75 Books...More or Less! discussion

Well, 2015 I did not manage 75, but I did read more than in 2014. I ended on book 54. This year, I am hoping for a better record than that, and with luck, 75. I am nowhere near as fast or voracious as I used to be, although I am much better at buying the books... meaning I have good intentions and an addiction to books!

The first book on my 2016 list is:
A Bundled Slew of Dubious Undoings, by Glenn Kletke.

I have just begun book #2, so it is a reasonable start, I think. Carol

54 is still a good number!

According to a Pew Research Center survey last year the average number of books read in a year by American adults was 12... and of the people polled something like 23% hadn't read a single book. 54 is a great number!!!

It's still the first week of the year and you've already finished one book and started on the second. Let your reader flag fly ;)

Stacie wrote: "According to a Pew Research Center survey last year the average number of books read in a year by American adults was 12... and of the people polled something like 23% hadn't read a single book. 54..."

Thanks, Elyse, for the research info. I don't feel so bad! I guess part of my slowness is that some of the things I read are on the craft of writing or on health and are therefore rather slow going. It isn't quite the same as reading a novel. I make up for that a bit by reading a lot of poetry too. Most poetry books are relatively short in comparison.

Just to recap properly, here is my 2015 list:

75 Book 2015 Challenge

1. Hooking, Mary Dalton
2. The Sayings of the Vikings, trans. Bjorn Jonasson
3. Animal-Speak Pocket Guide, Ted Andrews
4. 3 Sections, Vijay Seshadri
5. Beyond, Sarah Wardle
6. Mother Desert, Jo Sarzotti
7. Glass Wings, Fleur Adcock
8. Later, Philip Gross
9. My Etruscan Face, Gianna Patriarca
10. Reversing Hypertension, Julian Whitaker, M.D.
11. Spontaneous Happiness Tool Kit Workbook
12. The Blue Tower, Tomaz Salamun
13. Singular Plurals, Roland Prevost
14. Strange Fits of Beauty & Light, Karen Massey (chapbook)
15. stupid hope, jason shinder
16. Spontaneous Happiness, Dr. Andrew Weil
17. Singing School, Robert Pinsky
18. Poems on the Underground 2012 ed. J Cherniak, G Benson, C Herbert
19. Deep Too, Stan Dragland
20. Speak, Old Parrot, Dannie Abse
21. Healthy Aging, Dr. Andrew Weil
22. Live Your Dash, Linda Ellis
23. The Little Green Book, Cherry Denman
24. The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry, ed. Mark Callanan & James Langer
25. today’s woods, Pearl Pirie
26. Sweetness in the Belly, Camilla Gibb
27. Cook This, Not That! , David Zinczenko & Matt Goulding
28. over my dead corpus, Pearl Pirie
29. Happenstance, Eds: Lenore Langs & Laurie Smith
30. True Concessions, Craig Poile
31. Accidentals, Claudia Coutu Radmore
32. Exit Interviews, Jim Smith
33. Cyclone Vanuatu, Claudia Coutu Radmore
34. Three Sets of Little Literary Haibun, Claudia Coutu Radmore
35. Kissing Bug, Monty Reid
36. Writing Sparks, Pearl Pirie
37. The Time of Your Life, Margaret Trudeau
38. The Best Canadian Poetry in English, 2014 ed. Sonnet L’Abbe, Molly Peacock
39. The Road to Atlantis, Leo Brent Robillard
40. Bite Down Little Whisper, Don Domanski
41. Silverchest, Carl Phillips
42. Indian Horse, Richard Wagamese
43. Kill the Messengers, Mark Bourrie
44. Being Mortal, Atul Gawande
45. Tomorrow’s Promise, Phyllis Bohonis
46. 365 Days of Walking the Red Road, Terri Jean
47. Sourdough Collaborations, Roland Prevost and Pearl Pirie
48. Small as Butterflies, Lesley Strutt
49. Will It Waffle? Daniel Shumski
50. Stealing Sugar from the Castle, Robert Bly
51. Fifteen Dogs, André Alexis
52. Moon-Bells and Other Poems, Ted Hughes
53. The Reason You Walk, Wab Kinew (DNF)
54. Poetry Under Oath, edited by Tom Simon

Stacie wrote: "...Let your reader flag fly ;)"

I love this!

And agreeing that 54 is a great number!!

Great list Carol!!!

