2 years. 24 Albums. The David Bowie journey is finally over. I really enjoyed going through his catalogue and trying to figure out what "my Bowie" is. It really is an impressive body of work. The albums at the bottom of the list aren't even bad, just mediocre in comparison to the great albums. The top is really divided by a matter of degrees (like being lukewarm on one song). What I've learned is that "my Bowie" really depends on my mood. Although the top album is really my go-to Bowie.

24. David Bowie (1967)

23. Black Tie White Noise (1993)

22. Never Let Me Down (1987)

21. Outside (1995)

20. Space Oddity (1969)

19. The Man Who Sold the World (1970)

18. Tonight (1984)

17. Let's Dance (1983)

16. Hours... (1999)

15. Pin Ups (1973)

14. The Next Day (2013)

13. Earthling (1997)

12. Lodger (1979)
Favorite songs: Boys Keep Swinging, Fantastic Voyage

11. Low (1977)
Favorite songs: Speed of Life, Sound and Vision

10. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)
Favorite songs: Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), It's No Game

9. Reality (2003)
Favorite songs: New Killer Star, Bring Me the Disco King

8. Heathen (2001)
Favorite songs: Sunday, I Would Be Your Slave

7. Station To Station (1976)
Favorite songs: TVC15, Golden Years

6. Aladdin Sane (1973)
Favorite songs: Lady Grinning Soul, Let's Spend the Night Together

5. "Heroes" (1977)
Favorite songs: Secret Life of Arabia, Beauty and the Beast

4. Young Americans (1975)
Favorite songs: Fascination, Right

3. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972)
Favorite songs: Starman, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

2. Hunky Dory (1971)
Favorite songs: Andy Warhol, Life on Mars?

1. Diamond Dogs (1974)
Favorite songs: We Are the Dead, 1984

Finally made it to the end! This is actually a good batch of albums to end on.

That's My Bowie!: Part 5

1. Heathen
2. Reality
3. The Next Day
4. Hours

Next week: the big list

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

With the new album, I'm almost done with the Bowie journey. I'm already working on the big list. Needless to say, none of the following albums should be anyone's Bowie.

That's My Bowie!: Part 4

1. Earthling
2. Tonight
3. Outside
4. Never Let Me Down
5. Black Tie White Noise

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Bad month for reading. Really got stuck on the Murakami book. Now I'm behind on my Glass Key books as well.

Just Read:

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle- Haruki Murakami

Reading this after 1Q84 was interesting. I found myself noticing similarities between the two which definitely influenced my thoughts on where the story was going. I did struggle at times to get through parts. I'm finding that while I enjoy Murakami's books, they're definitely not something I can read too regularly since they're so bizarre.

Currently Reading:

Smilla's Sense of Snow- Peter Hoeg

Up Next (probably):

Death in a Cold Climate: A Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction- Barry Forshaw

The short month screwed me up and I thought this was the 3rd Monday when it's clearly not. Oops.

Just Read:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest- Ken Kesey

February's book club pick. I struggled to get through this one. I was looking forward to reading it but it was so slow paced for so much of it. I felt like I was watching The Walking Dead- when there was no action it was boring and I wanted to stop reading, but when things were actually going on, it was interesting and enjoyable.

Faceless Killers- Henning Mankell

First in yet another Scandanavian crime series I'll be reading (not to mention there's a TV show) and the first Glass Key winner. I really enjoyed this one, so I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series (eventually). I'd rank it up there with The Keeper of Lost Causes for best first novel in a series.

Currently Reading:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle- Haruki Murakami (had to put this one down to read the book club book)

Up Next (probably):

Death in a Cold Climate: A Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction- Barry Forshaw

Had a successful book club meeting last week for The Red House. Now I'm reading the first of the Glass Key award books. Didn't get too many new books for Christmas so my list of books isn't too crazy so far. I plan to read another Murakami novel and possibly a classic sometime soon.

Just Read:

The Red House- Mark Haddon

This book was interesting. Better than A Spot of Bother for sure. It was a bit tough to get into at first but I think as you read you get more comfortable just as the characters in the book do. The constant perspective changing was interesting as well, the author does a good job writing children.

When the Devil Holds the Candle- Karin Fossum

Third book in this series. I find the main character interesting but in this book they really didn't spend that much time with him. It was very focused on the crime and not as much on the detectives investigating and solving the crime. I don't have a problem with that, except that I think the main detective isn't prominent enough when he is so interesting.

The End of Boys- Peter Brown Hoffmeister

This is another book I downloaded for free months ago. I didn't even realize it was a memoir until I started reading it. The story was decent, but I felt like a lot of things were really glossed over about his life and about why he made the decisions he did. So I didn't really connect with it like you should.

Currently Reading:

Faceless Killers- Henning Mankell

Up Next (probably):

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle- Haruki Murakami

This was a stinker of a year musically. There were some albums that I really enjoyed but definitely not enough of them. Plus, albums that I was looking forward to turned out to be disappointing (I'm looking at you, Beach House). So here's my pathetic list of albums I actually really liked this year.

5. Kimbra- Vows
Favorite songs: Settle Down, Plain Gold Ring

4. David Byrne & St. Vincent- Love This Giant
Favorite songs: Who, The One Who Broke Your Heart

3. Twin Shadow- Confess
Favorite songs: Run My Heart, The One

2. Divine Fits- A Thing Called Divine Fits
Favorite songs: Baby Get Worse, Shivers

1. Sharon Van Etten- Tramp
Favorite songs: Give Out, Leonard

Dishonorable mention:

2012: seriously, it was that bad of a year.

2011 album that should've made last year's list:

Raphael Saadiq- Stone Rollin'

Looking forward to in 2013:

Atoms for Peace, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Neko Case

I met my goal of reading 35 books this year...barely. The job thing kind of slowed me down towards the end of the year. My goal for next year will definitely be less ambitious.

Here are my 5 favorite books I read this year. I only read a few books released in 2012, so not enough for a separate list like I did last year. I highly recommend the top 2.

1. Ready Player One- Ernest Cline (I read and listened to the audiobook that's how much I loved it)
2. I Want My MTV- Craig Marks
3. The Keeper of Lost Causes- Jussi Adler-Olsen
4. We Need to Talk About Kevin- Lionel Shriver
5. The Help- Kathryn Sockett

Remember how I was going to spend November making all the stuff for Christmas? I failed. I failed so hard. I made one ornament and got about halfway through making a wreath. I did buy a new tree and decorate my house and I even made Christmas cookies. Other than that, everything has been a total mess.

I'm learning that I really need to change my expectations of what I can do these days.

I feel like I just posted my monthly book update. Time is flying these days. I'll have a end of year book list in a couple weeks.

Just Read:

The Marriage Pact- MJ Pullen

After The Prince of Tides, I needed an easy chick-lit read which this delivered. I liked that part of it was set in Austin, but other than that it was a pretty average book.

The Prince of Tides- Pat Conroy

So glad to finally finish this one. I thought it was too long and while the story was good, the length really killed the momentum in the story at times for me. Kind of like Daniel Deronda. My book club also watched the movie, what a casting disaster that was.

Currently Reading:

The End of Boys- Peter Brown Hoffmeister

Up Next (probably):

When the Devil Holds the Candle- Karin Fossum