Challenged Reading 2015 Editon

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The Berzerker: Feb 24, 2006; treat me like a dog

Yeah I liked the ones that were vague ("the color red" led me to read a book on color theory that I likely would never have touched otherwise). The categories helped me stretch out a bit from my usual stuff which I really liked. I'll post my update this weekend but I finished the Booklord challenge about 2 weeks ago by finishing off A Confederacy of Dunces for the first time, which was a hilarious book.

I think you could keep some of the broader categories (history, poetry, collection of short stories) and tweak some of the others (the color green instead of red, or something).

# ? Nov 26, 2015 17:53

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# ? Apr 30, 2024 07:38

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

12. Something dealing with space - Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

So for �space� I definitely wanted to read some non-fic about space; I�ve read my fair share of space sci-fi and whatever but this seemed like a better opportunity. I did some searching and landed on Packing for Mars, which is a pop science book about the challenges of sending humans into space for long periods of time. It was really cool and interesting, she interviews people from a few different countries� space programs and relays a lot of really cool stuff. There was a ton of funny and interesting observations, but my favorite bit came from a footnote in a chapter about the challenges of creating custom or standard issue suits/equipment for astronauts of different body types. Apparently in the original Apollo missions, back when they were using bladders for the astronauts to urinate into, they had three different sizes for the piece that fit over an astronaut�s penis, but in order to protect egos they were labelled �large�, �extra large� and �extra extra large�. It just struck me as funny that some of the most important and brave men in history still had to compensate.

13. Something dealing with the unreal - In the Realms of the Unreal: Insane Writings edited by Joan Oakes

So again I hit google just to explore what this could possibly cover, and one of the first hits when you type in �unreal books� is Henry Darger, who wrote a book called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. The title and description sounded perfect, except that it is a 15,145 page book that has never actually been published. So reading more about Darger, I decided to try and find a book about him instead, but this lead me to this book, which is a book of works by people institutionalized for insanity.

It was actually a bit disappointing in that I should have expected the subject matter - a lot of rambling essays and poetry about feeling trapped and misunderstood. I was hoping for more colorful and wild imagery along with some fiction, and while there was a bit of that it was more mundane than I expected. It was also obviously very hit or miss, leaning toward miss. It definitely isn�t something I would have ever discovered or considered reading if not for this challenge, so while it didn�t fit it to the letter I consider it a success.

15. Something published this year/past 3 months - Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

I usually don't read books right when they come out so I was excited about this challenge, I wanted to wait for something to pop up on the NY Times best seller list that appealed to me, and when I saw this start to pop up on my Facebook feed it was really a no-brainer. I have read some of Coates articles and been amazed at how he writes so beautifully while also making his perspective easy to understand. I was psyched to be able to talk with people on social media, at work, and on SA about a new book that felt really important and relevant to our times, on an issue that basically every human has a perspective on. I�ve already reread it once and skimmed it a few more times, I have a feeling this is one I will be going back to a lot partly because it is so short anyway but it also had something every few pages that challenged my world view and caused me to simultaneously want to put the book down to digest it and also to plow ahead.

# ? Nov 26, 2015 19:22

screenwritersblues: Sep 13, 2010

Corrode posted:

I liked the challenge. Even if some of my selections weren't super clever it got me to stretch a bit in what I was reading which was cool.

Mahlertov Cocktail posted:

Let's do a similar challenge but you could mix it up a bit and create some of your own categories.

I'll post an actual update in here later today but long story short I'm behind as fuuuuuuuck.

Sure that I can do. I'll look at what Stravinsky posted and see what I can take from it.

Mr. Squishy posted:

Change all the challenges apart from reading A Blind Owl.

Mahlertov Cocktail posted:

Not that The Blind Owl doesn't warrant a reread, but I would personally prefer that, if there's another "read this specific book" part, it's a different book. Not big on rereading stuff like a year after I first read it most of the time.

I'll think of something else that's long like Infiniate Jest or The Portriat of an Artist as a Young Man or something like that.

ulvir posted:

I liked the challenges, but I wouldn't mind swapping some of them out for next year (absurdist, dealing with space, etc) for something equally challenging and creative. I had a really fun time trying to pin down the unreal one

The Berzerker posted:

Yeah I liked the ones that were vague ("the color red" led me to read a book on color theory that I likely would never have touched otherwise). The categories helped me stretch out a bit from my usual stuff which I really liked. I'll post my update this weekend but I finished the Booklord challenge about 2 weeks ago by finishing off A Confederacy of Dunces for the first time, which was a hilarious book.

I think you could keep some of the broader categories (history, poetry, collection of short stories) and tweak some of the others (the color green instead of red, or something).

I'll fix some of the vagueness and see if I can tweak them or replace them.

If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to leave them here.

# ? Nov 27, 2015 03:12

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

I liked the challenge, and would do one again next year, but would definitely prefer new categories. I like the categories that are more open to interpretation (like 'the color red') rather than the more rigid ones. I would prefer to not be ordered to read a specific book though - what if I've already read it?

# ? Nov 27, 2015 03:39

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

I feel like one rigid challenge isn't so bad, and Blind Owl is good and something a lot of people hadn't read so it was good!

For sure don't have like Catch 22 or Slaughterhouse Five or something a ton of people have already read.

# ? Nov 27, 2015 04:07

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Guy A. Person posted:

I feel like one rigid challenge isn't so bad, and Blind Owl is good and something a lot of people hadn't read so it was good!

For sure don't have like Catch 22 or Slaughterhouse Five or something a ton of people have already read.

I guess it would be ok as long as it wasn't something that everyone has read or something so long that no one will ever actually get around to reading it. The Blind Owl was both relatively obscure, and also short enough that I was willing to take a chance on it even though it had never been on my radar before. Infinite Jest, for example, would be a terrible choice. Not only is it commonly read, but it's over 1000 pages long.

I think the wildcard category should stay.

# ? Nov 27, 2015 04:38

Mahlertov Cocktail: Mar 1, 2010; I ate your Mahler avatar! Hahahaha!

Yeah the wildcard category was dope.

# ? Nov 27, 2015 11:42

ulvir: Jan 2, 2005

screenwritersblues posted:

I'll fix some of the vagueness and see if I can tweak them or replace them.

please keep some vagueness to them, figuring out what book would fit/constitute as what was really enjoyable and practically half the fun (apart from reading good books). I only meant I'd love for something similar, but with newer categories, to keep it fresh

seconding to keep the wildcard too

# ? Nov 27, 2015 12:25

Groke: Jul 27, 2007; New Adventures In Mom Strength

Mahlertov Cocktail posted:

Yeah the wildcard category was dope.

Absolutely.

# ? Nov 27, 2015 12:25

High Warlord Zog: Dec 12, 2012

The Year So Far...

1) Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
2) Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper by Diablo Cody*
3) The Dark Defiles by Richard K Morgan
4) Off Season by Jack Ketchum*
5) The 39 Steps by John Buchan*
6) The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey*
7) Feed by Mira Grant*
8) Old Man's War by John Scalzi*
9) The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan*
10) Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov*
11) Pronto by Elmore Leonard*
12) Brothers by William Goldman*
13) Flashman and the Tiger by George MacDonald Fraser
14) Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin*
15) An Act of Courage by Allan Mallinson
16) Superman: Secret Identity by Kurt Busiek*
17) Fly Away Peter by David Malouf*
18) The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross*
19) Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks*
20) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
21) Trouble is My Business by Raymond Chandler*
22) Sharpe's Sword by Bernard Cornwell
23) Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson*
24) Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley*
25) A Model World and Other Stories by Michael Chabon*
26) By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart*
27) The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story by Stephen Donaldson*
28) The Prince by Machiavelli*
29) The First Person and Other Stories by Ali Smith
30) The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater*
31) Ms. Marvel, Vol. 2: Generation Why by G. Willow Wilson
32) First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan*
33) Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom by Bell Hooks*
34) Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie*
35) Close Quarters by William Golding
36) At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson*
37) Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng*
38) Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin
39) The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
40) The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman
41) The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman
42) The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman
43) The Sandman, Vol. 5: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman
44) The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections by Neil Gaiman
45) Nightworld by F Paul Wilson*
46) The Children of Men by PD James
47) The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien*
48) The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy*
49) Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
50) The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton*
51) Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein*
52) The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro*
53) The Sandman, Vol. 7: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman
54) Dark Visions by Steven King, Dan Simmons and George RR Martin
55) The End of the Affair by Graham Greene*
56) Filth by Irvine Welsh*
57) The Sandman, Vol. 8: Worlds' End by Neil Gaiman
58) The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman
59) The Sandman, Vol. 10: The Wake by Neil Gaiman
60) Magic For Beginners by Kelly Link*
61) How to Be Both by Ali Smith
62) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood*
63) Get In Trouble by Kelly Link
64) High Rise by JG Ballard*
65) The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman
66) The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson*
67) Aquarium by David Vann*
68) Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck*
69) Kindred by Octavia Butler
70) Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters*
71) 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill*
72) Ariel by Sylvia Plath*
73) The Wilds by Julia Elliott*
74) Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
75) Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa L. Hannett*
76) The Best of Connie Willis by Connie Willis*
77) Slade House by David Mitchell
78) Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden*
79) July's People by Nadine Gordimer*
80) Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond*
81) Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner*
82) Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika by Tony Kushner
83) Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor*
84) Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Booklord Challenge

~~1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year (53/52 authors not read before - indicated by asterix).~~
~~2. Read a female author (30)~~
~~3. The non-white author (5)~~
~~4. Philosophy (Machiavelli)~~
~~5. History (Guns Germs and Steel)~~
~~6. An essay (Hooks - a collection)~~
~~7. A collection of poetry (Ariel)~~
~~8. Something post-modern (Pale Fire)~~
~~9. Something absurdist (Cat's Cradle)~~
10. The Blind Owl
~~11. Something on either hate or love (The Narrow Road to Deep North)~~
~~12. Something dealing with space (Use of Weapons)~~
~~13. Something dealing with the unreal (Something Wicked This Way Comes)~~
14. Wildcard: The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert (Reading)
~~15. Something published this year or the past three months (The Dark Defiles)~~
~~16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time (The Luminaries)~~
~~17. A play (Angels in America)~~
~~18. Biography (Escape from Camp 14)~~
~~19. The colour red (The Scarlet Pimpernel)~~
~~20. Something banned or censored (The Handmaid's Tale)~~
~~21. Short story (11 collections - Chabon, Smith, Johnson, McEwan, O'Brian, Link, Tidbeck, Elliott, Willis, O'Connor)~~
~~22. A mystery (Trouble is My Business)~~

High Warlord Zog fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Nov 27, 2015

# ? Nov 27, 2015 12:36

Groke: Jul 27, 2007; New Adventures In Mom Strength

Update through November.

