I've been feeling really aimless lately. I am flitting from book to book--not because nothing interests me, but I'm reading so many really good books I can't quite decide which to settle down with and concentrate on. So I don't feel like I have much to talk about today. And it's really hot and really humid. And hot and humid weather makes me (and my already slow computer) cranky. So as the week has progressed my posts are getting less and less inspired. And what we're left with today is a list--remember I mentioned the multitudes of lists I made this year? Here are the lists combined into one (I'm not counting my 'Thursday Thirteen' posts as those are more for reference when I'm looking for a book with a certain subject matter). These are the books that I actually set forth to read this year. I'm not sure why I'm subjecting myself (or you) to this, but for lack of anything else to write about.
- Maurice, E.M. Forster
- The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan
- Beware of Pity, Stefan Zweig
- **The Go-Between, L.P. Hartley -- Am actually reading this and it's *wonderful*!
- My Antonia, Willa Cather
- Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Anne Tyler
- Rainbow, D.H. Lawrence
- The Fountain Overflows, Rebecca West -- Started this one, but got distracted.
- **Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier -- Working on this, too.
- Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy --Still planning on reading this one.
- **Needle in the Blood, Sarah Bower -- Started this one earlier in the year, set it aside, but am back to reading it again.
- Aristocrats, S.K. Tillyard
- Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years, Elizabeth Wayland Barber
- Miss Marjoribanks, Margaret Oliphant
Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon-- One I finished!- Uncle Silas, Sheridan Le Fanu -- Maybe for Carl's RIP challenge?
- Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell
- Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte -- Still want to read something by the Brontes
- Law and the Lady, Wilkie Collins -- Have this one on my nightstand....
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll
- Linnet Bird, Linda Holeman
- Sweetest Thing, Fiona Shaw
- Affinity, Sarah Waters
- French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles
- The Great Stink, Clare Clark
The Crimson Portraitby Jodi Shields-- This was the first book I read this year.- Moon Tiger
- Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
- Vienna by Eva Menasse
One Fine Dayby Mollie Panter-Downes-- One of my favorite reads this year!- Flowers of the Field by Sarah Harrison
- The Female Quixote, Charlotte Lennox
- Evelina, Frances Burney
- **Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen -- Am reading this, and while it's really good, I'm sorry I'm not enjoying it as much as the other Austens I've read.
- Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
- A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
- Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
- House in Paris, Elizabeth Bowen
- The Birds Fall Down, Rebecca West
- The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life through the Pages of a Lost Journal , Lily Koppel
- The Bolter: Idina Sackville - The Woman Who Scandalised 1920s Society, Frances Osborne
- American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White: The Birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century, Paula Uruburu
- May and Amy: A True Story of Family, Forbidden Love, and the Secret Lives of May Gaskell, Her Daughter Amy, and Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Josceline Dimbleby
- The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm, Juliet Nicolson
- Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, Caroline Weber
- Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox 1740 - 1832 , Stella Tillyard
- The Glassblower of Murano, Marina Fiorato
- The Rose of Sebastopol, Katherine McMahon
- Frost in May, Antonia White
- The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
How sad--only three are crossed off (though the four with asterisks are already started and I plan on finishing them). I still, of course, want to read every book on this list. If I only read from this list and allowed no other distractions, I might even be able to manage it by the end of the year, but I know that is not likely to happen.
By the way, I'm planning on dumping Bloglines. Maybe I'm just an inept user, but I keep having problems. I'm still occasionally getting bombarded by old posts (usually making it impossible for everything to load), but now I have encountered a new problem. Today I set out to mark posts to read later, but a link caught my eye and I thought I would click though and take a quick peek. Usually a new window will open, but today the website opened in the window where the list of posts appears. Is this a new feature? How do I get back to my list? Apparently it's not by hitting the back button on my browser. It brought me back to the previous page causing me to Once Again lose my list of new posts. I had only gotten to the B's by the way. Aarrgh. Extremely annoying. So, any suggestions of a good, easy to use feed reader? I have looked at Google, but I'm not sure I like it. I want something intuitive and easy to use, and doesn't have the problems I'm having with Bloglines. By the way, between the heat and difficulties with Bloglines, I've gotten very behind in blog reading and commenting--I do apologize! Someday I am going to get caught up. Really.