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Haven't updated in a long time, but I just finished my 100th book of the year tonight. Pretty proud, first time I've ever done that. And I still have 2 months left  Also I think I finished the book lord challenge but I lost track, I should be pretty close regardless. Will post a more in depth update later in the week.
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Nov 2, 2017 05:20
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October - 9: 64. The Way of the Runner (Adharanand Finn) 65. The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller) 66. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick) 67. Bruce Lee and Me: A Martial Arts Adventure (Brian Preston) 68. A Scanner Darkly (Philip K. Dick) 69. The Drowned and the Saved (Primo Levi) 70. Go Tell It on the Mountain (James Baldwin) 71. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) 72. Kingdom Come (JG Ballard) Good month this month. The Way of the Runner explores ekiden racing in Japan, a series of long-distance relay races which are hugely popular. Finn's previous book was about Kenyan marathon runners and trying to understand why they're currently so dominant - this book looks at Japan, and in particular asks why it is that in one of the few countries in the world where running is a national sport with a serious following, and so many high-potential runners, so few world-class runners emerge. It was an interesting look at a completely different running culture. The Song of Achilles is told from the point of view of Patroclus, the companion of Achilles, and broadly follows the classical story. It makes some key changes which I disliked though - it focuses very tightly on the romantic relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, but in doing so it imports a lot of 21st century assumptions so that the whole thing ends up being a modern LGBT romance with some classical window dressing. Felt like a bit of a swing and a miss to me. The Drowned and the Saved is a sort of retrospective by Levi, on the time since his release from Auschwitz and the ways in which accounts of the Holocaust have been received in Europe, the responses to his books, and on the experiences of himself and other survivors in the camps. It ranges widely and is basically a series of short essays. I love Levi's work - I think he's the most lucid writer on the Holocaust I've read, and completely unafraid to confront and condemn those who seek to minimise what happened or deny its possibility. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is extremely famous and doesn't need me to advocate for it. I only started reading Shirley Jackson's work this year, and I have been missing out - she's fantastic. 18 left to reach 90. I still need to hit a couple of challenges, but mostly there. To date - 72: Booklord: 4-13, 16-24 Women: 22/72, 31% Non-white: 17/72, 24% 01. The Ottoman Centuries (Lord Kinross) 12 02. Snow Country (Yasunari Kawabata) 8 03. Signs Preceding the End of the World (Yuri Herrera) 9 04. Socialism: A Very Short Introduction (Michael Newman) 11 05. Human Acts (Han Kang) 7 06. As Meat Loves Salt (Maria McCann) 17 07. Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Damien Keown) 08. The Dog Who Dared to Dream (Sun-Mi Hwang) 24 09. Dirty Havana Trilogy (Pedro Juan Gutierrez) 18 10. Excession (Iain M. Banks) 11. They Who Do Not Grieve (Sia Figiel) 12. Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Haruki Murakami) 13. Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain (Barney Norris) 23 14. What is not yours is not yours (Helen Oyeyemi) 16 15. The Plague (Albert Camus) 5 16. The Tale of Aypi (Ak Welsapar) 17. Disgrace (J.M. Coetzee) 20 18. Costa Rica: A Traveller's Literary Companion (Barbara Ras) 19. The Norman Conquest (Marc Morris) 20. It Can't Happen Here (Sinclair Lewis) 21. Coin Locker Babies (Ryu Murakami) 10 22. Broken April (Ismail Kadare) 23. If this is a man/The Truce (Primo Levi) 24. The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence (Martin Meredith) 25. The Circle of Karma (Kunzang Choden) 26. By Night the Mountain Burns (Juan Tomas Avila Laurel) 27. The Year of the Hare (Arto Paasilinna) 28. Goodfellas (Nicholas Pileggi) 13 29. A Cup of Rage (Raduan Nassar) 22 30. The Housekeeper and the Professor (Yoko Ogawa) 31. Moving Pictures (Terry Pratchett) 19 32. Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body (Sara Pascoe) 33. The Lost Heart of Asia (Colin Thubron) 34. The Ticket that Exploded (William Burroughs) 4 35. I Have a Dream: The Speeches that Changed History (Ferdie Addis) 36. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (Philip K. Dick) 37. Fever Dream (Samanta Schweblin) 38. The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson) 21 39. The Queue (Basma Abdel Aziz) 40. The Lottery and Other Stories (Shirley Jackson) 41. Strange Weather in Tokyo (Hiromi Kawakami) 42. Reaching for the Skies (Ivan Rendall) 43. Purge (Sofi Oksanen) 44. October (China Mieville) 45. A Horse Walks Into a Bar (David Grossman) 46. The First Wife (Paulina Chiziane) 47. Wilt (Tom Sharpe) 48. Porterhouse Blue (Tom Sharpe) 49. Flesh-coloured Dominoes (Zigmunds Skujins) 50. Today We Die a Little: Emil Zatopek (Richard Askwith) 51. The Throwback (Tom Sharpe) 52. Siddharta (Herman Hesse) 53. Norse Mythology (Neil Gaiman) 54. A Tale for the Time Being (Ruth Ozeki) 55. Men Explain Things To Me (Rebecca Solnit) 56. Eat & Run (Scott Jurek) 57. The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei (John Stevens) 58. Rubicon (Tom Holland) 59. The Last Days of New Paris (China Mieville) 60. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (Mary Beard) 61. The Man in the High Castle (Philip K. Dick) 62. The Invisible Circus (Jennifer Egan) 63. Three Moments of an Explosion (China Mieville) 64. The Way of the Runner (Adharanand Finn) 65. The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller) 66. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick) 67. Bruce Lee and Me: A Martial Arts Adventure (Brian Preston) 68. A Scanner Darkly (Philip K. Dick) 69. The Drowned and the Saved (Primo Levi) 70. Go Tell It on the Mountain (James Baldwin) 71. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) 72. Kingdom Come (JG Ballard)
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Nov 2, 2017 16:01
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October! 54. A Crown of Swords. Robert Jordan. There was something weird about the characters in this book, are they growing more stubborn every chapter? Anyway, a good serviceable continuation of the Wheel of Time story. 55. Permutation City. Greg Egan. Enjoyable hard science fiction with some confusing concepts, nice characters and a few billion years of story. 56. Julius Caesar. William Shakespeare. The tragedy of Julius Caesar in a short play. More famous than the real history. 57. A Confederacy of Dunces. John Kennedy Toole. A weird man in a weird world among weird people in a weird and good story. A masterpiece of satire and irony. 58. Bloodchild and Other Stories. Octavia E. Butler. It's amazing to find a collection of short stories where every story is good or great. This is one. 59. The Quantum Thief. Hannu Rajaniemi. A confusingly good story in a post-singularity universe of information gods and people who just want to be left alone. And a thief. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 59/75 2) 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 11/15 4) 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!). The Urth of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe. 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) Read something about honour. 21) 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) [s]Read something that you love. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. Carl Sagan. 24) [s]Read something from a non-human perspective. Agent to the Stars with a gelatinous alien Talas fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Nov 3, 2017 |
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Nov 3, 2017 02:29
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October! 108. Otherland: River of Blue Fire (Otherland #2) - Tad Williams 109. The Stone Sky (Broken Earth #3) - N.K. Jemison 110. A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers #2) - Becky Chambers 111. Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass (Otherland #3) - Tad Williams 112. Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard 113. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Edward Albee 114. Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin 115. Sleeping Giants - Sylvain Neuvel 116. Neuromancer - William Gibson 117. Book of Dust - La Belle Sauvage - Philip Pullman 118. Otherland: Sea of Silver Light (Otherland #4) - Tad Williams 119. Waking Gods - Sylvain Neuvel I finished a decent number of series (Otherland, Broken Earth, Wayfarers, Themis Files) and reread a couple of favorites. Neuromancer was good, though it definitely is one of those books that had such impact that now, looking back, it seems somewhat cliche. (But it MADE the cliches!) Get Shorty was a good crime novel, definitely need to read some more Leonard. I covered two of my Booklord Challenges (Wildcard and drama), so now all that's left is biography and WWI - I have plans for both. The best book this month was likely La Belle Sauvage, which returned me to one of my favorite worlds - that of His Dark Materials and the Oxford of Lyra Belacqua. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (119/100) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women: Chambers, Jemison 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. Baldwin, Jemison 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - Baldwin 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) - Giovanni's Room 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). - La Belle Sauvage, The Stone Sky 8) Read something which was published before you were born - Giovanni's Room, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 9) 10) 11) 12) 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) 15) Read a play. - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 16) 17) Read something long (500+ pages) - Otherland 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) Read something that you love. - Otherland 24)
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Nov 6, 2017 18:21
