Baby it's COLD outside, and books of 2012

[thistlechaser]

I know there are colder places in the country and the world. That doesn't make me feel any warmer.

When I lived in New York, I frequently went out in the snow without a coat on and in a short sleeved shirt. I seemed to never feel the cold.

Ever since I moved to California, I've been getting colder and colder every winter. It doesn't help that the apartment building I live in has no insulation, just brick walls (so it holds the cold and radiates it in, and in summertime it's like living in a brick oven). You can feel the cold coming off the walls. I keep the heat on 70 and I still have to wear a knit hat and fingerless gloves while at my desk (near a wall).

I went out for lunch and I got chilled to the bone. I've been home an hour and my fingers and toes are still icy cold. (With gloves, socks, and slippers on.)

What in the world happened to my ability to keep warm? (Part of it is that I have short hair now. While I love my new ("new") haircut so much, short hair is so so so much colder.)

Now, books! I got up to 30 books for 2012, which broke my goal of 25. Woot! Here's a rough scale of how they broke down:

Loved: 12 (Trading in Danger, The Pride of Chanur, The Wind Through the Keyhole, Jurassic Park, The Children of the Sky, Beguilement, Legacy, Passage, Horizon, Life as we Knew It, Leviathan, Behemoth)
Liked: 2 (Marque and Reprisal, The Enemy)
Neutral: 4 (The Mist, Five Short Stories by GRRM, A Fire Upon the Deep*, The House of Silence)
Disliked: 5 (Flowers for Algernon, The Warrior's Apprentice, This World We Live In, Prey, The Handmaid's Tale)
Hated: 7 (Thrall, Engaging the Enemy, His Majesty's Dragon, Fur-Face, The Dead and the Gone, The Fear, Next)

* Only because it was a reread. First time I read it I loved it.



1) Trading in Danger, by Elizabeth Moon
2) Thrall, by Steven Shrewsbury.
3) The Mist, by Stephen King
4) Five Short Stories, by George R.R. Martin (not really a book, each story was published on its own)
5) Marque and Reprisal, by Elizabeth Moon
6) Engaging the Enemy, by Elizabeth Moon
7) The Pride of Chanur, by C. J. Cherryh
8) The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel, by Stephen King
9) Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
10) Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton
11) A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge
12) The Children of the Sky, by Vernor Vinge
13) Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, Book 1,) by Lois McMaster Bujold
14) Legacy (The Sharing Knife, Book 2), by Lois McMaster Bujold
15) Passage (The Sharing Knife, Book 3), by Lois McMaster Bujold
16) Horizon (The Sharing Knife, Book 4), by Lois McMaster Bujold
17) His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik
18) The Warrior's Apprentice, by Lois McMaster Bujold
19) Fur-Face, by Jon Gibb
20) Life as we Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer
21) This World We Live In, by Susan Beth Pfeffer
22) The Dead and the Gone, by Susan Beth Pfeffer
23) Prey, by Michael Crichton
24) The Enemy, by Charlie Higson
25) The Fear, by Charlie Higson
26) The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
27) The House of Silence, by J.A. Jaken
28) Next, by Michael Crichton
29) Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld
30) Behemoth (book 2 of Leviathan trilogy), by Scott Westerfeld

For my review of any of these books, click on the 20120 Books tag.


Lessons learned:
I cannot count to 30. I made two mistakes, but at least they canceled each other out and my total really is 30. A nice round number to end on.

I was worried I hated all the books I read this year. Further evidence that I have the memory of a goldfish! I loved 12 of the 30 books, and hated only 7!

I'm going to keep my goal 25 books for 2013. Also, I'm going to keep posting about them. I like being able to look back and see what I read and what I had felt about them.

Comments

[peppygrowlithe.livejournal.com]

Wait, where in New York did you live? The city? :o

I used to live upstate (about 10 minutes outside of Utica), and thankfully ten years of living in Miami hasn't yet decimated my capacity for resisting the cold... though that might also be because I've put on some weight. X)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Long Island (so not far outside the city). It wasn't as cold as the northern parts of the state, but we got snow on a regular basis.

Haha, sometimes I think I should be more resistant to the cold because of my weight! I think I need to move more. Maybe when I get cold, I'll get up and jump around for a while, get my blood moving.

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

You have short hair now? Cool! (Um, literally, I guess! :D) It's true- there's such draftiness about the neck region with no shawl of hair. Then again, though, it's nice and cool for summer!

Love the book breakdown. This is the second year I've kept track of all my reading and I really like looking back over the list and analyzing it.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yep! This is the picture I brought with me to the shop (http://www.hot-hot-hot-catlove.com/haircut1.jpg). I know it's a guy, but it's just what I wanted. Reeeealy short in the back and sides, with longer bangs. The hair stylist did it great! Unfortunately I have to keep going back to get cut again way more frequently than I'm used to, but that's a small price to pay.

And agreed! Some people do more of a breakdown than me (types of books, facts about the author), but my system is plenty fine for me.

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

I love that style! (Well, I should, since mine's pretty much the same haircut.) Is your hair straight, like the model's? Mine's wavy, so I have to use a straightener to get it to do that.

I'll bet it looks great on you!!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I just read your post and grinned when I discovered that we have the same hair! Mine is mostly straight, so I get some natural body in the bangs. If it' a rainy day it curls more (to the point of being a pain), but the sides and back stay nice and straight.

I have a hard time judging how things look on me, but in my opinion it's darned cute. So nice after a lifetime of wearing my hair pulled back into a ponytail!