Edith is ... The Princess in Black

Edith’s school had a “dress up as a book character” day last month, and Edith chose The Princess in Black. Not bad!

President Books: An Update

The kids were home from school, and Paul was home from work. How could I have overlooked Presidents Day last week? And more to the point of this blog, how could I have failed to give an update of our quest to read a biography of every U.S. president?

More than ten years in, and Paul and I are still working on it. In January I finished "Forty Ways to Look at JFK" by Gretchen Rubin, comprised of 40 short chapters focusing on different aspects of his legacy. Paul has yet to finish it. I recommend it.

Slowly but surely we're getting there. Of course, we often talk nowadays about what makes a person presidential and the qualities a candidate needs. After all, the primary season is in full swing, and Ohio's own primary is less than a month away. By the time we get to the 45th presidential biography, I'm hoping we'll have a 46th to add to the list.

Presidents Day, Another President Book

Ten years ago, Paul and I embarked on a journey to read a biography of every single President of the United States. Ten years later, we're still working on it.

For the third year in a row, I spent Presidents Day reading a presidential biography. Two years ago I started a book on FDR. Last year I finished one on Truman. Yesterday I finished "Eisenhower," by Paul Johnson, a succinct biography of our 34th president. At this rate, it's going to take more than a decade to finish up, so I think I better make this goal more of a priority. (But to give myself a little credit, not long ago I did read "Leadership in Turbulent Times," Doris Kearns Goodwin's excellent book outlining the leadership skills of four presidents. So I'm not totally ignoring the mission!)

As we get closer and closer to modern times, it's interesting to learn more about the events that shaped our country during my and my parents' lifetimes. Our mission may be taking longer than we expected, but it's a worthwhile one.

Presidents Day, President Books

Seems that Presidents Day is what really inspires me to keep on truckin' with Paul's and my goal to read a biography on every president.

Last year I reported that I started a biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt on Presidents Day. This year, I finished a biography of Harry Truman on the holiday. Slowly but surely, we're making our way through the lot of 'em.

My next presidential book isn't exactly a biography, and certainly isn't in order -- Eisenhower by rights is next. However, "Fire and Fury" about Trump's White House is due back at the library soon, so I'll be reading that next. By the time I get through the rest of the presidents and Trump's biography is next on the list, chances are he'll be long out of office.

Presidents Day Update

Another year, another Presidents Day, another book about a president.

Just a few weeks ago I finished the next biography on our quest to read a book about each president, this one on Herbert Hoover. I knew next to nothing about him, so it was an interesting read. And the holiday inspired me to start our book on Franklin D. Roosevelt yesterday, so maybe I'll actually finish two presidential biographies (or more?!) in the next year. One can dream.

Of course, the long presidential campaign season, the election and then the events of the last month have put me into presidential-info overload. But it has been interesting to be able to compare our current president and political engineering in general to those of the past with a little bit of knowledge. I may not agree with the policies, but at least I can understand some of the history behind the ideas.

Photo Friday: Relaxing on a Friday Morning

Feb. 19, 2016

Presidents Day, President Books

Another Presidents Day has rolled around, and for once I'm only mildly (instead of immensely) embarrassed about how our quest to read a biography on every U.S. president is going.

Last week I finished a book on Calvin Coolidge. It was about time. My last presidential book, on Warren G. Harding, was finished in March.

Of 2014.

It was nice to get back into the groove of this project that was started in 2009 (!!!) and has had many a long hiatus. Paused but not forgotten, I guess you could say.

Coolidge was a nice reintroduction for me, since a good chunk of the book was about how he interacted with the press and used them to connect with the American people. He wasn't a flashy head of state by any means, but he introduced or ingrained traditions we still see today.

Next up: Herbert Hoover.

My Year in Books: 2015 Edition

I wrote in September about how joining my street's new book club had gotten me back into the habit of reading. I'm happy to report that's still the case. I'm not at my pre-kid level of eight books per month, but I will have finished seven books this month. I'm pretty proud of that.

I knew I wouldn't be able to read 96 books this year like I used to, but this fall I did give myself a more attainable goal -- 34 books since I turned 34 years old over the summer. I have just one book to go, and it's a short one by one of my favorite authors that I'm looking forward to reading. I know I'm going to meet my goal.

This is a big deal for me. I didn't realize how much I missed reading until I largely let go of the habit and then returned to it. It's easy to turn on the TV at night after a long day with the kids -- and don't get me wrong, I still do that. I just try to stick a half hour of reading in there first.

