Book Lists 2007
So here we go, the beginning of my roundup for 2007. Don't worry, the details will be behind cuts.
I had thought, back in January, to take part in the
50bookchallenge, but figured with a new job and traveling and all that, there was no way I'd reach the goal, so why add another challenge to myself that was doomed to failure, right? Heh. Turns out I actually read 46 books in 2007. I wasn't really paying attention when I set up my database, so the list is in alphabetical order by title rather than in the order in which I read the books:
A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd
A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
America's First Dynasty: The Adamses 1735-1918 by Richard Brookhiser
A War of Gifts (An Ender Story) by Orson Scott Card
Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
Deliverance by James Dickey
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Empire by Orson Scott Card
Everyman by Philip Roth
Extremly Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Fright by Cornell Woolrich
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Held Hostage by Michelle Renee
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan
Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves
Kiss Her Goodbye by Allan Guthrie
London Frog by Joseph Pittman
LOST: Endangered Species by Kathy Hapka
LOST: Secret Identity by Kathy Hapka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
M Is For Magic by Neil Gaiman
Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker
Myths for the Modern Age by Win Scott Eckert (editor)
Nerds Who Kill by Mark Richard Zubro
Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion by Alan Burdick
The Best American Short Stories 2007 by Stephen King and Heidi Pitlor (Editors)
The Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
The Christmas Book Volume 1: A Christmas Carol / The Chimes by Charles Dickens
The Devil and Daniel Webster & Other Stories by Stephen Vincent Benet
The Devil In Amber by Mark Gatiss
The End of Harry Potter? by David Langford
The Grand Illusion: Love, Lies, and My Life with STYX by Chuck Panozzo
The Great Snape Debate by Amy Brenner, Orson Scott Card and Joyce Millman
The Keep by F. Paul Wilson
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
The Unauthorized Harry Potter by Adam Troy-Casto
The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss
Three-Ten to Yuma & Other Stories by Elmore Leonard
Trail of Time by Jeff Marriotte
What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7 by Emerson Spartz and the staff of mugglenet.com
Who's Killing The Great Writers of America by Richard Kaplow
Wicked Angels by Eric Jourdan
So that's 46 books. 31 were by authors I'd never read before. 5 were short story collections. 10 were non-fiction (of which 5 were "analysis" [and in some cases I use the term loosely] of current literary phenomena [specifically Harry Potter and Philip Jose Farmer's "Wold-Newton" geneology]). The novels were spread pretty evenly across genres. Only two books were full rereads (Dracula and The Christmas Books Volume 1), although Gaiman's M is for Magic counts as a partial reread (I'd read many of those short stories elsewhere). Three authors (Card, Gaiman, and Hapka) are represented on the list more than once.
In no particular order: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (a fine finish to a fine series); The Road (gut-wrenching); Middlesex (despite a lacklustre ending); Deliverance (also gut-wrenching, poetic); and London Frog (great humorous mystery-thriller).
Again in no particular order: Wicked Angels by Eric Jourdan (not every Banned Book should be considered a classic); The End of Harry Potter? (the worst of the cash-in-on-the-final-book craze); Mister B. Gone (just couldn't get interested); Who's Killing The Great Writers of America (great premise, poor execution); Trail of Time (disappointing DC Universe time travel / supernatural mess).
I had set myself a goal of reading one short story every day this year. I bombed on this one, managing only 61 short stories a full 41 of which were in anthologies and about 10 of which were rereads.
Halfway through the year I set myself a goal of reading 26 books by 26 authors I'd never read before. This wasn't a "2007" goal, but a "get it done when it gets done" goal. I used the first author I read whose last name started with a particular letter to fill that spot.
A
B - Alan Burdick (Out of Eden)
C
D - James Dickey (Deliverance)
E - Kim Edwards (The Memory Keeper's Daughter)
F - Jonathan Safran Foer (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close)
G - Mark Gatiss (The Devil In Amber)
H - Kathy Hapka (LOST tie-in novels)
I
J - Eric Jourdan (Wicked Angels)
K
L - Elmore Leonard (Three-Ten to Yuma & Other Stories)
M - Cormac McCarthy (The Road)
N
O - Barack Obama (The Audacity of Hope)
P - Norman Partridge (Dark Harvest)
Q
R - Philip Roth (Everyman)
S - Jean Shepherd (A Christmas Story)
T
U
V
W - Cornell Woolrich (Fright)
X
Y
Z - Mark Richard Zubro (Nerds Who Kill)
I'll cross-post this mess over at
bookshare as well. I'm going to sign up for
50bookchallenge as soon as I finish my first book (I've started "The Golden Compass"), and I'm thinking of starting a community called 365Stories (if there's no one-short-story-a-day community out there already). Anyone in?
I also decided that this year I'm going to read all of the books I got for Christmas (or books I bought using Christmas gift cards) before I attempt to read anything else. Here's a list of
The "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman (Thanks, Hunter!)
Saving The World: A Guide To Heroes by Porter, Lavery & Robson (gift card purchase)
Heroes: Saving Charlie by Aurey Wallington (gift card purchase)
Killing Time by Caleb Carr (grab bag gift)
Out of Sync by Lance Bass (thanks Lorraine!)
Frankenstein's Bride by Hilary Bailey (thanks Lorraine!)
A Killing In Comics by Max Allan Collins (gift card purchase)
Baltimore (or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and The Vampire) by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden (gift card purchase)
Deadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins (gift card purchase)
Grave Descend by John Lange (gift card purchase)
The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson (gift card purchase)
A Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (grab bag gift)
That's not the order in which I'll read them, although I am reading the Pullman books first.
