Reading ABC

In January of 2014 I started reading alphabetically. I chose titles by the author's last name, proceeding through the alphabet one letter at a time. I had a goal in mind: instead of buying a membership card at the much larger library in Brantford, I would try to methodically go through the collection at my local branch. They had more books than I could ever want to read, but I found myself walking around and around through the stacks, unable to find a good title.

I have a lot of unread books on my own shelves as well. I figured this approach would have the additional bonus of giving some focus to tackling my own library.

I'll skip to the ending: I didn't make it through the alphabet. I contend that I was doing fairly well until I got to a non-fiction "P," even though it was late in the year and I had already skipped J and K (Joyce when I was 9 months pregnant? I don't think so). However, I enjoyed the process. And choosing books so intentionally allowed me to notice threads and themes that carried from one book to the next.

My plan is to try and put some reviews up on Bibliocommons, the library catalogue that the Brantford Public Library uses. However, here was my reading list for 2014.

Adams, Richard. Watership Down
Boyden, Joseph. Through black spruce
Coupland, Douglas. Worst. Person. Ever.
DeBerniers, Louis. Birds without wings
Eco, Umberto. In the name of the rose
Franco, James. Actors Anonymous *
Gross, Lauren. The monsters of Templeton
Hay, Elizabeth. Late nights on air
Izanni, Frances. Deafening
Larsson, Steig. The girl with the dragon tattoo
Murakami, Haruki. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage.
Niffenegger, Audrey. The time traveler`s wife
Ozeki, Ruth. A tale for the time being

While my plan is to put some reviews up on Bibliocommons, I must mention here that Actors Anonymous was horrible. I`m embarrassed that it appears on this list. When I was heading to the library my husband joked that "maybe James Franco has written a book," so when I saw he had I couldn't resist. While I don`t like to endorse books without some sort of reader engagement, I feel comfortable recommending quite blindly that people NOT read this book.