News from the Joss-verse

In the mood for some fantastic, hot-off-the-presses news? The Syfy channel has cast Felicia Day to star in a re-telling/re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood called Red. The bad news? We have to wait until 2011 to watch it.

To Be Read

I usually post about the books I've already read, but I have such a back log of unread books on my shelf, I'm going to post about the books I want to read during the remainder of the year. There is no rhyme, reason or theme to these books other than they have been sitting on my shelf unread for months or even years. Books 1-6 were borrowed from friends, and as such will be the first I tackle. I'll update this post as I make my way through the list. Forty-one books in ten months...Should be do-able!

1. A Widow for One Year, John Irving
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
   
3. What She Saw, Lucinda Rosenfeld
4. Capote: A Biography, Gerald Clarke
5. Veronica, Nicholas Christopher
6. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, Tracy Kidder
7. Zeitoun, Dave Eggers
8. Peter and the Sword of Mercy, Dave Barry
9. The God of Animals, Aryn Kyle
10. Day After Night, Anita Diamant
11. The Nazi Officer's Wife, Edith Beer
12. Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
13. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, Azar Nafisi
14. A Million Little Pieces, James Frey
15. The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession, Susan Orlean
16. A Spot of Bother, Mark Haddon
17. Animal Farm, George Orwell
18. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
    
19. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
20. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
21. Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
22. The Castle, Franz Kafka
23. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
24. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
25. Anne of Ingelside, L. M. Montgomery
26. Rainbow Valley, L. M. Montgomery
27. Rilla of Ingleside, L. M. Montgomery
28. She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb
29. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
30. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. The Farthest Shore, Ursula K. Le Guin
32. Tehanu, Ursula K. Le Guin
33. Underworld, Don DeLillo
34. Last Chance to See, Douglas Adams
35. The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
36. Arkansas, John Brandon
37. Fever Chart, Bill Cotter
38. The Wild Things, Dave Eggers
39. Winter Wood, Steve Augarde
40. The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
41. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd

Judging a book by its cover II

I'm not generally a fan of merchandise tie-ins to movies or television series, but I am going to make an exception for a book published by Hyperion in 2009, Heat Wave by Richard Castle. Richard Castle is a fictional bestselling mystery writer in the eponymous ABC show Castle. The show is fantastic. Richard Castle is played by Joss Whedon alumnus Nathan Fillion of Firefly and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog fame. This would likely be enough to endear me to Castle, but the writing is funny and clever, and it's a real pleasure being entertained by Fillion
for an hour each week.

Back to the book. I'm sure it is not the first of its kind, but it really tickled me to be able to hold the book published in the television series in my hands. The details are perfect, from the back cover picture of Fillion and the mini-biography on the back flap, to the dedication. It all just makes me happy.

I haven't gotten around to reading it yet and honestly am not expecting great things. For me, the actual substance of the book doesn't matter much since the execution of the idea is just so much fun.

In which I display my geekiness

I present Figure 1, an homage to my geeky tendencies, where I plot data on the books I've read since I started keeping track four years ago. This is actually two plots, the first of which is a bar graph showing the total number of books read by year, and the second a line graph showing the percentage of those books that were written for adults.

Figure 1. The books I've read.

The first thing you will notice is that there is a sharp drop-off in books read from 2007 to 2008. This is easily explained if you know that I met my husband in the first half of 2008, and I suddenly found myself happily distracted. The second is that a very large percentage (>=60%) of the books I have been reading these past four years were not written for adults, but rather teens, young adults and middle readers.

Now there is nothing wrong with this; I count a number of those books among my favorite of all time. However, for the past couple of months I've found myself wanting to reverse this trend and get caught up again in the world of adult literature. I feel there are a great number of fantastic books I've missed out on along the way. So, if you wouldn't mind, please help me by leaving a comment on your favorite books that have been published since 2006 (OK, they can be books published before 2006 as well. Go crazy!).

Books I've read: 2009

Books in bold are ones I've especially liked:

1. Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
2. Owl in Love, Patrice Kindl
3. Lock and Key, Sarah Dessen
4. The Two Princesses of Bamarre, Gail Carson Levine
5. Vegan Virgin Valentine, Carolyn Mackler
6. The Singing, Alison Croggon
7. Inferno, Robin Stevenson
   
8. Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl
9. City of Glass, Cassandra Clare
10. The Last Days, Scott Westerfeld
11. Guyaholic, Carolyn Mackler
12. Alanna, Tamora Pierce
13. In the Hand of the Goddess, Tamora Pierce
14. The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, Tamora Pierce
15. Lioness Rampant, Tamora Pierce
16. Trickster's Choice, Tamora Pierce
17. Trickster's Queen, Tamora Pierce
18. The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), Rick Riordan
19. Impossible, Nancy Werlin
20. Brisingr, Christopher Paolini
21. The Sorceress (The Secrets of Nicholas Flamel: Book 3), Michael Scott
22. Revelations, Melissa de la Cruz
23. The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Carrie Ryan
24. Watchman, Alan Moore
25. The Arrival, Shaun Tan
26. Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson
27. A Homemade Life, Molly Wizenberg
28. Pretty Monsters, Kelly Link
29. Good Girls, Laura Ruby
30. Queste (Septimus Heap, Book 4), Angie Sage
31. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
32. The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness
33. The Secret of Lost Things, Sheridan Hay
34. Kiki Strike: The Empress's Tomb, Kirsten Miller
35. Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen
36. Heroes of the Valley, Jonathan Stroud
37. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
38. People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
39. Light on Snow, Anita Shreve
40. Three Junes, Julia Glass
41. Nation, Terry Pratchett
42. Secrets of My Hollywood Life: On Location, Jen Calonita
43. The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
44. Commencement, J. Courtney Sullivan
    
45. Secrets of My Hollywood Life: Family Affairs, Jen Calonita
46. Secrets of My Hollywood Life: Paparazzi Princess, Jen Calonita
47. The Boy Book, E. Lockhart
48. The Treasure Map of Boys, E. Lockhart
49. The Van Alen Legacy, Melissa de la Cruz
50. Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover, Ally Carter
51. Liar, Justine Larbalestier
52. Forest Born, Shannon Hale
53. Interworld, Neil Gaiman
54. Fire, Kristin Cashore
55. Vendetta, Chris Humphreys
56. The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, Book 2), Patrick Ness
57. Front and Center, Catherine Murdock
    
58. Sacred Scars (A Resurrection of Magic, Book 2), Kathleen Duey
59. The Overlord Protocol (H.I.V.E.), Mark Walden
    

"Support your local libraries and the crazy people who work there"

From the ALA conference in Chicago, we have dancing librarians!

The Omnivore's 100

From the Boston Globe via Very Good Taste, a food meme.

I know everyone did this forever ago, but I dropped off the face of the blog-earth, and still think this is interesting enough to post. Here are the instructions:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake