Octane's Challenge 2012

Hello and welcome to my thread!

My goals for 2012 are pretty much the same as last year: Reduce Mount TBR, explore new genres, read a few "classics", perhaps reread a couple of childhood favorites... I won't set myself a specific goal for book/page count, but if I hit 100 books by the end of the year I'll be more than happy.

I haven't finished any books yet, but I'm hoping to change that soon!

My 2011 Thread

Jan

Welcome back!

Glad to see you back with us again, Jan!

Welcome back, Jan!

Greetings from a fellow library science student. I hope your studies go well. Good luck on the triple digits goal, and happy reading.

Thanks everybody! And I already have the first book to add:

1. A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan



I really enjoyed the way the 13 loosely connected stories in this book go together like mosaic pieces to reveal the overall themes. The "goon" in the title is time, and this is a book about moving past mistakes and second chances. I enjoyed the first half of the book more, because the second was a bit too experimental in parts and challenged my ability to suspend my disbelief ("Selling the General"), although the story that is told in a series of Powerpoint slides is absolutely great ("Great Rock and Roll Pauses").

Rating: 4 Stars
Pages read: 352

Hello and welcome back! I have A Visit From the Goon Squad reserved from my library's ebook collection, so I'm looking forward to it coming in. It sounds intriguing, and I'm trying to read new types of things this year.

I need to read A Visit from the Goon Squad soon. I have seen numerous good reviews of the book.

Glad to see that your first read of the year was a good one for you, Jan!

For everyone planning to read A Visit from the Goon Squad this neat character map might come in handy, it's pretty hard to keep track of all the characters, especially the ones that are mentioned once in one story, only to reappear as a central figure in a later one!

2. Breakfast with Socrates by Robert Rowland Smith



As the title suggests, the author of this book tries to show how philosophy relates to everyday life. There are several chapters, from "Waking up" and "Being at work" to "Going to a party" and "Watching TV" and in each of them the ideas and world-view of one or more important philosophers are applied to the topic at hand. The book is a quick read, however the author over-simplifies many things and discusses practically nothing at depth. There are a couple of amusing anecdotes and the book is a quick read, so it's definitely not a waste of money (especially because I got the ebook version for 99 cents), but I doubt that it will have the life-changing effects the author hopes to achieve according to the introduction.

Rating: 2.5 Stars
Pages read: 608

#9: I got up to page 105 on the character map thingie and it never progressed beyond Sasha, so obviously I was doing something wrong.

Perhaps you have JavaScript deactivated? At page 100 there should definitely be a lot more characters on the map.

Now that I am home, I will give it another shot.

ETA: Yes, it works now. I guess my office computer does not have JavaScript working on it.

3. At Home by Bill Bryson



My first Bryson, his books were recommended to me because I read a few of Tim Moore's books. In the book Bryson basically explores his house, a 150 year old rectory in England, room by room and explains the history of each of them. It's essentially a history of modern living, touching on all kinds of subjects, like new inventions, architecture, fashions, social change... and while Bryson often goes off on a tangent, he always keeps it interesting. It's quite amazing how much information is crammed into this book, along with tons of anecdotes which help to keep the whole thing entertaining.

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Pages read: 1240

I enjoy Bill Bryson's books, but I have not yet read that one. I will have to rectify that.

No new books yet, just felt like sharing this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKVcQnyEIT8

4. Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning



One of the better Star Wars novels I've read. Not terribly high-brow of course, but a lot of fun and it helps bridge the gap between the two movie trilogies.

Rating: 3 Stars

5. Heldenplatz (Heroes' Square) by Thomas Bernhard



Perhaps picking Bernhard's final and most controversial play as my first contact with his work wasn't the best choice. It's highly political and I just don't know much about Austrian politics in the late eighties (I was busy being born then) so I feel like a lot of it just went over my head. However, Bernhard's prose is highly enjoyable, and despite the complete lack of punctuation, very readable. I'll definitely give him another shot, since several people I admire credit him as an influence.

Rating: 4 Stars
Pages read: 1856 Pages

Exams are finally over, I didn't get to read much due to studying and finishing papers. Now I've got one week off and a five weeks of working in a library to hopefully catch up on my reading - and Fantasy February is right up my alley!

6. Isard's Revenge by Michael A. Stackpole



Nice book, although a prime example for the almost comically bad cover art of most Star Wars books. Pretty much perfect to relax with after a long day of studying.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pages read: 2208

Ah, Star Wars novels... how I love them... now I want to go read one!

I've heard good things about the X-Wing books, nice to see the rumors are well founded!

Time for a few updates!

7. French Revolutions by Tim Moore



An Englishman, not exactly in peak physical condition, attempts to cycle the Tour de France, a few weeks before the actual event. This is the fourth book by Tim Moore I've read and just like the others it had many funny moments, although it's not as good as Do Not Pass Go or I Believe In Yesterday. I've never really cared about cycling or the Tour, but Moore intersperses the account of his own struggle with quite a few anecdotes about actual Tour riders, which were very interesting. Much of the humour is derived from Moore being physically inadequate to the task and various misunderstandings with various French people he encounters (who are portrayed a bit stereotypically), which got a little boring after a while.

Rating: 3 Stars
Pages read: 2596

8. Love All The People by Bill Hicks



Bill Hicks is one of my absolute favourite stand up comedians, I just love the way he didn't simply tell jokes but rather channelled his anger about different issues into incredibly funny comedy. Sadly, this book simply doesn't do him justice. There is some biographical stuff, a few interviews, letters, newspaper articles, poems etc. but by far the biggest part of the book is made up of (annotated) transcripts of some of his performances. I have several issues with that: a) all of these are already available as audio or video, so I already know them b) Hicks' material changed pretty slowly, so there is a lot of repetition. A lot of repetition. c) Written down, the material just isn't nearly as funny as when performed live. If the annotations were a bit more extensive they would be useful (Stewart Lee's How I Escaped My Certain Fate does this a lot better), but as they are they only serve to distract. There is some interesting stuff in here and I'm still giving it 2.5 Stars, but if hadn't got it for 99 cents in the Kindle deal of the day I'd probably feel a bit cheated. Better spend your money on "American - The Bill Hicks Story".

Rating: 2.5 Stars
Pages read: 2932

9. On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers



I find it incredible that this movie was only optioned for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. There are so many similarities between this book and the whole series, especially in the setting but also some of the characters. (Jack Shandy > Will Turner, Jack Sparrow > Phil Davies, Blackbeard > Barbossa, and that's just the first movie). The book isn't perfect (a few anachronisms etc.) but it's a lot better than the franchise it inspired, especially the mess that is supposed to be based on it.

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Pages read: 3271

10. Do Polar Bears Get Lonely



A collection of 101 questions from different fields, posed and answered by readers of the New Scientist magazine. I doubt I'll ever use anything I learned from this book again, but it saved me from boredom on my commute for a few days (it's only about 15 minute on the train, so too short to make any progress on a novel or so, but three or four of the questions in this book were perfect).

Rating: 3 Stars
Pages read: 3511

11. The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde



Definitely not Fforde's best work. Just like the first book in the series this is targeted towards a younger audience than the Thursday Next series and his other books, but while The Last Dragonslayer never felt "dumbed down", this did. It's not a bad book by any means, but I just expect more from Fforde. There are still a lot of original, funny ideas but the storytelling somehow gets a bit lost and towards the end a lot of stuff seemed to just be build-up for the last book in the trilogy.