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I... I... I did it. My total number of books isn't as impressive as some in the thread, but I'm actually pretty proud of myself for getting through this. I pretty much love to read fiction, mostly sci-fi and the like, but going through this challenge has forced me out of my comfort zone and really expanded my tastes. So, hey, Corrode, thanks a lot! I won't talk about every single book that I've read (although if anyone wants my impressions they are free to ask), but I will hit some highlights. Zorba the Greek was an absolutely amazing book, I loved it. Definitely something I would have never read if it weren't for this challenge, and it was a great read. The Sympathizer is pretty much the same, a book that would have been forever on the "hmmm, maybe I should read that" list. It was a funny ride through a dark story. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was one of those books that I always felt guilty about not reading but could never bring myself to read as I knew it would depress the hell out of me. It did, but the ride was worth it. My Life and Hard Times was an amazingly fun little collection of short stories that were easy to read and entertaining. Blackwater is a book that I definitely would have never read if it weren't for this (and BoTM, which I started doing because of this). It was long, nothing ever really happened in it, but somehow it was still riveting. Aquarium is pretty much the same deal. It was depressing and hopeful and a perfect coming-of-age story. A Raisin in the Sun was my first play, and man it was a good one. All in all, I have to say that I liked moving out of my comfort zone and having an excuse to force myself to peek into areas that I would never have tried to read, otherwise. Poetry and plays, in particular, were a lot more fun to read than I thought they would be. Anyways, here's my list. I'll still be reading this year, I just won't be having to keep track of everything quite so enthusiastically. Book Lord Challenge[/b posted:1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (30)
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Nov 15, 2017 03:17
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1. Jerusalem - Alan Moore7, 17, 23 2. A Billion Wicked Thoughts - Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam3, 22 3. Herman (The Game Warden, The Death of a Craft) - Laszlo Krasznahorkai9 4. The Atrocity Exhibition - J.G. Ballard8, 18 5. The Last Wolf - Laszlo Krasznahorkai9 6. The Kingdom of This World - Alejo Carpentier3, 9, 12 7. Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey3, 8 8. 9. Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens - Laszlo Krasznahorkai9, 10 10. Sudden Death - Alvaro Enrigue3, 9, 23 11. Caligula for President - Cintra Wilson2, 19 12. The Dark Highlander - Karen Marie Moning2, 22 ----end of January 13. Universal Harvester - John Darnielle7 14. The Plague - Albert Camus5, 8, 9 15. 16. A Temple of Texts: Essays - William H. Gass 17. 18. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) - Dennis E. Taylor7, 24 19. -----end of February 20. Fight Club 2 - Chuck Palahniuk, Cameron Stewart7, 19 21. Songs of a Dead Dreamer & Grimscribe - Thomas Ligotti16, 21, 22 22. 23. The Black Monday Murders, Volume 1 - Jonathan Hickman, Tomm Coker7 24. Aquarium - David Vann21 25. The Master of Mankind - Aaron Dembski-Bowden7, 20 26. At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O'Brien8 27. Sleeping Giants - Sylvain Neuvel7 -----end of March 28. Waking Gods - Sylvain Neuvel7 29. Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich - Norman Ohler7, 12, 22 30. The Last Night: Anti-Work, Atheism, Adventure - Federico Campagna3, 11, 22, 23 31. Remainder - Tom McCarthy 32. The Circle Game - Margaret Atwood2, 8, 14 33. Star Wars: Thrawn - Timothy Zahn7, 24 34. Buddha - Karen Armstrong2, 12, 13 35. Literature Class - Julio Cortazar3, 9 -----end of April 36. Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse: Omnibus Edition - Ben Templesmith19, 24 37. The Zen in Modern Cosmology - Chi-sing Lam3, 23 38. The Great and Holy War - Philip Jenkins12, 12a 39. Prisons We Choose To Live Inside - Doris Lessing2, 8, 11 40. The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks24 41. October - China Mieville11, 12, 12a -----end of May 42. The Complete Short Stories, Volume 1, 1944-1953 - Roald Dahl8, 16, 19 43. The Carrion Throne: Vaults of Terra #1 - Chris Wraight7, 24 44. 45. Are Prisons Obsolete? - Angela Davis2, 3, 11 46. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling2 47. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling2 48. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling2 49. The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin - Masha Gessen2, 11, 12, 13 50. Black Chalk - Christopher Yates -----end of June 51. The Multiversity - Grant Morrison et al.24 52. Sekret Machines: Chasing Shadows (Book 1) - A.J. Hartley & Tom DeLonge7, 17 53. The History of Sexuality: Volume 1 - Michel Foucault4, 8, 9, 12 54. Sewer, Gas, and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy - Matt Ruff19, 23 55. Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law - James Q. Whitman11, 12 56. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling2 57. The American People: Search For My Heart (Vol. 1) - Larry Kramer4, 19 -----end of July 58. IBM and the Holocaust - Edwin Black11, 12 59. 60. The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life - Sheldon Solomon et al.21 61. The Dwarf - Par Lagerkqvist8, 9 62. Cosmic Trigger (Vol. 1), Final Secrets of the Illuminati - Robert Anton Wilson8, 19 63. Black Legion (WH40K) - Aaron Dembski-Bowden7 -----end of August 64. Hegel: A Reinterpretation - Walter Kaufmann8 65. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders7, 12, 13 66. Black Skin, White Masks - Frantz Fanon3, 8, 11, 12 67. Small Gods - Terry Pratchett19 -----end of September 68. "Exterminate All The Brutes" - Sven Lindqvist11, 12 69. Burnt Tongues - edited by Chuck Palahniuk16, 19 70. Audition - Ryu Murakami3, 9 71. The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness - Erich Fromm13, 22 72. The Black Jacobins - C.L.R. James3, 12 ------end of October 73. The Lords of the Ghostland - Edgar Saltus8, 12 74. Origin - Dan Brown7 75. Skullcrack City - Jeremy Robert Johnson 76. The Anatomy of Evil - Michael H. Stone, M.D. 77. 78. Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power - Steve Coll 79. The Trial of Gilles de Rais - Georges Bataille9, 12, 22 80. The Seventh Function of Language - Laurent Binet7, 9, 12 81. On Physics and Philosophy - Bernard d'Espagnat9, 17, 23 ------end of November 82. Organ Grinder - Alan Fishbone 83. The Destruction of Black Civilization - Chancellor Williams3, 12 84. We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie2, 3, 11 85. My Teaching - Jacques Lacan9 86. Rock & Roll - Tom Stoppard15 87. Toussaint Louverture - Philippe Girard 88. Misreadings - Umberto Eco9, 16, 19 89. Too Like the Lightning - Ada Palmer2, 7, 24 90. Sekret Machines: Gods, Man, and War (Vol. 1) - Tom DeLonge and Peter Levenda7, 18, 21 91. Seven Surrenders - Ada Palmer2, 7 92. Drilling Through Hard Boards - Alexander Kluge9, 11 93. The Anatomy of Negation - Edgar Saltus8, 12, 24 94. The Philosophy of Disenchantment - Edgar Saltus8, 12, 24 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 84/100 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 14/20 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 14/20 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) --> Human Acts - Han Kang2, 3, 9, 12 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 8) Read something which was published before you were born. 9) Read something in translation. 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) Read something political. 12) Read something historical. 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 17) Read something long (500+ pages). 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) Read something that you love. 24) Read something from a non-human perspective. mdemone fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Dec 26, 2017 |
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Nov 15, 2017 18:13
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Man, I gotta step up my game a bit. Wanted to read a dozen books this year, which I've done. The bulk of it was finally going through Harry Potter. I could definitely use some variety next year 1. The Gene - Siddhartha Mukherjee3,7 2. American Lion - Jon Meacham11,12,13 3. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling2 4. The Halo Effect - Anne LeClaire2 5. A Life Without Limits: A Champion's Journey - Chrissie Wellington2 6. Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling 7. Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling 8. Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling 9. Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling 10. Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling17 11. The First 90 Days - Michael Watkins 12. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling 13. The 43 Rules of Product Marketing - Various 14. The Subtle Art of Not Giving A gently caress - Mark Manson 15. Red Rising - Pierce Brown
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Nov 21, 2017 03:16
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Omne posted:Man, I gotta step up my game a bit. Wanted to read a dozen books this year, which I've done. The bulk of it was finally going through Harry Potter. I could definitely use some variety next year Sign up for the booklord's challenge! On which note, someone needs to step forward to run the 2018 thread.
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Nov 22, 2017 16:59
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Corrode posted:On which note, someone needs to step forward to run the 2018 thread. I was gonna ask if anyone has volunteered yet. I would be interested.
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Nov 23, 2017 15:42
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Guy A. Person posted:I was gonna ask if anyone has volunteered yet. I would be interested. Sold.
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Nov 23, 2017 16:30
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Guy A. Person posted:I was gonna ask if anyone has volunteered yet. I would be interested. You're up, I'll totally take part but am not confident in my ability to make a fun challenge.
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Nov 24, 2017 04:15
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USMC_Karl posted:You're up, I'll totally take part but am not confident in my ability to make a fun challenge. I've had some ideas kicking around in my head for some (hopefully) fun variants. I have been getting my rear end kicked at worked lately but I have the week between Christmas and New Years off, so I'll have time to write something up.
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Nov 29, 2017 03:22
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Do you know something about literature, though.
