52 Books in 52 Weeks

To promote the Read Across America program, the New York Public Library created a 26-ft tall by 40-ft wide display that spelled out the word “Read” using 25,000 Dr. Seuss books.

 I have loved to read since I was a very little girl. From Three Little Kittens to Nancy Drew and Little Women. I still love to read, and need to, to fall asleep. However, in the last year, I have found myself watching more television and reading fewer books. So, as I mentioned in my resolutions, I have challenged myself to reading 52 books this year. When I say the number, it doesn't really sound like that many, until I realize that I haven't really determined exactly what that means.

 I tend to read long books. I just finished 1Q84, by Haruki Murakami, and it was 925 pages. I like design and decorating books, too, which tend to be more pictures than words. So I guess they will balance each other out. I'm starting to worry, can I do this? But wait, breathe! This is supposed to be fun! And also pull me away from the t.v. garbage I've been ingesting lately!

I'm going to take it one book at a time and just see what happens! Even though I started 1Q84 in 2011, I finished it in 2012, so I'm counting it! My best friend wants to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on Sunday, so I'm speeding through that one, now.  I realize I'm late to that party, but c'est la vie!  Mary McDonald Interiors and Suzanne Sommers' Sexy Forever are on my bedside table and my daughter gave me Alice Waters' In the Green Kitchen for Christmas.  (Should I count cookbooks?  I think yes, if I actually read the whole thing!)  So my plate is full and I will be on target for January if I do manage to get all of these read.  After that, I will be looking for suggestions, so please share your favorite titles!

Now if only I could sit here to read.

 That chair is on my dream wish list!

Or I could sit here and sort my books.

But this, is where I actually read!

I'm excited!  I should be so much smarter by the end of the month! I'll give book reports as I finish, as well.

The occasional table.

I need a new table!  

I keep seeing these whimsical side tables.  I like the high gloss bright colors.  I like them in metallic and I like them the way Mr. and Mrs. Eames designed them, in wood.  So many good choices! This is what I have, and one of these below is what I think I want.  Which one do you like? 

West Elm Martini Table



Eames Walnut Stool



Hand Turned Sheesham wood occasional table.



Stone, by Marcel Wanders for Kartell





An Object of Beauty, by Steve Martin-- A Book Report

This one gets 4 stars from me, maybe even 41/2!  I love to read.  My favorite books are usually artist biographies, but this one, even though fiction, still gave me a peek inside the way things work in the world of art.  I find it fascinating to learn of an artist's process in creating an object of beauty and Steve Martin's book gives us a glimpse of how these works of art become the prize possessions, and very valuable assets, of the wealthiest people on the planet.  I'm also a sucker for a book set in NYC, which this one is, with a little travel to Russia and the west coast, too.  The storyline is of one woman's desire to make it there, and what it takes.  She's beautiful, of course, and the men she enchants are highly intelligent and very useful to her, but you can't help but like her own intelligence and determination to make her dreams come true.  The book is a little bit of a history lesson, as it follows the ups and downs of the art market from the 70's forward, including the effects of 9/11 and the recent collapse of the stock market.

There are even pictures of some of the real paintings he refers to.  I love that. In an interview with Rita Braver of CBS, Steve Martin says he insisted they be included "So I can save boring passages and have the picture already be there, which was already interesting!"  Here are a few of the paintings he referenced.  (All of the images are from Christie's with the exception of the one by Dorothea Tanning, which is from WebMuseum.)

Nude Bathers by Milton Avery, 1946

Daybreak by Maxfield Parrish, 1922

Woman I, by Willem de Kooning, 1952

Flowers by Andy Warhol, 1964

Felt Suit by Joseph Beuys, 1975

Eine Kleine Nachtmusic, A Little Nightmusic, Dorothea Tanning, 1946

I really love it when one book sends me looking for another.  This one has me wanting to read John Richardson's four volume biography of Picasso, and to find out more about Dorothea Tanning, who is a surrealist painter, the wife of artist, Max Ernst, a poet and contributor to the New Yorker and who ALSO just celebrated her 100th birthday in August of 2010!

Start where you are.



Sitting in my present moment.

That's the name of the book I'm reading by Pema Chodrun.  So, where am I?  I'm sitting right here, in my very own present moment.  It's weird to just be right here, not in my past, not thinking about what's next--just right here.  It does feel very freeing to let go of all the other stuff and just be.  But, who am I without my past or my future?  I think I'm just me.  And I'm okay with that.  In this moment, it doesn't seem difficult at all to just be me.  Why does it usually?  Who am I trying to be?  I feel fairly certain that I can only be the me that I am. 
I've never really understood the whole "new age-y" live in the present moment philosophy, probably because I never felt like I had time to be present when I really needed to be in about five other places at any given time.  But, there just might be something to it.  So, how can I practice this "being present" all day?  How is it supposed to work? 

