This is topic 2009 Book List in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
 
On one of the other forums I regularly read, it has become a tradition to have a forum topic dedicated to listing the books that people have read throughout the year. Since the folks at Hatrack have a passing familiarity or so with reading, I thought that this might go over well here.

My list so far is as follows:

01. Wheel of Time 8: The Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan
02. The Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson, translated by Arthur Brodeur
03. The Serpent Mage, Greg Bear
04. Stardust, Neil Gaiman

[ January 27, 2009, 01:58 PM: Message edited by: ricree101 ]
 

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Posted by JonHecht (Member # 9712) on :
 
Do articles count? If so:

1. "Socrates on Disobeying the Law" -Woozley
2. "Civil Disobedience in the Modern World" -Feinberg
3. "Socrates on Disobedience to the Law" -Martin
4. "In Defense of Socrates" -Wade
5. "Socrates on Civil Disobedience and Rebellion" -James
6. Socrates and Legal Obligation-Allen
7. Meditations on First Philosophy -Descartes
8. I and Thou -Buber
9. Interpreting Plato's Dialogues -Corlett
10. The Complete Works of Plato -Trans. Cooper (In Progress-I intend to read the entire thing over the span of this semester, partly because it's one of my course requirements)
11. Zimmern, Alfred. The Greek Commonwealth Politics and Economics in Fifth Century Athens, (Oxford, England: Claredon Press, 1911)
12. Woozley, A.D. Law and Obedience: The Arguments of Plato's Crito. London: Duckworth, 1979
13. Rawls, J. 1964. “Legal Obligation and the Duty of Fair Play,” in Samuel Freeman (ed.), John Rawls: Collected Papers, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
14. Hart, H.L.A. 1955. “Are There Any Natural Rights?”, The Philosophical Review, 64:
175-91.
15. Hanna, Nathan. “Socrates and Superiority.” The Southern Journal of Philosophy, Vol. XLV, No. 2 (Summer 2007): 251-268.
16. Vlastos, G. 1974. “Socrates on Political Obedience and Disobedience.” Yale Review, 63:
517-34.

[ February 16, 2009, 04:18 AM: Message edited by: JonHecht ]
 

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Posted by Dobbie (Member # 3881) on :
 
1.Double Cross
2.And Then There Were None
3.The Last Lecture
4.A Thousand Splendid Suns
 

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Posted by Loren (Member # 9539) on :
 
I have Ph.D. exams this week on a reading list of about 170 books. I'm not going to inflict the whole thing on all Hatrack, though.

Besides, I've only read about 50 of them this year.
 

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Posted by amira tharani (Member # 182) on :
 
JonHecht, what is "I and Thou" like? I have been tempted to read it for a while.

Not counting works for class, my reading so far in 2009 has been

Georgy Girl by Margaret Forster
The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy by Fiona Neill
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
As You Do by Richard Hammond
The Swimming Pool Season by Rose Tremain
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (for about the 5th time, I think)

Plus I've re-read the Little Women series again.
 

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Posted by JonHecht (Member # 9712) on :
 
I'm liking it so far. It's not really my type of philosophy, but still quite interesting; well worth the read. I'm planning on finishing it tomorrow when I have some free time, and I will be able to give a better report then.
 

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Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
 
Life of Pi
Chronicles of Amber
Starting The Somnambulist
Space Cadet

I must say, I’m glad to see other people with longer lists than me so far this year.
 

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Posted by Artemisia Tridentata (Member # 8746) on :
 
Most of my reading is in the form of a cassette player as I drive across the Great American Deseret. So far this year, I have listened to the first three Stephanie Plum novels. One for the Money, Two for the Dough, and Three to get Deadly. I picked the first one based on the length of the tape (8 hours) but it was kind of cool so I did the next two on the next trip. Years of commute have cut deeply into the list of tapes in our little library. So, I am down to mysteries now.
 

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Posted by Jeorge (Member # 11524) on :
 
So far, the books I was given as Christmas presents:

Ender in Exile (by you-know-who)
Neverwhere (by you-also-know-who)
Walking the Gobi (by Helen Thayer)
 

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Posted by Architraz Warden (Member # 4285) on :
 
I'll do this and update as I can... Two types of books, Leisure reading, and professional reading / studying. Now divided by a line!

The Wounded Land - Stephen R. Donaldson
The One Tree - Stephen R. Donaldson

---------------------------------------------------

Building Design & Construction Systems - Hornbostel & Wertheimer
 

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Posted by Godric 2.0 (Member # 11443) on :
 
Fun idea. I don't read nearly as many books as I used to before my current job and birth of my daughter, but this year so far:

The First Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Second Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Third Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen

Edited to add:

Truth, Lies and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning - Jon Steel
Making Money - Terry Pratchett

[ April 19, 2009, 10:23 PM: Message edited by: Godric 2.0 ]
 

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Posted by Dobbie (Member # 3881) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Architraz Warden:
I'll do this and update as I can... Two types of books, Leisure reading, and professional reading / studying. Now divided by a line!