Previously:

1. Menneskefluene by Hans Olav Lahlum.
2. Teckla by Steven Brust.
3. Ultima by Stephen Baxter.
4. Satellittmenneskene by Hans Olav Lahlum.
5. REAMDE by Neal Stephenson.
6. Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky
7. Annihilation by Jeff VanDermeer.
8. The Last Ringbearer by Kirill Yeskov.
9. Nj�lssoga (aka Nj�ls saga, the Saga of Burnt Niall, etc. in various translations) by unknown author.
10. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin.
11. Katalysatormordet by Hans Olav Lahlum.
12. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks.
13. De Fem Fyrstikkene by Hans Olav Lahlum.
14. Pastoralia by George Saunders.
15. Kameleonmenneskene by Hans Olav Lahlum.
16. Academic Exercises by K.J. Parker.
17. Straits of Hell by Taylor Anderson.
18. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.
19. My Real Children by Jo Walton.
20. Forr�dt ("Betrayed") by Amalie Skram.
21. Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey.
22. On the Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds.
23. Landfall by Stephen Baxter.
24. The March North by Graydon Saunders.
25. The Long Utopia by Terry Pratchett and (probably mostly) Stephen Baxter.
26. Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson.
27. Castaway Planet by Ryk Spoor and Eric Flint.
28. �rnens S�nn by Olaf Havnes.
29. The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross.
30. The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin.
31. Spring's Awakening by Frank Wedekind.
32. Poseidon's Wake by Alastair Reynolds.
33. Extinction Game by Gary Gibson.
34. The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson.
35. Havlandet by Olaf Havnes.
36. Svart Storm by Olaf Havnes.
37. Authority by Jeff Vandermeer.

New:
38. The Faithful Executioner by Joel F. Harrington. Got this from the recommendation thread to fit the "biography" challenge; it's the story of an executioner in Renaissance-era Germany, based on various bits and pieces of documentation including the man's own journal. Fascinating look at life and crime and punishment in a society only somewhat alien to modern Europeans. Would recommend.

39. Hodejegerne by Jo Nesb�. A short and snappy crime thriller by one of Norway's biggest names in the genre, it starts out almost comedic and descends into incredible amounts of violence and horribleness.

40. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (technically only almost done reading it yet). Randomly selected to fit the "absurdist" challenge since Vonnegut sometimes comes up in google searches of that term. I read a ton of Vonnegut when I was young and impressionable but somehow managed to skip this one. Just loving read it already, it's great.

So far:
40/40 overall goal, of which 1/5 allowed rereads
10/10 Norwegian books
5/5 nonfiction

Booklord challenge points met:
1 (Got to 40 books)
2 (Forr�dt; technically met earlier but saved for a book where the gender of the author was the POINT rather than an accident)
3 (Three-Body Problem)
5 (Nj�lssoga),
8 (Pastoralia)
9 (Cat's Cradle)
11 (My Real Children)
12 (Ultima)
13 (Teckla; teleporting sorceror-assassins aren't particularly real)
14 (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat)
15 (Ultima again, published November 2014)
16 (Nj�lssoga)
17 (Spring's Awakening)
18 (The Faithful Executioner)
19 (Three-Body Problem)
20 (Spring's Awakening)
21 (De Fem Fyrstikkene)
22 (Menneskefluene).

So, have a month left to hit the last few challenge points (and have stuff lined up for each of them).

# ? Nov 27, 2015 12:38

Groke: Jul 27, 2007; New Adventures In Mom Strength

High Warlord Zog posted:

[84) Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Buddy!

# ? Nov 27, 2015 12:40

Hantama: Dec 6, 2008

I am very much behind, this year was busy as hell but I will try the challenge next year again and hopefully do better. I�ll also try to post monthly updates next time around.

I also liked the wildcard category even though I didn�t get to read mine. I will read that (The golden rear end) on top of whatever categories there will be next year because It sounds really cool and I have never read something that old.

# ? Nov 27, 2015 19:11

screenwritersblues: Sep 13, 2010

ulvir posted:

please keep some vagueness to them, figuring out what book would fit/constitute as what was really enjoyable and practically half the fun (apart from reading good books). I only meant I'd love for something similar, but with newer categories, to keep it fresh

seconding to keep the wildcard too

The vagueness will be kept to let you choose what you want. I might choose a certain book like the last book lord did, but I'm not sure. Currently deciding between two long ones, but not as long as Blind Owl.

# ? Nov 28, 2015 04:26

Namirsolo: Jan 20, 2009; Like that, babe?

I set my number of books this year way too high (70) and I'm struggling to hit it, so I am going to fail the booklord challenge since I started reading books that I knew would be easier for me to hit my number. I have 6 books to read in the next month and I probably won't hit it, but at least I'll have read more books this year than I have before.

# ? Nov 28, 2015 17:26

Roydrowsy: May 6, 2007

[*]1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 109/100
[*]2. ~~Read a female author~~ The Paper Magician - Charlie N. Holmberg
[*]3. ~~The non-white author~~ How to Be Black - Baratunde Thurston
[*]4. Philosophy
[*]5. History
[*]6. An essay
[*]7. A collection of poetry
[*]8. Something post-modern
[*]9. ~~Something absurdist~~ Cold Cereal - Adam Rex
[*]10. The Blind Owl
[*]11. ~~Something on either hate or love~~ - Data, A Love Story - Amy Webb
[*]12. Something dealing with space [/s- New Earth - Ben Bova
[*]13. ~~Something dealing with the unreal~~ The Books of Magic - Neil Gaiman
[*]14. Wildcard (Some one else taking the challenge will tell you what to read)
[*]15. ~~Something published this year or the past three months~~ The Scarlet Gospels - Clive Barker
[*]16. ~~That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time~~ The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson
[*]17. A play
[*]18. ~~Biography~~ Dirty Daddy - Bob Saget
[*]19. ~~The color red~~ - Red Rising - Pierce Brown
[*]20. ~~Something banned or censored~~ Lord of the Flies
[*]21. ~~Short story(s)~~ McSweenys #46 -Ed Dave Eggers
[*]22. [s] A mystery The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett
[*]23. 10% Rereads 12/109
[*]24. "Old Books" 7/109
[/list]

Too long since my last update...
72-74 Sandman Volumes 1-3 Being a person who enjoys a good comic book every now and then, I've never sat down and read any Sandman. It was always one of those books with a ton of hype, but when I'd flip through it, I'd be rather unimpressed with what I saw. Having read the first three volumes, I really enjoyed it. I like that, instead of one large narrative that spans from volume to volume, it is a bunch of little stories. I am anxious to keep going, but it will most likely be a matter of when i come across them in the used bookstores.

75. Lee Child: Nothing to Lose: This particular book slowed me down. As far as a Reacher books goes, it was fine. Yet I had a hard time getting through it as an audiobook. In the end, it was a fine story, but there wasn't much special about it.

76. Michael Connelly - Trunk Music: Having started to read/listen to Connelly novels, I really, really enjoy them. They're quick, well written police procedurals. Probably my favorite series of the bunch. This sorta go me onto a string of Connelly novels.

77 - Richard Kadrey - Devil Said Bang: I totally skipped book three of the series, and did this one instead. I am thankful because now it means I don't have to read book 3, because these are all utter crap. Had they not been on sale on the Kindle store - I'd not have wasted the time.money. Avoid like the plague.

78 - Michael Connelly - Angel's Flight: another Harry Bosch novel. Solid police procedural writing. Enjoyable when you need a brain break.

79- 81 Michael Connelly - The Lincoln Lawyer, The Brass Verdict, The Reversal - Having enjoyed the police procedural novels as much as I did, i decided to give Connelly's lawyer books a shot too. I loved them. I guess this is the year of my enjoyment of Michael Connelly books. If you dig legal thriller, these are among my favorite.

82 - John Grishman - The Confession - my enjoyment of legal thrillers didn't extend beyond Connelly. The Confession is an interesting book, but it just lacked the same speed and punch of the Mickey Haller books. As far as Grishman goes, it was interesting. A bit more realistic I suppose, but not as much fun.

83 - Patricia Cornwell - The Bone Bed: absolute and utter garbage. I've not read any of her other books, but I get the feeling that she's just trying to make a buck at this point.

84 - Dean Koontz - Shadowfires: I found a rare, illustrated edition of this book which was why I picked it up. I had to justify the cost by actually reading it. It is pretty standard 80's Dean Koontz. Techno/Mad Science/Horror without the god references or redemption. If you were to summarize Koontz's work at the time, Shadowfires would be what that summary looks like.

85 - John Connolly - Every Dead Thing: Did this on my Kindle and it took a long time because I read the Kindle before bed, and I just didn't have the time/energy to read much. While there are things about the book I liked, the biggest problem I had was that this was almost like two books jammed together. Connolly wanted the character to accomplish certain things in his first outing, and it just feels crammed and rushed.

86 - Mike Carey - The Devil You Know: A really solid bit of urban fantasy. I like how, for the most part, it kept things simple. Too many times to the writers of these books try to cram in a TON of supernatural stuff. This just focuses on ghosts, and it worked really well.

87-88 Michael Connelly - The Fifth Witness & The Gods of Guilt : the other two Connelly lawyer books. Just as good as the first three. I couldn't help myself.

89: Shane Kuhn - The Intern's Handbook: A fun and interesting little book about assassins. Not terribly realistic, but a light, fun read.

90-91 Michael Connelly; A Darkness more Than Night, City of Bones: The first one probably my least favorite Connelly book. He tries to jam characters from different books together, and it just didn't work as well. City of Bones was good.. but it is pretty much the first season of the TV show in book form.

