Books read in 2009
Well, the end of the year is approaching, and as I've just started reading David Copperfield and I don't think I will finish before Friday (I like to savor Dickens and enjoy it slowly), I think it is time to list all the books I have read in 2009. I am going to count as I go...I really don't know how many it was. I think I read about 25 last year, and my goal was to read more than that this year...hopefully 50. So let's see how I did!
1. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. I actually started this one on Dec. 31st of 2008, but I finished it on New Year's Day, so I think it counts. I quite enjoyed it, and at the time I was going to look for more by Card, but I never really got around to it. Guess that can be a goal for 2010! (BTW, any thoughts on his book Enchantment? Someone recommended it to me once, and I'd like some other opinions on whether or not it's worthwhile.)
2. Tears of the Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith. Second in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. I need to read some more of these.
3. The Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie. Miss Marple. I enjoyed this hugely, as I have most of the other Agatha Christies that I read this year.
4. The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas. Fun book--the cheap, light reading of its time, now considered weighty and old-fashioned by some. I took it in the spirit intended, and was enthralled by the exploits of D'Artagnan and Co. I liked the modern translation that I read, too (it's the most recent Penguin Classics edition), especially the notes on the different curses the Frenchmen use. I finally know what sacre bleu means...and mordieu and parbleu and several others.
5. I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith. I won't wax eloquent about this book here, since I have done so elsewhere in this journal in the past year. Suffice it to say that it is now one of my favorite books...if you haven't read it, go forth and do so!
6. Cien Anos de Soledad, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (For those of you who don't speak Spanish, this is One Hundred Years of Solitude. Sorry I left that out at first!) I had to read a book by a Latin American author for my Hispanic Culture and Civilization class last spring. I read a good chunk of this in Spanish, then realized that I would not finish it in time to write a report on it, so I checked out another copy from the library so I could read the rest in English. I thought it was a very interesting book, but not one of my favorites. I didn't particularly like any of the characters, which made it hard for me to like the book as a whole. I know that wasn't really the point, but I like to read things that make me feel good, not things that make me feel depressed and hopeless. But hey, it was really different and surprising. I didn't really dislike it...I just didn't like it.
7. Daisy Miller, by Henry James. A novella. Interesting and kind of unexpected.
8. Mockingbird, by Charles J. Shields. A biography of Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is easily one of my favorite books, and this look into the life of its author was fascinating. I don't read a lot of nonfiction, but I found this very engrossing. It also inspired a read that appears later on my list.
9. The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams (play). I probably wouldn't have picked this out for myself, but it was a birthday present from my aunt. I'm not quite sure what I think of it...I feel like it's the sort of story that is meant for analysis, not enjoyment. (I don't like it when people write things just because they want you to analyze them. It makes me feel slightly manipulated.)
10. Bleak House, by Charles Dickens. Definitely one of my most memorable reads of the year. I think this book is one of Dickens's masterpieces...I was fascinated by how he presented a set of seemingly unrelated people and circumstances and proceeded to weave them together into a complex and profound tale. After reading this, I dug up the BBC movie of it (with Gillian Anderson and some other people), which was great. I highly recommend both book and movie (but book first, of course).
11. The Grand Sophy, by Georgetter Heyer. Regency fluff.
12. Mairelon the Magician, by Patricia Wrede. (Re-read)
13. Magician's Ward, by Patricia Wrede. (Re-read)
14. Cotillion, by Georgette Heyer. More Regency fluff. Never quite figured out how the title related, though. I mean, I know that a cotillion is a dance, it just didn't seem to relate to the story particularly. Unless I'm just being thick.
15. Snow White and Rose Red, by Patricia Wrede. I generally love re-told fairy tales, but this one (set in Elizabethan England) just didn't work so well for me. And I usually love Patricia Wrede.
16. Sorcery and Cecilia, or, the Enchanted Chocolate Pot, by Patricia Wrede. (Re-read). I was on a bit of a Wrede kick, and this was just the next thing. I love how it combines magic with a very Georgette Heyer-esque plot.
17. Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia Wrede. (Re-read). I told you I was on a Wrede kick...
18. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. I think I am going to have to re-read this book sometime. It was a profound book, and an emotional book, and I really, really, liked it. It made me think.
19. Bloodhound, by Tamora Pierce. Tamora Pierce is my YA fantasy guilty pleasure, and this was her newest release. Pretty much what I expected from her. Fast-paced, action, magic, girl-power...it was good fun.
20. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith. Yes, I read it. When I finished, I didn't really love it or hate it. Parts were very amusing, and parts were very silly, and some parts were just dumb. I got a kick out of it, though I don't feel inspired to read the new Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. One can have too much of a good thing.
21. Murder is Easy, by Agatha Christie. I read this all in one afternoon while we were camping. Not particularly difficult, as it wasn't very long.
22. Frederica, by Georgette Heyer. Probably my favorite Heyer that I've read so far. Hysterically funny in places, especially the bits with the dog. The characters in this book seemed very human.
23. False Colours, by Georgette Heyer. Regency fluff again.
24. Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale. Light YA fantasy (though clearly based in ancient Asia). A fun read.
25. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon. I saw this book mentioned in several places and thought I would try it out. Rather different from what I usually pick up, but I liked it. The autistic narrator and protagonist was very interesting and quite, quite, funny at times.
26. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote. This is the book I was inspired to read after I read Harper Lee's biography. She was actually a great friend of Truman Capote and helped him enormously in the research process for this book. Sadly, Capote was a rather self-absorbed individual, and rather jealous of Lee's success with her one novel, and he barely credited her work in the book (only a mention in the dedication, I believe...she isn't even listed in the acknowledgments). However, the book itself is excellent, if slightly creepy.
27. Cat Among the Pigeons, by Agatha Christie. I listened to this as an audiobook while taking a roadtrip last summer. It was an excellent way of passing the time and keeping my brain engaged.
28. The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. (Re-read) I've loved this book for years and years, and it was time to enjoy it again.
29. A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. (Re-read) I adore this book. I remember reading it over and over when I was quite young, probably 7 or 8. It's a beautiful, wonderful, timeless story, and I like it more each time I read it. I also love the Tasha Tudor illustrations.
30. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. Excellent midcentury mystery fare.
31. A Room With a View, by E. M. Forster. I picked this up in the used book store because I thought it sounded appealing. I liked it, though it wasn't quite what I had expected. I think it's a story where you can tell that the author is a man, if that makes any sense at all.
32. Venetia, by Georgette Heyer. Even more Regency fluff!
33. Sabrina Fair, by Samuel Albert Taylor (play). Oddly enough, I ran into this while browsing for something completely different at the college library. I love the movie Sabrina (with Audrey Hepburn), and I had forgotten that it was based on a play. The play is somewhat different from the movie, but the essentials are the same, and just as wonderful in a different way.
34. Carry on, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse. Short stories about Jeeves and Wooster.
35. The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis. It's always good to throw in some Lewis every now and then, to make you think a bit. I enjoyed the book, but I'm not quite sure of all its theological implications. I haven't thought about it enough.
36. Clouds of Witness, by Dorothy L. Sayer. I like Lord Peter Wimsey and I intend to read more of him. Does anyone have a chronology of his books? I can never seem to find them in order. I know it doesn't matter greatly, but I like to do things methodically.
37. Friday's Child, by Georgette Heyer
38. The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale. More light YA fantasy. Some things about Shannon Hale's prose bother me at times, but her stories are good overall.
39. Howl's Moving Castle, by Dianna Wynne Jones. I'd heard this recommended, so I though I would give it a try. I enjoyed it and I would not be opposed to reading more by Jones. Any recs?
40. Twenty Years After, by Alexandre Dumas. I discovered when I went to find the sequel to The Three Musketeers that it was not, as I thought, The Man in the Iron Mask. Rather, there are 3 other books between Musketeers and Mask, however, it's much more difficult to find any of these three, much less in more modern translations. I did get them to dig this copy of Twenty Years After out of storage for me at the local library, though, and I again enjoyed the exploits of the several Frenchmen, in love, war, and intrigue. I could see the differences in translation, though...this much older translation used more British-type exclamations, such as "Zounds!" instead of "Parbleu!", etc. I don't mind reading the old-fashioned style of speech, it's just that the more modern translation rang truer to me. Oh well. I will probably eventually read the other books in the series, mainly because I want to get to The Man in the Iron Mask.
