2011 Resolutions, 7 of 10

A year ago, I blogged about ten resolutions for 2011, and posted the entry on the bulletin board behind my desk so I could stare at it all year long. It’s now time to grade myself on how I did. Next is . . .

7. Mind – read 50 books.

Ah, reading: my mini-escape most evenings from the noise and crowdedness of my life. Some of the books I read this year were re-reads, and some were short, but some were quick long and/or dense, so getting to 50 was an honest accomplishment. If I wasn’t so addicted to random sports and a capella videos on YouTube, I could’ve read even more, and probably would’ve been more informed and rested for it. Let’s call this a solid B. By the way, if you’re interested in what I read, I'll put the full list at the bottom of this post, plus my scores from 1 to 5 (1 being awful and 5 being transcendent).

Resolution for 2012: same as 2011.

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* denotes that I had read it prior to this year

1. Best and the Brightest – Halberstam 3
2. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness Of Crowds – Mackay 1
3. Brief History of Time - Hawking 3
4. Democracy in America – Tocqueville 3
5. Kingdom Works – Campolo * 3
6. American Beliefs – Mcelroy 4
7. Good to Great – Collins * 5
8. Nurture Assumption - Harris 4
9. Unpoverty - Lutz 3
10. Set Your Compass True - Bergstrom 3
11. National Bank of Dad - Owen 4
12. Peace Jam - Suvanjieff 2
13. My American Journey - Powell 3
14. Birth of the Modern - Johnson 3
15. The Card - O'keeffe/Thompson 3
16. Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven - Skirboll 4
17. Six Good Innings - Kreider 2
18. Our Greatest Gift - Nouwen 3
19. Ninety Feet from Fame - Robbins 3
20. Planet of the Umps - Kaiser 3
21. Batting Stance Guy - Ryness 2
22. The Soul of Baseball - Posnanski 3
23. Three Nights in August - Bissinger 4
24. Modern Times - Johnson 3
25. God Behaving Badly - Lamb 4
26. Pleasures of God - Piper * 5
27. The Extra 2% - Keri 2
28. The Coke Machine - Blanding 4
29. Policy and Choice - Congdon 2
30. Breaks of the Game - Halberstam 3
31. One Good Turn - Rybczynski 3
32. Character Is Destiny - McCain 3
33. Class - Fussell 4
34. Age of Turbulence - Greenspan 3
35. Atlas of Languages – Comrie * 3
36. Power to the People - Ingraham 2
37. Yellow - Wu * 4
38. Total Chaos - Chang 3
39. Blind Side - Lewis 3
40. Through Gates of Splendor - Elliot 3
41. Number Crunchers - Ayres 3
42. Math and the Mona Lisa - Atalay 2
43. American Nerd - Nugent 2
44. Hidden Order - Friedman 3
45. Passion and Purity - Elliott 3
46. Art of the Handwritten Note - Shepherd 3
47. Revolution in a Bottle - Szaky 4
48. More Sex is Safer Sex - Landsburg 3
49. Pursuit of God in the Company of Friends - Lamb 3
50. Driving Like Crazy - O'Rourke 1
51. Human Accomplishment - Murray 4
52. Rise and Fall of the Great Powers - Kennedy 3