One year, 100 books What Susan Kosior read this year
Stafford woman made it a New Year's resolution to read 100 books in 2007, and she reached her goal in November
By LAURA MOYER
Date published: 12/7/2007
Late last year a friend of Susan Kosior wrote in a blog, "I'm never going to be one of those people who read 100 books a year."
Kosior thought, "I'll give it a shot."
Kosior made reading 100 books a 2007 New Year's resolution. Last month she met her goal, closing the cover on her hundredth book--Tim Farrington's "The Monk Downstairs"--in early November.
Though she has always been bookish, Kosior, 32, doesn't have the leisure for luxurious, uninterrupted reading binges.
She faces the usual demands of adulthood: spouse, house, job, pet, friends, family. She spends a lot of time in the car, commuting from her home in Stafford County's Ferry Farms subdivision to work as a rehabilitation teacher for the Virginia Department of the Blind and Visually Impaired.
There are hobbies, too. She and husband Michael are ham radio enthusiasts. And with sister Judy, she pursues a zeal for meeting well-known personalities at book signings. Kosior has met Dave Barry, Anderson Cooper, Alan Alda, Laurie Notaro, Andy Rooney, Caroline Kennedy, Harry Shearer and Christopher Buckley, among others.
It's a booked-up life even without an ambitious reading goal. But Kosior set a challenge for herself, and she was determined to meet it.
"It just seemed to me that 100 couldn't be that big of a deal." She soon realized that to meet her goal she'd have to read almost daily before work, at lunchtime and before bed. "I'm just glad I didn't say 200," Kosior said.
She didn't set rigid rules about her reading list.
It was fine to revisit favorites from years past, including all of Laura Ingalls Wilder's autobiographical children's books. It was acceptable to count selections she read for one of two book clubs she belongs to.
Works intended for young adults were fair game, as were thrillers read out loud with Michael.
And it was OK to ditch a book if the first 50 pages didn't grab her--though only completed books counted toward the total.
Her interests led her to read more fiction than nonfiction, including an ample serving of mysteries, a few self-help titles and, of course, the last in the Harry Potter series.
| (listed in the order read)
Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Quilter's Apprentice, Jennifer Chiaverini
The Innocent Man, John Grisham
Hanna's Daughters, Marianne Fredriksson
Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks
March, Geraldine Brooks
On the Banks of Plum Creek, Laura Ingalls Wilder
By the Shores of Silver Lake, Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Mulberry Tree, Jude Devereaux
Murder in Foggy Bottom, Margaret Truman
Plum Lovin', Janet Evanovich
Round Robin, Jennifer Chiaverini
Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
The Art of Mending, Elizabeth Berg
Blessings, Anna Quindlen
Double Shot, Diane Mott Davidson
Rotten Rejections, Andre Bernard, editor
The Long Winter, Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Town on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Magic of Ordinary Days, Ann Howard Creel
The Dive From Clausen's Pier, Ann Packer
Final Analysis: The Untold Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case, Catherine Crier
Baggage, Emily Barr
The Motorboat Boys on the Saint Lawrence, Louis Arundel
The Lost Boy, Dave Pelzer
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
The Dogs of Babel, Carolyn Parkhurst
Florence of Arabia, Christopher Buckley
Such a Pretty Girl, Laura Wiess
Blue Water, A. Manette Ansay
The Ha Ha, Dave King
The Cross Country Quilters, Jennifer Chiaverini
A Northern Light, Jennifer Donnelly
The Patron Saint of Liars, Ann Patchett
Bet Me, Jennifer Crusie
One For the Money, Janet Evanovich
The Brethren John Grisham
My Life, Bill Clinton
The Runaway Quilt, Jennifer Chiaverini
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
Gods in Alabama, Joshilynn Jackson
Sleeping Arrangements, Laura Shaine Cunningham
Remember Me to Harold Square, Paula Danziger
The Note, Angela Hunt
How To Be Happy, Dammit! A Cynic's Guide to Spiritual Happiness, Karen Salmansohn
Dark Tort, Diane Mott Davidson
Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult
The First Four Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder
Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
The Master Quilter, Jennifer Chiaverini
This Place Has No Atmosphere, Paula Danziger
Cat on the Scent, Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie Brown
Two for the Dough, Janet Evanovich
Along Came a Spider, James Patterson
The Last Days of Summer, Steve Kluger
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
Grave Sight, Charlaine Harris
Three to Get Deadly, Janet Evanovich
The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls
The Year of Pleasures, Elizabeth Berg
An Idiot Girl's Christmas: True Tales From the Top of the Naughty List, Laurie Notaro
Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters, Jean Shepherd
Picture Perfect, Jodi Picoult
3rd Degree, James Patterson
A Thousand Days in Venice, Marlena De Blasi
A Year by the Sea, Joan Anderson
Lean Mean Thirteen, Janet Evanovich
The Undomesticated Goddess, Sophie Kinsella
Eating Royally, Darren McGrady
Nearlyweds, Beth Kendrick
A Tale of Two Sisters, Anna Maxted
The Pact, Jodi Picoult
The Book Club, Mary Alice Monroe
Dumping Billy, Olivia Goldsmith
Lost and Found, Carolyn Parkhurst
The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, N. Juster
Death Note, Volume One, Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
Househusband, Ad Hudler
There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell, Laurie Notaro
Pretty Little Mistakes, Heather Mcelhatton
The Giver, Lois Lowry
Forever Lily, Beth Nonte Russell
The Martian Child, David Gerrold
The Garden Angel, Mindy Friddle
Father Knows Less (Or: Can I Cook My Sister?), Wendell Jamieson
The Girls, Lori Lansens
You'll Never Nanny in This Town Again, Suzanne Hansen
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, Gabrielle Zevin
Running the Dogs, Thomas Cochran and Really Cheesy Facts About Famous Authors, Camille Smith Platt (Kosior counted these as one book because of their lengths)
The Virgin of Small Plains, Nancy Pickard
Goodbye Jumbo, Hello Cruel World, Louie Anderson
Circle of Quilter, Jennifer Chiaverini
The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries, Marilyn Johnson
Enough Dammit! A Cynic's Guide to Finally Getting What You Want Out of Life, Karen Salmansohn
Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, Garrison Keillor
Homefront, Doris Gwaltney
Why Do Men Have Nipples? (Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini), Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg
The Monk Downstairs, Tim Farrington |
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Date published: 12/7/2007
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