41. The Unpleasantness at the Bellonna Club, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Yay for Lord Peter again!
42. Tisha, by Robert Specht (re-read). Based-on-a-true-story novel about a young teacher in the Alaskan wilderness in the 1920s (I think), in particular her struggles with the deep rooted prejudices against Indians. We bought this book on a trip to Alaska a few years ago and I loved it then. It was just as engrossing this time through...well-written and engaging. If you've ever read Mrs. Mike, you would definitely like this book. (If you haven't read Mrs. Mike, you probably should. Go look it up on Amazon.)
43. The King's General, by Daphne DuMaurier. DuMaurier is kind of mysterious and depressing sometimes, but I like her writing. This isn't as wonderful as Rebecca, but it was a great historical novel, taking place in the time of the English Civil War. I certainly learned something from it (we in America don't learn much at all about English History), and I was greatly amused that I read two completely unrelated novels in close succession that dealt with the same time period and events (this and Twenty Years After). I didn't even know what this book was about when picked it up...I found it in a used bookstore and bought it because it was DuMaurier.
44. The Talisman Ring, by Georgette Heyer
45. The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie
46. Crown Duel, by Sherwood Smith (re-read). An engaging, light-weight medieval-type fantasy, though the book is more about the characters and events than the alternate setting.
Wow, I guess I did pretty well! I could probably ratchet it up to 50 if I included the textbooks I had to read...The Teacher's Guide to Educational Law, World Regional Geography, Language Acquisition and Language Learning, Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen, Tools for Teaching, A History of Western Music (and that's just my books from fall semester, not spring!). But the only one of those I really enjoyed much was A History of Western Music...the language teaching ones were important, but not much fun to read.
Books started in 2009 but not finished:
And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie. I started reading this after I saw an excellent play production of it. However, mysteries are much less exciting when you already know exactly what happens. I think I may come back to it after a suitable interval.
Washington Square, by Henry James. I didn't dislike this book, I just kind of forgot about it. I would like to finish it...the female lead was a bit weak, but I was mostly enjoying the story. I just need to remember to read it.
Amelia Earhart: the Mystery Solved, by Elgen M. Long and Marie K. Long. I went through a phase in elementary school where I was really interested in Amelia Earhart...I even did a report on her in 3rd grade. Because of that, this book was a Christmas gift several years ago. I tried reading it then and got bored, so I ignored it for quite a while. I decided to try again this year...and it still bores me. I think the problem is that the first chapter is pretty technical, and fails to capture my attention. I really do find Amelia Earhart interesting, I just don't know if I'll ever finish this book.
El Alquimista, by Paolo Coelho. This will be finished eventually! I picked it up at a library book sale because it's in Spanish and it looked do-able for my abilities. It's good practice to read something in a foreign language and this book has turned out to be excellent for my ability level...I haven't had to go to my dictionary yet, though I have spent some time re-reading things to figure out the context. I will reserve my thoughts on the story until I actually finish it, though.
Enna Burning, by Shannon Hale. I've liked the other two books by Shannon Hale that I've read, but I've had a hard time getting into this one. I may finish it yet, though.
Confessions of a Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella. I thought this sounded like a fun book, but after I started it I just couldn't keep at it. I don't have issues with shopping like the protagonist, and I tend to feel rather annoyed and disgusted at people who spend money indiscriminately and rack up credit card debt. It's sort of a pet-peeve of mine, so it's hard for me to sympathize with the protagonist. I'm thinking it will go back to the library unfinished.
The Official Gone With the Wind Trivia Book, by Pauline Bartel. Unfinished because it was an early Christmas present and I've been distracted by other things, though it's very interesting. I've always loved the book, and the movie is a good one, so it's cool to learn some of the little-known facts surrounding it.
David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. Unfinished because I just started it a few days ago! Promises to be quite enjoyable, however.
