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See Jane Run, Joy Fielding

(01 Apr, 2019 – 02 May, 2019

I'm back! Yes it has been a while, I know. You all (all being my sister, hi Emily!) thought I’d forgotten, or given up. No no no, I merely decided to start 4 books and not finish any of them. But finally, FINALLY I finished one. One month and one day it took me to read See Jane Run, by Joy Fielding.

Before I talk about See Jane Run, let me explain what happened after finishing Fahrenheit 451. The next book to read seemed obvious: Brave New World, Aldous Huxely. What better book to read after a futuristic dystopian classic than a futuristic dystopian classic? As it turns out, basically anything else. Brave New World is a tough book. As I’ve mentioned before, being a chemistry major meant that I wasn’t exposed to many books in college, and therefore I’ve mostly been reading 21st century romance and fantasy. I really wasn’t used to the writing style of Brave New World and I think the shock might have broken me a little (yes I’m being dramatic). I didn’t want to give up on the book, but I definitely didn’t want to keep reading it. A friend of mine suggested maybe I take a break, read something new, and come back to Brave New World. It was a good suggestion supposing I would actually read another book in the meantime. Setting Brave New World aside, I turned to “The O’Reilly Factor for kids” by Bill O’Reilly, thinking the “for kids” aspect would warrant a quick read. But the 40 pages I got through were a cocky man’s ramblings about being a kid in an era he was not a kid in. It was not what I needed. So I set that aside and started “The Double Helix” by James Watson, because my sister said she’d read it in one train ride. While it was hard to read, I really appreciated it, as it wasn’t a scientific book, rather a book about the drama surrounding a scientific discovery. I made it three quarters of the way through and stopped for no reason. That’s when I picked up See Jane Run.

I needed a book I was going to finish. I needed a fiction book with a story because that’s what I was used to reading. Even though I was almost finished with “The Double Helix” I needed to not be reading it anymore. (Disclaimer: I fully intend to finish the three books I started in this little hiatus).

I have absolutely no idea how See Jane Run got into my bookshelf. I don’t know how long it has been there, and when I asked my mom, she had never seen the book before. Therefore, I deduced that it was a library book sale purchase from my sister. Why haven’t I read it until now? To be honest, I really didn’t even know I had this book until I organized my bookshelf for this endeavor.

This book was okay. It was average. There really wasn’t anything special about it. It gives you a situation to start with: a woman finds herself in Boston with ten thousand dollars, a bloodstained dress, and no memory of who she is. Throughout the story, you learn that her husband has been drugging her, and Jane doesn’t know why, but she is always suspecting him of something. I think that’s what makes it so predictable. If Jane hadn’t been so untrusting of her husband, I never would have assumed anything. The events in the story also were very repetitive and it made reading the book seem like it was taking forever.

Alright, let me wrap this up. I definitely had a lot to say, but in my defense, it’s been a minute. Here’s the short version. Thank you “See Jane Run” I’m sure you will find a better home somewhere else.

1,390 pages down, 245 days to go.

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Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

(02 Feb, 2019 – 11 Feb, 2019)

I really thought I was going to like this one, and I’m more disappointed than I thought I would be. But I’ll get there.

This book came to my bookshelf when my parents went to a book swap: bring a book to swap, take home a new book to read. Of course, being the lovely daughter that I am, I took it for my own shelf (they didn’t have much interest in reading it anyway). I was excited because my sister had told me it was a good book, and its movie had recently come out, and I was ready for a really good book after Cold Fire.

I’m not saying this was a bad book, but I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I had read it in school. I never really did great in english class in high school, and then I majored in chemistry in college, and therefore really didn’t take anymore english classes. But throughout the entire book, I kept thinking that I was supposed to be pulling some metaphor or some explanation from different characters or plots… I think also, the stream of consciousness style of writing sort of made me lost focus at times.

That being said, this physical book itself was very interesting. The 60th anniversary paperback edition is nothing special, but I do really like the cover art. I think it’s a very minimalistic illustration for a minimal style book. Also, I didn’t really think much of the fact that I was reading someone else’s book until I came across underlined sentences in it. For some reason, I thought that was extremely cool that someone had taken the time to read this book, and underline sentences for me, the next reader, and here I am reading it for no other reason than the fact that this book had been sitting for too long under my shelf. Imagine if I hadn’t started this challenge, it would have been a while for anyone to appreciate that person before me’s efforts.

Not to mention how meta reading a book about how you weren’t supposed to be reading books was.

While I didn’t particularly enjoy reading this book, holding and looking at it brings me joy. Maybe I’ll try reading it again later, and underlining my own sentences so that someone after me can notice what I noticed.

