By the Numbers

I read 104 books this year.

84% were fiction
16% were non-fiction

Among the fiction (87 books):

55% were novels
23% were graphic novels
15% were plays
6% were short story collections
1% were novellas

In terms of century of publication:

1% were from the 17th Century
5% were from the 19th Century
60% were from the 20th Century
35% were from the 21st Century

These 104 books were written by 50 different authors or writing teams.

82% were male
16% were female
2% represents a book by a male/female writing team

8% were Canadian
50% were American
22% were English
4% were French
4% were Russian
And 2% (or one author) from each of Australia, the Czech republic, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and Sweden.

98% were white, 2% were black.

Some Breakdown

The oldest book I read this year was Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline (1611).  I actually read it because I was on a giant George Bernard Shaw kick and came across his play Cymbeline Refinished in which he tries to correct some the issues with Shakespeare’s ending by rewriting the final act.  So, of course, I broke out the original and read it before reading Shaw’s “improvements”. Frankly, I come down on the side of Shaw in this particular debate.

I read three books published in 2009, the most recent being The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A.J.Jacobs, published in September.  I wish I had not read this book.  I discovered Jacobs last year; he’s a writer for Esquire magazine, and wrote 2 non-fiction novels. One about his quest to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, which is really funny and packed full of random trivia to know and tell. Jacobs other book was about the year he spent trying to follow the Bible to the letter.  Both had a modesty and sense of humour that I found very charming in a narrative voice.  His most recent book is a collected group of articles he wrote on ‘experiments’ that he did on himself, as it were, like subscribing to the Radical Honesty movement for a month (where you always tell the truth, but also use no filter between your thoughts and your words.  Think The Invention of Lying, if you saw it) or posing (with her permission) as his attractive nanny on a dating website to get her a date.  But without the depth, everything felt very cursory and crass, and I ended up liking him less at the end of the book.  Pity.

The author I read most of is Agatha Christie.  I’d been kind of saving her in the back of mind for when I get really old; I had this charming vision of really old Hillary in a rocking chair in front of a fireplace with a blanket over my legs and the mantle lined with the complete works of Agatha Christie.  But then I had a morbid moment and thought, I’d better just read through those now.  I can reread them in 60 years – I’m sure I’ll have forgotten most of the endings by then!  I read her most famous ones first (Murder on the Orient Express, And Then There Were None, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the last of which you should go read RIGHT NOW if you have ANY interest in mysteries at all!), and then I read the complete mysteries of Miss Marple.  I’m going back to read chronologically now, so expect to see a lot of Agatha Christie on this list again next year!

My favourite quotes of the year were George Bernard Shaw, which I have already posted elsewhere on this blog.  I can’t wait to get back to Ontario – I’ll make a point of hitting the Shaw festival every year!

My least favourite book of the year was the one that isn’t even among the 104, because I couldn’t even finish it – American Pyscho by Brett Ellis Easton.  I respected some of the stylistic choices he made in order to show how monotonous and superficial the lifestyle of the main character was (constant descriptions of everyone’s clothing including brands, characters kept mistaking people for other people, etc.), but reading it was monotonous by itself.  Then came the psycho killer part and it was somehow gory and boring at the same time.  It crossed one of my internal lines with the goriness, so I put it down.  NOT recommended for the weak of heart.

Books I’m most glad to have found this year include:

One Half of Robertson Davies, a collection of speeches made by Robertson Davies.  The final speech was particularly striking, about Canadian cultural identity, as delivered to an American University’s faculty of Canadian Studies.  HIGHLY recommended, especially for those of you who are as madly in love with Robertson Davies as I am.

Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner. A fascinating read.  I’m going to reread it before I start my bachelor of education – I think there are some very exciting ideas in it!

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. I love a good dystopian future, and this one based on the hideous extremes of Henry Ford style labour ideals was brilliant.  And controversial – it was written in 1920-21, but it wasn’t published in the USSR until 1988!

Author I’m most glad to have discovered this year:

Mary Roach, an American journalist and popular science writer. I read three of her four books this year, and enjoyed each thoroughly.  She is not a scientist herself, but has a very inquisitive mind and the result is very accessible and very interesting.  She’s particularly interested in the history of lines of scientific inquiry – for instance, one of her books dealt a lot with the history of scientific inquiry into the afterlife and the spiritual realm.

I’m currently soliciting suggestions for 2010′s reading list!