EDIT: I forgot my other unfinished book: The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis. It's compilation of essays and sermons by Lewis. I'm reading it and discussing it with a group of people from church, and we were sort of side-tracked by Christmas. I will finish it in January.
X-posted to my journal.
1. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. I actually started this one on Dec. 31st of 2008, but I finished it on New Year's Day, so I think it counts. I quite enjoyed it, and at the time I was going to look for more by Card, but I never really got around to it. Guess that can be a goal for 2010! (BTW, any thoughts on his book Enchantment? Someone recommended it to me once, and I'd like some other opinions on whether or not it's worthwhile.)
2. Tears of the Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith. Second in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. I need to read some more of these.
3. The Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie. Miss Marple. I enjoyed this hugely, as I have most of the other Agatha Christies that I read this year.
4. The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas. Fun book--the cheap, light reading of its time, now considered weighty and old-fashioned by some. I took it in the spirit intended, and was enthralled by the exploits of D'Artagnan and Co. I liked the modern translation that I read, too (it's the most recent Penguin Classics edition), especially the notes on the different curses the Frenchmen use. I finally know what sacre bleu means...and mordieu and parbleu and several others.
5. I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith. I won't wax eloquent about this book here, since I have done so elsewhere in this journal in the past year. Suffice it to say that it is now one of my favorite books...if you haven't read it, go forth and do so!
6. Cien Anos de Soledad, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (For those of you who don't speak Spanish, this is One Hundred Years of Solitude. Sorry I left that out at first!) I had to read a book by a Latin American author for my Hispanic Culture and Civilization class last spring. I read a good chunk of this in Spanish, then realized that I would not finish it in time to write a report on it, so I checked out another copy from the library so I could read the rest in English. I thought it was a very interesting book, but not one of my favorites. I didn't particularly like any of the characters, which made it hard for me to like the book as a whole. I know that wasn't really the point, but I like to read things that make me feel good, not things that make me feel depressed and hopeless. But hey, it was really different and surprising. I didn't really dislike it...I just didn't like it.
7. Daisy Miller, by Henry James. A novella. Interesting and kind of unexpected.
8. Mockingbird, by Charles J. Shields. A biography of Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is easily one of my favorite books, and this look into the life of its author was fascinating. I don't read a lot of nonfiction, but I found this very engrossing. It also inspired a read that appears later on my list.
9. The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams (play). I probably wouldn't have picked this out for myself, but it was a birthday present from my aunt. I'm not quite sure what I think of it...I feel like it's the sort of story that is meant for analysis, not enjoyment. (I don't like it when people write things just because they want you to analyze them. It makes me feel slightly manipulated.)
10. Bleak House, by Charles Dickens. Definitely one of my most memorable reads of the year. I think this book is one of Dickens's masterpieces...I was fascinated by how he presented a set of seemingly unrelated people and circumstances and proceeded to weave them together into a complex and profound tale. After reading this, I dug up the BBC movie of it (with Gillian Anderson and some other people), which was great. I highly recommend both book and movie (but book first, of course).
11. The Grand Sophy, by Georgetter Heyer. Regency fluff.
12. Mairelon the Magician, by Patricia Wrede. (Re-read)
13. Magician's Ward, by Patricia Wrede. (Re-read)
14. Cotillion, by Georgette Heyer. More Regency fluff. Never quite figured out how the title related, though. I mean, I know that a cotillion is a dance, it just didn't seem to relate to the story particularly. Unless I'm just being thick.
15. Snow White and Rose Red, by Patricia Wrede. I generally love re-told fairy tales, but this one (set in Elizabethan England) just didn't work so well for me. And I usually love Patricia Wrede.
16. Sorcery and Cecilia, or, the Enchanted Chocolate Pot, by Patricia Wrede. (Re-read). I was on a bit of a Wrede kick, and this was just the next thing. I love how it combines magic with a very Georgette Heyer-esque plot.
17. Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia Wrede. (Re-read). I told you I was on a Wrede kick...
18. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. I think I am going to have to re-read this book sometime. It was a profound book, and an emotional book, and I really, really, liked it. It made me think.
