I can count on one hand the amount of books I remember giving up on and not finishing.  I actually remember these as I feel bad doing it, as if I am not giving the book a chance, or insulting the author (although I know they will never know anyway), or like I just picked the wrong book at the wrong time.  I can only think of three books in the last ten years I did not finish, and I will probably read at least two of them to make up for it.  The third (if I can remember the name) is a total write-off.  It was just that bad.

The reason I bring this up is I have actually set aside The Paper Men by William Golding, maybe to return to it, maybe not.  I don’t know if it is because I put the pressure on myself to finish a certain about of novels before the year end, or if I really wouldn’t be able to get into it no matter when I read it.  I loved Lord of the Flies in highschool, and The Inheritors was a great book by him that I read two years ago in the Philippines, but The Paper Men is just… I don’t know.  I can’t get into the story, the characters, or anything about it.  I tried.  I even went back and re-read the first chapter to see what I missed, but I still feel lost and bored.

My back-up bookmark is still inside at the point I set it down (Page 60), making me feel like I should go back and pick it up, just to finish it, but I can’t right now.  It just isn’t my kind of book.  And believe me, I will read just about anything to be entertained.

The other books I remember giving up on were a while back.  Maybe six years ago I gave up on a book.  I remember buying to bargain books that looked pretty good and wanting something to read that I had never heard of.  The first was The Dominion of Wyley McFaddon by Scott Gardiner, which I really enjoyed.  The other was so unreadable I actually forget the title.  I have searched online, but I just can’t find it.  I remember the cover and it was about a old estate turned into a set of apartments, but beyond that, I can’t recall the name.  I read more than half of the book and remember setting it down and wondering what it was that I had been reading each night.  I just couldn’t do it, so I stopped.

Another (which I dread to say) was an Elmore Leonard book.  Actually, I gave up on two Elmore Leonard books in my time, but that was before I really got into him.  I bought Toshmingo Blues when I was first going to come to Taiwan to visit a friend who was teaching here.  I bought it for the plane ride, but that fell through, so I tried to red it at home and just, well, didn’t enjoy it.  That was actually my second attempt at a Leonard novel that didn’t work.  My first was back in university where I found hardcover editions of Maximum Bob and Get Shorty for next to nothing at a used book store.  I tried to read Bob, but gave up after only a few chapters.  I still have both those books, but never picked them up again.  I do have Get Shorty here in Taiwan now and will make up for never having read it before very soon.  I am a huge Leonard fan now, but back then I was reading more for my classes than enjoyment and Leonard didn’t fit.

I know before that I had to have given up on a lot more books, but really, I usually stick it out no matter what.  I guess I always hope someone will do the same for me one day when they don’t like one of my novels.  I’ve read some real garbage, but I always give it the chance to turn it around in the end.  Sometimes they do, but a lot of the time they don’t.  But, I am a sucker for how an author finally ends a story, right down to the last line, so I kind of feel like I have to get there, no matter what.

As for The Paper Men, the book that should be #47 on my list for 2009-2010, it will sit, abandoned for now.  Not so much because I have a self-imposed time limit on my reading at the moment, but because I really feel like reading right now and I want to read something that really gets me wanting to read more, and not make me want to put in old DVDs of Titus and Kenny vs Spenny. 

To make up for it, I read the graphic novel (yes, that counts) Parker the Hunter by Darwyn Cooke based on the old pulp novels by Richard Stark which I cannot recommend more, and I read about half of the Philip K. Dick novel The Man in the High Castle today.  I should be able to finish Castle tonight or tomorrow and maybe get one more in before the new year hits, making my total forty-nine books… with about fifty-five yet to be read on my shelves and more to come probably. 

I really hate to give up on a book, but this time, I think it has to be done…

So we are at December 22nd and I have read two of the four novels I want to finish before the new year.  I went with Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard and Iron & Silk by Mark Salzman.  Both good books, although one was very misleading with it’s description.  You can never go wrong with Elmore Leonard though.  I actually didn’t enjoy him back in university when I tried to read Get Shorty and Maximum Bob, and then again later when I tried Toshmingo Blues, but now I can’t get enough of him.

