bookz
I see everybody doin' these "50 book challenges" and all, and obviously it's just a tool to trick oneself into reading more and that's awesome, but at the same time I wonder what kind of subtle effects it has on your reading choices. Like, if Christmas is creeping up and you find yourself falling short, do you run out and get a bunch of graphic novels and put off funally getting to Ulysses for another year? (I am about to finally get to Ulysses. I don't want the other English grad students to make fun of me.
Anyway, since I maintain a list of books I'm reading anyway, it seems foolish not to post it here. In the first six months of 2008, I've read 54 books, which is way too many and for which (please understand) I claim no kind of credit or winz. That would be loserish. It's just what happens when you're on holiday for six months with nothing to do but screw around, often at the beach. If for some reason you want to read my thoughts on any of these books (although they are written in the nature of notes to self and are sometimes obscure), they are at the amazing LibraryThing site, which I hereby plug: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/martinmccarvill.
1. Brian Michael Bendis and Patrick Zircher - House of M: Wolverine (like I said, comics!)
2. Noam Chomsky - On Language: Chomsky's Classic Works "Language and Responsibility" and "Reflections on Language" in One Volume
3. John Fowles - The Aristos
4. Orhan Pamuk - My Name is Red
5. Elfriede Jelinek - Women as Lovers (Masks)
6. JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
7. Mark Edmundson - Literature Against Philosophy, Plato to Derrida: A Defence of Poetry
8. Afferbeck Lauder - Let Stalk Strine: A Dictionary of Modern Strine Usage
9. Bertolt Brecht - Die Geschaefte des Herrn Julius Caesar (The Business Affairs of Mr. Julius Caesar)
10. EM Forster - A Passage to India
11. Anon. - Jerry Cotton: Die Nacht des Vollstreckers (Night of the Executer, which is not even a word. Worst book)
12. Jonathan Lynn - The Complete Yes Minister
13. Ian Fleming - Diamantenfieber (Diamond Fever, known in English as Diamonds are Forever)
14. Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice (finally got to it. It sux)
15. John Steinbeck - The Pastures of Heaven
16. Herman Melville - Moby-Dick (I was too young for it last time. It's great!)
17. Sinclair Lewis - Main Street
18. Hans Kronberger - Bruessel Frontal: So geht's zu in der EU
19. Haruki Murakami - Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
20. Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island
21. Roch Carrier - Floralie, Where are You?
22. Barry Hines - A Kestrel for a Knave
23. Marcel Proust - Remembrance of Things Past, Part 1: Swann's Way & Within a Budding Grove
24. Orhan Pamuk - Istanbul: Memories and the City
25. Sebastian Faulks - On Green Dolphin Street
26. Dorothy Bryant - The Kin of Ata are Waiting for You
27. Barbara Nadel - Arabesk
28. Julie Hilden - Three
29. Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote
30. Henning Mankell - Chronicler of the Winds
31. Magdalen Nabb - The Marshall and the Madwoman
32. Magdalen Nabb - Property of Blood
33. Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird (the nice thing about hostel book exchanges is you reread things you never expected to and find they're better than you remembered)
34. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi - Thirty-Three Windows: Making Known the Creator (a dude gave me this outside the Blue Mosque. It didn't convert me)
35. Homer - The Iliad (timed for our visit to Troy!)
36. Slavenka Drakulic - Cafe Europa: Life After Communism
37. Mark Twain - Huckleberry Finn
38. Geert Mak - In Europe: Travels Through the 20th Century
39. Kazuo Ishiguro - An Artist of the Floating World
40. Margaret Atwood - The Robber Bride
41. Ha Jin - Waiting
42. Zadie Smith - On Beauty
43. Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure
44. Warren Fellows - The Damage Done: Twelve Years of Hell in a Bangkok Prison (actually heartrending and not trashy)
45. Elmore Leonard - Glitz (trashy)
46. Aesop - Fables
47. Bram Stoker - Dracula
48. John Fowles - The French Lieutenant's Woman
49. David McWilliams - The Generation Game
50. Graham Greene - The Human Factor
51. Frank Cottrell Boyce - Millions
52. Bill Willingham - Fables vol. 10: The Good Prince
53. Daniel Clowes - Ice Haven
54. Mike Davis - Planet of Slums
Anyway, since I maintain a list of books I'm reading anyway, it seems foolish not to post it here. In the first six months of 2008, I've read 54 books, which is way too many and for which (please understand) I claim no kind of credit or winz. That would be loserish. It's just what happens when you're on holiday for six months with nothing to do but screw around, often at the beach. If for some reason you want to read my thoughts on any of these books (although they are written in the nature of notes to self and are sometimes obscure), they are at the amazing LibraryThing site, which I hereby plug: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/martinmccarvill.
