As the year moves on...

As my recent ambitions have not panned out, I am returning to this idea. Even if I am the only one to ever read it.

Since December I have read:

Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I like the way he finds the underlying thread in so many distinct areas and rationally draws them all together. The later books have a bit more cohesively constructed overall concept than the first one but I liked them all.

I bought myself the fancy penguin published hard backs (as pictured below) of Jane Eyre, which I reread, Pride and Prejudice, which I have yet to reread, and a collection of seven Dickens novels. I have started reading Hard Times but am only a few chapters in and have only picked it up once or twice a week lately.
I also bought a leather-bound copy of The Mill on the Floss but didn't get very far with it because of the writing style. I am determined to finish it at some point but for now it is not of much importance.
I do really enjoy the penguin publisher copies because they make the reading experience a bit more special and helps to put me in a mood to cherish the book itself and my reading time.

I am about half-way through A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and also picked up an Astronomy textbook which I've read a chapter or so of but then got distracted.
I really like Stephen Hawking's tv show on the science channel and it is a bit easier to understand the concepts when they are explained with visuals and such.

I've also recently read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho which is a spiritual fable of sorts. I found it ok in general except I kept thinking how male centric it was and how a woman in that same world would not be allowed to journey after their dream in that way.
I read The Dude and The Zen Master by Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was the kind of message I needed at the moment. I would like to delve into some more zen reading but I am not able to buy anything until April so I will have to wait. Maybe that should be part of the practice. I am also 'reading' Just One Thing: developing a buddha brain one simple practice at a time by Rick Hanson which I read a chapter from every couple of days. Its not really a cohesive book in that it has a story or anything but it is more like a list of things to think about during your day or different approaches to the things you confront in your day particularly yourself. 

Anyway currently working on:

Manners and Mischief: Gender, Power and Etiquette in Japan ed. by Laura Miller
Just One Thing: developing a buddha brain one simple practice at a time by Rick Hanson
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (finally in the last third of the book)
Walden by Henry Thoreau (halfway, why is it so long anyway?)
The Origins of the Modern World by Robert Marks (for when I have a history itch to scratch)
Hard Times by Charles Dickens (its green with horses on it)
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (brief but dense)

I guess those are the ones I'm actively (ish) reading at this point. Been doing quite a bit of hand sewing so that has taken up lots of time. Oh and I went to SXSW last week and did nothing else that whole week. It twas fun and a bit exhausting. I also have been watching NHL games cause my sister got me into that so.
Ok that's it.