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Nov 29, 2017 07:14
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Safety Biscuits posted:Do you know something about literature, though. That wasn't a requirement this year so I don't see why it would hurt his chances if he doesn't
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Nov 29, 2017 07:18
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Safety Biscuits posted:Do you know something about literature, though. I know at least/most one thing A human heart posted:That wasn't a requirement this year so I don't see why it would hurt his chances if he doesn't By all means go for it, I'm not married to the idea
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Nov 29, 2017 17:57
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20/24 female authors 11/12 non-fiction The two comics were OK, but reminded me why I don't read comics: even when you get them in a collection like this it's not a full story. I want one book, one story. The portion of the story there was in iZombie was fine, and the illustrations were really good, but I'm not particularly interested in reading any more. Bombshells was even worse from the perspective of not getting a complete story because it introduced a whole bunch of different heroes and basically just gave introductions for all of them. Again, it was OK for what it was but I'm not interested in reading any more. Shadow on the Sand has a really strong first half (or three quarters even) but then suddenly slows down for a fairly pointless section before the climax where you're basically just wandering around asking for directions, and then the ending feels really rushed. God Bless You, Mr Rosewater was the best of the month and was very enjoyable to read, but unlike some other Vonnegut books I don't think this one will really stick with me at all. It was good, just not particularly memorable. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Nov 30, 2017 05:21
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November update. Erstwhile: 1: Revenger by Alastair Reynolds. 2: The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher. +1 woman 3: Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut. 4. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. + 1 woman, +1 nonwhite 5. Death's End by Liu Cixin. +1 nonwhite 6. Empire Games by Charles Stross. 7. Among Others by Jo Walton. +1 woman 8. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis Taylor. 9. Bror din på prærien by Edvard Hoem. +1 Norwegian. 10. The Plague by Albert Camus. 11. Haimennesket by Hans Olav Lahlum. +1 Norwegian. 12. Land ingen har sett by Edvard Hoem. +1 Norwegian. 13. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 14. The Long Cosmos by Stephen Baxter and (allegedly, although I doubt he contributed much to this one) Terry Pratchett. 15. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin. +1 woman. 16. Aquarium by David Vann. 17. The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren +1 woman. 18. 1001 Natt by Vetle Lid Larssen. +1 Norwegian, +1 nonfiction. 19. After Atlas by Emma Newman. +1 woman. 20. Exodus by Andreas Christensen. 21. Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 22. Sandstorm by James Rollins. 23. For We Are Many (Bobiverse #2) by Dennis Taylor. 24. The Conference of the Birds by Farid Attar. 25. The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 26. I, Claudius by Robert Graves. 27. Claudius the God by Robert Graves. 28. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. +1 nonfiction. 29. Huset mellom natt og dag by Ørjan Nordhus Karlssen. +1 Norwegian. 30. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland. +1 woman. 31. Min drøm om frihet by Amal Aden. LGBTQ, +1 woman, +1 nonwhite, +1 Norwegian, +1 nonfiction, biography. 32. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. BOTM for July. 33. Predikanten ("The Preacher") by Camilla Läckberg. +1 woman. 34. Steinhoggeren ("The Stonecutter") by Camilla Läckberg. +1 woman. 35. The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman.+1 woman, +1 nonfiction, First World War. 36. The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross. 37. Ulykkesfuglen by Camilla Läckberg. +1 woman. 38. Sporvekslingsmordet by Hans Olav Lahlum. +1 Norwegian. 39. Devil's Due by Taylor Anderson. 40. The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma. +1 nonwhite. 41. All These Worlds by Dennis Taylor. 42. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 43. My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber. BOTM for August. +1 nonfiction 44. Discovering Scarfolk by Richard Littler. 45. Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. +1 woman. 46. The Peregrine by J.A. Baker. +1 nonfiction. 47. Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. +1 nonwhite. New: 48-53. Blackwater volumes 1-6 by Michael McDowell. BOTM for October (and I did start it a good while before October ended). Huge generational Southern Gothic family saga with bonus semi-Lovecraftian river monsters. Owned very hard. (Also apparently the author was gay but that's beside the point, already hit that challenge.) 54. South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami. A very Murakami novel about love and longing and whatnot. +1 nonwhite. 55. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. In a near future (about thirty years from when the book was written in the 1990s), society is close to collapsing under ecological and economic stress. One young girl attempts to become a leader and form the nucleus of a new type of society; but mere survival is challenging enough. Harrowing. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 56. Native Son by Richard Wright. 1940 novel about a young black man who's more or less destined for death row. Frequently challenged and banned; I knew it by reputation before (in fact 20+ years ago I held in my hand and nearly started reading a copy in my school library; the Norwegian translation came out around 1960 and actually bore the title "friend of the family") but I was not aware of its strong Marxist take on American economic and social structures. Certainly hits the "something political" point. Extremely good but gently caress, man, not an easy or comfortable read. +1 nonwhite. 57. Tung tids tale by Olaug Nilssen. Very recent little Norwegian book which I guess may be described as something like a documentary novel. Describes the author's own relationship with her severely autistic son, and her struggles with the system as she tries to get more appropriate assistance for him. Very painful and yet beautiful. (I also have a tenuous connection to the author, so that some of the people obliquely referred to in this book are people I know in real life.) Godlike simple yet near-poetic prose. +1 woman, +1 Norwegian. Arguably +1 nonfiction as well. ..goddamn, after those last three I need something light, the literary equivalent of cotton candy or something. Have two or three more booklord points to hit and need two more Norwegian books. BOTM for November was Aquarium by David Vann, which I've already read earlier this same year (in fact it was my wildcard book), so am counting it. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 57/40 - goal crushed; new stretch goal of 60 books. 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 19/57 =33% 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 12/57 = 21% 15) Read a play. 20) Read something about honour. 24) Read something from a non-human perspective. Extra: At least 10 Norwegian books (translations don't count) - 8/10 so far At least 5 nonfiction books - 8/5 Read every BOTM (except optionally for ones I've read before) - 11/11 as of November No more than 5 rereads (vs. the vanilla goal, I would count them against specific goals) - 2/5 so far
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Nov 30, 2017 11:21
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Bandiet posted:Olio by Tyehimba Jess General update: Doug Unplugged by Dan Yaccarino. loving shite picture book. Machine Art & Other Writings by Ezra Pound. Some Pound essays that never surfaced for whatever reason. Sometimes that reason is obvious, like when he rants about his bizarre fantasy to organize factory sounds into the same tempo, which would keep the workers entertained during their long day. The Bad Mood And The Stick by Lemony Snicket. Very disappointing after all the kerfuffle, various illustrations in it sanitized before publication because of apparent racism. At least the title is still Snicket's best. We Found A Hat by Jon Klassen. Habitually rereading. Still one of the best. The Peregrine by J.A. Baker. Occasionally charming, ultimately extremely boring. The Anarchy Of The Imagination by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Read it once you familiarize yourself with at least, say, 20 of his films. He's a serious character. From The Hidden Storehouse by Benjamin Péret. A selection throughout his career— most of the poems, I find, are too flowery for me, but there's some turning point where he gets very aggressive. Those must be where the poems I previously enjoyed came from, when they were collected in Death To The Pigs. Pax by Sara Pennypacker. Great Klassen illustrations. So painfully self-serious and awkwardly written. If this were her first novel it wouldn't have gotten published. The Wolf, The Duck & The Mouse by Mac Barnett. Really wonderful new Barnett/Klassen collab. Klassen's usually minimalist illustrations are chaotic and bursting with color in this one, and Barnett is as classy as ever. The Skunk by Mac Barnett. Good. Creepy Pair Of Underwear by Aaron Reynolds. Here's the dumb and tasteless follow-up to Creepy Carrots. Guide To Kulchur by Ezra Pound. One of the first Pound things I read almost two years ago, now coming back to it with a pretty thorough Pound knowledge is like an epiphany. It's a captivating, generous, invaluable book. The Bears' Famous Invasion Of Sicily by Dino Buzzati. The second of many rereads to come. Definitely up there in the masterpieces of children's literature. Ezra Pound: Poet, Volume II by A. David Moody. I was maybe a little disappointed that Moody wasn't going to analyze every single Canto, especially after seeing in volume one how he tied himself in knots trying to pull a philosophy out of nearly every early Pound poem. Very entertaining and illuminating nonetheless. I didn't like my wildcard so I didn't read it.  I guess I'll throw in the towel:Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - 6/64 fail 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - 5/64 fail 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - Swann’s Way 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. - The Peregrine 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) - fail 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). - Lincoln In The Bardo 8) Read something which was published before you were born. - almost everything 9) Read something in translation. - In The Land Of Pain 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. - Mooncop (I’d like to go to the moon) 11) Read something political. - Washington: A Life 12) Read something historical. - Tracts Relating To Caspar Hauser 12a) Read something about the First World War. - nah 13) Read something biographical. - A Serious Character: The Life Of Ezra Pound 14) Read some poetry. - Purgatorio 15) Read a play. - Our Town 16) Read a collection of short stories. - Dubliners 17) Read something long (500+ pages). - Buddenbrooks 18) Read something which was banned or censored. - Ulysses 19) Read a satire. - The Screwtape Letters 20) Read something about honour. - Hamlet 21) Read something about fear. - Creepy Pair Of Underwear 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. - A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man 23) Read something that you love. - The Bears’ Famous Invasion Of Sicily 24) Read something from a non-human perspective. - Goldfish Ghost
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Dec 1, 2017 15:14
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November! 60. La saga de la V voladora. Ricardo Guzmán Wolffer. The "V" is for "verija", and that means "dick", "The saga of the flying dick". It was like reading the novelization of a bad 70s Mexican movie with robots, mutants, androids and flying human parts that shoot beams and lasers. So bad it became good at some point. 61. Demonia. Bernardo Esquinca. An interesting anthology of horror stories, but still suffers from some bad stories and weird extra notes. 62. And Then There Where None. Agatha Christie. A pretty good mystery book, with interesting characters and better story. Too bad about the recourse of hiding information when everything else is open. 63. The Path of Daggers. Robert Jordan. Not a lot of things going on, even the battles were a little boring or shadowed. Lots of forebodings and stuff not there. 64. Babel-17. Samuel R. Delaney. Some quite nice concepts about language in a futuristic setting, but not much of a story. Characters were also interesting. 65. The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism. Karen Armstrong. An awesome resource for information about the history the extreme views in religions. Kind of amazing that a lot of this movements are quite modern. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 65/75 2) 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 14/15 4) 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!). The Urth of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe. 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) [s]Read something that you love. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. Carl Sagan. 24) [s]Read something from a non-human perspective. Agent to the Stars with a gelatinous alien