Rating: 3 Stars
Pages read: 3801

12. Tales of the Far West by Scott Lynch (and others)



The Far West is a cross-genre setting that combines the tropes of Spaghetti Westerns with Chinese wuxia (think of movies like Hero or House of Flying Daggers) and Steampunk. I was intrigued by the setting, but I mainly got this for the new Scott Lynch story (Republic of Thieves has just been pushed back again), which is probably the best one in this anthology. There are several other good stories though, mostly by lesser known authors, and I'd recommend this to anybody who is looking for some nice creative, pulpy action in a pretty original setting. For more information see www.intothefarwest.com

Rating: 4 Stars
Pages read: 4026

13. Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed



I enjoyed the setting, which is based on the Arabian cultures and myths instead of the standard medieval Europe of many fantasy worlds. The main character, Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, is also refreshingly different from the typical, young fantasy hero, since he is an aging ghoul hunter who wants nothing more than to retire from the monster hunting business. Sadly, many of the other characters are fairly stereotypical, especially Zamia, a young tribeswoman trying to avenge her family, is eerily similar to several characters from other books I've read. Overall, I'd recommend the book to people looking for an unusual setting, even though I felt that the book could have been a bit longer, because the plot was a bit too straightforward for my taste.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pages read: 4314

14. Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg



The tale of a Harvard graduate who spends two years working in a prison library in Boston. Steinberg writes with a lot of humor, but he is a lot better when he tells the stories of the inmates and colleagues he met, than when he muses quasi-philosophically about prison. The book is alternately depressing (especially the stories of an inmate trying to reconnect with her son, also in prison, and of another who is trying to turn his life around) and laugh-out-loud funny. I finished it in three nights, each time planning to read "a few" pages before sleeping, only to find myself an hour or two and 100+ pages later, still reading. The ending came a bit too abruptly, with Steinberg recalling his last day of work in the library without really explaining why he decided to leave, but I still really liked the book.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pages read: 4730

15. Radio Heimat by Frank Goosen



I've read this book before, but a copy fell into my hands while working in the library and I couldn't resist rereading it a few pages at a time whenever I didn't have anything to do. Goosen is one of the funniest writers I've discovered so far and these, mostly autobiographical, tales of family and growing up in the Ruhr area of Germany in the seventies and eighties manages to manages to make me feel nostalgic for a time when I wasn't even alive and a place I've only visited once, briefly.

Rating: 5 Stars
Pages read: 4998

16. Reamde by Neal Stephenson



This is my first book by Stephenson and what struck me most was the density of the writing: Even though this book is more than 1000 pages long, almost nothing seemed superfluous, everything had it's place in the story and even though there are several parallel plot lines developing simultaneously I never lost track. The story itself starts with an online game, which is used to spread a virus (ransomware, to be precise) and quickly turns into an international wild-goose chase involving the Russian mob, Chinese hackers, Islamic terrorist, various intelligence agencies and a few innocent bystanders who get sucked into the action. It builds to an absolutely epic finale, and except for the almost too perfect end and some plot lines, which I wish had been pursued a bit further, it's very hard to find much fault with this book. Some other books by Stephenson have been on my TBR list for some time and due to this book they jumped up quite a few ranks.

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Pages read: 6054

17. Good Morning Nantwich: Adventures in Breakfast Radio by Phill Jupitus



I never really listened to the radio a lot, for a lot of the same reasons Jupitus claims responsible for his dislike of commercial radio. This dislike is probably a major reason for the lack of mass appeal of his own breakfast show that ran from 2002 to 2007 on BBC 6. The book is an interesting look into the world of radio and Jupitus manages to be just as funny in writing as he is on TV, in podcasts and, presumably, on the radio and his love of music really shines through. Every chapter ends with a themed playlist, which is a nice bonus.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pages read: 6374

Nice to see another fan of Running the Books! I had trouble getting into it a first when I read it a few years ago, but found it became fascinating and un-put-down-able as the book went on. I agree about the abrupt ending!

I also enjoyed Running the Books, once I got past a few things that irritated me. I had an interest in applying for prison librarian jobs, once I finish my MLIS in December, but after reading that book, I'm not so sure. For me, one of most disturbing aspects of the book was the intense animosity between the library/education staff and the guards. What a hostile work environment!

18. Burning Rubber by Charles Jennings



After the Tour de France, the second book about a sport I don't really care about. However, especially the early history of motor racing is full of great stories and interesting people. This book gives a great overview over the history of Formula One, but I felt that it focuses a bit too much on British drivers and manufacturers.

Rating: 3 Stars
Pages read: 6702

19. The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks by Donald Harington



While reading this book I constantly had the urge to find somebody to read some of the countless hilarious passages in this book to. It's the story of a fictional small town in the Arkansas Ozarks and its inhabitants (mainly the Ingledew family), from the first white settlers in the 1830's, over its steady rise and eventual decline to being little more than a ghost town in the sixties or seventies. Every chapter starts with an illustration of a new building in the town and a description of its architecture. Harington writes with a lot warmth and love for the Ozarks and creates very memorable and likeable characters, intertwining the history of Stay More with actual historic events (the Civil War, the advent of the automobile...). This is one of the funniest books I've read in a long time and even though it takes a slight turn for the... weird, I absolutely adored it.

Rating: 5 Stars
Pages read: 7142

20. Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities by Ian Stewart



A collection of short pieces, from logic puzzles over math jokes to biographies of/anecdotes about mathematicians. Interesting, but not great. Good for reading on the train.

Rating: 3 Stars
Pages read: 7462

21. Mama, jetzt nicht by Daniel Glattauer



A collection of newspaper columns by Glattauer. Funny, but very short.

Rating: 3 Stars

22. Are you smart enough to work at Google? by William Poundstone



The best thing about this book are the interview questions at the end of every chapter and their extensive answers in the appendix. The rest, about the methods Google and similar companies use to hire the best candidates, was a bit boring.

Rating: 2 Stars

23. Flaschendrehen by Jess Jochimsen



Very funny, although not as good as his first book. I especially enjoyed the pictures of weird road signs, posters etc. Jochimsen encountered, and the stories he makes up to explain them.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Pages read: 8166

>33 Octane:: I haven't read that one yet but after reading With and Lightning Bug I've decided to work my way through all of Harington's Stay More novels. I have Some Other Place. The Right Place in the pile for this month, then I'll look forward to Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks.

>34 Octane:: Definitely one for the Someday Swamp!

Just a few days after I finished Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks another of his novels, The Choiring of the Trees was the Kindle deal of the day, so that'll be my next book by him. It's great to hear that his other works are enjoyable as well!

24. So Viel Zeit by Frank Goosen



While I've loved Goosen's short fiction for a long time, I never enjoyed his novels quite as much. This book however is every bit as much fun as Radio Heimat or Mein Ich und sein Leben, with the usual humour and a great story as well. A group of old school friends in their early forties who still meet for their monthly card games and are all in some way disappointed with how their life turned out, decide to fulfil their 25 year old dream and start a band together. They buy instruments and start practising, to get into shape for their big gig at their school reunion. On the way, they all find ways to overcome their problems and start fresh. It's a very funny book, but Goosen also writes with a lot of love for his characters and especially the 70's music they play. Maybe I'm too young to enjoy a book that is essentially about mid-life crisis this much, but as long as it's this good I don't really care!

Perfect playlist to listen to while reading this book: http://8tracks.com/sweet-melissa/the-70s-rock-experience

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Read: 8548 Pages

25. Alte Meister by Thomas Bernhard



A very odd novel. There isn't really much of a plot, almost all of the book is taken up by a long monologue by Reger, an old music critic who spends countless hours studying the paintings of old masters, trying to find flaws in them. The novel is written from the perspective of Reger's (only) friend, who one morning watches him sitting on his usual bench in the museum Reger spends every second day in. He recounts everything criticizes about various famous artists, the Austrian government and society, the Catholic church, art itself and almost every other aspect of human life. This is interspersed with small bits of Reger's biography, which make it clear that a lot of his impotent rage at the world comes from losing his wife and being unable to cope with surviving her. This and Reger's constant contradictions and outlandish complaints make the book a curious tragicomedy. Reger is the essential grumpy old man and a lot of Bernhard's own complicated relationship with his country shines through in his relentless assault on the "establishment". I'll probably have to reread this book at some point, because I somehow feel that I just scratched its surface.