92: Nick Cutter: The Deep: THE TROOP was awesome. This one was less awesome. It's basically Michael Crichton's "SPHERE" mixed with that Hellraiser in Space movie. Cutter will have some great things to offer in the future, but he's not quite there yet.

93 - Ben Winters: Bed Bugs: A confused mess of a book that isn't sure if it wants to be a visceral horror novel, or a psychological thriller. It ends up being a mess, but it was well timed as our little one brought home bed bugs from preschool right about that time.

94 - Jo Nesbo - The Leopard: I wanted to expand my police procedural reading around a bit. I like the Nesbo books, they have a very distinct feel. Perhaps it is because of how they are translated, but they come across as really quite dense though.

95 - michael Connelly - Lost light: more Harry Bosch.

96: Lee Child : Gone Tomorrow - more typical Jack Reacher, but a bit more exciting than the last one.

97 Tony Hillerman : The Blessing Way - I've heard good things about this guy and his books, but this one just didn't really work for me.

98: Stephen King - The Dark Half: Of all of the King books, this was one that stuck with me the least, having read it as a kid. I gave it a re-read. It is far from one of my favorites. I appreciate how it doesn't try to explain too much, its just not a strong book.

99 & 100: Jurassic Park & The Lost World : after seeing Jurassic World, the bug bit me. I gave them a re-read. I was surprised to see how strongly different the books and films were. The books are far more complex, and rely on these concepts of scientific theory. It was almost like the dinosaurs were afterthoughts to the bigger ideas that Crichton wanted to present.

101-102 Janet Evanovich: 16 & 17. These books really, really, really aren't good. They barely qualify as stories. But they make the drive to work each morning a little quicker, and they have a few amusing bits. it's like watching a cartoon. If you expect things of consequence to happen, you'd be disappointing.

103: Jeff Strand: Dweller - This book rips your guts out. In some ways it has a lot in common with those Boy and His dog novels, but in other regards it is this horrific story about a guy who ruins his own life. Strand has a way of writing that really hits you in the guts, He pulls no punches, and nobody is ever safe. It has the heart of Harry and the Hendersons, but at the same time it packs the same punch as the best horror novels.

104 - John Steinbeck: Travels with Charlie: I love Steinbeck, and I seem to enjoy books about travel. This one was a decent, solid read, but it didn't really stand out and impress the way Steinbeck usually does for me.

105 - Michael Connelly - The Narrows: another Harry Bosch novel. It isn't bad, but it is weakened slightly again, by trying to cram in characters from other books with Connelly's flagship character. To much tying up of loose ends.

106 - Jefferey Deaver: Solitude Creek: Jeffery Deaver never dissapoints! Really good mystery/detective thriller.

other books.... I need to update more frequently...
Harry Potter and the sorcerers stone
Handling the Undead
Armada - Ernest Cline
Cold Granite Stuart Macbride
Second Hand Souls Christopher Moore
Deadline - John Sandford
(somehow my numbers got all screwed up.. i should be at 109)

I know I won't complete the entire challenge, but I have a few things lined up for A PLAY, HISTORY. at least. I gotta find a cheap copy of the WILDCARD I was given (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn). I will have few weeks off for Christmas, and will break those out then.

# ? Nov 28, 2015 18:11

Stravinsky: May 31, 2011

The blind owl is long?

# ? Nov 28, 2015 22:52

Groke: Jul 27, 2007; New Adventures In Mom Strength

Roydrowsy posted:

72-74 Sandman Volumes 1-3 [...] I like that, instead of one large narrative that spans from volume to volume, it is a bunch of little stories.

It's sort of... both, really. There's a definite long-term story arch which comes to a conclusion (and it's one motherfucker of a conclusion); there's a lot of short and medium-sized stories which fit inside the framework of that arch.

# ? Nov 29, 2015 18:43

CestMoi: Sep 16, 2011

Stravinsky posted:

The blind owl is long?

Sometimes you might need to think about words while you read it and this artificially lengthens the book >.<

# ? Nov 29, 2015 22:31

The Berzerker: Feb 24, 2006; treat me like a dog

November update:
John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
Mindy Kaling - Why Not Me?
Stephen King - The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

Slow month, I have been doing 2 jobs at work since mid-October and when I do get free time I generally spent it playing Fallout 4 this month, so... either way, I have completed the ~*~ BOOKLORD CHALLENGE ~*~ which is great. I will definitely participate again next year. A Confederacy of Dunces was hilarious and I am glad it came up on a list of 'absurdist' books because it pushed me to read it. Mindy Kaling's book was something I read on the bus to work, it was just popcorn. The King collection is probably his worst short story collection, avoid it unless you're like me and read basically everything he puts out anyway.

1. ~~The vanilla read a set number of books in a year.~~ (Currently at 52/35)
2. ~~Read 10 books by female authors~~ (Currently at 17/10)
3. ~~The non-white author~~ (Janet Mock - Redefining Realness)
4. ~~Philosophy~~ (Richard H. Popkin - Philosophy Made Simple)
5. ~~History~~ (Elizabeth Gillan Muir - Riverdale: East of the Don)
6. ~~An essay~~ (Paul Lockhart - The Mathematician's Lament)
7. ~~A collection of poetry~~ (Patricia Lockwood - Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals)
8. ~~Something post-modern~~ (Douglas Coupland - Worst Person Ever)
9. ~~Something absurdist~~ (John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces)
10. ~~The Blind Owl~~
11. ~~Something on either hate or love~~ (Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman - Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us)
12. ~~Something dealing with space~~ (Mark Danielewski - House of Leaves)
13. ~~Something dealing with the unreal~~ (Margaret Atwood - The Year of the Flood)
14. ~~Wildcard~~ (George Macdonald Fraser - Black Ajax)
15. ~~Something published this year or the past three months~~ (Nick Cutter - The Deep)
16. ~~That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time~~ (Legs McNeil - Please Kill Me)
17. ~~A play~~ (Neil Simon - The Odd Couple)
18. ~~Biography~~ (Amy Poehler - Yes Please)
19. ~~The color red~~ (Josef Albers - Interaction of Color)
20. ~~Something banned or censored~~ (Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451)
21. ~~Short story(s)~~ (Heather O'Neill - Daydreams of Angels)
22. ~~A mystery~~ (Tana French - In The Woods)

# ? Nov 30, 2015 04:58

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

January

Chestnuts: A True Story about Being Bullied by Gilbert Ohanian
The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals: The Evil Monkey Dialogues by Ann VanderMeer, Jeff VanderMeer & Duff Goldman
The Black Queen (The Fey #6) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Black King (The Fey #7) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
February
The Labours of Hercules (Hercule Poirot, #26) by Agatha Christie
Uglies (Uglies, #1) by Scott Westerfeld
March
Harry Potter and the Natural 20 (Harry Potter and the Natural 20, #1) by Sir Poley
Harry Potter and the Confirmed Critical (Harry Potter and the Natural 20, #2) by Sir Poley
Women in Love (Brangwen Family, #2) by D.H. Lawrence
A Mind Forever Voyaging: A History of Storytelling in Video Games by Dylan Holmes
Due Justice (Justice Series, #1) by Diane Capri
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
April
The Changelings (War of the Fae, #1) by Elle Casey
Killer Cupcakes (A Lexy Baker Bakery Mystery, #1) by Leighann Dobbs
The Long Goodbye (Philip Marlowe #7) by Raymond Chandler
May
Look Evelyn, Duck Dynasty Wiper Blades. We Should Get Them.: A Collection Of New Essays by David Thorne
Spider-Man and the X-Men by Elliot Kalan
Non Campus Mentis: World History According to College Students by Anders Henriksson
Guards! Guards! (Discworld #8) by Terry Pratchett
Twenty Years After (The D'Artagnan Romances #2) by Alexandre Dumas
June
College in a Nutskull: A Crash Ed Course in Higher Education by Anders Henriksson
Pen Pal by Francesca Forrest
What a Croc! by The NT News
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
July
Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
Maus by Art Spiegelman
It's a Bird... by Steven T. Seagle & Teddy Kristiansen
It Came from the North: An Anthology of Finnish Speculative Fiction ed. Desirina Boskovich
Datura by Leena Krohn
August
The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do
The Kewpie Killer by Falafel Jones
The Little Princesses: The Story of the Queen's Childhood by her Nanny, Marion Crawford by Marion Crawford
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
September
The Diamond Queen: Elizabeth II And Her People by Andrew Marr
The Savior Cometh (Americosis, #1) by Haydn Wilks
Taken at the Flood aka. There is a Tide... (Hercule Poirot #27) by Agatha Christie
The Phoenix Code by Catherine Asaro
October
The Cipher by Kathe Koja
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong
November
Emma by Jane Austen
Maids of Misfortune (A Victorian San Francisco Mystery #1) by M. Louisa Locke
The Culling (The Slave Girl Chronicles (AKA Alien Apocalypse) #1) by J.C. Andrijeski
To Be or Not To Be: A Chooseable-Path Adventure by Ryan North
Crossfire (Crossfire, #1) by Nancy Kress

Total: 44/52
Female authors: 21/24
Non-fiction: 12/12

Goodreads.

This month I read two good books, two bad books, and one that wasn't particularly good but was quite enjoyable. And I'm still behind on my target, so hopefully I'll read a lot more than usual next month.

I read Emma because I heard it was funny. And it is funny, but in a way that sometimes swings around to irritating. I really liked Emma herself though, and I liked the way it was shown how different people had different interpretations of events and motives. I wasn't keen on the ending though, with Emma's meddling in Harriet's life essentially excused by everything coincidentally turning out fine. It feels like she got away with that one where she really shouldn't have. But overall it was very enjoyable.

I'd put off reading Crossfire for ages, because I've got low expectations for sci-fi, but it turned out to be really good. Good characters, believable technology, engaging story that never feel forced or like anything is thrown in out of nowhere as a convenient way to keep the plot moving.

Maids of Misfortune is a decent mystery with pretty good characters and a solution that makes sense and fits the facts. The only real problem is that it's a bit too easy to figure out, so the story starts to drag a bit towards the end when you're just waiting for the characters to catch on, and there's a sort of B plot about the protagonist's financial issues that really should have been cut, I think. But I mostly enjoyed it.

To Be or Not To Be was OK, I guess, but North's writing gets pretty grating, and the book is not nearly as funny as it thinks it is.