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Dec 1, 2017 20:56
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Ben Nevis posted:1. A Biographers Tale by AS Byatt Having completed the challenge, pretty much all of these I picked off the new books shelf at the library from things that looked fun. I'd grabbed a bad mystery (The Dying Game) in there, so went on a run of other mysteries to wash the taste out of my mouth. On the whole it was a solid month, with one dud. 87. Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw - I almost put this down when it was explained that there's a difference between vampires and vampyres early on. It turned out OK. Fairly predictable, not bad though. I probably won't grab any further entries in the series unless I get an recommendation otherwise. 88. A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma - Short stories focused on Indians or recent Indian immigrants. These are written in a very straightforward manner, but there's a subtlety to them that I found rewarding. 89. The Dying Game by Asa Avdic - In a dystopian future, people get trapped on an island and die 1 by 1. I'm not sure why there was a dystopian future. In the end, this comes off as either a poor dystopian novel or a poor And Then There Were None. I was saddened. 90. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - My wife had just read this and wanted me to. There are some flaws, but it was an overall entertaining read. Probably my favorite part was discussing opinions of the characters at the end of part one. That made for some interesting talk. 91. A Red Death by Walter Mosley - Between the IRS and the FBI, Easy just can't catch a break. I feel that there's an bit of Chandler to Mosley here. 92. Sleepless by Charlie Huston - Huston diverges from the breakneck pace he was known for with the Caught Stealing and Joe Pitt series. More thoughtful and contemplative, this is a mystery set in a current USA (2010) that was rendered a dystopia by a prion disease resembling Familial Fatal Insomnia. You catch it and you can't sleep and eventually your body shuts down. A policeman is under cover looking for an illicit supply of the only drug able to provide palliative care. I was hoping for more of the hard hitting action I expect of Huston, but still wound up enjoying this. 93. The Strange Case of the Alchemists Daughter by Theodora Goss - Many (some) Victorian horror stories had women that were overlooked. Jekyll's daughter, the Puma Woman from Isle of Doctor Moreau, Rappaccini's Daughter, etc. In this book, which is likely the first in the series though it's not advertised as such, they join together to try and find Mr Hyde, and obtain a substantial reward. On the whole, it's fairly solid. There are some flaws (origin story chapters for each character as they appear in the story, which saps some momentum and a running commentary from the cast as the book is being written) that make it a little rough. I'd hope some are ironed out in future stories. I feel like the arguing over the story will continue and it didn't add much. Oh yeah, Sherlock Holmes is in this as well. Of course. There's a 50/50 shot I read future books in this series. 94. The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang - A Novella setting up a new series. It plays to some familiar tropes (magic vs machine) but with an interesting twist and a different sort of setting. Pretty good. I'll likely pick up the rest. 95. Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by Jonathan Crowley - The high point of the month. I grabbed this after seeing it on Tor's list of the best books this year. Dar Oakley is the first crow to learn to speak to humans and he recounts his long life and his interactions with humans. And, given the crow's stature as a carrion bird, it's also about how humans relate to death. There's definitely a real mythic feel to all this. Would recommend. 96. Magicians Impossible by Brad Abraham - It's a familiar story. A 30 something guy discovers at his father's funeral that his father hadn't committed suicide, but was instead murdered. See, he was an undercover agent for the Invisible Hand, a society of natural born magicians, and was actually killed by their rivals, The Golden Dawn. Probably to try and get the Sphere of Destiny (yes, that's its name). The action sequences are a little rough, but it's fast paced and generally pretty fun. Some of the twists and turns of the story are a little predictable, but I enjoyed it overall and would recommend it as a sort of mindless palate cleanser between denser works. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 95/60 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 39/19 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 32/19 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - Taste of Honey 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. - Mother Night 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) - The Sympathizer 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). - Umami 8) Read something which was published before you were born. Grendel 9) Read something in translation. - The Story of My Teeth 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. - Man Tiger 11) Read something political - No Knives in the Kitchens of this City 12) Read something historical. - For All the Tea in China 12a) Read something about the First World War. - Her Privates We 13) Read something biographical. - The Egg and I 14) Read some poetry. - God's Trombones 15) Read a play. - For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf 16) Read a collection of short stories. - Natural History of Hell 17) Read something long (500+ pages). - Stiletto 18) Read something which was banned or censored. - Lolita 19) Read a satire. - Blackass 20) Read something about honour. - Chronicle of a Death Foretold 21) Read something about fear- The Changeling 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. - Get Carter 23) Read something that you love. - The Shipping News 24) Read something from a non-human perspective. - Memoirs of a Polar Bear
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Dec 3, 2017 06:31
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November! 120. Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls 121. The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive #1) - Brandon Sanderson 122. Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive #2) - Brandon Sanderson 123. Edgedancer (Stormlight Archive #2.5) - Brandon Sanderson 124. Exit West - Mohsin Hamid 125. Night - Elie Wiesel 126. Wounded: From Battlefront to Blighty - Emily Mayhew 127. Confessions of Nat Turner - William Styron 128. Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive #3) - Brandon Sanderson I'll admit that most of this month was exclusively dedicated to the horrendously overlong yet addictive Sanderson series the Stormlight Archives (the third one came out this month). I was able to squeeze in a few good reads with Confessions of Nat Turner (really controversial when it came out, but I don't know if it was banned) and Exit West, and I was also able to finish up my booklord challenge with an autobiographical short book (Night) and a novel about the medical side of WWI (Wounded). Huzzah! 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (128/100) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women: Mayhew, Ingalls 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - Hamid 4) 5) 6) 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). - Oathbringer, Exit West 8) Read something which was published before you were born - Confessions of Nat Turner 9) 10) 11) 12) 12a) Read something about the First World War. - Wounded 13) Read something biographical. - Night (autobiographical) 14) 15) 16) 17) Read something long (500+ pages) - Stormlight Archive 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24)
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Dec 4, 2017 15:46
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I totally forgot about this and failed miserably. Might get in on it next year though
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Dec 10, 2017 20:28
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I haven't updated in like forever 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. failed 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) failed 12a) Read something about the First World War. failed 18) Read something which was banned or censored. Failed: don't think anything I read was banned or censored 1. Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon 2. The Fall of the Stone City, Ismail Kadare 3. The Royal Game, Stefan Zweig 4. The Sound and The Fury, William Faulkner 5. The Class, Hermann Ungar 6. The Fox Was Ever the Hunter, Herta Müller 7. Human Acts, Han Kang 8. Cain, José Saramago 9. Rosencrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard 10. a book consisting of the two essays Télémorphose og La pensée radicale, Jean Baudrillard 11. A Regicide, Alain Robbe-Grillet 12. Satantango, Laszlo Krasznahorkai 13. Tractatus logico-philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein 14. Conference of the Birds, Farid ud-Din Attar 15. Complete Works, Arthur Rimbaud 16. Apology, Plato 17. Flight of Icarus, Raymond Queneau 18. Sphinx, Anne Garréta 19. Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle 20. Og du dør så langsomt at du tror du lever, Bertrand Besigye (I bought this at a recommendation from someone. It was absolutely terrible and represented everything that's bad about Norwegian poetry in the 90s) 21. Livshus, Halldis Moren Vesaas 22. Symposium, Plato 23. Phaedrus, Plato 24. Selected Poems, Langston Hughes 25. The Red-Haired Woman, Orhan Pamuk 26. Crito & Phaedo, Plato 27. Oreo, Fran Ross 28. The Collected Poems, W. B. Yeats 29. Selected Poems, T. S. Eliot 30. Collected Stories, Isaac Bashevis Singer 31. Poesiar etter Henrik Wergeland, Jon Fosse depending on the categories next year I might or might not attend. I also prefer reading without having to keep a specific number in mind like I did this year, and before I jumped on these threads a year or two ago, so I won't ever bother setting a numbered goal again, in any case ulvir fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Dec 14, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2017 11:56
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I basically gave up on the challenge when I realized, after several abandoned starts, that I was never going to read my enormous 2500 page wildcard. I will play again next year though it might be good to have some guidelines around that stuff, like maybe you can only recommend a wildcard if you're actually doing the challenge. Anyway I have just been slowly moving through a backlog of crap: Clive Barker - The Great and Secret Show (Was recommended as a book similar to The Stand by Stephen King. I didn't really like it.) Michael Lewis - The Big Short (He tried his damnedest to make the topic interesting, but it was still a snooze.) Nick Cutter - Little Heaven (His best since The Troop imho) Joe Hill - Tales from the Darkside (A collection of scripts for a TV show that was never made. I didn't know that when I picked it up off my brother.) Neil Gaiman - Stardust (I haven't read a lot of Gaiman's stuff, this was some silly fantasy that I read on a plane, it was fine.) 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 8/9 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 12a) Read something about the First World War. 15) Read a play. 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 19) Read a satire. 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
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Dec 15, 2017 15:23
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The Berzerker posted:I basically gave up on the challenge when I realized, after several abandoned starts, that I was never going to read my enormous 2500 page wildcard. I will play again next year though it might be good to have some guidelines around that stuff, like maybe you can only recommend a wildcard if you're actually doing the challenge. Next year read 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 by Henry J. Darger
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Dec 15, 2017 15:44
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Guy A. Person posted:Next year read 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 by Henry J. Darger Is that thing even available to read in any useful format?
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Dec 15, 2017 22:12
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Groke posted:Is that thing even available to read in any useful format? iirc even Darger scholars haven't read the whole thing cover to cover because it's like 15,000 pages long, and I think they study it based on the original manuscript. There's also his autobiography quote:In 1968, Darger became interested in tracing some of his frustrations back to his childhood and began writing The History of My Life. Spanning eight volumes, the book only spends 206 pages detailing Darger's early life before veering off into 4,672 pages of fiction about a huge twister called "Sweetie Pie", probably based on memories of a tornado he had witnessed in 1908.
