You know you love it.
via rectorjay
Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
P. J. O’Rourke (via blogossauro)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Claire Armitstead, literary editor of the Guardian, Sarah Crown, editor of guardian.co.uk/books and William Skidelsky, literary editor of the Observer, discuss this year’s shortlist for the Man Booker prize
Summer Reading
Perhaps unconventionally, these books are listed in the order read. That is, from right to left (bottom-to-top): Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy, Book 3) by Richelle Mead, Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 1) by Jeaniene Frost, The Dead Girls’ Dance (Morganville Vampires, Book 2) by Rachel Caine, Succubus Blues (Georgina Kincaid, Book 1) by Richelle Mead, Storm Born (Dark Swan, Book 1) by Richelle Mead, Midnight Alley (Morganville Vampires, Book 3) by Rachel Caine, Fangs for the Memories (The Young Brothers, Book 1) by Kathy Love, Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1) by Patricia Briggs, The Immortals: Evermore by Alyson Noel, One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 2) by Jeaniene Frost, Betrayed: A House of Night Novel (House of Night Novels) by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast, Midnight’s Daughter (Dorina Basarab, Dhampir, Book 1) by Karen Chance, Chosen: A House of Night Novel (House of Night Novels) by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast, At Grave’s End (Night Huntress, Book 3) by Jeaniene Frost, Touch the Dark (Cassandra Palmer, Book 1) by Karen Chance, Claimed by Shadow (Cassandra Palmer, Book 2) by Karen Chance, Sex and the Single Vampire by Katie Macalister, Untamed (House of Night Novels) by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast, The Secret Circle: The Initiation and The Captive Part I & The Secret Circle: The Captive Part II and The Power by L. J. Smith, Thorn Queen (Dark Swan, Book 2) by Richelle Mead
sputnik sweetheart
Like other contributors to this blog I too have fallen (way) behind on my reading targets for this year, but what I have read I have thoroughly enjoyed and considered more than if I’d gone nuts and drank more coffee and read more just to tick the books off my list.
I also like pictures of books because they are simply nice.
I enjoyed reading Murakami’s ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’. It took me out of myself as is his style. But it was a bit soppy and now I’m off to read something about war, because I’m a real boy and I like guns and bruises etc too.
xo
My Progress So Far
So here’s my progress on my book list a little more than halfway through the year. Strikeouts are the ones I’ve finished; bold are the ones I’m currently reading; italics are the ones I tried and had to abandon for various reasons (e.g., subject matter was too upsetting, just didn’t care for it, ran out of time and it was due at the library, whatever). It’s pretty lame how few I’ve finished, but anyway:
1. Dombey and Son, by Charles Dickens (reading this one now, will carry into 2009)
2. The Third Policeman, Flann O’Brien
3. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan
4. The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, by Alex Ross
5. When Will There be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
6. The Toss of a Lemon, by Padma Viswanathan
7. Super Flat Times, by Matthew Derby
8. Brighton Rock, by Graham Greene (Hi, antitrance!)
9. Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner10. Such a Pretty Girl, Laura Wiess11. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder that Shocked Chicago, by Simon Baatz
12. Waste, Eugene Marten
13. The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram, by Thomas Blass
14. Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes, by Thomas Cathcart
15. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Underground, 1981-1991, by Michael Azzerad (Hi, outtheother!)
16. Culture Jam, by Kalle Lasn
17. No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court, by Edward Humes
18. The Outsider, by Colin Wilson19. The Interpretation of Murder, by Jed Rubenfeld
20. The Little Girl and the Cigarette, by Benoit Deteurtre
21. This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, by Daniel J. Levitin
22. A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis, by David M. Friedman23. The Consolations of Philosophy, by Alain de Botton
24. You Idiot! — The First Book, by Nate Gangelhoff
25. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
26. The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, by Alison Bechdel
27. The Family Mashber, by Der Nister
28. How to Read a French Fry: And Other Intriguing Stories of Kitchen Science, by Russ Parsons
29. Jill, by Philip Larkin
30. Writings on an Ethical Life, by Peter Singer
31. How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, by Pierre Bayard
32. True Crime: An American Anthology, by Harold Schechter
33. America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life, by Benoit Denizet-Lewis
And the books I’ve read that weren’t on my list:
1. Stone’s Fall, by Iain Pears
2. Don’t Get Too Comfortable, by David Rakoff
3. Jumped, by Rita Williams-Garcia
4. Blue Boy, by Rakesh Satyal
5. The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2009
6. Little Bee, by Chris Cleve
7. Bluegrass, by William Van Meter
8. Mop Men, by Alan Emmins
9. Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates
10. The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout
11. Zen and the Art of Knitting, by Bernadette Murphy
12. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
(post by frothyparadise)
“All men contain several men inside them, and most of us bounce from one self to another without ever knowing who we are.”
— Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies
via slaughterhouse90210:
i did actually read this book earlier this year, and this reblog is as good as a review as I can give.
its very good and everyone should read it…
(it hasn’t got Lou Ferringo in it tho’)
reckon:tobia: booklover:libraryland: (via bookshelves)
Brahm Stoker: “Dracula”
Although this wasn’t on my list (and judging by my original list, it’s clear to see why most of them were shelved, I’ve started re-reading them, and just put them down again…there were a few that were good, but mainly you know, most of them, are better off staying shelf worthy). Anyway, this is the next read. The first book that I read for this list was “Frankenstein” which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I’m a tad excited about reading this cheeky book.
Obviously, “Dracula” is a classic, and has been made into film, parodied into cartoons and has had songs written about it and has been re-invented and adapted with that horrendous series of “Twilight” books (god help me, if i ever lay eyes on the word “incredulous” again - ha!)…so, when it comes to it…what more is there to say…other than, ” I vant to suck your blooooood”…Love marychrist
Progress...
A list for 2009:
This is list of books I drew up, which I definitely want to read this year. I am rubbish; I thought I’d be amazing but so far, I have only read six out of my list of twenty. I keep reading lots of other stuff in between though… Distractions!
In bold, are the ones I have started reading but then stopped for whatever reason. (I tend to read many books at the same time, as you can see…)
The struck out are those I have finished. At the bottom are other, non-list books which I’ve finished reading.
A list of books I plan to read in 2009:
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood- The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
- Status Anxiety - Alain de Botton
- The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
- The Myth of Sisyphus - Albert Camus (About a quarter of the way through this. It’s taking me ages to read because I am finding it hard to understand parts and therefore having to re-read. Plus I get too frustrated with reading it so slowly that I start / finish reading other books instead. I’ll finish one day though…)
- The Plague - Albert Camus
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s - Truman Capote
- Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer
- The Collector - John Fowles
Brighton Rock - Graham Greene- Deep Simplicity - John Gribbin
- Chocolat - Joanne Harris
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway- On the Road - Jack Kerouac
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
- One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Ascent - Jed Mercurio
- Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
- Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
- Nausea - Jean-Paul Sartre
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut- Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde- Old School - Tobias Wolff
Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
Random other books (not on the list) which I have finished reading:
- The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
- Slumberland - Paul Beatty
- Metropole - Ferenc Karinthy
- Fup - Jim Dodge
- Agatha Christie - Cards on the Table
- George Saunders - Pastoralia
- The Moving Toyshop - Edmund Crispin
The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of the past centuries.
Descartes (via bookshelves) (via french-moi)
