Books. They are awesome.
So, it's bright and early on a new year, and I intend to do something like this ever year. I did something similar last year, too. Here's all the books I read in 2009. Keeping track of them all started because of a lack of space to shelve them all; so I find a place to put all the ones I've read in one spot, and, conveniently, that means they're all there for the end of the year.
So, books I've read in 2009 and a few thoughts on some of them. And, in the tradition of memes like these, I've set up a system. Bold is for books I really, really enjoyed more than the average book, italics is for books I've read prior to this year as well, and strikeout is for books I actually really did not like. At first, I felt the strikeout would be cruel, but, really, if you're a book and I didn't like you, you deserve it.
They're in no particular order; just the order in which I pull them from the "Read!" shelf downstairs.
1. "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold
2. "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Short Fiction" by Stephen Crane
3. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey
4. "Wormwood" by Poppy Z. Brite
5. "Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche
6. "The Quest" by Wilbur Smith
7. "The Rainbow People" by Lawrence Yep
8. "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
9. "Letters of a Portuguese Nun" by Myriam Cyr
10. "Into the Land of the Unicorns" by Bruce Coville
11. "Song of the Wanderer" by Bruce Coville
12. "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac
13. "Matilda" by Roald Dahl
14. "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
15. "A Grain of Rice" by Helena Clare Pittman
16. "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
17. "Native Son" by Richard Wright
18. "Bloodsucking Fiends" by Christopher Moore
19. "You Suck: A Love Story" by Christopher Moore
20. "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore
21. "Hawthorne: A Life" by Brenda Wineapple
22. "Waiting" by Ha Jin
23. "Mother Night" by Kurt Vonnegut
24. "Sharpe's Fury" by Bernard Cornwell
25. "The Pleasure of my Company" by Steve Martin
26. "Empress" by Shan Sa
27. "Socialism is Great!: A Worker's Memoir of the New China" by Lijia Zhang
28. "The Dead" by James Joyce
29. "The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World" by Steven Johnson
30. "My Big, Fat Supernatural Honeymoon" edited by P.N. Elrod
31. "Towelhead" by Alicia Erian
32. "The Best American Poetry 2003" edited by Yusef Komunyakaa
33. "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
34. "The Hidden Hand, or Capitola the Madcap" by E.D.E.N. Southworth
35. "The Amber Gods, and Other Short Stories" by Harriet Prescott Spofford
36. "When Will Jesus Bring the Porkchops?" by George Carlin
37. "Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China" by Rachel Dewoskin
38. "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks
39. "The Lambs of London" by Peter Ackroyd
40. "Mirror Mirror" by Gregory Maguire
41. "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski
42. "The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre" by Dominic Smith
43. "The Fellowship of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien
44. "The Two Towers" by J.R.R. Tolkien
45. "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
46. "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott
47. "Lady Chatterly's Lover" by D.H. Lawrence
48. "Breaking Open Japan: Commodore Perry, Lord Abe, and American Imperialism in 1853" by George Feifer
49. "The Teahouse Fire" by Ellis Avery
50. "In Praise of Nepotism: A Natural History" by Adam Bellow
51. "The Chess Machine" by Robert Lohr
52. "Danse Macabre" by Stephen King
53. "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King
54. "Babbitt" by Sinclair Lewis
55. "Magic the Gathering: Onslaught" by J. Robert King
56. "Magic the Gathering: Legions" by J. Robert King
57. "Shogun" by James Clavell
58. "Tai-Pan" by James Clavell
59. "King Rat" by James Clavell
60. "Nobel House" by James Clavell
61. "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
62. "The Giver" by Lois Lowry
63. "Arrows of the Queen" by Mercedes Lackey
64. Jane and the Ghosts of Netley, Being a Jane Austen Mystery" by Stephanie Barron
65. "Jingo" by Terry Pratchett
66. "The Fifth Elephant" by Terry Pratchett
67. "Feet of Clay" by Terry Pratchett
68. "The Color of Magic" by Terry Pratchett
69. "Night Watch" by Terry Pratchett
70. "Monstrous Regiment" by Terry Pratchett
71. "Carpe Jugulum" by Terry Pratchett
72. "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" by Louis Sacher
73. "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes (Douglass Parker translation)
It was a good year for Pratchett (om nom nom Discworld), I noticed, and a good year for getting all those books I should have read at some point or another finally read (Austen, Tolkein, Scott, Kerouac, Alcott, Nietzsche, Lawrence...). It was not a good year for unyielding, overly long "epics." I have nothing against long books; I love long books...if they're done well. The two strikeouts on the list were overly long books that would have been infinitely better with some mega shortening and editing. Edgar Sawtelle was disappointing; it had a lot of potential in the premise and my previous adventures in Oprah Books (The Poisonwood Bible and Middlesex) are two of my favourite books ever. But this one was just too much. Too dragging, too much dogs and nature, and not enough of the meat of the Americanized Hamlet I was promised. For me, Edgar Sawtelle was this years The Historian. At least they look good on a shelf... Noble House....well....it's Clavell. Sitting through Shogun is bearable and I loved King Rat, which is one of his earliest ones, but Noble House was just too much of the same crap over and over.