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Dec 16, 2017 00:43
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Do we have someone lined up to run this next year? Just checking in
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Dec 16, 2017 02:42
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Yours truly
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Dec 16, 2017 03:02
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Probably not going to finish anymore in the next few days, so going to post my final tally. I shattered my previous records by a lot, and while I did have some shorter plays and poetry in there I had a lot of larger books too: 1. The Best American Short Stories 2015 2. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2015 3. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015 4. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 5. The Best American Essays 2015 6. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut 7. The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson 8. Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman 9. Shifu You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan 10. Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil 11. Every Day is for the Thief by Teju Cole 12. The Last Days of New Paris by China Mieville 13. Aquarium by David Vann 14. Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera by Anne Carson 15. Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine 16. The Plague by Albert Camus 17. Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi 18. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett 19. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende 20. David Lynch: The Man from Another Place by Dennis Lim 21. Oblivion by David Foster Wallace 22. I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong 23. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin 24. Marcovaldo, or The Seasons in the City by Italo Calvino 25. The Tempest by William Shakespeare 26. The Obscene Bird of Night by Jose Donoso 27. White Teeth by Zadie Smith 28. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 29. The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head Is Really Up To by Dean Burnett 30. The Odyssey 31. Vertical Motion by Can Xue 32. To Live by Yu Hua 33. Serve the People by Yan Lianke 34. The Peregrine by J.A. Baker 35. Five Spice Street by Can Xue 36. The Wes Letters by Ben Segal, Brett Zehner, and Feliz Lucia Molina 37. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 38. But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past by Chuck Klosterman 39. Absolutely on Music: Conversations by Haruki Murakami 40. The Best American Short Stories 2016 41. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2016 42. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016 43. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 44. The Best American Essays 2016 45. The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward 46. Eight Skilled Gentlemen by Barry Hughart 47. Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History by David Aaronovitch 48. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney 49. Difficult Women by Roxane Gay 50. This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society by Kathleen McAuliffe 51. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara 52. The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley 53. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges 54. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky 55. Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century by Chuck Klosterman 56. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander 57. The Envoy by Edward Wilson 58. How to Be Both by Ali Smith 59. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy 60. The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene 61. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy 62. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami 63. Alice in Quantumland by Robert Gilmore 64. The Ruined Map by Kobo Abe 65. Glass, Irony and God by Anne Carson 66. Frontier by Can Xue 67. Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein 68. Patriotism by Yukio Mishima 69. Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood 70. The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku 71. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 72. The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier 73. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami 74. Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier by Neil deGrasse Tyson 75. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway 76. White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi 77. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber 78. The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston 79. Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland 80. Oyster by Janette Turner Hospital 81. Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt 82. Think Like a Programmer: An Introduction to Creative Problem Solving by V. Anton Spraul 83. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer 84. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay 85. Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill by Jessica Stern 86. Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle 87. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 88. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi 89. It by Inger Christensen 90. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright 91. Never Any End to Paris by Enrique Vila-Matas 92. What Should We Be Worried About?: Real Scenarios That Keep Scientists Up at Night by John Brockman 93. A Delusion Of Satan: The Full Story Of The Salem Witch Trials by Frances Hill 94. Song of the Shank by Jeffery Renard Allen 95. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro 96. Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History by Ben Mezrich 97. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion 98. The Sellout by Paul Beatty 99. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot 100. The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel) by Macedonio Fernández 101. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski 102. Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders 103. In Parenthesis by David Jones 104. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson 105. My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki 106. The Monster of Florence: A True Story by Douglas Presten and Mario Spezi 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. - should have said 100 but I didn't believe in myself 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - 36/106 = 34% 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - 35/106 = 33% 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - Ali Smith 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. - The Plague, Salt, Ficciones, Blackwater 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) - The Peregrine 7) Read something that was recently published - Ministry of Utmost Happiness 8) Read something which was published before you were born. - The Odyssey 9) Read something in translation. - The Obscene Bird of Night 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. - Picnic at Hanging Rock and Oyster (Australia) 11) Read something political. - The New Jim Crow 12) Read something historical. - Salt: A World History 12a) Read something about the First World War. - A Farewell to Arms 13) Read something biographical. - David Lynch biography 14) Read some poetry. - Anne Carson 15) Read a play. - Waiting for Godot 16) Read a collection of short stories. - a couple, including Best American Short Stories 2015/16 17) Read something long (500+ pages). - A Little Life 18) Read something which was banned or censored. - Serve the People 19) Read a satire. - Five Spice Street 20) Read something about honour. - Where Men Win Glory 21) Read something about fear. - Art and Fear and Hex 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. - My Year of Meats (gluttony) 23) Read something that you love. - Oblivion by DFW 24) Read something from a non-human perspective. - White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi A few of the challenges I probably did a few times over but just marked them off as I did them and don't want to comb back through. Too much to go over in one post (should probably post more frequently next year) but want to highlight Helen Oyeyemi and Can Xue as two authors I fell in love with this year. Also really enjoyed Aquarium and Lincoln in the Bardo which got a ton of buzz around some other threads. And a bunch of other books were ones I noted from following the "Quit (being a/loving a) child and read some real literature" thread, although I didn't note down who recommended them so if you see a book you recommended on my list thank yourself for me. Also Count of Monte Cristo and Lolita from the SHAMEFUL thread. So basically a really fuckin good year of reading largely thanks to the Book Barn. --- On another note, I have been drafting a list of challenges and guidelines for the next thread and hope to have that posted in the next few days, NYE eve (12/30) at the latest. Hope to see a bunch of you back next year.
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Dec 27, 2017 23:35
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24/24 female authors 12/12 non-fiction Picnic at Hanging Rock is considered a classic and I've no idea why. It just seemed fairly pointless to me. The characters are one-dimensional, the mystery is dumb, and there's basically no plot. Why do people like this book? Where on Earth seemed equally pointless to me. More like vignettes than actual short stories. I'd just start getting interested in the characters and then the story would just stop. Not end, just stop. It was kind of like reading the first chapters of a bunch of different books that I wasn't allowed to read the rest of. The Stench of Honolulu and How to Win at Feminism were both quite silly and very funny. I'd recommend either one, though they certainly wouldn't be to everyone's taste. I think The Kingdoms of Terror is a pretty decent entry in the Lone Wolf series, but some people seem to really hate it. It's got a much more relaxed tone than the previous ones, because you're not under any immediate threat or trying to beat any kind of deadline, you're just seeking a lost artefact. I Miss the World was part of a noir bundle I bought a little while ago, and I feel like that was misleading because it's pretty much straight horror. So it took me a bit to get into it because it wasn't at all what I was expecting. Once I realised, I did like it a lot more, but I think that more accurate expectations would have helped a lot. I'l probably start another book before the end of the year, but I've reached my goal so I'll include anything I read from this point on my 2018 list. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Dec 28, 2017 03:47
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Final tally: 89 out of 100, but I met most of the other goals. That's pretty good for a year in which I got divorced, got custody of my kids, changed jobs and became a teacher at an inner-city school. Next year ought to be easier to hit 100. 1. Jerusalem - Alan Moore7, 17, 23 2. A Billion Wicked Thoughts - Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam3, 22 3. Herman (The Game Warden, The Death of a Craft) - Laszlo Krasznahorkai9 4. The Atrocity Exhibition - J.G. Ballard8, 18 5. The Last Wolf - Laszlo Krasznahorkai9 6. The Kingdom of This World - Alejo Carpentier3, 9, 12 7. Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey3, 8 8. 9. Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens - Laszlo Krasznahorkai9, 10 10. Sudden Death - Alvaro Enrigue3, 9, 23 11. Caligula for President - Cintra Wilson2, 19 12. The Dark Highlander - Karen Marie Moning2, 22 ----end of January 13. Universal Harvester - John Darnielle7 14. The Plague - Albert Camus5, 8, 9 15. 16. A Temple of Texts: Essays - William H. Gass 17. 18. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) - Dennis E. Taylor7, 24 19. -----end of February 20. Fight Club 2 - Chuck Palahniuk, Cameron Stewart7, 19 21. Songs of a Dead Dreamer & Grimscribe - Thomas Ligotti16, 21, 22 22. The Emergence of Social Space- Kristin Ross2, 11, 12 23. The Black Monday Murders, Volume 1 - Jonathan Hickman, Tomm Coker7 24. Aquarium - David Vann21 25. The Master of Mankind - Aaron Dembski-Bowden7, 20 26. At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O'Brien8 27. Sleeping Giants - Sylvain Neuvel7 -----end of March 28. Waking Gods - Sylvain Neuvel7 29. Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich - Norman Ohler7, 12, 22 30. The Last Night: Anti-Work, Atheism, Adventure - Federico Campagna3, 11, 22, 23 31. Remainder - Tom McCarthy 32. The Circle Game - Margaret Atwood2, 8, 14 33. Star Wars: Thrawn - Timothy Zahn7, 24 34. Buddha - Karen Armstrong2, 12, 13 35. Literature Class - Julio Cortazar3, 9 -----end of April 36. Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse: Omnibus Edition - Ben Templesmith19, 24 37. The Zen in Modern Cosmology - Chi-sing Lam3, 23 38. The Great and Holy War - Philip Jenkins12, 12a 39. Prisons We Choose To Live Inside - Doris Lessing2, 8, 11 40. The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks24 41. October - China Mieville11, 12, 12a -----end of May 42. The Complete Short Stories, Volume 1, 1944-1953 - Roald Dahl8, 16, 19 43. The Carrion Throne: Vaults of Terra #1 - Chris Wraight7, 24 44. 45. Are Prisons Obsolete? - Angela Davis2, 3, 11 46. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling2 47. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling2 48. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling2 49. The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin - Masha Gessen2, 11, 12, 13 50. Black Chalk - Christopher Yates -----end of June 51. The Multiversity - Grant Morrison et al.24 52. Sekret Machines: Chasing Shadows (Book 1) - A.J. Hartley & Tom DeLonge7, 17 53. The History of Sexuality: Volume 1 - Michel Foucault4, 8, 9, 12 54. Sewer, Gas, and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy - Matt Ruff19, 23 55. Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law - James Q. Whitman11, 12 56. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling2 57. The American People: Search For My Heart (Vol. 1) - Larry Kramer4, 19 -----end of July 58. IBM and the Holocaust - Edwin Black11, 12 59. 60. The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life - Sheldon Solomon et al.21 61. The Dwarf - Par Lagerkqvist8, 9 62. Cosmic Trigger (Vol. 1), Final Secrets of the Illuminati - Robert Anton Wilson8, 19 63. Black Legion (WH40K) - Aaron Dembski-Bowden7 -----end of August 64. Hegel: A Reinterpretation - Walter Kaufmann8 65. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders7, 12, 13 66. Black Skin, White Masks - Frantz Fanon3, 8, 11, 12 67. Small Gods - Terry Pratchett19 -----end of September 68. "Exterminate All The Brutes" - Sven Lindqvist11, 12 69. Burnt Tongues - edited by Chuck Palahniuk16, 19 70. Audition - Ryu Murakami3, 9 71. The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness - Erich Fromm13, 22 72. The Black Jacobins - C.L.R. James3, 12 ------end of October 73. The Lords of the Ghostland - Edgar Saltus8, 12 74. Origin - Dan Brown7 75. Skullcrack City - Jeremy Robert Johnson 76. The Anatomy of Evil - Michael H. Stone, M.D. 77. 78. Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power - Steve Coll 79. The Trial of Gilles de Rais - Georges Bataille9, 12, 22 80. The Seventh Function of Language - Laurent Binet7, 9, 12 81. On Physics and Philosophy - Bernard d'Espagnat9, 17, 23 ------end of November 82. Organ Grinder - Alan Fishbone 83. The Destruction of Black Civilization - Chancellor Williams3, 12 84. We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie2, 3, 11 85. My Teaching - Jacques Lacan9 86. Rock & Roll - Tom Stoppard15 87. Toussaint Louverture - Philippe Girard 88. Misreadings - Umberto Eco9, 16, 19 89. Too Like the Lightning - Ada Palmer2, 7, 24 90. Sekret Machines: Gods, Man, and War (Vol. 1) - Tom DeLonge and Peter Levenda7, 18, 21 91. Seven Surrenders - Ada Palmer2, 7 92. Drilling Through Hard Boards - Alexander Kluge9, 11 93. The Anatomy of Negation - Edgar Saltus8, 12, 24 94. The Philosophy of Disenchantment - Edgar Saltus8, 12, 24 95. The Will to Battle - Ada Palmer2, 7 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 89/100 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 16 out of 89 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 14 out of 89 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) --> Human Acts - Han Kang2, 3, 9, 12 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 8) Read something which was published before you were born. 9) Read something in translation. 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) Read something political. 12) Read something historical. 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 17) Read something long (500+ pages). 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) Read something that you love. 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
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Dec 28, 2017 15:17
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nerdpony posted:The Global Pigeon by Colin Jerolmack. I wanted to reach back into the thread and thank you for this wildcard; the book had actually been on my radar for a couple of years and once I dove into it, it ending up being one of the highlights of the year for me. I need to get my book list in order to see if I succeeded at the challenge this year; I think I hit more than enough female authors but it's dicey on the non-white side of things. I have some Angela Davis and Arundhati Roy I can zip through if it's close enough...
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Dec 28, 2017 23:24
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Hi thread, I've still been reading books but I just haven't had the energy to keep the thread updated as I do so. I've got two books on the go right now (Probably Space by Nancy Kress and Soonish by the Weinersmiths), but I don't think I'll finish either before the new year (and I may not finish Probability Space at all), so I'm calling it here. In the end I completed the challenges I set for myself, comfortably meeting my goals for number of books read and amount of nonfiction; since I started keeping track I've been consistently reading 120-ish books a year, and this year is no exception. pre:1) 96 books, ≥10% nonfiction, ≤25% rereads
121/96 books, 15 nonfiction (12%), 20 rereads (17%)
pre:2) ≥20% by not-men
65 books (54%)
3) pre:
5) At least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it.
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
6) A book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!)
The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton
7) Something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016).
The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley
8) Something which was published before you were born.
The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
9) Something in translation.
Anabasis by Xenophon
10) Something from somewhere you want to travel.
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
11) Something political.
Boogers Are My Beat by Dave Barry
12) Something historical.
Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich
12a) Something about the First World War.
Blueprint for Armageddon by Dan Carlin
13) Something biographical.
Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick
14) Some poetry.
The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi
15) A play.
Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde
16) A collection of short stories.
Uptown Local and Other Interventions by Diane Duane
17) Something long (500+ pages).
Explorer by C.J. Cherryh
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Dec 29, 2017 15:49
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Ben Nevis posted:
Just sort of coasting to the end. I clearly wasn't aggressive enough setting a number, since I've topped 100 books this year. This month I had a stretch where I couldn't get by the library (the source of almost all of my reading) so wound up reading a few that had been languishing on my shelf. I apparently only read 1 book this month by an author of color. Still, wrapping up the year, 41% of my reads were by women and 31% by non-white authors. Generally, I didn't find that challenge too hard. I'm hoping to put up a year in review where I pick a few favorites out. 97. Hooks Tale: Being the Account of an Unjustly Villainized Pirate Written by Himself by John Leonard Pielmeier - The second Captain Hook origin story I read this year, and it was the better of the two. It was much more in keeping with the usual Peter Pan story, it had a good sense of humor, and actually some depth. If you're going to read a Captain Hook origin story and have to pick between this and The Lost Boy, this is the clear winner. 98. A Loving and Faithful Animal by Josephine Rowe - When a poor Australian family's dog is found killed by a cougar, it precipitates a falling out that tears the family apart. Rowe takes you through the immediate events from the point of view of each member of the family on that fateful day and then a wrap up chapter at the end. She uses a different point of view for most of the characters or at least a radically different voice. It really wraps you in a sense of the heartache of each of the members of this family in a way that seems immediate and intimate. It's a well done little book. 99. The Neon Palm of Madame Melancon by Will Clarke - I grabbed this because it really looked like a light bouncy thing after the tragic family novel. Duke Melancon, a corporate lawyer for Not-BP, has been transferred back to his hometown of New Orleans just in time for a tragic Not-Deepwater Horizon oil spill. At the same time, his mother, palmreader to the mafia, disappears. Duke tries desperately to cope with both crises, and his mystically inclined family doesn't help matters. There's really a sense throughout of wrestling personally with a career that devastates your home as well as old and new New Orleans struggling against each other. This wound up being a lot better than expected, there's a Hiaasen-ish vibe here. 100. The Gates by John Connelly - A precocious boy and his dog have to thwart a demonic invasion. This was a romp. Would generally recommend for fun reading. 101. Disgrace by JM Coetzee - What really surprised me here was how compelling a read this was despite the difficult subject matter. It's one that stuck with me for awhile. 102. The Eyes of the Killer Robot by John Bellairs - So I read this for a book report probably 30 years ago and found a copy squirreled away in the back of a closet. One particular scene (the gas station scene) has stuck with me for ages, so I figured I'd reread it. Basically, back in the 20's Johnny's grandfather kept his minor league baseball team from buying a pitching robot from nefarious inventor. Flash forward and Johnny's friend the Professor loses $10k on a bad investment and thinks he can recoup the money by finding and rebuilding the robot to win a pitching contest. Obviously, the nefarious inventor is still around and wants to get revenge on the grandfather by kidnapping Johnny and using his eyes to magically power another, better designed robot. Can Johnny and the Professor stop him? Will they ever discover what the mysterious sword cane is used for? Is the ghost trying to help them or is it malicious? This is some sort of crazy. 103. The Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang - The novella released concurrently with Black Tides of Heaven that I read last month. With BToH setting things up more, this was a much closer look at Mokoya's character. I liked this, I'm curious to see where the story goes because the first novella set up a sort of epic civil war type story and this did little to advance that story line, more just look at the character. 104. Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls - Dorothy is a disaffected housewife with an unavailable husband who one day commences a torrid affair with Larry, a 6 foot 7 frogman escaped from a local lab. This slender volume crams a lot into a tale about monster love. I really want to read more by Ingalls. She's a favorite new to me author this year. 105. Devil's Call J Danielle Dorn - A pretty straightforward revenge Western with shades of Hannie Caulder, except the main character is a witch. I'd come out pretty positive about this, but a few days later, I don't retain much sense of the novel. It's competent, but not outstanding. Apparently there's a Devil's Call 2, which there's a 50-50 shot I pick up. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 105/60 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 43/21 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 33/21 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - Taste of Honey 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. - Mother Night 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) - The Sympathizer 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). - Umami 8) Read something which was published before you were born. Grendel 9) Read something in translation. - The Story of My Teeth 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. - Man Tiger 11) Read something political - No Knives in the Kitchens of this City 12) Read something historical. - For All the Tea in China 12a) Read something about the First World War. - Her Privates We 13) Read something biographical. - The Egg and I 14) Read some poetry. - God's Trombones 15) Read a play. - For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf 16) Read a collection of short stories. - Natural History of Hell 17) Read something long (500+ pages). - Stiletto 18) Read something which was banned or censored. - Lolita 19) Read a satire. - Blackass 20) Read something about honour. - Chronicle of a Death Foretold 21) Read something about fear- The Changeling 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. - Get Carter 23) Read something that you love. - The Shipping News 24) Read something from a non-human perspective. - Memoirs of a Polar Bear
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Dec 29, 2017 18:11
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Just posted the new thread for people to sign up and start planning strategies.
