Monday, October 31, 2011

[Reading] Books of 2011

One of my new year's resolutions (well, anytime resolution) is to read more books. So here I hope to chronicle my literary adventures of 2011.

1. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - I still don't quite understand the whole wand thingie because I was desperately rushing to finish, so I'm sure I will re-read it. Can't wait for the movie!!

2. Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban - I think I actually read this book before, but I really didn't understand it the first time. The book and the movie is pretty different!

3. Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire

4. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix

5. Committed (Elizabeth Gilbert) - I've always been interested in the topic of marriage, and I'm glad to have read this book before getting married at the end of this year. Gilbert puts into words everything I have ever thought about in regards to marriage and much more. It's not to say that this book deterred me from entering into matrimony, but instead, it prepared me to know what I was getting into.

6. Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince - finally done with the harry potter series!! can't wait for the movie!!

7. The Double Comfort Safari Club - I still remember back in Utah when I went through the first few books of this series with a craze. It's easy reading with a take-home lesson!

8. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - Eat foods. Not too much. Mostly plants. 7 little words, so much depth.

9. How Starbucks Saved My Life - I seriously thought this would be a promotional book for Starbucks, but I learned so much from it: Be humble. Embrace every challenge in life, big or small. And do not ever think that you are too great for anything. Don't be pretentious.

10. Food Fight - I will admit that there were some parts that I skimmed over, especially parts with lots of numbers and statistics... But this is a very instructive book and speaks to me greatly as my thesis was related to vending machines in jr high schools.

11. The Omnivores Dilemma

12. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson

14. Velvet Touch

15. Murder on the Orient Express

16. The Other 8 Hours

17. I Remember Nothing

18. Gang Leader for a Day

19. I Was Told There'd Be Cake

20. My Nest Isn't Empty, It Just Has More Closet Space

21. Reader's Digest Guide to Skin Care

22. Someone Will Be With You Shortly

23. Eating Chinese Food Naked

24. The Penny Pinchers Club

25. Lost and Found

26. Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood

27. Spousonomics: Using Economics to Master Love, Marriage, and Dirty Dishes

28. Half Broke Horses

29. Girls in White Dresses

30. Chasing Harry Winston


31. The Hunger Games


32. The Dim Sum of All Things

33. Catching Fire


Chinese Books:
1. 占星術殺人魔法

2. 馬來鐵道之迷

3. 雙頭惡魔

4. 魔術師

5. 幻影

6. 血咒

7. 點與線

8. 花之寺殺人事件

9. 蝴蝶效應: 人生中不可忽視的小細節

10. 聖惡女


Re-reads:
1. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone

2. The Glass Castle

Attempted:
1. Sense & Sensibility - I'm sorry but I really don't see the hype about Jane Austen... I could not get myself to pass chapter 3. I suppose I will have to resort to the movies.

2. Lolita - I was actually really proud of myself for getting past half the book. Then the ramblings style of writing really got to me and I lost the battle. Quite a disturbing book though. I got the movie queue'd up in Netflix ;)

3. An Object of Beauty - I guess I expected this book to be really good based on reviews and that the author is Steve Martin. It probably is; I just can't relate to the NY lifestyle, neighborhoods, and the whole art scene.

4. 松本清張短篇傑作選 (上)

5. Shopgirl