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Read: 8858 Pages

26. Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover



Scott Lynch credited this as one of his inspirations for The Lies of Locke Lamora, so I basically had to read it. It's set some time in the future, humanity is organised in a very rigid caste system and criticizing the regime or promoting any kind of freedom is a crime. Scientists have found a way to temporarily "shift" people into another dimension called "Overworld", a discovery that is used for the most popular form of entertainment: Overworld is pretty much your standard medieval fantasy world, albeit very dark and gritty. The people who are sent over there are actors, trained in magic and combat, who fight their way through "adventures" which are transmitted through some device, so that people in "our" world can relive them from their perspective (for a high sum of money of course). The main character, Hari, is one of the most famous and accomplished adventurers. On Overworld he is Caine, a completely ruthless warrior, who has braved the most dangerous dungeons and killed countless people, including at least one king. In the book he is sent on a new adventure, but this time the stakes are extremely high. A new, extremely powerful ruler has appeared out of the blue and he is aware of the actors coming into his world, causing wars and suffering. Caine is sent there to kill this man by the studio, however his ex-wife is also on Overworld, trying to save people who are suspected of being actors, when suddenly contact with the studio.
This book had a lot of high, but also some low points. Stover is fantastic at writing over-the-top, fast paced action scenes, but in between them I sometimes felt that the book was a bit too long. Anybody who thought that Joe Abercrombie's books were too violent or bloody should stay clear of this. Caine is also a hard character to like, because although his motivations are very clear, the way he is essentially completely remorseless, almost amoral in the pursuit of vengeance while trying to save his wife, regularly made me think of the quote "Personal isn't the same as important" from Carrot in the Discworld series. Beneath the brutal killer, Caine is clearly a highly intelligent man, who sees the wrongs in his society and wants to change it, but in my opinion doesn't show enough of this side. The ethical problems of essentially using a complete civilization to satisfy the bloodlust of the populace also aren't explored enough, but perhaps that happens in the later books in the series.
Despite these issues, I still had a lot of fun with this book. If you're looking for over-the-top action fantasy and don't shy away from a bit of blood and gore, you could certainly do worse than this!

Rating: 4 Stars
Read: 9418 Pages

27. Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw



A wizard is resurrected a few decades after his death by a dark necromancer. Initially his only ambition is to die again, which proves harder than he thought. However, he soon has bigger problems when it becomes clear that someone is trying to turn his world into a game! A fantastically funny account of the life of a NPC (non-player character) in a MMORPG, I knew Yahtzee from his brilliant video game reviews (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation) and this book is clearly influenced by his experiences with tons of bad games. Tons of fun.

Rating: 4 Stars
Read: 9768 Pages

28. You Are Awful But I Like You by Tim Moore



Tim Moore is on a quest to experience the worst of the worst the UK has to offer. He consults various surveys and plans an itinerary through the worst places of England, Scotland and Wales, loads his MP3-player with the worst music he can find and sets of in the worst car in British history, vowing to sleep only in the worst hotels and eating the worst food he can find. There are a lot of funny anecdotes in this book and it's nice how Moore tries to find something to enjoy in everything, but somehow I didn't like this book nearly as much as Do Not Pass Go or I Believe in Yesterday.

Rating: 2.5 Stars
Read: 10056 Pages

Mogworld sounds absolutely ridiculous... and possibly right up my alley. On the list it goes!

29. The "If You Prefer A Milder Comedian Please Ask For One" EP by Stewart Lee



Lee's How I Escaped My Certain Fate is one of my favourite books about stand-up comedy, and this sadly rather slim volume is the perfect companion to it. It contains the heavily annotated transcript of his latest DVD and I spent a very enjoyable evening watching the DVD, reading along and pausing to read the footnotes. It's a bit expensive, considering that it has just a bit more than a hundred pages, but I absolutely loved it.

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Read: 10168 Pages

Mogworld tickled my fancy as well. Sigh, onto the wishlist...

30. You Can't Read This Book by Nick Cohen



The title of this book is misleading, I was perfectly able to read it and am very glad for it. Cohen is a political journalist who writes for the Observer and other papers and in this book he exposes how censorship is enforced in the supposedly free western world. The book is divided into three parts, "God", "Money" and "State". "God" deals with religious censorship, among others with the cases of Salman Rushdie or the Danish caricatures of Mohammad and how even liberal proponents of free speech easily buckle before the threat of violence and shift the blame from the violent religious zealots to those who did nothing worse than exercise their right to free speech. "Money" is all about how (especially British) libel law grants the rich the power to keep details about their lives or opinions they don't agree with from being published. In "State" Cohen argues that the Internet and modern technology, hailed as a great advancement for democracy and free speech, also gives governments new methods to censor and suppress their people. The secret documents published by Wikileaks for example allowed repressive governments, like China or North Korea, or terrorist groups in Afghanistan or Iraq to easily identify people who gave information to/collaborated with the US government.
All in all, while I often found this book to be depressing and infuriating at the same time, it's also an absolute joy to read because of the flawless execution. Cohen's scorn at both the left and right shines through in every page, and while I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, I enjoyed his writing very much. It's one of those books I wish everyone would read, because it might actually change the way they look at certain things.

Rating: 5 Stars
Read: 10498 Pages

My apologies for adding to your wishlists! I'm starting to lose track of mine as well...

Oh,yeah, right! Some apology when you have just added the Cohen book to my wishlist at the same time!

31. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson



Brandon Sanderson has been on my TBR list for years, and I regret having waited so long to give him a chance! The premise of this book is fairly standard for a fantasy novel, an evil, immortal lord has ruled over the Final Empire for a thousand years and the protagonists are trying to overthrow him. Sanderson builds on that however and creates memorable, likeable protagonists and a gripping plot with several great twists. The stand-out feature of the book is definitely the magic system: Allomancers can ingest different metals and alloys and "burn" them to gain special abilities, like pulling and pushing on nearby metals, enhanced senses or influencing others' emotions. I've got a thing for clever magic systems and this is one of my favorites so far. Finished the 24-hour audio-book in less than a week and am looking forward to the next book!

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Read: 11170 Pages

32. Towing Jehovah by James Morrow



Nietzsche was right: God is dead - and his miles long corpse is floating somewhere in the Atlantic. Archangels charge the catholic church with hiring a supertanker to tow the body to a tomb somewhere in the Arctic circle. However, the church officials won't give up the hope that He might somehow be revived and when a group of militant atheists gets wind of the whole thing and decides to destroy the corpse with the help of a group of WW2 re-enactors, it gets all very complicated very fast. This is a very clever religious satire, it's great to see how the different people and groups try to come to terms with the "idea of the corpse", reactions ranging from depression and disbelief to the disappearance of all semblance of morality and a descent into blind hedonism. It's a very funny book, not in a laugh-out-loud way, but more subtle with sublimely absurd characters (the WW2 re-enactment society being my favorites) great dialogue, while also providing a vehicle for Morrow's musings on religion, the church and the idea of a creator. I found the ending slightly disappointing, but I just found out that there are two sequels.

Rating: 4 Stars
Read: 11541 Pages

33. The Library Book by Anita Anand, Alan Bennett et. al.



A collection of short pieces (some previously published, some new) about libraries by various writers, including Stephen Fry, Julian Barns, China Mieville, Karin Slaughter and many others. Some are short pieces fiction, others chronicle the importance of libraries in the authors life or their history or the role they fill in society. All proceeds from this book go to the Reading Agency, a charity for promoting reading. I enjoyed it a lot, it was nice to be reminded why I am going to be a librarian and I might have discovered a new author or two. The only problem is that I have the feeling that I should be returning this book to somewhere.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Read: 11721 Pages

34. The Great Bazaar and Brayan's Gold by Peter V. Brett



I liked The Painted Man a lot, and the sequel has been lying around here for some months. The two short stories in this collection reminded me that I really have to read it sometime! My favorite part of the books is probably the world building, especially the magic system based on painting runes on things to ward of certain kinds of demons.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Read: 11807 Pages

35. The World's Greatest Idea by John Farndon



This book was pretty disappointing. It is supposed to be a list of the fifty best or most important ideas of all time, however I don't really like the process by which those ideas were chosen. The author essentially produced the list of ideas and then let people vote for their order on the Internet (unsurprisingly, the Internet was voted as the best idea of all). I also don't agree with all his choices, because some things I would have included are omitted (for example banking is on the list, money isn't. Calculus is on the list, mathematics isn't...) and the other way around. Of course, all those things are debatable, but it's also not entirely possible to compare the ideas on the list. Is honor greater than the laws of motion? Whats better, pottery or zero? Refrigeration or marriage? Farndon dedicates a few pages to each idea, explaining why it is so important, but in most cases they are too short to convey much information that isn't already more or less commonly known.

