Books
I haven't updated my list of books2008 for a while, so here goes.
1. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (reread)
2. Drums of Autumn Diana Gabaldon (reread)
3. Brotherhood of the Blade Diana Gabaldon
4. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde (it was really pleasant to read and interesting, but.... damn, I just like long books better. I can't help it. But of course that was not the point of it.)
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (fascinating, terrifying and disgusting at the same time)
6. Assassin's Apprentice
7. Royal Assassin
8. Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb (goooood! Need to read more of hers.)
9. Needful Things by Stephen King. (for some reason, it didn't grip me as much as other King books. The fact that I constantly had the feeling of having read it before, even though I know for sure I had not, didn't help it.)
10. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Nice, though the slapdash ending was not convincing at all.)
11. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (it could have been amazing, it was unfortunately less than mediocre. The second half was better than the first, because it had something that might have passed for a plot. What a pity and waste of a brilliant idea.)
12. Treasure Island by Robert Stevenson (Liked it. It was short, fun to read, gripping and satisfactory for such a short book.Though I did kind of have the feeling I'm reading a novel about 19th century characters who were for some reason pretending to be in the 18th century. I don't know if it is always the case of 19th century historical fiction, but this didn't feel like the 18th century, somehow.)
13. Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century by Ignatius Donnelly (I doubt anyone here has heard about it. It's a utopian "novel" from the end of the 19th century. Or at least it supposed to be. To me it read much more as a dystopia, because it was all about destroying a horrible state and society by violence. As a socio-political essay it was very interesting, as a novel it disappointed.)
14. Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy (Also a utopia from the same period. The story element was just as simplistic as in the first one, though the writing style was decidedly different. I enjoyed it much more. Again, lots of socio-political and economic talk. Though this one was *really* a utopia, as the word is commonly understood: it's about a guy from the 19th century who is hypnotised into sleep and wakes up 100 years later to find that the world has changed into a socialist utopia and then the family he stays with goes on explaining it all.)
15. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald (I suppose you all know it. It was... interesting. Not the kind of book I'd read for my own pleasure, but perfect to be ripped apart in school or uni.)
16. Ursula K. LeGuin - The Dispossessed (seriously awesome)
17. Don DeLillo - Cosmopolis (most boring book ever)
18. Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong (interesting and rather moving, with amazingly strong (WWI) and dreadfully weak parts (those set in the seventies).)
19. Samuel R. Delany - Dhalgren (I liked it, loved it even, but it's not a book I'd recommend -you either are interested in reading it, or you put it away after the first page and won't feel like you missed anything)
20. Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice (really liked it, though I'm a bit sad that I saw the adaptation with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle before reading the book - as much as I loved the film, I'd have preferred to have my own images of the characters in my mind. As it is, Firth is now firmly rooted as Mr Darcy in there.)
21. Julian Barnes - A History of the World in 10 ½ chapters (I liked the writing itself, but I don't enjoy short stories and this 'novel' was pretty much a collection of vaguely related short stories with comments by the author. It was interesting to read, but no more than that.)
22. Terry Pratchett - The Wee Free Men (Read it in German, which was a mistake, because I kept seeing phrases and turns that were so obviously and blatantly English, I couldn't help but thinking the translator has done a poor job of it. The book itself was great though, can't wait to read it in English)
23. Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey (amusing and enjoyable, even without having read any of those gothic romances she's mocking)
24. Robin Hobb - Ship of Magic (as I expected after reading the Farseer books, I couldn't put it down, but there is so much accumulated misery in this book that reading it was really depressing at times. I hope it gets better in the next two, but I suppose I should know better than to expect a 'really' happy ending of Hobb ;))
1. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (reread)
2. Drums of Autumn Diana Gabaldon (reread)
3. Brotherhood of the Blade Diana Gabaldon
4. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde (it was really pleasant to read and interesting, but.... damn, I just like long books better. I can't help it. But of course that was not the point of it.)
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (fascinating, terrifying and disgusting at the same time)
6. Assassin's Apprentice
7. Royal Assassin
8. Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb (goooood! Need to read more of hers.)
9. Needful Things by Stephen King. (for some reason, it didn't grip me as much as other King books. The fact that I constantly had the feeling of having read it before, even though I know for sure I had not, didn't help it.)
10. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Nice, though the slapdash ending was not convincing at all.)
11. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (it could have been amazing, it was unfortunately less than mediocre. The second half was better than the first, because it had something that might have passed for a plot. What a pity and waste of a brilliant idea.)
12. Treasure Island by Robert Stevenson (Liked it. It was short, fun to read, gripping and satisfactory for such a short book.Though I did kind of have the feeling I'm reading a novel about 19th century characters who were for some reason pretending to be in the 18th century. I don't know if it is always the case of 19th century historical fiction, but this didn't feel like the 18th century, somehow.)
13. Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century by Ignatius Donnelly (I doubt anyone here has heard about it. It's a utopian "novel" from the end of the 19th century. Or at least it supposed to be. To me it read much more as a dystopia, because it was all about destroying a horrible state and society by violence. As a socio-political essay it was very interesting, as a novel it disappointed.)
14. Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy (Also a utopia from the same period. The story element was just as simplistic as in the first one, though the writing style was decidedly different. I enjoyed it much more. Again, lots of socio-political and economic talk. Though this one was *really* a utopia, as the word is commonly understood: it's about a guy from the 19th century who is hypnotised into sleep and wakes up 100 years later to find that the world has changed into a socialist utopia and then the family he stays with goes on explaining it all.)
15. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald (I suppose you all know it. It was... interesting. Not the kind of book I'd read for my own pleasure, but perfect to be ripped apart in school or uni.)
16. Ursula K. LeGuin - The Dispossessed (seriously awesome)
17. Don DeLillo - Cosmopolis (most boring book ever)
18. Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong (interesting and rather moving, with amazingly strong (WWI) and dreadfully weak parts (those set in the seventies).)
19. Samuel R. Delany - Dhalgren (I liked it, loved it even, but it's not a book I'd recommend -you either are interested in reading it, or you put it away after the first page and won't feel like you missed anything)
20. Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice (really liked it, though I'm a bit sad that I saw the adaptation with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle before reading the book - as much as I loved the film, I'd have preferred to have my own images of the characters in my mind. As it is, Firth is now firmly rooted as Mr Darcy in there.)
21. Julian Barnes - A History of the World in 10 ½ chapters (I liked the writing itself, but I don't enjoy short stories and this 'novel' was pretty much a collection of vaguely related short stories with comments by the author. It was interesting to read, but no more than that.)
22. Terry Pratchett - The Wee Free Men (Read it in German, which was a mistake, because I kept seeing phrases and turns that were so obviously and blatantly English, I couldn't help but thinking the translator has done a poor job of it. The book itself was great though, can't wait to read it in English)
23. Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey (amusing and enjoyable, even without having read any of those gothic romances she's mocking)
24. Robin Hobb - Ship of Magic (as I expected after reading the Farseer books, I couldn't put it down, but there is so much accumulated misery in this book that reading it was really depressing at times. I hope it gets better in the next two, but I suppose I should know better than to expect a 'really' happy ending of Hobb ;))