked it well enough. Like I said: very prettily written.

2012 Book Count: 1
January: 1

Putting this together was tougher than I expected. I kept starting to listen to stuff with an ear toward how essential it was, if it fit, where it fit — and then I would get swept away in listening to music, and I’d find myself 20 minutes later just bopping along, staring at the latest Go Fug Yourself, thinking about what to make for dinner. Also I really liked the idea of a single cd playlist — which was laughable, considering how hard it was not to include entire albums on the list. I would manage moments of ruthlessness, cutting away some of my favorite songs by an artist, wanting no more than a representative or two from each band — and then I would zone out again, or just throw up my hands.

In the end, here’s what I managed. I was especially happy to be able to come full circle with two of my favorite bands, The National and Iron & Wine. I listened to them a lot (A LOT) (like, really obsessively) at the beginning of the year, and then suddenly couldn’t listen to them at all any more. Then this fall I found out they were both playing in San Fransisco on a weekend I was thinking of going to visit Bryce, and after missing both of them in Minneapolis this year, I couldn’t pass it up. I was a little worried I would fall apart at one or both shows — but I didn’t, not even close. All sweet, no bitter — I was just really happy to be there.

1. Don’t Carry It All – The Decemberists
2. Thistled Spring – Horse Feathers
3. Little Faith – The National
4. Alabama Pines – Jason Isbell
5. Our Hearts Are Wrong – Jessica Lea Mayfield
6. Runaway – The National
7. Dear Avery – The Decemberists
8. White Wilderness – John Vanderslice
9. Sorrow – The National
10. Middleman – Bright Eyes
11. England – The National
12. Backwards Walk – Frightened Rabbit
13. Overcoat – John Vanderslice
14. Helplessness Blues – Fleet Foxes
15. If The Brakeman Turns My Way – Bright Eyes
16. Walking Far From Home – Iron and Wine
17. Cleanse Song – Bright Eyes
18. Swim Until You Can’t See Land – Frightened Rabbit
19. Belly of June – Horse Feathers
20. Dog Days Are Over – Florence & The Machine
21. S&M – Rihanna
22. Post Break-Up Sex – The Vaccines
23. Pumped Up Kicks – Foster The People
24. Holdin on to Black Metal – My Morning Jacket
25. Don’t Say Oh Well – Grouplove
26. Wetsuit – The Vaccines
27. Bloodbuzz Ohio – The National
28. Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall – Coldplay
29. Conversation 16 – The National
30. Tree By The River – Iron and Wine
31. Us Against The World – Coldplay

Maybe a little overkill, but I also jotted down my favorite albums of 2011. (Mostly because Noel Gallagher didn’t make it onto the playlist; I really like listening to him, but he doesn’t grab me or encapsulate the year quite the way the rest of that stuff does. But I’ve listened to him a lot in the last couple months, and I want to be able to remember that.)

Favorite albums of 2011:

• The King is Dead – The Decemberists
• High Violet – The National
• Kiss Each Other Clean – Iron & Wine
• Helplessness Blues – Fleet Foxes
• Cassadaga – Bright Eyes
• What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? – The Vaccines
• Grouplove (EP) – Grouplove
• Mylo Xyloto – Coldplay
• Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher

Lastly — not a good video, but one of my favorite moments during The National’s concert on December 3. It’s the last song of their encore; the band unplugged, and just brought it. I still get tingles thinking about it.

December wasn’t a great reading month for me — I’m partway through a couple things, and keep getting side-tracked or having to return them to the library. But I am really happy with how much I read in 2011! I did a ridiculous amount in the beginning of the year, but I’m pretty thrilled that up until December and holiday craziness I kept a fairly steady pace. Duplicating it in 2012 seems a little too ambitious, but I think 36 sounds like an appropriate goal.

The only thing I finished this month was The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt, read by John Pruden. I had mixed feelings about this one — I kept getting hooked and then not wanting to listen any more. The book is set in the American west during the gold rush; its narrator is one of the Sisters brothers, a pair of infamous killers. I liked the setting, and the relationship between the brothers, and I really liked deWitt’s use of the first person. I’m a little picky about first-person narration, but thought it was exactly appropriate here. I struggled with hating the other brother (he is a nasty drunk) — but what really bothered me was the narrator’s poor, luckless horse. It all fit with the story, and the writing was good, so I really can’t fault deWitt. Let’s just say it’s been my year for accidentally picking books with agonizingly long, gruesome passages, particularly pertaining to animals. I did really love the last part of the book; the characters do something strange and wonderful. I think I’m going to try to carry that into my 2012 reading: more magical realism, less animal suffering.

In fact — I just looked back, and apparently my sorta guideline for 2011 was to read more Literature. I’d actually completely forgotten about that, and it obviously got thrown a bit by the wayside. Goals for 2012: read a summary of every book before I crack it open, and read more books that keep me up all night needing to know what happens next. Any suggestions?