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Dec 29, 2017 23:48
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What a stupid loving year. At least I read a lot!quote:
I read nine books in November and December, bringing my final tally of books completed to sixty-one. 53 - The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers. A wonderful space-opera journey with alien species, future tech, politicking and a great cast. The core characters of the ship's crew are written with genuine affection and given space to explore their lives, emotions and cultures. Apart from a couple of antagonists near the end of the book, the whole cast feels personable and like part of a larger whole. Chambers brings a lot to the table, and it really pays off: a story about finding a new family out in the world and pulling together through trials and tragedies. I saw this book called "millennial", whatever that's meant to mean, but as a troubled 20-something I definitely felt a lot of this book resonated with me. By the epilogue I was genuinely emotional, and I can't wait to get to the sequel. 54 - The Sellout, by Paul Beatty. Scathing satire of American racism and the intersections of prejudice, power and peaches. The protagonist, last name "Me", describes his bizarre upbringing and strange neighbourhood, shot through with past and present racial tension and politicised identity. Over the course of the novel, he becomes a slave owner, a segregationist, and a Supreme Court plaintiff, and the absurdity of each step along this path is all too reasonable. Obviously as a white guy - and a British one at that - not all of it landed with me, especially the Californiana that the book is shot through with. But it was a hell of a read, surprising and funny and wince-inducing. It even made me laugh out loud a few times, which is rare for a book. Really glad I read this. 55 - Comet in Moominland, by Tove Jansson. The first full Moomin book, and it's lovely. I've liked the Moomin series and characters since I saw the 90s anime adaption as a child, but I've never got round to reading the books until now. The tone is exactly as good as I expected, with grand adventures and high stakes to go along with the small-scale whimsy and characters. It's interesting that the first book concerns a coming catastrophe - the titular comet - as it (and the prelude novella) come directly after the end of the Second World War. Themes of evacuation, shelter and perseverence through teamwork drive the dark-but-hopeful mood home pretty well. This was such a nice read; I shall definitely be reading the other books in the series. 56 - The Ubu Plays, by Alfred Jarry. I'd heard of Jarry a few years ago, in a lecture presentation that talked at length about his strange life and works. A man ahead of his time, an iconoclast and jester whose first play, Ubu Roi, caused outrage with its very first word. Coming to these texts over a century after they were first written, they definitely seem to be of a later era, after surrealism and high-minded farce in comedy had become trendy. As a result, a lot of the jokes and strangeness don't have much of an impact on me reading in 2017. The translator took several liberties, which he describes and justifies at length, and for the most part they make sense. His rendering of Ubu and his wife as bellowing, screeching cockneys was a little distracting, though. It's hard not to admire Jarry's dedication to the odd cacophony of the plays, and the edition I read contained a reworked, abridged adaption for puppet-show that showed how the language and humour evolved over the course of Jarry's career. I'm glad I read these, to know what all the fuss was about as much as to enjoy them myself. While they don't hold up so much as plays to read, I bet a stage adaption would be entertaining and bizarre. 57 - Mother Night, by Kurt Vonnegut. A short and miserable novel about the cruelty and absurdity of hatred, prejudice and fascism. The protagonist is cast as a man without opinions or allegiance (except to his late wife), and freely admits to furthering the cause of Nazism as an eager collaborator - under American instruction. The crimes and propaganda and toxic ideologies espoused by the book's characters are indistinguishable from those of today, albeit with a handful of names changed. Reading this in 2017, in the shadow of ascendant fascism, was a surreal and troubling experience, but also has the catharsis of knowing that the threats we face today are not new. I found myself dog-earing some pages because of how much they resonated with the current perpetual crisis. Obviously the novel isn't all grim: Vonnegut's style lends itself as ever to remarkable humour and the minor farces of human life. It's that ridiculousness that lends the darkness of the book so much more power: the foolishness and naivety of authoritarianism, and the pathetic ways in which Campbell, the protagonist, justifies his actions to himself. An excellent and sobering read, right up to the final words. 58 - The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark. A classic short novel about a wonderfully caricatured schoolteacher in 30s Edinburgh who considers herself supremely wise and knowledgable, and who endeavours to train up a new generation of young ladies to follow in her footsteps. Full of well-drawn characters (Miss Brodie especially) and a very satisfying satire on class aspirations, the only area in which Spark failed to grab me was the plot itself. Particularly in the latter half, with doomed love affairs and sadness, I felt an urge to skim through in search of the "fun parts": the conversations, the monologues, the glimpses of Miss Brodie's (atrocious, fascist) worldview. Overall though, I liked the way it was written, with the shifting temporal perspectives and a real knack for comedy. 59 - The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made, by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell. A surprisingly human book that tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a young struggling actor and an enigmatic stranger, and the notoriously awful film they ended up making together. There are plenty of fun and bizarre anecdotes, and the exasperation at Wiseau's antics and foibles is palpable. (I listened to the audiobook of this, and greatly enjoyed Sestero's narration and Tommy Wiseau impression.) Beyond the juicy behind-the-scenes fiasco of The Room, though, Sestero is able to tell a very personal and surprisingly moving story. His Tommy is manic, artificial, frightening, misogynistic and crass. He's also gifted with an infectious enthusiasm and a deep, all-consuming desire to be loved and accepted and "normal". The half-true stories about his pre-Hollywood life are sad and inspirational, but shrouded in an Oscar-bait aura that echoes Tommy's melodrama onscreen. "What a story, Mark!" 60 - Counter-Attack and Other Poems, by Siegfried Sassoon. WWI poetry, about the horrors and hypocrisy of war and the longing for better places and people. I think everyone has an idea of what "First World War poetry" means, given its place in the cultural canon, and Sassoon exemplifies a lot of that: grim depictions of violence and terror, homesickness, incompetent leadership. I wasn't expecting the poems that so strongly condemn the complacency of society at large, though: one particular poem, "Song-Books Of the War", predicts a naive nostalgia for the "dazzling times when sacrifice absolved our earth". Which, as a prediction, is evergreen. It's easy to see why poetry like Sassoon's had such a big impact. With the edition I read, a cheap printing adds a few unfortunate typos, but that doesn't detract much from the impact. 61 - Black Boy, by Richard Wright. My Wild Card this year, and a hell of a book to close out the year. A powerful and moving memoir about a childhood under the scourge of Jim Crow. Wright's prose is evocative and clear, and even flights of fancy are rooted in a very real sense of identity. The young Richard is crushed under the brutal weights of poverty, his abusive family, authoritarian religion and the ever-present, all-encompassing swamp of white supremacy. I was mortified and shocked by he way he writes about his progressive awakenings to his own blackness and the monstrous racism of the culture he was born into. Even knowing the expanse of racial subjugation from history and activism, having his bare experiences described in such stark detail was still deeply affecting. My copy was second-hand, and contained several annotations by a previous owner - I'm not surprised this book would be part of some educational curriculum, as it puts a human face (one of many) on the USA's grim history of prejudice. All reviews available on My Goodreads as always. STATS: 14,290 total pages, give or take. (Last year: 15,540) Average book length: 234 pages. (Last year: 239) Reading speed: 39 pages per day. (Last year: 42.5) My numbers are down a little, mostly due to real-life stress and much less time spent travelling (which is where I get most of my reading done). BOOKLORD RESULTS: 20) Read something about honour. - Out of all of these, I don't think I managed a book that was, primarily, about the idea of "honour". There were plenty of narratives that had things to say about honour, but nothing that gave me the impression that it was the main theme. I could be wrong, of course. I managed just over 1/3 writers of colour, and just over 1/3 women writers. This doesn't include books written or edited by a mix of people. Overall, 37/61 books I read this year were not written by a white man, and that's more than half, which I am fairly proud of. Next year I must do better.
