Here it is the 2nd of 2009...shall we start our own 50 book challenge?
I doubt I'll be able to make 50 myself, but, hey, I am all for lofty goals.
(Plus our What are you reading now? topic is getting rather long.)
Happy New Year, all!
Daniel
Is this list your planned reading for this year?
Don Quixote is on my planned list, too.
Hi Bard. Yes. The list is meant to be a budget constraint and also to keep me from reading all fluff. Last years albatross was Atlas Shrugged. This year Ulysses. I'm actually looking forward to Don Quixote.
Message edited by its author, Jan 2, 2009, 1:42pm.
dont bother with study guides. read it out loud. joyce is an "ear" writer, meant to be heard with the ears, ie. enjoy it. take the weight out of your shoulders.
I'm attempting the
999 Challenge. I've only just started the first book for it (
The Library at Night). My plan is to read nine books a month from my lists just in case the year sneaks away from me - I refuse to rush to catch up.
Renewing online is a neccesary feature, especially when the books somehow disappear from the library book basket the day they're due...
11> True dat. Books seem to sprout legs and walk off around here. Two children's library books have gone missing for more than a month and are due soon - I fear I'll have to pay for them (and here I haven't even had a penny in late fees for over a year).
10> You use the county system, yes? I use the city system's website - I find it easy to renew through it, but I have other complaints.
Yes, I do use the county system. That's nice that you can renew. I'm so pleased that they deliver the book to your local library, but wow, a little more time please.
How long is the check-out period for the county? The city allows books out for 3 weeks (up to 6 with renewal). My bigger problem is with their DVDs; I can't tell you how often I've waited for weeks or months for a hold to come through only to receive the wrong item.
Three also, I'm just a slow reader. :)
I should have started Guernsey as soon as I brought it home knowing I wouldn't be able to renew it, but there were other books due first. I tend to check out more books than I could possibly read in three weeks - it's a sickness. :)
Oh, gosh, I need to catch up!
No more TV when I get home: I must read!
Anyway, I finished
The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston
It was very good! But a bit cathartic for some, I do believe. I did post a review for the world to see.
I am rereading two books.
Jurassic Park and
Neuromancer. We'll see how that goes. I have not read the former since Junior High...we'll see how much I remember.
Message edited by its author, Jan 14, 2009, 3:09pm.
I just finished
Maps and Legends, essays and shorts, very much enjoyed by this Chabon fan... and started The Raw Shark Text Diary (or something like that) -- verrrrry strrrraaaaaange so far...
and its too beautiful a day out there to waste it studying, so I think I'll twist the boys' arms and head for the park to read a bit more...
MrsH you can renew on the county system (I use it all the time). If a book is on hold though you can't renew it. I've gotten a couple late fees thinking I renewed something and when I took it back found out I hadn't. On the county website you need to go to the request/renew system put your info in and then click the important buttons. If you can't figure it out ask the librarians,they'll show you.
I enjoyed
The Will of the Empress, but then I have liked all the
Circle of Magic books.
Here's my reading for January:
Books Read in 2009, * indicates reread
1. Eight Cousins* by Louisa May Alcott
2. Rose in Bloom* by Louisa May Alcott
3. Ambulance Ship by James White
4. Mort* by Terry Pratchett
5. Soul Music* by Terry Pratchett
6. Frederica* by Georgette Heyer
7. Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
8. The Wizard Hunters by Martha Wells
9. The Annotated Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
10. The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett
11. Rilla of the Lighthouse* by Grace May North
12. Ginnie Come Lately by Carola Dunn
13. Griffin's Castle by Jenny Nimmo
14. The Game by Diana Wynne Jones
15. Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines
If you are interested in my reviews, check out
Ronincats’ Threadronincats - The link isn't working. Repost, please?
Thanks, chanale. Let me try again.
Ronincats’ ThreadThere, I think I finally have it working. I should have checked it earlier when I first posted it!
Message edited by its author, Jan 31, 2009, 4:39pm.
Wellity, wellity... I have been busy and away for a while...I even went on a cruise! See that Carnival ship out your window over there? That was what I went on...
Anyway, in spite of it being a vacation, I did not get a lot of time to relax. I finished a great little novel called
Three Minutes on Love, of which I received from the Early Reviewer. I reviewed it...and I even sent the LT link to the author. She wrote me back telling me that she really liked the review I gave her.
I am now reading
The Master and Margarita. OMG, what a fun book so far!