19. Bloodhound, by Tamora Pierce. Tamora Pierce is my YA fantasy guilty pleasure, and this was her newest release. Pretty much what I expected from her. Fast-paced, action, magic, girl-power...it was good fun.
20. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith. Yes, I read it. When I finished, I didn't really love it or hate it. Parts were very amusing, and parts were very silly, and some parts were just dumb. I got a kick out of it, though I don't feel inspired to read the new Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. One can have too much of a good thing.
21. Murder is Easy, by Agatha Christie. I read this all in one afternoon while we were camping. Not particularly difficult, as it wasn't very long.
22. Frederica, by Georgette Heyer. Probably my favorite Heyer that I've read so far. Hysterically funny in places, especially the bits with the dog. The characters in this book seemed very human.
23. False Colours, by Georgette Heyer. Regency fluff again.
24. Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale. Light YA fantasy (though clearly based in ancient Asia). A fun read.
25. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon. I saw this book mentioned in several places and thought I would try it out. Rather different from what I usually pick up, but I liked it. The autistic narrator and protagonist was very interesting and quite, quite, funny at times.
26. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote. This is the book I was inspired to read after I read Harper Lee's biography. She was actually a great friend of Truman Capote and helped him enormously in the research process for this book. Sadly, Capote was a rather self-absorbed individual, and rather jealous of Lee's success with her one novel, and he barely credited her work in the book (only a mention in the dedication, I believe...she isn't even listed in the acknowledgments). However, the book itself is excellent, if slightly creepy.
27. Cat Among the Pigeons, by Agatha Christie. I listened to this as an audiobook while taking a roadtrip last summer. It was an excellent way of passing the time and keeping my brain engaged.
28. The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. (Re-read) I've loved this book for years and years, and it was time to enjoy it again.
29. A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. (Re-read) I adore this book. I remember reading it over and over when I was quite young, probably 7 or 8. It's a beautiful, wonderful, timeless story, and I like it more each time I read it. I also love the Tasha Tudor illustrations.
30. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. Excellent midcentury mystery fare.
31. A Room With a View, by E. M. Forster. I picked this up in the used book store because I thought it sounded appealing. I liked it, though it wasn't quite what I had expected. I think it's a story where you can tell that the author is a man, if that makes any sense at all.
32. Venetia, by Georgette Heyer. Even more Regency fluff!
33. Sabrina Fair, by Samuel Albert Taylor (play). Oddly enough, I ran into this while browsing for something completely different at the college library. I love the movie Sabrina (with Audrey Hepburn), and I had forgotten that it was based on a play. The play is somewhat different from the movie, but the essentials are the same, and just as wonderful in a different way.
34. Carry on, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse. Short stories about Jeeves and Wooster.
35. The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis. It's always good to throw in some Lewis every now and then, to make you think a bit. I enjoyed the book, but I'm not quite sure of all its theological implications. I haven't thought about it enough.
36. Clouds of Witness, by Dorothy L. Sayer. I like Lord Peter Wimsey and I intend to read more of him. Does anyone have a chronology of his books? I can never seem to find them in order. I know it doesn't matter greatly, but I like to do things methodically.
37. Friday's Child, by Georgette Heyer
38. The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale. More light YA fantasy. Some things about Shannon Hale's prose bother me at times, but her stories are good overall.
39. Howl's Moving Castle, by Dianna Wynne Jones. I'd heard this recommended, so I though I would give it a try. I enjoyed it and I would not be opposed to reading more by Jones. Any recs?
40. Twenty Years After, by Alexandre Dumas. I discovered when I went to find the sequel to The Three Musketeers that it was not, as I thought, The Man in the Iron Mask. Rather, there are 3 other books between Musketeers and Mask, however, it's much more difficult to find any of these three, much less in more modern translations. I did get them to dig this copy of Twenty Years After out of storage for me at the local library, though, and I again enjoyed the exploits of the several Frenchmen, in love, war, and intrigue. I could see the differences in translation, though...this much older translation used more British-type exclamations, such as "Zounds!" instead of "Parbleu!", etc. I don't mind reading the old-fashioned style of speech, it's just that the more modern translation rang truer to me. Oh well. I will probably eventually read the other books in the series, mainly because I want to get to The Man in the Iron Mask.