Rating: 2 Stars
Read: 12127

36. When Angels Rest by Donald Harington



I don't know why, but Amazon keeps on making Harington's novels their daily Kindle deal (I've got five so far). And if they're all as good as the ones I've read, they can keep them coming!
Like Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks it is set in the fictional town of Stay More, Arkansas. The story is told through the eyes of Dawny, the twelve year old editor of the towns newspaper, the Stay Morning Star. It is set in the latter stages of World War 2, when most of the men have been drafted into military service and the women mind the farms and households on their own. This leaves the children free to play their own war games, firmly divided into Allies (mostly kids from richer families and bullies) and Axis (Dawny and his friends, from the poorer families). The conflict between those two gains a new dimension when actual soldiers arrive in the town for training maneuvers. The interactions between the kids reminded me a lot of the movie "Stand By Me", while the arrival of the soldiers and the way they change the time took me back to Teahouse of the August Moon, which is one of my absolute favorite books. Harington weaves in actual historic events, the death of one of Dawny's friends on Iwo Jima, the death of his heroes Ernie Pyle and FDR, the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I don't think I've ever been drawn into a story like this before and Harington isn't even subtle about it, having his narrator address the audience constantly ("Gentle reader...") and even asking them to imagine rain so he can continue his story etc.. I shouldn't work, but it does and the result is absolutely wonderful.

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Read: 12405 Pages

37. The Choiring of the Trees by Donald Harington



This book is the only reason why I didn't give When Angels Rest five stars. It's another Stay More novel, and I'm starting to fall in love with that little town - perhaps not as a place to live, but the idea of it.
This is the story of Nail Chism, who in 1910 is innocently sentenced to die on the electric chair for the rape of a 13 year old girl, because he threatened to expose a bootlegging operation run by the county judge and sheriff. He narrowly escapes the electric chair for three times, with the help of Viridis Monday, who is an artist and reporter working for a newspaper. The struggle against corrupt officials and sadistic prison guards is described in painful detail (The Green Mile was the most pleasant movie or book I was reminded of) and Harington really makes his characters come to life. The book is supposedly based on a true story, but I don't know how much of it is actually real. The governor of Arkansas seems to be based on the actual governor at that time and Viridis meets Picasso and other real artists during her time in Paris, but apart from that it's hard to verify anything. It doesn't really matter anyway, because this is just another great novel by a great author.

Rating: 5 Stars
Read: 12865 Pages

38. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende



The folks over at The Green Dragon did a group read of this and it inspired me to revisit this childhood favorite of mine. I was astonished at how much I remembered of the book, although the second half had a few surprises for me. I'm glad that, even though reading it now was a very different experience from reading it as a child, this book hasn't been visited by the "suck fairy" and I can still clearly see what made me love it so much.

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Read: 13293 Pages

39. JPod by Douglas Coupland



My first novel by Coupland. I'd heard his name before a few times and when I saw this book in a bookstore I decided to give him a chance, because the first few pages were pretty entertaining. It's set in Vancouver, where the protagonist works for a game design company, in a office with five other people whose last names end in J, which is why they're called JPod. The book chronicles the struggles in the company as management changes the skateboard game they're working on several times and the main character also has to cope with his marijuana-growing mother, his wannabe actor father and his people smuggling brother and his criminal Chinese friend. The book has a lot of funny ideas and great characters, but there are several annoying things as well. For one, it's designed to read like a novel read on a computer, with all the distractions the Internet offers. In practice this means, there are a few stream-of-consciousness/spam mail passages as well as a list of all prime numbers between 10000 and 100000, which takes up 20 pages (!), some worked into the story, some not. I enjoyed the pop culture references, but I slowly grew to hate the main character, who, no matter how insane the people around him act, just goes along with everything and remains absolutely passive. I'm not sure if I'll pick up another Coupland book again, I still can't really decide if I liked this one or not.

Rating: 3 Stars
Read: 13869 Pages

41. The Sandman, Volume 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
42. The Sandman, Volume 2: The Doll's House
43. The Sandman, Volume 3: Dream Country
44. The Sandman, Volume 4: A Game of You
45. The Sandman, Volume 5: Season of Mists
46. The Sandman, Volume 6: Fables & Reflections
47. The Sandman, Volume 7: Brief Lives
48. The Sandman, Volume 8: World's End
49. The Sandman, Volume 9: The Kindly Ones
50. The Sandman, Volume 10: The Wake
51. The Sandman: Dream Hunters
52. The Sandman: Endless Nights
all by Neil Gaiman and various artists





It's been a while since I read a graphic novel, but I've heard a lot about this series and I enjoyed Neil Gaiman's work a lot so I was delighted when I saw that my library had a complete set of the paperback collections of the original 75 issues and even the two books that were published a few years after those. The series focuses on Dream of the Endless, who is the ruler of the kingdom of dreams/the embodiment of dreams (it's complicated) who is imprisoned by some cultists (who are actually trying to imprison his sister, Death) and when he finally manages to free himself after 70 years seeks revenge and rebuilds his kingdom, hunting for the instruments of his powers that were stolen from him. That's the first volume. In the rest of the series Gaiman uses this background to do what he does best: tell stories. It's a great mix of original stories, historical events and various mythologies (with a little bit of the DC universe thrown in), some spanning whole volumes, some stand-alones. It's hard to pinpoint what the series is about, because it touches on so many themes, but it's definitely an experience I wouldn't want to miss. The various artists do, with very few exceptions, a fantastic job of illustrating these tales and some pages are absolutely breathtaking.

Rating: 5 Stars
Read: 16231 Pages

53. Die unendliche Bibliothek by Jorge Luis borges



Until some weeks ago I had never heard of Borges, but for some reason his name kept popping up everywhere and I stumbled upon this collection of his writings in a bookstore and decided to give him a chance. This volume collects various short stories, poems and essays spanning his entire career and there are some brilliant pieces in there, "The Library of Babel" being my favorite. Definitely someone who's work I'll have to explore more!

Rating: 5 Stars
Read: 16759 Pages

54. Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore



"A dark fairy tale about the color blue". The book is set in 19th century France and starts with the murder of Vincent van Gogh. I'm not really an expert on art, so I had to look up many of the artists who populate the pages of this book, but that didn't keep me from enjoying this book. Moore as usual creates brilliant characters (his portrayal of Henry Toulouse-Lautrec is hilarious) and provides tons of funny dialogues, although I still wish he would at least sometimes resist making the obvious, pubescent joke. The plot of the book, concerning the mysterious Colorman who seems to be connected to most famous artists of the last millennia and his dark (blue) secrets takes a few unexpected turns and kept me absolutely hooked. This is one of my favorite Moore novels, especially after the slightly disappointing Love Story trilogy, although it isn't quite as good as A Dirty Job.

Rating: 4 Stars
Read: 17176 Pages

I didn't get to read a lot in July, studying for exams for 10 or more hours a day left me too mentally exhausted to focus on a book for the first two weeks and afterwards my "reading mojo" was somehow gone. At least I made some progress on The Well of Ascension on the commute to my summer job. I slowly seem to get back into things however, which is great because my TBR pile is slowly getting out of control...

