Goodbye to an old friend; A year in books; and a week of non-schedule

First and foremost I said goodbye to an old friend this weekend. It wasn't a tragic loss; it was a decision I made after thinking it over for a few days. He had been with me for a few months now and I knew it was time to say goodbye, at least for a while. I know that I can always welcome him back whenever I choose although he does take a while to come around.

Here he is before we parted ways:



And here I am without him:



This week also marked a year from when I started writing down the books I had read. I started doing this when I was working in San Francisco and riding the train into the city every day; I had about an hour and a half in total ride time every day so I got quite a bit of reading done. In November I started working closer to home but I was surprised to see that I kept up with the reading. I'm not sure if I will read another 62 books this year but I will try my best to get close. Here are the books I read in the last 12 months in order and with the date finished:

05.10.07 - Suttree - Cormac McCarthy
05.13.07 - Forever - Pete Hamill
05.16.07 - Sick Puppy - Carl Hiaasen
05.21.07 - This Book Will Save Your Life - A.M. Homes
05.23.07 - White Fang - Jack London
05.24.07 - The Call of the Wild - Jack London
05.29.07 - Time Stops for No Mouse - Michael Hoeye
06.04.07 - The Children of Men - P.D. James
06.07.07 - Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salenger
06.11.07 - The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells
06.18.07 - Meet Mr. Grizzley "A Saga on the Passing of the Grizzley Bear" - Montague Stevens
06.26.07 - Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper
07.03.07 - The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffinger
07.09.07 - Slaughter House Five - Kurt Vonnegut
07.11.07 - Triathlon 101 - John Mora
07.18.07 - No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
07.27.07 - Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
08.07.07 - Young Men and Fire - Norman Maclean
08.14.07 - Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
08.23.07 - The Judas Strain - James Rollins
08.28.07 - Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
09.05.07 - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
09.12.07 - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
09.17.07 - The Prince and The Pauper - Mark Twain
09.24.07 - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain
09.25.07 - Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
09.26.07 - Alice Through The Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
09.27.07 - The Pearl - John Steinbeck
10.02.07 - The Red Pony - John Steinbeck
10.08.07 - The Giver - Lois Lowry
10.18.07 - The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
10.29.07 - Time and Again - Jack Finney
11.01.07 - Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
11.07.07 - The Orc King - R.A. Salvatore
11.14.07 - Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
11.16.07 - I am Legend - Richard Matheson
11.28.07 - The Golden Compus - Philip Pullman
12.14.07 - The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
12.20.07 - The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman
12.20.07 - Homeland - R.A. Salvatore
12.23.07 - Exile - R.A. Salvatore
12.28.07 - Sojurn - R.A. Salvatore
01.19.08 - The Crystal Shard - R.A. Salvatore
01.21.08 - Streams of Silver - R.A. Salvatore
01.23.08 - The Halfling's Gem - R.A. Salvatore
01.26.08 - The Legacy - R.A. Salvatore
01.28.08 - Starless Night - R.A. Salvatore
02.01.08 - Siege of Darkness - R.A. Salvatore
02.06.08 - Passage to Dawn - R.A. Salvatore
02.10.08 - The Silent Blade - R.A. Salvatore
02.16.08 - The Spine of the World - R.A. Salvatore
02.28.08 - Servent of the Shard - R.A. Salvatore
03.09.08 - Sea of Swords - R.A. Salvatore
03.14.08 - The Thousand Orcs - R.A. Salvatore
03.20.08 - The Two Swords - R.A. Salvatore
04.01.08 - The Promise of the Witch King - R.A. Salvatore
04.11.08 - The Road of the Patriarch - R.A. Salvatore
04.19.08 - All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
04.23.08 - The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy
05.10.08 - Cities of the Plain - Cormac McCarthy

I found it to be a strange coincidence that I started tracking the books in May '07 with a Cormac McCarthy book and 12 months later to the day I finished a Cormac McCarthy book. In that time he has definitely become one of my favorite authors (if not my favorite). I also have to thank Jen for turning me onto a new style of book as I used to read action and adventure type books most of the time. Without her influence I most likely never would have read many of the books on this list and definitely would not have read The Time Traveler's Wife which ranks among the best books I have ever read.

If I was to recommend ten books from the list they would be: The Time Traveler's Wife, Forever, Time and Again, Water for Elephants, The Grapes of Wrath, Last of the Mohicans, Cannery Row, Suttree, Blood Meridian, and All the Pretty Horses.

Tomorrow I start book one of the new tracking year - At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Matthiessen.

This week was a week of non schedule since I start my training for Showdown at Sundown and the Half Marathon in July on Monday. I still got in a few workouts and went to my first Masters swim class which was awesome. We swam the same amount of yardage in that one night as I usually do in a week. I got out with Jen on the roads twice, one day she was a bit nervous due to the traffic but still did great and the other day we went with the Cyclepath group and she did awesome. On the second half of the ride she was setting the pace for our small split off group and we were maintaining an 18-19 mph average.

Totals for the week: 3,750 swim - 53mi bike - 8mi run

Tomorrow I plan on running four miles in the morning and going to masters in the evening.