So, two more to read in nine days, but I lose two days for the weekend.  I should have been almost through the third book now, but I got sidetracked and haven’t been to the gym because of my back again.  Not sure what to read tonight, but I scored a great little set of used books from a Taiwanese shop that really just wanted to get rid of the English books in stock.  Eight books for about $10…

The short stories book has so many authors I love, or have always wanted to read.  I can’t even begin to list the authors inside, but I have only ever read one of these short stores, and that was just a few months back.  I really thought it would be a book with lots of stories I had already read, but this is like a jackpot for me!  And the Elmore Leonard Western book is the same size as a Chinese epic, so it will take a good amount of reading to get through it. 

I have to get a new book shelf this week.  I tried to keep less than 20 books in the house at any time, but a friend of mine is moving out of a place that has about 300+ novels that the landlord doesn’t care about, so I ‘borrowed’ a good amount of them as well.  Lots of mystery and crime novels there as well as some classics (Picture of Dorian Grey) and some random stuff. 

So much to read, and I have all these new Kung Fu movies I bought as well.  I need a vacation just to keep myself busy with movies and books.  Chinese New Year can’t come fast enough…

I know I have obsessed about this on here before, but I am still working on my list of books read since I came to Taiwan.  I wrote everyone I can remember (from posts on here) into a book ,but I am still missing three novels I read near the end of 2008.  Well, if I don’t remember what they are (someday when I’m old and gray I will wake up in a cold sweat screaming the name of a novel is my guess), at least I know my total.  I like to break it down into 24 month periods since I never really kept track year by year, but from November 2006 to December 2008 I read 49 novels.  I guess when you look at it, two books a month isn’t that impressive, but some months I read more and some I was learning to teach and didn’t get around to much.  I actually think the number is a little low for my tastes, but I can work on that.

This year, as of today (December 14th) I have read 44 novels since January of 2009.  I’m low… and I know where I went wrong.  I got a PSP and was obsessed with playing it before bed for a month or two.  Also I read two of the worst books I have read in a long time and since I never like to give up on a book, I worked through them, but at a very slow pace which took almost 2 months for two books.  Now I’m cramming.  I don’t want to cheat and go with small books, but I do think Gabriel Garcia Marquez novellas are acceptable since they are usually about 150 pages and they are so chocked full of quality writing and amazing stories that you can’t blame me for reading them.

So, book #44 was Slaughterhouse Five (I would like to read parts 1-4 but I can’t seem to find them) and now I am looking at the bookshelves to see what I should read next.  I am avoiding anything too large as I would like to clear my shelves to make room for some new ones I am getting this month from some online auctions in Taiwan where most English novels are less than a dollar each.  I would love to read more Vonnegut, as I find him very easy and entertaining to read, but I never read the same author back to back.  I like to change things up and read different styles and authors instead of obsessively plowing through one author’s entire collection.

So, I now have seventeen days to read four novels… I hope.  I will be okay with three, but I want four.  Hell, I would be over the moon if I could break fifty novels before 2001, but I don’t think I can cram them in without losing a little of the enjoyment of reading.  Plus I have three classes to prepare for their end of semester exams which takes some of my time, and I need to look at both the Lonely Planet books for The Philippines (for Chinese New Year) and Singapore (four day weekend in April) and figure out some travel plans.  If the Lonely Planet books counted in my list, I would be over 50 easily as I have read and studied the books on Cambodia, Vietnam, Borneo, India, Thailand, Bangkok and the Philippines before each trip, but I just can’t bring myself to counting them.

Now, I did just think of something.  I did read two books of Chinese Poetry.  One has no English name to it and has about 200 ancient Chinese poems in it that I read through to look for good ones for my tattoo.  I also read another with has 300 poems in it as well from the Tang Dynasty.  I did read most if not all of the poems looking for the right poem for my tattoo, so technically they could go on the list for this past 24 month period as well.  This is what I will do, if I can hit my 48 book goal, I will add those books of poetry in and make it an even 50.  If don’t make it, they don’t count. 

Okay, off to my bookshelves to look for the next novel to read.  I have no clue what it is going to be, but it better live up to the hype and build up I’ve just created in my mind.  This is the final stretch… now, where’s my Cookie Monster bookmark?

They won’t let me post this on my own Grandfather’s obituary page online because it contains lyrics from a song that has always reminded me of him.  So, here is what will not be in his obituary page…