Wow. It's been over a year.

I find it sort of disturbing that I got so far behind on my blog here, but more disturbing than that, I see that the last review I posted was for Insidious. Today we saw Sinister. Both were creepy, creepy horror movies that  I loved. Both were similar, family haunted and in danger movies that made it hard to think about sleep.  Both were one word title horror movies.

Coincidence...or fate? You decide...

Progress on my Book List for the 9/9/9 Project

Here's an update on my 9/9/9 project. That's 9 books in 9 categories in 2009 (plus an extra few to make it up to 100 this year). Books in bold I have read. You would think I would have been caught up by now, but so far I believe the count is at 39 for the year. I should be at 50 or so by now if I am going to make 100. Hm.

Books I should have read but haven't (The Classics)

1. Sanditon and Other Stories by Jane Austen
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
3. I, Robot by Issac Asimov
4. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
5. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
6. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
7. The Monk by Matthew Lewis
8. The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
9. Middlemarch by George Eliot
   

Books picked by Steve (and recommended by others)

1. The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
2. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
3. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
4. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
5. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
6. Post Office by Charles Bukowski
7. UBIK by Philip K Dick
8. Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
9. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
   

Collections and Anthologies (short stories and poetry)

1. QPB Anthology of Women's Writing edited by Susan Cahill
2. The Disobedience of Water: Stories and Novellas by Sena Jeter Naslund
3. Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
4. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
5. The Best of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl
   
6. Morning in the Burned House by Margaret Atwood
7. The Waste Land and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot
8. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
9. Transformations by Anne Sexton
   

True Stories, Writing, Biographies, History...in Other Words Non-Fiction

1. Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul by Karen Abbott
   
2. Art & Fear by David Bayles
3. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson
   
4. Secret Lives of Great Authors: What Your Teachers Never Told You About Famous Novelists, Poets, and Playwrights by Robert Schnakenberg
   
5. A Biography of Zelda by Nancy Milford
6. Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick
7. The Journalist and The Murder by Janet Malcom
8. The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston
9. Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
   

Good Intentions: Books I Own but Keep Avoiding

1. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
2. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
3. Snobs by Julian Fellowes
4. Fragile Things Neil Gaiman
5. Love by Toni Morrison
6. The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
7. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
8. Where or When by Anita Shreve
9. Atonement by Ian McEwan
   

Books Turned into Movies

1. L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
   
2. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
   
3. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
4. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindquist
5. The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis
6. The Stand by Stephen King
7. The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry
8. Zodiac by Robert Graysmith
9. Blindness by Jose Saramago
   

Books from Childhood (or that I wish had been there for me to read)

1. The Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Lyr, Taran Wander, The High King)
2. The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. LeGuin (The Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore)
3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
4. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory & The Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
6. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
7. Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers
8. Peter Pan by J.M Barrie
9. The 13 Clocks by James Thurber
   

Books translated into English

1. After Dark by Haruki Murakami
2. The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur by Victor Pelevin
   
3. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
4. Have Mercy on Us All: A Novel (Chief Inspector Adamsberg Mysteries) by Fred Vargas
   
5. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
   
6. Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
8. Seeing by Jose Saramago
9. Never Let Me Go by Nazuo Ishigino
   

Classic Mysteries

1. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
2. Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr
3. Inspector Morse: The Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter
   
4. Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
5. Dashiell Hammett novel collection
6. The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith
7. Brown's Requiem by James Ellroy
8. The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly
9. Knots & Crosses by Ian Rankin
   

Whatever, Whatever, I'll read what I want...

1. Ghost: A Novel by Alan Lightman
2. The Lighthouse by P. D. James
3. The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll
4. Dead & Gone by Charlaine Harris
   
5. Love is a Dog from Hell by Charles Bukowski
   
6. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
   
7. Real World by Natsuo Kirino
   
8. Picture Me Dead by Heather Graham
   
9. ?
10. ?
11. ?
12. ?
13. ?
14. ?
15. ?
16. ?
17. ?
18. ?

