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[Fifty Books Finished in June]

I finished my 50th book of the year, Moonraker (Ian Fleming), at the beginning of June, part of my Read 50 books in 2005 goal on 43 Things. I never had any doubts that I would be able to do 50 in a year, since I’m a big reader, using spare time in queues or on buses to read. Just in case you’re bored, here’s my list of 50:

January

1. The Bad Beginning, book 1 in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
2. The Reptile Room, book 2 in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
3. The Wide Window, book 3 in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
4. The Miserable Mill, book 4 in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
5. The Austere Academy, book 5 in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
6. The Ersatz Elevator, book 6 in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
7. The Vile Village, book 7 in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
8. The Hostile Hospital, book 8 in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
9. The Carnivorous Carnival, book 9 in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
10. The Slippery Slope, book # in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unofortunate Events
11. Tides of Light, book 4 of physicist Gregory Benford’s Galactic Center series.
12. Seventh Son, book 1 of Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series.
13. The Eye of the World, book 1 of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I listened to the unabridged version as an audio book.

February

1. Red Prophet, book 2 of Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series.
2. The Great Hunt, book 2 of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I listened to the unabridged version as an audio book.
3. Zombies of the Gene Pool by Sharyn McCrumb, an unabridged audiobook.
4. Star Surgeon by James White, book 2 of his Sector General space hospital series.
5. Major Operation by James White, book 3 of his Sector General space hospital series.
6. Ambulance Ship by James White, book 4 of his Sector General space hospital series.
7. Sector General by James White, book 5 of his Sector General space hospital series.
8. Star Healer by James White, book 6 of his Sector General space hospital series.
9. The Secret Garden by Fances Hodgson Burnett.
10. Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.
11. Southern Cross by Patricia Cornwell.

March

1. Code of Emergency by James White, book 7 of his Sector General space hospital series.
2. The Genocidal Healer by James White, book 8 of his Sector General space hospital series.
3. Final Diagnosis by James White, book 10 of his Sector General space hospital series.
4. Mind Changer by James White, book 11 of his Sector General space hospital series.
5. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, an unabridged audiobook.
6. Consider Phelbas by Ian M. Banks, one of his Culture series books.
7. Use of Weapons by Ian M. Banks, another of his Culture series books.
8. Zodiac by Neil Stephenson.

April

1. Double Contact by James White, book 12 of his Sector General space hospital series.
2. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, an unabridged audiobook version.
3. Jennifer Government by Max Barry, another unabridged audiobook.
4. The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend, the second book in her Adrian Mole series.
5. Indemity Only by Sara Paretsky, book 1 of her V.I. Warshawski novels.
6. Deadlock by Sara Paretsky, book 2 of her V.I. Warshawski novels.
7. Killing Orders by Sara Paretsky, book 3 of her V.I. Warshawski novels.

May

1. The Dragon Reborn, book 3 of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I listened to the unabridged audiobook version
2. Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat, book 2 of Victor Appleton’s classic Tom Swift series.
3. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
4. Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming
5. Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
6. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson, about his adventures in travelling around England.
7. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. I listened to the unabridged audiobook version.
8. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, book 1 in his Ender trilogy. I listened to unabridged audio book version.
9. God Stalk by P.C. Hodgell

June

1. Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling
2. Moonraker, by Ian Fleming

Now that the first fifty are out of the way and I’ve read another 29 since then, I’m switched my goal to reading 100 books by the end of 2005. With only 21 to go and three months left, will I be able to do it? Of course! And you can, too, so get reading!

See more progress on: Read 50 books in 2005

[Inbox Insanity]

Although I’ve bene quite successful for years at keeping my inbox to fewer than 20 messages at any one time, I have to confess I’ve been having a lot of trouble with this, especially in the last few months. Caught up in an endless loop of going from one crisis to another, I just haven’t seemed to have much time to sit down and catch my breath, never mind keep my inbox at a manageagable level and the effects are sadly showing in missed deadlines.

More than once I’ve had 100+ messages pending in my inbox. Even today, as I type, I have 64 messages waiting for me to do something with them, whether that’s “Junk” it, file it, or deal with it and file it. Why should this be so hard, you ask? I do receive more mail than the average person and definitely more spam than the average person as a result of holding down multiple roles (technical support, domain registrar, Ph.D. student, university lecturer, friend, technology advisor). According to Eudora, I receive 12, 145 messages on average per month, of which about 74% is spam. Of that 74% that’s spam, half of that is tagged as spam automatically by SpamCop and Eudora, but I’m manually junking the other half. Hmmm! That might explain a lot! I’m manually junking just under 4500 messages a month!

Nevertheless, I still need to reduce the amount of mail sitting in my inbox. Some of it, I notice, is mail I need to habitually do something with, like search report results from Atomz For these, I’m going to write some new Eudora rules to auto-file them. I don’t actually need to read them—I just need to be able to get at the information later, if it’s required. Done. That should make a small dent and I should look for others too. Master the mail!

See more progress on: keep my inbox to only 20 messages