52 Books in 52 Weeks

In the name of self-education I'm participating in the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge againin 2011.  Here are all the books I read in 2010 in the order by which I remember them!
(F = fiction, NF= nonfiction, RA= read aloud)

1. King Solomon's Mines by M. Rider Haggard (F)
2. Simplicity Parenting by Kim John (NF)
3. The Virginian by Owen Wister (F)
4. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (F)
5, Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell (F)
6. Charlotte Bronte by Rebecca Fraser (NF)
7. The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell (NF)
8. Villette by Charlotte Bronte (F)
9. Small is Still Beautiful by Joseph Pearce (NF)
10. Signs of Life; 40 Catholic Customs and their Biblical Roots by Scott Hahn (NF)
11. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (RA)
12. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (F)
13. Movie Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (RA)
14. Theater Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (RA)
15. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (RA)
16. The Quest for Shakespeare by Joseph Pearce (NF)
17. The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by (F)
18. The Lost City of Z by David Grann (NF)
19. King of The Golden City (RA)
20. Catholic Converts; British and American Intellectuals Turn to Rome by Patrick Allitt (NF)
21. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (F)
22. The Autobiography of St. Therese (NF, audio)
23. The Story of the Other Wise Man (RA)
24. Archimedes and the Door to Science by Jeanne Bendick (RA)
25. The House that Cleans Itself by Mindy Starns Clark (NF)
26. Beyond the Heather Hills by Melissa Wiley (RA)
27. Hold Onto Your Kids By Gordon Neufeld (NF)
28. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (RA)
29. Gone Away Lake (F, audio)
30. Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rawandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza (NF)
31. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (NF)
32. My Life with the Saints by James Martin, S.J. (NF)
33. The Cure of Ars; The Priest Who Outtalked the Devil by Milton Lomask (RA)
34. Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney (RA)
35. Herodotus and the Road to History by Jeanne Bendick (RA)
36. The Odyssey by Homer (F)
37. Homeschooling our Children, Unschooling Ourselves by Alison McKee (NF)
38. Old Town in the Green Groves by Cynthia Rylant (RA)
39. Watership Down by Richard Adams (F)
40. Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard (F - this was a trip down memory lane!)

41. The Real James Herriot; A Memoir of my Father by Jim Wight (NF)

42. Roots of the Faith; From the Church Fathers to You by Mike Aquilina (NF)

43. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (F)

44. Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef (NF)

45. Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (F)

46. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (RA)

47. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott (RA)

48. Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott (RA)

49. Rachel's Contrition by Michelle Buckman (F)

50. The Jesuit's Guide to (Almost) Everything by James Martin S.J.(NF)

51.  Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse(F)

52.  The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Jane Aiken(F)

53.  The Apostle on Crutches by Henriette Delamare (RA)

I might have missed a book or two because I only kept track in the beginning of the year and toward the end. I did however occasionally mention a book I'd been reading on my blog so I used that as a resource and for several months I was good at logging in my books at goodreads but I fell away from that for some reason part way through the year

Here are questions Robin at Read 52 in 52 posed about last year's challenge:

Did you reach the goal of 52 books?: Yes, I did, with one to spare!

What was the last book you read?:  The last book I officially finished was a couple days ago, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by James Martin, S.J.

Did you read from a list and fly by the seat of your pants choosing a different book each week?:  Strictly by the seat of my pants.

Did you learn something new about yourself, an author, an topic?:  Yes, I deepened my love-hate relationship with Charlotte Bronte, I learned I still like Western novels and I read my first Agatha Christie!

How many classics did you read?:  I think a lot of the books I read could be considered classics but classic is a subjective term.  I read Homer Odyssey but I also read The Maltese Falcon, both are 'classics.'

Did you discover a new author or genre?  Did you love them or hate them?  I discovered Mike Aquilina.  I am looking forward to reading more books by him.

Name your top ten favorite reads:  I'm not going to bother to do this question.   I'm too sleepy.

Name your bottom ten least favorite reads:  Still too sleepy, however, I will say that I enjoyed all 53 books.

Name a book you simply could not finish:  There were five of these.  

1)  I read about 2/3's of A Connecticut in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain but it dragged toward the end and I hit a wall and couldn't finish.  

2) I also read a lot of The Idea of the University by John Henry Newman but didn't finish it.  I just kept picking it up reading twenty pages at a pop and then putting it down; picking it up days later to read a different random twenty pages.  I want to go back and read the whole thing properly. 

3) I read most of St. Augustine's Confessions but I didn't finish past much of Chapter 10, so I didn't include it in my list.  

4)  I also started The Life of Johnson by Boswell, but this was right before Thanksgiving and Advent and life got too hectic.  I simply couldn't concentrate on it enough to appreciate it.   

5)  I also started a dreadful book called The Given Day by somebody but it was so violent and crass that it literally made me feel ill, so I stopped reading it!

Name a book you expected to like but didn't:  Riders of the Purple Sage was well written but I did not like all the prejudice against the Mormons.  That made me uncomfortable through much of the book.

Name a book you expected to not like but did:  I thought Rachel's Contrition would be 'Good Housekeeping' level writing (as my mother used to say) but it was pretty good!  

Right now I'm in the middle of 5 books.  I'm reading The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin to my 9 yo, David Copperfield by Dickens to the whole family, Augustine Came to Kent by Barbara Willard for our church history studies and Brahms; His Life and Works by ????  some German name.

Happy New Year!