Year of the Snake

  I managed to read thirty three (33) books this year, surprising for someone so slow. Two authors made their way into my life twice this year--John Irving and Haruki Murakami. These are not quite in order. There are only three nonfiction titles (*), and a couple short-story collections (%)

Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell 

Forgotten Country, by Catherine Chung

The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes

Under the Black Flag, David Cordingly *

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D James

The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst

Westsiders, Tom Finn %

The Risk Pool, Richard Russo

The Cat's Table, Michael Ontaatje

Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

The 158-Pound Marriage, John Irving

The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux

Sacre Bleu, A Comedy d'Art, Christopher Moore

In One Person, John Irving

The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides

Enduring Love, Ian McEwan

Fishing the Sloe-Black River, Colum McCann %

What I Talk about When I Talk about Running, Haruki Murakami *

Ape House, Sara Gruen

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan

Pope Joan, Donna Woolfolk Cross

Out Stealing Horses, Per Peterson

1Q84, Haruki Murakami

A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness

Shadow of Night (#2, All Souls Trilogy) Deborah Harkness

The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock

Room, Emma Donoghue

Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive SCRABBLE Player, Stefan Fatsis *

Wyrd Sisters (Discworld #6), Terry Pratchett

Swamplandia! Karen Russell

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I enjoyed a lot of music this year, and thought that the group Train seemed to record more than its share of catchy tunes, including 50 Ways to Say Goodbye. (I was wondering if they were inspired by 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, by Paul Simon, and it turns out that yes, they were. I googled that.)

 The Decemberists, Mumford & Sons, The Shins, Devotchka, Matchbox Twenty, Lumineers, Of Monsters and Men...they all caught my ear this year, and Amazon has me very well profiled. 

 Pinterest also called to me, but I'm proud to say that I do not spend too much time over there, and I'm one of those people on Facebook who tend to LIKE everything but don't have much to say. Without FB, I wouldn't know what my sisters were up to. 

Ah, 2013, a brand new year. This time, I going to be smart and take off the day after the super bowl.  Because I can. And we'll have a late night, with a bunch of guests, and it'll be nice to have a quiet day off afterwards. Wish me luck...it's not likely that anyone has beaten me to the punch.

And speaking of drinking beer, we discovered a few mighty fine brews this year--Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Troegs Perpetual IPA, and DuClaw Naked Fish, to name three. 

 
So, on with my frivolous life. I heard on a radio show today that extroverts tend to be happier, but I think they are just better at acting happy sometimes. Clearly, one of the keys to being happy any year is avoiding lofty New Years resolutions, and especially the telling people about said lofty resolutions, if you must. I'm not going to stop listening to the radio, though.

 And now, since it's Thursday, I really do need to get off my butt and make dinner.

Happy New Year!