9/9/9 Comics January - March Progress

Graphic Novels recommended by Jeremy and his cohorts at Titan

1. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
2. Therefore, Repent! by Jim Munroe
3. The Blot by Tom Neeley
4. The Travels of Thelonious by Susan Schade
5. The Aviary by Jamie Tanner
6. Glister Volume 1
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Graphic Novels recommended by Steve

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Graphic Novels recommended by others

1. The Complete Persepolis
2. Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth
3. Burnout by Rebecca Donner and Inaki Miranda
4. Local, Issues 1-3 by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Independent graphic novels

1. Re-Gifters by Mike Carey
2. The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci
3. Dead at 17: the 13th Brother by Josh Howard
4. Polly and the Pirates by Ted Naifeh
5. Lava Punch by Ben Seto
6. Last Exit Before Toll by Neal Schaffer
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Next in the Series (because I have a lot of series that I read and a lot of backlog here)

1. Walking Dead Volume 6
2. Walking Dead Volume 7
3. Walking Dead Volume 8
4. Hell and Back: Sin City
5. Fables Volume 11: War & Pieces
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

It's the end of the world as I know it: Dystopias

1. DMZ Volume 1
2. DMZ Volume 2
3. DMZ Volume 3
4. DMZ Volume 4
5. Channel Zero
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Zombies, Vampires, Vampire Slayers, and other stuff of the supernatural

1. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Vol. 1: Guilty Pleasures
2. Buffy Season 8 single issues, catch up
3. Zebediah the Hillbilly Zombie Redneck Bites the Dust 
   
4. Pablo's Inferno: An innocent child's descent into the Underworld and Beyond
   
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Men (and women) in Tights: Superheroes

1. Superman Red Sun
2. Bulletproof Monk
3. Fallen Angel Volume 1
4. Elektra Lives Again
5. Wonder Woman: Love and Murder
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Adaptations of Books

1. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Black Dossier
2. Horror Classics: Graphic Classics
3. Graphic Classics: Robert Louis Stevenson
4. Graphic Classics: Mark Twain
5. Richard Mathesons' Hell House
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Whatever, Whatever, I'll read what I want...

1. Fell Volume 1: Feral City
2. Flight, Volume 1
3. The Killer, Volume 1
4. Ex Machina Volume 1
5. Ex Machina Volume 2
6. Ex Machina Volume 3
7. Ex Machina Volume 4
8. Ex Machina Volume 5
9. Ex Machina Valume 6
10. Jack of Fables Volume 1
11. We3 by Grant Morrison
12. ?
13. ?
14. ?
15. ?
16. ?
17. ?
18. ?
19. ?

9/9/9 Books January-March Progress

Here's an update. Books in bold I have read. Yeah, I am a little behind...I'm at 15, working on 16.

Books I should have read but haven't (The Classics)

1. Sanditon and Other Stories by Jane Austen
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
3. I, Robot by Issac Asimov
4. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
5. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
6. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
7. The Monk by Matthew Lewis
8. The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
9. Middlemarch by George Eliot
   

Books picked by Steve (and recommended by others)

1. The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
2. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
3. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
4. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
5. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
6. Post Office by Charles Bukowski
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Collections and Anthologies (short stories and poetry)

1. QPB Anthology of Women's Writing edited by Susan Cahill
2. The Disobedience of Water: Stories and Novellas by Sena Jeter Naslund
3. Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
4. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
5. The Best of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl
   
6. Morning in the Burned House by Margaret Atwood
7. The Waste Land and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot
8. e e cumming collection
   
9. Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, or Rainer Maria Rilke

True Stories, Writing, Biographies, History...in Other Words Non-Fiction

1. Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soulby Karen Abbott
   
2. Art & Fear by David Bayles
3. What If? Writing Exercises for Authors by Anne Bernays
4. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson
   
5. Secret Lives of Great Authors: What Your Teachers Never Told You About Famous Novelists, Poets, and Playwrights by Robert Schnakenberg
   
6. A Biography of Zelda by Nancy Milford
7. Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick
8. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
9. ?

