One thing I wanted to do this year is to make sure I was reading for fun. Sounds strange to put it that way, but since starting my PhD I've found myself reading constantly....constantly from textbooks and academic works and reference books. Lecture notes, project notes, on and on and on. Tons of reading, but no reading for "pleasure."

I set what I think is a reachable goal of 50 books in 2008 and I thought it was time to check in on my progress now that a 6th of the year has passed. You won't find any great works of literature here, these are designed to be a mental "break" from academia.


1. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
2. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
3. Guilty Pleasures - Laurel K. Hamilton
4. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
5. The Laughing Corpse - Laurel K. Hamilton
6. T is for Trespass - Sue Grafton
7. Plum Lovin' - Janet Evanavich
8. Circus of the Damned - Laurel K. Hamilton
9. Lunatic Cafe - Laurel K. Hamilton
10. Key Lime Pie Murder - JoAnne Fluke
11. A Density of Souls - Christopher Rice
12. The Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman (in progress)


So if I can stay on pace I should meet my goal. Yay! As you can see I get hooked easily on series which takes the guess work out of what to read next :)

Last night I had 4 hours to kill between getting off work and an acceptable time to show up to the Project Runway party. My grand plan involved relaxing in a big comfy chair at Borders with a Chai Latte and some travel books. I slip and slid my way across the snow packed roads and icy slushy parking lot and into the glowing warmth of the store. I got my drink and browsed through the books, picking up a few that I wanted to thumb through. Ready to relax I looked up from my book browsing reverie and started checking the alcoves for a free chair......except there weren't any. Not no free chairs - no chairs period. I walked the entire perimeter of the store, checking all the places I knew there used to be chairs and found nothing, save the tiny child sized chairs in the kiddy section and the tables in the cafe.

What did Borders do with my chairs?

If this is a business attempt to try and drive browsers into just buying the book and getting out of their hair, I hope it backfires. I for one will go right down the street to the Barnes & Noble that still outfitted (last time I checked at least!) with comfy chairs for my browsing pleasure.

In honor of the New Year and of course the time for making resolutions, I've dusted off a old meme.

Go to google and type (in quotation marks), your name followed by the phrase "needs to" and create your own list of faux New Year's resolutions!

Mindy needs to find a financial backer.

Mindy needs to lay off the Laffy Taffy.

Mindy needs to learn all these things and more.

Mindy needs to give Nicole Ritchie's attorney a call!

and finally, a ( NSFW entry. )

Happy New Year everyone, may 2008 bring you all you wish for!