I am seriously loving GoodReads. I have always been a fast reader and it is hard for me to find enough books to keep me busy by wandering around the library. It is even harder now that L has decided that the library is actually supposed to be her own personal playground. Our library has a thing where you can request books and they just show up on a shelf for pick up a few days later.
Right now, I have 75 books on my to-read list (Does that link work?). I have been reading at least 3-4 books a week, so it will take me a while to get through that stack. I think I have already added 5 books this week from other people’s blog posts.
I was discussing some of my recent reads with a friend when I realized I have been enjoying what appears to be a whole new genre of books: the One Year experiments. You know, books in which the author does something out of the ordinary for a year. Kind of like Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days, but as a book and lasting one year. It could be having sex every day, living biblically, eating only locally grown food, etc. So far, I have only located maybe 12 of these books, but I am looking for more.
I am convinced this literary category has a huge growth potential. I tried to convince Mr. A that we should do a year-long experiment and I could write a book to make some extra cash. When he found out the year of sex was already taken, he was uninterested in my other ideas. I suggested a year of no cars (very difficult where we live), no electricity (we might die of frostbite in the winter), eating cookies for every meal in combination with no scales (probably we would get scurvy), no tivo (who are we kidding, we couldn’t make it), not wearing socks (Mr. A’s toxic feet might actually dissolve his shoe’s soles with no sock buffer), not shaving (could be bad for Mr. A’s job), living as a freegan (Mr.A refused to eat out of dumpsters).
Sooner or later, I am going to think up something good.
For books with one year experiments, I looked over your list and saw that you had Julie and Julia: 365 days… It’s an enjoyable read, I’m reading it on my Kindle right now. I really enjoyed “Heat: An Amateur Cook in a Professional Kitchen” by Bill Buford, which takes place over a few years. “Around the World in 80 Dinners”, “Service Included”, “Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise”, “Escape” by Laura Palmer, these were all really enjoyable non-fiction books, they aren’t all single year experiments, but they capture a different world view. I’ll look through my kindle and bookcases and see if there’s anything else that I think you might enjoy.
Farewell My Subaru is another one (plus) year experiment book (sort of). It wasn’t bad…entertaining at least. But I’m glad to see you have My Year of Meats on the list. That was one of my favorite books in college…inspired about six years of vegetarianism too.
I’m a huge fan of the magic request shelf at the library. I don’t think I’d manage to check anything out without it.
I’m curious, when in the day do you do all your reading? I’ve struggled to have time for it since the kids came and I really, really miss it.
Wait-I could write a book about a year without a car?! Hmmm.
Have you read The Year of the Goat?
I like GoodReads too-started with Shelfari and was slow on the migration, and, even now, it is hard to keep up with managing my virtual bookshelf (along with my yarn stash/projects over at Ravelry…). Maybe I will get over there to update this week… ~lmc
Lisa,
For the book to really work, you would have to drive a car religiously for a while first. Then you would have to be really angsty about giving up. And you would have to make a long list of kind of dumb rules. Then you would have to break the rules a little but be very conflicted about it. Then, at the end of the year, you have to say the whole experiment was no big deal, but you are going back to your old life anyway.
Heh.
Have you read Elizabeth Mitchell’s “Eat, Pray, Love”? I think it was actually like 9 months or something, but her style is great fun and the book was enjoyable. Plus I have a thing for a good travelogue.
I haven’t used GoodReads…I do Library Thing.
Shoot, forget looking for something to do for a year. You could wrap this blog up into a book and it would become a best-seller!
My first thought was no TV for a year, until I saw you couldn’t give up Tivo!
I had an assignment for a yoga class in college to go a week without sugar and keep a journal about it. I even banished ketchup from my diet for the week. I tell you, I never felt better! And I’ve never been able to do it again…
I read either a book, article or book review about a piece (yes, I’m aging and it shows) about a woman who decided to say “yes” to every person who asked her on a date. It was mostly funny but creepy and bizarre at times too. She imposed no rules on what she had to do on the date, but if a guy invited her to do something that felt like a “date” she was to say yes unless she was afraid for her safety.
I’m not sure how something like that would work for a married mom of 2, though. Maybe you could have a year of speaking to any telemarketer/door-to-door salesperson/proselytizer who comes to the door or calls? Accepting all the flyers/handouts you are offered? I’m sure you’d meet some interesting people that way.
actually the original rule was anyone who invited her on a date, so I think she went out with some women, too, even though she is not a lesbian.
I think one year of never lieing. Not one single lie.
Or, one year of only telling lies. Which would be more fun but might cause problems.
http://www.AnUrbanStory.com
My favorite ‘one year’ book – I can’t remember the author (or currently locate my copy!), but ‘Suburban Safari’ – a lady spent a year getting up close and personal with her yard (and its tiny inhabitants) in Maine, and it was just fascinating.
Tivo, what’s that? Seriously, we still use a VCR. Never even seen how a Tivo works!
My dad put our whole family on a month of no sugar one summer when I was a kid. Actually the rule was sugar couldn’t be in the top 5 ingredients, although he made an exception for ketchup for us kids. I managed it better then than I would now. Don’t remember feeling any different though…
I could do no TV, except it would be a boring book. My kids don’t even complain anymore when we do turn off the TV week (this year I told them it meant no Wii either since it uses the TV).
I *heart* Goodreads. I’m religious about keeping mine updated, and I just about died when I found it, because for years, I had been keeping my own 5-pt ratings of every book I read, so I was able to just add all 400+ of them to the website. Love it. LOVE.
I am in love with the idea of a book on “A Year of Living Average-ly” or however one might word that . . . like, find out what the absolute statistical average is for every (in your case) American family, and do it that way– average car, average amount spent on groceries, gas, eating out . . . average time spent in front of the TV, exercising, etc.
It could lead to some fantastic social commentary, too, because as one article I read put it (and I am paraphrasing a little, here, cause I can’t find the actual article) “although the average American exercises twenty minutes a day, this is actually because about 17 percent of them exercise for well over an hour each day and the rest barely stir off the couch.”
This is actually something I’ve been thinking about for several months now. If I were married with two kids I might try it myself, but me, I am just not average enough