Here are a few of my favorites from the year, in the order in which I read them:

• "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. Had to reread the classic before our Atticus was born!

• "Here" by Richard McGuire. Largely a graphic novel, with very little text.

• "Do No Harm" by Henry Marsh. A non-fiction account of the day-to-day realities of being a surgeon, with lots of anecdotes.

• "Some Luck" by Jane Smiley. The first in a trilogy. I loved them all, but start at the beginning. Each chapter covers one year in the life of a single extended family. After the last chapter of the last book, a full century has gone by. Read this so I have someone to talk about it with!

• "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo. This book has gotten a lot of press for good reason. Short, but it really has made me reevaluate why I keep what I do.

• "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr. A blind French girl and a young Nazi cross paths in France during World War II. 

Happy reading in 2016!

Reading Again: Back to Basics

For years and years I read eight books per month, no more and no less. Then the kids came along.

It was a sustainable plan for a while when Edith was an infant, but then she got more mobile and I began freelancing. Free time went out the window. Suddenly I could go weeks without finishing a book.

When a neighbor emailed a message to the residents of our block to gauge interest about starting a book club, I was skeptical. Not of the book club -- no reason that couldn't be a success. But I was skeptical that I would be able to keep up. And if I was only reading a book or so a month, did I really want that one to be chosen by someone else?

So my first instinct was to say no. But I spoke to a few of my neighbors who were joining, and I changed my mind. What the heck. The worst that could happen is that I would nibble on some cheese while my neighbors discussed a book I hadn't found time to read.

The book club's second meeting is coming up soon, and a surprising thing has happened. I'm not only finding the time to read the chosen books, but  I'm getting them done a week or more before I need to. And finding the time to read the books I "have" to made me realize that I really can find the time to read once again if I just change my habits. I'm reserving multiple books from the library at the same rate I used to a few years ago. It's refreshing.

I'm nowhere near reading eight books each month again. But all of a sudden two or three a month seems doable. I hope I can keep it up.

Atticus in the News: The Good & Bad

Atticus -- the name, not our almost four-month-old baby -- has been all over the news this month.

The headline on a Today.com article sums up the hubbub: "Atticus is top trending baby name: Can he survive racist portrayal of namesake?"

Two things happened that spurred the article: "Go Set a Watchman," the sequel to Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" was released, portraying character Atticus Finch as a racist. Around the same time as the book's publication, website Nameberry declared Atticus to be the top-searched boy's name during the first half of 2015.

I'm pretty dismissive of the Nameberry "news." Why? Top name searches seem to have little to do with what names parents ultimately choose for their children.

Case in point: Last year, before we found out that we were having a boy, Imogen was on my short-list for a girl name. Lo and behold, Imogen was Nameberry's top-searched girl's name during the first half of 2014, as well as in 2013 (this year it dropped to No. 14). But according to the Social Security Administration, Imogen hasn't been in the top 1,000 girls' names since at least before the year 2000. Will we see a spike in the next couple of years? It's possible, but I highly doubt it will break the top 10 ... or even the top 500.

The Atticus Finch reference is more complicated. Of course, no one wants a name with a bad association. Not too many Adolf's around anymore, eh? I haven't yet read "Watchman" (I'm still on the library waitlist), but by all accounts Atticus Finch in this book is not a man with his feet planted firmly in the footprints of justice, as he was portrayed in "Mockingbird."

At best, that makes Atticus Finch more realistic. An English teacher not far from where I grew up in Northwest Ohio, who also has a son named Atticus, explained this well in a column written for the Washington Post. At worst, strangers will think we named our son after a fictional racist.

The funny part is that our Atticus isn't named after Atticus Finch at all. Paul and I both sincerely like the name independent of any associations. The strength and moral rectitude of Atticus Finch didn't hurt, but it held about equal weight as the background of the only other halfway famous Atticus, a man of ancient Rome and Athens. Paul is a big history geek and liked that the name means "man of Attica." With my writing background, I liked that he was a publisher.

When Paul and I first heard about the release of "Watchman" several weeks before our son's birth, we discussed how that might affect the popularity of the name. But by that time we had firmly settled on the name and didn't even consider changing it. When I heard that actress Jennifer Love Hewitt named her son Atticus in June, I thought that might have a greater impact on the name's popularity than the book.

