It’s the last day of the year and before I delve into my wishful thoughts for 2007, I thought it’d be nice to remember some of the more interesting moments of 2006. Let’s see if I can embrace the idea of simplicity while I attempt this review.

Turning Point
In my small world of waking up and being me each day, a big change happened in my life when I walked into my Managing Director’s office in mid-July and told him that I would be quitting my job as an analyst at Lehman Brothers. A few days later, I began working full-time from my apartment in Queens, hoping to build a sustainable business that would allow me to do what I really wanted. Five months later, there are still many things to learn and to accomplish, but I have zero regrets about the decision. And while I cherish the moments I experienced in banking, I’ll take my chances (at least for now) with life outside the corporate world.

Cultural Fun
Although I have yet to attend a classical music concert or an opera where I don’t find myself falling asleep, I try to keep myself open to new cultural experiences. And while I am far from critically understanding most of these experiences, I appreciate the new things I pick up along the way. An inventory of 2006 cultural fun:

Musicals & Plays
Spamalot, Avenue Q, Sink or Swim, Spring Awakening

Talks & Lectures
Milos Foreman interview (New Yorker Festival), Malcolm Gladwell talk (New Yorker Festival), The Art of the Book with Chip Kidd, Dave Eggers, Milton Glaser (92Y), Of Chaos and Fiction (Brooklyn Book Festival)

Concerts & Events
St. Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Massive Attack at Hollywood Bowl, Cut’n’Paste in Brooklyn, Rangers hockey game at MSG

Musuems
The Getty Musuem (Los Angeles), The International Center of Photography (New York), Deoksu Palace & Royal Musuem (Seoul)

Travel
I never traveled much while growing up. Even in college, I preferred to spend my vacations in New York. In the past two years, however, I’ve come to learn the importance of travel and how seeing new places and actually being somewhere else can spark ideas and shift perspectives. A list of cities I visited in 2006 (and stayed over at least one night):

Seoul, Korea
Los Angeles, California
Atlanta, Georgia
Burlington, Vermont
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Princeton, New Jersey
Boston, Massachusetts
Kennebunkport, Maine

Not too impressive of a list, but a promising start for a great deal of travel in 2007!

Repeat Stops
Everyone has a favorite “spot” in the city, whether it’s for eating, drinking, or anything else. Where did I find myself going to again and again in 2006?

Drinks
Pegu Club, Otto Enoteca, Bar Jamon, 71 Irving Place

Eat
Kunjip, Schiller’s, Momofuku Ssam Bar, Rairaiken

Books
Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Plaza, McNally Robinson, Housing Works Used Book Cafe

Well, the sun’s beginning to set for the last time in 2006. A great year to remember!

It’s that time of year again, when newspapers, magazines, and blog posts get caught up in list-mania, hoping to grab the attention of readers with all sorts of subjective “top whatever” lists. And because I am easily swayed by mass media and often find myself caught up in things, I too will throw my pennies into the fountain of year-end lists. My topic: five favorite books of 2006. Not published in 2006 (although one of them is), but books, mostly ficition and contemporary, that I found immensely enjoyable and at times inspiring and insightful as well. The selections were made from the 24 books I read from January to November.

Home Land by Sam Lipsyte
I haven’t read too many books that I can truly call funny, but this is definitely one of them. Lewis Miner, nicknamed Teabag, hasn’t fared too well since his high school graduation of 1989. He writes a series of long (never-to-be-published) letters to the Eastern Valley High School Alumni bulletin, in which he reveals his angst, his sympathies, his bitterness, and a cutting view of status, success, and suburban life that spares no one. Seeing through the eyes of a lovable “loser” makes you really wonder who the true phonies and losers are.

Oracle Night by Paul Auster
I thought it would be unfair to list two Paul Auster books on a top five list (although having read five of his books this year made it tough), so I chose Oracle Night, one of his more recent work (published 2003) and one that follows the familiar Auster format of tortured writer stumbling upon strange and potentially disastrous knowledge. Sidney Orr, a Brooklyn-based novelist, is recovering from a near-fatal accident. He buys a curious blue notebook in hopes of writing again. What follows is a series of mysterious and unexplainable occurrences that change Orr’s life forever. Hope you’ll enjoy coming across the stories-within-stories-within-stories that Auster likes to use in many of his novels as much as I did.

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Hailed as the top English (as in, the Queen’s) novel by the UK Guardian in the past 25 years, Disgrace was also awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. Fifty-two year-old Professor David Laurie has an affair with a student which forever tarnishes his reputation. He escapes the big-city scrutiny and moves in with his daughter Lucy in rural South Africa. All is well until a violent incident leaves both father and daughter shaken and their relationship perhaps damaged beyond repair. Coetzee’s prose is economical yet so powerful and silky smooth – it’s a novel that’ll take a few hours to read and many days to really digest.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
A birthday bash thrown somewhere in South America in honor of a powerful Japanese businessman turns into a potentially deadly hostage situation. However, a long, drawn-out stand by an almost reluctant group of terrorists leads to the development of an interesting community in which opera, music, and language play vital roles in defining the relationships among the hostages and captors. Hostage stories are nothing new, and probably more common than ever with TV shows like Standoff and The Nine, but Patchett does an incredible job jumping from character to character and really getting at the core of their thoughts without losing momentum.

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis
This is my only nonfiction selection, which isn’t a surprise because I haven’t read much nonfiction in the past year. This improbable story about Michael Oher, an oversized kid from the inner city of Memphis, follows his journey towards football stardom and comes fully-equipped with tear-jerker moments that include warm Christian hearts and the perseverance of a rich Evangelical family. But feel-good anecdotes aside, what makes this good Michael Lewis writing are the insights into the history of the left tackle position in pro football and the clarity with which he probes the socio-economic condition of America that made a Michael Oher story even possible.