Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Veggie Tuesdays!

I just wanted to write up a quick post to let you guys know that I've officially (officially) declared Tuesdays to be...

Veggie Tuesdays!
Yes, you heard me right. That's 'veggie' as in vegetable! I've decided that one day a week I'm really going to concentrate on eating fruits and veggies. That means that on Tuesdays I'm not going to have any meat, no sodas (no coffee either), limited amounts of sugars breads and pastas. What I am going to eat are lots of fruits and veggies, fresh juices and of course water!
And I'm not doing it alone. My fiance has agreed to attempt this grand undertaking with me. Wish him luck, he's going to need it.

The menu for the first 'Veggie Tuesday' (1-15-13):

Breakfast: Veggie Burger
Snack: Apples
Lunch: Portobello Pizza
Dinner: Veggie Sloppy-Joe's

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Reading Resolutions

In the spirit of moving boldly forward into the new year, I’ve decided to try to tackle a few reading projects that have been on my list for a while now. I like to think of this list as a bit optimistic but do-able. You might think of it as madness. We might both be right.

My “Reading Resolutions” for 2013:

Hardcover (2005) 944 pages
This one has come pretty highly recommended to me by my mother in law (who hasn’t quite finished it yet). I think she heard an author interview on NPR around the time that Lincoln (2012) was coming out in theaters. After seeing the movie myself, I want to know more about Lincoln and his cabinet and how exactly they managed to pass the 13th Amendment.
 
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Signet Paperback (1987) 1,488 pages
             I’d been wanting to see Les Mis for ages. A lot of my friends who are into musicals and theater had told me that it was one show that everyone should see. So on Christmas day my fiancé and I braved the crowds to see the movie with our families.  It was spectacular and I’m so glad that I saw it (more on that in a later post). However, I’m the kind of person who loves to read the books behind the movies, so for some reason I decided that I had to read Hugo’s book, and I had to do it this year.

Paperback (2002) 832 pages
            My fiancé has been bugging me to read Hitchhiker’s for a long time, and it’s been on my reading list, I just hadn’t quite gotten around to it yet. A few weeks ago while we were at Barnes & Nobel we found a copy of the complete series for a reasonable price and split the cost. I apparently have no excuse not to read this now, and in fact I’ve already started on it.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy:

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
Paperback (2012) 432 pages

The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien
Paperback (2012) 352 pages

 The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien
Paperback (2012) 432 pages
            Now I know these are three books, but I’m counting them as on entity on my list because I plan on getting the whole trilogy read this year. A long long time ago, way back in 2001The Fellowship of the Rings movie was coming out and my friends and I were excited to see it. But one of my friends (who shall here remain nameless) made me promise that I would read the book first. I foolishly promised and then… never got around to reading it. Here we are 12 years later, and I still haven’t read any of the books, and so I still haven’t seen any of the movies. But that’s going to change this year, I hope.

            In case you folks at home haven’t been counting, I ran up a total for you. These four little reading projects add up to a total of 4,480 pages. That’s a lot of pages… and I’m planning on reading this all in one year? You guys were right, this is madness. Oh, and this is all on top of my ever-present challenge to read all of the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die and my standing 50-books-a-year challenge.
Yeah, I’ve lost what little marbles I had to begin with. If all else fails though, it’ll be an interesting year filled with lots of wonderful books. It might be crazy, but I can’t wait to get started on my challenges. I’ll keep you guys posted on my progress and I’ll try to post reviews of more books this year (in the spirit of posting more content in general). Well, I’m off to the library, wish me luck!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Books in 2012

One of my New Year's resolutions from last year was to read 50 books in 2012.
Did I achieve that goal? Yes and no. Let me tell you what I mean. I had originally set out to just read any 50 books, but as the year progressed and I got more and more into my reading, I decided that the only books that would count toward this goal were new books, ones I had never read before.
Sounds admirable right? (yeah, I know, I've got a huge ego)
Anyway, even though I read a total of 51 books this past year, only 37 of them were new to me.
It wasn't quite the accomplishment that I was hoping for, but I'm pretty proud of it nonetheless. It's a lot more than I read last year, and I enjoyed a much higher percentage of the books that I read.

And what books did I read? I'm so glad you asked.
Here is the definitive list of all of the "new" books that I read in 2012:


One thing that I'm really proud of is that I didn't abandon any books last year. If I started a book (with the exception of one book that I'm still in the middle of reading), I finished it. This is new for me, and something that I really wanted to work on.
Another project I'm working on is re-reading any book that I said I hated, and seeing if I still feel that way. The Great Gatsby fell under that category this time around, and I'm happy to say that while it's never going to be my favorite book, I have much more of an appreciation for it now after my latest read-through.

If you guys want reviews of any of these books (beside the handful I already did a long time ago), just let me know. I'd be happy to let you guys know what I thought of any of these books! 

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Years!!!!

(picture shamelessly stolen from http://www.isgtw.org/visualization/happy-holidays-and-see-you-next-year)