I have mixed feelings about Atticus in the news. On the one hand, I dislike that the name will have a negative connotation, at least for a while. On the other hand, perhaps the association with the new book will make Atticus an even less common name (despite its use by celebrities) while "Watchman" fades behind the more popular "Mockingbird." Atticus is by no means the most fashionable name in the country, but it has grown in popularity over the last decade, rising from number 937 in 2004 to 370 in 2014, according to the Social Security Administration.

Interesting SSA footnote: "For 2014, the number of births with name Atticus is 846, which represents 0.042 percent of total male births in 2014." Believe it or not, Edith is an even less common name.

But perhaps the most disappointing article I've read recently about the name Atticus is this New York Times one. The featured couple has two kids. One is named Atticus, of course, and the other is named Edith. “We’ve always wanted to have names for our kids that aren’t super-popular,” the father says in the article.

My disappointment: The confirmation that I'm not as unique as I think I am.

Starting to Read Again

I was long proud of the fact that I managed to read eight books a month for years and years. There were a few exceptions -- notably, the months I had morning sickness -- but I kept it up. Even after Edith was born I generally fit in eight books, thanks to the frequent breastfeeding and naps in my lap that kept me sitting still for hours each day.

But that all fell by the wayside when we moved back to Ohio. I had already determined that I wouldn't be able to read as much in the first few weeks. What I didn't foresee is how much it would be curbed back when I began freelancing.

It shouldn't have been a surprise. All of a sudden, my evening free time was spent in front of a computer. And I have to admit, in the free time I do have I often just want to zone out on Facebook or Twitter.

I'm getting back into the reading habit, but not at the same level I was a year ago. My goal now is a couple of books a month; I think I'm currently at number three for April. I've also found that I must be much choosier about my books  -- not only because I'm reading fewer of them, but because I have too many other distractions at my fingertips. If my book is boring, I reach for my phone. In New York, if my book was boring, I just kept reading because I had nothing else to do in the subway.

I do regret not reading as much anymore, and I recognize that I should cut out some of the bad habits that have taken its place. But I also don't want to be beholden to books at the expense of real life.

The Annual Presidents Day Update

It's Presidents Day today, so it must be time for my annual plug of Paul's blog, Presidents by the Book, and an update on our project to read biographies on every U.S. president.

Although Paul added to the blog a couple of times last year, our reading schedule has fallen woefully behind. I last finished a presidential biography, on Woodrow Wilson, shortly before 15-month-old Edith was born.

But we're trying to get back on track. I got the same Wilson biography I read in Brooklyn for Paul at the Columbus library, and I started a book on Warren G. Harding just this past weekend. Hopefully I'll have more to report in next year's update!

Updates from the Last Year (or So)

Changes big (giant!) and small filled the 14 months since my last update post.

Here are a few of the things I've written about since January 2012 and where they stand now:

May 2012: When we replaced our 1998 Saturn with a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta the previous month, I was happy, but Paul was thrilled. He had wanted a new car for a while, but the positive pregnancy test earlier in the year spurred him to do the research and make the purchase. Paul was a little more worried after we installed the car seat in the back and he had to move the driver's seat waaaaaay up. But he's gotten used to it and all is good. And surprisingly we've used the seat warmers much, much, much more than the sunroof.

August 2012: I had strong suspicions about what would be the most difficult parts about raising a baby in New York City, and I was largely correct. The number of stairs to our apartment is annoying, and not having an in-unit washer and dryer is even more so. Taking Edith outdoors with me alone requires me to descend three floors with the stroller, set it up, and then go back upstairs to get Edith. And I dream of the day I can just pop a load in the washer instead of waiting for Paul to get home before one of us can take the swing that Edith just pooped all over down to the laundromat.

November 2012: The New York City Marathon was cancelled last year due to Hurricane Sandy, but Paul is officially a runner in the 2013 race!

November 2012: Need I say it? Edith was born.

February 2013: Just as I had given up on Paul shaving off his beard, he did it! Paul's beard began the day Edith was born and lasted almost four months. The mustache lasted about 10 minutes longer than the beard before that, too, was shaved away.

February 2013: Gently remind Paul to get moving on the presidential biographies so we can restart our Presidents by the Book project! I have already renewed the biography on William Howard Taft exactly 47 times.

Present: We still own our home in Galloway, Ohio, and yet again we have a new renter after some issues with the last tenants. Here's hoping this one works out.

Presidents (Day) by the Book

Happy Presidents Day weekend! That means it's time for an update on how Paul and I are doing on our goal to read one biography of each US president.