My to-do list is very mundane today. 
1.  Clean off the Christmas tree and bring it inside.
2.  Call my neighbor to get the name of the product she uses to clean her wood floors.
3.  Clean my wood floors.
4.  Go to the grocery store for dinner ingredients.
5.  Call my daughter and buy ticket for Christmas visit.
6.  Call the man I asked to give me a job.
7.  Meet the washing machine repairman.
8.  Go to the nursery for plants for the front door.
9.  Drive daughter to and from dance.
10.  Cook dinner.
11.  Visit with the woman who wants help with her clothing store.

Maybe that would mean actually listening to the people I come in contact with?  Making eye contact?  Perhaps when I'm driving my daughter I find a way to connect with who she is today, rather than just finding her some food and listening to the radio.  Or when the repairman is here, I am mindful of feeling grateful.  At the nursery, actually seeing the beautiful plants would be a way of being present.  Cleaning my floors?  I don't know about that one!  The Christmas tree is one I made when I was welding, so I know that spending some time with something I created could be inspiring if I am open to it.  Maybe that's what this is actually about; opening myself to whatever comes in the moment and then actually being aware of how or what I feel about it.  This seems so simple, but it's not something I do very often. 

I'm going to give it a try.

Summer Reading List

My husband gave me a Kindle for Mother's Day last year and the pace of my reading has rapidly increased! I wonder if this is the case for other e-book readers?  I love that I can view the first chapters of a book from the comfort of my bed.  I am a night reader and thus, the ability to browse the Amazon bookshelf at 2 a.m., brings me great joy and a bounty of possible purchases for nary a cent spent!  The fact that I have to put a book light on this device does not make me happy, but I'm starting to get over it.  As someone who NEEDS to have every book that I actually LOVE, physically be present on my actual bookshelf, the Kindle has not saved me any cash when it comes to my favorites, as I now I have a digital and hardback copy of the same book.  I do appreciate the fact that if I don't love the book, no paper or precious space on the actual book shelf has been waisted.  I am also finding that I am reading quite deep on various subjects and from certain authors, due to the recommendations based on my puchases.

Food has been a huge theme for me this year! 

I began with Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell. After I saw the movie, I wanted more of Julia Child, which led me to the autobiography she wrote with Alex Prud'Homme, My Life in France.  I fell in love with this book!  It was pure delight hearing the tale of her magnificent journey.  I really loved that she didn't figure things out for herself until later in life. It was a long book, but I really missed it when it was over, so I read a little deeper and picked The Tenth Muse, My Life in Food, by Julia's editor, Judith Jones.  The two women had very similar backgrounds and I enjoyed this book, too.  I still hadn't had enough of the foodie books and moved on to Ruth Reichl's books.  I started with Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table, and thoroughly enjoyed this food critic's adventures with the young and barely known, Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck, among others. I was hungry for more so I moved on to her next book, Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise.  As the critic for the New York Times, learning about the efforts she went to in keeping herself anonymous as she dined in some of the finest restraunts in the city, was really interesting!  These are two of the books I liked so much I bought in hardback.  She's got one more I want to read, but haven't gotten to yet, called Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table.

I have totally switched gears this month, and am currently trying to understand the situation in the Middle East.  It doesn't make sense to me and I don't like being completely ignorant about a subject that is demanding so much of our world's attention and books have always been where I turn when I have questions.  I began the process with  Greg Mortenson's books, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time and Stones into Schools.  Its pretty easy to relate to the need to educate children and the value of educating girls in particular!  The events in these two books take place in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  It is heartbreaking to learn how little money it actually takes to provide schools and teachers for these children and yet the governments of these countries are unwilling to do so.  Mortenson's books are non fiction, but Khaled Hosseini writes fiction whose characters touch my heart while at the same time give me a glimpse of the history of political events taking place inside Afghanistan.  The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. are beautifully written novels that are an easy way to get a little more familiar with the kind of people whose lives we are fighting to protect.  There are three other books on my list so far, which I hope to finish by the end of the month; Gertrude Bell, Queen of the Dessert, by Georgina Howard, In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom, by Qanta Ahmed and What Every American Should Know About the Middle East, by Melissa Rossi.  These last three were reccommended by a woman I just met who is working at a hospital on an American Army base in Saudi Arabia.  I can't wait to finish A Thousand Splendid Suns and move on to these three!

I realize my reading list is erratic.  From Julia Child to Afghanistan is a stretch for any reader but I find myself intriqued by any number of things on any given day.  My hope is that I am a little smarter about food, France, politics, the Middle East and myself, as a result of what I have read in the last few months. We'll see!