Well... that was fun.

Through my own silly fault I was ten minutes late to my Elements of Music final, so, sadly, twenty minutes later I was not the first one done. I tied with another girl. *Sigh.* I'd been so hopeful.

100+ books in 2010!

Seriously, I'm going to remember this year. Or, at least, I'm going to remember for at least two months. Yay feasible goals!

ENTER
READ(!!!)
WIN*

*It's like NaNoWriMo, except I don't think you get a badge. Just bragging rights.

MAGGIE'S BOOKS

1. Betsy and Joe by Maud Hart Lovelace. (Oh MHL, you make me nostalgic for your childhood.)
   
2. Pretties by Scott Westerfield.
3. a novella by a friend of mine. (!!!)
   
4. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. (Oh GCL. I cannot say how much I love this book.)
   
5. The Enchanted Raisin by Jacqueline Balcells, translated by Elizabeth Gamble Miller. (Amanda Pearl read these stories to me when I was little, and I haven't looked at them in years. They've grown weird in the meantime.)
6. Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman.
7. River Secrets by Shannon Hale. (Oh SH...)
   
8. Ice by Sarah Beth Durst. (Beauty and the Beast in the modern arctic... and then it explodes. My opinion might come later.)
9. Genesis by, um, God (also Moses). (NASB.) (At first I was asking if this counts, but I know it totally has to.)
10. Spindle's End by Robin McKinley. (More rereading from when I was youngerish. Also, RM's prose is like pudding. I'd elaborate but I'd probably just go on a huge tangent like she does all the time. Deliciously, I mean, but wow.)
11. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
12. Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card. (At least the third time through... I don't quite remember.)
13. Matilda by Roald Dahl.
14. Cathy's Book: if found call (650) 266-8233 by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman; interior design by Cathy Brigg. (Interesting. Kind of fun.)
    
15. The Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket (AKA Daniel Handler).
16. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. (Never read it before.)
17. Horseradish by Lemony Snicket (AKA Daniel Handler). (Quite meh, bordering on lame.)
    
18. Holes by Louis Sachar. (Again.)
    
19. Cathy's Key: if found call (650) 266-8202 by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weismann; interior design by Cathy Brigg. (This one wasn't as good as the first. It was half sequel, half anti-war diatribe, and Jewel was one of my least favorite kinds of unrealistic. She could and did get away with everything, and people constantly underestimated her, and she apparently didn't care about anyone but herself. Very annoying to read.
    However, it's still a very fun kind of book and I hope it becomes popular. I can see this style being really amazing.)
20. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. (Interesting and a nice style.)
    
21. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. (Oh my goodness. I wish I'd read this before. Oh my goodness.)
22. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. (Yes, again. I nearly cried both times. Oh my goodness.)
23. Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin. (The narrater is an autistic boy. Interestingish, but the plot's not amazing.)
24. Cathy's Ring: if found call (650) 266-8263 by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman; interior design by Cathy Brigg. (A pretty good ending to the trilogy, but relatively. The whole thing probably gets about three and a half stars.)
25. Little Bee by Chris Cleave. (Totally the best cover ever.)
    
26. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. (Reread.)
27. Sold by Patricia McCormick.
28. Artemis Fowl, The arctic incident: the graphic novel adapted by Eoin Colfer & Andrew Donkin; art by Giovanni Rigano; color by Paolo Lamanna; lettering by Chris Dickey (originally by Eoin Colfer). (They seriously weren't meant to be graphic novels... yet I read the second. EC, why do I keep reading you? Aren't your books supposed to be for 12-year-old boys? Sigh.)
    
29. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. (Reread. When will August get here?)
    
30. Chiggers by Hope Larson; lettered by Jason Azzopardi. (Really, really lame. I should really stop following such whims as led me to pick it up.)
31. Graphic Classics Volume 4: H. P. Lovecraft by H. P. Lovecraft, some adapters, and a bunch of artists. (:D)
32. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal by Jeff Kinney. (Still trying to keep updated on kid's lit.)
    
33. Calamity Jack by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale. (Can definitely be stand-alone. Rather steampunkish. I liked it.)
34. Serenity Vol. 1: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, and Will Conrad.
35. The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, read by David Ackroyd.
    
