Just did a quick look over my list of books read since May 2005 and some things I noticed:

• I’ve read a total of 75 books in a little over 3 years – a pretty weak amount. This doesn’t include the design-related books I’ve read for work, but those should only number in the teens. I’ve also noticed that there are over 20 books that I’ve started and given up on or never quite finished, the most frustrating of which has been Murakami’s The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, an absolute waste of my time after 300 pages.
• Those 75 books have been by a total of 41 authors – I’ve read multiple books by the same author for 15 authors.
• I’ve read 7 books by Paul Auster (could be 9 if I finish the remaining pages of Timbuktu and The Invention of Solitude), 5 books by Ian McEwan, 5 books by J.M. Coetzee, and 5 books by Kazuo Ishiguro.
• Only 12 of these books are non-fiction, 3 each by Michael Lewis, Malcolm Gladwell, and Alain de Boton.
• Sad to say, but only 4 of 41 authors are women: Ayn Rand, Ann Patchett, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Nicole Krauss (the last 2 are Brooklyn residents).

I am looking to finish Nabokov’s Lolita in the next few days. Afterwards, I will try to finish Book Thief by Markus Zusak before the end of the year. I also have one more Alain de Botton book that is almost done (Status Anxiety), which will make it 4 de Boton books I have read this year.

Goals for 2009:
– a couple of books by Don Delillo (started White Noise)
– more titles by women (check out Marilynne Robinson)
– finish Herzog by Saul Bellow
– at least 4-5 books by authors published before 1950s