I know, I know. You’ve been sitting around for days reading other people’s lists of what they consider to have been the best things they read over the last year. You’ve even come up with your own winners. But where, you’ve asked, is soe’s list?

Wonder no more. I offer here for your review, my own thoughts on the best books I read over the last year: (more…)

Rudi tagged me with this meme:

The first player of this game starts with the topic “five weird habits of yourself,” and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You are tagged” (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

My five weird habits:

1. I dislike certain foods, but often like either what they’re combined with or their taste. So I will accept oatmeal raisin cookies and eat them over the trashcan, throwing out the raisins as I go. And I will pull the onions off an otherwise tasty sandwich.
2. I am mildly obsessive compulsive about gift-giving. I buy perfectly good presents for people, think I’m finished, and then think, “Oh, just one more.” Lather; rinse; repeat. Or I buy presents for people that I don’t send. I still have them. And when the next gift-giving holiday comes along, I buy them another gift and add it to the pile. But they’re taking over the Burrow.
3. Cleaning causes me to lose things. I am perfectly capable of finding things when they’re in a bunch of piles. But if I clean up (here or at the office), I immediately lose things. Why would you look in that folder or in a drawer?
4. I don’t believe the Christmas season starts until after Santa Claus arrives at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. I don’t play Christmas carols or decorate or acknowledge the presence of Christmas consumption at local stores until then. But it’s all fair game once Santa has shown up.
5. I have a nervous tic where I jiggle my legs up and down like I’m keeping time to a techno tune. I don’t necessarily notice it when I do it, but my mother or grandmother inevitably complain about it when I’m doing it on Gramma’s deck during lunch — I bounce the deck noticeably. Apparently I get faster or bouncier when I’m feeling under the weather or am stressed.

If anyone would like to be tagged, I’m happy to comply. But as I don’t forward chain letters (or chain mail, for that matter), I won’t tag anyone unasked…

Update: Finishing my best of books post made me think of two other weird behaviors of mine:

6. The need to obsessively look up words in the dictionary. Sometimes it’s because I don’t know the definition. Other times it’s because I want a word’s derivation. And other times it’s just because I’m interested. If I could only take one book with me to a deserted island, it would be a dictionary. And if I ever win the lottery, a complete edition of the OED will be high on my list of luxuries to acquire.

7. When I come across a book I want to read, I write it down so I can read it someday. There are dozens of notecards that float around the house left over from my Middletown days. Now there’s a notebook that houses my lists. Do I take it with me every time I go to the library? Sadly, no. But I should. Can I ever read all the books I’ve written down? Only if they stop writing new ones now. And maybe not even then. But I sure enjoy the challenge of trying…