55. The Rose of Fire by Carlos Ruiz Zafón



I read The Shadow of the Wind some years ago, but never got around to reading the sequel and completely forgot about that wonderful book. By sheer luck I found this prequel short story in the Kindle store and decided to read it. The story is nice and I really enjoy Zafóns writing, but it's almost too short. Still, I liked it and am planning to reread Shadow of the Wind and to check out the other books in the series.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

56. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman



After the Sandman series I wasn't quite ready to abandon Gaiman, so I jumped right into this collection of short stories and poems. It's a very varied selection of pieces, and while some didn't really work for me there are some that really stood out. "A Study in Emerald", a mashup of Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft for example or the American Gods novella "Monarch of the Glen". My favorite piece is probably "Sunbird", because, although I saw the final twist coming from a mile away, it perfectly shows Gaiman's talent as a storyteller.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

57. Legends II: Dragon, Sword and King edited by Robert Silverberg



A collection of five short novels by the "masters of modern fantasy". I mainly got this for the second Egg and Dunk novella by George R. R. Martin, which was brilliant. I also enjoyed Lord John and the Succubus by Diana Gabaldon and was pleasantly surprised by Elizabeth Haydon's story, an author I hadn't even heard of before. There's also a Shannara story by Terry Brooks which was good, but probably won't convince me to pick up his other books. Yazoo Queen by Orson Scott Card is the story I enjoyed least, I found it rather boring but perhaps my judgment is coloured by my personal dislike for the author...

Rating: 3.5 Stars

58. Work! Consume! Die! by Frankie Boyle



I don't really know why I read this book. Boyle has long been known for his very dark and often controversial comedy, and while I found that entertaining at first his recent output has often relied too much on pure shock value instead of actual humour (He described his tv show Tramadol Nights as "pure nihilism", which seems fair. Unfortunately it can't really be described as "funny"). This book suffers from the same problems. It features a novella that would probably work better on its own, despite being pretty bleak and dark and occasionally disturbing, interspersed with chapters featuring parts of his stand-up act on various topics. There are some surprisingly insightful moments, but they get quickly buried under all the "taboo-breaking" one-liners. The problem with those isn't that they're offensive (Although if you're the kind of person who gets offended by jokes, this isn't the right book for you), but that they get old very quickly. When faced with the choice of either making up something that is both funny and new or just making another joke about some celebrity involving drugs or murder, Boyle always takes the easy choice, perhaps because he thinks that that's what people expect from him. The book offers an interesting look into the head of a comedian whose career has floundered for the last few years and who is afraid of losing all significance, but it also makes it painstakingly obvious why he finds himself in that situation.

Rating: 2 Stars
Read: 18382 Pages

Just catching up ... good to see more positive reviews of Stay More novels. My latest didn't go so well-- Some Other Place. The Right Place never really connected with me despite some interesting writing and squirm-worthy sexual situations. Eventually I ran out of renewals, so I abandoned it.

I think I'll give Harington a rest for a bit then give Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks a try.

For some reason the folks at Amazon seem to really love Harington, they keep making his books the Kindle deal of the day, so I have six or seven of his books still to be read.

August was a pretty good month, reading-wise, I think I more than made up for my slack in July!

59. Colour: Travels Through The Paintbox by Victoria Finlay



Christopher Moore mentioned it as one of his sources for Sacre Bleu and the book sounded interesting. Finlay traces the history of colours used by painters and dyers from prehistoric cave paintings to the arrival of artificial colours in the 19th century. Each chapter deals with one colour, featuring the colours of the rainbow, ochre, black, brown and white. In these chapters Finlay presents a mix of science, history and details of her own travels all over the world (Australia, Mexico, India, Afghanistan etc.), trying to find out more about these colours. The chapters vary a bit in style and sometimes it feels like there is a common thread lacking, but the book is never boring and full of astonishing anecdotes.

Rating: 4 Stars

60. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter



Pratchett's novel with Neil Gaiman, Good Omens, is one of my absolute favorite books ever, so it would probably unfair to compare this collaboration with it. However, I couldn't shake the feeling that there isn't a whole lot of Pratchett in this book. Some of the characters and the general ideas in the book bear his trademark humour, but I suspect that most of the actual writing was done by Baxter. This doesn't necessarily mean that the book is bad, there are many things to like and the idea of being able to step into parallel Earths by means of a simple device a child could build and the exploration of the effects such a device would have on society seem very well thought out, not to mention that it definitely has its funny moments. Yet it still isn't what I've come to expect from a book that has Terry Pratchett's name on the cover and I was a little bit dismayed at finding out that it's only the first part of a two book series.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

61. Thank You For Smoking by Christopher Buckley



Nick Naylor is a lobbyist for the tobacco lobby, routinely appearing on television to defend the products of his industry, dining with his fellow "merchants of death" (gun and alcohol lobbyists respectively). His world gets turned upside down when he is kidnapped and almost murdered with nicotine patches. It's a hilarious look at the tobacco industry and lobbying in general, with lots of great characters, I finished it in one go. Naylor is probably my second favorite spin doctor, just after Malcolm Tucker from The Thick Of It.

Rating: 4 Stars

62. The Banned List by John Rentoul



A collection of the clichéd phrases that are constantly used in the media, that distort the actual information contained in the writing. The essay at the beginning, explaining just why these phrases are bad is well worth reading, the list itself is, well just a list. Fun to browse through, looking for some personal bugbears (a phrase that I hadn't actually heard/read before reading this book, but now it seems to pop up constantly), but I'm glad I didn't pay more than 99 cent for it.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

63. Journal of the Gun Years by Richard Matheson



Joe Abercrombie posted a list of western novels he read in preparation for his newest book and especially recommended this one. If Red Country is anything as gripping and powerful as this book I'll be a very happy camper. It's the story of Clay Halser, a Civil War soldier who sets out for the Wild West in search of adventure, becoming a bandit, a gambler and a lawman, becoming involved in with women and in feuds between ranchers... All in all, pretty standard fare for a Western, but the way in which these occurrences are presented makes a big difference. The book is ostensibly the diary of this gun slinger, edited and annotated by a journalist who found it after his death. Especially in the second half, when Halser's exploits are reported in newspapers back in the East, blown up out of all proportion, leading to him becoming a star similar to Buffalo Bill and when he himself seemingly can't seem to distinguish between fiction and reality, myth and man, this is a fantastic read.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

64. Flight of the Horse by Larry Niven



Hanville Svetz is the hero of the first five stories in this collection, a time traveller who is sent back to the past from around 3000 AD to retrieve long extinct animals for the mentally challenged secretary-general of the UN. However, something always seems to go wrong for Swetz, the horse he is trying to capture has an odd horn on its head, the ostrich turns out to be a roc etc. Fun stuff. There's also a story exploring the effects of mass teleportation devices, which is pretty interesting and a sword and sorcery story, which suffers from an over-abundance of good ideas and contains enough material for two or three more focussed stories.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

65. The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde



The seventh novel in the Thursday Next series. I really wish would finally finish the Nursery Crime trilogy or write the sequel to the excellent Shades of Grey (no relation), because I think I'm slowly getting tired of Thursday. I can't really put the finger on the reason, perhaps because Fforde's alternate timeline is slowly catching up with the real world, so the biting satire isn't covered by the weird and wonderful eccentricity as much anymore. One of my favorite things about this series is the Bookworld, which doesn't really feature in this story. The eighth novel seems to be set mainly there, and I'm hoping that the series will get a worthy conclusion next year. All of that being said, this is still a hilarious book, with lots of clever references and hundreds of insane ideas. Although I don't think that this is his best, I have yet to read a bad Jasper Fforde book.

