Since deciding to make a greater effort to read, I thought I'd keep a list of the books I've read:

1. Family Values, Sin City, Book 5 - Frank Miller - I'm very particular about my graphic novels/comic books. The story could be amazing, but if the art work doesn't grab me, it's highly unlikely I'll finish it. I didn't get into Frank Miller until after seeing the Sin City movie. I really dislike extreme violence, so it was very surprising to me on how much I really liked it, the movie, as well as his graphic novels.

2. Hellblazer - Garth Ennis - 80 Bazillion times better than the movie Constantine with Keanu Reeves (which is still a fun movie, and I will always like). Constantine's a bastard, but I now understand and appreciate why the readers of his stories love him so much.

3. Swordspoint - Ellen Kushner - It took me about 50 pages to get into the story, and a couple times during those first pages I almost put it down, but I'm glad I didn't. The story picked up, became more intriguing; I got so into reading it, that there were a couple times I almost missed my Metro stop. As Dan said, he lent me the book, it's a good fantasy story for adults.

4. V for Vendetta - Holy crap. Totally amazing. I think my favorite line are "V this is anarchy" "Anarchy is without leaders, this is chaos." Gave me shivers. A must read.

5. In the Know in China - Jennifer Phillips - It's mainly written for business people heading to China with their job, not future TEFL instructors, but still a really good book, chock full of good info.

6. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze - Peter Hessler - The author spent two years in Fuling, Sichuan Province as a Peace Corp volunteer. It chronicles his stay there. Now that I'm actually in China, the book has greater meaning to me.

Having been an English major my life should be filled with lots of books and many hours spent reading. Unfortunately once I graduated they fell by the wayside and every free moment I had was taken up by knitting. It's not that I didn't want to read, I was just to addicted to knitting that I was never able to put what ever project I was working on down to read for an hour everyday.

One of the things Niels & I discussed upon his return was the importance of taking out to read. So, last night after spending time at the National Museam of the American Indian, I sat down and began reading my first book of 2006, Swordpoint, by Ellen Kushner. I'm not that far into it, but so far I like it pretty well... Will keep you posted...