Reading List 2013
Well, it's a new year and a new list. I didn't expect to have consumed so many books in the first month. Mike showed me a book challenge from a guy who aspired to read a book every day in the course of a year. The guy had a couple kids and a day-job. He read multiple books at once, saved smaller books for quicker reading and then read larger books throughout the year. Despite the fact that he managed with his busy life, I don't think I could manage in mine. The guy wasn't a writer. We writers have a choice between writing stories or reading them. This is why I'd read so little during November. So, instead, I lowered my goal back to 50 and endeavored to SLOW DOWN.
Apparently that didn't happen. Yet. I do intend to read thicker books this year, but I've so many books in general to get to that... well, we'll see. Anyway, about 2/3 of these titles are audiobooks anyway. I've discovered that my natural reading pace is the equivalent of 1.5x narration speed. The boring ones I set to 2x.
Anyway, to begin...
January:
1. Sam Harris - Letter to a Christian Nation
This was not my choice. Mike had wanted to listen to it on the way back from a New Year's Eve party, and it was about 2 hours long, so why not? It's... it makes interesting statements, some logical and rational, some outlandish, some overgeneralized. He's not an author that I can register properly during one listen. I'd have to listen to him a few times in order to fully understand his intent.
2. Matthew Cody - The Dead Gentleman
This is a YA steampunk and time travel novel about adventurers, regular girls who get swept into something fantastic, and clockwork birds with souls. This story was entertaining, but not nearly as good as Powerless. Ah well, not every author can write amazing books all the time. Still, I'm proud of what my friend has accomplished.
3. Jules Verne - Journey to the Center of the Earth
Tim Curry read this and he was so enthusiastic about it! It was... it wasn't what I expected. More scientific. I don't know what I expected, though...
4. Milan Kundera - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Because of this book, I've learned that Kundera is fixated on virile men, promiscuous women, cheating, and sex. The individual stories were intriguing because of how they incorporated the various uses and types of laughter and forgetting. I can't decide if I like him or not, though.
5. C.N. Edwards - Love Poems
Mike bought this for a friend's wedding and ended up keeping the book instead. Little fat thing filled with love poems. Finding love, nascent love, losing love, being spurned in love. Etc. and so forth. Yup.
6. Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels
I wasn't expecting all the stories after the first two with the little people and the giants. It was similar to Utopia with all the examples of lifestyle and agriculture and culture, except with more plot. I'm glad I listened to it instead of reading it. It would've been agonizing to read.
7. Flannery O'Connor - Everything That Rises Must Converge
I'm still getting used to her. She's like... a man, but a woman. This particular book was a collection of short stories. I'm amazed at how crude but religious everything is. I have another audiobook of hers in my wish list. I might have a better idea of her after I listen to it. She's like Margaret Atwood. I still don't know what to think of her.
8. Jessica Gregson - The Angel Makers
Review to come.
9. Paul Bowles - The Sheltering Sky
Blog to come. But I will say this: HATE! LOATHE! DESPISE!
10. Veronica Roth - Divergent
I've heard many good things about this series. It's YA, post-apocolyptic, and... interesting. Why is it that most post-apocolyptic YA stories are keeping people confined instead of letting them roam? The idea that people are born into a "clan" and then choose their own for the rest of their life is interesting. Cross between Native American clans and North Korean and Chinese culture. It was a bit predictable though, and full of plot gaps.
11. Eoin Colfer - The Atlantis Complex
I don't know what it is about the Artemis Fowl series, but it's like comfort reading. Artemis develops OCD and multiple personality disorder and the Atlantis Complex, which is when criminals are exposed to too much fairy magic and the guilt consumes them and they head out on far-fetched ideas to save the world to make up for everything. So, while a bunch of crises occurs, the other main characters have to deal with Artemis switching between personalities. It was a fun read.
12. James Joyce - Dubliners
Another collection of short stories. Joyce seems to concentrate on a moment, or a series of moments, but no plot. It was a bit hard to listen to, like getting caught in a wade pool instead of floating down a stream.
13. Stephen Chbosky - The Perks of Being a Wallflower
This was amazing. I related to the main character a lot. I'm still kinda registering the story. It's one that punches you with a long recovery period.
14. Mira Bartok - The Memory Palace
I honestly thought this was a really detailed fiction novel instead of a literary memoir, but I was wrong. It's a fascinating story, though. Especially when the author recollects events with her schizophrenic mother, and begins drawing parallels between the mother and her own faulty memory because of a brain injury during an automobile accident--how they keep vocabulary lists and takes notes of the things they learn and the everyday things they have to remember; how their journals are almost identical.
15. Shel Silverstein - Every Thing On It
Mike's had this on his shelf for a while and I don't recall ever reading an entire Silvertein book before. So I read this one. Entertaining and cute.
