Happy 50!

With a month of power reading to finish up the year, I finally made it—50 books in 2007. Here are some stats:

Total pages read: 10,782
Average pages per book: 215
Longest book: 676 pages
Biggest reading month: December, with 10 books
Slowest reading month: June, with 1 book

I have to say, I didn’t always have a lot of time for reading, and there were points when reaching my goal seemed doubtful, but I really enjoyed dedicating myself to it. And I felt most relaxed when curled up in bed with a book on a lazy Saturday morning.

I’d recommend attempting a book a week to anyone. Especially if you don’t make it difficult for yourself: Of the 50 books I read in 2007, 17 were categorized as nonfiction, three were plays and 18 were graphic novels. If I’d attempted to read 50 classics, I’m sure I would have flaked out.

I’ve been thinking about whether I want to continue the reading streak in 2008, and I’m still undecided. I’m certainly going to continue recording what I read in this blog, but I have a feeling there might be a big project or two that eats up my free time. Stay tuned…

Meg Mateo Ilasco, “Craft, Inc.”

The ins and outs of starting your crafty business, in attractive paperback packaging.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 160 pp.
Obtained via: Chronicle Books
Date started: 12.26.07
Date finished: 12.28.07
What I liked: Design’s great, and Meg covers just about any situation you could find yourself in. I feel like I understand a lot more about business.
What I didn’t like: It is really heavy on the business—true DIY folks are going to feel alienated. This book seems to focus on people for whom outsourcing production is a desirable goal and who don’t necessarily have skills before they have the desire to sell something. What ever happened to the love of craft?
What I learned: Stuff about taxes, invoices, trade shows, publicity and selling out.

Harvey Pekar, Heather Roberson and Ed Piskor, “Macedonia”

I have to admit, when I picked up this book, because Harvey Pekar’s from Cleveland, I assumed it was about Macedonia, Ohio. So obviously, this is about the Balkan state, and it’s like a textbook that’s actually fun to read. (There’s a great review of the book by Pittsburgh’s City Paper here.)

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 176 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 11.20.07
Date finished: 12.27.07
What I liked: After I got over how text-heavy this book is, I really appreciated it for its solid overview on the situation in the Balkans and particularly in Macedonia, which managed to avoid the all-out civil wars that plagued surrounding nations.
What I didn’t like: I wasn’t a huge fan of the art—mostly because it looked like the Macedonians were screaming in every other panel, when the supporting text was perfectly benevolent. Major mixed signals.
What I learned: A lot about “balkanization” and modern ethnic conflicts.

Kyle MacDonald, “One Red Paperclip”

This is the story of that guy who took a red paperclip and traded up until he got a house. You know that guy. That guy is like that.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 310 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 12.25.07
Date finished: 12.26.07
What I liked: Kyle’s story is all about the potential inherent in the smallest things and how powerful people are when they work together. I have to admit I got a little teary in the last two chapters.
What I didn’t like: This book is exploding with awful, awful jokes. And every chapter is punctuated by a page of “dude, no seriously, dude” philosophy. And it’s all written in a stream-of-consciousness style that should have been edited down really heavily. (I was hoping this book was searchable in google books so I could see just how many time he follows up a sentence with “[Noun I was just referring to] is like that.” I know it did occur on two sequential pages, and more times than I cared to keep track of while reading.) I felt like I was living in this man’s head the entire time I was reading, and it was often excruciating.
What I learned: Dudes who do awesome things shouldn’t necessarily write their own stories.

Ruth Prigozy, “F. Scott Fitzgerald”

A very scholarly and comprehensive rundown of the author’s life.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2001, 158 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 12.23.07
Date finished: 12.24.07
What I liked: It was a concentrated biography with lots of pictures. I love Jazz Age style.
What I didn’t like: In-text citations. Is this a term paper or something?
What I learned: All about Scott Fitzgerald’s feelings of failure, Zelda’s breakdown and their crazy antics. (And that Esquire paid him only $250 per story in the 1930s, when the Saturday Evening Post had paid him as much as $4,000 before.)

Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, “Inherit the Wind”

Four books left to make my resolution to read 50 this year; nine days left in which to do it. Will I make it?