Quite a few books I really enjoyed, and quite a few rereads, too. I'm astonished by how much more I get out of The Giver now, and The Handmaid's Tale still stands as one of my favourites, although I still feel unsatisfied with the ending. I firmly uphold, as well, that Spofford > Poe any day of the week, and Stephen King is best when writing non-fiction. Lamb shot straight to the top of my favourites list, too: I laughed at least once per page with that book. It's genius, pure genius, the end. And I'm just astonished at how well a guy who looks like Moore can write a teenaged MySpace girl in You Suck. Stephanie Barron's Being a Jane Austen Mystery series might be one of the best discoveries of the year, though. I've just read the one, but, God, it was fun. I definitely enjoy it more than regular Jane Austen books, which still feels sacrilegious to admit. I'm sorry, though. I found Pride and Prejudice to be utterly unremarkable. I'm excited to take on Emma this month, though. I'm also glad I finally really gave Ivanhoe a serious chance: so much fun! I desperately want to track down the film version now. Rebecca is easily one of my favourite characters in fiction now, and to see her via Elizabeth Taylor in her prime? Yes please!!! And I still think that, while The Lovely Bones was...well, lovely, it would have been fuck amazing if it had been written by Eugenides instead of Sebold.
Also, is it weird that I want to write updated version of the Wayside School kids? I think the idea really struck with the chapter on Paul, and the psycho-sexual aspect of his obsession with pulling on Leslie's braids...
So, any thoughts from the peanut gallery? If you made it this far? I could talk forever about books (if you couldn't tell so far, by this "blurb"), and, of course, I have the usual mega bookstore giftcards this year for the holidays, so any recommendations on what to pursue this year, gimme, gimme, gimme!
So, books I've read in 2009 and a few thoughts on some of them. And, in the tradition of memes like these, I've set up a system. Bold is for books I really, really enjoyed more than the average book, italics is for books I've read prior to this year as well, and strikeout is for books I actually really did not like. At first, I felt the strikeout would be cruel, but, really, if you're a book and I didn't like you, you deserve it.
They're in no particular order; just the order in which I pull them from the "Read!" shelf downstairs.
1. "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold
2. "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Short Fiction" by Stephen Crane
3. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey
4. "Wormwood" by Poppy Z. Brite
5. "Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche
6. "The Quest" by Wilbur Smith
7. "The Rainbow People" by Lawrence Yep
8. "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
9. "Letters of a Portuguese Nun" by Myriam Cyr
10. "Into the Land of the Unicorns" by Bruce Coville
11. "Song of the Wanderer" by Bruce Coville
12. "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac
13. "Matilda" by Roald Dahl
14. "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
15. "A Grain of Rice" by Helena Clare Pittman
16. "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
17. "Native Son" by Richard Wright
18. "Bloodsucking Fiends" by Christopher Moore
19. "You Suck: A Love Story" by Christopher Moore
20. "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore
21. "Hawthorne: A Life" by Brenda Wineapple
22. "Waiting" by Ha Jin
23. "Mother Night" by Kurt Vonnegut
24. "Sharpe's Fury" by Bernard Cornwell
25. "The Pleasure of my Company" by Steve Martin
26. "Empress" by Shan Sa
27. "Socialism is Great!: A Worker's Memoir of the New China" by Lijia Zhang
28. "The Dead" by James Joyce
29. "The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World" by Steven Johnson
30. "My Big, Fat Supernatural Honeymoon" edited by P.N. Elrod
31. "Towelhead" by Alicia Erian
32. "The Best American Poetry 2003" edited by Yusef Komunyakaa
33. "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
34. "The Hidden Hand, or Capitola the Madcap" by E.D.E.N. Southworth
35. "The Amber Gods, and Other Short Stories" by Harriet Prescott Spofford
36. "When Will Jesus Bring the Porkchops?" by George Carlin
37. "Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China" by Rachel Dewoskin
38. "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks
39. "The Lambs of London" by Peter Ackroyd
40. "Mirror Mirror" by Gregory Maguire
41. "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski
42. "The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre" by Dominic Smith
