My 50 Books Project

Since this is likely to be the only year for a while when I can do this (the plan for law school is on, but not to start for another year) I'm trying the 50 books in a year challenge!

I'm pretty sure I usually read more than 50 books a year, but I've never counted. And I'm not going to count books I'm re-reading, and may not count random trashy romance novels that I pick up and read in an evening or two. I'm not a snob about books; I believe those technically could count, but I want to do this to make myself feel well-read again and Nora Roberts isn't really going to fit the bill there.

January started off pretty strong. I read the four books listed to the left. I was a bit disappointed in 1776. I didn't realize it was, per the Powell's website, a "companion" piece to McCullough's John Adams biography. Which left it free to be an almost entirely military history. I kept waiting for more on the Continental Congress, but apparently that's all in the Adams bio. Well, with 46 to go, I may have to pick that one up in the next few months! I did learn a lot about the siege of Boston. Like, for example, that there WAS a siege of Boston. I thought I had a pretty good U.S. history education, but I'm pretty sure we didn't cover that at my high school.

Of course, I grew up in Virginia and my knowledge of the colonial era and the revolution are kind of focused on the history of Virginia. My family did a summer vacation one year where we visited the homes of all the presidents born in Virginia (except one, at the time it wasn't open to the public - I think the birthplace of Zachary Taylor). I don't remember it, but apparently the trip was my idea. I guess I'm just a born geek. Of course, it was also part of family tradition. When my Aunt Pat had to write a paper on Yorktown when she was in high school, my grandparents packed up the car for the weekend and drove down to Yorktown so she could see the site in person.