Well, I thought I would start a new thread for congratulating ourselves on things we'd recently finished reading, especially things from the five big books thread, as we deserve some token of accomplishment.

I, for example, have just finished reading Crime and Punishment, which I listed as one of my five big books, and which I did end up hating - okay, strongly disliking - in the end. I'm very glad I did read it all the way through and not give up, but this is the end of the line for me and Dostoyevsky.

To respond somewhat to the conversation on the other thread about Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, male and female readers, I (female) quite liked Anna Karenina, which is the only Tolstoy that I've read. But the reason I disliked Crime and Punishment so much was that I felt like Dostoyevsky was just too heavy-handed with all his moralizing. You're going to wear a cross so you can go take suffering upon yourself? Wow, never heard of that one before. I think I would have appreciated a bit more subtlety.

I have finished two books, The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan and Love comes Softly by Janette Oke.

I am currently working on my first big book, Outlander by Diana Gabaldron. I'm about halfway through and expect to finish it this week, as long as I don't get too many interruptions.

I should have mentioned also that, amazingly, Crime and Punishment was the eighth book to go on my finished list this year, including one re-read. That's phenomenal for me these days, and I feel it bodes well for the whole year.

And I also got a new motivational technique thanks to LT. I've started adding a tag, "@read 2007" to anything I finish this year, and watching it grow (especially in proportion to the slow shrinkage of "@unread") is such a reward! I was doing so well on my unread pile that I let myself to to the bookstore this afternoon, and I got Winkie and started reading it tonight. I'm on page 25 and I've laughed out loud a dozen times at least

I've finished The Other Side of the Bridge, How Nashville Became Music City, Hide and Seek, Exile and Them so far in 2007.

I ejoyed each of them except for my one "big book" of the year, Them, that one I wouldn't recommend to anyone but the most serious Joyce Carol Oates fan.

I've only recently discovered Mary Lawson and Denise Mina and I recommend Lawson's The Other Side of the Bridge and Mina's Exile, in particular.

Message edited by its author, Jan 16, 2007, 12:01pm.

I finished The Tolkien Scrapbook today! Did I pick up one of the other books on my list to read? No, I grabbed the 509p. biography of Harriet Shaw Weaver. Dear Miss. Weaver. The touchstone doesn't want to load. It's by Jane Lidderdale and Mary Nicholson. Hmm. The touchstones don't like Miss Lidderdale either. Anyway, Should be interesting. A very independent woman who helped James Joyce, among many others, get published.

Great job everybody with our piles of book tbr! MrsLee-did you like the Tolkien Scrapbook? I've heard mixed reviews.
By the way,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Thanks!

About the book, I can only give you a mixed review. As a closet Tolkien fiend, I'm glad I own it and glad I've read it.
The biography is concise and to the point, I have no idea how factual or well researched it is.
The essays are interesting, some are insightful. They range from huge praise, W. H. Auden, to scathing indictment, Edward Williams. (Hope I've got his name right, didn't care for what he wrote, obviously :) A very interesting one on the history of Tolkien's fandom over the generations.
The "fanfic" I pretty much skimmed, I'd rather read Tolkien's The Lost Tales, etc.
One poem I liked, it described a man (Tolkien) in a forest, lots of pretty words about trees, then talked about him picking a fruit from the Tree of Life. I like that picture.
The recipes look scrumptious, I'm hoping to try some soon. I have some oranges from my garden that need using soon due to this freeze we've had. I don't think the recipes are true to the works however, just named after characters. The fish recipe for Gollum is actually baked. I would be afraid to serve him that.

Now you know better than to ask my opinion on something :) I have very long opinions!

Books are moving slowly, so far. I have War With the Newts and Tales from Two Pockets, both by Karel Capek; The Castle, by Franz Kafka; The Goodbye Look, by Ross MacDonald; and The Great Explosion, by Eric Frank Russell, completed. A couple of others are close.

Big books begin next month. :)

Bless the Beasts and Children
The First Crusade
Ghosts & More Ghosts
Outbound Flight
Warriors of God
And the first three books of the Dark is Rising Sequence. I'm two chapters away from finishing the fourth book, and then I will have only one more book before finishing!

In a couple days I start two of my big books, The Ghatti's Tale Volume One, and The CLEP History of the United States I. Can't wait!

Edited to add: Today I (1-24-07) I finished the last book of the Dark is Rising Sequence, and the 10 Women You'll Be Before You're 35. Loved them both, and recommend them to you all!

*sigh* Something's wrong with the touchstones, they worked when I first posted this, but not after editing.

Message edited by its author, Jan 25, 2007, 1:55am.

Well, this week I've finished the Atlas of the European Novel 1800-1900, which was very interesting and had some really cool maps; On the Wealth of Nations, which was good but not great; and Winkie, which was very fun - one description I read said it was a combination of The Velveteen Rabbit and The Trial, and I would say this is pretty much accurate.