1. Brian Michael Bendis and Patrick Zircher - House of M: Wolverine (like I said, comics!)
2. Noam Chomsky - On Language: Chomsky's Classic Works "Language and Responsibility" and "Reflections on Language" in One Volume
3. John Fowles - The Aristos
4. Orhan Pamuk - My Name is Red
5. Elfriede Jelinek - Women as Lovers (Masks)
6. JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
7. Mark Edmundson - Literature Against Philosophy, Plato to Derrida: A Defence of Poetry
8. Afferbeck Lauder - Let Stalk Strine: A Dictionary of Modern Strine Usage
9. Bertolt Brecht - Die Geschaefte des Herrn Julius Caesar (The Business Affairs of Mr. Julius Caesar)
10. EM Forster - A Passage to India
11. Anon. - Jerry Cotton: Die Nacht des Vollstreckers (Night of the Executer, which is not even a word. Worst book)
12. Jonathan Lynn - The Complete Yes Minister
13. Ian Fleming - Diamantenfieber (Diamond Fever, known in English as Diamonds are Forever)
14. Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice (finally got to it. It sux)
15. John Steinbeck - The Pastures of Heaven
16. Herman Melville - Moby-Dick (I was too young for it last time. It's great!)
17. Sinclair Lewis - Main Street
18. Hans Kronberger - Bruessel Frontal: So geht's zu in der EU
19. Haruki Murakami - Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
20. Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island
21. Roch Carrier - Floralie, Where are You?
22. Barry Hines - A Kestrel for a Knave
23. Marcel Proust - Remembrance of Things Past, Part 1: Swann's Way & Within a Budding Grove
24. Orhan Pamuk - Istanbul: Memories and the City
25. Sebastian Faulks - On Green Dolphin Street
26. Dorothy Bryant - The Kin of Ata are Waiting for You
27. Barbara Nadel - Arabesk
28. Julie Hilden - Three
29. Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote
30. Henning Mankell - Chronicler of the Winds
31. Magdalen Nabb - The Marshall and the Madwoman
32. Magdalen Nabb - Property of Blood
33. Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird (the nice thing about hostel book exchanges is you reread things you never expected to and find they're better than you remembered)
34. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi - Thirty-Three Windows: Making Known the Creator (a dude gave me this outside the Blue Mosque. It didn't convert me)
35. Homer - The Iliad (timed for our visit to Troy!)
36. Slavenka Drakulic - Cafe Europa: Life After Communism
37. Mark Twain - Huckleberry Finn
38. Geert Mak - In Europe: Travels Through the 20th Century
39. Kazuo Ishiguro - An Artist of the Floating World
40. Margaret Atwood - The Robber Bride
41. Ha Jin - Waiting
42. Zadie Smith - On Beauty
43. Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure
44. Warren Fellows - The Damage Done: Twelve Years of Hell in a Bangkok Prison (actually heartrending and not trashy)
45. Elmore Leonard - Glitz (trashy)
46. Aesop - Fables
47. Bram Stoker - Dracula
48. John Fowles - The French Lieutenant's Woman
49. David McWilliams - The Generation Game
50. Graham Greene - The Human Factor
51. Frank Cottrell Boyce - Millions
52. Bill Willingham - Fables vol. 10: The Good Prince
53. Daniel Clowes - Ice Haven
54. Mike Davis - Planet of Slums