The Next Best Book Club discussion

'Cause I can't mentally keep track of it anymore:

Will definitely be a busy month, picking up loose ends
- July 1-11, a) finish all books currently in the middle of:
1. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (been on hold in the middle since October!)
2. The Sea of Monsters (reading with my friend who is currently long distance :( )
3. Guns, Germs and Steel ('cause anthropology is cool)
4. Altered Carbon with the Sci-Fi/(Fantasy) Book Club, cause I've only tried a Fantasy one
5. The Demi-gods and the Semi-devils / Tian Long Ba Bu series with Bookish, possibly in English 'cause I'm lazy
(If I've got extra time) 6. Howl and Other Poems or Middlesex with the College Students Book Club (they've got great taste in selection, though they don't discuss much)

b)finish the following reviews: A Fabulous Creature, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Kindred, The Lightning Thief, and Pride & Prejudice


August: Historically my most-read month, possibly also going to be a vacation month
Theme: All my favorite people- I've been meaning to do this as a season theme all year, have now decided on only one month. Favorite books of my favorite people (friends, family, and characters).
The raw data: (will probably get to 4-6)
1. Momo or In Search of Lost Time (obviously I'm not going to read the Proust in one month, or really, ever)
2. Death in the Clouds or Noddy
3. The Little Prince or The Master and Margarita
also: Gulliver's Travels, Looking for Alaska, A Great and Terrible Beauty, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Westing Game, Out of the Dust
people I'll try and pester for better choices: Size 12 is Not Fat, Cirque du Freak, something-by-Ondo

September: Genre! Maybe sci fi? mystery?
October: Probably rereads or finishing series I'm in the middle of. (Alanna, Percy Jackson, )(books I hated in school and should probably rethink: Things Fall Apart... nah that's it)

Future themes?:
-Reading gaps (Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22, Bell Jar)
-nonfiction (Angela's Ashes, A Short History of Nearly Everything, The Elegant Universe, Musicophilia, Frederick Douglass)
-Short stories!
-obscure books (<1144 ratings)
-travel lit? humor? popular books?
-books I own
-books I put down intending to finish at some point (Crime and Punishment, The Martian Chronicles, Brave Story)

Will try and check in once a week!

Ooh, I really liked Momo.

Yeah, I'm excited about reading Momo. Hell, I figured my choices for myself are often so bad/ poorly reasoned, my loved ones can't choose worse for me. :P

July 1-11:
Finished Sea of Monsters and Altered Carbon. Schoolwork is really cutting into my free writing/reading time. I'm also remembering why I didn't finish Zero the first time: CALCULUS! A book that starts off about Pythagoras's supreme dislike of beans (cause they give you gas and look like genitalia) can't help but get boring once they get into calculus, maybe? *shrug*

I did however to my horror realize I've been neglecting the female writers. Anyone know any good female poets? I was pondering Kay Ryan.

July 12-18
Finished Howl and Other Poems and Zero: Biography of a Dangerous Idea and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Reviewed Lost and Found. Have total reviewer's block. Am tempted to do limericks for the lot of them!

Idea of books-I-hated-in-school-club still percolating, but not sure I have the free time to dedicate to it. Now who can rope into executing for me?

August 2010 - To-read
a. Doing a bit of a woman's month of my own, having discovered late in July every book I'd read was that month by a man. Cosmic balance!
b. Starting to attack the all my favorite people list of books
c. Every year, I try to read one foreign language book. Last year I read The Captain's Verses in Spanish, with lots of help of the bilingual translation on the other side of the page. This year, the book: Itinéraire d'enfance- and I won't have an English translation safety net. I'm planning on half a chapter a day, for a total of 30 days. It took me an hour today, but I'm hoping the process speeds up as I get more acclimated! This will also lead well into my super-secret September theme.

August read:
1. Unaccustomed Earth
2. The Mysterious Mr. Quin: my friend Kienie's favorite Agatha Christie novel)
3. Beirut 39: New Writing from the Arab World (NOT editing by a woman, but was an ARC pending review)
4. The Left Hand of Darkness: I wanted to give Le Guin another chance with science fiction rather than fantasy. Much better than her fantasy, though I still found it flawed. Also not a particularly feminist novel, unlike how it's often toted.
5. The Passion: cross-dressing, gambling, pick-pocketing, bisexual, daughter of a Venetian boatman? Yes.

Currently-reading:
6. A Great and Terrible Beauty (favorite of my cousin D that she greatly recommended when we bridesmaided together last winter)
7. Itinéraire d'enfance (aka Journey in Childhood)
-Guns, Germs, and Steel (on hold until my brain wishes to cooperate)

To-read options? (I hate being tied down, but I think I can handle at least 3 more books before the end of the month)
Women: Silent Spring, Eva Luna, Esperanza Rising, The Bell Jar
Favorites: The Westing Game, Paradise, Size 12 Is Not Fat

It's my birthday!

And admittedly, I'm taking a literature course and another reading/reviewing-people's-writing class, so I probably won't have much time to do the fun sort of reading in the next few months.

My goals for the rest of the year?
1. Don't read stuff I think is going to be 'okay'. I should be intrigued, excited, enthusiastic, in-suspense! Seeking out 'okay' reading = Epic Fail.
2. Finish some series: Y'all, I can't remember information about several series at once. Need to finish up the later three books of Percy Jackson, the two other books in Hunger Games, and on the reread side, maybe the second half of Alanna (or just give up and give the books away already).
3. Cull my TBR-pile of books I have no intention of ever reading. Yes, The Smoking Gun: A Dossier of Secret, Surprising, and Salacious Documents, The Vampire Armand, and Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!- I'm looking at you.
4. Read more science fiction and fantasy!

Yay, birthday! Have a good one, Kaion!

Thank you for the birthday wishes, El and Erika! So nice. :P