Unfortunately this year there isn't much to report. In 2012 I read a total of two presidential biographies: one on William Howard Taft (which I wrote about last Presidents Day) and another in October on Woodrow Wilson.

Paul is a book or two behind me, but he is doing his best to keep up his blog, Presidents by the Book. In fact, he just published a post earlier this month.

We haven't given up the project -- how could we, when we're nearly two-thirds of the way done?! But obviously we have slowed down. At this rate we'll be lucky to be to Obama by the time his successor is elected. If you haven't noticed, we've had another thing or two on our plates.

Next up: Warren G. Harding, a newspaper publisher and fellow Ohioan. And the 29th president on the list of 44.

No blog post on Monday. Have a great holiday, and come back on Wednesday!

Diane's Top Books of 2012

For the first time in about five years, I'm not going to hit my goal of reading eight books per month.

I've known this since May, when both morning sickness and motion sickness combined to allow me to read only five books that month. But I tried to make up for it by reading an extra book in June and again in August. That still put me one down, but I thought I could make it up by the end of the year.

But then I read only seven books in November -- totally understandable since I spent the last week learning to be a new mom. But that means I would have to read 10 books this month to get an average of eight books a month, and I'm only midway through my fourth book as it is.

But. Yes, another but. One of the books I read in March was "Parade's End." It's a one-volume book by Ford Madox Ford, but it was originally published as four separate novels between 1924 and 1928. So if you count it as four books, then I really only have to read seven books this month to meet the goal.

So I think I'll go with that.

Much easier to simply read eight books a month, cut and dry, as I've done the previous years.

Right now, however, Edith and sleep come before books, as they have ever since I found out I was pregnant in March. Maybe it was the thought of having a kid, but the overarching theme of the books I read this year has to be children's and young adult literature.

"The Hunger Games" trilogy got me through the beginning throes of my morning sickness in March and April. In advance of our trip to Prince Edward Island, I reread the eight "Anne of Green Gables" books. When we returned, I read the three "Emily of New Moon" books, also set in PEI.

In late August I read "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and have been regularly reading the other books in the Chronicles of Narnia. I'm now reading "The Last Battle," the seventh and last book.

And finally, I read in the New York Times Book Review about a series of 10 kids' novels I'd never heard of before, the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. Set in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the first book follows Betsy as a five-year-old. The last book sees her married. The writing style of the books gets progressively harder as Betsy gets older. I recently finished the third book; it reminds me of a Minnesota version of "Anne of Green Gables."

But if you're looking for some traditional adult books to read, here are my favorites that I read this year (although they may have been published earlier):

• "The Tiger's Wife:" Téa Obreht

• "A Time to Be Born:" Dawn Powell

• "The House of Mirth:" Edith Wharton (reread after we decided on Edith's name)

• "The Age of Innocence:" Edith Wharton (ditto)

• "Time and Again:" Jack Finney (also sequel: "From Time to Time")

• "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn:" Betty Smith (also reread; forgot how good it was!)

Want more recommendations? Here are my favorites from 2011, 2010 and 2009. Happy reading!

Reading "The Hunger Games"

I started "The Hunger Games" on Thursday, just a few hours before the movie opened at midnight. The timing was accidental, kind of. The book was published in 2008, but it was only recently that I got sick and tired of hearing references to the books that I couldn't understand. So I finally reserved the book at the library, and a couple of weeks later it finally arrived at the Fort Hamilton branch. I picked it up after work Thursday.

I finished it Saturday morning. Now I have two regrets: (1) that I waited so long to read it in the first place and (2) that I hesitated to reserve the second and third books in the trilogy before I had received the first. As I write this Sunday evening, I'm 290 on the list for "Catching Fire" and 303 for "Mockingjay." Luckily the library has more than a hundred copies of each, so it shouldn't be too long before I receive them.

I'm proud of the variety of books I read, so I'm not ashamed to admit that I like a good Young Adult book now and again. In fact, I just read "Ender's Game" -- another YA dystopian book -- earlier this month, and I wasn't introduced to Harry Potter until college. It also makes me wonder: When did YA as a genre begin? Would at least some of the books and authors we consider classics today (such as my own favorite, Jane Austen) have been in the "young adult" category, had it existed 200 years ago?

My newfound fondness of "The Hunger Games" is also yet another lesson that I should pay more attention to new, popular books. It's a lesson that started with Harry Potter, when I read the first book some two or three years after it was published, and continued with Stieg Larsson's Millennium series (I read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" last year, three years after its English publication, and "The Girl Who Played with Fire" in January. Only the third book in the trilogy to go!) Obviously it's a lesson I need to learn over and over again.