43. "The Fellowship of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien
44. "The Two Towers" by J.R.R. Tolkien
45. "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
46. "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott
47. "Lady Chatterly's Lover" by D.H. Lawrence
48. "Breaking Open Japan: Commodore Perry, Lord Abe, and American Imperialism in 1853" by George Feifer
49. "The Teahouse Fire" by Ellis Avery
50. "In Praise of Nepotism: A Natural History" by Adam Bellow
51. "The Chess Machine" by Robert Lohr
52. "Danse Macabre" by Stephen King
53. "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King
54. "Babbitt" by Sinclair Lewis
55. "Magic the Gathering: Onslaught" by J. Robert King
56. "Magic the Gathering: Legions" by J. Robert King
57. "Shogun" by James Clavell
58. "Tai-Pan" by James Clavell
59. "King Rat" by James Clavell
60. "Nobel House" by James Clavell
61. "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
62. "The Giver" by Lois Lowry
63. "Arrows of the Queen" by Mercedes Lackey
64. Jane and the Ghosts of Netley, Being a Jane Austen Mystery" by Stephanie Barron
65. "Jingo" by Terry Pratchett
66. "The Fifth Elephant" by Terry Pratchett
67. "Feet of Clay" by Terry Pratchett
68. "The Color of Magic" by Terry Pratchett
69. "Night Watch" by Terry Pratchett
70. "Monstrous Regiment" by Terry Pratchett
71. "Carpe Jugulum" by Terry Pratchett
72. "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" by Louis Sacher
73. "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes (Douglass Parker translation)
It was a good year for Pratchett (om nom nom Discworld), I noticed, and a good year for getting all those books I should have read at some point or another finally read (Austen, Tolkein, Scott, Kerouac, Alcott, Nietzsche, Lawrence...). It was not a good year for unyielding, overly long "epics." I have nothing against long books; I love long books...if they're done well. The two strikeouts on the list were overly long books that would have been infinitely better with some mega shortening and editing. Edgar Sawtelle was disappointing; it had a lot of potential in the premise and my previous adventures in Oprah Books (The Poisonwood Bible and Middlesex) are two of my favourite books ever. But this one was just too much. Too dragging, too much dogs and nature, and not enough of the meat of the Americanized Hamlet I was promised. For me, Edgar Sawtelle was this years The Historian. At least they look good on a shelf... Noble House....well....it's Clavell. Sitting through Shogun is bearable and I loved King Rat, which is one of his earliest ones, but Noble House was just too much of the same crap over and over.
Quite a few books I really enjoyed, and quite a few rereads, too. I'm astonished by how much more I get out of The Giver now, and The Handmaid's Tale still stands as one of my favourites, although I still feel unsatisfied with the ending. I firmly uphold, as well, that Spofford > Poe any day of the week, and Stephen King is best when writing non-fiction. Lamb shot straight to the top of my favourites list, too: I laughed at least once per page with that book. It's genius, pure genius, the end. And I'm just astonished at how well a guy who looks like Moore can write a teenaged MySpace girl in You Suck. Stephanie Barron's Being a Jane Austen Mystery series might be one of the best discoveries of the year, though. I've just read the one, but, God, it was fun. I definitely enjoy it more than regular Jane Austen books, which still feels sacrilegious to admit. I'm sorry, though. I found Pride and Prejudice to be utterly unremarkable. I'm excited to take on Emma this month, though. I'm also glad I finally really gave Ivanhoe a serious chance: so much fun! I desperately want to track down the film version now. Rebecca is easily one of my favourite characters in fiction now, and to see her via Elizabeth Taylor in her prime? Yes please!!! And I still think that, while The Lovely Bones was...well, lovely, it would have been fuck amazing if it had been written by Eugenides instead of Sebold.
Also, is it weird that I want to write updated version of the Wayside School kids? I think the idea really struck with the chapter on Paul, and the psycho-sexual aspect of his obsession with pulling on Leslie's braids...
So, any thoughts from the peanut gallery? If you made it this far? I could talk forever about books (if you couldn't tell so far, by this "blurb"), and, of course, I have the usual mega bookstore giftcards this year for the holidays, so any recommendations on what to pursue this year, gimme, gimme, gimme!