Back in apartment = spam time!
Picked up change for an old lady at the grocery store when her wallet exploded and got called sweet. Instant karmic payoff: overhearing the cashiers (one male, one female) locked in a debate about whether Captain Jack or Ianto was cuter. And then got home to find a card from loves_bitch in my mailbox, with a proper wax seal on the envelope! <3 As the cool kids say, MLIA.
Belatedly, here is my What I Read In 2009 list. I've been doing this since '06 and this is the fewest books I've ever read in a year. To assuage my guilt, you get a mini-review for each of them!
What I Read In 2009
1. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) Fantastic, but horrifying and literally nightmare-giving. If you like M*A*S*H, you’d probably enjoy this too.
2. The Boys in the Trees (Mary Swan) Very typically Canadian novel, almost comically so. Liked it well enough the just same.
3. The Lathe of Heaven (Ursula K. Le Guin) Mrr… so close, yet so far. I should’ve loved the hell out of this, but I just wanted more. Like, for the characters to have personalities.
4. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card) WHOO! I don’t care what people say about this one… I adored it. I mean, you could see the ending coming for twenty miles back, but it was still effective once it got there.
5. Spook Country (William Gibson) Lurved it, if you’re willing to forgive Gibson’s usual writerly whoopsies. I liked how many p.o.v. characters were in this one - though I could’ve stood some more screentime for my favourites - but, seriously dude, what’s your deal with product placement??
6. Beautiful Children (Charles Bock) Holy jumpin’ viewpoints, Batman! The narrative was hard to follow, but if you could hang in there it was worth it. Very gritty.
7. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) Loathed, mostly for personal reasons. *beams*
8. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (Gordon Dahlquist) Eeeee, I loved these characters! Also, fuckin’ zeppelins! Reminds me of Tad Williams. I’d definitely pick up the sequel when it’s available over here.
9. The Gum Thief (Douglas Coupland) As with everything I’ve ever read by Coupland, I enjoyed the hell out of it at the time of reading and could not, without my handy notes, tell you what it was about now. Oh dear. My notes inform me that it’s ‘very Canadian’ and that the layered meta was fun times.
10. Cell (Stephen King) Oh, Stephen King. All of your male protagonists are THE SAME DUDE. That said, this was one of the smarter zombie novels I’ve read. Though to be fair, I hadn’t read a ton of zombie novels and didn’t know this *was* a zombie novel going into it…
11. Red Dragon (Thomas Harris) Love-child of Stephen King and Michael Crichton, surprisingly well-written. Also, obviously for the series, creeeeeeepy.
12. Hannibal (Thomas Harris) THAT WAS NOT A HAPPY ENDING, YOU BASTARDING BASTARDING… AUGH. Augh. Guys, the ending just ruined it for me. It was awful and he wrote it like it we were supposed to be pleased with it, and brainwashing is not fucking romantic and rawr. Non-con brain-manipulation squick.
13. Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons) Oh hush, it’s a book if GWay says it’s a book. I really enjoyed it and it makes the movie that much more awesome having read it.
14. The Road (Cormac McCarthy) Plot, motherfucker, do you speak it? No. No, he does not. THERE WAS NO PLOT. That was problematic.
15. Invisible Monsters (Chuck Palahniuk) Twisty awesome fun, as usual. Hurray for caring about the characters and plot-twists that actually surprised me.
16. The Demon’s Lexicon (Sarah Rees Brennan) Oh man… I was being a harsh critic with this one because I’m still mildly bitter that she took down all her fanfic upon getting published, but holy crap, I really liked it. The narrator was weird and unlikable and then it all made sense and, YES, that is how we write a flawed character, guys. Ballsy first novel, will totally buy the sequel.
17. The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood) Eeee! I can’t even pretend to give this an objective review, given how pants-wettingly excited I was to see her playing around in the Oryx & Crake universe again! Picked up speed in the second half, but the whole thing was great.
18. The Alternative Hero (Tim Thornton) Picked it up because the back cover said it was about a fanboy who worshipped this fictional band called the Thieving Magpies. How could I resist? Definitely a pleasant surprise, and a totally refreshing narrator who didn’t take himself too seriously. (Oh look, the difference between a Canadian novel and a British novel…)
19. The Disappeared (Kim Echlin) HOW DID THIS WIN STUFF? It was like a research paper, or tragedy-by-numbers. Not convincing, not worthwhile.
20. My Sister’s Keeper (Jodi Picoult) *woeface* Another one where the ending ruined it for me. It was clever, but the plot-twists were executed with a sledgehammer.
21. House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski) Not so much a book as an experience. Reminded me of Raw Shark Texts, though you’ve got to invest a bit of effort to keep up with the thing. Not an easy read, definitely worthwhile.
22. Queen of the Damned (Anne Rice) Oh dear. The shiny has worn off my teenage obsession.
23. The Vampire Armand (Anne Rice) In which Megan confirms that the shiny is indeed mostly gone and her favourite dude is indeed very much a self-professed creepster. Woe.
24. World of Wonders (Robertson Davies) In which, disillusioned by Rice, Megan launches herself at another high school favourite and thankfully finds that this one is just as good as it used to be! I appear to have lost my copy of Fifth Business though, so I’ll need to hit up the used book store soon.
25. Foundation (Mercedes Lackey) asfjlksadf. I have been led astray by the cool kids. Maybe her other books are better, but you could put the main character of this one up as a poster boy for Mary Sue-ness. His name was Magpie and I didn’t like him, man. That says something. There was literally one character who was interesting enough for me to care about, and he ran off for the majority of the book. Like I said though, maybe I just hit a bland one here.