Thanks, Annie and Andrea!

ok an update on my 2016 list so far, all poetry:

75 Book 2016 Challenge

1. A Bundled Slew of Dubious Undoings, by Glenn Kletke
2. Dual Impressions, Poetic Conversations About Art, John Brantingham & Jeffrey Graessley
3. The Spirit of the Thing and the Thing Itself, D. C. Reid
4. The Wrong Cat, Lorna Crozier
5. Heel, Matthew Walsh (chapbook)
6. If suppose we are a fragment, rob mclennan
7. Hadron, Justin Million (chapbook)
8. pleasantries and other misdemeanours, Christine McNair (chapbook)

I have managed to keep up the momentum so far, and here is my list up to this morning: 75 Book 2016 Challenge

1. A Bundled Slew of Dubious Undoings, by Glenn Kletke
2. Dual Impressions, Poetic Conversations About Art, John Brantingham & Jeffrey Graessley
3. The Spirit of the Thing and the Thing Itself, D. C. Reid
4. The Wrong Cat, Lorna Crozier
5. Heel, Matthew Walsh (chapbook)
6. If suppose we are a fragment, rob mclennan
7. Hadron, Justin Million (chapbook)
8. pleasantries and other misdemeanours, Christine McNair (chapbook)
9. Babette, Sara Deniz Akant
10. Culture of One, Alice Notley
11. Amulets and Letters, Laynie Browne (chapbook)
12. House Detox, L&K Designs
13. Cooling Time, C.D. Wright
14. Crow-Work, Eric Pankey

You are flying right along :)

Thanks, Stacie, hope I can keep up. I started off well last year, but then...

Well, you are off to a good start! Keep the faith! :)

Elyse wrote: "Well, you are off to a good start! Keep the faith! :)"

I will surely try! One way or another, the stacks of books that are swallowing my bedroom and my office have to be whittled down. Reading them first seems the most suitable first step!

I have more books than I know what to do with :)

Andrea wrote: "I have more books than I know what to do with :)"

Don't we all?! ;) lol

Keep forgetting to check in! I am up to 43 now, all but one either poetry or essays on poetry:
75 Book 2016 Challenge

1. A Bundled Slew of Dubious Undoings, by Glenn Kletke
2. Dual Impressions, Poetic Conversations About Art, John Brantingham & Jeffrey Graessley
3. The Spirit of the Thing and the Thing Itself, D. C. Reid
4. The Wrong Cat, Lorna Crozier
5. Heel, Matthew Walsh (chapbook)
6. If suppose we are a fragment, rob mclennan
7. Hadron, Justin Million (chapbook)
8. pleasantries and other misdemeanours, Christine McNair (chapbook)
9. Babette, Sara Deniz Akant
10. Culture of One, Alice Notley
11. Amulets and Letters, Laynie Browne (chapbook)
12. House Detox, L&K Designs
13. Cooling Time, C.D. Wright
14. Crow-Work, Eric Pankey
15. Before the First Word, Lorna Crozier, Catherine Hunter
16. Traveling Light, Linda Pastan
17. Time and Materials, Robert Hass
18. What Have I Ever Lost by Dying, Robert Bly
19. Global Poetry Anthology, Ed Baderoon, Clanchy, Forché, Jernigan, Lawrene, Osundare, Rahim, Satchidanandan, Schmidt, Taylor
20. A Year of Writing Dangerously, Barbara Abercrombie
21. Rough Ground Revisited, Kate Braid
22. Found Poetry Review, Vol. 7 various poets
23. He Leaves His Face in the Funeral Car, Arleen Paré
24. Fear, Some, Douglas Kearney
25. Happy Birthday, Nicanor Parra, Jim Smith
26. Poetry Lives Here, ed. Eileen Mary Holowka and Joshua Whitehead (special publication-CV2)
27. Ardour, Nicole Brossard
28. Ten Windows, Jane Hirshfield
29. The Resumption of Play, Gary Geddes
30. The Emperor of Water Clocks, Yusef Komunyakaa
31. Poetry As Insurgent Art, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
32. The Open Door: One Hundred Poems, One Hundred Years of "Poetry" Magazine, edited by Don Share & Christian Wiman
33. Magyarázni, Helen Hajnoczky
34. The Road to Naropa, Terry Ann Carter
35. The Book of Seventy, Alicia Suskin Ostriker
36. Skirrid Hill, Owen Sheers
37. The Book of Marvels, A Compendium of Everyday Things, Lorna Crozier
38. The Wild in You, Lorna Crozier, Ian McAllister
39. Everything Arrives at the Light, Lorna Crozier
40. This Being, Ingrid Ruthig
41. The Waking Comes Late, Steven Heighton
42. There is No Escape Out of Time, Jacqueline Valencia
43. Calling Down the Sky, Rosanna Deerchild

Great to see you Carol! Looks like you have had a busy Spring doing a ton of reading!

Thanks, Andrea. I am thinking I might actually make the goal this year for the first time! Poetry is mostly a quicker read than the other genres, so that helps, but it is mainly what I read anyway. I will be including a couple of essay volumes too, so those have more heft, and tend to take a bit longer usually.

Poetry may be shorter and quicker to read but I feel like for me I read it slower to understand.

Andrea wrote: "Poetry may be shorter and quicker to read but I feel like for me I read it slower to understand."

Well that makes sense too! A lot of times it takes two or three times to get the best sense of the poem!