30 x 30 Books

Carrie's books:

1. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
2. Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4. Catching Fire
5. Mockingjay
6. Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
7. I'll Fly Away: Further Testimonies from the Women of York Prison by Wally Lamb & co.
8. The Girl in the Garden by Kamala Nair
9. A Painted House by John Grisham

I'm a bit off pace.  In my defense, Inheritance took me a really long time to get into and does have like 900 pages.  But I'm kind of lame and need to step up my game.

Becky's books:

1. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
2. The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life by Jasmine Darznik
3. The Tiger's Wife: A Novel by Tea Obreht
4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
5. Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan
6. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
7. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
8. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer
9. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
10. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
11. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
12. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
13. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
14. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
15. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
16. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
17. Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?: Fitness Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise by Alex Hutchinson
18. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
19. When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins
20. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
21. The Girl in the Garden by Kama Nair

Fancy Shmancy Trunk o' Books

This evening Becky crawled to the back of our storage room and pulled out an unopened cardboard box. On the side of the box is printed "Harry Potter boxed set 1-7. Do not display before October 16, 2007." Seeing as it is now 2011 I think she's safe from the publishing powers-that-be coming after her! Inside the first cardboard box is a spiffier looking cardboard trunk, which I suspect in turn contains the aforementioned books. I tried to open the trunk and check on the books while Becky took a break to dish up some ice cream. But I got yelled at for my actions. So I guess I will just have to have faith that the trunk truly contains all seven books. For now I'm enjoying the "Deliver to: Hogwarts" label, the yarn handles, and the printed hinge graphics.

Although I already owned several of the books (and now of course cannot find most of them), in 2007 Becky and I were not anywhere near engaged, and therefore she felt a burning desire to own them all herself. She obsessed. She pre-ordered. She obsessed more. And then she stashed. Every time another of the movies has come out we have chatted about a need to re-read the books. Every time we have chatted about pulling the trunk out. And every time we have eventually gone to see the movie without re-reading the books. But this summer the final movie is coming out, and by golly (haha, I can't believe I just wrote that), this time we're going to re-read the books.

I'll keep you updated on whether Becky lets me peek in the trunk. In the mean time, here are some pictures from way back in 2007 when we attended the book release party at Scholastic for book 7:

UPDATE: After exclaiming "My trunk got locked!" she figured out how to open it, confirmed that her books were still shrink-wrapped, and started playing with the enclosed bonus stickers for decorating the trunk. And then she declared that her books are exempt from the joint property conferred by marriage, and that the trunk is locked so I cannot get in. I am feeling the love, how about you?

P.S. For some reason blogger is having a lot of issues with my attempts at spacing lately. I apologize.