Good Intentions: Books I Own but Keep Avoiding

1. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
   
2. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
3. The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
4. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
5. Snobs by Julian Fellowes
6. Fragile Things Neil Gaiman
7. Love by Toni Morrison
8. ?
9. ?

Books Turned into Movies

1. L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
   
2. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
   
3. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
4. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindquist
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Books from Childhood (or that I wish had been there for me to read)

1. The Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Lyr, Taran Wander, The High King)
2. The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. LeGuin (The Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore)
3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
4. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory & The Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
6. Dianna Wynne Jones - something of hers?
7. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
8. Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers
9. ?
   

Books translated into English

1. After Dark by Haruki Murakami
2. The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur by Victor Pelevin
   
3. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
4. Have Mercy on Us All: A Novel (Chief Inspector Adamsberg Mysteries) by Fred Vargas
   
5. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
   
6. Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
7. Something by Arturo Perez-Reverte
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
9. ?

Classic Mysteries

1. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
2. Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr
3. Inspector Morse novel
4. Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
5. Dashiell Hammett novel collection
6. The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Whatever, Whatever, I'll read what I want...

1. Ghost: A Novel by Alan Lightman
2. The Lighthouse by P. D. James
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?
10. ?
11. ?
12. ?
13. ?
14. ?
15. ?
16. ?
17. ?
18. ?

Comics Read in 2008

Here's a list of comics I read this year. 

• Friday the 13th: The Bad Lands
• Mouse Guard: Belly of the Beast
• Mouse Guard: Shadows Within
• Mouse Guard: Rise of the Axe
• Mouse Guard: The Dark Ghost
• Mouse Guard: Midnight's Dawn
• Mouse Guard: A Return to Honor
• Buffy Season 8: No Future for You
• Buffy Season 8: Anywhere But Here
• Buffy Season 8: A Beautiful Sunset
• Buffy Season 8: Wolves at the Gate
• 30 Days of Night
• 28 Days Later: the Aftermath
• Gloom Cookie: The Final Curtain
• Glacial Period
• Capote in Kansas
• The Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert
• Nightmares & Fairy Tales: The Beautiful Beasts
• Powers
• Buckaroo Banzai: Return of the Screw
• PARA
• Dominion Vol 1-5
• Fables: Wolves
• Fables: Sons of Empire
• Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall
• Fables: The Good Prince
• Serenity: Those Left Behind
• Y: The Last Man: Unmanned
• Y: The Last Man: Cycles
• Y: The Last Man: One Small Step
• Y: The Last Man: Safeword
• Y: The Last Man: Ring of Truth
• Y: The Last Man: Girl on Girl
• Y: The Last Man: Paper Dolls
• Y: The Last Man: Kimono Dragons
• Y: The Last Man: Motherland
• Y: The Last Man: Whys & Wherefores
• Serenity: Better Days
• Batman: The Killing Joke
• X-Isle
• The Lost Boys: The Reign of Frogs
• The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home
• Death Valley
• Doctor Who Classics: Volumes 2-6
• Doctor Who Vol 1-6
• Helen Killer Vol 1-4

Books Read in 2008: All 89 of Them

I was hoping to read 100 this year, but I got lazy again. 

Fiction: General

• Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• Fluke: or I know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore
• Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
• You Suck! by Christopher Moore
• The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
• The Keep by Jennifer Egan
• Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan
• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
• Saturday by Ian McEwan
• The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
• The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moer
• Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Fiction: Mystery & Suspense

• Death in Holy Order by P.D. James
• The Murder Room by P.D. James
• Innocent Blood by P.D. James
• Jane & The Man of the Cloth by Stephanie Barron
• Jane & the Wandering Eye by Stephanie Barron
• Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
  
• Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
• Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
• Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
• Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
• Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
• Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
• Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
• Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
• All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
• From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
• Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris
• Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs
• Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
• Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay
• Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
• Thriller edited by James Patterson
• The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
• The Boomerang Clue by Agatha Christie
• Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie
• The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie
• An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear
• Obedience by Will Lavender
• The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
• Killer on the Road by James Ellroy
• HeartSick by Chelsea Cain

