soylentgreen23's list for 2008

2007 was a wonderful year for reading - motivated by this group I read 51 books!

So, here's my list for 2008, beginning with...

1. Trout Fishing in America, The Pill versus The Springhill Mine Disaster, In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan (400p).

Really this volume should count as three books; "In Watermelon Sugar" is listed in 1001 books and is an absolute classic; but I've counted them together since they're bound together in my copy.

2. Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer (224p). A great little novel, the tragic tale of a young man who wanted to escape from society and live the kind of life that Tolstoy found inspirational.

3. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (249p). In some ways, a very similar novel to the non-fiction work of Jon Krakauer; the outcome is expressed from the very beginning, and the analysis suggests that we shall never know the reasoning.

Did you read Middlesex? I thought it went on just long enough to bore me. The book needed some serious editing, yet it drew serious acclaim. Just too long for me, although there were some great characters in it.

This was actually the first I'd read of Jeffrey Eugenides'. It was a good book, but I'm not entirely sure if I'd want to confront something of the size of Middlesex just yet. That said, I like a challenge!

I've just finished:

4. Dubliners by James Joyce (161p). I don't often read short story collections, but there was a lot to like here in Joyce's study of early-20th century Dublin, and the people who lived there then.

5. The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer (201p). A very clever little book about a womanising magician who suddenly finds his luck has deserted him, and his whole life crumbles around him.

6. The Spiritual Tourist by Mick Brown (307p). A cool book - very cool, in fact; a bit like Bill Bryson or even one of the Thoroux family; full of journalistic enquiry, but even-handed as well as entertaining.

Oh good. I just added The Spiritual Tourist to my wishlist on the mooch sites. An endorsement might mean I'll actually buy it with my (hopefully) forthcoming birthday gift certificates. Glad you enjoyed it.

7. The Book of Guys by Garrison Keillor (340p). A collection of short stories by a man whose name I've never been good at spelling, and still can't pronounce.

8. Death by Hollywood by Steven Bochco (274p). Well, this one only took an afternoon to plough through, but it wasn't fun. I like my reading to be a little more cerebral, but perhaps now I'll appreciate other writers a little more.

I absolutely agree. I would've enjoyed Middlesex much more had it been shorter. I don't mind long books, but I just couldn't wait to finish this one and move on to something else.

9. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (320p). Classic!

10. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (127p). Another classic!

11. Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling. A modern classic!

12. A Room With A View by E.M. Forster

Message 10 -I agree.Middlesex was just too long. I thought editors were supposed to help with that sort of thing. I'm finding the same problem with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao on audiobook. I enjoyed much of the audiobook, but now it's sort of a background blah blah blah. There are some short stories in the collection which I'm hoping provide some variety.

13. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. I first read this classic back in my childhood, and I think it has had a true effect on my life. I was a little worried that, by reading it again, some of the magic would have disappeared in the intervening years, but thankfully none of it had.

14. The Case Against Christ by John Young. I read this as a favour to my Christian girlfriend. It was a useful read, but not terribly enjoyable.

15. The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus, edited by Brian Aldiss.

16. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

17. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Steamed through this one - it's an extraordinary book, and incredibly readable too.

18. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima; I'd read this one before, but forgot just how wonderful it is.

19. The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

20. A Man In A Woman's World by Jackie Hayden.

21. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

22. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

23. An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin

24. Tai-Pan by James Clavell

25. Kim by Rudyard Kipling

Half way there! A little behind schedule, sure, but I've now got a couple of months without work, so I've got some time to catch up!

26. Meditation by Eknath Easwaran

27. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

28. No Full Stops In India by Mark Tully

29. The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz

30. God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens

31. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Good - today I finished one book I'd been reading, and then finished another in its entirety. Getting back on track now!

32. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

33. Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow by Peter Hoeg

34. Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham

35. The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski

36. The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

37. The Travels by Marco Polo

38. Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James

39. The Immoralist by Andre Gide

40. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

41. Thunderball by Ian Fleming

42. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

43. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

44. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

45. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima

Hi, you have an interesting list of reads this year. What do u think of book #45? I just finished reading it myself and thought it had an interesting theme, though Mishima's writing didn't exactly blow me away this time. Have u read all the titles in the Sea of Fertility tetralogy? Would be interested to know what u think of them.

46. Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah

47. Vain Art of the Fugue by Dumitru Tsepeneag

48. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

49. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

50. The Moronic Inferno by Martin Amis

Hi, soylentgreen23!
Congratulations on reaching your 50 book challenge goal!
--BJ

Thanks Billijean!

I've even gone one further now:

51. A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov

52. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

53. The Diving-Bell and The Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

54. Eon by Greg Bear

55. If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him! by Sheldon B. Kopp

56. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

57. Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley

58. No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe

59. Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki

60. The Outsider by Albert Camus

61. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

62. Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham