In March 2015, I was wondering how many books I read in a year. I usually am in the middle of two or three books at a time, so I figured it might be as high as 100 books. Since my birthday was coming up, I thought, “Hey, my project this year will be to read 100 books by my next birthday!”
My rules were that is had to be an actual book (not articles, newspapers, magazines) and kid’s book didn’t count, or else Dr. Seuss would have put me over 100 pretty fast. So I started to read and read. It turns out that 100 books is WAY more than I normally read in a year. By sheer stubbornness, I reached 93 books by my birthday. And then I got sick. And sick again. And sick again. So it’s taken me almost two more months to finish the last seven books...but I did it. I’m currently in the middle of three different books, so I wasn’t sure which one would be the lucky 100th, but this evening, I finished one of them up. The full, possibly boring, list is below.
I learned a lot about myself and my reading habits. I read a lot more non-fiction than I think I do. This year, music-related books have taken a backseat to having to learn more about school- and job-related topics. I powered through some not-great books and made it 200 pages into a long, awful 500-page novel before giving up (it didn’t count, since I didn’t finish).
My favorite book was #32: Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion by David Zweig. It helped me feel better about the behind-the-scenes work I prefer to do, even though most folks have no idea I exist. While I like acknowledgement, I’d much rather it not be a big public thing. I just like to do what I do and not have too many spotlights on me. I actually usually say I play the cello because it’s big enough to hide behind when I’m on stage. So yeah. Behind the scenes all the way!
Anyway, in addition to learning about my reading habits, I also learned a lot about a variety of topics. It turns out that coming up with 100 books means that anything I heard about went on my library hold list.
Now that my last year’s project is done, I’m aiming for reading 50 books this year. My real project, though, is to practice making mac and cheese from scratch. I’ve tried out a few recipes so far, but mostly mine have been bland. The goal is to learn to make a really good mac and cheese, because mac and cheese can be delicious. Anyway, that’s my story. Here’s an Erinku, then a crazy list of 100 books. Enjoy.
An Erinku:
bare feet
chilly in
front room -
welcome to May
in Colorado.
The List!
Date listed is when book was finished; bolded books are fiction
1. 03/27/2015 2666 by Robert Bolaño (dark story about town of Santa Theresa)
2. 03/29/2015 Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne DuMaurier (book club)
3. 04/03/2015 How to Be a Heroine or What I’ve Learned From Reading Too Much by Samantha Ellis
4. 04/17/2015 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (dystopian world)
5. 04/19/2015 Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith
6. 04/24/2015 Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull (for book club)
7. 05/10/2015 Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
8. 05/17/2015 Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank by Robert W. Fuller
9. 05/28/2015 Emma (read aloud to Charlotte) by Jane Austen
10. 05/30/2015 How We Learn by Benedict Carey
11. 06/08/2015 Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Muakami (for book club)
12. 06/15/2015 Budgets and Financial Management in Higher Education by Margaret McClellan
13. 06/22/2015 The End of College by Kevin Carey
14. 06/29/2015 The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
15. 07/03/2015 1066 and All That by Walter Carruthers Sellar (a very silly history book)
16. 07/04/2015 Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven: A Memoir by Susan Jane Gilman
17. 07/06/2015 Dune by Frank Herbert (for sub-book-club)
18. 07/18/2015 We Should All Be Feminists (for book club, read aloud) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
19. 07/19/2015 A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
20. 07/21/2015 Bringing up Bébé: the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman
21. 07/25/2015 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (read aloud to Charlotte)
22. 07/28/2015 The Crocodile Bird by Ruth Rendell
23. 07/29/2015 Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches by John Creswell
24. 08/11/2015 Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
25. 08/13/2015 Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
26. 08/21/2015 The Guide: A Novel of a Reluctant Holy Man by R.K. Narayan
27. 08/22/2015 The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi by Elif Shafak (for bookclub)
28. 08/26/2015 Yes Please by Amy Poehler
29. 08/30/2015 The History of Mr. Polly by H.G. Wells
30. 09/05/2015 Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
31. 09/06/2015 The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
32. 09/07/2015 Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion by David Zweig
33. 09/12/2015 After Dark by Haruki Murakami
34. 09/20/2015 Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
35. 09/26/2015 The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (for bookclub)
36. 09/29/2015 Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
37. 10/03/2015 If on a Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino
38. 10/11/2015 The Gift of Failure by Jessica Lahey
39. 10/15/2015 Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain by Dana Suskind, M.D.
40. 10/16/2015 The Errant Prince by Sasha L. Miller (for bookclub)
41. 10/18/2015 Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders by Diane and Jacob Anderson-Minshall
42. 10/31/2015 Gender Studies by Cranny-Francis, Waring, Stavropoulos, and Kirkby (textbook for class)
43. 11/04/2015 Grant Writing Demystified by Mary Ann Payne
44. 11/04/2015 10% Happier by Dan Harris
45. 11/14/2015 What to Expect the First Year by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel
46. 11/15/2015 Tourists Are For Trapping by Marian Babson
47. 11/16/2015 The Language of God by Francis Collins (for bookclub)
48. 11/24/2015 Grant Writing 101 by Victoria Johnson
49. 11/29/2015 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (for bookclub)
50. 12/05/2015 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
51. 12/06/2015 Successful Grant Writing for School Leaders by Kenneth T. Henson
52. 12/07/2015 Murder Is a Girl’s Best Friend by Amanda Matetsky
53. 12/08/2015 Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
54. 12/10/2015 Grant Writing for Dummies by Dr. Beverly Browning
55. 12/11/2015 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (read aloud to Charlotte)
56. 12/14/2015 The Ghost Apple by Aaron Thier
57. 12/14/2015 Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t, and Why by Donald Asher
58. 12/23/2015 I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
59. 12/27/2015 Einstein Never Used Flash Cards by Hirsh-Pasek, Michnick Golinkoff, and Eyer
60. 01/01/2016 Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb
61. 01/04/2016 The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (for bookclub)
62. 01/08/2016 First in the World: Community Colleges and America's Future by J. Noah Brown
63. 01/11/2016 A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
64. 01/15/2016 A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel
65. 01/17/2016 A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz
66. 01/19/2016 Redefining Girly: How Parents Can fight Stereotyping and Sexualization of Girlhood by Melissa Wardy
67. 01/22/2016 Re-Visioning Community Colleges by Debbie Sydow and Richard Alfred
68. 01/22/2016 Sanditon by Jane Austen and Another Lady (read aloud to Charlotte)
69. 01/23/2016 Oregon’s Highway 26: A Historical Guide by Nancy Mandel (proof-read by me)
70. 01/27/2016 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
71. 01/31/2016 How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap by Julie Lythcott-Haimes
72. 02/01/2016 Storytelling for Grantseekers: A Guide to Creative Nonprofit Fundraising by Cheryl Clarke
73. 02/07/2016 Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles
74. 02/09/2016 After Alice by Gregory Maguire
75. 02/10/2016 The Danish Way of Parenting by Jessica Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl
76. 02/13/2016 Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be by Frank Bruni
77. 02/19/2016 Murder On Monday by Ann Purser
78. 02/20/2016 A Wild Swan and Other Stories by Michael Cunningham
79. 02/21/2016 Capturing Music: The Story of Notation by Thomas Forrest Kelly
80. 02/28/2016 Good to Great by Jim Collins
81. 02/28/2016 Edwin of the Iron Shoes by Marcia Muller
82. 02/28/2016 Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery (sequel to #61)
83. 03/06/2016 Gently Through the Woods by Alan Hunter
84. 03/06/2016 She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel
85. 03/07/2016 Diverse Millennial Students in College edited by Fred Bonner, Aretha Marbley, Mary Howard Hamilton
86. 03/16/2016 The Price of Privilege by Madeline Levine
87. 03/19/2016 The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership by Steven B. Sample
88. 03/20/2016 Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Cheryl Sandberg
89. 03/20/2016 A Cat in the Manger by Lydia Adamson
90. 03/23/2016 Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
91. 03/23/2016 Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
92. 03/25/2016 Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite by William Deresiewicz
93. 03/25/2016 Death Comes As the End by Agatha Christie
94. 03/27/2016 Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman
95. 03/30/2016 Death Never Takes a Holiday by Noreen Wald
96. 04/02/2016 Outline by Rachel Cusk
97. 04/07/2016 The Spymistress by Jennifer Chiaverini (for bookclub)
98. 04/26/2016 The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell
99. 05/09/2016 The Birth of Biopolitics by Michel Foucault
100. 05/16/2016 Decoding the Language of God: A Geneticist Responds to Francis Collins by George C. Cunningham (a rebuttal to #47)
3. 04/03/2015 How to Be a Heroine or What I’ve Learned From Reading Too Much by Samantha Ellis
4. 04/17/2015 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (dystopian world)
5. 04/19/2015 Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith
6. 04/24/2015 Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull (for book club)
7. 05/10/2015 Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
8. 05/17/2015 Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank by Robert W. Fuller
9. 05/28/2015 Emma (read aloud to Charlotte) by Jane Austen
10. 05/30/2015 How We Learn by Benedict Carey
11. 06/08/2015 Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Muakami (for book club)
12. 06/15/2015 Budgets and Financial Management in Higher Education by Margaret McClellan
13. 06/22/2015 The End of College by Kevin Carey
14. 06/29/2015 The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
15. 07/03/2015 1066 and All That by Walter Carruthers Sellar (a very silly history book)
16. 07/04/2015 Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven: A Memoir by Susan Jane Gilman
17. 07/06/2015 Dune by Frank Herbert (for sub-book-club)
18. 07/18/2015 We Should All Be Feminists (for book club, read aloud) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
19. 07/19/2015 A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
20. 07/21/2015 Bringing up Bébé: the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman
21. 07/25/2015 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (read aloud to Charlotte)
22. 07/28/2015 The Crocodile Bird by Ruth Rendell
23. 07/29/2015 Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches by John Creswell
24. 08/11/2015 Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
25. 08/13/2015 Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
26. 08/21/2015 The Guide: A Novel of a Reluctant Holy Man by R.K. Narayan
27. 08/22/2015 The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi by Elif Shafak (for bookclub)
28. 08/26/2015 Yes Please by Amy Poehler
29. 08/30/2015 The History of Mr. Polly by H.G. Wells
30. 09/05/2015 Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
31. 09/06/2015 The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
32. 09/07/2015 Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion by David Zweig
33. 09/12/2015 After Dark by Haruki Murakami
34. 09/20/2015 Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
35. 09/26/2015 The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (for bookclub)
36. 09/29/2015 Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
37. 10/03/2015 If on a Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino
38. 10/11/2015 The Gift of Failure by Jessica Lahey
39. 10/15/2015 Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain by Dana Suskind, M.D.
40. 10/16/2015 The Errant Prince by Sasha L. Miller (for bookclub)
41. 10/18/2015 Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders by Diane and Jacob Anderson-Minshall
42. 10/31/2015 Gender Studies by Cranny-Francis, Waring, Stavropoulos, and Kirkby (textbook for class)
43. 11/04/2015 Grant Writing Demystified by Mary Ann Payne
44. 11/04/2015 10% Happier by Dan Harris
45. 11/14/2015 What to Expect the First Year by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel
46. 11/15/2015 Tourists Are For Trapping by Marian Babson
47. 11/16/2015 The Language of God by Francis Collins (for bookclub)
48. 11/24/2015 Grant Writing 101 by Victoria Johnson
49. 11/29/2015 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (for bookclub)
50. 12/05/2015 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
51. 12/06/2015 Successful Grant Writing for School Leaders by Kenneth T. Henson
52. 12/07/2015 Murder Is a Girl’s Best Friend by Amanda Matetsky
53. 12/08/2015 Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
54. 12/10/2015 Grant Writing for Dummies by Dr. Beverly Browning
55. 12/11/2015 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (read aloud to Charlotte)
56. 12/14/2015 The Ghost Apple by Aaron Thier
57. 12/14/2015 Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t, and Why by Donald Asher
58. 12/23/2015 I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
59. 12/27/2015 Einstein Never Used Flash Cards by Hirsh-Pasek, Michnick Golinkoff, and Eyer
60. 01/01/2016 Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb
61. 01/04/2016 The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (for bookclub)
62. 01/08/2016 First in the World: Community Colleges and America's Future by J. Noah Brown
63. 01/11/2016 A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
64. 01/15/2016 A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel
65. 01/17/2016 A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz
66. 01/19/2016 Redefining Girly: How Parents Can fight Stereotyping and Sexualization of Girlhood by Melissa Wardy
67. 01/22/2016 Re-Visioning Community Colleges by Debbie Sydow and Richard Alfred
68. 01/22/2016 Sanditon by Jane Austen and Another Lady (read aloud to Charlotte)
69. 01/23/2016 Oregon’s Highway 26: A Historical Guide by Nancy Mandel (proof-read by me)
70. 01/27/2016 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
71. 01/31/2016 How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap by Julie Lythcott-Haimes
72. 02/01/2016 Storytelling for Grantseekers: A Guide to Creative Nonprofit Fundraising by Cheryl Clarke
73. 02/07/2016 Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles
74. 02/09/2016 After Alice by Gregory Maguire
75. 02/10/2016 The Danish Way of Parenting by Jessica Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl
76. 02/13/2016 Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be by Frank Bruni
77. 02/19/2016 Murder On Monday by Ann Purser
78. 02/20/2016 A Wild Swan and Other Stories by Michael Cunningham
79. 02/21/2016 Capturing Music: The Story of Notation by Thomas Forrest Kelly
80. 02/28/2016 Good to Great by Jim Collins
81. 02/28/2016 Edwin of the Iron Shoes by Marcia Muller
82. 02/28/2016 Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery (sequel to #61)
83. 03/06/2016 Gently Through the Woods by Alan Hunter
84. 03/06/2016 She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel
85. 03/07/2016 Diverse Millennial Students in College edited by Fred Bonner, Aretha Marbley, Mary Howard Hamilton
86. 03/16/2016 The Price of Privilege by Madeline Levine
87. 03/19/2016 The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership by Steven B. Sample
88. 03/20/2016 Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Cheryl Sandberg
89. 03/20/2016 A Cat in the Manger by Lydia Adamson
90. 03/23/2016 Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
91. 03/23/2016 Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
92. 03/25/2016 Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite by William Deresiewicz
93. 03/25/2016 Death Comes As the End by Agatha Christie
94. 03/27/2016 Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman
95. 03/30/2016 Death Never Takes a Holiday by Noreen Wald
96. 04/02/2016 Outline by Rachel Cusk
97. 04/07/2016 The Spymistress by Jennifer Chiaverini (for bookclub)
98. 04/26/2016 The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell
99. 05/09/2016 The Birth of Biopolitics by Michel Foucault
100. 05/16/2016 Decoding the Language of God: A Geneticist Responds to Francis Collins by George C. Cunningham (a rebuttal to #47)
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