The Wounded Land - Stephen R. Donaldson
The One Tree - Stephen R. Donaldson

---------------------------------------------------

Building Design & Construction Systems - Hornbostel & Wertheimer

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quote:

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Originally posted by Godric 2.0:
Fun idea. I don't read nearly as many books as I used to before my current job and birth of my daughter, but this year so far:

The First Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Second Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Third Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen

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quote:

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Originally posted by Strider:

quote:

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Originally posted by Godric 2.0:
Fun idea. I don't read nearly as many books as I used to before my current job and birth of my daughter, but this year so far:

The First Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Second Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Third Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen

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I've always really loved this series(including the 8 Lost Swords books). I haven't read them in many years, but I think about them often.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Vyrus:

Can anyone recommend good science fiction or classic novels, also anything gothic-nouveau?

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George R. R. Martin's Fevre Dream is quite good. If your library doesn't have a copy, it's worth getting through inter-library loan.

His A Song of Ice and Fire series (currently incomplete--we're waiting on book 5 at the moment) is breath-takingly good fantasy. If he's able to maintain the quality of the firs three books in the remaining three, Martin will have written a true masterpiece. I've known a few people with otherwise good taste ( )who haven't cared for it, but they're in the minority.

Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet is probably the best fantasy from a relatively new author that I've read in some time, and the series (which begins very strongly) gets better with each book.

On the SF end of things, Maureen McHugh's debut novel China Mountain Zhang is phenomenal, and her third novel, Mission Child is well worth reading (though the pacing is a little off--it sags a bit in the middle).

Octavia Butler's fantastic. I'd probably start with Wild Seed, but the Xenogenesis trilogy would be a good place to start too. Or for that matter, her last novel, Fledgling isn't a bad place to start. It's a stand alone novel, and shows Butler at her best. The ideas that she explores in that novel are ones that she'd been turning over in her mind and her fiction for decades, and they're as smooth and polished as river rocks in this outing.

If you are familiar with (and fond of) The Iliad and The Tempest, you will likely love Dan Simmons' Ilium. Ideally you'd want to be familiar with Proust too, but I'm not at all, and was still able to enjoy the book thoroughly.
 

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Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Godric 2.0:
Fun idea. I don't read nearly as many books as I used to before my current job and birth of my daughter, but this year so far:

The First Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Second Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Third Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Pixiest:

quote:

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Originally posted by Godric 2.0:
Fun idea. I don't read nearly as many books as I used to before my current job and birth of my daughter, but this year so far:

The First Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Second Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Third Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen

---

I haven't read any of these books, but I MUST say the man has a gift.. a GIFT! for titles.

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Pixiest:

quote:

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Originally posted by Godric 2.0:
Fun idea. I don't read nearly as many books as I used to before my current job and birth of my daughter, but this year so far:

The First Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Second Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen
The Third Book of Swords - Fred Saberhagen

---

I haven't read any of these books, but I MUST say the man has a gift.. a GIFT! for titles.

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quote:

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Anyway, I second anything by Octavia Butler. I'm so MAD at her for dying! She never wrote a bad book. I wish she had written more.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Noemon:
I'm wishing that I'd started keeping track on January first. I'm not sure what things I was reading in December of last year, and what things I've been reading just this year.

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quote:

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Originally posted by BelladonnaOrchid:
and for fun:
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead - Max Brooks

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quote:

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Originally posted by Noemon:


His A Song of Ice and Fire series (currently incomplete--we're waiting on book 5 at the moment) is breath-takingly good fantasy. If he's able to maintain the quality of the firs three books in the remaining three, Martin will have written a true masterpiece. I've known a few people with otherwise good taste ( )who haven't cared for it, but they're in the minority.

---

quote:

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I didn't go into it knowing a whole lot about WWI (beyond what you learn in high school, that is)

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quote:

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Originally posted by Noemon:

quote:

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Originally posted by Vyrus:

Can anyone recommend good science fiction or classic novels, also anything gothic-nouveau?

---

George R. R. Martin's Fevre Dream is quite good. If your library doesn't have a copy, it's worth getting through inter-library loan.

His A Song of Ice and Fire series (currently incomplete--we're waiting on book 5 at the moment) is breath-takingly good fantasy. If he's able to maintain the quality of the firs three books in the remaining three, Martin will have written a true masterpiece. I've known a few people with otherwise good taste ( )who haven't cared for it, but they're in the minority.

Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet is probably the best fantasy from a relatively new author that I've read in some time, and the series (which begins very strongly) gets better with each book.

