posted
Here's a list of the books I read in 2008. I also read a lot of short fiction, but there's way too many of those stories to keep track of, or list here. I have only listed short story collections here where I have read the whole book in 2008. I would be very interested in seeing the lists of others, or to dicsuss any of these books, or to take book recommendations. In no particular order:
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee Born Standing Up, Steve Martin The Godfather, Mario Puzo Hunter's Run, George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Daniel Abraham In Cold Blood, Truman Capote Genome, Matt Ridley The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald Keeper of Dreams, Orson Scott Card Dreamsongs, volumes I and II, George R.R. Martin The Children of Hurin, J.R.R. Tolkien What Do You Care What Other People Think?, Richard Feynman The Hundred Secret Senses, Amy Tan The Ancestor's Tale, Richard Dawkins Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter Shadow of the Hegemon, Orson Scott Card Shadow Puppets, Orson Scott Card Shadow of the Giant, Orson Scott Card Ender in Exile, Orson Scott Card The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume II B, ed. Ben Bova
Here is a list of books I plan to read this year, most of which I have already purchased.
Lord of the Flies, William Golding Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins Schultz and Peanuts, David Michaelis The Real Lincoln, Thomas J. DiLorenzo The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris The Stand, Stephen King My Bondage and My Freedom, Frederick Douglass Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass the Hyperion quadrilogy, Dan Simmons the Mars trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson
posted
I've only read a little bit of Douglass' actual writing, the rest of which was stuff written about him by others, but his post-Reconstruction writing is almost out of left field. Douglass was an historian as much as he was an abolitionist, yet in his his post-Reconstruction writing he laments the the collapse of Reconstruction and wonders where everyone went. Either he was living in some sort of fantasy land that totally misrepresented white America, which I find impossible to believe given the vast amount of time he spent talking to whites, especially in the north, and giving speeches to them, or he was intentionally misrepresenting history in order to create an identity for the next generation of black activists. The second explanation makes a lot more sense. I'd like to get into his later work to see more of what he's saying when I have more time. Let me know when you get to him in your readings, I'd love to discuss it.
The Children of Hurin is a great book. It's pretty much just stuff taken from a half dozen other books that were already released, but it's put into a much more readable format, more a narrative than a collection of snippets, and you can see where Chris Tolkien smoothed over some of the edges. The illustrations from Alan Lee are really great too. I wish they had enough material to do a story on Tuor in more depth than we get from the Lost Tales and such.
If you haven't read any of the Narn (narn i chin hurin (Lay of the Children of Hurin)) in the Silmarillion, you're really in for a treat if you're a big Tolkien fan. The material covered is vastly important to the First Age. The only warning I'll give is that, for me anyway, a lot of it was heartbreaking to read. There's more tragedy in that story than in any other I've ever read.
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Lyrhawn, I didn't previously know anything about Douglass' post-Reconstruction writing, that is interesting. He wrote Narrative ~1845 if I remember correctly, and as such, it was necessary for him to omit the details of his escape to freedom. I want to read the third book because it was written in 1881, and he finally gives an account of his escape (I want to read the second, simply because I didn't want to skip it on the way to the third).
And yes, I've read the Silmarillion several times. Much of it is very heart-wrenching. I also own the entire History of Middle-earth series; if you're a geek about Middle-earth, there's a lot of interesting stuff in there.
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Woah, you're a bigger geek than I am! I'm missing the 11th Volume of the History of Middle Earth series, but I have the rest.
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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (not quite finished) Twilight by Stephanie Meyer Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (only at the insistence of my roommate) Ender in Exile Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen Mansfield Park by Jane Austen Persuasion by Jane Austen (now I've read all of them!) Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi Dave Barry is From Mars and Venus by Dave Barry
That isn't half of them, but I can't remember any more. I should really start keeping a list. Of course, that list doesn't include the 3000+ pages for my history class. *sigh*
The only book I have on the list for 2009 is War and Peace.
Posts: 930 | Registered: Dec 2006
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posted
Since I can't possibly remember what I read last year, I'll just comment on everyone else's lists.
Sean - I've read Feynman's autobiography "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman," and it was an interesting read. Did you enjoy the Feynman you mentioned?
Christine, I agree with you on "Twilight", and Murder of Roger Ackroyd is one of the best Christie novels. I loved it even though someone had spoiled the ending for me.
I just finished "Ender In Exile", and I'm currently reading "Walking the Gobi" by Helen Thayer, and next on my list is "Neverwhere" by Gaiman.
Beyond that I've got "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes, if I can work up the courage to attack that one!
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quote:Originally posted by Jeorge: Sean - I've read Feynman's autobiography "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman," and it was an interesting read. Did you enjoy the Feynman you mentioned?
