100 Books in 2009
So I'm totally doing this in batches rather than as I read them. Go figure. And this time around, like the last batch, you're gonna be able to tell which section of the library I was hanging out in.
46 / 100 books. 46% done!
1. Bag of Bones, by Stephen King
2. The Golden Compass, of the His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
3. Cry to Heaven, by Anne Rice
4. The Good Guy, by Dean Koontz
5. The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke
6. Duma Key by Stephen King
7. Watership Down by Richard Adams
8. The Intelligence of Dogs: Canine Consciousness and Capabilities by Stanley Coren
9. I Sing the Body Electric, by Ray Bradbury
10. Last Dance, Last Chance by Ann Rule
11. Dogs Who Found Me, by Ken Foster
12. Wolf Hunting by Jane Lindskold
13. Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold
14. Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart by Jane Lindskold
15. The Dragon of Despair by Jane Lindskold
16. Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs
17. Aerie by Mercedes Lackey
18. Wolf Captured by Jane Lindskold
19. Wolf's Blood by Jane Lindskold
20. The Cat Who Dropped the Bomb by Lilian Jackson Braun
21. The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun
22. Tommyknockers by Stephen King
23. For Bea: The Story of the Beagle Who Changed My Life by Kristen von Kreisler
24. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
25. Falconry for Beginners by Lee Harris
26. Equinox: Life, Love, and Birds of Prey by Dan O'Brien
27. A Wing in the Door by Peri Philips McQuay
28. Eagle Dreams by Stephen Bodio
29. "Mom, Jason's Breathing on Me!": The Solution to Sibling Bickering by Anthony Wolf
30. Spoken in Whispers: The Autobiography of a Horse Whisperer by Nicci Mackay
31. My Lead Dog Was A Lesbian: Mushing Across Alaska in the Iditarod--The World's Most Grueling Race by Brian Patrick O'Donoghue
32. Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre
33. Building the Perfect PC by Robert Thompson and Barbara Fritchman Thompson
34. Hide This Spanish Book by Berlitz Publishing
35. Foundations by Mercedes Lackey
36. Moving Targets edited by Mercedes Lackey
37. Rites of Autumn: A Falconer's Journey Across the American West by Dan O'Brien
38. Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch by Dan O'Brien
I really like this author (even if he has a mad love affair with subtitles). He's a thoughtful, intelligent man pondering the meaning of life and of our connection to the world around us. But he's not doing this while sitting on a sofa somewhere - he's doing it while taking a peregrine falcon on a thousand-mile road trip that mimics her natural migration, and while bringing buffalo back to his own little section of the prairie. I highly recommend both books, even if you know nothing about falconry or ranching. A warning, though: the end of Rites of Autumn will make you weep, and by the end of Buffalo for the Broken Heart you will crave a buffalo steak as badly as I did.
39. The Dogs of Windcutter Down: One Shepherd's Struggle for Survival by David Kennard
How in the heck does anyone keep a family farm going these days? Well, if you're the Kennards, you wind up showcasing your dogs' working abilities. A low-key but well-written book about trying to live a lifestyle that the rest of the world seems to be leaving behind ... and it has working Border Collies.
40. The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival, and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming by Shreve Stockton
Shreve Stockton follows her instincts. While on a cross-country drive, this dedicated city girl stopped in Wyoming just long enough to fall in love with the place, and soon moved to a small town there. One of the first people she befriended had the task of controlling the areas coyotes, which when wild predators face off against livestock ranchers, generally means killing the coyotes. But not this time. For some reason, her partner-slash-love interest brought Shreve the tiny coyote puppy. The book chronicles Charlie the coyote's life as well as his owner's, and has some deep insights into the meaning of wildness and the ways that people can reconnect with each other and with animals both wild and tame.
41. Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild by Renee Askins
This book is by the woman who crusaded for the return of the wolf to Yellowstone National Park. It's also a moving, lyrical, almost dreamlike meditation on the author's connection with the wild. Yes, I read a lot of those. I'm a frustrated suburbanite who's only ever been truly at home in the middle of the mountains, so cut me some slack. Anyway, while the parts dealing with the politics were a little dry, the book overall is lovely and thought-provoking.
42. Be the Pack Leader: Use Cesar's Way to Transform Your Dog ... And Your Life by Cesar Milan and Melissa Jo Peltier
I admit that, until I picked up this book, I only knew two things about Cesar Milan: what the current popular dog trainers were saying about him, and what I saw on the National Geographic show The Dog Whisperer. I was not terribly impressed. The positive-only training camp is horrified by his use of dominance techniques, and the TV show only films the most dramatic moments.