The real stand-out this month though was The Culling. For a start, it's just really carelessly written. It contradicts itself all over the place (like one chapter mentioning a wolf attack and then a later chapter mentioning that wolves are extinct) and the author seems to use a lot of words incorrectly. It tries to keep your attention by just not explaining things, so if you want to understand what's happening you have to keep reading. The protagonist doesn't really do anything to advance the story (and is actually a prisoner for most of it). But all that is nothing compared with the creepiness of the setting. Earth has been taken over by blue-skinned mind-controlling lizard aliens who keep humans as pets - and have sex with them. The protagonist is constantly menaced by the possibility of being raped (by humans and aliens alike) and much is made of her attractiveness (apparently to lizard aliens as much as humans). The aliens are also known to eat humans, and make humans fight to the death for their entertainment. The only thing separating this from weird self-published Kindle porn is that there's no actual sex in it, but I got the impression the author probably has a second version rectifying that.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 08:35

oliven: Jan 25, 2006; love all cats

November update!

1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year (44/45)

oliven posted:

Currently reading Press Start to Play by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams.

42. Press Start to Play by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams: A collection of 26 video game related short stories by various authors. The majority of the stories had a sort of virtual reality "what is real, what isn't" theme and eventually it got pretty stale. A couple of the stories were downright bad but there were a few gems as well.

43. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn: I'm having a bit of a hard time making my mind up about this one. It's supposed to be a fantasy novel set in feudal Japan, but pretty much all the Japanese elements are terribly inaccurate (and sometimes insulting). There was a romance subplot that was straight up dumb. But ignoring those two things, I kind of really liked it?

44. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith: J.K. Rowling's first crime novel. I've seen some criticism regarding Rowling's language being unnatural or whatever, but I didn't really mind it. An enjoyable read for me.

Currently reading All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 09:03

Mahlertov Cocktail: Mar 1, 2010; I ate your Mahler avatar! Hahahaha!

Stravinsky posted:

The blind owl is long?

Yeah that threw me a bit too. That was a short book, and even if its thematic density made it take longer that its length would indicate, it still didn't take long to read.

EDIT: let's do an update here even though I probably haven't read that many books since the last one.

PREVIOUSLY READ:

1. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (reread)
2. The Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko
3. Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome by John Scalzi
4. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
5. The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero
6. The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss
7. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
8. The Martian by Andy Weir
9. Falstaff by Robert Nye
10. A Boy and his Dog by Harlan Ellison
11. Fiction Ruined My Family by Jeanne Darst
12. One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak
13. The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat
14. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie
15. Legion: Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson
16. The Gods Will Have Blood by Anatole France
17. Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
18. The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster
19. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
20. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
21. Inventing Human Rights: A History by Lynn Hunt
22. Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
23. The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist by Richard Feynman
24. The Human Division by John Scalzi
25. Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
26. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
27. The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
28. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
29. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
30. The End of All Things by John Scalzi

NEWLY COMPLETED:

31. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Shamelessly copied from the Just Finished thread, with a minor addition:
What a sad, gorgeous book. For real, though, it is crushingly sad - even when actively depressing events aren't happening, there's just such a pervasive sense of loneliness (duh, it's in the title) and not fitting in that weighs on all the characters. However, the characters we follow are all basically good people trying to live their lives, which alleviates it a bit. I loved how Singer, the character whom all the others look up to and project their own ideas onto, not only has his own inner life and problems, but also projects his own desires onto Antonapoulos, who, like Singer to the other characters, simply listens to Singer and gives vague responses. In a book about misfits trapped in their own lives, it's a compelling (and, again, loving sad) parallel.

32. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, so obviously I'm not gonna say anything here that hasn't been said a trillion times and better, but this is just a really hilarious little play. Puck loving rules.

33. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Also from the Just Finished thread:
The plot was fun and you can definitely see how many stories following this novel ripped it off wholesale. I loved the style; it reads like a parody of the genre to me because of how thoroughly it's been mined by this point, but the language is exceptionally good - it's not, like, hyper-eloquent like McCarthy or anything, but that wouldn't fit the tone of the book anyway so the evocative simplicity is enjoyable to read and supports the narrative. Honestly, the bits that put me off the most were the pervasive sexism and homophobia. Normally I guess I'd handwave it away with "those were the times," but it's hard to do that right after The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, an incredibly progressive novel that was published just a year after this one. Of course, it's also possible that the protagonist isn't supposed to be taken as a great moral authority (he covers up a murder to continue working his case and is pretty consistently described as unpleasant, both by other characters and in dialogue tags and such - "I grinned nastily," for example), but that's an iffy proposition when sexism and homophobia are prevalent even today and the 30's/40's certainly weren't better. Oh well, it was still quite enjoyable! But that definitely put a damper on it.

34. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Nicely paced space opera with some tangential examination of the theme of information accessibility. The writing is alright - nothing really spectacular but it doesn't get in the way. My main complaint is that some of the early character development (mostly for Miller) is a little jumpy, but it smooths out as the book goes on. Definitely interested in seeing where the series goes from the end of this book.

CURRENTLY READING:

I'm still reading Stelle di Cannella, which I really just have to sit down and commit to. I look up words constantly because even though I understand the greater part of the meaning and could certainly follow the plot if I just plowed through, but I'd also like to learn more Italian vocabulary while reading. Unfortunately, this means that it's not really something that I can read on my commute, so next weekend I'm making it my mission to get really into it.
Started Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells yesterday. About 15% done and very much enjoying it.

BOOKLORD CHALLENGE:

1. The vanilla read a set number of books (45) in a year - 34 so far!
2. ~~Read a female author~~ - Jeanne Darst
3. ~~The non-white author~~ - Malcolm X
4. ~~Philosophy~~ - The Name of the Rose
5. ~~History~~ - Inventing Human Rights
6. An essay
7. A collection of poetry
8. Something post-modern
9. Something absurdist
10. ~~The Blind Owl~~ - Done!
11. ~~Something on either hate or love~~ - Frankenstein
12. ~~Something dealing with space~~ - The Human Division
13. ~~Something dealing with the unreal~~ - Annihilation
14. ~~Wildcard~~ - Falstaff
15. ~~Something published this year or the past three months~~ - Half the World
16. ~~That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time~~ - Leviathan Wakes (it was the first book I actually bought on my Kindle and then it sat in my library for...it must be two or three years now)
17. ~~A play~~ - A Midsummer Night's Dream
18. ~~Biography~~ - Theodore Rex
19. ~~The color red~~ - The Martian
20. Something banned or censored (IN PROGRESS: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood)
21. ~~A short story~~ - A Boy and his Dog
22. ~~A mystery~~ - The Big Sleep

REQUEST: Could someone/several someones recommend me books for post-modern and absurdist categories? Preferably on the shorter side, considering how far behind on the quantitative challenge I am.

Mahlertov Cocktail fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Nov 30, 2015

# ? Nov 30, 2015 12:30

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Mahlertov Cocktail posted:

33. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Also from the Just Finished thread:
The plot was fun and you can definitely see how many stories following this novel ripped it off wholesale. I loved the style; it reads like a parody of the genre to me because of how thoroughly it's been mined by this point, but the language is exceptionally good - it's not, like, hyper-eloquent like McCarthy or anything, but that wouldn't fit the tone of the book anyway so the evocative simplicity is enjoyable to read and supports the narrative. Honestly, the bits that put me off the most were the pervasive sexism and homophobia. Normally I guess I'd handwave it away with "those were the times," but it's hard to do that right after The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, an incredibly progressive novel that was published just a year after this one. Of course, it's also possible that the protagonist isn't supposed to be taken as a great moral authority (he covers up a murder to continue working his case and is pretty consistently described as unpleasant, both by other characters and in dialogue tags and such - "I grinned nastily," for example), but that's an iffy proposition when sexism and homophobia are prevalent even today and the 30's/40's certainly weren't better. Oh well, it was still quite enjoyable! But that definitely put a damper on it.

Marlowe definitely isn't supposed to be taken as a moral authority. In his world there really aren't any innocents, everyone is corrupted to some degree and the best you can do is to sometimes avoid compromising yourself or your values more than you can stand.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 15:21

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Prolonged Shame posted:

1) The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
2) Akira Vol. 3 - Katsuhiro Otomo
3) Steel Magnolias - Robert Harling
4) The Four Feathers - A.E.W. Mason
5) Giant's Bread - Mary Westmacott (AKA Agatha Christie)
6) A Good Marriage - Stephen King
7) Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains - Jon Krakauer
8) In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick
9) Foundation - Isaac Asimov
10) The Best of Edward Abbey - Edward Abbey
11) A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal - Robert Macintyre
12) Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick S�skind
13) Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) - Brandon Sanderson
14) The Giver - Lois Lowry
15) Lost in the City - Edward P. Jones
16) The Blithedale Romance - Nathaniel Hawthorne
17) Akira Vol. 4 - Katsuhiro Otomo
18) The Art of War - Sun Tzu
19) William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative - Jonathan Lurie
20) The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet
21) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass
22) Spring Snow - Yukio Mishima
23) The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
24) The Arabian Nights: Tales From a Thousand and One Nights - Anonymous
25) Arabella - Georgette Heyer
26) Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman - Kendrick A. Clements
27) The Blind Owl - Sadegh Hedayat
28) Worm - Wildbow
29) The Rosetta Key - William Deitrich
30) Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
31) The Ohio Gang: The World of Warren G. Harding - Charles L. Mee
32) Shadow Scale - Rachel Hartman
33) The Well of Ascension (Mistborn #2) - Brandon Sanderson
34) A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III - Janice Hadlow
35) Calvin Coolidge - David Greenberg[
36) Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the Worlds Most Feared Mountain - Jennifer Jordan
37) White Teeth - Zadie Smith
38) I Come From the Stone Age - Heinrich Harrer
39) Akira Vol.5 - Katsuhiro Otomo
40) An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser
41) Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik
42) The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) - Brandon Sanderson
43) Unfinished Portrait - Agatha Christie writing as Mary Westmacott
44) French Lessons: Adventures With Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew - Peter Mayle
45) Akira Vol. 6 - Katsuhiro Otomo
46) Herbert Hoover - William E. Leuchtenburg
47) The Enchanted April - Elizabeth Von Armin
48) Paris - Edward Rutherfurd
49) Shelley: Poems - Percy Bysshe Shelley
50) The Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory
51) Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World - Mark Kurlansky
52) Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty
53) Black Hawk Down - Mark Bowden
54) FDR - Jean Edward Smith
55) The Running Man - Stephen King
56) Orange is the New Black - Piper Kerman
57) A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James
58) The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
59) Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed
60) Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1) - Charlaine Harris
61) The Rose and the Yew Tree - Mary Westmacott (AKA Agatha Christie)
62) Black Powder War (Temeraire #3) - Naomi Novik
63) Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
64) Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania - Erik Larson
65) The Queen's Fool - Philippa Gregory
66) Truman - David McCullough
67) 41 Stories - O. Henry
68) If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino
69) Eisenhower in War and Peace - Jean Edward Smith
70) The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy - Stewart O'Nan
71) Russka: The novel of Russia - Edward Rutherford
72) Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov
73) Just Kids - Patti Smith
74) A Daughter's a Daughter - Mary Westmacott (AKA Agatha Christie)
75) Dark Rooms - Lili Anolik
76) Unbroken: A World War II Story of survival, Resilience, and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand
78) Fairyland: A Memoir of my Father - Alysia Abbott
79) An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963 - Robert Dallek
80) Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse #2) - Charlaine Harris
81) The Virgin's Lover - Philippa Gregory
82) Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse #3) - Charlaine Harris
83) Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President - Robert Dallek
84) The Black Moth - Georgette Heyer
85) Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn
86) Hell House - Richard Matheson
87) Empire of Ivory (Temeraire #4) - Naomi Novik
88) My Life in France - Julia Child
89) The Crucible - Arthur Miller
90) A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
91) The Sunne in Splendour - Sharon Kay Penman