On the SF end of things, Maureen McHugh's debut novel China Mountain Zhang is phenomenal, and her third novel, Mission Child is well worth reading (though the pacing is a little off--it sags a bit in the middle).

Octavia Butler's fantastic. I'd probably start with Wild Seed, but the Xenogenesis trilogy would be a good place to start too. Or for that matter, her last novel, Fledgling isn't a bad place to start. It's a stand alone novel, and shows Butler at her best. The ideas that she explores in that novel are ones that she'd been turning over in her mind and her fiction for decades, and they're as smooth and polished as river rocks in this outing.

If you are familiar with (and fond of) The Iliad and The Tempest, you will likely love Dan Simmons' Ilium. Ideally you'd want to be familiar with Proust too, but I'm not at all, and was still able to enjoy the book thoroughly.

---

Sounds good-I believe I began reading Fledging a couple years ago, but didn't finish reading it for whatever reason. [I was too young to understand the ideas, or at least to apathetic to care.]

*Writes down names of authors* *Brings to school library*
 

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Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
 
I have already read about 14 books....I like this idea, so I'll post them when I can. Other than textbooks, of course.
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
Octavia Butler's Fledgling! That's one of the books I read after Daniel Abraham's book! Now what was the other?

:: off to edit my original post ::
 

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Posted by Godric 2.0 (Member # 11443) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Strider:
I've always really loved this series(including the 8 Lost Swords books). I haven't read them in many years, but I think about them often.

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I didn't realize until I started the third book that it continues with 8 more. I had picked up these three at a used book store a few years ago, excited to find a complete series at such a low price...
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by zgator:
I keep forgetting to look for Tuchman in the library when I'm there.

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quote:

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Wow, you learned about that. I think we got a little past the Civil War in high school. I've been in an American Revolution mode for a few years ago.

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quote:

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BTW, a while back in a thread like this you recommended Peter Watts. His stuff was out of print (although I think they're about to be reissued), but for some reason, I decided I had to read something of his. I finally went to his website and everything he's done is available for free under the creative commons license. Starfish was really good - very different.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Traceria:

quote:

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Originally posted by BelladonnaOrchid:
and for fun:
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead - Max Brooks

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That book cracks me up!!

Uh oh, I'm wearing loose clothing today.

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Glad to hear that it's worth the read. I've been wanting to pick it up for awhile, but just haven't gotten to it.

On another note: I have a step-father who drives me nuts when we're watching horror movies. He's constantly giving out 'this is what you should do in this situation' as opposed to what's happening on the screen. He's especially bad with zombie movies. I'm pretty sure that if I read this book I will have something to come back at him with the next time we put one on.
 

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Posted by BelladonnaOrchid (Member # 188) on :
 
I was curious, has anyone else read Stephen Colbert's book, I am America and So Can You! I thought it was really funny, and might read it again this year if I can uncover it from my bookshelf of doom.

Books go in and never come back...
 

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Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
 
Blindsight, Starfish, and Maelstrom have all be rereleased in paperback. I already owned Blindsight, but picked up Starfish last fall and Maelstrom last week.

Now I'm reading R. Scott Bakker's newest book, The Judging Eye. It picks up 20 years after his exemplary previous trilogy, The Prince of Nothing.

After that I'm going to read more Steven Erikson, Ian Esselmont, and Glen Cook. I'm on a bit of an epic fantasy kick.
 

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Posted by kwsni (Member # 1831) on :
 
The Dragonbone Chair, By Tad Williams
Otherland: The City of Golden Shadow also by Tad Williams (Which, Jake, I loved. Picked up the second book, but got absorbed in other stuff)
The two Dark Tower graphic novels
Drawing of the Three by Stephen King(again)
All three of Buffy Season 8 Graphic novels
Sandman by Neil Gaiman(again)
The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett(again)
Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (again)

Even though I have a whole stack of new books, I do a lot of rereading, because I can't read anything I get really excited about before bed, but I can't sleep without reading a chapter or two. It's a delicate balance.

Ni!
 

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Posted by Jeorge (Member # 11524) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by kwsni:

Even though I have a whole stack of new books, I do a lot of rereading, because I can't read anything I get really excited about before bed, but I can't sleep without reading a chapter or two. It's a delicate balance.

Ni!

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I'm currently reading Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" - it's interesting reading, but not the sort of interesting reading that keeps me up late, so it's perfect for bedtime.
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by kwsni:

Otherland: The City of Golden Shadow also by Tad Williams (Which, Jake, I loved. Picked up the second book, but got absorbed in other stuff

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Glad you liked it. Hey, when I loaned you those books, did I include any Ursula K. LeGuin short story collections in the mix? I can only find one of my collections of her stuff.
 

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Posted by kwsni (Member # 1831) on :
 
Nope.