Fiction: Horror, Sci Fi, Fantasy

• The Terror by Dan Simmons
• World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
• The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
• The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
• The Ruins by Scott Smith
• Duma Key by Stephen King
• The Children of Men by P.D. James
• Dispatch by Bentley Little
• The Mummy or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice
• Sunshine by Robin McKinley
• Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
• The Good, The Bad, and the Undead by Kim Harrison
• Every Which Way by Dead by Kim Harrison
• Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley & Peter Dickinson

Fiction: Junk

• The Murder List by Julie Garwood
  
• All Night Long by Jayne Anne Krentz
• The Dead Room by Heather Graham
• Killer Dreams by Iris Johansen
• Cover of Night by Linda Howard
• Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag
• The Third Wife by Jasmine Cresswell
• Shadow Dance by Julie Garwood
• Dead on the Dance Floor by Heather Graham
• Pandora's Daughter by Iris Johansen
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
• Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
• No Escape by Heather Lowell
• The Night of the Blackbird by Heather Graham
• Hurricane Bay by Heather Graham
• The Seance by Heather Graham

Non-Fiction

• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• The Executioner Always Chops Twice: Ghastly Blunders on the Scaffold by Geoffrey Abbot
• Does this Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? by Peter Walsh
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers by Mary Roach
• Secret Lives of the First Ladies: What Your Teachers Never Told You About the Women of the White House by Cromac O'Brien
• Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
• The Dead Travel Fast: Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula by Eric Nuzum
• The Maul and the Pear Tree by P.D. James and T. A. Critchley
• On Writing by Stephen King
• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
• The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
• Getting Things Done: Guide to Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

Graphic Novels Assigned to the 9/9/9 Categories

Graphic Novels recommended by Jeremy and his cohorts at Titan

1. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
2. Therefore, Repent! by Jim Munroe
3. The Blot by Tom Neeley
4. The Travels of Thelonious by Susan Schade
5. The Aviary by Jamie Tanner
6. Glister Volume 1
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Graphic Novels recommended by Steve

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Graphic Novels recommended by others

1. The Complete Persepolis
2. Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Independent graphic novels

1. Re-Gifters by Mike Carey
2. The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci
3. Dead at 17: the 13th Brother by Josh Howard
4. Polly and the Pirates by Ted Naifeh
5. Lava Punch by Ben Seto
6. Last Exit Before Toll by Neal Schaffer
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Next in the Series (because I have a lot of series that I read and a lot of backlog here)

1. Walking Dead Volume 6
2. Walking Dead Volume 7
3. Walking Dead Volume 8
4. Hell and Back: Sin City
5. Fables Volume 11: War & Pieces
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

It's the end of the world as I know it: Dystopias

1. DMZ Volume 1
2. DMZ Volume 2
3. DMZ Volume 3
4. DMZ Volume 4
5. Channel Zero
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Zombies, Vampires, Vampire Slayers, and other stuff of the supernatural

1. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Vol. 1: Guilty Pleasures
2. Buffy Season 8 single issues, catch up
3. Zebediah the Hillbilly Zombie Redneck Bites the Dust 
   
4. Pablo's Inferno: An innocent child's descent into the Underworld and Beyond
   
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Men (and women) in Tights: Superheroes

1. Superman Red Sun
2. Bulletproof Monk
3. Fallen Angel Volume 1
4. Elektra Lives Again
5. Wonder Woman: Love and Murder
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Adaptations of Books

1. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Black Dossier
2. Horror Classics: Graphic Classics
3. Graphic Classics: Robert Louis Stevenson
4. Graphic Classics: Mark Twain
5. Richard Mathesons' Hell House
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Whatever, Whatever, I'll read what I want...

1. Fell Volume 1: Feral City
2. Flight, Volume 1
3. The Killer, Volume 1
4. Ex Machina Volume 1
5. Ex Machina Volume 2
6. Ex Machina Volume 3
7. Ex Machina Volume 4
8. Ex Machina Volume 5
9. Ex Machina Valume 6
10. Jack of Fables Volume 1
11. ?
12. ?
13. ?
14. ?
15. ?
16. ?
17. ?
18. ?
19. ?