November:
92) High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed - Michael Kodas: I found the subject matter of this book fascinating, but I wish the author had organized it differently. It was difficult trying to follow all the different stories he was jumping around to in the course of each chapter. If each one had been given it's own section it would have flowed better. Still, a good read. There are lots of assholes on Everest.
93) The Other Queen - Philippa Gregory: Not as bad as some of the other ones, but you get three character POV's, and each one does nothing but repeat themselves nonstop throughout the book. Finally, at the end you get a little character development.
94) The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch: I loved this. I loved the world he built and the characters within it. I wish I'd picked this up sooner.
95) The Dakota Cipher - William Dietrich: This was ok. The story seems to be meandering a bit, and there is no good reason literally every female character the main character meets wants to sleep with him (other than author wish fulfillment) but overall it is a fun series.
96) In the Unlikely Event - Judy Blume: I loved Judy Blume growing up, and have enjoyed some of ther other adult novels, but this one just missed the mark for me. It has it's moments, bur ultimately I think it was spread too thin over many character POV's, to the point that it was hard to keep track of who was who.
97) The Johnstown Flood - David McCullough: An account of a deadly flood in early 1900's Pennsylvania. This got off to a really slow start, but once it picked up it was quite good.
98) Who Cooked the Last Supper?: The Women's History of the World - Rosalind Miles: I was disappointed by this one. It was good, but I was expecting an actual history of women through the ages and the awesome things they did, both as individuals and as a gender, despite being almost universally oppressed. This was more a list of the oppressions women have endured in various times and places with very small (like, 2 paragraph) anecdotes of awesome, interesting historical women. Not bad, just not what I was looking for.
99) Being Nixon: A Man Divided - Evan Thomas: This was great. It gave a really complete picture of who Nixon was as a person, rather than just a listing of his public successes and failures like the last two presidential bios I read.
100) The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World - Michael Pollan: A short history of four plants whose destiny is intertwined with that of humankind: apples, tulips, cannabis, and potatoes. A great read.
101) Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped him Save Lives in WWII - Vicki Croke: The true story of 'Elephant' Bill Williams, who started as an employee of a Teak company in colonial Burma and developed a love for elephants. Wonderful, charming book.

Total: 101/100 Done with the official goal!
Presidential bios: 11/12 Last one for the year (Ford) is in progress.
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 25/25 Done!

# ? Nov 30, 2015 17:58

Mahlertov Cocktail: Mar 1, 2010; I ate your Mahler avatar! Hahahaha!

Tiggum posted:

Marlowe definitely isn't supposed to be taken as a moral authority. In his world there really aren't any innocents, everyone is corrupted to some degree and the best you can do is to sometimes avoid compromising yourself or your values more than you can stand.

True, but then categorizing gay people as "corrupted" is pretty lovely. Note: this is never stated directly, but Marlowe makes several nasty jokes/comments that make the position clear, and nobody contradicts him. Again, those were the times, whatever, but it didn't make those little jabs any less uncomfortable to read.

# ? Nov 30, 2015 18:12

Radio!: Mar 15, 2008; Look at that post.

For challenge suggestions, maybe reread a book you read for school as a kid? I know some people aren't into rereads but I always find it interesting to go back to books years later and see how my understanding and opinion of them has changed.

Mahlertov Cocktail posted:

REQUEST: Could someone/several someones recommend me books for post-modern and absurdist categories? Preferably on the shorter side, considering how far behind on the quantitative challenge I am.

Have you read If on a winter's night a traveler?

# ? Nov 30, 2015 22:06

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

Mahlertov Cocktail posted:

REQUEST: Could someone/several someones recommend me books for post-modern and absurdist categories? Preferably on the shorter side, considering how far behind on the quantitative challenge I am.

Post Modern: Crying of Lot 49, Agape Agape

Absurdist: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Metamorphosis

# ? Nov 30, 2015 23:23

Mahlertov Cocktail: Mar 1, 2010; I ate your Mahler avatar! Hahahaha!

Radio! posted:

For challenge suggestions, maybe reread a book you read for school as a kid? I know some people aren't into rereads but I always find it interesting to go back to books years later and see how my understanding and opinion of them has changed.

Have you read If on a winter's night a traveler?

I have not! Absurdist or postmodern?

Guy A. Person posted:

Post Modern: Crying of Lot 49, Agape Agape

Absurdist: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Metamorphosis

I read Crying of Lot 49 last year and it's fantastic, but I haven't read Agape Agape so I'll check it out. Read both of the absurdist recs in high school, but they could certainly do with revisiting.

Thanks a lot to both of you!

# ? Dec 1, 2015 00:30

Radio!: Mar 15, 2008; Look at that post.

Mahlertov Cocktail posted:

I have not! Absurdist or postmodern?

Postmodern. Also excellent.

# ? Dec 1, 2015 00:42

Mahlertov Cocktail: Mar 1, 2010; I ate your Mahler avatar! Hahahaha!

Radio! posted:

Postmodern. Also excellent.

Sounds good. Added it to my list!

# ? Dec 1, 2015 00:46

Fellwenner: Oct 21, 2005; Don't make me kill you.

I enjoyed Carpenters Gothic as well, it's fairly short and post-modern.

# ? Dec 1, 2015 05:57

ToxicFrog: Apr 26, 2008

My reading has slowed way down, and I think I've figured out why. In the warmer months, I'd take my son out to the park in the afternoon and read while he played. These days, it's cold -- and more importantly, dark -- pretty much as soon as I get home from work.

I'm only one book away from finishing the Challenge, though -- a collection of poetry. The temptation is to read something by Service or Kipling, since of all the poets I was forced to read in school they're the only ones I enjoyed more than not, but the challenge is all about branching out, so maybe I'll read something completely new to me. I know my wife is a big fan of E.E. Cummings and has a collection of his work on her shelves; maybe I'll read that.

Booklord Challenge Update posted:

1. 94/96 books read; 16 nonfiction (17%), 26 rereads (28%)
Completed: 2-6, 8-22
New: Something postmodern -- The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

90. The New Space Opera edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan

A mixed bag, and more miss than hit, honestly. My favourite was probably Who's Afraid of Wolf 359? by Ken MacLeod; what I've read of his novels didn't do much for me, but I really liked this.

The low point was -- unsurprisingly -- Muse of Fire by Dan Simmons. Like Hyperion, he spends so much time pointing out that he's read the classics that he forgets to do anything else.

91. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

A semi-autobiographical collection of short stories about the Vietnam War. Powerful stuff. Also prompted me to do some reading on the war, which I knew almost nothing about -- it's not really covered in Canadian history classes, or wasn't when I was in school.

92. Ancillary Justice
93. Ancillary Sword
94. Ancillary Mercy

:tviv:

I can see why everyone loves these. This year has involved a lot of books ranging from "meh" to "it's ok, I guess", but very few that I greatly enjoyed and was hugely enthusiastic about. These are in the latter category.

I think I actually liked Ancillary Sword the most overall, although my favourite individual scenes were in Justice (specifically, the bits where Justice of Toren is carrying on multiple conversations at once and the narrative is interleaving all of them). They're all great, though.

I also finished The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg this month, but I'm pushing that writeup to next month when I can discuss it along with its sequels.

# ? Dec 1, 2015 11:51

ulvir: Jan 2, 2005

November update, and a slow progress wrt booklord challenges. I do ahve a history book ready, but I really need to start finding an essay of sorts to read during December.

~~1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year.~~ - 54/40
~~2. Read a female author~~ - Gabriela Mistral, Ingvild Rish�i, Clarice Lispector, Flannery O'Connor
~~3. The non-white author~~ - Ta-Nehisi Coates
~~4. Philosophy~~ - Fear and Trembling by S�ren Kierkegaard
5. History - Finn Olstad (a book about the norwegian working class)
6. An essay -
~~7. A collection of poetry~~ - A collection of Poems by Gabriela Mistral (includes poems from Desolaci�n, Ternura, Tala, Lagar and Poema de Chile), The Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro by Fernando Pessoa, Selected Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley
~~8. Something post-modern~~ - Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon.
~~9. Something absurdist -~~ Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
~~10. The Blind Owl (Free translation if your ok with reading on a screen or cant find a copy!)~~ I read this last year
~~11. Something on either hate or love~~ - Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez
~~12. Something dealing with space~~ - The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem
~~13. Something dealing with the unreal~~ - Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
~~14. Wildcard (Some one else taking the challenge will tell you what to read)~~ - The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem
~~15. Something published this year or the past three months~~ - Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Om H�sten by Karl-Ove Knausg�rd, Submission by Michel Houellebecq
~~16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time~~ - Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
~~17. A play -~~ Waiting for Godot
~~18. Biography~~ - On Overgrown Paths by Knut Hamsun
~~19. The color red~~ The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
~~20. Something banned or censored~~ - Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard
~~21. Short story(s) -~~ The Russian Master and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov, Vinternoveller by Ingvild H. Rish�i
~~22. A mystery~~ - Arguably The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, I'll see if I cannot get something else too just to make sure I didn't cheat this.

