November 50/50 Update

December 1, 2012 at 2:11 pm (Book Review, Writing/Language) (50/50 challenge, Julia Wertz, Margaret Atwood, The Fart Party)

I went into November having read 41 nonfiction books and having seen 47 movies for 2012. I have not accomplished what I hoped in the month, but it does appear I’ll meet the challenge for the year! In my defense, I teach, therefore I do a lot of nonfiction reading (of compositions) that I can’t quantify toward this challenge. Darn.

Books:

• The Political in Margaret Atwood’s Fiction: The Writing on the Wall of the Tent by Theodore Sheckels (My review of this book will appear in the next issue of the journal of the Margaret Atwood Society, Atwood Studies.)
• The Fart Party, by Julia Wertz, is a delightful/cross/hilarious/gross/honest collection of Wertz’s autobiographical comics. I had read the third collection of her work, Drinking at the Movies, earlier in the year, so I was compelled to read the earlier stuff. Wertz lives in Brooklyn, but when these comics were created, she was living in San Francisco and ending a happy long-term relationships. Many of my favorites is available on her website, juliawertz.com. You should go to there.

• The Fart Party 2, also by Julia Wertz

In the second volume, she is fixin’ to move to Brooklyn. Also, she really, really likes cheese.

Wertz has a new book that’s on my wishlist, The Infinite Wait and Other Stories.

Movies:

• Country Strong (Meh.)
• If Lucy Fell (About ten minutes into this film with Sarah Jessica Parker, Ben Stiller, and a very young Scarlett Johannson, I stopped wondering why I’d never heard of it but did wonder why I wasn’t turning it off.)
• Magic Mike (What can I say? The buzz got the better of me.)
• She’s Having a Baby* (This is probably my favorite John Hughes film, but I hadn’t seen it since undergrad.)

*The ten year rule went into effect here.

Yearly total:

Books: 44

Movies: 51

I have six books to read this month! I should be able to swing it, and now it’s time to consider what the challenge should be for 2013. I know that I’m going to open up the books to include fiction, but I’m not sure what to do with movies. If I had more money, I’d challenge myself to see 50 in the theater (that’s not going to happen). Perhaps I’ll challenge myself to see 50 classics. Thoughts?

Now reading J.D. Salinger: A Life