Book List: 2009

Because I Like to Track Things, here is the start of my 2009 book list. And although I usually wait until I've read a couple of books to start each year's new list; I'm SO DANG HAPPY to be done with Martin Chuzzlewit, I couldn't resist posting before I did another thing. In triumph, I posted my book review on BookCrossing, Goodreads, and the Visual Bookshelf on Facebook. And then I created this entry. Yes, I'm that happy to be done with that book!

So this will be The Place of The List for the rest of the year. I don't know if it's better to start off with an almost-impossible-to-finish Dickens than a trashy romance novel :)

1. Martin Chuzzlewit (for BBC)
2. The Innocent Man
3. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years (

readthenewberys)
4. Such a Pretty Fat
5. Man Walks Into a Room
6. Grendel (for BBC)
7. Gilead
8. August
9. Middlesex (for BBC)
10. Waterless Mountain (

readthenewberys)
11. Le Mariage
12. Smilla's Sense of Snow
13. Little Women (re-read)
14. The Lost World
15. Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze (

readthenewberys)
16. Lady's Maid
17. Austenland
18. Invincible Louisa (

readthenewberys) (re-read)
19. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
20. Pontoon
21. Great Expectations (for BBC)
22. What is the What (for BBC)
23. Step-Ball-Change
24. Marshmallows for Breakfast
25. Bound South
26. Snow in August (re-read for BBC)
27. He's Just Not That Into You
28. On What Grounds
29. Through the Grinder
30. The Last Templar
31. Certain Girls
32. The Little Lady Agency (re-read)
33. Little Lady, Big Apple (re-read)
34. Liberating Paris
35. Dobry (

readthenewberys)
36. Latte Trouble
37. Murder Most Frothy
38. Decaffeinated Corpse
39. French Pressed
40. The Historian
41. Water for Elephants
42. Boychiks in the Hood
42. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
43. The Friday Night Knitting Club

Books I tried to read in 2009:
To Dance with the White Dog

Books read and attempted in 2008
Books read and attempted in 2007
Books read and attempted in 2006
Books read and attempted in 2005
Books read and attempted in 2004

Tags: books

( 10 comments — Leave a comment )

misstreebc

2009-01-08 06:11 am (UTC)

What an xcellent review!

I am a Dickens lover, and I sometimes have trouble getting through his work as well. I haven't attempted Martin Chuzzlewit.

Yes, he did write about 5 meandering pages for every page of substance in many cases. I've heard that that the reason is that he was paid by the word. I wonder how much greater he'd have been if that weren't the case!

antof9

2009-01-08 03:52 pm (UTC)

thanks for the compliment! I consider that high praise, coming from you :)

I still have Great Expectations and Bleak House on my bookshelf (bought for book club, and 'cause I'd never read them), so I'll probably be reading them at some point. But now I need a break!

LOL at being paid by the word! I TOTALLY believe that! Wow, this book with an editor would be really interesting.

Since you haven't read it, is there any chance you'd like this copy? I have some tea envelopes to send you anyway :)

kf_in_georgia

2009-01-09 01:13 am (UTC)

I'm fairly certain his books were published in installments, so he cranked out an installment a week (or whatever), and each installment needed to be a standard length (even if there wasn't that much to say), and he needed to bring absent characters back often enough to remind readers who they were, but an installment pretty much needed to resolve something left hanging from the previous one and set up some tension to be left dangling at the end of the current batch of pages so readers would be sure to buy the next installment.

If you've watched daytime soap operas, you know how the writers can stretch one conversation over three days if they need to, so they can get a nice tiny cliff-hanger in place for the weekend. And how writers juggle the timing of all the crises so they can resolve things during sweeps month. Dickens was sort of in that boat.

I'm not a fan of Great Expectations, largely because I'm not that fond of the main character. (Confession: I'm not that fond of GE versions I've seen. I haven't read the novel--and I should--but I think I've been put off by what I've seen of the character in movie versions.)

But I adore Bleak House. And if you don't mind seeing a story before you read it, you can get Bleak House (by the BBC) on DVD*--either the recent version with Gillian Anderson or the older one with Diana Rigg, although I like the Anderson version better. I think I saw the Anderson version, then read the book, then saw the Rigg version (in that order) ...but I like the book enough to listen to an audio version while I'm knitting.

*Netflix has both versions.

2009-01-09 01:54 am (UTC)

I'm LOLing at Dickens writing soaps (in my head).

Thanks for the info on Bleak House and Great Ex. I had NO idea Gillian Anderson was in one. Fascinating!

2009-01-09 04:14 am (UTC)

If you go here: http://www.bbcamericashop.com/search-results.html?kword=Bleak%20House&cat_id=

There's a link to the video trailer below the main ad for the DVD set.

Edited to revise link.

Edited at 2009-01-09 04:15 am (UTC)

atenea_nike

2009-01-08 10:27 am (UTC)

I liked Martin Chuzzlewit... but then I am a weirdo :)

2009-01-08 03:53 pm (UTC)

oh, you ARE! Actually, in all fairness, I should say that by the end, I liked it too, but I didn't think I should have had to work so dang hard to get there :)

(Anonymous)

2009-01-08 03:32 pm (UTC)

well, you're a better reader than I. Good for you.

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