Book Addict: Final Total for 2011, favorites, etc

My final total of books read in 2011 was . . .

103!

This is actually the first time since I've been keeping track that I haven't read more than I read the year before. But really, I'm ok with that. ;)

The months I read the most this year were tied March and April with 13 each.

And the least was August when I only read 4.

Averaging 8.3 books a month - pretty good, I'd say.

Some other useless statistics:

# of non-fiction books: 40

youth/childrens: 7

books of poetry: 2

"classics": 5

Winner for Most Pages in a single book: 1011 (Gone with the Wind)

(Runners-up: Scarlett 896, The Thorn Birds 692 and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 520)

Winner for Learning about Something I Knew Absolutely Nothing About: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (HeLa "immortal" human cells)

Winners for Least Favorite Classic Novels: Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell and On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Book I Most Want to Buy and Reread and Mark and Underline: The Power of Kindness by Piero Ferucci

Book I Recommended for Bookclub: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

Most Unexpected Favorite: Gone With the Wind

The Book I Wish I Could Tell Everyone to Read: Undoing Depression by Richard O Connor

Books I Read After I Saw the Movie (and which I thought was better): About a Boy (both about the same), Everything is Illuminated (movie was actually better)

Movies I Saw After I Read the Book: One Day (toss-up, I think I liked the movie better), Gone With The Wind (book so much better)

A lot of times people ask me what kind of books I like to read or what I like to read about and I'm often stumped by that question. It's easier I suppose to limit it to what I don't feel particularly drawn to read: murder mysteries, action/adventure, horror, romance . . . stuff like that. As a general rule, I avoid blood and guts and steamy romance. Other than that, I'll read just about anything.

Some of the things I read about last year (just for fun):

Non-Fiction

linguistics relationships and family writing Holocaust music nature/science weird science depression/mental health/grief/happiness ADHD, Aspergers etc health and fitness

housework addiction religion prisoners of war food play and recreation

Fiction

Frank Lloyd Wright a love affair with a monk Chinese foot-binding traditions midwives time travel and strange children magicians Charles and Catherine Dickens love immigrants dystopian future Trinidad racial segregation journalism crazy musicians cowboys

(just a sample of examples)

And here are some of my favorites I'd recommend from the books I read last year:

1. The History Of Love - Nicole Krauss

2. The Writing Life - Annie Dillard

3. The Power of Kindness - Piero Ferucci

4. The Gifts of Imperfection - Brene Brown

5. Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand

6. The Lover's Dictionary - David Levithan

7. Girl in a Blue Dress - Gaynor Arnold

8. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Aimee Bender

9. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson

10. The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise - Julia Stuart

11. The Memory Palace - Mira Bartok

Go check out my Goodreads Profile here for the complete list of books I've read (and currently reading), ratings, reviews and all that good stuff. Seriously. Goodreads is where it's at, folks. :)

Anyway.

What about you? Have you read any of those? Are you reading anything good? Got something to recommend to me, something you want me to read and talk about?

It's been awhile since we've talked books. Let's do it!:)

hey look, it's us!

We had a family portrait taken for the first time in about 5 years. I won't even try to expound on how difficult it is to get a picture of all of us together where everyone is smiling at the camera etc. Ah well. We take what we can get! :)

Abigail, age 12
Isaac, age 10
Samuel, age 7
Elisabeth, age 5

me and Zac, getting older

so, maybe it was just the drugs . . .

but I actually found the whole MRI process oddly comforting and relaxing.

The cozy warm blanket they covered me with. The soft cushions on the sides of my head. The rhythmic thump-thump-thumping and whooshing and clicking, along with periodic slight vibrating. I think I almost took a nap (since I very determinedly kept my eyes shut the entire time).

But . . . it might have just been that nice friend Valium giving me that impression. ;)

(Turned out I couldn't listen to music after all, because of the cushioned helmet thing they had to put on my head to scan my brain. And I couldn't drive for 12 hrs afterwards, so we had to call the school and tell the kids to walk home. And I conked out completely for no less than 4 hours when we got home. But hey, it was a nice fuzzy heavy (and maybe slightly dizzy) relaxed nap. Nice Valium, Good Valium. haha)

I should get the results soon. I'll keep ya posted . . .

(more details for anyone curious about getting an MRI: I had heavy duty earplugs in to dull the noise. And I got an IV of contrasting dye that got to my brain surprisingly fast. But it still didn't bother me all too much. ha) ;)

MRI playlist

well . . . what to listen to and think about when you know you're going to be confined in a tight tube and can't move or open your eyes for possibly as long as an hour?!?

hmmm . . . I'll let you know what I come up with.

(yes, going in for an MRI for my headaches/ear/eye pain tomorrow morning. Hoping to find some answers. They told me I could bring music. They're also giving me Valium. That could be interesting . . .)

more later . . .

2011 Year In Review: Photo Collage Edition

Christmas 2011

:)

the back side of the moon

Well, you know how when the astronauts orbit the moon in the movies, they start coming around the back side of the moon and they count down as they are about to lose communication with earth. And then the command central waits for the amount of time that the orbit should take until they come back into signal range and communication is restored.

I am orbiting around the back side of the moon.

For those that don't already know, I have temporarily deactivated my facebook account and most probably permanently deleted my twitter account (haven't decided yet). I am coming around onto the far side. Maybe just to see what it's like over there. Maybe just for some quiet. Maybe just to see if I can. Maybe because it is something I really need to do. My reasons are varied and deep and personal.

I have no doubt that I will come out on the other side and "reestablish communication." The signal will pick back up. I'll be back on Facebook. I'm not sure when though (to quote Eyeore, "days, weeks, months, who knows"). I need the time and space and distance to feel comfortable in my own silence again. I don't know how long that will take. And I deactivated it just to make it harder for myself to get back on (because I know I have no self-control) and I wanted it to be completely clear to anyone else trying to find me or get in touch with me that FB isn't going to work for awhile.

I am just hoping there are still people who read this blog without waiting for the posts on FB. I hope. But I guess it doesn't really matter. I will still be blogging . . . for whoever reads it.

So. No need to worry. I trust FB and everything I really do love about it (because I really do love it) will still be there when I come back. I just need to trust in my own ability to navigate this orbit without any feedback or FB news feeds.;) I need to learn to trust myself.

(And I know there is no need for me to feel like I should explain myself, really, but it felt like a big and drastic step to me, for whatever reason, so I wanted to offer at least something to those who may wonder why.)

ok, enough of that.

Keep in touch! Comments here, email, phone calls, old fashioned snail mail, iphone texting, knocks on my front door . . . there are still lots of ways to contact me, so no excuses!;)
Catch ya on the flip side FB friends!