Of yours I have:
Otherland: City of Golden Shadow
Xenogenesis
The Deed of Paksennarion
Bone
Illium
Inside Straight

I will be sending them back to you eventually, now that I've finished them all.

Ni!
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
Ah, okay. There's no terrible rush on getting them back to me. If you're going to be making the great trek back to MI at some point, you can just bring them along. That'll be a good excuse to detour through Dayton.
 

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Posted by JonHecht (Member # 9712) on :
 
Just updated my list and I figured that I'd bump the thread so that new participants may enter.
 

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Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
 
I finished The Judging Eye. I think Bakker has surpassed every other fantasist I've read, from Tolkein to Cook. Outstanding.

But read The Prince of Nothing first.

Now I'm digging into the Malazan books by Erikson and Esslemont, who IIRC are both anthropologists. The writing is nothing special, but the scope, detail, and internal consistency of the setting are astonishing.
 

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Posted by natural_mystic (Member # 11760) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by twinky:


Now I'm digging into the Malazan books by Erikson and Esslemont, who IIRC are both anthropologists. The writing is nothing special, but the scope, detail, and internal consistency of the setting are astonishing.

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How far are you in the Malazan books? I have read Erikson's and I found the writing got progressively better.
 

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Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
 
I've only read the first of Erikson's and I'm currently reading the first of Esslemont's. I've already picked up Erikson's second and third in the hope that the writing improves -- I'm glad to hear that it does!
 

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Posted by Leonide (Member # 4157) on :
 
This Year:

Ender in Exile
Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
As You Like It
Measure for Measure
Wuthering Heights
The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative
On Narrative, edited by W.J.T. Mitchell


Started:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare, by Bertram Fields


Re-started:
Speaker for the Dead
Ulysses, by James Joyce
 

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Posted by Vyrus (Member # 10525) on :
 
I finished Kite Runner a few weeks ago-it was amazing. I haven't cried like that during a book for a while.

I am still trying to find good books.

I finished rereading Animal Farm and started 1984. [Dystopian kick, I suppose.]

I have a really strong urge to reread East of Eden, or other Steinbeck.

None of the epic fantasy/fantasy authors seem to be within my reach easily. Any other recommendations?

I'm trying really hard to finish I Will Fear No Evil, which is an absolutely beautiful book for his ideas, but he wrote Joan to be utterly unbelievable and I find it hard to pick up again.

I have a problem with finishing books if I get even slightly disinterested, no matter how good the actual novel is-I was halfway through As I Lay Dying, and pulled 400 pages of the Brothers Karamazov before I called it quits.

As I Lay Dying because of Faulkner's incomprehensible prose, and Karamazov because, as enlightening and beautiful as it was, at the time I needed something much lighter. [I plan on going back and finishing both of these soon.]
 

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
 
I found the 2nd book in Caro's Lyndon Johnson series to be incredibly fascinating: Master of the Senate. It was both gripping as a story, and also a stunningly revealing as to the political world of the 50s (as well as today's no doubt). I'd recommend it to anyone interested in politics, or into biographies. It's on loan from my Dad who only has this one; I think next I'd like to either read the next volume, or perhaps a biography on Richard Russell.

A History of the Conquest of Mexico is one of the great true adventure stories of this world. A man and less than 1000 soldiers conquer a country of millions, a thrilling tale of courage and determinations that is very informative when it comes to Mexican history (including that which predated Cortes). The author, William H. Prescott, has clear moral views of what happened and doesn't seem to be afraid to state them right out there in public. This can be off putting for those of us used to reading more dry, historical accounts. I found it quite refreshing to hear the Author's take on all sorts of different activities, even when I disagreed with him. Either way, though, this story is truly incredible, and incredible that it's true!

Along those lines, I didn't read it this year, but The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E> Lawrence (aka "Lawrence of Arabia") is another of those true accounts of history that are far more exciting then just about any action that occurs in fiction.

Hobbes
 

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Posted by Trent Destian (Member # 11653) on :
 
Nightfall- Asimov
Deception Point - Dan Brown
Princep's Fury - Jim Butcher
Ender in Exile
Half of Keeper of Dreams - OSC
Fat Kid Rules the World- K.L. Going
 

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Posted by Dobbie (Member # 3881) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Vyrus:
I finished Kite Runner a few weeks ago-it was amazing. I haven't cried like that during a book for a while.

I am still trying to find good books.

I finished rereading Animal Farm and started 1984. [Dystopian kick, I suppose.]

I have a really strong urge to reread East of Eden, or other Steinbeck.

None of the epic fantasy/fantasy authors seem to be within my reach easily. Any other recommendations?

I'm trying really hard to finish I Will Fear No Evil, which is an absolutely beautiful book for his ideas, but he wrote Joan to be utterly unbelievable and I find it hard to pick up again.