Books assigned to the 9 categories for 9/9/in 2009

These might change as the year progresses, but this is the plan.

Books I should have read but haven't (The Classics)

1. Sanditon and Other Stories by Jane Austen
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
3. I, Robot by Issac Asimov
4. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
5. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
6. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
7. The Monk by Matthew Lewis
8. The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
9. Middlemarch by George Eliot
   

Books picked by Steve (and recommended by others)

1. Steve's pick
2. Steve's pick
3. Steve's pick
4. Steve's pick
5. The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
6. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
7. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
8. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
9. ?
   

Collections and Anthologies (short stories and poetry)

1. QPB Anthology of Women's Writing edited by Susan Cahill
2. The Disobedience of Water: Stories and Novellas by Sena Jeter Naslund
3. Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
4. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
5. The Best of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl
   
6. Morning in the Burned House by Margaret Atwood
7. The Waste Land and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot
8. e e cumming collection
   
9. Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, or Rainer Maria Rilke

True Stories, Writing, Biographies, History...in Other Words Non-Fiction

1. Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul by Karen Abbott
   
2. Art & Fear by David Bayles
3. What If? Writing Exercises for Authors by Anne Bernays
4. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson
   
5. Secret Lives of Great Authors: What Your Teachers Never Told You About Famous Novelists, Poets, and Playwrights by Robert Schnakenberg
   
6. A Biography of Zelda by Nancy Milford
7. Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick
8. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
9. ?

Good Intentions: Books I Own but Keep Avoiding

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
3. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
4. The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
5. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
6. Snobs by Julian Fellowes
7. Fragile Things Neil Gaiman
8. Love by Toni Morrison
9. ?

Books Turned into Movies

1. L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
   
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Books from Childhood (or that I wish had been there for me to read)

1. The Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Lyr, Taran Wander, The High King)
2. The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. LeGuin (The Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore)
3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
4. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory & The Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
6. Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers
7. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
8. Dianna Wynne Jones - something of hers?
9. ?

Books translated into English

1. After Dark by Haruki Murakami
2. The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur by Victor Pelevin
   
3. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
4. Have Mercy on Us All: A Novel (Chief Inspector Adamsberg Mysteries) by Fred Vargas
   
5. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
   
6. Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
7. Something by Arturo Perez-Reverte
8. ?
9. ?

Classic Mysteries

1. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
2. Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr
3. Inspector Morse novel
4. Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
5. Dashiell Hammett novel collection
6. The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Whatever, Whatever, I'll read what I want...

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?
10. ?
11. ?
12. ?
13. ?
14. ?
15. ?
16. ?
17. ?
18. ?
19. ?

9/9 in 2009: Books I am going to read this year

For the past several years, I stopped setting reading goals for the upcoming year. This year I became intrigued by the 9/9/9 concept that's floating around LibraryThing, so I'm doing one myself. (That would be 9 categories, 9 books in each, in 2009). That makes it 81 books in 2009. Which is okay, but I really want to read 100 books this upcoming year. So I guess I will have 9/9/in 2009, plus 19 freebies to be whatever I want. That might work. Eventually I will fill in the books I am assigning to each category, or at least assign them a topic of sorts.

And of course I have a separate category list for graphic novels, cause those always get left behind.