-Hillary

Don Juan: …I tell you that as long as I can conceive of something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it into existence or clearing the way for it. That is the law of my life. That is the working within me of Life’s incessant aspiration to higher organization, wider, deeper, intenser self-consciousness, and clearer self-understanding. It was the supremacy of this purpose that reduced love for me to the mere pleasure of a moment, art for me to the mere schooling of faculties, religion for me to a mere excuse for laziness, since it had set up a God who looked at the world and saw that it was good, against the instinct in me that looked through my eyes at the world and saw that it could be improved…
-Man and Superman, Act III

Why I love the English language:

Don Juan: …Your friends are all the dullest dogs I know. They are not beautiful: they are only decorated. They are not clean: they are only shaved and starched. They are not dignified: they are only fashionably dressed. They are not educated: they are only college passmen. They are not religious: they are only pewrenters. They are not moral: they are only conventional. They are not virtuous: they are only cowardly. They are not even vicious: they are only “frail.” They are not artistic: they are only lascivious. They are not prosperous: they are only rich. They are not loyal, they are only servile; not dutiful, only sheepish; not public spirited, only patriotic; not courageous, only quarrelsome; not determined, only obstinate; not masterful, only domineering; not self-controlled, only obtuse; not self-respecting, only vain; not kind, only sentimental; not social, only gregarious; not considerate, only polite; not intelligent, only opinionated; not progressive, only factious; not imaginative, only superstitious; not just, only vindictive; not generous, only proprietory; not disciplined, only cowed; and not truthful at all: liars every one of them, to the very backbone of their souls.
-Man and Superman, Act III

CCA Cat Show Halifax

Today we went to the Halloween Cat Show at the Halifax Forum! There were, sadly, no Sphynxes to be seen, but there were some Rexes and Oriental Shorthairs (which Des loved because they looked like they wouldn’t shed very much), some Maine Coons (which I loved because I love GIANT cats!) and the tiniest cutest five month old calico entered in the household pet category (which EVERYONE in the entire show loved. It was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen).

Vampire Judge

Added hilarity – some of the judges were costumed, so at, say, the Vampire Ring, the young francophone man who was judging was wearing heavy eyeliner, dress pants, a white collared shirt and a black flowing cape. It was just great! They also had a special category for all the black cats, where they seemed to favour the household pets. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen two housecats, a Scottish Fold, a Rex, an Oriental Shorthair and a couple of Persians, all black, staring out of cages and surrounded by Halloween decorations. My favourite moment of the show was a little smush-faced cat who was being judged by the vampire, who, as usual, dangled a little fishing toy in front of the kitty. (I don’t know if it shows the judges something they need to know about alertness, or if it’s just to keep them from running away, but that’s what they do.) The cat, instead of just batting at it as usual, bit hard on it and refused to let it go no matter who tried to distract him, and growled threateningly when anyone tried to take it away. Most tenacious kitty should be the Miss Congeniality equivalent!

Des and I actually had the whole weekend off together this week! A very unusual circumstance, granted, tempered by my rather dreadful cold which forced us to forgo anything strenuous or that would put us in the cold for long, or out at all late. But we decided that at the least we would make up for our lack of any recent nights out by having dinner out TWICE this weekend! Oh, yes! So, we settled on a Thai place just down the street from Gingergrass where we had eaten yesterday – first because it looked good, and second because though Gingergrass is Vietnamese and Thai, we’d both had Vietnamese main courses, so we felt some Thai was in order.

To preface this, we have been to one Thai place in Halifax so far (not including Gingergrass, because, as I said, we basically experienced it as a Vietnamese restaurant). That was Baan Thai at 1569 Dresden Row on the second floor. It was recommended to us by Where To Eat In Canada, which is basically my family’s bible, so I was completely unsurprised but still thrilled to find that I LOVED it. All the better, we went as a group of six, so though we all got our own dishes, we also got the opportunity to try a bunch of different entrees. So, I can safely recommend Baan Thai’s spring rolls, lettuce wraps, bamboo pork, sweet and sour chicken, cashew chicken, pad thai, basil chicken and (my dish) spicy shrimp, as well as fried bananas.

Talay Thai

So onto the new place: Talay Thai at 1261 Barrington Street. And the eternal question: get what we know we like and compare it to a place we’ve been, or try something new. And, since we’re us, we settled upon familiar appetizers (usually cause we’ll get just something inexpensive and nibbly and the cheap appetizer tends to be the same everywhere) and desserts (usually because I’ve never been able to turn down Gulab Jamun in Indian places, fried banana at Thai places, and chocolate cake or brownies anywhere else!) with main courses we’d never tried before. The appetizers were along the same lines as the spring rolls we had yesterday – called “Fresh Spring Rolls” here, they similarly had the soft rice paper wrapped around noodles, and some vegetables (in this case, bean sprouts, cucumbers and carrots), though it also had a sprig of coriander which I found a little strong, but that’s a personal thing. The tamarind sauce they supplied for dipping is my new favourite tamarind sauce, bar none. Plus the presentation was top notch!