36. Shug by Jenny Han.
37. Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby.
38. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. (Aaaaaiii. Loved it.)
39. The Screwtape Letters with Screwtape Proposes a Toast by C. S. Lewis. (Still so brilliant.)
    
40. The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks, read by Marc Cashman.
    
41. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, read by Scott Brick. (I have trouble seeing how this became a movie starring Will Smith. What? Also, I liked Scott Brick. The reader really matters; I started Lawrence and the Arabs recently but had to stop almost immediately because what's-his-name that was reading it had an incredibly annoying voice.)
    
42. The Best Time Travel Stories of All Time edited by Barry N. Malzberg. (This was a very good collection. It has some big names, too. I may actually buy it.)
    
43. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness. (In which Mr. Hammar is promoted to Captain. Also, made me buy a full-price book from amazon.co.uk because the third in the trilogy is not freaking out in the US yet.)
44. Science Fair by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. (Meh. The authors thought that every time a character came onto a new scene they had to reintroduce the nickname, and that was so annoying and pedantic and stupid.)
    
45. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness. (Aaaaaiiiiiii. Five stars of five. Patrick Ness, will you be my new best friend? You're my favourite.)
46. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling, read by Jim Dale. (We have surprisingly few audiobooks; so if you see HP all over this list, that's because it's my go-to if I have to clean my room or such. It's really very handy to listen to something.)
47. Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer, read by Enn Reitel. (I think it's better the second time through. I really am fond of this series.)
48. Ten Ways to Make my Sister Disappear by Norma Fox Mazer.
49. Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis. (Quite delightful. I'll probably read more Emma-Jean. She reminds me heavily of a character I had a few years ago, only Emma-Jean is nice. (Oh haha, I just realized that my characters initials were EJS. And I hadn't even heard of this book. Funny times!))
50. Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card.
51. Nightlight: a parody by The Harvard Lampoon. (Rather eh. It was too over-the-top to be brilliant, but it had some really awesome lines: "None of us were very good at saying good-bye. For some reason, it always came out good-BUH.")
52. Emma-Jean Lazerus Fell in Love by Lauren Tarshis.
53. Break by Hannah Moskowitz.
54. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.
55. Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah.
56. Lovingly Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.
57. Through the Wardrobe: Your Favorite Authors on C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia edited by Herbie Brennan (includes authors Sarah Beth Durst (see 8) and Diane Duane). (It was really good. I mean, I didn't agree with all of them, but it was quite interesting and afterward I felt like reading the Chronicles again.)
58. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. (... which I then did.)
59. Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis.
60. The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" by C. S. Lewis.
61. The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis.
62. The Horse and his Boy by C. S. Lewis.
63. The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis.
64. The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis. (I've always really loved this one. Authors in Through the Wardrobe kept saying it's not as good because it's too overwhelmed by the biblical message—but I also love Revelations, so I guess I'm the odd girl out.)
    
65. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.
66. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. (Enjoyable, but not mind-shattering. I couldn't see Alex as human because he had no empathy. Ever.)
    
67. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. (Just getting ready for the imminent release of Mockingjay.)
    
68. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.
69. The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale. (I needed something comforting and funny during orientation, only it turned out to be a bad decision, as I almost starting crying in the cafeteria. I don't know what crazy thing SH did to me, but this book just kind of locates my heart and twists it. Also my funnybone, but in a non-painful way.)
    
70. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. (No official comment yet, except that it was surprising.)
71. Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer. (EC really just can't stop. I thought that *maybe*, since this is the seventh book, it might be the ending, but no way he's stopping here. I think AF is doomed to be an eternal series, and will eventually become unendurable. Until then, however, I'm still enjoying them.)
72. Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable by Mark Dunn. (Really fun, and clever.)
    
