2014 Books Meme

Jan 17, 2015 00:09

Stolen from etrangere

How many books read in 2014?
About 30.

Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?
Four non-fiction (Traité d’Athéologie by Michel Onfray (essay), Sushi and Beyond by Michael Booth (documentary essay, sort of?), Eating for Britain by Simon Majumdar (same, sort of documentary essay) and Bossypants the autobiography of Tina Fey), all the rest is fiction

Male/Female authors?
6 male authors (Dumas, Onfray, Willocks, Booth, Majumdar, Murakami), 8 female

Favorite books read?
I really loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary-Ann Schaffer which I found adorable and made me want to go to Guernsey; The Religion by Tim Willocks really satisfied my crave for a summer adventure in the Mediterranean. The Stockholm Syndrome trilogy by Richard Rider was a delight for the Mighty Boosh fan that I am and put me through a rollercoaster ride of emotions, which I always enjoy because I’m a masochist. Michel Onfray’s Traité d’Athéologie was a bit boring and pompous at the beginning but in the end made me learn a lot of stuff. Finally, The Vorkosigan Saga was extremely entertaining, with some very good bits in it (shame that the latest book published was so underwhelming).

Least favorite?
Eating for Britain by Simon Majumdar wasn’t very well-written and although informative, a bit boring and it didn’t do a good job to make me crave the food it talked about at all.
After The Religion, Twelve Children of Paris by Tim Willocks was a disappointment, with next to no plot and the endless gore was getting really repetitive by the end, even for the sake of repetition.
Wasn’t all that amazed by the first book of 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, to the point where I don’t know if I’ll read the other two books of the trilogy, and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell wasn’t very good either (it was long and boring and lacked actual fangirlism).
The Boss by Abigail Barnette was good enough het BDSM porn (I tried it out because it was recommended as an alternative to 50 Shades of Grey by Matilda on Twitter)(I mean the ex-child actress who played Matilda in the film), but ended with a surprise baby and a cliffhanger on whether or not the heroine would keep the surprise baby, which really pissed me off to no end.
Finally, the last book of the Vorkosigan Saga, Cryoburn (I had to make an effort to remember its title) was revoltingly rubbish. Boring, with barely any stakes, Miles was boring, everyone was boring, and at the end we learn that one of my favourite characters of the saga has died off-stage. RUBBISH.

Oldest book read?
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

Newest?
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell? I think? Or maybe The Boss by Abigail Barnette (can’t be arsed to check, tbh)

Longest book title?
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Shortest title?
1Q84

How many re-reads?
None, I think

Most books read by one author this year?
Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold probably

Any in translation?
Fangirl was translated in French, which added to the displeasure of my reading; Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner too but the French translation was very good

How many of this year's books were from the library?
One, Swordspoint

Book that most changed my perspective:
Traité d’Athéologie by Michel Onfray made me realise that “Jesus” had to be, in all likelihood, a complete invention where I thought that “he” was actually a historical figure (and that the only debate was around whether “he” was the son of God or not), and Sushi and Beyond by Michael Booth made me learn a lot more than I already knew about Japanese cuisine

Favorite character:
Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan from Vorkosigan saga, and Lindsay Brown and Pip Valentine from the Stockholm Syndrome trilogy who are incredibly complex and compelling to me, each in their own way. If I had to choose only one from all those characters, which would be really hard but if I had to tear out my own heart apart, the winner would probably be Cordelia. Cordelia is uh-maaaaaazing.

Favorite scene:
One scene comes to mind, from Twenty Years After, where the King of England is executed despite the Musketeers’ best efforts, and Athos is standing right under the scaffold to hear the King’s last words, and then he is bathed in the royal blood raining from above when the King is decapitated… and Athos just stands there, completely frozen and traumatized when all he has fought for has been destroyed, just like that. Brilliant scene. Also Milady’s death in The Three Musketeers: poignant and gut-wrenching. What is it with me and executions, srsly.
But say what you will, we have good fucking writers in France. Dumas is waaayyy cool.

Favorite quote:
I have two, from the Vorkosigan saga; out of context, they don’t sound like much, but they sort of turned my world upside down when I read them; they’re both from more or less the same moment in the novel Memory, where Miles is having a huge existential crisis of identity, and those quotes are part of the answer that he finds for himself - it’s an incredibly powerful moment in the books.

« Who are you, boy? …Who are you who asks? On the thought a blessed silence came, an empty clarity. He took it at first for utter desolation, but desolation was a kind of free fall, perpetual and without ground below. This was stillness: balanced, solid, weirdly serene. No momentum to it at all, forward or backwards or sideways. I am who I choose to be. I always have been what I chose… though not always what I pleased. His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. »

« Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can’t trade for your heart’s desire is your heart. »

A quote by Michel Onfray which is frequently called back to my mind in light of recent debates about religion :

« Un chef de guerre cherche un verset qui justifie son action ? Il en trouve une quantité incroyable. Mais un pacifiste qui déteste la guerre, déterminé à faire triompher son point de vue, peut tout aussi bien brandir une phrase, une citation, une parole inverses ! »

(A warlord looks for a verse that justifies his action? He can find a ridiculous number of them. But a pacifist who hates war and who’s determined to make his viewpoint triumph, can just as well find the exact opposite in a phrase, a quote, a word)

Most inspirational in terms of own writing?
Probably Stockholm Syndrome, because the characters were so well-built and complex, and because of the clever way the author made them evolve, which are always the stories that I love the most - stories of growth.

How many you'd actually read again?
Stockholm Syndrome I would definitely read again, some of the Vorkosigan books as well maybe, in the future.

meme, 2014, readings, reccing

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