Maybe it just sags like a heavy load

So. Another year gone. or at least it will be gone in an hour and a half. Happy New Year you guys!

This year has definitely been an interesting year with a lot of up and downs!! Heh.

Well let's hope that this next year will be lucky number 7 for me. The number 7 has always worked out well for me...i was born in a year that ended in 7....my actual birthday is the 17th....when i was 17 was really good.....i'm sure that when i was actually 7 it was pretty sweet too. haha i have no idea what i'm saying.

ANYWAYS. This year I kept a list of all the books I read and thoughts(or lack thereof) that i had right after i read them. I have read a lot less than I thought I would. And i am on the cusp of finishing two books at the moment but i will not finish them in 2006.. Teah suggested I grade them...so i guess i will do that.
And for reference i am grading them for the genre they are in! So no complaints. I also decided to give them all awards because I am silly.

BOOKS I READ IN 2006

1. Every Boy's Got One by Meg Cabot--okay so another chick-lit over christmas and boy i got HELL for this one! My brother was all "what is it that every boy's got?" and well you can imagine....when i finally found the stupid quote in the book i had to announce to my ENTIRE family that what every boy has is a HEART! and my brother responds with "Yeah right." Anyway this was one of her older reader books and it was just like the young adult stuff except the protagonist was older...and she mentioned sex. but as the other one i read had sex...i'm not sure why that one is for older readers?? oh well. its fun all the same. Grade: B Award: Best book to get made fun of for

2. Wicked, The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire--This book suprised me in many ways. First of all, it shares very little in common with the fluffy fun musical....this book is in many ways much darker, and in many ways much harder to swallow....I will say that I like the musical much better. But I didn't hate the book at all. It took me frickin forever to read it and in some parts it was really boring and a little disturbing(i will go off on a side note here and say that i had this really warped unpleasant sexual dream while reading this and seriously thought that something must be very very wrong with me until i realized that it was genuinely inspired by this one scene in the book...believe me that was extreme relief---blargh) but towards the end i loved it and i also love the way it ended. But will i read son of a witch?? no. at least not for awhile. I have had enough of Maguire's heavy style for awhile. I'm a poet and i didn't know it. But my feet show it! They're long fellows. Grade: B Award: Best fanfiction (because dammit thats WHAT it is)

3. The Stranger by Albert Camus-- I actually really liked this book.....the way its written is so...bland and honest in a nihilistic sort of way. But i don't see the existentialism in this....i never saw him come out of the nihilistic hole as someone described it to me....but maybe thats the point of the book....to inspire existentialism through seeing what happens to nihilistic people?? I'm so curious that I'm going to look this up right now. "Some ideas in The Stranger clearly resemble this working definition of existentialism, but the broader philosophy of existentialism includes aspects far beyond this definition that are not present in The Stranger. Moreover, Camus himself rejected the application of the “existential” label to The Stranger. Hence, this SparkNote approaches The Stranger from the philosophical perspective of the absurd."---SEEEEEEEEEE! I am right! Even Camus didn't want it to be existential! Grade: B+ Award: Best book to argue about

4. Avalon High by Meg Cabot--This is a chick lit book that was actually really really good! All the king arthur referencing was really cool! And Will was a really really hot character. damn. Grade: A Award: Best book to geek out about

5. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad---extremely hard to read...but I'm glad i read it! I got some stuff out of it--i'd read it again if i had to...i didn't hate it like everyone said i would! Grade: B+(but i know i just don't understand it like i should...:P) Award: Best book to count the words brooding gloom in

6. Things Fall Apart--I think this is one of my favorite school things i've read this year!! It was really good! It made you understand a side that is many times unrepresented. The ending was sooo good too. Good choice Huddleston! Grade: A+ Award: Best suprise

7. The Long, Dark, Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams--okay so this is by no means one of his best books. but i loved it all the same. Dirk Gently is pretty much an amazing character. And all the norse mythology was CRAZY but wonderful at the same time. it took me a while to figure out what had actually happened though...i was like...wait a second here. Anyway it was a fun read! Grade: B+ Award: the of course it's good it's douglas adams award

8. Party Princess by Meg Cabot-- it was pretty typical as far as the princess diary books go...but did i enjoy this? yes i did. Grade: B Award: Best alliteration? haha

9. The Mediator Series-Twilight by Meg Cabot--i like her kind of off-beat novels so much more than the girly novels. not that i don't like her girly novels. and not that this one wasn't girly....its just kinda science ficitiony too so...i don't know. And i'm sorry. but that Jesse guy is the hottest ghost ever...she KNEW what she was doing to us with him. hah. although i always associate the name jesse with horse so i don't know. Grade: A Award: Most successful in making the dead hot