2011 Book Count: 42
January: 6
February: 2
March: 7
April: 3
May: 3
June: 3
July: 4
August: 3
September: 4
October: 3
November: 3
December: 1

The complete 2011 list:

• City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare
• Deliver Us from Evie, by M. E. Kerr
• Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest
• Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
• Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
• Specimen Days, by Michael Cunningham, read by Alan Cumming
• I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
• Savage Love, by Dan Savage (online archives 1999-2011)
• How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff, read by Kim Mai Guest
• The Big U, by Neal Stephenson
• The Wise Man’s Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
• Redwall, by Brian Jacques, read by Ron Keith
• The Fifth Elephant, by Terry Pratchett
• The Stranger, by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward, read by Jonathan Davis
• The Beach, by Alex Garland
• The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
• The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly, read by Steven Crossley
• Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, by Patrick Süskind
• The Magicians, by Lev Grossman
• The Witch in the Wood (or The Queen of Air and Darkness), by T. H. White, read by Neville Jason
• Dead Reckoning, by Charlaine Harris
• Nemesis, by Philip Roth, read by Dennis Boutsikaris
• Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut
• Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
• Goodbye, Columbus: and Five Short Stories, by Philip Roth
• The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson, narrated by Steven Crossley
• The Ill-Made Knight, by T. H. White, read by Neville Jason
• The Candle in the Wind, by T. H. White, read by Neville Jason
• The Book of Merlyn, by T. H. White, read by Neville Jason
• The Savage Girl, by Alex Shakar
• A Cupboard Full of Coats, by Yvvette Edwards
• Love Me, by Garrison Keillor
• B is for Beer, by Tom Robbins
• The Magician King, by Lev Grossman
• The Griff, by Christopher Moore & Ian Corson
• IinterWorld, by Neil Gaiman & Michael Reaves
• Snowdrops, by Andrew Miller
• Jamrach’s Menagerie, by Carol Birch
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, read by Simon Vance
• On Canaan’s Side, by Sebastian Barry, read by Wanda McCaddon
• How Good Riders Get Good, by Denny Emmerson
• The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt, read by John Pruden

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, read by Simon Vance. So, I had NO clue what this was about when I picked up the audiobook. I’d been resisting it for a long time, like I do with most things that are wildly popular, but I love Simon Vance (he’s narrated Naomi Novik’s Temeraire books), and with audiobooks I never feel like I’ve wasted reading time on something I end up not loving. Anyway — turns out it’s a murder mystery, and I actually rather liked it. There were times it was pretty heavy-handed in its message, and times it was quite graphic, and the main character went a bit too Bella Swan for my taste, but it was an interesting read. If not for all of the raping, I would’ve called it fun.

On Canaan’s Side, by Sebastian Barry, read by Wanda McCaddon. This is another 2011 Booker finalist that I started without reading any kind of summary. My lesson this year: start reading summaries. It wasn’t a bad book at all, but it was yet another first-person end-of-life reflection, and I already know they don’t do much for me. Parts of it were very prettily written, but it was the same experience I had listening to The Finkler Question (last year’s winner) — my mind would drift and I’d kind of lose the thread of the story.

How Good Riders Get Good, by Denny Emmerson. This one’s a horse riding sports psychology book, and I really enjoyed it. I’m hoping it will be the kick in the pants I need to train harder this winter…

2011 Book Count: 41
January: 6
February: 2
March: 7
April: 3
May: 3
June: 3
July: 4
August: 3
September: 4
October: 3
November: 3

InterWorld, by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves. I’m a pretty regular reader of Neil Gaiman’s blog, so I don’t know how I remained oblivious to the existence of this book for so long. I found it when looking for ebooks from my library, and I’m delighted I did. I don’t know the process Gaiman and Reaves used to write this together, but the voice presented is pretty seamless (though there are a few especially delightful passages that are obviously pure Gaiman). This is a story about a boy who steps between worlds, and I (predictably) loved it.

Snowdrops, by Andrew Miller. This is another I requested after the long list of Booker Prize nominees came out. I read about half of it in September before having to return it to the library; when I checked it out again this month I finally finished it. I’ve actually had my hands on a few nominees but had to return them before even cracking them open — too many books and too little time! Anyhow — I really enjoyed this one. It’s a dark, gritty story about a British lawyer’s stint in Moscow in the 2000s, and how he becomes caught up in the city’s atmosphere of corruption. Miller’s descriptions of Russia are entrancing, and his characters fascinating. The narrative is second-person, which almost always makes me want to crawl up the wall, but Miller makes it palatable here — definitely the best I can recall reading.

Jamrach’s Menagerie, by Carol Birch. Another from this year’s Man Booker Prize shortlist. I really loved this one at first: it opens with the main character, a boy named Jaffy, encountering a tiger in the street. While everyone else flees, Jaffy approaches the tiger and pets its nose; the tiger plucks the boy up and carries him off. This is how Jaffy is introduced to the marvelous Jamrach and his menagerie. The book is beautifully written and I was just delighted with it for the first – third? And then it started to go a bit grim. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but it gets graphic, and grinds on, and on, and on. It’s still well written, and wrenching, and interesting — but if I had known before picking it up just how much of it would be so intimately wretched, honestly I don’t think I would have read it. So I don’t regret it exactly, but I can’t recommend it without a big caution flag. I spent Saturday afternoon curled up in a coffee shop with it, frowning and wincing and complaining to Eric how horribly wrong it had all gone. (And then we went to see In Time, that new Justin Timberlake movie, which was horrible in its own way — great concept, appalling dialogue — and then we went home and watched Cloverfield and Dawn of the Dead (90s remake), and the next day I saw Paranormal Activity 1 and 2, and I’m nearly to the end of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which has its share of graphic scenes — My point being, ’tis the season and all but damn I am ready for something light and fluffy and happy happy happy.)

2011 Book Count: 38
January: 6
February: 2
March: 7
April: 3
May: 3
June: 3
July: 4
August: 3
September: 4
October: 3