I have a problem with finishing books if I get even slightly disinterested, no matter how good the actual novel is-I was halfway through As I Lay Dying, and pulled 400 pages of the Brothers Karamazov before I called it quits.

As I Lay Dying because of Faulkner's incomprehensible prose, and Karamazov because, as enlightening and beautiful as it was, at the time I needed something much lighter. [I plan on going back and finishing both of these soon.]

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quote:

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Originally posted by Vyrus:
Sounds good-I believe I began reading Fledging a couple years ago, but didn't finish reading it for whatever reason. [I was too young to understand the ideas, or at least to apathetic to care.]

*Writes down names of authors* *Brings to school library*

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Pixiest:
Anyway, I second anything by Octavia Butler. I'm so MAD at her for dying! She never wrote a bad book. I wish she had written more.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Dobbie:
1.Double Cross
2.And Then There Were None
3.The Last Lecture
4.A Thousand Splendid Suns

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quote:

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The Dragonbone Chair, By Tad Williams
Otherland: The City of Golden Shadow also by Tad Williams
The two Dark Tower graphic novels
Drawing of the Three by Stephen King(again)
All three of Buffy Season 8 Graphic novels
Sandman by Neil Gaiman(again)
The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett(again)
Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (again)

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The Stone of Farewell, Tad Williams
Otherland book 2:River of Blue Fire
Otherland Book 3:Mountain of Black Glass
The Wastelands, Stephen King (again)

Tad Williams has taken over my brain, and it's all your fault, Jake. Also, everything you get me hooked on seems to go back to Troy for some reason.
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
I do like the Iliad, but that's still funny.

Glad you're liking Tad Williams! I really haven't read his stuff beyond Otherland, despite having liked that series quite a bit. After I've read all of the Hugo nominated stuff, and after I've worked through some of my non-fiction backlog, I'll give more of his stuff a try. Anything you'd recommend starting with?

I've just been editing my original book list in this thread as I've added or completed new books, but I think that I'll excerpt the list from that post and repost it down here. In a bit.
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
:: plonk ::

quote:

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Originally posted by Noemon:


Last Light of the Sun - Guy Gavriel Kay
Poems of the Elder Edda - Charles W. Dunn and Patricia Terry (translators, of course)(reread)
An Autumn War - Daniel Abraham
Fledgling - Octavia Butler (reread)
The Guns of August - Barbara Tuchman (in progress)
Intimate Voices from the First World War - Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis (editors) (in progress)
The Year's Best Science Fiction: 25th Annual Collection - Gardener Dozois (editor) (in progress)
Animals Make Us Human - Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnson
The Faces of World War I - Max Arthur
Busted Flush - George R. R. Martin (editor)
Animals in Translation - Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnson (in progress)
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Wildseed - Octavia Butler (reread)
Wild Cards - George R. R. Martin (editor) (reread)
Wild Cards II - Aces High - George R. R. Martin (editor) (in progress) (reread)
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand - Carrie Vaughn
Mind of My Mind - Octavia Butler (reread)
Clay's Ark - Octavia Butler (reread)
Patternmaster - Octavia Butler (reread)

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quote:

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Originally posted by volssam:
I mean I know I want to read Brisngr. Besides that I need suggestions. I was looking at the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan, but it looks like a huge commitment, as most of them are very long. Anybody read it before? Any Good? Thanks.

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quote:

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Originally posted by EmpSquared:
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

Spin was incredible.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Noemon:
I hadn't heard of Spin. What is it that you like so much? What are a couple of your other favorite books, Mathematician? I'm trying to judge whether or not our tastes are close enough that I'd respond to it in the same way that you did.

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Spin follows three characters, all of whom I ended up caring deeply about for very different reasons. The story line was full of new ideas I hadn't even considered, as well as plot twists I didn't see coming.


Some other favorites include:
The Hyperion saga, Illium, Olympos by Dan Simmons,
Wyrms, Treason, and Saints by OSC
Dune - Herbert
Ringworld - Niven
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
Hmmm...with the exception of Ringworld, it sounds like our tastes in SF are pretty similar (I love the ideas in Ringworld, but I find Niven's writing to be just impossibly wooden). I'm officially adding Spin to my queue.
 

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Posted by kwsni (Member # 1831) on :
 
The Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series is good, it's a little stock fantasy, with the wise old elves, and the quest to find something that your enemy is trying to use against you, and the short people who talk funny, but I like it. It doesn't grab and hold me like Otherland does, though.

I just picked up copys of Tailchaser's Song and War of the Flowers, but I haven't had a chance to read them yet.
 

