Books - Check 'em Out

One of my resolutions this year was to read more books. I know I work for Borders and get free books out the ass, but somehow once I moved from store to home office I didn't read as much. I'm thinking that getting cable contributed to that. I want to keep track of how many books I read and tally it up at the end of the year. I'm on GoodReads and all, but I keep track of lots of books there. I'm more interested in how many I read in 2009. So far I'm at 5 finished books -  

Dead Before Dark 

Dead In Dallas - both by Charlaine Harris 

When You Are Engulfed In Flames - David Sedaris 

The Idiot Girl and the Flying Tantrum of Death - Laurie Notaro 

The Liar's Club - Mary Karr  

I'm in the midst of - 

Burning Your Boats - Angela Carter  

(ooh, why haven't I read her sooner? I remember co-workers recommending her back in the day and just not getting around to it. She wrote in a way that makes me savor her words. One of my new favorite literary quotes "... a tattooed man is a walking masterpiece of remembered pain")  

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk - Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain  

(meh. it's one of those you can pick up and put down quickly, skip boring parts, etc. I remember reading it when it first came out - I think I may have been working at Barnes & Noble at the time).  

I'm giving up on - 

The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland 

(he's one of those authors I need to be in the right mood for. I am not in the right mood. Maybe later.)  

These are going in the pile next -  

The Last Days of Dogtown - Anita Diamant 

(If you haven't read The Red Tent please do so. I put it off for a long time because I wasn't interested in the biblical story aspects; but it is good. Really really good. I keep recommending it to friends and they keep blowing it off because it's a fleshed out bible story. Whatever, it's just a good book that stays with you).  

The Haunting - Shirley Jackson (I was listening to the New Yorker Fiction Podcast and they were reading The Lottery and I thought "I have always loved this story, wonder how her other books are", guess I'll see).  

Five books down, two in process and two waiting. I'm hoping to get through 10 this month.