41. The Unpleasantness at the Bellonna Club, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Yay for Lord Peter again!
42. Tisha, by Robert Specht (re-read). Based-on-a-true-story novel about a young teacher in the Alaskan wilderness in the 1920s (I think), in particular her struggles with the deep rooted prejudices against Indians. We bought this book on a trip to Alaska a few years ago and I loved it then. It was just as engrossing this time through...well-written and engaging. If you've ever read Mrs. Mike, you would definitely like this book. (If you haven't read Mrs. Mike, you probably should. Go look it up on Amazon.)
43. The King's General, by Daphne DuMaurier. DuMaurier is kind of mysterious and depressing sometimes, but I like her writing. This isn't as wonderful as Rebecca, but it was a great historical novel, taking place in the time of the English Civil War. I certainly learned something from it (we in America don't learn much at all about English History), and I was greatly amused that I read two completely unrelated novels in close succession that dealt with the same time period and events (this and Twenty Years After). I didn't even know what this book was about when picked it up...I found it in a used bookstore and bought it because it was DuMaurier.
44. The Talisman Ring, by Georgette Heyer
45. The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie
46. Crown Duel, by Sherwood Smith (re-read). An engaging, light-weight medieval-type fantasy, though the book is more about the characters and events than the alternate setting.
Wow, I guess I did pretty well! I could probably ratchet it up to 50 if I included the textbooks I had to read...The Teacher's Guide to Educational Law, World Regional Geography, Language Acquisition and Language Learning, Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen, Tools for Teaching, A History of Western Music (and that's just my books from fall semester, not spring!). But the only one of those I really enjoyed much was A History of Western Music...the language teaching ones were important, but not much fun to read.
Books started in 2009 but not finished:
And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie. I started reading this after I saw an excellent play production of it. However, mysteries are much less exciting when you already know exactly what happens. I think I may come back to it after a suitable interval.
Washington Square, by Henry James. I didn't dislike this book, I just kind of forgot about it. I would like to finish it...the female lead was a bit weak, but I was mostly enjoying the story. I just need to remember to read it.
Amelia Earhart: the Mystery Solved, by Elgen M. Long and Marie K. Long. I went through a phase in elementary school where I was really interested in Amelia Earhart...I even did a report on her in 3rd grade. Because of that, this book was a Christmas gift several years ago. I tried reading it then and got bored, so I ignored it for quite a while. I decided to try again this year...and it still bores me. I think the problem is that the first chapter is pretty technical, and fails to capture my attention. I really do find Amelia Earhart interesting, I just don't know if I'll ever finish this book.
El Alquimista, by Paolo Coelho. This will be finished eventually! I picked it up at a library book sale because it's in Spanish and it looked do-able for my abilities. It's good practice to read something in a foreign language and this book has turned out to be excellent for my ability level...I haven't had to go to my dictionary yet, though I have spent some time re-reading things to figure out the context. I will reserve my thoughts on the story until I actually finish it, though.
Enna Burning, by Shannon Hale. I've liked the other two books by Shannon Hale that I've read, but I've had a hard time getting into this one. I may finish it yet, though.
Confessions of a Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella. I thought this sounded like a fun book, but after I started it I just couldn't keep at it. I don't have issues with shopping like the protagonist, and I tend to feel rather annoyed and disgusted at people who spend money indiscriminately and rack up credit card debt. It's sort of a pet-peeve of mine, so it's hard for me to sympathize with the protagonist. I'm thinking it will go back to the library unfinished.
The Official Gone With the Wind Trivia Book, by Pauline Bartel. Unfinished because it was an early Christmas present and I've been distracted by other things, though it's very interesting. I've always loved the book, and the movie is a good one, so it's cool to learn some of the little-known facts surrounding it.
David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. Unfinished because I just started it a few days ago! Promises to be quite enjoyable, however.
EDIT: I forgot my other unfinished book: The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis. It's compilation of essays and sermons by Lewis. I'm reading it and discussing it with a group of people from church, and we were sort of side-tracked by Christmas. I will finish it in January.
X-posted to my journal.