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Posted by volssam (Member # 11673) on :
 
Thanks for the suggestions....
I went to the library and picked up the first book in the Ice and Fire series. I had started it before and stopped and went to something else when I had only gotten 20-30 pages or so in. I know; that's weak, but I'm not an extremely fast reader like some. And it was taking me I think almost 2 1/2 min to read each page, and it was going to take me forever to finish, so I got discouraged. However, another book that took me over 2 min per page - Wizard and Glass by Stephen King - is one of my top 10 favorite books, so I may give it another shot sometime.
I also picked up the first book in the Otherland series. And I picked up Spin by Robert Charles Wilson after reading the above posts. I am 90 pages into it, and it is very interesting. AND....it only takes me about 1.5 min or so to read a page
 

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Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
 
update:

quote:

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Lila
A Short History of Nearly Everything
The Salmon of Doubt(reread)
Snow Crash(reread)
The Ancestor's Tale
Ender's Game(reread)
Speaker for the Dead(reread)
Xenocide(reread)
Children of the Mind(reread)
Ender's Shadow(reread)
Shadow of the Hegemon(reread)
Shadow Puppets(reread)
Shadow of the Giant
Guns, Germs & Steel(reread)
Consciousness Explained

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quote:

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Originally posted by Dr Strangelove:
Reading this thread makes me so sad that I've only had time to read academic books. For what its worth though:

Finding Order in Nature: The Naturalist Tradition from Linnaeus to E. O. Wilson by Paul Lawrence Farber
The Portable Darwin
The Darwinian Revolution by Michael Ruse
Lords of the Fly: Drosophila Genetics and the Experimental Life by Robert Kohler
The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould
Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
Sociobiology by E.O. Wilson
Naturalist by E.O. Wilson
The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen
The Creation by E.O. Wilson
The Ecological Indian: Myth and History by Shepard Krech III
Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Dust Bowl by Donald Worster
The Great Delusion: A Mad Inventor, Death in the Tropics, and the Utopian Origins of Economic Growth by Steven Stoll
Insatiable Appetite: The United States and the Ecological Degradation of the Tropical World by Richard Tucker
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Emile Durkheim
The Myth of the Eternal Return by Mircea Eliade
The Disenchantment of the World by Marcel Gauchet
‘Religion’ and the Religions in the English Enlightenment by Peter Harrison
Enemies of the Enlightenment: The French Counter-Enlightenment and the Making of Modernity by Darrin M. McMahon
The Enlightenment Bible: Translation, Scholarship, Culture by Jonathan Sheehan
A Secular Age by Charles Taylor (most of it anyways
The Religious Origins of the French Revolution: From Calvin to the Civil Constitution by Dale Van Kley
From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology
The Fall of Natural Man by Anthony Pagden
The Myth of the Noble Savage by Ter Ellingson
Catholics and Unbelievers in 18th Century France by R. R. Palmer
All Mankind Is One by Lewis Hanke
Las Casas and the Search for the Poor Jesus Christ by Gustavo Gutierrez

And almost all 73 volumes of The Jesuit Relations, the first volume of Joseph Francois Lafitau's Customs of American Indians, a crap load of Las Casas' writings, three biographies of Linnaeus, two of Comte de Buffon, and a partridge in a pear tree.

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::Checks calendar::



It's only April... Wow!
 

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Posted by volssam (Member # 11673) on :
 
I finished A Game of Thrones - the first in the Song of Ice and Fire Series by George RR Martin. And I must say I was amazed. It was SO GOOD. It's a long book, but it kept me enthralled and engaged in the storylines, of which there are several going on at all times. It was cool the way way he kept switching from character to character but still kept the story progressing. Thanks for the recommendation! I have started the second one already - A Clash of Kings.

Oh, I also I read Spin by Charles Wilson, and it was OK. It started out cool, but about 2/3 or 3/4 through, it dulled a lot for me. It was fine though, but I don't know if I will ever read the sequel.
 

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Posted by volssam (Member # 11673) on :
 
Actually, I signed onto Facebook the other day, and it had an application where you could pick your top 5 books of all time and I placed A Game of Thrones at number 4. My list was:
1. Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn
2. Harry Potter 7: Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
3. Wizard and Glass: Dark Tower IV by Stephen King
4. A Game of Thrones: Ice and Fire 1 by GRRM
5. Lost Boys by our very own Orson Scott Card.

I'd be interested to see what others' top 5 lists would look like......
 

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Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Sean Monahan:
You're likely to get the entire range of possible opinions in answer to this question. General consensus is books 1-4 or so are pretty good, books 5-10 get progressively more boring and tedious, book 11 starts to get better again.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Dobbie:

quote:

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Originally posted by Dobbie:
1.Double Cross
2.And Then There Were None
3.The Last Lecture
4.A Thousand Splendid Suns

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5.The Kite Runner
6.Three Cups of Tea
7.The Kabul Beauty School
8.Zoya's Story
9.A Painted House
10.A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
11.March

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12.Memoirs of a Geisha
13.Cold Sassy Tree
14.Travels With Charley
15.The Prestige
 

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Posted by Tara (Member # 10030) on :
 
Besides all the books that I reread almost annually (OSC, Jane Austen, Harry Potter):

1. Contact by Carl Sagan
2. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan
3. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
4. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by I forget
6. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies...(Well, I bought it and I may read it someday.)

