75 books in 2012: Sbarrow57

This is the first group that I have participated in on Librarything... so here it goes. I have started late so I have already read a couple of books.

I am planning to read a wide variety of genres this year, as well as clearing the backlog of books that I got for Christmas! Hopefully I will get some interesting reads through members recommendations as well.

I am also doing the 12 in 12 challenge, post can be found here, so I will be concentrating on the following:

1. Science and Technology - Non-fiction concerning science, the advance of technology and the history of scientific disciplines.
2. History - Non-Fiction covering events before 1950
3. Religion and Foreign Affairs - Any non-Fiction regarding religion or the many cultures from around the world.
4. Interesting People - Biographies, Memoirs ect.
5. British Classics - Fiction considered a Classic by a British author published before 1960.
6. Modern Classics - Fiction post 1960 that are believed to be Modern classics.
7. Going to the Movies - Books that have or are going to be turned into films.
8. Science Fiction - Aliens, robots, space ect.
9. Fantasy - Dragons, dwarves, elves ect.
10. Translations - Any book that has had to be translated into English.
11. Thrillers - Crime, Mystery, Spy thrillers.
12. Short but sweet - Collections of essays, short stories.

Read in 2012

1. The Interview Book: Your definitive guide to the perfect interview technique (Currently applying for jobs for when I graduate Uni!)
2. The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz by Denis Avey
3. God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
4. The Information: a history, a Theory, a flood by James Gleick
5. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
6. Penal Colony by Richard Herley
7. Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
9. The life of Senna by Tom Rubyhton
10. Arguably by Christopher Hitchens
11. The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Currently Reading

1. 1001 Days that shaped the world by Peter Furtado
2. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson

Currently Listening

1. A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin

CAN recommend it cus just finished Ready Player One -a great read ! Good luck with the 75!

I have also decided to join the 12 in 12 group, the link to it can be found at the top of this page in my first post.

Feel free to have a look at what I am trying to read this year and make some recommendations :)

Hi Stuart,

Welcome to LibraryThing! I hope you find the challenges here as much fun as I do.

Good luck in your job search!!

Interestingly, when my younger son went to apply for a job (he's a welder), he beat out about 40 other applicants for the job. Prior to getting the interview, he was coached by a friend of his whose real job was to teach interview skills. Amazingly, it worked. Thankfully, my son is still employed in this horrible economic situation in which we find ourselves.

Welcome! Looks like a good start for the year. Good luck with the job hunting!

Hi Stuart. It's always nice to see other people from the UK in the group - welcome to the group and to LibraryThing! Good luck with the job interviews and exams.

Welcome to the group, Stuart!

3. God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens



I wasn't aware of Christopher Hitchens until the coverage of him passing away, after his lengthy battle with cancer, was headline news here in the UK. As part of the coverage I watched his most recent interview with Jeremy Paxman. I found his views regarding Religion and his thoughts on his upcoming demise really intrigued me so when I saw that this book was on sale on the kindle I snapped it up.

He certainly is a master of the argument. This book really shines a light on the darker side of religion, from it's man-made origin to the constant struggle to cling onto power. I particularly enjoyed the chapters that covered the birth of the Mormon faith (by a convicted fraudster) and examining some of the outrageously outdated views held in the Old testament. As I am an atheist, this book is mostly 'preaching to the choir' (pun intended!) but I would be really interested to see what a religious reader would gain from this book.

Christopher Hitchens is extremely well read and I found that my kindle's built in dictionary function was in constant use to try and keep up with his extensive vocabulary. As far as the overall read I wouldn't say that I really enjoyed this book but I do respect it and admire the arguments within it.
(3.5 stars)

"Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience."

Just a quick rant. How can a book be cheaper in paperback form than a kindle e-book. This is the case for A Feast For Crows on Amazon and it does not make any sense. I wonder how long publishers are going to keep e-book prices artificially high to try and protect traditional books?

4. The Information: A History, A Theory, A flood by James Gleick
TIOLI challenge #14: Read a work of Non-Fiction from the 100 NYT Notable Books of 2011



This is a book that I have been dying to read from the minute I found about it. It was featured in a reading list on the brainpickings site and was added straight onto my wishlist.

After an extensive history of how mankind has produced and recorded information, the middle section of this book concentrates on Information Theory, created by Claude Shannon in the middle of the 20th Century. This is a topic that I have covered in depth during my Electronic Engineering degree so I enjoyed finding out about the back-stories of the people behind the constants and theorems that I have used many times practically. James Gleick manages to portray the character, drive and determination behind the scientific breakthroughs brilliantly.

I think the outstanding feature of this book is how varied the topics covered are. I started reading expecting it to be predominantly about Shannon and his theory, but the book covers so much more; the impact of the written word, the history of the dictionary, Charles Babbage's Theoretical computer, cryptography, genes, memes, quantum mechanics, Wikipedia and more. If I had one negative for this book it would be that the 'flood' part was not as extensive as I wanted. Apart from that I loved this book.
(4.5 stars)

"Shannon's theory made a bridge between information and uncertainty; between information and entropy; and between information and chaos. It led to compact discs and fax machines, computers and cyberspace, Moore's law and all the world's Silicon Alleys"

>10 sbarrow57:: I liked that one quite a bit when I read it last August. My only complaint was that he skimped on the math, which I've encountered in other sources but for which I have little intuition. A popular account by a writer like Gleick might have helped.

Oddly, the thing that sticks most vividly with me six months later is his explanation of African drumming -- certainly not his main point, but what a revelation.

>11 swynn:: As I have covered the maths in my degree I was quite relieved that it did not concentrate on it too much but covered the stories and people behind it.

I am also in awe of the African drumming, especially as the use of pitch does not really play a part in English. It is amazing how complex messages could be passed for miles using just 2 drums!

5. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
TIOLI challenge #3: Read a book with a word of at least 5 letters in the title that is an anagram of another 5 letter word



So it has taken me a couple of weeks to wade through the fourth book in the Song of Ice and Fire Series. I reallly enjoyed the previous three books but I was a little disappointed with this one. Don't get me wrong I still enjoyed this book but there are a few things that I felt let it down.

Spoilers ahead

This book was the first in the series that made me think that the plot may end up crumbling under it's own complexity. It introduced a lot of new story-lines; the dispute over the next king of the Iron Islands, the Dorne part (I really struggled to care about the characters in Dorne). This was done at the expense of not including some my favourite characters; John Snow, Tyrion and Dani. I was relieved after reading the last chapter explaining that this was only half the story and the next book will attempt to rectify this, as I was struggling to work out why they were missing.

This book still managed to include a few twists that really shocked me, which is something I have come to expect in the Song of Ice and Fire series. You would think that I would be used to main characters being killed off by now but Brienne's death was definitely unexpected and I was hoping she would at least find one of the Stark girls...

This is still a really good book, but the earlier work has set the bar high making this book the weak link in the series so far. I just hope that the next book brings the story back on track and starts working towards an actual conclusion.
(4.5 stars)

“Outlaws killed him,” sobbed Lady Amerei. “Father had only gone out to ransom Petyr Pimple. He brought them the gold they asked for, but they hung him anyway.”
“Hanged, Ami. Your father was not a tapestry.”

6. Penal Colony by Richard Herley
TIOLI challenge #13: Read a book set on an island



This book was a recommendation from my sister (who I have tried to persuade to join LibraryThing numerous times....) and it was free on kindle so I jumped right in.

The premise behind this book is that the UK has created a policy of sending the worst criminals, 'category z', to a small island off the coast of Cornwall. On the island there is no need for guards and the prisoners have to fend for themselves. The main protagonist is Routledge, an innocent man convicted of murder who suddenly finds himself on this island and has to adapt to the harsh environment.

The island has some interesting dynamics, with three distinct groups. The Village is the best organised, even civilised, group who follow the cult-like leadership of 'the father', an intelligent charismatic criminal. They have control of a large peninsula and the infrequent helicopter drops from the mainland and every man works hard to keep the village going. The other two groups of 'outsiders' lead a much more savage existence with constant wars over pretty meaningless territory.

I did enjoy this book, the plot is interesting but maybe a little bit predictable. This is the kind of story that could easily be made into a great film. It is free on kindle so if you own one I recommend giving this a read.
(4 stars)

"The rules of the Community are these. You will work as directed by the Father. You will not intentionally injure any member of the Community or damage Community property. You will not lie, steal, cheat or engage in deviant sexual practices. As there are no women here, that means you are allowed to do nothing to anyone or anything but yourself. Do you understand the rules?"

7. Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
TIOLI challenge #15: Read a book where the number of letters in the author's last name is divisible by three



I bought this book mainly as it had won the Samuel Johnson award for non fiction in 2010. I was expecting a top notch read and I was not disappointed. This book is journalism at its best and it highlighted some truly shocking events in North Korea's recent past.

Before reading this book I was fairly ignorant of the famine that occurred in N. Korea during the 90's. I knew that it was a totalitarian society but I did not realise the extent of the control of the government. The main strength of this book is that this famine is explained using the different viewpoints of 6 North Koreans who now have now defected to S. Korea. This allows some really personal stories to be told, showing how normal people struggled to survive day to day.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who doesn't really know about the recent famine in North Korea. This book is a real eye-opener and some of the personal tales of survival and losing loved ones are truly tragic.
(4.5 stars)

A couple of men walked by, pulling a heavy wooden cart. Mrs. Song looked to see what they were transporting. It was a heap of bodies, maybe six of them, people who had died at the station overnight. A few bony limbs flopped out of the cart. A head lolled as the cart jostled over the pavement. Mrs. Song stared; the head belonged to a man about forty years old. His eyes blinked faintly. Not quite dead yet, but close enough to be carted away.

8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
TIOLI challenge #23: Read a book with the word "Girl" in the title



I have done my usual trick of reading the book a film is based on after watching and enjoying the movie! I saw the Swedish version of the film last year and really enjoyed it so when I found out that my sister has the millennium trilogy I swiftly borrowed them.

I really enjoyed this book, it is a real page turner. I think the strength of the story lies in the depth of the characters. Both Lisbeth and Blomkvist are very interesting especially Lisbeth and her troubled past and slightly psychotic actions. I liked the way the author jumped between points of view and the twist would have been unexpected but I already knew what was coming after watching the film :-(

The only weakness was that I sometimes got a bit confused by all of the Swedish names (There are a lot of Vanger family members...) but that is my problem and not the books. I am looking forward to the next instalment especially as I haven't seen any of the other films!
(5 stars)

She got down from the bed, cocked her head to one side, and regarded her handiwork with a critical eye. Her artistic talents were limited. The letters looked at best impressionistic. She had used red and blue ink. The message was written in caps over five lines that covered his belly, from his nipples to just above his genitals: I AM A SADISTIC PIG, A PERVERT AND A RAPIST.

9. The Life of Senna by Tom Rubython
TIOLI challenge #7: Spring Cleaning: Finish a book that you started between January 1, 2012 and March 28, 2012



After watching the brilliant documentary 'Senna' I was really looking forward to finding out more about this legend of Formula 1. I ended up being really disappointed with this book and it became a real chore to finish it.

The main problem that I had with this book was not the content, as the author produces a lot of interesting stories and interviews with people that knew Senna, but the amount of repetition there is. This book could of easily been half the size if it did not repeat every little detail in different chapters. It felt like the author did not trust the reader to remember details or quotes that were mentioned only a couple of pages before. It really started to annoy me by the end of the book.

There was also a lot of race stats; lap times, positions, points... I should of expected this but most of this kind of information did not really add anything of value to the biography.
(2.5 stars)

In the post-race press conference Prost blamed various problems during the race for his poor performance. Senna simply asked him if he wanted to swap cars. Prost was embarrassed into silence.