73. Push by Sapphire.
74. All But Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. (Yeah, yeah, I know, shut up.)
75. Skinny by Ibi Kaslik. (Don't misunderstand this novel: It's not about anorexia. It's about two sisters and how they related to their father. Also one of them happens to be anorexic. It's also just poorly written. About halfway through I found the need to check if it was self-published. (It wasn't.))
76. The Giver by Lois Lowry. (I'd forgotten how much I enjoy reading LL. I'm really glad I read this book and intend to actually buy it.)
77. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. (I noticed more flaws this time, but definitely still enjoyed it.)
78. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry.
79. Messenger by Lois Lowry. (The further into these books I get, the stupider some of the first one looks. However, still cool.)
80. Going Bovine by Libba Bray.
81. The Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Capture by Kathryn Lasky. ((This and the next reviewish thing are Frankensteined from my 24-hour-read-a-thon notes.) Okay, this book just isn't that wonderfully-written. Too obvious about many things. It kind of throws its message at you. KL is too fond of her weird and made-up words. "Oh no, the bats are going to quank!" There's only so far I can take seriously. Oh, and KL changes person ALL THE TIME. I hated it. But it was still a fun book. Maybe I just like owls... dunno. Maybe it made me feel nostalgic. I haven' t read it in years.)
    
82. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. (I read a really good review for this ages ago, and picked it up randomly at the library because I was restless, and totally forgot what it's supposed to be about. It was... interesting. I'm not 100% sure I understand the her choice of places to have quotation marks. It really changes track partway through. Oh, and there's ickiness.)
83. Paper Towns by John Green. (Brilliant. It's about Quentin Jacobsen, but it's really about Margo Roth Spiegelman. It's in two parts. Part I sets up Margo Roth Spiegelman as one of those magic pixie dream girls you always hear about--in the noble tradition of Clarisse (Fahrenheit 451), Leslie (Bridge to Terabithia), and Stargirl (Stargirl). Always doing quirky things, always beautiful, always amazing... and then Part II deconstructs that image. And I did not know how it was going to end, in a good way.)
84. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.
    
85. Room by Emma Donoghue. (Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. So. Flamazing.)
    
86. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. (Breifly: Two boys called Will Grayson meet. However, it should be called Tiny Cooper, Tiny Cooper or Tiny Cooper and the Boys Who Loved Him or something. Yeah, it's not about Will Grayson OR Will Grayson; it's about Tiny Cooper. Also Tiny Cooper and one of the Will Graysons are gay, so. Warning, I guess.)
87. What Every Person Should Know About War by Chris Hedges. (For a class.)
88. The Gospel of John by John (God was there too). (ESV.) (For a class.)
89. The Gospel of John by John (God was there too). (ESV.) (Yep, twice.)
90. The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy, Book 2: The Return of Meteor Boy? by William Boniface. (Quite a good sequel, and an excellent book its age-range (about ten, I think). I read the first one around August of last year and was rather grateful for the reiteration of plot points, although I know that if I remembered them I would be annoyed as usual.)
91. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. (Mary Sue alert! Chiyo/Sayuri is THE prettiest and THE smartest and THE kindest... and I'm not even kidding. That's the way the entire thing is. Everything always works out for her, overall. I mean, she's sold to be a geisha and her parents die and people are mean to her and everything, but you know she's going to be the best at everything she does and get her final goal and everything. Anyway, it was Thanksgiving break and I've hardly read anything all semester, so eh.)
92. The Book of Acts. (For school.)
    
93. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling. (I have to clean my room a lot.)
    
94. Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. (I really liked the premise, but I dunno... I actually can't remember what I didn't like about it. Or much what I did. It's a supremely forgettable book, apparently.)
    
95. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling.
96. A Little Friendly Advice by Siobhan Vivian. (You know, I kind of really like the cover. But I honestly didn't think Charlie's buttons were that brilliant.)
    
97. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty. (I liked this more than I expected. A very cynical and interesting voice.)
98. Cut by Patricia McCormick. (Eh.)
    
99. Mary Anne's Makeover by Ann M. Martin. (I actually read this months ago but didn't want to admit it. Dumbest hour of my life, yes. Well, I was planning on burning it (for the heck of it) and didn't want to burn a book I didn't really know about. (I then lost it, so whatever.) But the shame of not making 100 would be greater than y'all knowing about my brain cell genocide.)
    
100. A plethora of baby/toddler books. (I read so freaking many I feel it must count.)
     

Best finds of the year: 21, maybe 25, 38, 42, 43, 45 maybe 70, 76, maybe 78, maybe 79, maybe 80, 83, 85.

SNOW

HAPPY EMOTICON, GUYS