16. John Lithgow - Poet's Corner
Another one of Mike's purchases. It's a family collection of popular and classic poetry. We'd been slowly working through the accompanying CD. After we finished it, I decided to read the supplementary biographical information for each author, as well as the additional poem here and there. Because it's compiled by John Lithgow, he's the one who wrote the supplementary information. His writing style hasn't changed much from when he wrote this to when he wrote his memoir. And because I'd listened to the memoir, I could hear his voice when I read the material in this book. Nifty.
Apparently that didn't happen. Yet. I do intend to read thicker books this year, but I've so many books in general to get to that... well, we'll see. Anyway, about 2/3 of these titles are audiobooks anyway. I've discovered that my natural reading pace is the equivalent of 1.5x narration speed. The boring ones I set to 2x.
Anyway, to begin...
January:
1. Sam Harris - Letter to a Christian Nation
This was not my choice. Mike had wanted to listen to it on the way back from a New Year's Eve party, and it was about 2 hours long, so why not? It's... it makes interesting statements, some logical and rational, some outlandish, some overgeneralized. He's not an author that I can register properly during one listen. I'd have to listen to him a few times in order to fully understand his intent.
2. Matthew Cody - The Dead Gentleman
This is a YA steampunk and time travel novel about adventurers, regular girls who get swept into something fantastic, and clockwork birds with souls. This story was entertaining, but not nearly as good as Powerless. Ah well, not every author can write amazing books all the time. Still, I'm proud of what my friend has accomplished.
3. Jules Verne - Journey to the Center of the Earth
Tim Curry read this and he was so enthusiastic about it! It was... it wasn't what I expected. More scientific. I don't know what I expected, though...
4. Milan Kundera - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Because of this book, I've learned that Kundera is fixated on virile men, promiscuous women, cheating, and sex. The individual stories were intriguing because of how they incorporated the various uses and types of laughter and forgetting. I can't decide if I like him or not, though.
5. C.N. Edwards - Love Poems
Mike bought this for a friend's wedding and ended up keeping the book instead. Little fat thing filled with love poems. Finding love, nascent love, losing love, being spurned in love. Etc. and so forth. Yup.
6. Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels
I wasn't expecting all the stories after the first two with the little people and the giants. It was similar to Utopia with all the examples of lifestyle and agriculture and culture, except with more plot. I'm glad I listened to it instead of reading it. It would've been agonizing to read.
7. Flannery O'Connor - Everything That Rises Must Converge
I'm still getting used to her. She's like... a man, but a woman. This particular book was a collection of short stories. I'm amazed at how crude but religious everything is. I have another audiobook of hers in my wish list. I might have a better idea of her after I listen to it. She's like Margaret Atwood. I still don't know what to think of her.
8. Jessica Gregson - The Angel Makers
Review to come.
9. Paul Bowles - The Sheltering Sky
Blog to come. But I will say this: HATE! LOATHE! DESPISE!
10. Veronica Roth - Divergent
I've heard many good things about this series. It's YA, post-apocolyptic, and... interesting. Why is it that most post-apocolyptic YA stories are keeping people confined instead of letting them roam? The idea that people are born into a "clan" and then choose their own for the rest of their life is interesting. Cross between Native American clans and North Korean and Chinese culture. It was a bit predictable though, and full of plot gaps.
11. Eoin Colfer - The Atlantis Complex
I don't know what it is about the Artemis Fowl series, but it's like comfort reading. Artemis develops OCD and multiple personality disorder and the Atlantis Complex, which is when criminals are exposed to too much fairy magic and the guilt consumes them and they head out on far-fetched ideas to save the world to make up for everything. So, while a bunch of crises occurs, the other main characters have to deal with Artemis switching between personalities. It was a fun read.
12. James Joyce - Dubliners
Another collection of short stories. Joyce seems to concentrate on a moment, or a series of moments, but no plot. It was a bit hard to listen to, like getting caught in a wade pool instead of floating down a stream.
13. Stephen Chbosky - The Perks of Being a Wallflower
This was amazing. I related to the main character a lot. I'm still kinda registering the story. It's one that punches you with a long recovery period.
14. Mira Bartok - The Memory Palace
I honestly thought this was a really detailed fiction novel instead of a literary memoir, but I was wrong. It's a fascinating story, though. Especially when the author recollects events with her schizophrenic mother, and begins drawing parallels between the mother and her own faulty memory because of a brain injury during an automobile accident--how they keep vocabulary lists and takes notes of the things they learn and the everyday things they have to remember; how their journals are almost identical.
15. Shel Silverstein - Every Thing On It
Mike's had this on his shelf for a while and I don't recall ever reading an entire Silvertein book before. So I read this one. Entertaining and cute.
16. John Lithgow - Poet's Corner
Another one of Mike's purchases. It's a family collection of popular and classic poetry. We'd been slowly working through the accompanying CD. After we finished it, I decided to read the supplementary biographical information for each author, as well as the additional poem here and there. Because it's compiled by John Lithgow, he's the one who wrote the supplementary information. His writing style hasn't changed much from when he wrote this to when he wrote his memoir. And because I'd listened to the memoir, I could hear his voice when I read the material in this book. Nifty.