1. Hear the Wind Sing, Haruki Murakami
2. Pinball 1974, Haruki Murakami
3. On The Beach, Neil Shute
4. Collected Poems by Per Sivle
5. History of the Siege of Lisbon, Jos� Saramago
6. Wayfarers, Knut Hamsun
7. The Seed, Tarjei Vesaas
8. Morning and Evening, Jon Fosse
9. The Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro, Fernando Pessoa
10. Doktor Faustus, Thomas Mann
11. Collection of poems, Gabriela Mistral
12. Doctor Glas, Hjalmar S�derberg
13. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez
14. Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
15. Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon
16. Road to the Worl'd End, Sigurd Hoel
17. The Cyberiad, Stanislaw Lem
18. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
19. The Clown, Heinrich B�ll
20. The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Lev Tolstoy
21. Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev
22. A Theatrical Novel, Mikhail Bulgakov
23. Sleepless, Jon Fosse
24. Woodcutters, Thomas Bernhard
25. Confusion of Feelings, Stefan Zweig
26. The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Heinrich B�ll
27. The Elephant's Jurney, Jos� Saramago
28. Shyness and Dignity, Dag Solstad
29. Krysantemum, Rune Christiansen
30. The Feast of the Goat, Mario Vargas Llosa
31. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
32. The Comfort of Strangers, Ian McEwan
33. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
34. Homo Faber, Max Frisch
35. Not Art, P�ter Esterh�zy
36. Faust, Ivan Turgenev
37. Selected Poems, Percy Bysshe Shelley
38. The Russian Master and Other Stories, Anton Chekhov
39. Vinternoveller, Ingvild H. Rish�i
40. The Passion According to G.H., Clarice Lispector
41. Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
42. Om h�sten, Karl Ove Knausg�rd
43. Three Women, Sylvia Plath
44. Furuset, Linn Str�msborg
45. Thomas F's Last Notes to the Public, Kjell Askildsen
46. Rue des Boutiques obscures, Patrick Modiano
47. Herztier, Herta M�ller
48. On Overgrown Paths, Knut Hamsun
49. Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett
50. Rambuku, Skuggar: Two plays, Jon Fosse
51. Submission, Michel Houellebecq
52. Alone, August Strindberg
53. Life a User's Manual, Georges Perec
54. Fear and Trembling, S�ren Kierkegaard

54/40

I'll edit in my thoughts about the books later tonight. Kierkegaard in particular is a rather tough nut to crack right now.

Right. The books.

Rambuku, Skuggar (Rambuku and Shadows) are two plays by Jon Fosse, with a common theme of uncertainty and possibly death. They both take place in a nondescribed place, and the important aspect of the plays are the common relations between the characters. Emotional, in a very dead-pan way, and also strongly existensial at certain points. Well worth a read (and maybe even a watch should anyone get a chance).

Submission was a book that has gotten a, if not bad, then at least undeserved rap. I went into it nearly expecting a very anti-islamist story, akin to France in a sort of greater Eurabia. Instead what I got was a book dealing with hedonism, sex, a bit of critique of Academia and a protagonist reflecting himself through Joris-Karl Huysmans. Within it there were of course some commentary on Islam, but it was mostly innocent, and mostly very superficial and shallow. It seemed to me that the title was more about an individual himself submitting to a higher power, than, say, society submitting itself before militant extremism. I still have no idea why Knausg�rd went so far as to call Houellebecq a genius though.

Alone, a Novella about a unnamed protag who feels sort of complacent with being alone. He spends a great deal talking about the difference between being alone and loneliness.

Life a User's Manual was probably the most interesting book I read (completed) this month. The premise is that a painter wants to paint a portrait of a fictious block in Paris. The story, or rather, the book, leaps between the different flats (including the stairway, cellar and loft) according to the movement pattern of the knight in chess. Within it there's also a few parallell stories that centres around some of the people living in that block. The most captivating are the one about Bartlebooth, another about a down-on-his-luck doctor who tried his luck as an academic, and a judge and his wife who uses petty thefts as a way to spice up their sexlife. The novel constantly blurs the line between fiction and reality, as well. Everyone should read this at least once.

Well, on to the most difficult bit so far, Fear and Trembling. This is probably the longest I spent reading a 140 page long book, but I couldn't imagine reading this in one go either. What I think Kierkegaard attempts to do here is to first try to define what faith, to the degree that Abraham exhibited, really is. Then whether or not Abraham's actions could ever be judged by "common" or "ordinary" concepts like ethics, and whehter or not there's a "duty to God". What it seemed like he was going for, is that religious faith is kind of a paradox, or something absurd in a way, in that the Self gets elevated to something higher than the ordinary, but at the same time remains absolutely ordinary. He creates (or discusses) a concept called Knight of Faith, which he puts in a dialectic contrast to the tragic hero (both of which are explained at length and in depth). Where the individual becomes this Knight by the movement of eternity, where they first resign completely and wholly from something (or someone) they love, but at the same time places absolute faith that, because God wills it, they will not lose it. And this absurdity, in itself, makes it impossible to understand the story of Abraham through concepts like ethics and right/wrong, because it presupposes that what drives him is his own volition and lust (for lack of a better word on my part). Where the tragic hero can choose to abort in order to save Isaac, or tell him what is about to happen, Abraham, as the Knight of Faith, cannot. Because he has already performed this resignation of Eternity, and have already both accepted that this is what he has to do unto God, but at the same time has complete faith in that, if God wills it, he will be with Isaac (in one form or another) later on. This also makes it impossible for someone to really understand his story, due to the paradoxical nature of it.

I might have to read this book a few times more later on, I admit. But it was quite an interesting, albeit challenging, read nevertheless.

ulvir fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Dec 1, 2015

# ? Dec 1, 2015 16:04

Talas: Aug 27, 2005

November.

66. Cloud Atlas. David Mitchell. Some of the stories were kind of bad, mediocre in general... but I still liked it for some reason.
67. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Benjamin Alire S�enz. This book felt like it was trying too hard. It's short, thankfully.
68. I Shall Wear Midnight. Terry Pratchett. The best Aching story. Great characters too, even the ones we thought one-dimensional for a moment.
69. Amberville. Tim Davys. Noir gone weird. Some twist were kind of unexpected, but it didn't had much to the story.
70. The Gods Themselves. Isaac Asimov. Three connected stories, one bad, one great, one regular. Good in average.
71. Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper. Robert Bloch. Weird short story, I'm not sure if it was predictable or completely bonkers.

1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year: 71/60
2. Read a female author: Jojo Moyes and others.
3. The non-white author: Khaled Hosseini and others.
4. Philosophy: Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
5. History: Monsters and Demons, Charlotte Montague.
6. An essay: Unless It Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing, Roger Rosenblatt.
7. A collection of poetry
8. Something post-modern: Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk.
9. Something absurdist
10. The Blind Owl (Free translation if your ok with reading on a screen or cant find a copy!)
11. Something on either hate or love: We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver.
12. Something dealing with space: Transition, Iain M. Banks.
13. Something dealing with the unreal: Los mentales, Pgarc�a.
14. Wildcard (Some one else taking the challenge will tell you what to read): Amberville, by Tim Davys.
15. Something published this year or the past three months: Mitos y Leyendas. Muy Interesante.
16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time: Harry Potter and the Magician's Stone,J.K. Rowling.
17. A play
18. Biography: Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet
19. The color red: Red 1-2-3, John Katzenbach.
20. Something banned or censored: Burmese Days, George Orwell.
21. Short story(s): Burning Chrome, William Gibson.
22. A mystery: The Prefect. Alastair Reynolds.

Discworld challenge 38/41

# ? Dec 2, 2015 05:20

Mr. Squishy: Mar 22, 2010; A country where you can always get richer.

Mr. Squishy posted:

