Katie

January
La Invención de Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares
Fear and Progress: Ordinary lives in Franco's Spain - Antonio Cazorla Sánchez
Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett
Palimpsest - Catherynne Valente
Wishing for Tomorrow - Hilary McKay

February
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Joyful Wisdom - Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Wild Life - Molly Gloss
Feet of Clay - Terry Pratchett

March
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
The Other Wind - Ursula K. LeGuin
The Nimrod Flipout - Etgar Keret
Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
Blackout - Connie Willis (never mind I stopped this 1/4 through. Not as expected!)
Making Money - Terry Pratchett

April
The Children's Book - A. S. Byatt
Ragnarok: the end of the gods - A. S. Byatt

May
El Corazón Helado - Almudena Grandes

January
Mindfulness in Plain English - Ven. Henepola Gunaratana
A Short History of Women - Kate Walbert
El Aleph - Jorge Luis Borges

February
Hombres de maíz - Miguel Ángel Asturias (I got like two chapters in and gave up on this)
Orlando - Virginia Woolf
The Craft of Translation - edited by John Biguenet and Rainer Schulte
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
Insight Meditation - Joseph Goldstein
Wise Blood - Flannery O'Connor
Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut
The Violent Bear It Away - Flannery O'Connor

March
In Persuasion Nation - George Saunders
Everything That Rises Must Converge - Flannery O'Connor (ugh, do not want! gave up on last 2 stories)
The Friar and the Cipher - Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Luisa en el país de la realidad - Claribel Alegría
The Path is the Goal - Chogyam Trungpa

April
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
Emil und die Detektive - Erich Kaestner
Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett (sickbed rereading)
Bloodchild - Octavia Butler
Reflections on a Mountain Lake - Ani Tenzin Palmo
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett

May
Tres tristes tigres - G. Cabrera Infante
Three Trapped Tigers - G. Cabrera Infante (because I couldn't believe it had been translated and I am curious)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

June
The Miracle of Mindfulness - Thich Nhat Hanh
The Dictionary of Imaginary Places - Alberto Manguel & Gianni Guadalupi (not so much reading as flipping through with interest)
Baba Yaga Laid an Egg - Dubravka Ugresic
The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien

July
The Anthologist - Nicholson Baker
La casa verde - Mario Vargas Llosa
A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett
The Balkan Trilogy - Olivia Manning
Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett

August
Sabriel - Garth Nix
The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History - Katherine Ashenberg
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism - Chogyam Trungpa
Coronación - José Donoso

September
Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowry
Lirael - Garth Nix
The Flavor Bible
Abhorsen - Garth Nix
The Braindead Megaphone - George Saunders
La ciudad y los perros - Mario Vargas Llosa (canceled this after 40 pages -- I just don't feel like reading a book where young men in military school do horrible cruel things and are ruined and left without humanity or what have you, ugh)
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer - Siddhartha Mukherjee

October
Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
Empresas y tribulaciones de Maqroll el Gaviero - Alvaro Mutis (whoa this is like 7 books in one book, I did not realize - just read 1st one)
Parable of the Talents - Octavia Butler
Cave in the Snow: A western woman's quest for enlightenment - Vickie Mackenzie
I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett

November
A Pickpocket's Tale: the underworld of nineteenth-century New York - Timothy Gilfoyle
Work Sex Money: Real life on the path of mindfulness - Chogyam Trungpa
Bestiario - Julio Cortázar
The Enormous Radio and other stories - John Cheever

December
The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To - DC Pierson
After the Plague - T. Coraghessan Boyle
Taking the Leap - Pema Chodron
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell

Comic books
Faker
Blabbermouth
Outbound Vols. 1 & 2
Inbound Vol. 4
The Walking Dead 1, 2, 3 then I couldn't take it anymore
Freakangels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Planetary: Crossing Worlds
some Hellboy
Mouse Guard (MOUSE GUARD!!!)
Walk-in
The Unwritten 3
A History of Violence
Air 1, 2, 3, 4

January
Mindfulness in Plain English - Ven. Henepola Gunaratana
A Short History of Women - Kate Walbert
El Aleph - Jorge Luis Borges

