100 Books in 2009

This is the post I'll be updating all year... Please remember to leave book suggestion comments!

Rules: New books will be at the top. The date I finished them and very small details of the books or how I found them. They have to be, you know, not vapid shitty books. I welcome suggestions for new books.

79. Factotum by Charles Bukowski. November 30.
78. Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco. November 28.
77. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. November 27.
76. The Sirens of the Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. November 27.
75. The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt. November 26.
74. After Dark by Haruki Murakami. November 21.
73. That Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. November 20.
72. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby. November 18.
71. Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson. November 16.
70. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. November 15.
69. Invisible by Paul Auster. November 11.
68. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace. November 10.
67. Taxi Confessional by Amy Braunschweiger. November 8.
66. Book of Illusion by Paul Auster. November 6.
65. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. November 3.
64. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. October 31.
63. White Noise by Don DeLillo. October 24.
62. Liliane by Ntozake Shange. October 21.
61. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami. October 14.
60. Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende. October 10.
59. The End of Alice by A.M. Holmes. October 7.
58. The Hakawati by Rahib Alameddine. October 5.
57. 10c Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America by David Hajdu. October 1.
56. The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. September 26.
55. Descartes Bones by Russell Shorto. September 25.
54. Operation Shylock by Philip Roth. September 18.
53. Mortal Friends by Jane Stanton Hitchcock. August 27.
52. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. August 19.
51. A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark. August 9.
50. The Counterlife by Philip Roth. August 6.
49. The Sun Also Rises by Earnest Hemingway. July 28.
48. Watchmen by Alan Moore. July 22.
47. Leviathon by Paul Auster. July 19.
46. All the Names by Jose Saramago. July 19.
45. City of Thieves by David Benioff. July 17.
44. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace. July 14.
43. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. June 28.
42. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. June 21.
41. Light Years by James Salter. June 9.
40. The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester. May 31.
39. The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy. May 28.
38. The Peking Man is Missing by Claire Taschdjian. May 27.
37. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. May 25.
36. Lush Life by Richard Price. May 23.
35. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. May 23.
34. The Woman who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle. May 19.
33. Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. May 17.
32. South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami. May 11.
31. Cathedral by Raymond Carver. May 9.
30. A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter. May 6.
29. The Nick Adams Stories by Earnest Hemingway. May 3.
28. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. Apr 29.
27. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. Apr 27.
26. Oracle Night by Paul Auster. Apr 23.
25. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World by Haruki Murakami. Apr 20.
24. Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson. Apr 15.
23. Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore. Apr 11.
22. Oil! by Upton Sinclair. Apr 10.
21. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. Apr 5.
20. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. Apr 5.
19. Netherland by Joseph O'Neill. Mar 25.
18. Best American Essays, 2007 ed. DFW. Mar 17.
17. The World Doesn't End by Charles Simic. Mar 12.
16. The Art of Raising a Puppy by the Monks of New Skete. Mar 9.
15. Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Mar 7.
14. Consider the Lobster by DFW. Mar 3.
13. Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik. Mar 1.
12. Baudlino by Umberto Eco. Feb 27.
11. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Feb 8.
10. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Feb 6.
9. White Tiger by Aravid Adiga. Feb 2.
8. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver. Jan 30.
7. Oblivion by David Foster Wallace. Jan 25.
6. The Age of Wire and String by Ben Marcus. Jan 19.
5. The Great American Novel by Philip Roth. Jan 16.
4. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. Jan 12.
3. The Sound of Butterflies by Rachael King. Jan 5.
2. Away by Amy Bloom. Jan 3.
1. Mr Dixon Disappears by Ian Sansom. Jan 1.

Blue M&Ms linked to reducing spine injury - CNN.com

The same dye in blue M&Ms was injected into mice with spinal injuries. They regained the ability to walk, with a limp, and the only side effect was that they temporarily turned blue. More like temporarily turned insanely cute.

I love both casual Fridays and mid-afternoon Maddie breaks.

My Job is Harder Than it Should Be:

Me: Hey, so, remember that directive where we're supposed to put the name of the book in the back cover copy several times so that search engines will more likely direct people searching for the name of the book to a place selling the book?
Boss: Yes.
Me: So I edited this back cover copy so that instead of saying "this monograph" it says the name of the book. Nice, right? I changed the sentence around so it still flows, and there's so much space in the structure of this paragraph on the back cover that it works out well!
Boss: Well... I just... I don't like putting the name of the book on the back cover.
Me: Um. But why? We're supposed to, remember? For search engine optimization? So we can sell the book? And I see this on a lot of books. It's not unusual.
Boss: Yeah... But... It's just not my style.
Me: So should I take it out?
Boss: No, leave it in. I guess it works for this book.

Today's Breakfast is inspired by Third Grade.

I'm not allowed to use big-girl wine glasses. I tend to break them.

My boss is back in town so I'm dressing up to make myself feel better.