Also, to list them for the record, before finishing Crime and Punishment (still celebrating that one), I read The Pleasure of my Company, Mirror Mirror, Stardust, The Keep, The Black Mountain, Eragon, and Wuthering Heights (reread). This is a truly phenomenal list for me on only January 20. I'm starting to think I might actually reach my goal of 100 this year!

So, here's what I've finished in almost a month of reading (from Dec 26 - Jan 24)

The Pirates! in an Adventure with Ahab: a silly start
Excellent Women: Jane Austen in the 1950's with Anglo-Catholics
Walking and Literary Labyrinth: a personal history of reading and religion by an American Catholic Nun
Surprised by Joy: the childhood and early life of one of the premier Christian writers of this past century, his teenaged atheism, and his hard-wrought conversion to Christianity
Men of War: a short take on the British Navy in the time of Nelson, with O'Brian's usual engaging style. Enjoyable if not my absolute favorite book of the sort
History: A Very Short Introduction: a quick exploration into various methods of historical research and inquiry
The Pilot's Wife: a novel about a pilot's wife after he dies and her world falls to pieces
Flowers for Algernon, which I haven't read since I was in middle school.

And reread throughly the following Patrick O'Brian novels (4 - 9)
The Mauritius Command, Desolation Island, The Fortune of War, The Ionian Mission, and Treason's Harbour (last book finished). I haven't decided how to treat these in my book - I haven't read them since 2004 as a rule


Oh, and I forgot: more GRE vocab than I can count.

Message edited by its author, Jan 24, 2007, 7:13pm.

So far this year I have read the following books:
The Brief History of the Dead
'S' is for Silence
'C' is for Corpse
'B' is for Burglar
River Rising
'A' is for Alibi
Singing Songs
Greywalker
Go Ask Alice
Joy School
Abundance
Through a Glass Darkly

Message edited by its author, Jan 25, 2007, 6:42am.

#5 - SamHouston -- How did you like Exile?

I've just bought S is for Silence by Sue Grafton so as its been a while I'm working my way up through the alphabet in order I started on A is for Alibi last week and I'm currently on H is for homicide the best so far I think. Only another couple of weeks reading I think to get to S.

When T comes out in paperback I think I'll give myself a break and go straight too it. I like the @2007 tag that's a great idea, now what did I start reading on New years day....?

#15, kageeh, I liked it a lot. I'm new to Denise Mina's books but I've read three of them in just the last month or so and I'm very impressed with her writing. I like her "strong" female leads and the way that she shows them in their weakest moments as well as when they are at their best. I'd recommend Exile to anyone who enjoys gritty crime fiction or has an interest in Glasgow or Scotland, in general. I'm going to read Mina's other books this year if I can find them all and I'm trying find hard copy first editions to add to my shelves...that's how much I like her.

I finally finished The Ruined Map by Kobo Abe. It only took me a year to read it - now I need to start it over. I really enjoyed it. Probably a good place to go after you've read Woman in the Dunes, but before The Box Man or Inter-Ice Age 4.

I seem to be off to a roaring start this year. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can keep it up :) Although some of the books on this list have been fluff, I'm still pretty happy with my end results thus far:

The Night Before Christmas - fluffy romance stuff
Haunted - my first novel read by Heather Graham
A Short History of Tractors in Ukraine - finally found it cheap at Goodwill
Glamorama - what a comparison to American Psycho!
Flood - the first book in the Burke series
My Father's Keeper - a true account of the children of Nazi leaders
Immoral - a great thriller of a first novel
More Than You Can chew - story of an anorexic's meltdown
The Bobby Gold Stories - an interesting take on his non-restaurant tales
Goat - a not-so-great memoir
Tender At The Bone - a much better memoir on food and family
The Granny - third book in a series, need to read the second one
Once In A House On Fire - an intresting memoir that takes place in UK and Canada with an abusive husband/stepfather
The Penis Book - a long-ago joined bookring
Operation Hell Gate - for those moments when you are missing Jack Bauer just a wee bit from "24"
Drop Dead Gorgeous - more romantic fluff
Anyone But You - should probably be classified as romance fluff, but Jennifer Crusie is my secret weakness
Murder and Obsession - a quick batch of short stories
Bones - was a much better read once they finished with the chasing around the mountains
The Pornographer's Poem - the story of how a boy turns into...well...a pornographer
We All Fall Down - one of my quickest teen reads ever, the story of a boy and his father during the World Trade Center attacks on Sept 11th
Cockeyed - the memoirs of a man going blind
As Catch Can - the Warden is framed and how he gets out of it
Syrup - Maxx Barry's first novel :)
Girl, 15, Charming But Insane - 1st of 3 teen novels
Girl, Nearly 16, Absolute Torture - 2nd of 3 teen novels
Girl, 16, Pants on Fire - 3rd of 3 teen novels

I am so impressed with all the books people are able to read so quickly! I am a slow reader ... and have two kids/house to keep/piano lessons to give/piano to practice ... but I bet everyone else has as many commitments!