William Howard Taft, Now and Then

I don't work on Presidents Day, so that also means no blog post on Presidents Day. However, this being the weekend of all things presidential, here's an update on Paul and my project to read a biography on each commander-in-chief.

At the end of January I finished a biography on William Howard Taft, who was unsuccessfully running for a second term in office100 years ago. Taft gets the short shrift, I think. Nothing very exciting happened during his term, and any officeholder must seem like a letdown after Teddy Roosevelt. Who can compete with him? On the other hand, nearly everyone can compete with Taft. The entire Brooklyn Public Library system only seemed to have one biography on him that wasn't written for children. It was published in 1930, the year he died.

But maybe Taft will finally get the recognition he deserves. While Paul catches up, I read "Taft 2012," a recently published book brought to us by the same people who came out with "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters."

"Taft 2012" begins with Taft awaking after a long hibernation, having gone missing on Woodrow Wilson's inauguration day in 1913. Hijinks (and plenty of fat jokes) commence as we learn how Taft copes in a world of Twinkies, improved race relations and video-game golf. Of course, politics doesn't stay out of the mix for the newly revived Taft and his great-granddaughter, a congresswoman from Ohio.

As an Ohio native myself, I particularly enjoyed the references and scenes in Cincinnati, however unbelievable some parts were. Does anyone abbreviate Cincinnati as Cinci? And they really rented out Great American Ball Park during a June weekend, right in the middle of baseball season? But if a book revolves around a hibernating former president, I guess everything is fair game.

I suspect I'm one of the few readers of the book who first plowed through an actual Taft biography. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. But I do recommend "Taft 2012." Happy Presidents Day, and don't forget to catch up on Paul's blog!

Updating Blog Posts from the Last Few Years

What's new? Nothing and everything.

Everything big has stayed the same -- same job, same apartment, same husband -- but there are a few changes here and there. Release your bated breath. Here are some updates to a few of the events I've written about over the last few years.

February 2009: Yep, Paul and I are still reading presidential biographies, although at a significantly slower pace. We're finally in the 20th century, at William Howard Taft. In addition, Paul continues to update his blog chronicling the project, Presidents by the Book. My favorite president so far? John Quincy Adams.

May 2010: When the bar below our apartment suddenly closed, we unexpectedly get some restful nights of sleep all summer long. I was nervous when a new seafood restaurant moved into the space in 2011, but it's been a good neighbor. It's become a popular neighborhood joint, and the bar neither stays open too late nor attracts the same kind of loudmouth clientele that the old bar did. I wasn't sure how I'd like walking by the diners enjoying the outdoor seating every nice day, but it's not bad at all. In fact, I like it. It makes our block pleasantly lively. I haven't tried the place yet, but Paul's had a drink or two there with a friend. Not bad at all.

January 2011: I was sooooo excited when I found the one and only restaurant in New York City that served Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. It was cheap and delicious, and I was craving it only a few months later. And thus I was sooooo disappointed to find out that that Go Japanese Restaurant closed its doors. Other restaurants in town serve the inferior (my opinion only) Osaka-style okonomiyaki, which is more like a pizza or omelet to Hiroshima's layered version. The search continues. Paul says he's going to try making it at home.

April 2011: When we visited St. Patrick's Old Cathedral one snowy Saturday last year, I had to keep my gloves on throughout the entire mass because it was so cold. When we repeated our visit one hot and humid afternoon last summer, we found out that it doesn't have air conditioning either. If there was an award for buildings that are the least comfortable at all times of year and in all forms of weather, it would be a top contender. I think I've blocked from my mind that I lived without air conditioning until I went to college.

October 2011: Occupy Wall Street protesters were officially evicted from Zuccotti Park, a short walk away from where I work, in mid-November, about two months after they took over. When I visited the camp last fall, the weather was still fairly mild. But when Paul and I walked by a month later, the park was a canopy of tents. Not long after the protesters were given the boot, Christmas lights decorated the park's trees as they seem to every winter, and everything went back to normal. Almost. You'll still occasionally hear of protesters trying to re-occupy the park, but nothing seems to last.

Present: We still own our house in Galloway, and we once again have some people there who will actually pay rent. That's a big improvement over the last tenant, who shorted us several months of rent. This is the third family there since we moved to New York more than four years ago.