1 One Third of a Nation by Arthur Arent and others. A play exploring the dire housing situation in depression-era New York. Agit-prop long past its sell by date but still fascinating, mostly for being in such a foreign style. (17)
2 Agap� Agape by William Gaddis. Picked this up again and it's a really interesting read. Managed to get a few references that I missed last time, like I somehow didn't clock that he was talking about Nietzche, somehow. Still need to read it with a Steven Moore guide to get them all though.
3 Agap� Agape by William Gaddis. I had a long journey and it's 100 pages. Read through this time paying attention to the main character, how he's buffetted by bouts of intense pain and delerium.
4 The House of the Solitary Maggot by James Purdy. Another re-read, the bits in the cinema are as good as I remember them, but I was sure there was a crucifixion in this. Maybe it's in another one of his. It's written in a weirdly conversational style where characters and locations are introduced and then introduce their history with the family which we surely would have heard of before. It's a shoe-in for challenge eleven as every single one of the 5 characters both loves and hates each other. (11)
5 The Old Men at the Zoo by Angus Wilson. It's nice to see his continue hysterical attack over social niceties and the possibilities of violence infused with some surprisingly keyed-in social commentary. I mainly felt cut off from the time, this book realy conveys the panic of an age bouncing from WW2 into ann uncertain future of nuclear destruction and political irrelevance. I would say I enjoyed this book more than any of his other novels I've read.
6 Faust, part one by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as translated by Phillip Wayne. I'm not sure how they've diveded up the play, part 2 seems a great deal thicker. Nice to see the black poodle circling Faust in little fiery steps. I probably need to reread this, I wasn't treating this fair.
7 The Double by Jos� Saramago as translated by Margarat Jull Costa. After ignoring the trailers for Enemy for weeks I saw this in a bookshop and decided why not. I really enjoyed reading the book making GBS threads on this lovely dude and his slight ethical failiures. I honestly skipped over the chapter where anything happened because I couldn't be hosed reading about uh, blackmailing people into pimping out their partners. Sorry Jos�.
8 The Blind Owl by Sadeq Hedayat as translated by Iraj Bashiri. Dug this thing. I liked it when he killed her 10
8 Fight Club by Chuck Palahuink. Boy, this wasn't good. I mean, the writing was OK but the underlying politics is just impossibly irritating.
9 Cathleen ni Hoolain by WB Yeats and Lady Gregory. Watta lotta Irish plays forthcoming. Included because otherwise I'd have read 4 books in two months. This one's a short blighter about the attraction of war. Also casts the Nationalist cause as a shapeshifting vampire, which is nice I guess.
10 Translations by Brian Friel. Clever play about language. Also included a dippy English soldier getting ganked by the IRA. RIP to him.
11 By the Bog of Cats by Mariana Carr. A Tennessee WIlliams-esque thing about capitalistic bastards trying to drive a traveller from her actual bog, which she stomps around while feeling emotions about her vanished mother. Gotta like that dumb sort of violence, I guess. 2
12 The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin MacDonagh. It's the In Brughes guy. It's like an O. Henry story with some gruesome abuse in the middle and a slick bit of violence throughout. Or well, like that one O. Henry story that everyone knows.
13 A Skull in Connemara by Martin MacDonagh. This has a lot more of that bloody violence. Features a kid who cooked a hamster and keeps going from there. Entertaining, you know.
14 Bailegangaire by Tom Murphy. Now this is a play. Family bickering going over the endlessly repeated retelling of history,like Krapp's last tape.
15 Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov. Fun but boy it shows that this was a series of stories rather than a novel. Characters are introduced and then dropped as the introduction was the only fun bit to write. I'm glad he didn't break the bowl at the end.
16 Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham. Brisk tale of snobbery and cosyness in the world of British publishing 50 years ago. An awful literary wife has appointed an awful hack to drum up an awful biography for her now-dead husband (who was mostly awful, but wrote a few good books), all overseen by the smug narrator who knows that the true merit lies beyond all this, in the bosoms of the sexually giving working classes and America. Maugham's satire of his colleagues is good but I don't think he has anything to say about what he admires. Bit hypocritical for the book takes a swing at Henry James for walking away from America and attempting to write about duchesses. I used to know the name of the chap this book was an insult to. Apparently Maugham befriended him, for material.
17 The Stain by Rikki Ducornet. Never heard of her, picked this up because I saw an uncorrected proof going for 50p and the first few lines seemed engagingly mental. The rest of the book followed through. It's like one of those wedding feasts Flaubert turns up his nose at except everybody's down with the party. Basically a 200 page orgy with religious-theming.
18 Libra by Don DeLillo. I don't like DeLillo but I quite liked this one, I guess because I've got more interest in the JFK assassination than a dumb baseball match or road movies. It's still shocking that an author of his standing can't write dialogue though. But hey, he can come up with some nice metaphors, though occasionally he lets himself get carried away.
19 Herzog by Saul Bellow. I really enjoyed this one. Old jewish man feels hard-done-by yet self-loathing as he constantly thinks about his awful ex-wife, etc.
20: The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem as translated by Michael Kandel. Bed time stories for parents to read when they want their children to grow up to be nerds. Very enjoyable.
21 Dead Babies by Martin Amis. A birthday present I was given... 8 years ago? Anyway, a whole vicarage full of awful druggy people but once you skim past the first 30 pages (which are a bit smug), it gets rather funny. Like Waugh or, I suppose, Kingsly Amis, these awful stereotypes tear themselves apart. Worst of all of are the Americans, of course, who take a rather Nietzchy view of things (the dead babies of the title are things like, uh, morals to be left by the wayside). It ends rather explosively but I had not been reading NEARLY CLOSELY enough to either understand or care.
22 Just One More Thing by Peter Falk. Another old birthday present. I like Columbo, and seeing the Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire pushed me into reading this. Less of a book more of a collection of talk-show anecdotes written down. I'm putting it down as a biography anyway. 18
23 Explosion in a Cathedral by Alejo Carpentier as translated by John Sturrock (I think). Picked this up because it was ex libris from a guy with pretty ok taste, at least a lot of 70s english pomo. I liked his descriptions of children at play, but didn't particularly care about the protagonist or his moral journey. Also I'm bigoted against novels not set in the author's lifetime. Are Cuban's nonwhite (for the booklord)? I'll wait.
24 This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski as translated by Barbabra Vedder. A selection from the short-writings of the Polish communist focusing on his experience in Auschwitz. I sort of want to read the other stuff. 21
25 Local Anasthetic by G�nter Grass as translated by Ralph Manheim. Saw this in a second hand shop just after he died so I decided to go for it as my entrypoint for Grass. There's a copy of The Tin Drum boxing around here somewhere but I've not laid my hands on it. Dental work as a metaphor for political radicalism versus old-age-related indolence. Very good.
26 Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas LLosa as translated by Helen R. Lane. Romance between an 18 year old and his uncle's ex-wife in interrupted every other chapter by plots of radio serials. As the author of these serials is in the book, Vargas has great fun introducing us to quirks of his character and then having them play out in the following chapter. Good fun.
27 A Month of Sundays by John Updike. One of those fictional reverends who is sex-crazed, bitter, agnostic and pun-mad gets sent to write away his sins. It's a good thing he can write sex because that's the lion's share of this book.
28 The Day of the Locust by Nathanial West. I reread this for the first time after reading his complete works like, a decade ago. Still pretty fun.
29 Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee. It's basically disgrace but half the length and with a vague fantasy-setting so, uh, a categorical improvement.
30 Cat and Mouse by G�nter Grass as translated by Ralph Manheim. Another later Grass as I continue to look for The Tin Drum. Beginning to suspect that Grass' political position is down entirely to his hosed-up teeth.
31 Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad. The more I read this the more I like it.
32 Strong as Death by Guy de Maupassant as translated by someone or other. It's an old Knopf copy, might be Ernest Augustus Boyd? The first Maupassant I've read where it doesn't ever dive headlong into filth. I mean, she burns some letters and feels as if she's burning herself, but it's no priest stomping on a bitch birthing puppies. Good despite that though.
33 At Swim Two Birds by Flan O'Brien. Now this was a lot of fun. Any one strand of this book is great, and switching between them can be a bit of a jerk as you're sorry to leave, but I guess if that's what he had to do. 8
34 Carpenter's Gothic by WIlliam Gaddis. I've got bookmarks in both JR and Frolic but I've got a bit bogged down in them. This one's still good though. Funny to read this both with the annotations AND having read Dispatches.
35 Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Gilbraith. Very readable, not good. The only thing in this book that rings true is the utter disdain for the British press.
36 The Silkworm by Robert Gilbraith. Far too long, and they keep stacking more and more ludicrous poo poo onto the detectives (one of them's a professional-grade stunt driver, apparently?). Repeats a simile likening strong tea to turpentine like it's something clever, and not what all our grans said.
37 The Silent World of Nicholas Quin by Colin Dexter. So this is what good detective fiction looks like. Better writing, much shorter, subtle clues and a clever solution. Filled with that very creepy donnish humour, and ends with Morse and Lewis jointly masturbating to a porno. 22
38 Let Us Now Honour Famous Men by James Agee. An impassioned communist/marxist attempts to hammer into your brains the physical existence of the poor. He mostly tries to do so by making a catalog of their possessions, with actual stories of their lives smuggled in through his run-on sentences. He then includes a letter he wrote to some poor magazine hack telling them to gently caress right off, for reasons unclear to me. The man's a lunatic. 14
39 The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. Kinda... boring? But very short.
40 Vathek by William Beckford. The same gothic silliness as Otranto, but at least Beckford had a sense of humour in his prose style. Very strong opening paragraph and it continues throughout. That kind of excess is what I really like in fiction. 13
41 The Coup by John Updike. I thought it would be interesting to see Updike struggle with both race and politics. The standard egomaniac monologist is this time the dictator of an African dictator, as he tracks across his country in mufti, when he's not been spirited by a black Mercedes to his palace to talk to one of his wives. It's pretty bizzarre. Besides more expected Updikeisms (it's not ten pages before he suggests that the many women the previous ruler murdered were asking for it) he lets his imagination go wild in a way he never does in his American books. The KGB retrofit a severed head to act as an animatronic dispensing propaganda. Pretty fun.
42 Boss by Mike Royko. A philippic against Richard Daley, former mayor of Chicago and, to hear Royko tell it, a monomaniacal monster with a naked love of power that he excises by innumerable opaque wheezes. It starts out strange how much Royko hates Chicago politics but when it gets to the race riots his rage became more comprehensible to me.
43 A Burnt Out Case by Graham Greene. A depressed architecht accidentally acts exactly like a saint, despite being so bored of this whole morality thing. A better depiction of a saint than The End of the Affair where it's truly unbelievable, but maybe not the most interesting thing to read?
44 The Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges as translated by Andre Hurley. It's Borges, lots of tiby stories about labyrynths, alternate dimensions and cowboys stabbing each other. To be honest by the 50th 2-page story they all sort of blend into one. Has The Wait in it, where a chap opts to snooze through an assassination attempt, which was pointed out as one of the best by something I read ages ago. Since I've been meaning to read this for like a decade I'll say this was 16
45 Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. I decideed to take this back down off the shelf. It's kind of embarassing how much he idolized organized crime, but it's all in good fun. 20
46 Erewhon by Samuel Butler. The good stuff. I still don't entirely see how the machine chapter is a dig at evolution but I did get what he was doing with the musical banks, which I managed to totally miss first time round.
47 Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party by Graham Greene. Pamphlet of a novel that... I guess counts as magical realist? A terrible Swiss oligarch has terrible parties where he tortures his terrible Swiss cronies, which the non-terrible, decent, depressed Greene protagonist gets invited to as his son-in-law. Broad-strokes on a postage stamp, basically.
48 Nostromo by Joseph Conrad. I read the start of an intro to this by some Hardy biographer which made two points: Conrad's the real depresso of fin de siecle English lit not Hardy like everyone says, and this book doesn't have an ending. Which is right, it really doesn't! I still like it though.
49 Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr. Big biography of Tennessee Williams, the first after the death of the insane woman who somehow became the caretaker of his literary estate who'd previously scotched previous projects. Lahr structures this book chronologically following the plays, but takes the lead from the play's contents to expand on aspects of WIlliams' life. Suddenly Last Summer, for instance, leads to a whole chapter on Rose Williams' entire life. It also betrays its super-long gestation by the density of quotations . The two main revelations for me are that I didn't know he wrote so many plays, or how utterly awful he was. Also he once shared JFK's speed-dealer.
50 The Longest Journey by E.M. Forster. What an awful book, really makes you long for WW1.
51 The Conformist by Alberto Moravia as translated by Angus Davidson. Picked this up because I really liked the Bertolucci film and had no idea it was adapted. This was a delight to read, I really need to track down more Moravia, or possibly more Davidson.
52 Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Read this for the first time since back at school. Lots of fun stuff hidden just beneath the surface, tactful allusions of incest, homosexuality and rape. And a job lot of misogyny, my lord.
53 A Frolic of his Own by William Gaddis. Continuing the slow reread of Gaddis. Much as I hate him, Franzen might be right in calling this boring in parts. I even missed the bit where he looks at the lake and thinks about Native American gods.
54 The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon by Sei Shōnagon as translated by Ivan Morris. I guess a lot of the virtues in Japanese literature are pretty untranslatable, there are a lot of lists. Who was she, Feudal Japan's John Ashbery? C'mon. Anyway, lots of fun stories of a barking madaristocracy. Very very extensively annotated, most of which I ignored.
55 The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. This was fun, horror stories of terrible hotels and terrible people. I felt a fool for not clocking that the John Malkovich film i watched half of was adapted from this.
56 The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller. Boy, this was junk. And absolutely, totally, plot-free. From the intro where the author chides our ever-corsening world 4 times in 2 pages, to a characterization which reads likes a dating profile posted by a truly despicable ponce.
57 The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler. Vaguely communistical travel-writing around 1930s Europe, where you needed letters of introduction everywhere, even to the local brothel. Guy could spin a yarn, I'll say.