1,070 pages down, 323 days to go.

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Supernatural: Cold Fire, John Passarella

(21 Jan, 2019 – 02 Feb 2019)

I bought this book on 24 Sept, 2018 from the Barnes and Noble that I used to work at (very glad I kept the receipt for the bookmark). This was the third Supernatural based book I have gotten, the other two being “Carved in Flesh” by Tim Waggoner, and “Fresh Meat” by Alice Henderson (two very good reads if you are a supernatural fan). I’ve liked these books in the past, partly because they relate to Supernatural, a great cult show, but also because these mass market paperbacks are the kinds of books you find deep in the bookstore that absolutely no one else has found. They’ve most likely never been flipped through, let alone opened. After looking at the store’s sales history (please don’t attempt without a Barnes and Noble employee) I was able to see that at least from my store, one of these books hadn’t been bought since 2016. It made me feel special that I was getting the first peek at this book.

I chose to read this one next in my challenge because after “The Green Mile” (although a great read) took me longer to read than I wanted, I wanted something quick. I should have realized there was a reason it had been five months since I bought this book and haven’t read it yet.

The first fifty pages gave me a dialogue-less chimera fight that was unrelated to the rest of the story. When the story actually did start, there was no action until the last twenty-five pages or so. It was hard for me to read a Supernatural story that was basically just an FBI detective drama. I’m sure for others it was a great read, but considering the fact that “Carved in Flesh” took me a grand total of 3 days to finish, and “Cold Fire” took me 12, I would say it wasn’t a story I preferred.

I have to say though, that instead of reading this book, I spent a lot of time on Netflix. I finished Gilmore Girls for the third time and was out of shows to watch. Enter Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. Yes, I caved and watched the first episode, then the second, and before I knew it, I had binged the entire season and had not gotten any farther into “Cold Fire”.

I have to admit I had been a little judgmental at first. Marie Kondo’s personality just puts you in a great mood, and gets you excited about tidying. I haven’t read “The life changing magic of tidying up”, but in her Netflix show, Marie is very forgiving with items that you aren’t willing to give up, even books. After reading “Cold Fire”, I understand what she means when she encourages you to ask yourself if something gives you joy, and I can confidently say that “Cold Fire” does not give me joy. I’ll say thank you for being a part of my New Year’s Resolution and giving me something to read relating to my favorite TV show, and then I will say goodbye and remove it from my bookshelf.

912 pages down, 332 days to go.

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Green Mile – Stephen King

(1 Jan, 2019 – 20 Jan, 2019)

This book has been in my bookshelf for a long time. I’m guessing it found its way to me when my sister and I combined our bookshelves when we began reading the same types of books. Most likely circa 2010. My older sister and I being 16 and 14 at the time respectively, might not have appreciated it as much as we would now (24 and 22).

The version of the Green Mile that we possessed was a serial book, meaning it was six small books that would have come out one month at a time. Each book was around 100 pages, and my six were bound by a rubber band.

I admit I had tried before to read this. The short length of each book most likely attracted me. I remember losing interest about 10 pages in. This attempt is what prevented me from reading it until now. A similar thing happened to me when I attempted to read it this time around.

I have to say, I was put down when I couldn’t finish this book in a week. My thought to myself: just read one book a day, they’re so small anyway. Yes, they are each small, but that is still upwards of 500 pages, and coming off of a six month span with barely any reading, that is a lot for one week. Midway through book 2, I was ready to call off the entire challenge. How was I going to read Don Quixote if I couldn’t even read this 90 page thriller in 4 days? Turning to Netflix, I saw Marie Kondo’s new TV show had come out, and immediately began reading again. So what if I don’t finish? I didn’t want to give up my precious books.

By the fourth book in the serial, I was hooked on the story. The reading was still going slow, but the end was in sight. What I found interesting as I was reading through the 6 books, was that each book was in a different state of distress: The first three were in relatively good shape, the fourth was in tatters as was the fifth, and the sixth looked as if it had never been read. It made me wonder who had read these books before me, and if they had even finished reading.

I came away from this book really enjoying the story, and I’m glad I didn’t rush through it. I won’t give away any spoilers, but it was a very interesting and detailed read. So, in the words of Marie Kondo, this book does give me joy, and I’m not ready to say thank you and goodbye to it just yet.

592 pages down, 345 days to go.

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42 Books

Here is a list of the 42 (yes I have 42 unread books) books I plan to read this year. A varied selection, I know.