"Norwegian Wood" Finally in New York

"Norwegian Wood" took me out of my movie theater hibernation.

Before Paul and I saw this Japanese film last weekend, the last time I had been out to a movie was more than two years ago, when I was visiting my family in Defiance over Christmas and we sent to see "Avatar" during a Tuesday buy-one-get-one free matinee that made each seat $1.50 apiece.

Before "Avatar" -- and the only movie I'd ever seen at a theater in New York -- was "Sex and the City." That was an ill-advised expedition to the theater, and after the movie was done, I wished I had followed Paul into the latest Indiana Jones flick.

We occasionally saw movies in Columbus, but the last one we could definitively remember seeing alone together, without any friends or family, was "The Painted Veil." Five years ago.

While the skinflint side of me balked at the $13 ticket price to "Norwegian Wood," it was the sentimental side of me that finally won out.

Seeing limited-release films is one of the perks of living in New York. "Norwegian Wood" opened last weekend in the U.S. only in New York and Washington, D.C. -- and only in one theater in New York at that. Not having access to foreign language and limited release films growing up in northwest Ohio was a matter of some regret when I was in high school. I can still remember how excited I was when Dad took me to see the Italian film "Life Is Beautiful" -- when we were on vacation in Orlando. And just a few weeks into my freshman year of college I got two of my roommates to trek across Columbus to a tiny theater showing the German "Run Lola Run."

Besides, by seeing "Norwegian Wood" Paul and I could have a true and traditional date night: dinner and a movie.

"Norwegian Wood" was playing at the IFC Center, a 5-screen theater near New York University that I've passed a million times. When we got there at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, the 7 p.m. showing was already sold out. As we filed into the 9:45 p.m. (also sold out), I could see why -- there were only about 50 seats in the theater.

I was excited to see one of my favorite books being translated into a movie. "Norwegian Wood" was released in Japan at the end of 2010, and I'd been keeping an eye out for a U.S. release date nearly as long. I hadn't checked since before the holidays, however, so I did a quick Google search a few days after returning to New York. It didn't take long to learn that it was to be at the IFC in just a couple of days, on January 6.

The cinematography was beautiful, and the movie was fairly faithful to Haruki Murakami's book (although a large non-essential chunk was, in fact, eliminated in the movie). Still, somehow the movie didn't evoke the same feeling of wonderment, and was at times a bit clunky. So while my first trip to the theater in such a long time wasn't a total success, "Norwegian Wood" was still a must-see for me both as a Murakami fan and as someone with a childhood dream of being able to see foreign films in my own backyard.

Diane's Top Books of 2011

After a few nights of endless typing, I finally had my spreadsheet.

Since mid-June 2004 I've kept several sheets of loose-leaf paper on a clipboard, neatly recording each book I've read, plus the author and the month I finished it. For nearly the last five years, I've read exactly eight books per month. Before then, it was sometimes more, sometimes, less.

Even with the handwritten list, it was difficult to keep track of what I had and hadn't read. I once reserved Washington Irving's "A History of New York" from the library, only to discover when I picked it up that the cover looked extremely familiar. Sure enough, when I took a closer look at my list, I realized I already read it -- less than two years before, in 2009.

So I now have a neatly organized spreadsheet, searchable by title, author and month. I still have my clipboard because, honestly, that's often easier to scan. And that's what I used to look over the 96 books I'll have read by the end of the year.

I noticed a theme this year: new books. In the past year or two I've made a concentrated effort to read new bestsellers and critically acclaimed books, ones that might be the classics of tomorrow. In 2011 I still fit in classic authors like Charlotte Bronte, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh, but my fastest reads and favorite books were from living authors:

• Haruki Murakami: "1Q84"
  
• Jeffrey Eugenides: "The Marriage Plot"
  
• Paul Auster: "The Brooklyn Follies" -- my introduction to Auster and the only book I needed to read to tell me that I'll be reading many more
  
• And even Steve Martin: "An Object of Beauty"

You may also remember that in July I read what I then considered my eight favorite books. While the entire list didn't live up to my expectations, it did convince me that I should be rereading many of the books I checked out 10 or 15 years ago. To start with, I reread "1984" in October, and I have "Brave New World" waiting for me on the shelf. I also want to dig up some Edith Wharton next year.

Do you have suggestions on what I should read in 2012? Please let me know in the comments!

Or are you looking for more books to read? Check out my favorites from 2010 and 2009. Or ask me for tips. After all, I now have a spreadsheet of 700+ suggestions.