Rating: 4 Stars

66. Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto by David Kushner



The Grand Theft Auto series is responsible for so many of my most memorable video game experiences, I can't even begin to count them. From the first game, that unlike any game I had played before was basically a giant playground, throughout the GTA 3 trilogy (the switch to 3D in GTA3, the first time cruising through a parody of 80s Miami in Vice City, the huge world of San Andreas...), all the way to GTA IV, which sacrificed some of the over-the-top insanity of the previous games for a more gritty and realistic setting, creating one of the most realistic cities I've seen so far in any game. This book chronicles the history of these games and of Rockstar Games, the company that makes them, from humble beginnings to the hit franchise it is today. Kushner doesn't gloss over the various controversies that have surrounded the games from the beginning (almost ironically, the company did everything they could to create a scandal around the first game to publicize it), letting the critics have their say without making them appear as idiots (something especially Jack Thompson usually doesn't need help with...). I enjoyed the book a lot, especially because it brought back some nice memories and offered a new perspective on something I like very much.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

67. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk



I'm having a hard time judging this book by its own merits, because the movie version is so firmly rooted in my head. There are some differences between both versions and I think I prefer some of the choices that were made in the movie, concerning the narrative structure and the ending of the story. The book sometimes feels a bit unpolished but the fact that I couldn't put it down definitely speaks in its favour. Will have to check out Palahniuk's other books.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

68. Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell



I was planning to take a class on computer games this semester but it was already full, so I decided to learn a bit more about my hobby on my own. Video games are often dismissed as toys with no great artistic value, but Bissell recounts some of his own game experiences and, as the title says, explains why video games matter. As a gamer, a lot of what he said wasn't really new to me and I even shared some of the experiences he uses as examples. That moment in Mass Effect, where you have to choose which of two friends you're going to save had a bigger emotional impact on me that almost any book or movie I remember... and Resident Evil absolutely terrified me the first time I played it (perhaps I was a bit too young for it, although I think "not prepared" is the better description). I also share Bissell's fascination with Far Cry 2 and GTA IV. If the chapters had been connected to each other a bit better, making it feel less of a collection of essays, it might be a better book but I still think that this is a good book for people who are interested in video games, but don't necessarily play them very much.

Rating: 4 Stars

69. Goblin Precinct by Keith R. A. DeCandido



I don't really know why I enjoy the books in this series. There are a lot of things that could be improved, the characters, the character's names, the overall plotting... something about the mix of fantasy and mystery seems to be irresistible for me. The book has its nice moments although it could have been a bit longer.

Rating: 3 Stars

70. Whispering Nickel Idols by Glen Cook



After Goblin Precinct I was in the mood for some more fantasy/mystery, so I decided to jump back into the Garrett series. I went through the first ten books very quickly last year and the stopped because I was getting a bit tired of them. In this book a new cult is trying to establish itself in TunFaire, running afoul of the guards and the local crime syndicate. Garrett is caught between the lines and tries to clear everything up and get out of it unscathed. While I enjoyed the book, the writing is engaging and Garrett's narration is as usual hilarious, my main problem with this series is the growing cast of characters. By now there are so many side characters that seem to have to show up every book, some of them a lot more powerful than Garrett (Renway, Belinda and especially the Dead Man), that he is often reduced to sitting on the sidelines, watching events unfold, running from one friend to another and occasionally getting roughted up in the process.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

71. Cruel Zinc Melodies by Glen Cook



In this book Max Weider, Garrett's main employer, is trying to build a new theatre, but the workmen are scared away by strange noises and a plague of giant beetles so Garrett is sent to investigate. This is probably my favourite book in the series so far, with a plot almost worthy of a Pratchett novel, only slightly marred by the big role Tinnie Tate, Garrett's on-again-off-again girlfriend, plays in it. It just doesn't seem believable that Garrett would be willing to put up with someone so self-absorbed and entitled. It's pretty clear that he is a slightly unreliable narrator, exaggerating for comedy a lot, but she just doesn't seem very desirable, especially considering that Garrett constantly seems to run into beautiful women, who are not as crazy as her.

Rating: 4 Stars

72. Gilded Latten Bones by Glen Cook



This book is a bit of a change, Garrett is retired in the beginning (living with Tinnie Tate, blech), only returning to his investigating business when one of his friends is found severely injured. He is still more play ball of the greater forces around him than an active player himself, but I still enjoyed the book a lot. Now that I've caught up with Cook I'll have to take another break from the series, but I'm looking forward to the next book, especially because a certain character seems to leave the series for good at the end of the book!

Rating: 4 Stars

73. Jhereg by Steven Brust



I was looking for something similar to the Garrett books and the Vlad Taltos series has been popping up in my LT and Amazon recommendations a lot, so I decided to give it a try. I've been warned that the books aren't written in order and regularly reference events from books that are set earlier or haven't even been written yet. Nevertheless, I decided to go by publication order, which means starting with the fourth book chronologically. Vlad Taltos is a low level crime boss and assassin in Adrilankha, the main city of the Dragaeran Empire. The Dragaerans are similar to humans but taller, stronger and more adept at magic. Vlad's father bought them into the noble (if you can call a crime syndicate that) house of Jhereg, which is why he has risen pretty far for a mere human. There are constant conflicts between the different Dragaerans houses, so when the Jhereg treasury goes missing, Vlad has to find the thief before the other houses find out and take advantage of the situation. I liked the book, solid world-building, a fast-moving plot and some good fight scenes. The references to events outside the book are a bit annoying, but I decided to just assume that they would be explained further along in the series.

Rating: 4 Stars

74. Yendi by Steven Brust



This book is set before Jhereg and describes how Vlad Taltos rose through the ranks of the Jhereg syndicate and how he met his future wife and some of the friends mentioned in Jhereg. Overall this book wasn't as polished as Jhereg, the plot seemed very contrived and the villains weren't believable either. Brust himself apparently didn't like the book much, which I hope is a positive sign for the rest of the series. There is still a lot of good stuff in the book, Brust has a knack for dialogue and, again, a few good fights.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

75. Teckla by Steven Brust



Teckla is set shortly after the events in Jhereg and it's a very different book from the first two. It focusses on the relationship between Vlad and his wife Cawti. Cawti joins an underground movement lead by humans and members of the house of Teckla (the labourer class of the Dragaeran Empire), who fight for better conditions for themselves. Vlad doesn't want her to put herself in danger and this conflict almost destroys their relationship. The book completely lacks the humor of Jhereg and Yendi, opting for a more introspective, darker tone that didn't work for me at all. Vlad's sudden character change just doesn't seem believable and the political theories Brust has his characters discuss seems shoehorned in. He also seems to assume that I care about Cawti or her relationship with Vlad, but as far as I'm concerned he hasn't given me any reason to do so. All in all, it's a flimsy plot with characters behaving incongruously and forced philosophizing. I'll take a break from the series, perhaps I'll give it another try but I hope it goes in a different direction than this book.

Rating: 2 Stars

Read: 23297 Pages

I remember liking Colour when I read years long ago.

Oh ho, someone's started Brust! I do hope you enjoyed them!!

Quite some time since my last post, between classes, work and various hobbies I almost forgot abut this thread! I did manage to read a few books though and luckily kept a list, so I wouldn't forget anything once I got to update the thread.

76. Der Krapfen auf dem Sims by Max Goldt
77. "Mind-boggling" Evening Post by Max Goldt
78. Wenn man einen weißen Anzug anhat by Max Goldt
79. Ä. Kolumnen by Max Goldt
80. Ein Leben auf der Flucht vor der Koralle by Max Goldt


Goldt is one of my favorite german authors, he has a fantastic gift for language and making even the most obscure topics hilarious and fascinating to read about. These books contain a selection of shorter texts that were published in the nineties and early noughties, most in the satirical magazine Titanic.

Rating: 5 Stars

Read: 24207 Pages

Up next: Some collections of webcomics I got through the Humble Ebook Bundle!

81. xkcd: Volume 0 by Randall Munroe



XKCD has been one of my favorite comic strips for years, I'm still amazed how much emotion Monroe can convey through the simple stick figure drawings. The various science-y topics occasionally go over my head, but I view that as a chance to educate myself further :P

Rating: 5 Stars

82. Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins
83. Attack of the Bacon Robots



The first two collections of Penny Arcade, a webcomic any video game enthusiast should know about. The strip started in 1999 and these books contain all comics until the end of 2001. It's quite amazing to see how the strip evolved from it's humble beginnings and sometimes puerile humor to the huge media franchise, that has spawned two (three next year) annual conventions, web series and a great charity (http://www.childsplaycharity.org/).

