Winter reading challenge: the end

I survived winter! It's spring now, and today was actually nice. I celebrated by going to the nail salon and having my nasty winter feet prettified. But about the books and the outcome of the winter reading challenge . . .

When Mike was a baby, I was convinced I was getting dumber by the day. I launched a very short-lived self-improvement project in which I swore that I would read every book that there's a Cliffs Notes for and that I would do so in alphabetical order. I started with Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and then petered out about 50 pages into Virgil's Aenid. So much for that brilliant idea!

A couple of the books that have languished on my reading list (and nightstand) for months now are what I think of as "healthy" books--books that are guaranteed to exercise my brain and make me a better person (even if they have no Cliffs Notes). But really, between school and work and my various projects and hobbies, my brain gets plenty of exercise these days thankyouverymuch. So I have decided to strike Unhooked and The Shia Revival from my list (and nightstand) and focus on reading some fun stuff instead. To that end, I have polished off Third Degree by Greg Iles and Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella in just the past few days:

And now I am reading High School Confidential by Jeremy Iverson. I'm not putting it on my winter reading list, however, because WINTER IS OVER! The final tally:

Beneath the Surface
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
Nicholas and Alexandra
Russian Stories: A Dual-Language Book
Remember Me?
Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with His Wordless Daughter
Stupid and Contagious
Third Degree

(I'm still working on those Russian stories bit by bit.)