I’ve got a half-dozen books in line to read over my Christmas break, which extends from now until the end of the year. If I buckle down (and don’t try to read anything, say, over 400 pages) I think I’m gonna be able to do it.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 1960, 118 pp.
Obtained via: Kevin
Date started: 12.15.07
Date finished: 12.22.07
What I liked: This is a fun adaptation of the Scopes Monkey Trial. I’m embarrased to say that I don’t know enough about the historical even to know when and how much creative license the authors took.
What I didn’t like: No complaints, though I have to say the second half of the book went much faster than the first.
What I learned: Logic always wins.

David Bledin, “Bank: A Novel”

No matter what your job is, the main character in this book has it worse. Mumbles, an investment banker, sees his life crumbling around him as he attempts to put up with two years of being an analyst. Are the 100-hour workweeks and unreasonable bosses worth the promise of a recommendation for an MBA program? Hell naw.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 304 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 12.14.07
Date finished: 12.16.07
What I liked: It was easy to read and pretty entertaining.
What I didn’t like: The women in the novel, all peripheral characters, were for the most part conformed to odd stereotypes. The book was also really frustrating—the entire time you are willing Mumbles to quit, but some morbid sense of duty he has keeps him in the trenches much longer than he should be.
What I learned: Never, ever go into investment banking.

Autumn de Wilde, “Elliott Smith”

Elliott photographer and friend Autumn de Wilde compiled this big, beautiful book of photographs of the late singer/songwriter and interviews with the people who knew him best.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 224 pp.
Obtained via: Chronicle Books
Date started: 12.4.07
Date finished: 12.14.07
What I liked: The stories from friends and fellow musicians were poignant and funny. The photographs are striking—especially the last ones she took before he died.
What I didn’t like: I’m not a big fan of straight transcriptions of interviews, especially when there’s a fair amount of repetition in what’s being said. People had different recollections of interactions with Elliott, which was cool, but de Wilde tells the same stories over and over. I’d have edited down a bit more than they did.
What I learned: Elliott was a big fan of cheesy pop songs and basketball.

Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer, “How Sassy Changed My Life”

I was a little too young to have witnessed Sassy’s heyday, but it’s practically impossible to not be aware of this teen magazine that didn’t hesitate to push buttons and challenge authority. It was around from 1988 to 1996 in various incarnations, and this book presents a pretty comprehensive history of its ups and downs.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 144 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 12.7.07
Date finished: 12.9.07
What I liked: First off, the design is gorgeous. It’s magazine-size and each chapter is punctuated by what I believe to be issues of Sassy stood on end on a scanner. OK, aside from the design, I liked learning about all the trials and tribulations of this seminal magazine and its place in third-wave feminism. The authors got quotes from most everyone who worked on the magazine, and intersperses some gushy anecdotes from fans.
What I didn’t like: I know this book’s aimed at the Sassy fanatic, but there were a couple times when I couldn’t make sense of things because it was assumed all readers were starting with the same background knowledge. I was expecting more of a critical history of the magazine (I don’t know why, considering the subtitle is “A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time”), so some of the overtures felt excessive, and there were a couple points where I felt major exaggerations were being made. Also—the authors refer to Sassy as an arbiter of indie culture throughout the book, but I didn’t really think “indie” as such existed in the late 80s and early 90s… wouldn’t that have been “alternative”? (Which was the parent or elder sibling of indie, but still.)
Final thoughts: I really want to read some back issues of Sassy and all the other early 90s teen magazines now. I’ll have to check my library, because early issues are going for $15+ on eBay…

Richard A. Posner, “The Little Book of Plagiarism”

It’s like being in Law of Mass Comm again! Posner, a U.S. circuit court judge, takes a Socratic approach to defining plagiarism. This little book is packed with lots of big words.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 128 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 11.28.07
Date finished: 12.7.07
What I liked: The generous use of examples in drawing an outline around what’s considered a pretty heinous offense.
What I didn’t like: The last chapter is a straight-up summary—this might work in English Comp I, but come on.
What I learned: There are two Lolitas, and the definition of plagiarism is a lot more complicated than I thought.