BOOKS, Meet your 9/9/9 Categories:

1. Books I should have read but haven't (The Classics)
2. Books picked by Steve (and recommended by others)
3. Collections and Anthologies (short stories and poetry)
4. True Stories, Writing, Biographies, History...in Other Words Non-Fiction
5. Good Intentions: Books I Own but Keep Avoiding
6. Books Turned into Movies
7. Books from Childhood (or that I wish had been there for me to read)
8. Books translated into English
9. Classic Mysteries

• Whatever, whatever, I'll read what I want (random picks, 19 of them)
  

Graphic Novels, Meet your 9/9/9 Categories:

1. Graphic Novels recommended by Jeremy and his cohorts at Titan
2. Graphic Novels recommended by Steve
3. Graphic Novels recommended by others
4. Independent graphic novels
5. Next in the Series (because I have a lot of series that I read and a lot of backlog here)
6. It's the end of the world as I know it: Dystopias
7. Zombies, Vampires, Vampire Slayers, and other stuff of the supernatural
   
8. Men (and women) in Tights: Superheroes
9. Adaptations of Books

• Whatever, whatever, I'll read what I want (random picks, 19 of them)

Even more acquisitions to the library

My nephew challenged me this weekend. He said that he had more Hot Wheels than I had books. I hated to contradict him, so instead I took advantage of Half-Price Books 20% off sale and added a few more to the shelves. 

• A Wizard of Earthsea and The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin - The final books in one of my favorite series when I was a kid. I had the second, but not the first or the third. 
• The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe 
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry - Not the type of book I would normally read but it comes highly recommended by a friend. We'll see if I agree with him. 
• Babylon Revisited and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I pretty much adore Mr. Fitzgerald
• In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien - Given to me to read by a friend years ago. (Not a friend anymore but at least she introduced me to this book.)  I finally got my own copy.
• Coyote Blue: A Novel by Christopher Moore - I'll read anything he writes. 
• Spaceman Blues: A Love Song by Brian Francis Slattery - This has been on my wishlist so long I don't really remember why - I think I read about ti in Entertainment Weekly. 
• All the Pretty Horses by Cormac Mccarthy - I'll also read anything he writes, or at least, I am working on it. 
• Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe - One of those that I should have read a long time ago. 
• The Daughters of Juarez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border by Teresa Rodriguez - The murders happening down there are so scary.
• Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
• Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
• City of Glass, Ghosts, The Locked Room (New York Trilogy) by Paul Auster
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• The Good Guy by Dean Koontz - I don't read a lot of Koontz but I saw this on Stephen King's best of list so I thought I'd check it out. 
• Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
• Presumed Innocent: A Novel by Scott Turow
• The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons - The first science fiction/fantasy book I ever read was Hyperion. Many, many years later I discovered there were sequels. I will say that these are some of the very few science fiction/fantasy books I really, really enjoyed, so I picked them up fro Steve to read. He owes me big time for the Dragonlance books. 
  

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

As you might expect, books and DVDs were plentiful under the Christmas tree this year. People know me oh so well. 

DVDs:

• Wall-E (BluRay)
• HellBoy II: The Golden Army (BluRay)
• The Dark Knight (BluRay)
• Cowboy Bebop Remix DVD set (Whee! Finally, Bebop of my very own!)

Books:

• The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams (Thanks LibraryThing Secret Santa!)
• The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore (Thanks LibraryThing Secret Santa!)
• The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson
• I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away by Bill Bryson
• Loser Goes First: My Thirty-Something Years of Dumb Luck and Minor Humiliation by Dan Kennedy
• Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy
• Who the Hell Is Pansy O'Hara?: The Fascinating Stories Behind 50 of the World's Best Loved Books by Jenny Bond
• Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
• Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
• Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick

Comics:

• Dead at 17: The 13th Brother by Josh Howard
• Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures, Vol. 1 (v. 1) by Laurell K. Hamilton
• DMZ Vol. 4: Friendly Fire by Brian Wood

I am committed to Sparkle Motion.

Yes, that's right. It's D-Day. My future sister-in-law bought the "Sookie Sunday" group tickets to see Twilight tonight at midnight. Lord help us, for we may be lost in the screaming hordes of fangirls as they rush the theater to get good seats to see RPattz on the big screen.

We'll be much more dignified of course. We won't scream. At least not until the movie actually starts.

The rumors are true!

I just saw on Amazon that P.D. James has written a new Adam Dalgliesh mystery and it comes out tomorrow.

Maybe iSanta will be good enough to get it for me. I just love her books. She's like Agatha Christie on steroids - more plot, more characterization, more thinking. I've been waiting to read The Lighthouse because I knew it would be awhile until I got the next AD mystery and now the waiting is over. Yipee!