February
Hombres de maíz - Miguel Ángel Asturias (I got like two chapters in and gave up on this)
Orlando - Virginia Woolf
The Craft of Translation - edited by John Biguenet and Rainer Schulte
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
Insight Meditation - Joseph Goldstein
Wise Blood - Flannery O'Connor
Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut
The Violent Bear It Away - Flannery O'Connor

March
In Persuasion Nation - George Saunders
Everything That Rises Must Converge - Flannery O'Connor (ugh, do not want! gave up on last 2 stories)
The Friar and the Cipher - Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Luisa en el país de la realidad - Claribel Alegría
The Path is the Goal - Chogyam Trungpa

April
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
Emil und die Detektive - Erich Kaestner
Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett (sickbed rereading)
Bloodchild - Octavia Butler
Reflections on a Mountain Lake - Ani Tenzin Palmo
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett

May
Tres tristes tigres - G. Cabrera Infante
Three Trapped Tigers - G. Cabrera Infante (because I couldn't believe it had been translated and I am curious)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

June
The Miracle of Mindfulness - Thich Nhat Hanh
The Dictionary of Imaginary Places - Alberto Manguel & Gianni Guadalupi (not so much reading as flipping through with interest)
Baba Yaga Laid an Egg - Dubravka Ugresic
The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien

July
The Anthologist - Nicholson Baker
La casa verde - Mario Vargas Llosa
A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett
The Balkan Trilogy - Olivia Manning
Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett

August
Sabriel - Garth Nix
The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History - Katherine Ashenberg
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism - Chogyam Trungpa
Coronación - José Donoso

September
Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowry
Lirael - Garth Nix
The Flavor Bible
Abhorsen - Garth Nix
The Braindead Megaphone - George Saunders
La ciudad y los perros - Mario Vargas Llosa (canceled this after 40 pages -- I just don't feel like reading a book where young men in military school do horrible cruel things and are ruined and left without humanity or what have you, ugh)
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer - Siddhartha Mukherjee

October
Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
Empresas y tribulaciones de Maqroll el Gaviero - Alvaro Mutis (whoa this is like 7 books in one book, I did not realize - just read 1st one)
Parable of the Talents - Octavia Butler
Cave in the Snow: A western woman's quest for enlightenment - Vickie Mackenzie
I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett

November
A Pickpocket's Tale: the underworld of nineteenth-century New York - Timothy Gilfoyle
Work Sex Money: Real life on the path of mindfulness - Chogyam Trungpa
Bestiario - Julio Cortázar
The Enormous Radio and other stories - John Cheever

December
The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To - DC Pierson
After the Plague - T. Coraghessan Boyle
Taking the Leap - Pema Chodron
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell

Comic books
Faker
Blabbermouth
Outbound Vols. 1 & 2
Inbound Vol. 4
The Walking Dead 1, 2, 3 then I couldn't take it anymore
Freakangels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Planetary: Crossing Worlds
some Hellboy
Mouse Guard (MOUSE GUARD!!!)
Walk-in
The Unwritten 3
A History of Violence
Air 1, 2, 3, 4

Not Comics, kind of in order:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

Stiff - Mary Roach

2666 - Roberto Bolaño

Los Detectives Salvajes - Roberto Bolaño

Drown - Junot Diaz

Manhood for Amateurs - Michael Chabon

The Song is You - Arthur Phillips

The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation - Chogyam Trungpa

After Babel - George Steiner (didn't finish)

The Dalai Lama at MIT - Anne Harrington & Arthur Zajonc

El Túnel - Ernesto Sabato (didn't finish)

What the Buddha Taught - Walpola Rahula

The Book of Disquietude - Fernando Pessoa (didn't finish, read a little to prepare for talk w/ translator)

The Man Who Loved Children - Christina Stead

Hoy, Júpiter - Luis Landero

Heartwood, something about Theravada Buddhism in the U.S. - Wendy Somebody (predict not finishing)

Mindfulness in Plain English




Comics, not in order:

Y the Last Man
Planetary
Hellboy
BPRD
Asterios Polyp
The Pride of Baghdad
Ex Machina
Sandman re-read
Preacher