Black Pepper Beef

As a main course, I had my heart set on trying a Thai curry – I LOVE Indian curries, so I felt I owed Thailand a taste, as it were. I settled on yellow curry, just because I’d heard from unverifiable and unsubstantiated sources that it was the most like Indian curry. I figured, if it IS the most like Indian, it’ll be nice intro, if not, it’ll be just as random a choice as if I did a meeny-miny-mo. And I decided on prawn, since I loved the Thai shrimp at Baan Thai. Des initially stuck with his apparent commitment to getting pork at Asian restaurants, but decided he was in a beef mood, and picked out the black pepper beef instead. And they were both great choices! We were so excited when they arrived that we forgot to take pictures until halfway through the meal – so the portions pictured are really only half of what we got! Des was definitely the winner tonight.  That beef was fantastic – light and tender cuts of meat with green peppers and Chinese mushrooms (I don’t like mushrooms, but he assured me they were surprisingly good!) as well as (obviously) black pepper. The sauce was a little spicy by itself, but with the beef it was just tasty – it was a soupy sauce, not thick at all, so the beef had absorbed it and was full and moist.

Yellow Curry Prawn

As for my dish, I was really impressed by the number of prawn I got – they were a good size and I got over a dozen in my order easily! And the taste of the curry was interesting, with the veggies (snow peas, celery, green onions and green peppers) adding a nice lightness since it was a creamy sauce. But not my new favourite thing – sadly, I think I’m becoming a wimp about spices again. When I was waitressing at an Indian place in Moncton, I couldn’t be phased anymore – I’d have the extra spicy Vindaloo and really enjoy the flavour, but now I’m back to being ok with mid-level spiciness, but really just preferring it not be there.  M’oh. In any case, yellow curry was definitely worth trying and all the ingredients were great, but just not quite to my personal taste.

Fried Banana

We finished off the meal with the fried banana, but it was different than any I’d seen before. It had little specks of something in the batter, which turned out to be mint. It was neat…. but, to return to my refrain for the evening, just not quite to my taste. So that was all the courses – lovely to look at, and each piece being creatively put together and nicely prepared, but just not for me. But I refuse to be one of those people who is all “Well, I guess we’ll stick to Baan Thai from now on” because that would be silly. If banana is what I want, then Baan Thai it will be, but Talay was nice enough to warrant further visits to see how they manage with dishes I KNOW I like elsewhere.

Des had better start getting more weekends off. A girl could get used to this!

Also, more pictures of the cat show and dinner on the Picasa page.

A very pleasant meal followed at Gingergrass Thai & Vietnamese Restaurant at 1284 Barrington Street. We decided to try something new for an appetizer, so we tried Salad Rolls, which is rice paper wrapped around vermicelli, lettuce, shrimp, and another meat that we currently forget the identity of.  I LOVED them – but they freaked out Desire a little bit – with the room temperature rice paper being soft and chewy and the vermicelli inside, he said he felt like he was eating a mouse.  (Well, I suppose it would’ve been a boneless, hairless mouse).  He enjoyed it better when he just ate out the insides.  *laugh*

Bubble Tea

For our main course, Desire got Vietnamese ribs with a carmelized sugar sauce, and some steamed rice, and I got a beef pho.  Both came out just beautifully – the presentation was lovely (the flatware would’ve gone GREAT with our own!) and the food itself was delicious.  The ribs were so tender that the bones could have been chewed and eaten and the sauce was complimentary without overpowering the meat itself.  The beef in my pho appeared pinker at the top where it stuck out of the broth, leading me to believe, that it was only lightly cooked at most, then put in the broth to allow it to cook the rest of the way – my FAVOURITE way to do beef!  It was tender and light!  The pho came with a small plate with both a sweet sauce (I believe tamarind) and a red spicy sauce on the side so I could flavour the broth as I wished.  I spiced it up a little, and found a PERFECT balance.  The only thing I missed was something I experienced for the first time in Ottawa at a Vietnamese place called Sweet Art at 309 Dalhousie.  There, they bring you the pho and the sauces, but they also bring a plate loaded with bay leaves, sprouts and lime so you can personalize the broth’s taste and add in as many sprouts as your little heart desires.  As a major lover of sprouts, this appealed to me immensely.  So, after that wonderful place, all pho now seems deeply under-sprouted.  Still, it was a beautiful soup.

For dessert, we got a fried banana with ice cream (I had the banana, Des had the ice cream) and a mango bubble tea.  Hurray for finally finding bubble tea on the east coast!  No sherbet bubble tea, but still darn solid.  There was some for sale at the market too, so it was two bubble tea discoveries in one day! I am a lucky little girl!

Prices were reasonable and the service was excellent.  We’ll definitely be back to try a Thai-heavier meal from them – maybe some curries!

Easel

Our last stop was at the art store for some supplies for Des.  We found a little table-top easel on for very very cheap, and just had to pick it up!  I got to carry it home and felt very bohemian!