So my paltry list, thus far this year, is:

Bangkok 8 by John Burdett - a really great murder mystery that takes place in .. well, Bangkok, Thailand!

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt - you probably all already know plenty about this book.

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs - read this one for my bookclub.

False start on House of Spirits by Isabel Allende, simply because I have to read Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich before Feb. 8 so I can participate in a book discussion meeting, and I was afraid the Allende might get in the way.

However: I've sneakily begun The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin anyway, because .. hey! I need a book to read on the stationary cycle, and it should be a treat - something I really enjoy - to reward myself for exercising, right? (Bait and Switch does not fall into the "treat" category for me!)

False start on What is the What by Dave Eggers (about the Lost Boys of Sudan) because I LOST THE BOOK!!!!!

Slogging through YOU: On a Diet - figure I'll be reading this off and on for a long time so I can DIGEST (sorry!) it all.

Message edited by its author, Jan 28, 2007, 1:22pm.

Well, this wasn't exactly in my big five to read pile, but I started it two years ago, put it aside, found it, and now I've finished! How I Found Livingstone in Central Africa.

Just finished Outlander and The Camel Club By David Baldacci. Am working on Great Expectations, Mission of Motherhood (for a yahoo book group), and The Collectors by David Baldacci.

I have set aside The Thirteenth Tale, The Last town on Earth and Beneath a Marble Sky next to read. The last two are also for book clubs.

I only have one big book finished Outlander. I'm not sure when I'll start the others yet.

Since my last "finished pile" post, on January 20, I have been super prolific (again). I read The Book of Imaginary Beings, which was cute and generally good; The Raphael Affair, which was fun if not the best book I've ever read; The Doorbell Rang, which was one of my favorite Nero Wolfe mysteries yet; King Solomon's Mines, which I enjoyed for its quaint colonialism; Dead Souls, which I thought was great but wished it was really finished; A Short History of Myth, which I was generally impressed with; A Mermaid's Tale, which was okay; and Three at Wolfe's Door, which was not one of my favorite Wolfe's but of course was still enjoyable.

Whew. That was a long list for only a couple weeks. Yesterday I started reading Going Nucular, which I'll probably finish tonight, and am enjoying for its lightness and essayishness. After that, I'm not sure, but I feel like I should read another from my "big five" list.

I've been a bit slow in the reading department since my last post. I have only managed to choke down 4 more books:

Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam
Snipped In The Bud by Kate Collins
French Fried by Nancy Fairbanks

(half the touchstones work, and half of em don't!)

Another update from me - last one was February 6 and since then I've finished:
Going Nucular by Geoffrey Nunberg - I actually reviewed this one, but briefly, it was informative and entertaining as I usually find Nunberg
Principle writings on religion including Dialogues concerning natural religion ; and, the natural history of religion by David Hume - I got onto a bit of a philosophy kick lately...this was really good though, and extremely readable
Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Leave it to Psmith also by Wodehouse - both lots of fun, of course
Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma - I highly recommend this, it's an extremely evenhanded piece of journalism about the murder of Theo van Gogh, multiculturalism in the Netherlands and Europe, and Islam in the West
Lion's Honey by David Grossman - I am so loving the Canongate Myths series
Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout - working through the Nero Wolfe mysteries I haven't read yet, this one was very fun
A Short History of Modern Philosophy: from Descartes to Wittgenstein by Roger Scruton - more of my philosophy kick, this was a great survey though
Why I am not a Christian and other essays by Bertrand Russell - not bad, and in places very good, but often unsatisfying and also extremely dated. The appendix at the end giving a history of a lawsuit in New York City stopping Russell teaching at City College was one of the most interesting parts.
Tractatus logico-philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein - one of the most amazing things I have ever read. Will be rereading this one many times.
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood - still loving that Myths series, this one was particularly good
Thank You, Jeeves (more Wodehouse) - fun as always

Right now I'm in the middle of The Gun Seller, Breaking the Spell, and The Courtier and the Heretic, all of which are pretty good, but I'm in the mood for something new. Must...finish...half-read...books...before I'm allowed any new ones...

Been tagging this year's reads as '2007'

I FINISHED IT!!!
All 1,090 pages of it. Took me exactly 31 days to read it, lol. But I made it through, and it was very enjoyable. So that's one big book off the list. Yay!

bluehwys - Hooray!!!! Congrats! I have to confess, when I first read your post I thought, finished what? Then I saw the "IT" in blue. :)

re 28 - Me too :) I was wondering until I clicked the link.

Congrats!