Tuesday, June 3, 2008

sweat and books

A new gym just opened down the street from our house.  It's called Sweat.  But as I proved today, one does not need a gym membership to sweat.


Why am I so sweaty and disgusting?  Well, because first I carried these bookshelves up the stairs, all by myself.


And then because I carried these 18 (yes, 18) boxes full of books (yes, heavy heavy books) up the stairs by myself.


I realized that maybe we have too many books, so my friend Leslie came over and helped me sort through them.  As a fellow English graduate student, she was well-equipped for the task, reminding me that I don't have to keep the 800 page book of John Updike criticism since my field is African lit.


Speaking of books, here is a link to a list of 1001 books to read before you die: 

It's certainly a debatable list, but my mom, dad, sister and I had fun going through it in Arkansas last weekend.  I read all 1001 titles out loud and we kept score.  I won't say who won, but all performed admirably.  I had between 115 and 120, depending on whether I count books that I read abridged versions of, and allowing for errors in memory.  Check it out if you're bored, and leave a comment if you beat my score and feel like bragging.

5 comments:

Leslie said...

Well, you've got me beat: of this list, I've only read 70 -- and NONE from the recommended list of this century. :-)

But the fact that this list does NOT include Caucasia and DOES include Blind Man with a Pistol gives me cause to treat it with heavy suspicion.

Nicole said...

Well, you beat me, cause I don't even know what Blind Man with a Pistol is.

Anonymous said...

Nicole,
cut the box spring in half (only the wood part so it will bend) and then once you get it upstairs get some plywood and put it back together. We had to do the same thing in our house. One of those things we just didn't think of. So happy to see you moving things in. Love, Aunt Peggy

Nicole said...

Thanks Aunt Peggy--we will definitely look into that!

Anonymous said...

Sadly, I've only read 55 titles on this list. However, I must say that the composer of this list doesn't know much about what interests most graduate students these days. And, how is Paradise Lost not on this list?