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Dec 31, 2017 18:33
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Well poo poo, I didn't even know about this thread until I accidentally clicked on it last night. I'm curious to see how well I met the challenge not even knowing about it. I didn't sign up to say how many books I planned to read, but I did plan to read at least one a week on average. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 20) Read something about honour. (If I don't finish Gawain tonight, I fail) 1. The Big Book of Science Fiction, Ann and Jeff Vandermeer eds. [2] [3] [16] (started 2016) 2. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace [17] [19] [22] (started 2016) 3. The Fifth Season, N. K. Jemison [2] [3] 4. Company Town, Madeline Ashby [2] 5. Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart [23] 6. The Famished Road, Ben Okri [3] 7. The Drowned World, J. G. Ballard 8. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein (reread) [8] (poo poo) 9. Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut [13] [19] 10. White Tiger, Adaga Aravind [3] [19] [22] 11. Dancing at the Edge of the World, Ursula K. Le Guin (essays) [2] [13] 12. Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole [19] [22] 13. How to Build a Girl, Caitlin Moran [2] [22] 14. Borges on Writing [8] [14] 15. Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges [8] [9] [16] 16. The Atrocity Exhibition, J. G. Ballard [11] (Does "Why I Want to gently caress Ronald Reagan" count?) [19] [22] 17. The Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet, Becky Chambers [2] 18. Under the Udala Trees, Chinelo Okparanta [2] [3] 19. A Wild Sheep Chase, Haruki Murakami [3] [9] 20. The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell, Aldous Huxley 21. The Quarry, Iain Banks 22. The Idiot, Elif Batuman [2] [7] 23. What's Not Yours is Not Yours, Helen Oyememi [2] [3] [16] 24. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Ken Liu [3] [16] 25. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler [2] 26. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami [3] [9] [17] 27. Bagombo Snuff Box, Kurt Vonnegut [16] 28. The Mysteries of Pittsburg, Michael Chabon [4] 29. The Sellout, Paul Beatty [3] [19] 30. A Visit From the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan [2] 31. Ghachar Ghochar, Vivek Shanbhag [3] [7] 32. On Writing, Charles Bukowski 33. Ham on Rye, Charles Bukowski [22] 34. The Complete Cosmicomics, Italo Calvino [9] [16] [23] [24] 35. The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri [2] [3] [12] (Partition of India) 36. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides 37. Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation [2] [3] [9] [16] 38. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro [3] 39. A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James [3] [10] [11] [12] 40. Central Station, Lavie Tidhar 41. Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson (poo poo) 42. Definitely Maybe, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky [9] 43. Microworlds: Writings on Science Fiction and Fantasy, Stanislaw Lem [9] 44. Imaginary Magnitude, Stanislaw Lem [9] 45. A Perfect Vacuum, Stanislaw Lem [9] [19] 46. The Doomed City, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky [9] [12] 47. Notes From Underground, Fyodor Dostoyevsky [8] [9] 48. Worlds Apart: Anthology of Russian SFF - [9] [12] [12a] (does the Russian Revolution count?) Includes Pushkin's poetry [14] and "Dairy of a Madman" by Gogol [15] [16] 49. Swing Time, Zadie Smith [2] [3] 50. Women Without Men, Shahrnush Parsipur - The author herself was banned from her country for writing this. [2] [3] [9] [18] 51. Death and the Penguin, Andrei Kurkov [9] 52. Penguin Lost, Andrei Kurkov [9] 53. A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut [13] 54. Aquarium, David Vann [5] [21] 55. Sourdough, Robin Sloan [7] [23] 56. Blue is the Warmest Color, Julie Maroh [2] [4] [9] 57. Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut (reread) [8] [19] 58. From the First Stars to Milkomeda, Abraham Loeb [13] 59. I am Not Sidney Poitier, Percival Everett [3] [19] 60. Boy, Snow, Bird, Helen Oyememi [2] [3] 61. Pirate Utopia, Bruce Sterling (poo poo) 62. Autonomous, Annalee Newitz [2] [7] [24] (poo poo) 63. The Epic City: The Worlds and Streets of Calcutta, Kushanava Choudhury [3] [12] (Partition) [13] 64. Lexicon, Max Barry 65. The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey [2] 66. Black Moses, Alain Mabanckou [3] [7] (English translation) [9] 67. Tenth of December, George Saunders [16] (and also "Fox 8" [24]) [19] 68. The Vanishers, Heidi Julavits [2] [21] 69. Tales of Pirx the Pilot, Stanislaw Lem [9] [16] 70. More Tales of Pirx the Pilot, Stanislaw Lem [9] [16] 71. Shikasta, Doris Lessing [2] [12] 72. A Long Way Home, Saroo Brierly [3] [13] 73. Echopraxia, Peter Watts 74. The Stupidest Angel, Christopher Moore Currently in Progress: Gawain and the Green Knight [5] [14] [20] The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Susanna Clarke Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolfe (restarted and now halfway through) Carrying Over to Next Year: The Unreal and the Real: Short Stories, Ursula K. Le Guin The Found and the Lost: Novellas, Ursula K. Le Guin
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Dec 31, 2017 19:40
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December! 66. The Urth of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe There's so much I didn't understand of the book, but that doesn't mean I can't recognize it as something special. 67. Fundamentals of Enterprise Risk Management. John J. Hampton. Research and more research. Risk is an important part of management, this explains it well but it's kind of boring to read. 68. Winter's Heart. Robert Jordan. A little boring with a lot of characters. The story seems like in a slump, but the ending is pretty good. 69. Poemas Selectos. Rubén Darío. I still have problems reading poetry, but I can't deny the quality of this. I won't say it moved me, but it was close. 70. The Count of Monte Cristo. Alexandre Dumas. An amazing piece of literature, maybe a little too long, but still great. 71. Battle Royale. Koushun Takami. Kind of confusing, but entertaining. The detailed backgrounds of every character are like dead flags for them. 72. Cantar del Mío Cid. Anonymous. Hard to read in the original Spanish, still a very nice description of the times when it was written. 73-75. One Punch Man vols. 1-3. ONE. A very funny story with a lot of action, the premise could have gone old really fast, but it's holding. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!). The Urth of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe. 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) [s]Read something which was banned or censored. Roadside Picnic. Arkady Strugatsky. 19) [s]Read a satire. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole 20) [s]Read something about honour. 21) [s]Read something about fear. It. Stephen King. 22) [s]Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins.[s] 23) [s]Read something that you love. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. Carl Sagan. 24) [s]Read something from a non-human perspective. Agent to the Stars with a gelatinous alien All done, even if reading comics at the end felt like cheating. I got them for Christmas so...
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Dec 31, 2017 19:41
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Closing out the year with a December update. Erstwhile: 1: Revenger by Alastair Reynolds. 2: The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher. +1 woman 3: Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut. 4. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. + 1 woman, +1 nonwhite 5. Death's End by Liu Cixin. +1 nonwhite 6. Empire Games by Charles Stross. 7. Among Others by Jo Walton. +1 woman 8. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis Taylor. 9. Bror din på prærien by Edvard Hoem. +1 Norwegian. 10. The Plague by Albert Camus. 11. Haimennesket by Hans Olav Lahlum. +1 Norwegian. 12. Land ingen har sett by Edvard Hoem. +1 Norwegian. 13. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 14. The Long Cosmos by Stephen Baxter and (allegedly, although I doubt he contributed much to this one) Terry Pratchett. 15. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin. +1 woman. 16. Aquarium by David Vann. 17. The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren +1 woman. 18. 1001 Natt by Vetle Lid Larssen. +1 Norwegian, +1 nonfiction. 19. After Atlas by Emma Newman. +1 woman. 20. Exodus by Andreas Christensen. 21. Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 22. Sandstorm by James Rollins. 23. For We Are Many (Bobiverse #2) by Dennis Taylor. 24. The Conference of the Birds by Farid Attar. 25. The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 26. I, Claudius by Robert Graves. 27. Claudius the God by Robert Graves. 28. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. +1 nonfiction. 29. Huset mellom natt og dag by Ørjan Nordhus Karlssen. +1 Norwegian. 30. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland. +1 woman. 31. Min drøm om frihet by Amal Aden. LGBTQ, +1 woman, +1 nonwhite, +1 Norwegian, +1 nonfiction, biography. 32. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. BOTM for July. 33. Predikanten ("The Preacher") by Camilla Läckberg. +1 woman. 34. Steinhoggeren ("The Stonecutter") by Camilla Läckberg. +1 woman. 35. The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman.+1 woman, +1 nonfiction, First World War. 36. The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross. 37. Ulykkesfuglen by Camilla Läckberg. +1 woman. 38. Sporvekslingsmordet by Hans Olav Lahlum. +1 Norwegian. 39. Devil's Due by Taylor Anderson. 40. The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma. +1 nonwhite. 41. All These Worlds by Dennis Taylor. 42. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 43. My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber. BOTM for August. +1 nonfiction 44. Discovering Scarfolk by Richard Littler. 45. Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. +1 woman. 46. The Peregrine by J.A. Baker. +1 nonfiction. 47. Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. +1 nonwhite. 48-53. Blackwater volumes 1-6 by Michael McDowell. BOTM for October. 54. South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami. +1 nonwhite. 55. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 56. Native Son by Richard Wright.+1 nonwhite, political, banned. 57. Tung tids tale by Olaug Nilssen. +1 woman, +1 Norwegian. Arguably +1 nonfiction as well. New: 58. Aurora by Andreas Christensen. Kind of meh, basic story about interstellar colonisation and whatnot. Some entertainment value though. 59. The Call of the Wild by Jack London. The tale of a dog stolen from a cushy existence to be used as a working animal in the northern frontier during a gold rush; he gradually goes wild and reverts to wolfhood. Good poo poo. Hits the "nonhuman perspective" point. 60. Gawain and the Green Knight, I chose the Tolkien translation. BOTM for December. Was pretty cool. Hits the "poetry" and "something about honor" points for sure. 61. Stort og stygt by Olaug Nilssen. A play about society's expectations about parenthood, and about having a child that's different and not so easy to like. +1 woman, +1 Norwegian, hits the "play" point. 62. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Colonialism from a native African point of view, considered the first proper African novel written in English. Amazing work; the main character is rather a dick and the society he lives in has its rather awful sides, but the author manages to elicit sympathy for them and the things lost. +1 nonwhite. 63. Liv andre har levd by Edvard Hoem. The author finishes up his rather impressive fictionalized account of his extended family's history both among those who emigrated to the Americas and those who stayed home. This volume takes place from the 1920s through the war and postwar years, with some brief bits going as far as the present day. In fact the author himself shows up both as a third-person character (when he was a boy in the 1950s) and in the first person (we get a few glimpses of how he researched the material that went into these novels, e.g. him travelling around the relevant bits of the USA and Canada, digging into public records and interviewing distant relations, etc.) +1 Norwegian. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 63/40 - goal crushed. 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 20/63 =31% 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 13/63 = 21% [s}20) Read something about honour.[/s] - Gawain and the Green Knight Extra: At least 10 Norwegian books (translations don't count) - 10/10, goal met. At least 5 nonfiction books - 8/5, goal exceeded. Read every BOTM (except optionally for ones I've read before) - 12/12, goal met. No more than 5 rereads (vs. the vanilla goal, I would count them against specific goals) - 2/5, within tolerance. That's it, 100% completion. Have already reported in the 2018 thread, where I'm going a bit easier and not doing any extra stuff beyond the main challenge (we're having another kid in a few months and that will eat up a lot of time and concentration ability). Groke fucked around with this message at 11:21 on Jan 9, 2018 |
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Jan 2, 2018 11:38
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