Customary New Years Day lists
Oh, I title this "customary" but possibly "cursory" would be more accurate. I didn't keep a list of my reading this year so the list to follow is probably both incomplete and inaccurate, but it's the best I can offer. On the bird front, I intend to list the birds that I think were new to me this year but it's possible that a few I have, in fact, seen in previous years and/or that my identification was wrong in the first place. In reviewing my notebook, I seriously questioned "horned grebe," but then in looking back on LJ posts, I found that alexfandra had confirmed my tentative identification. Which is swell, except I'm not sure that I haven't since identified similar birds as "western grebes." In fact, after quite some time, comparing photos, I'm declaring last month's "western grebes" to have been "horned grebes." The space between "western grebes." and "In fact," may appear negligible to the Imaginary Reader but it was, in fact, twenty intense minutes calling for Finder, Photoshop, iPhoto, and Cornell's "all about birds." Eli is even now busy mixing up a restorative cocktail.
Books of 2013 (with above caveats):
Three by Scott GF Bailey:
Go Home Miss America
Mona in the Desert
The Astrologer - a re-read
Three by Anthony Trollope:
Barchester Towers
Dr. Thorne
Framley Parsonage
Two by Muriel Spark:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
A Far Cry from Kensington
Two by Graham Greene:
The Quiet American
Stamboul Train
Two by Ernest Hemingway:
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Nick Adams Stories
Three by Julian Barnes:
Flaubert's Parrot
The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
Arthur and George
Two by Angela Thirkell (probably both re-reads though I can't swear to Happy Returns):
Private Enterprise
Happy Returns
Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears - reread
The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahari
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
The Casual Vacancy, JK Rowling
Rat King, Michael Dibden
The Shape of Water, Andrea Camilleri
Day of the Owl, Leonardo Sciascia
The Trumpet of the Swan, EB White
Villette, Charlotte Bronte - reread
A Dead Man's Memoir, Mikhail Bulgakov
The Black Book, Orhan Pamuk
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett - a reread
The Last Dragonslayer, Jasper Fforde
Night Train to Lisbon, Pascal Mercier
Garden Open Today, Beverley Nichols
...So, a pretty short list and only one nonfiction in the bunch. I'm pretty sure there are some titles missing but I'm also pretty sure that I read less this year than many previous years. In part I attibute that to spending less time on buses and in part, I suspect, it's due to too much eye strain and mental anguish during the workday. The best read of the year was, I'm pretty darned certain, Mona in the Desert. The worst, quite likely, was Night Train to Lisbon.
Birds New-to-Me in 2013 (also not without caveats):
northern shrike (Montlake Fill)
horned grebe (Lincoln Park)
red-breasted merganser (LP)
ring-necked duck (MF)
ruddy duck (Aquatic Park, Berkeley)
great egret (AP,B)
snowy egret (AP,B)
Nuttall's woodpecker (AP,B)
California towhee (AP,B)
black phoebe (AP,B)
pintail (AP,B)
red crossbill (W. Seattle)
fox sparrow (WS)
common yellowthroat (MF)
common loon (Newport, OR)
American dipper (Rainier NP)
bandtailed pigeon (RNP)
gray jay (RNP)
sooty grouse (RNP)
blue tit (Vienna)
great tit (V)
Eurasian magpie (Prague)
Eurasian jay (Petrin Hill, Prague)
grey heron (Stadtpark, Vienna)
robin (Lower Austria)
hooded crow (Prague and Vienna)
Eurasian collared dove (V)
mute swan (P and V)
mountain chickadee (Banff)
harlequin duck (LP)
And, to make this easier next year, I note for posterity that while I am currently between books, I expect to start The Hanging Man a little later this evening.
Note to self: Do something about LJ icon selection.
Edited to add two photos:
First carrots of 2014 (harvested from the front-40 about 9:00 pm on January 1, 2014, possibly much to the bemusement of the man parked in his SUV on the curb)
Gradka, who has become obsessed with lying under the Christmas tree, wishes her loyal subjects a happy 2014.
Books of 2013 (with above caveats):
Three by Scott GF Bailey:
Go Home Miss America
Mona in the Desert
The Astrologer - a re-read
Three by Anthony Trollope:
Barchester Towers
Dr. Thorne
Framley Parsonage
Two by Muriel Spark:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
A Far Cry from Kensington
Two by Graham Greene:
The Quiet American
Stamboul Train
Two by Ernest Hemingway:
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Nick Adams Stories
Three by Julian Barnes:
Flaubert's Parrot
The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
Arthur and George
Two by Angela Thirkell (probably both re-reads though I can't swear to Happy Returns):
Private Enterprise
Happy Returns
Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears - reread
The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahari
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
The Casual Vacancy, JK Rowling
Rat King, Michael Dibden
The Shape of Water, Andrea Camilleri
Day of the Owl, Leonardo Sciascia
The Trumpet of the Swan, EB White
Villette, Charlotte Bronte - reread
A Dead Man's Memoir, Mikhail Bulgakov
The Black Book, Orhan Pamuk
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett - a reread
The Last Dragonslayer, Jasper Fforde
Night Train to Lisbon, Pascal Mercier
Garden Open Today, Beverley Nichols
...So, a pretty short list and only one nonfiction in the bunch. I'm pretty sure there are some titles missing but I'm also pretty sure that I read less this year than many previous years. In part I attibute that to spending less time on buses and in part, I suspect, it's due to too much eye strain and mental anguish during the workday. The best read of the year was, I'm pretty darned certain, Mona in the Desert. The worst, quite likely, was Night Train to Lisbon.
Birds New-to-Me in 2013 (also not without caveats):
northern shrike (Montlake Fill)
horned grebe (Lincoln Park)
red-breasted merganser (LP)
ring-necked duck (MF)
ruddy duck (Aquatic Park, Berkeley)
great egret (AP,B)
snowy egret (AP,B)
Nuttall's woodpecker (AP,B)
California towhee (AP,B)
black phoebe (AP,B)
pintail (AP,B)
red crossbill (W. Seattle)
fox sparrow (WS)
common yellowthroat (MF)
common loon (Newport, OR)
American dipper (Rainier NP)
bandtailed pigeon (RNP)
gray jay (RNP)
sooty grouse (RNP)
blue tit (Vienna)
great tit (V)
Eurasian magpie (Prague)
Eurasian jay (Petrin Hill, Prague)
grey heron (Stadtpark, Vienna)
robin (Lower Austria)
hooded crow (Prague and Vienna)
Eurasian collared dove (V)
mute swan (P and V)
mountain chickadee (Banff)
harlequin duck (LP)
And, to make this easier next year, I note for posterity that while I am currently between books, I expect to start The Hanging Man a little later this evening.
Note to self: Do something about LJ icon selection.
Edited to add two photos:
First carrots of 2014 (harvested from the front-40 about 9:00 pm on January 1, 2014, possibly much to the bemusement of the man parked in his SUV on the curb)
Gradka, who has become obsessed with lying under the Christmas tree, wishes her loyal subjects a happy 2014.