And now I brace myself to go dance around for a few hours. X-D
Belatedly, here is my What I Read In 2009 list. I've been doing this since '06 and this is the fewest books I've ever read in a year. To assuage my guilt, you get a mini-review for each of them!
What I Read In 2009
1. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) Fantastic, but horrifying and literally nightmare-giving. If you like M*A*S*H, you’d probably enjoy this too.
2. The Boys in the Trees (Mary Swan) Very typically Canadian novel, almost comically so. Liked it well enough the just same.
3. The Lathe of Heaven (Ursula K. Le Guin) Mrr… so close, yet so far. I should’ve loved the hell out of this, but I just wanted more. Like, for the characters to have personalities.
4. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card) WHOO! I don’t care what people say about this one… I adored it. I mean, you could see the ending coming for twenty miles back, but it was still effective once it got there.
5. Spook Country (William Gibson) Lurved it, if you’re willing to forgive Gibson’s usual writerly whoopsies. I liked how many p.o.v. characters were in this one - though I could’ve stood some more screentime for my favourites - but, seriously dude, what’s your deal with product placement??
6. Beautiful Children (Charles Bock) Holy jumpin’ viewpoints, Batman! The narrative was hard to follow, but if you could hang in there it was worth it. Very gritty.
7. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) Loathed, mostly for personal reasons. *beams*
8. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (Gordon Dahlquist) Eeeee, I loved these characters! Also, fuckin’ zeppelins! Reminds me of Tad Williams. I’d definitely pick up the sequel when it’s available over here.
9. The Gum Thief (Douglas Coupland) As with everything I’ve ever read by Coupland, I enjoyed the hell out of it at the time of reading and could not, without my handy notes, tell you what it was about now. Oh dear. My notes inform me that it’s ‘very Canadian’ and that the layered meta was fun times.
10. Cell (Stephen King) Oh, Stephen King. All of your male protagonists are THE SAME DUDE. That said, this was one of the smarter zombie novels I’ve read. Though to be fair, I hadn’t read a ton of zombie novels and didn’t know this *was* a zombie novel going into it…
11. Red Dragon (Thomas Harris) Love-child of Stephen King and Michael Crichton, surprisingly well-written. Also, obviously for the series, creeeeeeepy.
12. Hannibal (Thomas Harris) THAT WAS NOT A HAPPY ENDING, YOU BASTARDING BASTARDING… AUGH. Augh. Guys, the ending just ruined it for me. It was awful and he wrote it like it we were supposed to be pleased with it, and brainwashing is not fucking romantic and rawr. Non-con brain-manipulation squick.
13. Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons) Oh hush, it’s a book if GWay says it’s a book. I really enjoyed it and it makes the movie that much more awesome having read it.
14. The Road (Cormac McCarthy) Plot, motherfucker, do you speak it? No. No, he does not. THERE WAS NO PLOT. That was problematic.
15. Invisible Monsters (Chuck Palahniuk) Twisty awesome fun, as usual. Hurray for caring about the characters and plot-twists that actually surprised me.
16. The Demon’s Lexicon (Sarah Rees Brennan) Oh man… I was being a harsh critic with this one because I’m still mildly bitter that she took down all her fanfic upon getting published, but holy crap, I really liked it. The narrator was weird and unlikable and then it all made sense and, YES, that is how we write a flawed character, guys. Ballsy first novel, will totally buy the sequel.
17. The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood) Eeee! I can’t even pretend to give this an objective review, given how pants-wettingly excited I was to see her playing around in the Oryx & Crake universe again! Picked up speed in the second half, but the whole thing was great.
18. The Alternative Hero (Tim Thornton) Picked it up because the back cover said it was about a fanboy who worshipped this fictional band called the Thieving Magpies. How could I resist? Definitely a pleasant surprise, and a totally refreshing narrator who didn’t take himself too seriously. (Oh look, the difference between a Canadian novel and a British novel…)
19. The Disappeared (Kim Echlin) HOW DID THIS WIN STUFF? It was like a research paper, or tragedy-by-numbers. Not convincing, not worthwhile.
20. My Sister’s Keeper (Jodi Picoult) *woeface* Another one where the ending ruined it for me. It was clever, but the plot-twists were executed with a sledgehammer.
21. House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski) Not so much a book as an experience. Reminded me of Raw Shark Texts, though you’ve got to invest a bit of effort to keep up with the thing. Not an easy read, definitely worthwhile.
22. Queen of the Damned (Anne Rice) Oh dear. The shiny has worn off my teenage obsession.
23. The Vampire Armand (Anne Rice) In which Megan confirms that the shiny is indeed mostly gone and her favourite dude is indeed very much a self-professed creepster. Woe.
24. World of Wonders (Robertson Davies) In which, disillusioned by Rice, Megan launches herself at another high school favourite and thankfully finds that this one is just as good as it used to be! I appear to have lost my copy of Fifth Business though, so I’ll need to hit up the used book store soon.
25. Foundation (Mercedes Lackey) asfjlksadf. I have been led astray by the cool kids. Maybe her other books are better, but you could put the main character of this one up as a poster boy for Mary Sue-ness. His name was Magpie and I didn’t like him, man. That says something. There was literally one character who was interesting enough for me to care about, and he ran off for the majority of the book. Like I said though, maybe I just hit a bland one here.
And now I brace myself to go dance around for a few hours. X-D