A Readerly 2011 is Promised

Last year a few of us were talking about how many books we'd read in 2010, and I found I couldn't come up with a very solid number. Certainly over ten, right? Do books I didn't finish count? What about my one hundreth reading of Kavalier & Klay? In an attempt to feel more confident about my bookishness as we stare down the end of the world in 2012, I'm going to document every new book I start in 2011. Cross your fingers I stick with it.

Despite the facts that I have too many books here in Boston (so many that there is a pile of 15 or so that I have to move from my desk chair onto my bed in the morning and the reverse at night) and that I bought 2 books over vacation, I went out yesterday and bought another book! Geez. Dang you, used bookstore I love. Anyway, since it was a used book it was only $3, and I had four billz on me, and so it was obvious.

So now I am proud to present the first book of 2011:

Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey

I didn't say they had to be scholarly books or prize-winning literature, okay? Anyway, this summer my sister got me hooked on Josephine Tey. The Franchise Affair was fabulous and Miss Pym Disposes kept me guessing until the end. Well, almost the end until they revealed it all. Anyway, she's great, and the book is short and a mass market size, which is perfect for me lugging around on the T. It's also an old edition, the 1971 Berkley Medallion edition, and it doesn't have a barcode on it, which is something I generally look for in books. Seriously. I once spent a very sad summer reading a really sad Joyce Carol Oates because I found a copy without a barcode. Old books also smell cool.

According to the blurb on the barcodeless back, this Brat Farrar kid looks like the supposedly dead heir to a fortune, and so is persuaded to pose as the guy and claim the inheritance. I'm a little under a quarter of the way through, and Brat's about to be introduced to the family, and one of them isn't buying it. Why not? Perhaps because he murdered the dead heir? WHO KNOWS! Well, I will in a couple of days.

Also, they keep talking about how fair and beautiful this guy is, and since it's old-timey (the 40s), I'm picturing this one:


Hells yeah, Jude Law in Wilde! Stop being so prissy, Jude Law! But seriously, has the dude ever been better looking than is this film? (Yes, in Alfie.)

I'll keep you updated on my reading progress.