But then some bloggers whose opinions I heartily respect started to endorse him, and I figured that I had better go read the books Cesar actually wrote about his methods before I judged anything. Well, I have to say that while I still have some reservations - I particularly dislike his preference for the flooding technique to deal with phobias, rather than the more gradual desensitization technique - I do believe that his philosophies are tremendously useful. Dogs in this country NEED exercise, they NEED rules & boundaries, and only THEN do they need affection. As a matter of fact, a lot of kids I know could benefit from Cesar's way...
I still say that for the average 'joe schmoe' on the street, trying to use dominance methods is dangerous - you cannot bluff a dog. If you're not 100% committed to a course of action, they will know and they will exploit it. trust me, my own new dog Dusty is perfectly aware that I don't *really* want him to stop play-biting me, and so he won't quit doing it. But Cesar is helping dogs and helping people. He says flat-out that he's not a dog trainer, he specifically rehabilitates dogs. And he has lots of experience working with highly aggressive large-breed dogs, so his opinion must be respected.
Bottom line: if you want to learn more about dogs (or anything else in this world), don't trust a single source. Seek differing opinions, read as much as you can, give more weight to the knowledge possessed by people with actual real-world experience of what you're learning about (as opposed to theoreticians, arm-chair philosophers, and lab researchers). And in the end, go to the source. The way I ultimately evaluated this book was to try its advice out on my own dogs, and so far, it's worked very well.
43. The Queen Must Die and Other Affairs of Bees and Men by William Longwood and Pamela Johnson
Who knew so much insight could be packed into a book about bees? I was fascinated from start to finish. Even if you don't like bees or know nothing about them besides that they sting, read this. It's a classic of the genre and a very well-written story, besides. It never succumbs to pedantism, but it never flies too far off into mystical contemplations either.
44. The Horses of Proud Spirit by Melanie Sue Bowles
45. Hoof Prints: More Stories from Proud Spirit by Melanie Sue Bowles
So, have you guessed which section of the library I hang out in yet? Anyway, these two books chronicle the author's involvement in horse rescue, all of it begun by her completely inadvisable purchase of a horse with some issues. She never gave up on that mare, and never gave up on all the other horses she rescued. The stories are heart-wrenching, especially when the horse in question dies, but there are plenty of happy endings, too.
46. The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable by Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby
My favorite author, Pratchett, gave his slavering fans a Cohen the Barbarian story fully illustrated by the amazing Paul Kidby. I drooled. I'd heard this was more an art book, but the story was pretty darned fantastic too. Can't wait for the next book to come out. If you like satire and a light-hearted look at the fantasy genre, read Pratchett.
That's all for now - I have at least ten more to do, but it's getting late.
46 / 100 books. 46% done!
1. Bag of Bones, by Stephen King
2. The Golden Compass, of the His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
3. Cry to Heaven, by Anne Rice
4. The Good Guy, by Dean Koontz
5. The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke
6. Duma Key by Stephen King
7. Watership Down by Richard Adams
8. The Intelligence of Dogs: Canine Consciousness and Capabilities by Stanley Coren
9. I Sing the Body Electric, by Ray Bradbury
10. Last Dance, Last Chance by Ann Rule
11. Dogs Who Found Me, by Ken Foster
12. Wolf Hunting by Jane Lindskold
13. Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold
14. Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart by Jane Lindskold
15. The Dragon of Despair by Jane Lindskold
16. Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs
17. Aerie by Mercedes Lackey
18. Wolf Captured by Jane Lindskold
19. Wolf's Blood by Jane Lindskold
20. The Cat Who Dropped the Bomb by Lilian Jackson Braun
21. The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun
22. Tommyknockers by Stephen King
23. For Bea: The Story of the Beagle Who Changed My Life by Kristen von Kreisler
24. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
25. Falconry for Beginners by Lee Harris
26. Equinox: Life, Love, and Birds of Prey by Dan O'Brien
27. A Wing in the Door by Peri Philips McQuay
28. Eagle Dreams by Stephen Bodio
29. "Mom, Jason's Breathing on Me!": The Solution to Sibling Bickering by Anthony Wolf
30. Spoken in Whispers: The Autobiography of a Horse Whisperer by Nicci Mackay
31. My Lead Dog Was A Lesbian: Mushing Across Alaska in the Iditarod--The World's Most Grueling Race by Brian Patrick O'Donoghue
32. Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre
33. Building the Perfect PC by Robert Thompson and Barbara Fritchman Thompson
34. Hide This Spanish Book by Berlitz Publishing
35. Foundations by Mercedes Lackey
36. Moving Targets edited by Mercedes Lackey
37. Rites of Autumn: A Falconer's Journey Across the American West by Dan O'Brien
38. Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch by Dan O'Brien
I really like this author (even if he has a mad love affair with subtitles). He's a thoughtful, intelligent man pondering the meaning of life and of our connection to the world around us. But he's not doing this while sitting on a sofa somewhere - he's doing it while taking a peregrine falcon on a thousand-mile road trip that mimics her natural migration, and while bringing buffalo back to his own little section of the prairie. I highly recommend both books, even if you know nothing about falconry or ranching. A warning, though: the end of Rites of Autumn will make you weep, and by the end of Buffalo for the Broken Heart you will crave a buffalo steak as badly as I did.