Very much. The first half of What Do You Care is similar to Surely You're Joking, though less humorous - he talks a lot about his first wife who died of tuberculosis. The second half of the book deals exclusively with his behind-the-scenes experiences on the Rogers Commission, which investigated the Challenger disaster of 1986. It discusses not only their discovery of the mechanical failure that caused it, but also their discovery of severe managerial and bureaucratic deficiencies within the NASA organization which allowed the mechanical failure to occur/be ignored.
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I'm not posting my whole list...too long...but here's a summary plus the greatest hits: Overview of 2008 Total # of books read: 78 Breakdown by genre: Nonfiction: 20 (incl. 1 graphic biography) Mystery: 5 Contemporary realistic fiction (adult): 9 CRF (YA): 13 (incl. 1 graphic novel) Fantasy (adult & YA): 11 Romance: 9 Historical fiction: 2 Scifi (adult & YA): 8 Horror: 1
I have no particular goals for 2009--just to read 100 books. What kind of books I read will depend on my moods. Right now I'm into YA, which is fun because they're fast reads AND the ones I've been reading have been mostly excellent. My school just sent me to a conference about the best new & old YA books--it's always fun to sit and listen to book talks all day long! I've spent all of my Christmas money already on new YA titles. I get to read them first, then I put them in my classroom library.
Also, I'm the department head in my school, so I just got to order about 100 or so new titles for literature circles.
For those who like book lists, here's my list of books I really liked in 2008.
Best in 2008 January: *Freakonomics
February *The Pillars of the Earth
March *Lucifer's Hammer *Assassination Vacation
April: *The Sparrow
May: * Such a Pretty Fat *Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
June: *Careless in Red
July: *The Omnivore’s Dilemma *Case Histories
August: Nothing worth mentioning
September: *The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
October: *The Hunger Games (YA) *World War Z
November: *Hitler Youth (YA) *Memoirs of a Bookbat (YA)
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Wow, I can't possibly remember EVERYTHING from this year - but I'll give it a try. I'll try to skip the re-reads (most of my actual reading is often rereads). Keep in mind that most of these are audio books.
"The Forgotten Garden" - absolutely wonderful!!! I picked this up on recommendation from a friend on Goodreads, and it really was a treasure. It isn't the genre or style I usually enjoy, but it was put together so well that I couldn't help but fall in love with it!
"Pride and Prejudice" - Better than I expected, but I probably won't read it again.
"Jane Eyre" - not quite as good as P&P because it was more depressing.
"Old Man and the Sea" - Torture, pure and simple!
"Podkayne of Mars" - Read by Emily Card, it was fantastic!
Ender in Exile - How could I forget that one!
Quite a few Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, I think "Thud" or "Going Postal" were my favorite.
"The Bean Trees" by Barbara Kingsolver - very good, like Card, we cannot judge her fiction by her essays. :-)
"Artemis Fowl" - Very cute YA.
"The Night of 400 Rabbits" by Elizabeth Peters - This was not nearly as good as the Amelia Peabody series, but towards the end I got really interested in it.
"Under Siege" by George RR Martin - Ok, I love "The Song of Ice and Fire", but it was nearly impossible for me to make it though this story. I just didn't care, and had a hard time keeping everything strait. Maybe I just didn't like the narrator, but this was painful!
"The City of Ember" - and speaking of bad narrators! I think that was half the reason this book did not impact me the way it seems to have done so many others. The voice for the mayor made my skin CRAWL!
"The Disappeared" - by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Giving away this book free on Audible was probably a stroke of genius for whoever decided to do it. I'm hooked! This is the perfect blend of sci-fi, mystery, and emotion. I'm in the middle of the second book right now.
"Coraline" - a pretty decent YA by Neil Gaiman.
"Beyond the Gap" by Harry Turtledove - Really good! It's supposed to be a series and I can't wait for the next book.
"Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman - eh, it was ok.
"M is for Magic" by Neil Gaiman - eh, more ok.
"Planet of Exile" - it started slow, but got really good. I'll read some more.
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" - I was sorely disappointed in this work. I guess I've been ruined by all the kids versions of this story that cut to the exciting good parts and have happy endings. This was an extremely slow story with all annoying characters and a dull ending.
That's all I can remember at the moment. I'm sure there were more. You'll have to befriend me on goodreads to get the full story!
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posted
I can't much remember all of them. Starting that i got a large box of free hard cover Stephen King books.
Dark Tower series. Dune series The Stand The TommyKnockers Firestarter Carrie World War Z A Brief History of the Universe The Things they Carried Huckleberry Finn(Again for school) Amber series Ender in Exile There is more, maybe ill add later.
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