1. Spychips – Katherine Albrecht

2. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austin

3. The Universe and Dr. Einstein – Lincoln Barnett

4. Farenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

5. Wuthering Heights – Charlotte Bronte

6. The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck

7. Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card

8. Quiet – Susan Cain

9. Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

10. Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton

11. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

12. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

13. See Jane Run – Joy Fielding

14. Too Many Ghosts – Paul Gallico

15. Complications – Atul Gawande

16. Rainmaker – John Grisham

17. The Drafter – Kim Harrison

18. The House of Seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne

19. Midnight Express – Billy Hayes

20. The Nix – Nathan Hill

21. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

22. Temperament – Stuart Isacoff

23. Green Mile – Stephen King

24. Scout’s Progress – Sharon Lee

25. Apocalypse Code – Hal Lindsey

26. Wicked – Gregory Maguire

27. Moby Dick – Herman Melville

28. The Gene – Siddhartha Mukherjee

29. Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson

30. Point of No Return – John P. Marquand

31. The O’Reilly Factor for Kids – Bill O’Reilly

32. Eight Tales of Terror – Edgar Allen Poe

33. Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Stephen Spielberg

34. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

35. Missing, Presumed – Susie Steiner

36. Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson

37. Supernatural Cold Fire – John Passarella

38. Art of the Deal – Donald J. Trump

39. Double Helix – James D. Watson

40. Von Ryan’s Express – David Westheimer

41. The Picture of Dorian Grey – Oscar Wilde

42. The Bible

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Do you have a lot of unread books too?

Hello! Welcome! It’s a mystery to me as to how you may have found this blog, but you may possibly suffer from the same affliction that I do: buying books that you fully intend to read (but hardly ever do), or else preferring library books over a full bookshelf you have at home of unread books. I’ve always known I’ve had this problem, but I have never thought or wanted to do anything about it. Until, that is, two very differing personalities “sparked” something in me.

The first personality to notify me of my book situation, was the Youtuber Pewdiepie. Pewdiepie, if you are unaware, is a youtube personality who currently holds the largest number of subscribers on youtube (other than a channel called “Music” which in my opinion, doesn’t count), at 81,504,454 subscribers according to socialblade.com. At the end of the year in 2018, Pewdiepie made a video entitled “I read 721 books in 2018”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNar3Dh9zDk In the video, Pewdiepie explains that one of his 2018 new year’s resolutions was to finish things he starts. He then goes on to say that by following this resolution, he was able to read 72 books, and he very much felt it was a rewarding experience for him. Pewdiepie also encouraged his viewers to read more as well. My initial thought was that if Pewdiepie can put out a new video every single day, live the life that he does, and read 72 books in a year, I can at least step up my reading game.

The next personality that helped me create my reading goal was Marie Kondo. I’m sure you’ve heard of her by now, if not from her bestselling book “The life changing magic of tidying up”, then from her new Netflix show that came out earlier this year. At the time of watching Pewdiepie’s video, I had not read her book, but as a bookseller at Barnes and Noble, I had seen it on the bestseller shelf for a long time, and wondered what all the fuss was about. Her Netflix show was not yet out in late December, but her method was beginning to sneak back into my life.

I therefore did what any experienced researcher does, and googled her. From that one google search, I took away two things: 1. (in my own words) Learn to say thank you and let go of things that don’t spark joy for you, and 2. (again in my own words) To decrease clutter, try to only keep 30 books in your bookshelf. I then looked at my own bookshelf, and saw all the books that I hadn’t read. I saw books that had been with me since I was little, books I had always been meaning to read but never had time, and books that I had no intention of reading, but liked the look they had in my bookshelf. There was no way I would be able to narrow it down to thirty if there were unread books staring back at me.

And possibly as an act of rebellion towards Marie Kondo, my goal was made: to read every book in my bookshelf I hadn’t yet read, and to do it in one year. I was determined to meet this goal, and if I happened to dislike every book, then at least I’d have given myself a better reason to say thank you and let go of these books.

Not to mention, this challenge would give me a chance to explore genres I had never even considered before. My genre is usually dystopian romance. I hardly read anything other than your generic cookie cutter young adult fiction. This might clue you in as to why I haven’t read many of the books in my bookshelf: most of them didn’t originally belong to me. And that raises the question again: why do I have them?

I will make a new post after every book is read, and in each post, I will explain:

1. How that particular book came to be in my bookshelf

2. Why possibly I haven’t read it until now

3. What I thought of the book

4. Whether or not I will say thank you and let go of the book

So am I crazy in trying to attempt this possibly time wasting feat? We’ll have to find out in December.