I had thought, back in January, to take part in the
50bookchallenge, but figured with a new job and traveling and all that, there was no way I'd reach the goal, so why add another challenge to myself that was doomed to failure, right? Heh. Turns out I actually read 46 books in 2007. I wasn't really paying attention when I set up my database, so the list is in alphabetical order by title rather than in the order in which I read the books:
A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd
A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
America's First Dynasty: The Adamses 1735-1918 by Richard Brookhiser
A War of Gifts (An Ender Story) by Orson Scott Card
Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
Deliverance by James Dickey
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Empire by Orson Scott Card
Everyman by Philip Roth
Extremly Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Fright by Cornell Woolrich
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Held Hostage by Michelle Renee
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan
Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves
Kiss Her Goodbye by Allan Guthrie
London Frog by Joseph Pittman
LOST: Endangered Species by Kathy Hapka
LOST: Secret Identity by Kathy Hapka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
M Is For Magic by Neil Gaiman
Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker
Myths for the Modern Age by Win Scott Eckert (editor)
Nerds Who Kill by Mark Richard Zubro
Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion by Alan Burdick
The Best American Short Stories 2007 by Stephen King and Heidi Pitlor (Editors)
The Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
The Christmas Book Volume 1: A Christmas Carol / The Chimes by Charles Dickens
The Devil and Daniel Webster & Other Stories by Stephen Vincent Benet
The Devil In Amber by Mark Gatiss
The End of Harry Potter? by David Langford
The Grand Illusion: Love, Lies, and My Life with STYX by Chuck Panozzo
The Great Snape Debate by Amy Brenner, Orson Scott Card and Joyce Millman
The Keep by F. Paul Wilson
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
The Unauthorized Harry Potter by Adam Troy-Casto
The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss
Three-Ten to Yuma & Other Stories by Elmore Leonard
Trail of Time by Jeff Marriotte
What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7 by Emerson Spartz and the staff of mugglenet.com
Who's Killing The Great Writers of America by Richard Kaplow
Wicked Angels by Eric Jourdan
So that's 46 books. 31 were by authors I'd never read before. 5 were short story collections. 10 were non-fiction (of which 5 were "analysis" [and in some cases I use the term loosely] of current literary phenomena [specifically Harry Potter and Philip Jose Farmer's "Wold-Newton" geneology]). The novels were spread pretty evenly across genres. Only two books were full rereads (Dracula and The Christmas Books Volume 1), although Gaiman's M is for Magic counts as a partial reread (I'd read many of those short stories elsewhere). Three authors (Card, Gaiman, and Hapka) are represented on the list more than once.
In no particular order: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (a fine finish to a fine series); The Road (gut-wrenching); Middlesex (despite a lacklustre ending); Deliverance (also gut-wrenching, poetic); and London Frog (great humorous mystery-thriller).
Again in no particular order: Wicked Angels by Eric Jourdan (not every Banned Book should be considered a classic); The End of Harry Potter? (the worst of the cash-in-on-the-final-book craze); Mister B. Gone (just couldn't get interested); Who's Killing The Great Writers of America (great premise, poor execution); Trail of Time (disappointing DC Universe time travel / supernatural mess).
I had set myself a goal of reading one short story every day this year. I bombed on this one, managing only 61 short stories a full 41 of which were in anthologies and about 10 of which were rereads.
Halfway through the year I set myself a goal of reading 26 books by 26 authors I'd never read before. This wasn't a "2007" goal, but a "get it done when it gets done" goal. I used the first author I read whose last name started with a particular letter to fill that spot.
A
B - Alan Burdick (Out of Eden)
C
D - James Dickey (Deliverance)
E - Kim Edwards (The Memory Keeper's Daughter)
F - Jonathan Safran Foer (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close)
G - Mark Gatiss (The Devil In Amber)
H - Kathy Hapka (LOST tie-in novels)
I
J - Eric Jourdan (Wicked Angels)
K
L - Elmore Leonard (Three-Ten to Yuma & Other Stories)
M - Cormac McCarthy (The Road)
N
O - Barack Obama (The Audacity of Hope)
P - Norman Partridge (Dark Harvest)
Q
R - Philip Roth (Everyman)
S - Jean Shepherd (A Christmas Story)
T
U
V
W - Cornell Woolrich (Fright)
X
Y
Z - Mark Richard Zubro (Nerds Who Kill)
I'll cross-post this mess over at
bookshare as well. I'm going to sign up for
50bookchallenge as soon as I finish my first book (I've started "The Golden Compass"), and I'm thinking of starting a community called 365Stories (if there's no one-short-story-a-day community out there already). Anyone in?
I also decided that this year I'm going to read all of the books I got for Christmas (or books I bought using Christmas gift cards) before I attempt to read anything else. Here's a list of
The "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman (Thanks, Hunter!)
Saving The World: A Guide To Heroes by Porter, Lavery & Robson (gift card purchase)
Heroes: Saving Charlie by Aurey Wallington (gift card purchase)
Killing Time by Caleb Carr (grab bag gift)
Out of Sync by Lance Bass (thanks Lorraine!)
Frankenstein's Bride by Hilary Bailey (thanks Lorraine!)
A Killing In Comics by Max Allan Collins (gift card purchase)
Baltimore (or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and The Vampire) by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden (gift card purchase)
Deadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins (gift card purchase)
Grave Descend by John Lange (gift card purchase)
The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson (gift card purchase)
A Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (grab bag gift)
That's not the order in which I'll read them, although I am reading the Pullman books first.