What a lovely day!  Now if only we could shake the illness!

Tomorrow:  Cat Show!

Now, don’t get me wrong:  I understand completely the yearning for a pristine track.  However, I’ve always foudn that the honest laughter of people really enjoying something invariably improves my own enjoyment.  Three examples, in chronological order:

As a child, I fell in love with the Sondheim musical “Into the Woods.”  If you haven’t seen it, it’s highly recommended.  Obviously live is best, but there’s a fantastic recording of a performance featuring Bernadette Peters as The Witch and Joanna Gleason as the Baker’s Wife.  We had taped this video off of PBS at some point (Don’t worry, anti-pirate crusaders, I purchased it long ago, and am looking to acquire the DVD version sometime soon), and I watched it with alarming frequency.  And my favourite part of the whole show was when the Baker’s Wife has acquired one of the magic items that is needed to lift the curse, and gets to tell her husband by way of the exchange (heavily paraphrased):

Baker:  We have just one midnight left and only two items found.

Baker’s Wife: Three.

Baker: Two.

Baker’s Wife: Three.  Compare this to your corn.

Okay, granted that line doesn’t make a lot of sense if you haven’t seen the show.  But trust me, it’s good stuff in context.  And at this point there is on the tape a gleeful chuckle extremely close to the mic.  Keep in mind, this has been taped live, so we’ve been hearing the audience laughing this whole time.  But this laugh is right against us, and I’ve always believed it to be the delighted chortle of the cameraman, who has probably seen this show countless times, but just loves this little reveal so much and has anticipated it’s coming for the entirety of the performance.  I still look forward to his laugh every time I watch that video.

Another example: in my first year of university, Sarah and I had a lovely day out, ending with seeing The Ring. I was too afraid and had to leave after about 10 minutes, so I just wandered into another theatre at random. They were showing My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  Now, I have really no strong feelings one way or another about romantic comedies.  Mostly I find them uninspired, but rarely actively unpleasant.  I don’t spend money on seeing them, but I’ve been known to watch them when the opportunity was offered.  So I had no expectations for this movie.  But the theatre was entirely filled with middle aged women in groups, seemingly an entire theatre filled with “girl’s night out” attendees.  And these ladies LOVED this movie.  They oohed and aahed and roared with laughter, and I got caught right up with them.  To this day, I like watching that movie, because the memory makes me smile.

Lastly: Rifftrax.  Now, if you’re not yet familiar with Rifftrax, then I must also assume you are not familiar with Mystery Science Theatre 3000.  If this is true of you, then go to rifftrax.com right now and listen to some of their free samples.  That will give you some idea of the fantastic idea that is riffing. And I love Michael J Nelson.  Heck, I’ve read one of his novels (Death Rat.  Very funny, but not as funny as MST3k and Rifftrax).  But when Des and I tried to watch the Rifftrax just with him… well, we got bored.  It was missing something.  It was missing the sense of comraderie. That comraderie is really what makes MST3k and the multiple person riffs shine.  Listening to them laugh delightedly at themselves and play off one another.  It’s ideal.

After this, I feel compelled to note that of course I hate laugh tracks in sitcoms and et cetera.  Of course, mostly I hate sitcoms, but even when they’re good, the laugh tracks feel forced and fake and entirely too expected.  The sense of people enjoying the show and of unexpected laughter is lost completely with canned laughter.  But this made me think of something interesting I just learned from a book I’m reading: A.J. Jacobs’ The Know-It-All in which A.J. reads the encyclopedia.  He tells us about claques, which were essentially a hired group of plants placed in the audience of 19th century French theatre.  And it wasn’t just for laughing uproariously to get the crowd going, though that was the speciality of the rieurs.  But there was more:  bisseurs who specialized in shouting for encores, commissaires who would elbow their neighbours exclaiming “This part is great!” and les pleureuses, who were women who specialized in sobbing at tragedies.  These claques were actually paid monthly by the actors in the play.

Neat, eh?

Also, we got shushed by our neighbours.  Oops!  I rarely got shushed, so I’m savouring the guilt.  The last time I got shushed is at a screening for Batman Begins.  It was at one of the smallest theatres in Ottawa ( the one in the Rideau Centre, if you know the area), and several weeks after it’d been released, so Mattie and I figured we were safe in the nearly empty theatre for some quiet riffing.  But we got angrily shushed as we mocked one of the more hilarious moments (did anyone else notice that every time they mentioned the big drug in the air thing, it gained an extra adjective?  “It’s… a drug.”  “It’s a psychotropic a drug.”  “It’s a weaponized psychotropic drug!”  The only thing that beat that for me was the “I will tell him that you saved his life guy” shirking his ONE duty.  Hilarious!)

Oh, well, back to being polite and conscientious for me.  I just can’t take the guilt!