TBR for 2012

My TBR List for 2012
Well, bringing some books forward, which I didn't get around to reading in 2011 and adding some new books, I come up with this list. This is linked 2012 TBR Reading Pile. May all 300+ of us get through our books this year!

So my books for 2012 will (hopefully) be:
1. Post-War Laos by Vatthana Pholsena
2. To What End by War Just
3. A Brief History of the Human Race by Michael Cook
4. The Worst Thing I've Done by Ursula Hegi
5. Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan
6. Invisible Nation by Quil Lawrence
7. A War of Nerves by Ben Shephard
8. Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen (slow reading but good for the soul)
9. Vision by Michio Kaku
10.The Long Song by Andrea Levy
11. Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
12. A Grand Delusion by Robert Mann

Alternate List
1. The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
2. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
3. I am a Cat by Soseki Natsume
4. Slan by A.E. Van Vogt
5. Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
6. Oyster by Janette Turner Hospital
7. In Xanadu by William Dalrymple
8. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
9. Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy
10. The Concert by Ismail Kadare
11. Nine Lives by William Dalrymple
12. A Problem from Hell by Samatha Power

Audio / Kindle Books:
1. Bleak House by Charles Dickens - started, still working on it
2. The World without Us by Alan Weisman
3. 2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolano
4. Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
5. Some Sing, Some Cry by Ntozake Shanga, Ifa Bayez
6. Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow
7. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
8. Microcosm by Carl Zimmer
9. The Perfect Story by Sebastian Junger - read a selection for a class and wanted to read the rest.
10. Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse
11. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
12. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Other resolutions for the year? Have more fun, work less. Finish the online courses that I sign up for. Travel more. Exercise every day and write every day.

End of Year TBR progress

Here's my final list for the year. I would probably read more books if I went for the shorter and lighter books. But what's the value of that? The books I did read this year were great, and gave me a lot of food for thought. Somehow, I've read more books on my alternate and audio lists than I have on my primary list.

I'm going from Left to Right for my Primary List:
1. Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks
2. Post-War Laos by Vatthana Pholsena
3. To What End by War Just
4. Buddha by Karen Armstrong
5. A Brief History of the Human Race by Michael Cook
6. To Live Again by Robert Silverberg
7. The Granta Book of India
8. Shadows on the Hudson by Isaac Bashevis Singer
9. Spook Country by William Gibson
10. Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan
11. Hotel of the Saints by Ursula Hegi
I'll skip the Thai-English dictionary which is next along the line 12. Invisible Nation by Quil Lawrence My Alternative List (continued from 2010) 1. A War of Nerves by Ben Shephard
2. Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen (slow reading but good for the soul)
3. What I talk about When I talk about running by Murakami
4. Bleak House by Charles Dickens - started, still working on it
5. The World without Us by Alan Weisman
6. 2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolano
7. A Grand Delusion by Robert Mann
8. BuddhaDa by Anne Donovan
9. The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
10. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
11. I am a Cat by Soseki Natsume
12. Slan by A.E. Van Vogt
Audiobooks:
1. Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
2. Await your Reply by Dan Chaon
3. Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
4. Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee - started but I just couldn't finish
5. Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
6. Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow
7. Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco
8. The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
9. Some Sing, Some Cry by Ntozake Shanga, Ifa Bayeza
10. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
11. Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
12. The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee

It's good to have this list available, to remind myself that I really wanted to dust off these books and move them from the piles on my floor to my hands. Thanks to the TBR challenge! Here's the link!
As for my other resolutions this year?
Try to enjoy working part time and not take on extra work (even though what I do for my consulting is only what interests me) - that hasn't worked out too well so far. Took on several consulting jobs this year, but even though I saw some interesting work for June &July, I decided not to send my CV in

Try to get back into my writing habit - wrote 7 out of a possible 31 stories for FW Story a Day Challenge. Unfortunately, I had some road trips and meetings which drained my creative mind. However, in the past two months, I've been on vacation and have been able to do quite a lot of writing. My mind feels more relaxed; however, I'm not sure if, with the demands of work, whether I'll be able to keep it up.

Exercise every day and take care of my health - I've been taking my fold-up bike when I got out to the field. That has been fun - I've been able to do more exploring, which I couldn't do if I was only limited to my feet. Some other days, when we get in late or set off early, have not been too successful. We're in rainy season now, and it seems to start raining around 4 a.m. and not stop until mid-morning and then it picks up again in the afternoon. At least when I'm in Vte, I have access to a gym. Now that it's the cold season and has stopped raining, I've been able to bicycle and plan to try bicycling to work when I'm in Vientiane.

Don't procrastinate (ha! see how long that lasts...) - I've been getting a bit better, particularly at writing up field notes on the days that things happen.