Up early being peeved about that dude. Also that the coconut soup I poured in my keyboard did not make it speedier but instead made some buttons stop working. So no return key. One big paragraph! Will make me seem even more incoherent, I imagine. Anyway. I sort of rudely ignore that dude at first because I know enough of him to not want to bother, plus it is late, and I am sober and at the bar mostly just to collect M. and maybe C. But then in the interest of manners and not acting like an asshole with no reason (yet) I shake his hand and introduce myself anyway and the first (and only) thing he has to tell me -- needs to tell me! he seems very serious about it -- is that I COULD BE A MODEL. Not a swimsuit model... but an haute couture model, I have that quirky beauty, not classical beauty, but quirky. How tall am I? Oh. I seemed taller. I should know he's not hitting on me! He's just TELLING me. Mostly I stare blankly at him and occasionally say some smartass thing and think to myself "tedious!" and then concern myself with getting home. I vaguely think, how fortunate that I do not feel compelled to pretend politeness! But then this morning I wake up after sleeping for two hours and think about it. What is this interaction? Apart from "familiar!" It is like this: I have just met you! I have IMPORTANT INFORMATION for you. Information about yourself! About your appearance. You probably don't know anything about yourself or your appearance so it is a good thing I am here to tell you. Plus I have magical dude-knowledge about The Way Ladies Look. I am good at looking at them! I practice all the time! Anyway, I have just met you and it is very important that you know I think you are pretty! But I'm not hitting on you! And you can tell because I'm EXPLAINING to you how you are pretty. It's not just that I think you're pretty, I can tell you how the WORLD thinks you're pretty. Where you fall on the lady-hotness-commodity scale, which of course is totally objective. I am a neutral observer, standing in for the judgment of a neutral world, which is looking at you ALL THE TIME. I am a little confused that you aren't thanking me or at least looking interested. I am maybe worried that you don't entirely understand what I am telling you, so I will tell you over and over. (Hint: it is a longer version of what that dude in the van outside CVS said a few days ago: "Hey there, beautiful! ... (Me: no response)... PRETTY!" Which was in turn just a longer version of: "I AM LOOKING AT YOU AND I NEED YOU TO KNOW.") Dude, guess what! Actually, all dudes, guess what! I DON'T FUCKING CARE. This is a not-actually-public public service announcement. In case you were honestly wondering why I am looking at you with that blank look, now you know. If I were a different sort of person I would probably yell at you about this, but frankly I am pretty sure you would just act hurt and bewildered. If you honestly think that I somehow don't already know that I am being looked at all the goddamn time (what with the running around being a lady in broad daylight) and that I am going to thank you for letting me in on it -- because, DON'T WORRY, the reviews are positive! -- I CANNOT HELP YOU. And I do not want to. I want to drink my beer real fast and GO HOME. Once he realizes I am not responding to his valuable and flattering information, he calls me M.'s "boyfriend," because I am ignoring him and trying to round her up to head home since the bar is closing, and a lady who doesn't care that you'd totally do her may as well be a lesbian, and unless she's going to let you watch, she may as well be a dude.

I sent an email which consisted basically of the text

"heh heh
heh heh heh"

and a link to something and gmail ads immediately came up with "Beavis & Butthead tees." Thanks, gmail!

(to the tune of Good King Wenceslas)

Good cat whines a lot all day
because he is needy
because you took the vacuum out
or you're watching TV

why can't you just pick him up
and scratch behind his ea-ears
tell him that he's not too fat
and assuage his fea-ea-ears?

Get around to taking shower at 6:30 p.m. Say out loud in shower "have I brushed my teeth yet today? I can't remember. Man, I HOPE I brushed my teeth today!" Upon exiting shower, forget to brush teeth.

Instead of translating horoscopes I am distracting myself by looking up my astrological chart online. Here are some things one site says. Don't they sound just like me?

"She has a great need to be part of a group. She likes to mix with people and looks for partnerships."
"She approves of society's values."
"Weaknesses: does not think enough, she is frivolous. A dilettante in love."
"Hates being alone. She has lots of friends, likes to discuss and similarly has a lot of work friends."
"Her fate depends a lot on marriage. Marries for love, children, happy emotional life."
"She goes to excess, is unfaithful and often unsatisfied. Serious family quarrels in view."


Also, within the same horoscope:

"She is weak and easily influenced"
"She is strong-willed and powerful"
"she is also inconstant and capricious. She has a changeable nature"
"She perseveres and is serious in everything she does."

Hilarity!

My roommate just pointed me towards this extremely excellent resource: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Perhaps "resource" is the wrong word.