10. A Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde--ABSOLUTELY FANTABULOUS BOOK! i was totally hooked throughout the whole thing and it kept me guessing even though it shouldn't have. no really! the book was fairly predictable but it distracted me enough that i didn't predict it! GENIUS! hahaha. and it is just beautifully written...like 5000 people in my english class chose this as their last book to read and NOT ONE PERSON I HAVE TALKED TO has disliked it. Do you know what that means? That means you have to go read it. right now. Grade: A+ Award: Best book read in 2006

11. The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry--I LOVED this! It was such a fun read! slightly da vinci code esque but much much much much better! Read this during psych review mostly! Grade: A Award: The book that Made Me Get a 5 on my psych AP test SHIT YEAH award

12. Fight Club by Chuck can'tspellhislastname Raskolnikov(because i can spell that one)--Woah! weird book. And i totally called the "big twist" and it pissed me off so much that i had to put the book down for a few days. I won't say what the twist was but COME ON! the ending however was hella cool and sort of made up for the twist. I STILL haven't seen the movie. but its on my netflix list so... Grade: A Award: Only book ever that I didn't speak to for a week

13. How to be Popular by Meg Cabot-- I really read too many of her books. But they are like eating a bag of cookies or something... This one was really cute though! but def. one of her more girly ones. Grade: B+ Award: Best book to chill before college

14. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke- I had read this one before(at Cambridge in fact and gave it away to some girl so she could read it to her little sister) but i wanted to read the sequel so i read it again. And i still love this book. It captures the love of reading that I have and its just marvelous. The characters are also so brilliant. Grade: A+ Award: Best book that makes you love books

15. Inkspell by Cornelia Funke- The sequel to Inkheart and COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. It seems obvious to me that Inkheart was not originally supposed to be a trilogy but somehow inkspell works. Again it captured me the way Inkheart did but in a completely different way. And i have to say i bawled like a fucking baby at the end. GAH! some sad stuff! Hopefully the third one will come out soon! Grade: A Award: Best book to make you make a lasting impression on your roommate with (i finished this book the week i got to school and she caught me crying like a fucking baby over it)

16. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell--An interesting book mostly only because Orwell wrote it haha! I liked the way he observed things and the massive change in Barcelona was really interesting. Although Orwell is so english it HURTS! Grade: B Award: Most written on book of 2006

17. Stranger to Myself by Willy Reese--This was an intense and depressing book but fascinating at the same time. Although i still think the book ends on a positive note where as everyone and their mother disagrees with me. But since this is world war 2 in the perspective of a german its hard to see something positive out of it. heh i guess i'm a weirdo. Grade: B Award: Most depressing book of 2006

18. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde--um can I say I have totally fallen in love with this series? This reminds me very slightly of hitchhiker's guide just because its englishness and haphazardness but its totally a sci-fi literary mix which makes for a very awesome book in my opinion. Yay for Thursday Next! Grade: A+ Award: Best discovery of 2006

19. A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman by one english guy and one russian guy--YUCK. NEVER MAKE ME READ THIS AGAIN. Grade: F (damn that feels good! take that!) Award: Worst book of 2006

20. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde--This book was just as good as the first one! Pickwick standing on one leg made me laugh very hard. AND LANDEN BETTER COME BACK. Grade: A+ Award: I'm just a damn good book award

21. An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Berlin by Gad Beck--easily my favorite thing we read in my stupid War Class. It was fascinating and astonishing and all in all a good read. It was very nice to have a book I actually liked after number 19....hehe Grade: A Award: Best book in my War Class

22. The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde--This book was slightly different that the first two and at first i kinda shied away from it---but of course i ended up loving it because I LOVE THIS SERIES PEOPLE! So um there was a scene in this book that took place in Wuthering Heights and ANYONE who has ever discussed this book with me know i laughed throughout this whole section. Particularly the reference to the fact that no one has EVER understood what Joseph said. And how amazing is Mrs. Havisham??? How the hell can Mr. Fforde get away with this? haha Grade: A+ Award: Best Wuthering Heights reference

23. Closely Watched Trains by Hrabal--i found this book very suprising. At first i thought i wasn't going to like it but i'm honestly not sure what I thought of it. Someone who is in my stupid war class saw me with the book right after I had finished it and they asked me how it was because they hadn't read it and i responded with "It's weird. Not sure what I think of it yet." And this guy Bo who's also in my class i think read the book about 5 times. He kept going "I just don't get it!" I would be very interested to see the movie. Grade: B Award: Weirdest book

24. Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde--the last of the series that's been published so far. And man did i adore this one. Hamlet Hamlet Hamlet and more hamlet. Cheesy jokes that were insanely corny that made me nearly wet my pants. This series is just a complete blast. Grade: A Award: Best book that worked all too hard for a really really dumb but hilarious pun at the end

Well that's 2006! See you in another life brothah! *cough* I mean...uh...HAPPY NEW YEAR AND HAPPY NEW READ.