But it’s time for a change, so I’m moving over to shelikesstripes.com. See you there!

Last year, I resolved to read more than 40 books, and I think it’s safe to say that I definitely managed to do that. 2010 was a year of reading like a maniac, the likes of which I haven’t seen in a while. (In fact, the last year I read more than 50 books was the 2007, the year I took that YA lit class in library school, which had me reading 33 books over one semester.) I seem to normally hover around 40 books in a good-reading year, 25 in a bad-reading year, so this year feels really good.

The highs in books this year were of course the last two books in the Martin series, the Percy Jackson series, Maggie Stiefvater’s two YA novels, the Passage, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (seriously, read it), the Millennium trilogy, and of course the Hunger Games series, which totally rocked my socks. I also read a whole lot of books I’m not exactly embarrassed to have on my list, but… it’s not like I’m going to brag about exactly how many Nora Roberts books I read this year. (Although I will stand behind my assertion that there’s a time and a place for a purely predictable story with an absurdly happy ending. I have never been one who thinks that everything one reads needs to be literary, smart, or educational.)

And considering the fact that I’m currently re-reading the Harry Potter series from the beginning (spurred by the first half of the Deathly Hallows movie, naturally), it’s interesting that I haven’t actually read books 1-4 since before I started keeping track of my reading (so, 2004 or earlier). I read books 5 and 6 in 2005, 6 and 7 in 2007, and in 2009, I read book 6 once and book 7 twice. Not that anyone cares about that other than me, but it explains why it has been so enjoyable to re-read the series from the beginning.

Anyway! So what will by book resolution for 2011 be? I want to stick with the read-like-a-maniac thing, so my goal will be to read 52 books in 2011, and to read at least two classics that I haven’t read before. So I’ll leave this post with a question: what’s your favorite classic book? Mine is Jane Eyre; I collect copies and re-read it every few years and just love it. (Interesting too, since I haven’t yet been able to get through a Jane Austen novel.)

In Previous Years…
Books Read in 2009
Books Read in 2008
Books Read in 2007
Books Read in 2006
Books Read in 2005

#2, the home of a non-human creature.

#6, winter.

#15, a toy.

#23, a flower.

#45, a fish.

#49, your favorite color.

#79, an exotic animal.

#80, your favorite shade-tree.

#84, the place where you eat most of your meals.

#86, a shadow.

#93, a train.

#101, a self-portrait.

And then I saw a post on Apartment Therapy all about linoleum printing and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

See, back in 7th grade, one of our art class projects was linoleum printing, and I had so much fun with it that I kept my carved linoleum block and still have it sixteen years later. For real. Why I kept it for all these years, I’m still not really sure, especially since I was ruthless when it came to childhood mementos when I moved last summer.

Anyway, the AT post told me what tools to buy, and I found most of them at a local art store, and bought the rest online. The cards and envelopes came from Paper Source, and the stamp on the inside was from AC Moore, after I had bought a more expensive one at PS; I couldn’t resist a snow theme.

I stamped about 30 cards in an hour or two one weeknight, and the only issue was that I came veeeery close to running out of space to lay each card out to dry overnight.

I stamped the insides of the cards and the envelopes another night, and was really disappointed in the white stamp pad, as well as the cheap white gel pens that I bought and didn’t end up using. Oh well.

And of course I had to washi tape the envelopes closed.

All in all, I am so, so happy with how these turned out, and I would do it again. (And I will definitely be linoleum printing again; perhaps here is where my future internet fortune lies!)

After a brief poll on twitter, I decided to go with Marianne’s Slow Cooked Black Bean Soup, because my black bean-obsessed phase doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon. I used leftover gift cards to buy a cheap immersion blender, and dusted Ghami’s crock pot off. Marianne cooked her soup in a much larger crock pot than the one I have, so I cut the recipe in half.

Things worked out so that my sister was over to enjoy this easy dinner with me, and let me tell you – this was SO tasty, and coming home to a good-smelling apartment that contained dinner that was ALREADY COOKED? Felt awfully luxurious. The soup ended up on the spicier side, which would probably be good for most people, but for my weakling’s palate, one habanero seemed just a touch too spicy. (I forget that when I use one in chili, the recipe itself is much bigger so the impact is smaller. And actually, I just wrote “one hot pepper” on my grocery list, so didn’t remember to try to look for the chipotles that Marianne used.)

So I learned not only that the crock pot is as great as it seems like it would be, but also that non-canned beans aren’t nearly as much of a hassle as I had originally assumed. And! I didn’t even splatter my entire kitchen with black beans while using the immersion blender. So I’d call that a pretty damn successful dinner.