So, I know this end of year stuff is supposed to be all done by now, what with today being January 2nd and all, but I don't really use computers on the weekends, so I'm a little behind. I was all set to post the list of books I read last year. Except then I couldn't find the list this morning. I know it's not so smart to keep the list on a piece of scrap paper ripped from a notebook, but I managed to keep it all year - through three moves, no less. And then this morning it was gone. I have reconstructed most of it. It was a sad year for me, reading-wise. I believe I only read 14 or 15 books. It is possible that I only read 13 (which is the number I'm able to name at the moment). I had a very good start - I completed 8 books in the first two months of the year. But then my life got crazy and I kept moving and not having regular access to my books and, well, I just kind of stopped reading. So, from memory, here are the books I read in 2006:
- Lady Susan by Jane Austen
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
- Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
- The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
- The Biographer’s Tale by A.S. Byatt
- The Lost Traveller by Antonia White
- Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
- A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
- Corker's Freedom by John Berger
- Moon Palace by Paul Auster
- A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
- High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
I will declare Corker's Freedom to be my favorite among the books I read in 2006 with Brideshead Revisited as a close second. I also recommend A Handful of Dust (though it was very depressing, probably moreso because of things that were going on in my life at the time I read it), The Tortoise and the Hare, and Housekeeping.
I have also tried to construct from memory the list of movies I saw on the big screen in 2006. They were:
- Thank You for Smoking
- Casino Royale
- The Departed
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Good Night and Good Luck
- Tristram Shandy
- Throne of Blood
- The Devil Wears Prada
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
- The Apartment
- All About Eve
- An Inconvenient Truth
- A Prairie Home Companion
- Army of Shadows
- The Proposition
- X-Men 3
- Nashville
- Brick
I declare Army of Shadows the best movie of 2006. If forced to select a movie that actually came out in 2006, I would choose The Proposition.
Anyway, Happy New Year to all! I, for one, am very glad to have 2006 behind me. I believe I can say without a doubt that it was the hardest year of my life.
