Number of Books Read: 28
Number of RABCKs & Trades received (Thanks to all you generous BookCrossers!): 9
Number of Bookrings & Rays Participated in: 2
Number of Bookrings & Rays Started: 0
Number of Books Released Into the Wild: 0
Number of Books Caught in the Wild: 0
Earliest Written: Troilus and Cressida by Shakespeare (c. 1602)
Most Recently Published: The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins (September, 2009)
First Book Finished in 2009: Vaudeville! by Gaétan Soucy
Last Book Finished in 2009: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Virtually travelled to:
Countries: 9 real, 2 fictional (plus a few asteroids)
Provinces/Territories in Canada: 6
Centuries: 5 (from the 13th century BCE to the 21st century)

Canadian Challenge Books of 2009:
Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley
From the Fifteenth District by Mavis Gallant
Winter Studies and Summer Rambles by Anna Brownell Jameson
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
Life in the Clearings versus the Bush by Susanna Moodie

Top Books of 2009:
The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay
Fifteen Days by Christie Blatchford (hate her politics, but gotta give her kudos for this one)
Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
Erewhon by Samuel Butler
Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare
The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
Clara Vaughan by R. D. Blackmore
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Other Books I Enjoyed in 2009:
Vaudeville! by Gaétan Soucy
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Past Caring by Robert Goddard
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
Life in the Clearings versus the Bush by Susanna Moodie
Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages by Etienne Gilson
Only A Theory by Kenneth R. Miller

Worst Books of 2009:
(neither were actually bad per se, only I had high expectations and was disappointed because I didn’t thoroughly enjoy them)
The Outlander by Gil Adamson
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Complete List of Books Read in 2009:

1. Vaudeville! by Gaétan Soucy
2. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
3. The Outlander by Gil Adamson
4. The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay
5. Fruit by Brian Francis
6. Fifteen Days by Christie Blatchford
7. “M” is for Malice by Sue Grafton
8. Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards
9. “N” is for Noose by Sue Grafton
10. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
11. Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin
12. Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
13. Past Caring by Robert Goddard
14. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
15. Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery
16. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
17. The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
18. Erewhon by Samuel Butler
19. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
20. Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare
21. Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages by Etienne Gilson
22. Life in the Clearings versus the Bush by Susanna Moodie
23. Only A Theory by Kenneth R. Miller
24. The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
25. Selected Stories from the Canadian Magazine
26. Clara Vaughan by R. D. Blackmore
27. On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
28. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Now, ordinarily I’d be doing this over at the BCReadalong blog (I see I haven’t actually utilised that venue in over a year!), but I’ve decided that I want to invite people from places other than just BookCrossing to join me (the discussion threads will still be on the Book Talk Forum over at Bookcrossing.com).

So what is this all about?
Well, Charles Darwin’s masterpiece, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. I thought this provided a perfect opportunity to read it, and what better way than to do it with company? So I’m setting up a “readalong” and inviting anyone who sees this to read On the Origin of Species along with me, and to come by BookCrossing to participate in (optional) weekly discussions. (I’ll be posting links to the appropriate threads on the BookCrossing Book Talk forum as soon as they’re created.) The schedule for the Readalong can be found below. I hope you’ll find it a reasonable pace (I’m finding it a bit hard to judge since my copy has a lot of pictures and materials from other sources). Don’t worry if you fall behind; previous threads will remain active. Remember: this is for fun, not for school.

The Book

From a publisher:
“’A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die…’. Darwin’s theory of natural selection issued a profound challenge to orthodox thought and belief: no being or species has been specifically created; all are locked into a pitiless struggle for existence, with extinction looming for those not fitted for the task. Yet The Origin of the Species (1859) is also a humane and inspirational vision of ecological interrelatedness, revealing the complex mutual interdependencies between animal and plant life, climate and physical environment, and - by implication - within the human world. Written for the general reader, in a style which combines the rigour of science with the subtlety of literature, The Origin of the Species remains one of the founding documents of the modern age.”

The Schedule
Week 1: October 4, Introduction, Chapter 1
Week 2: October 11, Chapters 2-3
Week 3: October 18, Chapter 4
Week 4: October 25, Chapters 5-6
Week 5: November 1, Chapter 7
Week 6: November 8, Chapters 8-9
**note: The reading for Week 7 was moved ahead one week, to allow participants to catch up**
Week 7: November 22, Chapters 10-11
Week 8: November 29, Chapter 12
Week 9: December 6, Chapter 13
Week 10: December 13, Chapter 14

The Participants
Ibis3
Vekiki
FeistyPom2Love
grooble
swan-scot
Dunzy
Londonlife
miketroll
AZquark
geishabird
Cee-Blue

The Resources
Please let me know if you’d like me to add something here!
Dialogues With Darwin exhibit
Intelligent Design on Trial (a PBS doc on the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial)

The Vid
If you rate it, it’s more likely to come up in searches.

Book 34, Life in the Clearings Versus the Bush (1853) - Susanna Moodie
From the back cover:
“In Life in the Clearings versus the Bush (1853), the sequel to Roughing It in the Bush (1852), Susanna Moodie turns from examination of pioneer life in the bush to a portrayal of the relatively sophisticated society springing up in the clearings along Lake Ontario. During a trip from Belleville to Niagara Falls, Moodie acts as a meticulous observer of the social customs and practices of the times.

Invaluable as social history and as a candid self-portrait of a remarkable woman, Life in the Clearings versus the Bush chronicles, with wit and wisdom, Canadian society in the mid-nineteenth century.”

Other useful links:
the Wikipedia entry for Susanna Moodie

My thoughts:
First off, I have to say that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as Roughing It in the Bush. She spent far less time observing people, places, and customs and a lot more time talking about (the Christian) God. When she did describe life in Canada it was interesting as usual and some parts were fascinating (her observations of the “Lunatic Asylum” for example). There are a couple of essays that were interesting too, especially looking back on things from a century and a half later, like the one about wearing mourning. I don’t know if she would be happy or horrified to see how far those customs have been abandoned. I was particularly intrigued by the story of Grace Marks because I know that Margaret Atwood based her book Alias Grace upon this account. I have yet to read Margaret Atwood’s book, but I will do so soon while the memories are still fresh.

Book 33, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959) - Mordecai Richler
From a publisher:
“The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is the novel that established Mordecai Richler as one of the world’s best comic writers. Growing up in the heart of Montreal’s Jewish ghetto, Duddy Kravitz is obsessed with his grandfather’s saying, ‘A man without land is nothing.’ In his relentless pursuit of property and his drive to become a somebody, he will wheel and deal, he will swindle and forge, he will even try making movies. And in spite of the setbacks he suffers, the sacrifices he must make along the way, Duddy never loses faith that his dream is worth the price he must pay. This blistering satire traces the eventful coming-of-age of a cynical dreamer. Amoral, inventive, ruthless, and scheming, Duddy Kravitz is one of the most magnetic anti-heroes in literature, a man who learns the hard way that dreams are never exactly what they seem, even when they do come true.”

Other useful links:
the Wikipedia entry for Mordecai Richler
the Wikipedia entry for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

My thoughts:
I wish I had read this around the same time as I read St. Urbain’s Horseman because the memory of the figure of Duddy Kravitz from that book is a little fuzzy. A very interesting book with a misogynist, greedy protagonist that you can’t help but root for, even as he destroys everyone around him. In real life I’d be signing petitions against development of the lake and I’d think Duddy deserves to go to jail for something, he’s just so inconsiderate and immoral. And yet, and yet, he still has a kernel of conscience and sensitivity (although it may be completely egocentric). Not as full a book as Horseman, but excellent none the less.