I also finished and reviewed
Jurassic Park. It's interesting rereading it as an adult versus when I read it while in Middle School... It was still entertaining, but I got something else out of it... I understood the philosophies.
Happy Reading, and thanks for being a San Diego Bibliophile!
(We are really up there on the list of messages and members.)
Oh cool, I just finished the Omnivore's Dilemma. Have you read any of Pollan's other books? I was thinking about picking one up.
I finally finished
The Master and Margarita, which I did not want to end, for I was enjoying it far too much.
Now, I am reading a borrowed sci-fi called
Altered Carbon.
I hope all of you are well.
Daniel
I've been in a blue funk-induced reading standstill. I only managed to read one book in the last month (
Betrayed - vampire pap populated by idiot characters but inexplicably appealing even so). I just started
Middlesex yesterday, which is too late to finish it in time for my discussion group tonight.
Message edited by its author, Feb 20, 2009, 5:12pm.
I have to update my profile page to fit what I am reading. I have been procrastinating :-P
I just finished, last Monday, a book called
Altered Carbon that was very good. It's a hard-boiled mystery novel set in the far future, which lead to an interesting genre and premise in of itself.
I have recently discovered a new genre called Bizarro. It's a more modern take on the Weird genre of the 20s and 30s that H. P. Lovecraft is known for. Because of this, I am now reading
The Bizarro Starter Kit (Orange). It is not something I would recommend to everyone merely due to the potentially offensive nature of the stories, but they are imaginative (and not to mention enjoyable) nonetheless.
It has been another slow month. Besides magazines/newspapers and knitting books, I read only 1½ books (more vampires). I need to finish
A Year Without Made in China by tomorrow night.
You'll have to let me know what you think of
Drood. :)
anybody get to the "One Book One San Diego" (that might not be the correct phrase) choice--
The Zookeeper's Wife? I recommend it, but now need a suggestion for Polish Underground/Warsaw Rising books to fill in the historical details. The other SD connection I polished off over spring break was Swinging for the Fences: Choosing to Live an Extraordinary Life by Alex Montoya, very inspirational...
Message edited by its author, Apr 20, 2009, 8:30pm.
Okay, I finished
A Tale of Two Cities. That took a lot longer than I wanted it to... Oh, well.... I did write one heck of a review for it, though!
I am not sure what I want to read next...maybe some borrowed books I should return ;)
Message edited by its author, Apr 24, 2009, 2:25pm.
Hit 50 books for the year today with
The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia
McKillip, review on my thread
here in message 97.
Edited to correct touchstone.
Message edited by its author, Apr 26, 2009, 8:00pm.
All right! Finished
Neuromancer for the second time, and liking it far better. Don't read it when you're sleepy!
Now, on to
Broken Angels...
To #37 TeacherDad - - I read
The Zookeeper's Wife recently and enjoyed it, although I thought it got off to a slow start.
Another great book about Poland during that time is The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945. This is a memoir written by the Polish musician Władysaw Szpilman. He tells how he and his family survived living in the Warsaw Ghetto, the deportation of Jews to extermination camps, the 1943 destruction of the Ghetto, and the 1944 Warsaw Uprising during World War II.
Szpilman wrote this book in 1945, directly after the war. According to his son, “it enabled him to work through his shattering wartime experiences and free his mind and emotions to continue on with his life.”
great suggestion PL, thank you!
Drood and
All Other Nights are in the bag.
Drood was very good until the last 100 (of nearly 800) pages, and I hear I wasn't the only one unimpressed by the ending.
I started two more:
Tipping the Velvet (set 19c England) and
The Glass Castle (my book group seems to pick a lot of memoirs). I'm enjoying
Tipping, although not quite as much as
Fingersmith so far.
In the past week I finished
The Glass Castle and
Living Dead Girl (leave it to me to pick something so dark for Disneyland reading). I've almost finished
Tipping the Velvet, which is erotic and odd in a good way.
Elsewhere I started recently; it's YA fantasy set in the afterlife where everyone ages in reverse.
Anyone out there? What are you all reading?
I've never read any
Heyers, but I've been meaning to one day.
I finished
Elsewhere. Current reads are
Persuasion (Austen) and
Interpreter of Maladies (Jhumpa Lahiri). The former is the best book I've read all year (then again, I've read it at least 15 times), and the latter is excellent. Next I'll read Lahiri's
The Namesake before starting her latest,
Unaccustomed Earth, which is for my reading group in June.
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