If I did the whole Facebook thing, my top 5 would be:
1. Ender's Game
2. Speaker for the Dead
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. Sense and Sensibility
5. Harry Potter (series...If I had to pick one, I guess I'd pick the first)
 

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Posted by Mr. Y (Member # 11590) on :
 
Bump!
 

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Posted by daventor (Member # 11981) on :
 
Non-fiction:

1. Victims: A True Story of the Civil War by Philip Shaw Paludan

I also read bits of other things for school; out of those the only other thing that really sticks out in my mind is Signs of the Unseen by Rumi and Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M McPherson (which I do intend to read all the way through).

Fiction (Novels)

1. A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears by Jules Feiffer
2. The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages)
3. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
5. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein (reread)

Fiction (Short Stories/Novellas)

*All of these are from the Wizards short story collection, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, with the exception of Robota and Henry's Gift

1. Robota by Doug Chiang and Orson Scott Card (reread)
2. Henry's Gift: The Magic Eye by David Worsick, Joyce Harris, and Bohan Petyhyrycz (reread)
3. Stonefather by Orson Scott Card
4. The Witch's Headstone by Neil Gaiman (which is what led me to read The Graveyard Book)
5. Holly and Iron by Garth Nix
6. The Ruby Incomparable by Kage Baker
7. A Fowl Tale by Eoin Colfer
8. Slipping Sideways Through Eternity by Jane Yolen
9. The Stranger's Hands by Tad Williams
10. Naming Day by Patricia A. McKillip
11. Winter's Wife by Elizabeth Hand
12. A Diorama of the Infernal Regions, or The Devil's Ninth Question by Andy Duncan

What I'm Currently Reading at the Moment (I'm having bad reader ADD right now; I keep hopping between these but intend to finish all of them; I'm about to get Elantris by Brandon Sanderson and I know I'm going read that all the way through):

1. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
3. Howl's Moving Castle by Diane Wynne Jones
4. Women of Genesis: Sarah by Orson Scott Card
5. The Riddle Master Trilogy by Patrica A McKillip

And I always read, reread, and rereread The Book of Mormon every year.
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
What a cool thread! I can't believe I missed it until now.

Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the very best writers I've ever read. Plus she writes fantasy and SF both. I just finished reading three books by her that are billed as YA fiction but really they're for anyone. There's nothing YA about them.

Gifts
Voices
Powers

All three were really good but I especially loved the last one, Powers. I hope she writes more in this series.

Also underrepresented in the lists above is Lois McMaster Bujold. She's light and usually funny, and lots of fun to read. Not as serious or important as some of my other favorite writers but consistently good. All the Vokorsigan Saga books are good. I recommend starting with "Cordelia's Honor" if you haven't tried her yet.

I want to point out one more of my favorite "classical" authors that didn't get a mention above (that I saw). Nikos Kazantzakis is amazing. Zorba the Greek, and The Last Temptation of Christ are my two favorites of his.

One more recommendation. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding is one of the funniest and best novels of all time. I had a copy for years before I finally was moved to read it, and I kicked myself for waiting. It's hilarious and delightful.

Oh, and please join Goodreads so I can read all about all the books you're reading and what you think of them. It's so much fun! Here's my profile so you can friend me when you sign up.
 

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Posted by Mercury (Member # 11822) on :
 
A lot of speculative fiction this year. I'm trying to read every great speculative fiction novel. I should finish before I reach 90.

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Hatrack River by Orson Scott Card (Yes, first time. I only got turned onto Card in the last couple years.)
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Eyes of Heisenberg by Frank Herbert
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Time Machine H.G. Wells
John Adams: Party of One by James Grant (Along with the John Adams miniseries in greatly increased by estimation of John Adams)
American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin (Biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The best biography I've read. Lots of personal information about history's greatest physicists.)
The First Three Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
Mercury, what did you think of Little Brother?
 

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Posted by Mr. Y (Member # 11590) on :
 
I am gently nudging this thread back to the first page, so that those who are interested can complete their lists (if memory allows).
 