OMG Star Trek num num num

When I saw Quantum of Solace this weekend I was hoping for the new Watchmen trailer. Instead I got the latest Star Trek trailer.

Wow.

Wow.

I *love* Star Trek. I've seen all of the movies (outside of the the first one, when I was 4) in the theater. Some on opening day. I even love the The Voyage Home (Save the Whales).

I really had to keep myself from jumping up out of my seat and wiggling around like a crazy fool. It took a lot of willpower. I'm still giddy thinking about it today.

And on that note...a little Star Trek The Voyage Home quote to brighten your day.

"I mean, I may have carried your soul but I sure couldn't fill your shoes. " - McCoy to Spock

We are going to need a bigger boat.

Steve has been watching this series from the BBC (I think) called Planet Earth. He also knows that while Jaws is one of my all time favorite films, it is one of my favorites because I have a terrifying fear of sharks. Big ones, small ones, I don't care. My hands get clammy just thinking about sharks, which sucks, because I do happen to have a serious love of the ocean. So just think of me, on the beach in Mexico or wherever, fully fortified with alcoholic beverages, saying to myself, there are no sharks, there are no sharks, and then remembering this video.

You Tube video of a Great White


Bastard.

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

My latest haul from Quality Paperback Books:

• An Incomplete Revenge: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear - I love these mysteries. 
• Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure by Rachel Fershleiser - This sounded so intriguing.
• Monster, 1959 by David Maine - A monster from the 50's comes to life. 
• Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield - I hear this one is a tear-jerker. 
• Obedience: A Novel by Will Lavender - A prof tells his students that their assignment is to save the girl he's got trapped somewhere by the end of the semester.
• The Vicious Circle: Mystery and Crime Stories by Members of the Algonquin Round Table by Otto Penzler - An anthology of mysteries from those sharp-tongued members of the Round Table.
• Secret Lives of Great Authors: What Your Teachers Never Told You About Famous Novelists, Poets, and Playwrights by Robert Schnakenberg - I love this series of books. 
• The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin - The second in the series of medieval CSI. 
  

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

Part of my latest horde:

• The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke - I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell so we'll see how this one goes.
• Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston
• The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig
• The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey - Another Richard III mystery. 
• The Post-Birthday World: A Novel by Lionel Shriver
• The Nymphos of Rocky Flats: A Novel by Mario Acevedo - Vampires & nymphomaniacs. I couldn't pass it up. 
• My Lush Life by Douglas McEwan - Highly recommended by my wine bar guy. I had to pick this one up at Half Price. 
• The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor - I love Flannery O'Connor's short stories. 
• E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings - I've always liked e e cummings, but lately I have become borderline obsessed. 
• The Best of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl
• Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories by Roald Dahl
• Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America by Eric Nuzum - I loved his book  The Dead Travel Fast, so I thought I would check out his earlier book on music censorship.
  

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

I love birthdays. It's like Christmas for my book and DVD libraries.

• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
• Falling Man by Don DeLillo
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
• The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
• The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

I love birthdays. I spent the Amazon love from my brother and his girlfriend (who somehow got me shamefully addicted to these ridiculous vampire novels everyone has been raving about...seriously, I am embarrassed to say it. 

Books:

• Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
• Rising Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

DVDs:

• D.E.B.S. - Love this movie. It's so adorable, and it fosters my Jordana Brewster crush.
• Imagine Me & You - So sweet. Plus Piper Perabo and Lena Headly fall in love.
• Commando: Director's Cut - I love this movie. It's one of those that I watch every time it's on. I thought Alyssa Milano was so cool in this movie (I was also, maybe 11 when I first saw it.)

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

Here's the latest haul from Half Price Books:

• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
• A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
• The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
• The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan
• The Ring art by Misao Inagaki, original novel by Koji Suzuki
• Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan
• Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
• Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman
• Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber
• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
• Ten Days in the Hills by Jane Smiley
• The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley