52 books in 52 weeks

37. Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster

I think I recall this novella got some critical grief for collecting and recycling characters, but I found it sort of a fun imaginative exercise of what it would be like to live in Paul Auster's brain.


38. Him Her Him Again The End of Him by Patricia Marx

Note to self: Do not use those obsessive, unrequited affairs from your past as material for a book.



39. The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing

Despite Lessing's disappointing remarks about the evils of "blugging," I still totally enjoyed her version of the demon seed. If you think you may want to have children, don't read this book.


40. The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind

This is a compact meditation on the perils of trying to establish rigid control over the events in your life. Virginia Woolf meets Knut Hamsun meets Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I wish Süskind would write more.


Well, I didn't make it to 52, but I did get 8 books beyond last year's total while completely switching careers, so there. Onward to 2008...