Rating: 4.5 Stars

84. Save Yourself Mammal! by Zach Weiner
85. The Most Dangerous Game



Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is a strange comic, ranging from the thought-provokingly philosophical and extremely geeky to the immature and slightly worrying, often in the same strip. Love it.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Read: 24781 Pages

Good to see you emerge for an update!

Thanks, it's always slightly problematic once there are a few books I haven't posted here, because then it takes longer to get the thread up to date and I'm more likely to procrastinate until the next day or the next weekend. Of course, by then the list has often grown even more and it becomes a vicious circle :P
I'm trying a new approach now, adding a few books at a time, so hopefully I'll get everything added until the end of the year.

86. Signal To Noise by Neil Gaiman



This is a very dark comic, both in art and theme. The protagonist is a film director, who knows that he only has a short time to live and struggles to finish his last film about a village in 999 A.D. expecting the apocalypse on New Year's Eve. It raises interesting points about the permanence of life and ideas and how people cope with the end of their world. As you can guess it is slightly depressing, but the art is still magnificent.

Rating: 4 Stars

87. The Timewaster Letters by Robin Cooper



A collection of spoof letters sent to various companies and organizations in the attempt to elicit funny responses. The description on Amazon featured glowing praise from some great comedians, so I figured I might get a laugh or two out of this. However, most of the letters apparently didn't get any replies and those which did are mediocre at best. It's usually pretty obvious that the letters are fake. In the end I can't help but feel that the only person whose time was truly wasted is me, because the author at least got paid for his "effort".

Rating: 1.5 Stars

88. Sprechen sie Fußball? by Günther Eisenhuber



During the Euro 2012 Amazon gave away a few football-themed books, this being one of them. It's basically a collection of funny quotes from football players and coaches, some fairly well known , some new. Considering that it was free, it's definitely good value, but not something I would spend money on.

Rating: 3 Stars

89. Mentally Incontinent by Joe Peacock



All the stories in this book were first published on the author's website and readers could vote to determine which made it into the finished book. This is one of the most laugh-out-loud funny books I've read in a long time, some stories almost reduced me to tears. Getting revenge after being unjustly fired from Walmart, visiting a not-really-Japanese restaurant, being attacked by militant vegans in cow costumes in another restaurant, an overly-attached girlfriend - the title of the book is well-deserved as Peacock doesn't hold anything back and is almost painfully honest. Also, the never-ending story of his broken laptop and the experiences with customer support will probably be very familiar to anybody who has suffered from inexplicable computer problems. The whole book is available for free on Google Books.

Rating: 4 Stars

Read: 25460 Pages

90. Made In America by Bill Bryson



An informal history of the English language in the United States of America, this was a very interesting book. Bryson chronicles how language evolved both in the old and new world, what people on both sides of the pond thought about these developments and, surprisingly, how some "Americanisms" are actually closer to the "original" language than modern British expressions. The book is also a more general history of the USA, told with a lot of humor and with a ton of obscure trivia and great anecdotes, perfect for someone who desires knowledge a mile wide and an inch deep. Overall I liked the book a lot, but in some cases I felt that some things were glossed over a bit and a few times I actually put the book down to look for more information elsewhere.

Rating: 4 Stars
Read: 26052 Pages

91. Paddle: A Long Way Around Ireland by Jasper Winn



The story of a man who paddles around Ireland in a kayak, despite being woefully unprepared. The book is sprinkled with bits of autobiography, Irish history and general musings on Irish culture. A very entertaining read, but over a bit too quick.

Rating: 3 Stars
Read: 26308 Pages

92. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming



After a lot of work (if you count ordering online from a variety of booksellers, only to be told that the book is no longer in stock as work) I finally completed my set of Bond novels, with the gorgeous covers by Michael Gillette. The first book in the series was actually quite good, of course some of the elements have been copied over and over in the last fifty years, so it was not exactly unpredictable. Fleming's casual racism and misogyny aren't really my cup of tea, but due to their sheer ridiculousness almost entertaining (Bulgarians are "stupid but obedient", the French all eventually suffer from "liver problems", women are mainly "for recreation"...), at least until I got to this gem: “And now {Bond} knew that she was profoundly, excitingly sensual, but that the conquest of her body, because of the central privacy in her, would each time have the sweet tang of rape.” What the fuck? Even fifty years ago this can't have been acceptable? I haven't seen the movie version yet, but I assume they left this line out...

Rating: 3 Stars
Read: 26532 Pages

93. Engraved On The Eye by Saladin Ahmed



A collection of Ahmed's previously published short fiction. I enjoyed his debut novel earlier this year, especially because it drew from the Arabic/Islamic sagas and mythology instead of the European mythologies (Norse, Greek...) so much of fantasy is based on. This is also the one common thread of these stories which are pretty varied, from contemporary fantasy to post-apocalyptic science fiction, a prequel to Throne of the Crescent Moon... It's a fairly short book, only available as an ebook, but it doesn't cost that much either, so I'd definitely recommend it.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Read: 26642 Pages

>73 Octane:: That one does sound interesting! I just got a new ereader as of yesterday (my old one hasn't been working for well over a year, *sob*), so I could actually read it now! I'll definitely check it out.

Hope you have fun with it!

94. Die Mennyms by Sylvia Waugh
95. Die Mennyms auf der Flucht
96. Die Mennyms in der Falle
97. Die Mennyms ganz allein
98. Die Mennyms unter Menschen



This is one of my absolute favourite series of children's books. In spring I worked for a few weeks in the library I used to borrow these from ~15 years ago and noticed that they were about to be thrown out (well, put on the "Books for sale" cart, but that doesn't sound as dramatic...) so I just had to save them. The Mennyms are a family of rag dolls, who magically came alive when their creator died. They try to live a normal life, but are always in danger of being discovered by humans. I'm very happy that I was still able to enjoy them, too many childhood favourites have been visited by the suck fairy and it was nice that these books have lost none of their charm. I was very surprised to discover that they were only published in the nineties, because they could easily have been written thirty or forty years ago. I'd happily recommend these books to anyone who has children or at least an occasional childlike in something wonderful.

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Read: 27868 Pages

And now for something completely different:

99. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis



Patrick Bateman is a young, attractive, successful serial killer who leads a dark double life as a Wall Street banker (I slightly updated the book description to fit today's common views). The book was off to a very slow start and the endless descriptions of what everybody is wearing and eating are hard to get through (there is a multi-page description of Bateman's morning routine, complete with every skin care product and kitchen implement he uses that almost made me give up). Even knowing what the book was about, the sudden introduction of some of the most horrific descriptions of violence and murder I've encountered so far was more than slightly jarring. Bateman grows more and more deranged and it seems like it's only a question of time until he is caught, but then Ellis' turns it all on it's head and leaves the reader wondering how much of Bateman's actions is actually real and how much is just his sick fantasy. Ellis paints a haunting picture of a consumerist society, where everyone is only defined by what he can buy and otherwise completely interchangeable. The endless competition to dine at the newest restaurants and to wear the most expensive suits drives Bateman further and further into isolation and insanity. I'm normally not easily disturbed, but some scenes in this novel were definitely testing my limits.

Rating: 4 Stars
Read: 28267 Pages

100. Well Of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson



The second Mistborn audio book took me slightly longer than the first one, but I still enjoyed it a whole lot. The world-building is excellent, especially for a magic system geek, and the characters are pretty strong. I also love how Sanderson takes common fantasy tropes and turns them completely around.

