Read so far

After reviewing last years list and noticing that I forgot a couple books I'd read including Flag of My Fathers, I decided I needed to keep better track of what I'm reading, especially if im going to break 10000 pages. So here's where we are so far.
Caleb Carr The Angel of Darkness 747 pgs - Sequel to The Alienst. Not impressed, it slogged along almost as badley as the first one. So I had just swore off any more Carr when I noticed that his next book called the Devil Soldier, is about China during the Taiping rebellion. I'll try and pick it up this summer at a used book store. I'm such a sucker.

Damaged Angels Bonnie Buxton 331pgs. Standard memoir of dealing with a difficult child. This book focuses on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the effects it has on kids and families. Lottsa good info on what to look for but really lacking in intervention techniques. A little too broad, needed more information on "what do i do now?" Is a nice reminder of why you should slap the drink out of any womans hand that is pregnant and drinking.

Gone Baby Gone Denis Lehane 412 pgs. I've enjoyed all the Lehane books I've read so far. All are set in Boston and are very intense. He is also willing to take some plot risks and suprising you when characters don't act like they are in a tv movie of the week where everything works out.

Currently reading, The Face of Battle - Nonfiction book that goes through three different battles and describes the difference in what soldiers experainced. Waterloo, a WWI battle and the battle on Agincourt (sp?). Also reading The Closers, another mystery this one by Michael Connolly. I'm noticing so far I'm heavy on the mystery genre. I need to find something really different to read next.

Best movie I've rented recently The Devil Wears Prada. Both the wife and I enjoyed it.
Best movie I went to recently Letters From Iwo Jima. Good solid war movie but not Oscar Best Picture material.
Worst movie I've rented recently The White Countess. Soooooooo slooooowwww. Painful.

The Reading Year in Review 2006

This was my first year in the “Contest” and oh what a year it was. Humbling would be the descriptor of my adventure. As a graduate of George Fox I was confident going in, I felt like, “ hey if a kid in school can crank out 555 books and a 181,486 thousand pages, I’ve gotta be good for at least 10,000 pages no prob……”
Well progress was steady for a time but then I ran headlong into the unholy trinity or rather the Bermuda triangle of literature. It all started at the end of school. I’m a guidance counselor at a K-9 school in Kaohsiung Taiwan. When I started the contest I surveyed my chances at a respectable showing…..Yes I have two children…….Yes I have a full time job……..Yes I coach girls basketball……..Yes I teach Sunday School ……but I have the ace in the hole, the granddaddy of trump cards….. I had the summer off. I’ll be able to crank out books like a TSA screener chucking lotion.
But summer was where it all ended. Running to catch a flight I grabbed my two year old and a Ken Follet book. Now I was fairly sure I had enjoyed an earlier Follet book, something about WW2. This particular book “Whiteout” was something to do with a biolab, missing weapons, a snow storm, and strained family relations. It’s the absolute worst book I have ever read in my life. It was written so bad it actually was making me angry reading it, kinda like a surly seventh grader spitting words at you. Then I picked up Da Vinci Code and it got worse. This book is the end of Christendom as we know it? It’s a hum drum murder mystery where the author all the sudden mumbles something about “Jesus had a wife and kid” All I wanted to know was why Tom Hanks did that to his hair.
The final nail in the coffin to my summer reading was Stephen Kings Dark Tower series. An uncle had recommended them. An uncle that in the past has given good advice for books, tv series, and movies. As soon as the monorail started talking I should of thrown that book right out the window and as I continued to struggle through telling myself, it’s gotta get better, it’s gotta get better……………until finally I surrendered. I picked up the remote to my in laws TV, I turned on VH1’s Hogan Knows Best, and slid off into nothingness. Crystal Farnsworth would be so ashamed.
So that’s the dark part of my story for my first “Contest.” The best books of the year were Lonesome Dove (thanks for the recommendation) and Gilead. I’m determined to break the 10,000 mark this year. Thanks

Brown Dan The Da Vinci Code 496pg
Carr Caleb The Alienst 597pg
Clark Chap Hurt 195pg
Follet Ken Whiteout 384pg
Greene Graham Brighton Rock 288pg
Hessler Peter River Town 399pg
King Stephen The Gunslinger 224pg
King Stephen The Drawing of the Three 480pg
King Stephen The Wastelands 590pg
King Stephen Wizards and Glass 688pg
Lehane Dennis A Drink Before the War 277pg
Lehane Dennis Sacred 400pg
McMurtry Lonesome Dove 945pg
Mueller Walt Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture 233pg
Robinson Marilynne Gilead 247pg

Total 6443pgs