Thursday, June 4, 2009

Another Year in Books

Yes, I'm still here I just haven't had much time to post lately. I've thought about it a few times but never really get around to it.

The training is going well and my first tri on the 13th is almost here. Last weekend Jen and I went out to Hagg Lake for our first OWS of the year and it went great. We both swam the 800 and I finished in 12:57; if I swim that same time or a bit faster at Blue Lake I will be very pleased.

We've been consistently making it out to masters lately and we've been getting in some miles on the bike but the bulk of the riding has been on the weekends. In the next few weeks as I gear up for the Hagg Olympic and Lake Stevens 70.3 I will definitely be riding longer during the week.

In May I finished another year of books and although I didn't read nearly as many as last year but still quite a few. Following is the list of the books, the author, and the date I finished them:

At Play in the Fields of the Lord - Peter Matthiessen - 06.15.08
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho - 06.22.08
World War Z (An Oral History of the Zombie War) - Max Brooks - 06.28.08
The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey - 08.21.08
The Last Oracle - James Rollins - 09.20.08
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley - 10.05.08
The Family - Mario Puzzo - 10.14.08
The Jungle - Upton Sinclair - 10.26.08
Lord of the Flies - William Golding - 10.28.08
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - 11.03.08
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tale of two Cities - Charles Dickens - 11.28.08
Animal Farm - George Orwell - 11.30.08
The Black Hand (The Bloody Rise & Redemption of "Boxer Enriquez" A Mexican Mob Killer) - Chris Blatchford
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey - 12.18.08
Nineteen Eight Four - George Orwell - 12.24.08
Brisinger - Christoper Paolini - 01.25.09
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin - 02.22.09
A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin - 03.13.09
A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin - 03.22.09
A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin - 04.02.09
Watership Down - Richard Adams - 04.24.09
Skin Tight - Carl Hiaasen - 05.04.09
Basket Case - Carl Hiassen - 05.15.09

So not nearly as many as last year but I suppose that's what happens when you aren't riding the train for 90 minutes every day. Once I stopped working in San Francisco I lost that time and once we moved to Portland I was busy checking out our new surroundings (which I am still trying to do although tri training is taking up a lot of my time these days).

Of those that I read this year I enjoyed The Family, The Jungle, and Watership Down; all the rest were good in their own way.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been majorly slacking in the reading department compared to last year..kinda hard to run and read at the same time! haha Good luck in your upcoming tri :)

Dragonfly on the Water said...

Sounds like you are ready for the Tri next week-end. Have fun & stay strong. Great year feeding your brain with books.

jen said...

You read about 5x more books than me! The fact that you are sitting next to me right now reading while I play on the internet is a great illustration of that difference. I suck.

You're going to do great in the tri!! Can't wait for our first race of the season.

chris mcpeake said...

Good luck on your first Tri. Sure your training will lead to a great race

Sarah said...

Whoo! Those are some heavy books mostly. Good job! Handy that you're close to Powells, you can stock up for the next 12 months!

Alisa said...

I wanted to read 2 books a month for 2009 but I have failed miserably.

I might have to check out some of these titles.

Marathon Maritza said...

I've been SO SLACKING in the reading department too!! Great job this year, awesome reads!

The Jungle, which I had to read in 8th grade honors English was the reason I took my first foray into vegetarianism. *shudder*