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Read: 29063 Pages

101. The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow



Jennet Stearne is the daughter of a witchfinder in England in the late 17th century. When her father causes her favorite aunt, who was her teacher and a great fan of Isaac Newton, to be tried and executed as a witch, she sets out to prove once and for all that witchcraft doesn't exist. It's a struggle that will last for most of her life and along the way she moves to the American colonies, is captured by natives, rescued, marries, meets Benjamin Franklin, hunts forgers with Newton, has to deal with pirates and is almost burned as a witch herself. This book is pure genius, its suspenseful, funny, moving... Morrow does a great job of introducing actual historical events (like the Salem witch trials) to the plot and his characters, especially the protagonist, are great. By having the book narrated by Newton's "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" he also makes the events in the book a metaphor for the ongoing struggle between superstition and reason.

Rating: 5 Stars
Read: 29559 Pages

102. Albert Of Adelaide by Howard Anderson



Albert has escaped from captivity and now finds himself in the middle of nowhere. He manages to make new friends, but is soon blamed for burning a saloon and has to flee. He is robbed, becomes a bandit himself and accidentally starts a war between the town-folk and the "savages". Oh, and he's a platypus.

After escaping Adelaide zoo, Albert searches for Old Australia, where animals still live without any human interference. What he finds is a pastiche of the American Wild West, populated by kangaroos, bandicoots, wombats and other marsupials. The book is a bit short, but other than that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rating: 4 Stars
Read: 29863 Pages

I'll add my thoughts on these books later, but now I can finally throw the list of "books to be added" away.

103. Savages by Don Winslow



Ben and Chon are successful marijuana growers and sellers and enjoy life in southern California, until the Mexican cartels want a piece of the action. The plot isn't the most original, but it's told in a very unique style. Winslow intentionally breaks all common rules of writing to create an experience that is wonderfully immediate and immersive. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I can't imagine that it would make feel like I'm in the middle of the action as much as the book has.

Rating: 4 Stars

104. The Princess Bride by William Goldman



This book seems to be universally beloved, but for me it was sadly a fairly big disappointment. It felt just too drawn out, boring and, worst of all gimmicky. It has a couple of good scenes, but I was still on the verge of abandoning it.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

105. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman



The novel chronicles the experiences of William Mandella in the war against the Taurans, an alien species. Due to the way space travel works here, thousands of years pass while Mandella, spending a lot of time travelling from battle to battle only ages a couple of years during the events of the book. When he comes back to earth society has changed and he doesn't really fit in anymore. Haldeman uses his own experiences from the Vietnam war, of how a soldier returning home from traumatic experiences can find that both he and the place he left have changed and make him feel alienated. The book was published almost 40 years ago and in parts hasn't aged very well, but it's still a good story.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

106. They Eat Puppies Don't They by Christopher Buckley



Bird is a lobbyist for a big arms manufacturer who is tasked with stirring up anti-Chinese feeling in the United States so that his employer can sell his newest weapon systems. At first he is fairly successful, making the public believe that the Chinese government has tried to poison the Dalai Lama (with a poison made from baby pandas!), but it all spirals out of control when it is discovered that the Dalai Lama is actually terminally ill. On the other side of the Pacific, the Chinese president tries to stop some of his ministers from attempting a coup against him...

A host of hilarious characters, a fantastic twist ending, funny and poignant.

Rating: 4 Stars

107. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury



A dystopian science fiction book, more in the vein of Brave New World as of 1984, since there isn't a government that keeps information from the people, but the people have rather decided that they'd rather spend their time being showered with trivial and irrelevant crap instead of actually learning anything (A great comparison of Orwell and Huxley: http://fatpita.net/images/image%20(1952).jpg). The book is a bit short, but a great read.

(As both an aspiring librarian and a volunteer firefighter the thought of the "firemen" in this book absolutely horrifies me ;))

Rating: 4 Stars

108. Bridge Of Birds by Barry Hughart



Similarly to The Princess Bride, I haven't heard anything bad about this book, almost everyone seems to absolutely love it. I was happy to find out that in this case this is entirely justified. When the children of his village become ill, Number Ten Ox sets out to get help and finds the sage Li Kao, who has a slight flaw in his character: he's a con man and compulsive cheat and thief. He agrees to help and together they set out on an odyssey through an "ancient China that never was", having all sorts of adventures. This is probably one of the best books I have ever had the pleasure to read!

Rating: 5 Stars

109. Against All Gods by A. C. Grayling



Six polemics on religion ans an essay on kindness. I found myself agreeing with Grayling on many points, but overall the book is just too short to justify the price.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

110. Texte aus den in die Vergriffenheit entlassenen Büchern "Quitten" und "Kugeln" by Max Goldt



A collection of texts that were originally published in the early nineties, previously collected in two books which are no longer available. Not quite as polished as some of his later stuff, but still great.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

111. Consider Phlebas by Ian M. Banks



I've long been meaning to try out Banks' SF, so when I stumbled upon a box set of the first three Culture novels I decided to give myself an early xmas present. The first book in the series is great, space opera with lots of great action scenes in a compelling universe. It could probably have been shortened a bit in some places, for example I don't think it's absolutely necessary to introduce all nineteen crew members of a spaceship in detail when most of them get killed off in the next few dozen pages (of course it's a good opportunity to shoehorn in some information about the setting). There's also a section near the climax of the book where Banks constantly shifts viewpoints, obviously trying to create suspension, but he drags it out a bit too long. However, those things didn't affect my enjoyment of the book and I'm looking forward to exploring more of this universe. I especially liked the ending and the appendix, which helped put the events of the novel into context with the whole Culture-Idiran war.

Rating: 4 Stars

112. The Player Of Games by Ian M. Banks



This book was even better than Consider Phlebas, the narrative is much tighter and it doesn't have any other major flaws either. One of the Culture's best game players is sent out to an alien empire to take part in the game of Azad, which determines the status and position of the players and effectively holds the empire together. When he does better than he or anyone else expected, people try to ...encourage him to stop playing, because he might be a threat to the empire as a whole. The game becomes a metaphor for the clashing philosophies of the Culture and the Empire of Azad and the way it all works out in the end is just brilliant. The delicious twist at the very end of the book is just the cherry on top.

Rating: 5 Stars

Read: 33056 Pages

>77 Octane:: If you're a magic system geek, just wait until you read The Way of Kings!!! (If you haven't already.) Sanderson created something like 32 magic systems during his worldbuilding for that series... 32!!!! I struggle with ONE!!! LOL...

I haven't read Way of Kings yet, but I've heard Sanderson talk about it on his Writing Excuses podcast. I'll wait until one or two more books in the series are published, because I hate waiting for the next one to be published, but Sanderson's books are definitely on my TBR list!

Time to add the last books of 2012, then I'm off to a New Year's Eve party!

113. Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones



Set in a fantasy world which is slowly being destroyed, because of the annual Pilgrim Tours, which bring tourists from our world who want to experience an authentic fantasy adventure (as outlined in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland). The denizens of this world finally have enough and set out to bring these tours to an end. Wizard Derk is chosen against his will to be this year's Dark Lord, a job that proves to be almost impossible because nothing seems to go right for him, despite of the help of his children (two human, five griffins). I had a lot of fun with this book.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

114. Dodger by Terry Pratchett



Dodger is a young man making a living on the fringes of society in Victorian London. He saves a young girl from two men who are trying to murder her and subsequently gets to know a certain Charlie Dickens, who employs him to find out more about the incident. Over the next days Dodger investigates, becomes a hero, rises to the heights of society and falls in love. A great book to end this year with, after a couple of mediocre books this is Pratchett almost at his best!

Rating: 4 Stars

Read: 33940 Pages

Books read in 2012: 114
Pages read in 2012: 33940
Average pagecount: 297,7

Overall I'm happy with my reading choices this year, I fulfilled almost all of my goals (except for reducing Mount TBR, which is slowly becoming a mountain range, especially when counting in my wishlist...). Thankfully very few clunkers, but several surprisingly good books. I'll set up next year's thread sometime in the next days, already looking forward to another year of great books!

Happy New Year!

Here's to a great new year ahead, Jan!

Dark Lord of Derkholm is one of my very favorite DWJs! Glad you enjoyed it AND Dodger.