58 The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg as translated by John and Ann Tedeschi. Short work of, I guess, pophi about a medieval miller prosecuted for heresy because he believed that God and the Angels emerged from the chaos of unformed world like worms emerge from cheese. Ginzburg is tilting against concepts of high and low culture by tracing how scholarly works found their way into the hands of this labourer. But mostly I read it because he manages to resurrect a likable weirdo. I'm classing this as history as time's running out. 5
59 Victory by Joseph Conrad. The interactions between Lena and Axel really stood out for me this read round.
60 The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad. Chapter 11 was really painful to read. 1
61 Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad. For people who think Conrad's really verbose and slow moving, this is the collection for you! because it'd 100% confirm your notions. The intricacies are good if you've got the time to take them in.
62 The Egoist by George Meredith. Really weird book, like a beefy Thomas Love Peacock, I guess. Feels sort of out of its time as well.

57/60
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

# ? Dec 2, 2015 11:09

Chamberk: Jan 11, 2004; when there is nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire

November!

116. City on Fire - Garth Risk Hallberg
117. Voyager (Outlander #3) - Diana Gabaldon
118. White Night (Dresden #9) - Jim Butcher
119. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer�s Stone - J.K. Rowling
120. Shadows of Self (Mistborn #5) - Brandon Sanderson
121. Mystic River - Dennis Lehane
122. The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
123. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra
124. The Red and the Black - Stendhal
125. Small Favor (Dresden #10) - Jim Butcher
126. Assassin�s Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy #1) - Robin Hobb
127. Freakanomics - Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner
128. The Winter of our Discontent - John Steinbeck

Well, it turns out having a kid still allows you to read a good bit, especially if you take two weeks of PTO and he sleeps most of the time. Granted, a lot of what I read this month was light and fluffy - nothing too dense - but I did get a good bit read. The best book (which I read MOSTLY in October, but finished in November) was City on Fire, which is a 900-page behemoth about New York in the 70s. It follows several somewhat interlinked characters in their lives before the big NYC blackout of 77. While the trope of "here are some people who are vaguely related to each other but you'll see they are more closely connected than you'd expect!!" is overdone a lot, I really enjoyed this book. The story and characters were solid, and there were some interesting interstitials between sections - one a Rolling-Stone-esque article, another a letter from a father to his son, another a 'zine on the music scene of NYC - that gave the book some interesting variety. It's a well-hyped book, sure, but the hype was deserved.

Another "here are some people, look how they're subtly intertwined!" book that turned out to be good was A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, which followed three main characters in Chechnya from 1997-2004. Wonderful writing, and the way the plot came together reminded me a bit of Catch-22 - you'd catch something near the end that would explain everything you weren't catching before. ("Oh, so THAT happened to him...")

A good month!

# ? Dec 3, 2015 17:51

Living Image: Apr 24, 2010; HORSE'S ASS

November - 6:

The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
Medea and Other Plays (Euripides)
Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
Ringworld (Larry Niven)
Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Thomas Piketty)
Saturday's Shadows (Ayesha Haruna Attah)

The Alchemist sure was a book huh. It was nice in the way a soft pillow is nice - it's pleasant and warm and makes you feel good but ultimately there's not much to it.

I read Medea in school and I think we were supposed to study Electra as well but I never bothered because I was a really lazy student. I picked this up partly with the challenge in mind but also because I wanted to read the play again and explore the other ones in this collection (Medea, Hecabe, Electra and Heracles). It was cool to revisit something I really liked and remember how good ancient Greek theatre can be.

Between the World and Me was loving incredible. I had it on my desk and thought I'd read a few pages to see how it went; ten minutes later I'd moved downstairs and onto the sofa so I could read it all in one go. It's lucid, intelligent and deeply, deeply angry.

I liked Ringworld but I have absolutely no desire to read the follow-up series. The Ringworld is a cool idea, and I liked that Niven committed to the aliens being genuinely alien. I felt like the whole "breeding for luck" thing got kind of stupid pretty quickly though, and from reading the Wiki summaries of the follow-ups it seems like all the cool unexplained stuff which gives this book an air of mystery has been merrily filled in in excruciating detail which would ruin it.

Capital is a big fucker. It's about as readable as it can be for what is a long piece of barely-pop economics. The ideas it suggests pose a pretty negative situation for the future and I only hope things don't work out as Piketty predicts, but I also can't see why they wouldn't. One thing which bugged me with the translation was that whatever the French was, hundreds of sentences started with "To be sure" which made it all weirdly Irish in tone. This was also my "sat on the shelf for a long time" book - I bought it when it came out, and it's taken me until now to finally convince myself to read it.

Saturday's Shadows was alright. I feel like the best adjective for it is "competent" - there's a story told, the various pieces are moved around in a way which hangs together properly, and the various pieces intersect at the end. The book sketches out its barely-disguised Ghana effectively and builds a good feel for the place it's describing. Despite that it doesn't really manage to connect with anything; it all feels a bit light weight. A fine debut novel, but I'd hope Attah gets better.

With the last two categories out of the way my booklord challenge is complete. Happy days. I'll probably hit 60 books for the year and may even top that, too.

Year to Date: 56

01. The Establishment: And how they get away with it (Owen Jones)
02. Mussolini and Fascist Italy (Martin Blinkhorn)
03. Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
04. All You Need is Kill (Hiroshi Sakurazaka)
05. Theft: A Love Story (Peter Carey)
06. Stalin (Kevin McDermott)
07. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
08. Revenge (Yoko Ogawa)
09. The Good Soldier Svejk and his Fortunes in the Great War (Jaroslav Hasek)
10. The Buried Giant (Kazuo Ishiguro)
11. after the quake (Haruki Murakami)
12. The Colour of Magic (Terry Pratchett)
13. The Light Fantastic (Terry Pratchett)
14. The Girls of Room 28: Friendship, Hope and Survival in Theresienstadt (Hannelore Brenner)
15. Equal Rites (Terry Pratchett)
16. Invisible Cities (Italo Calvino)
17. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 (Anne Applebaum)
18. Running with the Kenyans (Adharanand Finn)
19. Notes from Underground and The Double (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
20. First Novel (Nicholas Royle)
21. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz)
22. Mort (Terry Pratchett)
23. Schlump (Hans Herbert Grimm)
24. Concrete (Thomas Bernhard)
25. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer)
26. The Last Kingdom (Bernard Cornwell)
27. The Pale Horseman (Bernard Cornwell)
28. Beauty and Sadness (Yasunari Kawabata)
29. The Blind Owl (Sadegh Hedayat)
30. The Lords of the North (Bernard Cornwell)
31. Sophie's World (Jostein Gaarder)
32. The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (Jonas Jonasson)
33. Selected Poems (Edgar Allen Poe)
34. The Bookseller of Kabul (Asne Seierstad)
35. Long Walk to Freedom (Nelson Mandela)
36. We (Yevgeny Zamyatin)
37. The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
38. The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood)
39. MaddAddam (Margaret Atwood)
40. Sourcery (Terry Pratchett)
41. The House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende)
42. A Personal Matter (Kenzaburo Oe)
43. Wyrd Sisters (Terry Pratchett)
44. 3 Novels (Cesar Aira)
45. American Rust (Philipp Meyer)
46. Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World (Justin Marozzi)
47. Union Man (Jack Jones)
48. The Smartest Guys in the Room (Bethany McLean & Peter Elkind)
49. Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
50. Pyramids (Terry Pratchett)
51. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
52. Medea and Other Plays (Euripides)
53. Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
54. Ringworld (Larry Niven)
55. Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Thomas Piketty)
56. Saturday's Shadows (Ayesha Haruna Attah)

Booklord categories: 1 - 22

# ? Dec 4, 2015 17:32

the_homemaster: Dec 7, 2015

Hit my 52 books for the year but I don't think I made the SA challenge. Read too many white dudes.

# ? Dec 7, 2015 09:40

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# ? Apr 30, 2024 07:38

POOL IS CLOSED: Jul 14, 2011; I'm just exploding with mackerel. This is the aji wo kutta of my discontent.; Pillbug

RedTonic posted:

My latest three:

Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, and Rosemary's Baby. Will probably update this post with thoughts later. Have fallen a bit behind on booklording.

So I ended up hitting a wall with Infinite Jest. Looks like I only got 16/24 read this year, but I feel like I'm forgetting a few.

# ? Dec 7, 2015 16:02

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Challenged Reading 2015 Editon

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