39. The Dogs of Windcutter Down: One Shepherd's Struggle for Survival by David Kennard
How in the heck does anyone keep a family farm going these days? Well, if you're the Kennards, you wind up showcasing your dogs' working abilities. A low-key but well-written book about trying to live a lifestyle that the rest of the world seems to be leaving behind ... and it has working Border Collies.
40. The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival, and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming by Shreve Stockton
Shreve Stockton follows her instincts. While on a cross-country drive, this dedicated city girl stopped in Wyoming just long enough to fall in love with the place, and soon moved to a small town there. One of the first people she befriended had the task of controlling the areas coyotes, which when wild predators face off against livestock ranchers, generally means killing the coyotes. But not this time. For some reason, her partner-slash-love interest brought Shreve the tiny coyote puppy. The book chronicles Charlie the coyote's life as well as his owner's, and has some deep insights into the meaning of wildness and the ways that people can reconnect with each other and with animals both wild and tame.
41. Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild by Renee Askins
This book is by the woman who crusaded for the return of the wolf to Yellowstone National Park. It's also a moving, lyrical, almost dreamlike meditation on the author's connection with the wild. Yes, I read a lot of those. I'm a frustrated suburbanite who's only ever been truly at home in the middle of the mountains, so cut me some slack. Anyway, while the parts dealing with the politics were a little dry, the book overall is lovely and thought-provoking.
42. Be the Pack Leader: Use Cesar's Way to Transform Your Dog ... And Your Life by Cesar Milan and Melissa Jo Peltier
I admit that, until I picked up this book, I only knew two things about Cesar Milan: what the current popular dog trainers were saying about him, and what I saw on the National Geographic show The Dog Whisperer. I was not terribly impressed. The positive-only training camp is horrified by his use of dominance techniques, and the TV show only films the most dramatic moments.
But then some bloggers whose opinions I heartily respect started to endorse him, and I figured that I had better go read the books Cesar actually wrote about his methods before I judged anything. Well, I have to say that while I still have some reservations - I particularly dislike his preference for the flooding technique to deal with phobias, rather than the more gradual desensitization technique - I do believe that his philosophies are tremendously useful. Dogs in this country NEED exercise, they NEED rules & boundaries, and only THEN do they need affection. As a matter of fact, a lot of kids I know could benefit from Cesar's way...
I still say that for the average 'joe schmoe' on the street, trying to use dominance methods is dangerous - you cannot bluff a dog. If you're not 100% committed to a course of action, they will know and they will exploit it. trust me, my own new dog Dusty is perfectly aware that I don't *really* want him to stop play-biting me, and so he won't quit doing it. But Cesar is helping dogs and helping people. He says flat-out that he's not a dog trainer, he specifically rehabilitates dogs. And he has lots of experience working with highly aggressive large-breed dogs, so his opinion must be respected.
Bottom line: if you want to learn more about dogs (or anything else in this world), don't trust a single source. Seek differing opinions, read as much as you can, give more weight to the knowledge possessed by people with actual real-world experience of what you're learning about (as opposed to theoreticians, arm-chair philosophers, and lab researchers). And in the end, go to the source. The way I ultimately evaluated this book was to try its advice out on my own dogs, and so far, it's worked very well.
43. The Queen Must Die and Other Affairs of Bees and Men by William Longwood and Pamela Johnson
Who knew so much insight could be packed into a book about bees? I was fascinated from start to finish. Even if you don't like bees or know nothing about them besides that they sting, read this. It's a classic of the genre and a very well-written story, besides. It never succumbs to pedantism, but it never flies too far off into mystical contemplations either.
44. The Horses of Proud Spirit by Melanie Sue Bowles
45. Hoof Prints: More Stories from Proud Spirit by Melanie Sue Bowles
So, have you guessed which section of the library I hang out in yet? Anyway, these two books chronicle the author's involvement in horse rescue, all of it begun by her completely inadvisable purchase of a horse with some issues. She never gave up on that mare, and never gave up on all the other horses she rescued. The stories are heart-wrenching, especially when the horse in question dies, but there are plenty of happy endings, too.
46. The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable by Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby
My favorite author, Pratchett, gave his slavering fans a Cohen the Barbarian story fully illustrated by the amazing Paul Kidby. I drooled. I'd heard this was more an art book, but the story was pretty darned fantastic too. Can't wait for the next book to come out. If you like satire and a light-hearted look at the fantasy genre, read Pratchett.
That's all for now - I have at least ten more to do, but it's getting late.