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Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
 
update:

quote:

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Lila
A Short History of Nearly Everything
The Salmon of Doubt(reread)
Snow Crash(reread)
The Ancestor's Tale
Ender's Game(reread)
Speaker for the Dead(reread)
Xenocide(reread)
Children of the Mind(reread)
Ender's Shadow(reread)
Shadow of the Hegemon(reread)
Shadow Puppets(reread)
Shadow of the Giant
Guns, Germs & Steel(reread)
Consciousness Explained
Guns, Germs, And Steel (reread)
This is Your Brain on Music
Neurophilosophy
God is not Great
A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness
The Language Instinct
Quicksilver (reread)
Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are
The Varieties of Scientific Experience
Predictably Irrational
In Defense of Food
The Cyberiad
Blink
Mind Wide Open
Hyperion
The Fall of Hyperion
Dune (reread)
Foundation (reread)
Foundation and Empire (reread)

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quote:

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Originally posted by twinky:
I finished The Judging Eye. I think Bakker has surpassed every other fantasist I've read, from Tolkein to Cook. Outstanding.

But read The Prince of Nothing first.

Now I'm digging into the Malazan books by Erikson and Esslemont, who IIRC are both anthropologists. The writing is nothing special, but the scope, detail, and internal consistency of the setting are astonishing.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Mr. Y:
I am gently nudging this thread back to the first page, so that those who are interested can complete their lists (if memory allows).

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quote:

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Originally posted by twinky:
I finished The Judging Eye. I think Bakker has surpassed every other fantasist I've read, from Tolkein to Cook. Outstanding.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Kwea:
I have already read about 14 books....I like this idea, so I'll post them when I can. Other than textbooks, of course.

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Of course I didn't bother, and since I read a couple of hundred at least, including re-reads, it's a lost cause at this point.

I think I'll start doing this next year though.
 

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Posted by Mr. Y (Member # 11590) on :
 
Strider,

How was This is Your Brain on Music? I saw it in second-hand shop a while ago, but didn't take it with me. At the time I just didn't have enough cash on me. Of course the next I time I came around (three days later), it was gone.
The topic came across as something I would want to read. But I also saw that there was some science involved. Is it understandable to someone who knows next to nothing about science?

Noemon:
I also tried to keep my list in this thread up to date. I had set myself the goal of reading 36 books this year (hadn't come close to that in recent years). As you can see, I succeeded and allowed myself the luxury of re-reading one of my favorites. For next year my goal will be to read some books that are bit more intellectually stimulating than the ones on this list.
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
Yeah, I've definitely had years when I read more non-fiction than I did in 2009.

What did you think of the Diaz book? I started that one this year at my girlfriend's urging, and while I could tell that it was a book that I would ordinarily enjoy, I couldn't quite get into it.
 

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Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
 
Mr. Y, This is Your Brain on Music was an absolutely fantastic read. I recommend it without any reservations. There certainly is a good amount of science in it, but nothing too heavy, and the author does a great job of making it all accessible. It was one of my favorite books from this past year.
 

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Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
 
I agree. I read This is Your Brain on Music this year, and found it to be fascinating. The writer has a gift for taking fairly sophisticated data and translating into ideas and words regular people can understand.

I loved it.
 

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Posted by Mr. Y (Member # 11590) on :
 
Noemon, I had Oscar Wao lying around the house for a couple of months before I felt up to reading it. While the blurb promised lots of good things, I was kind of anxious about it. It really dislike starting to read a book and then having to put it away because you are struggling to make it through (though it did happen once or twice this year).
Having said that, when I did read about Oscar's tribulations, I found it far less daunting then I expected it to be. Oscar's own story has some similarities with my own life, making it very easy to feel for the character. The chapters dealing with his mother's life and those about the grandfather were also quite enjoyable.
Even though the book contains a fair amount of history with regard to the Dominican Republic, the footnotes weren't annoying to me. In fact, they made me take out my Encyclopedia of World History to look up a few things.
The use of Spanish frases in the book was somewhat more irritating, but that's only because I know only 6 words in Spanish.
All in all I found it to be a very good book, and I will definitely read it again in the future.

Strider,
Thanks for the recommendation. The next time I see it on the shelves somewhere, I shall definitely pick up a copy.
 

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
 
I've just started trying to read a book a week, but I'm running into the problem of what book! I just finished Moby Dick, which was the last one on my list of books I really wanted to read. Maybe In Cold Blood, but I'm going to hold off a bit on that one. Anyways, I need more books! Problem is that everyone's reccomendation is basically books they liked (makes sense, right?) but even if I like that person and we have similar interests I've found little correlation between them liking it and me liking it.

Now on Netflix I've rated many hundreds of movies and I've found that they're rating of movies I haven't seen is very accurate (they're almost always within a half star of what I would put, which is the best they can get) at this point. Is there place that does that with books?

Hobbes
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
All this info (books I read in 2009 and what I think of them) for me is on Goodreads. Join and friend me! I'm Tatiana.
 

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Posted by Sean Monahan (Member # 9334) on :
 
/bump
 

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