Pretear's 50 Book Challenge 2009

This is so exciting. I'm a law student (last semester wooo hooo). I had to almost entirely give up recreational reading in favor of law books but now that it's almost over I want to start reading all the books I accumulated over the past 3 years. I love books that deal with physics (even though I don't understand it), history (pretty big fan of Alison Weir), dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction ( Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is probably my favorite book ever ). I also really enjoy almost anything printed by the Dedalus Publishing Company which I discovered in college while taking a Polish Science Fiction course, haha. I haven't picked the 50 books yet but I'm really looking forward to the challenge. I'm so glad I found this website. : )
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Currently Reading/Will Be Reading Soon:
19. The Oxford Book of American Poetry by David Lehman
20. The Dedalus Book of Portuguese Fantasy by Eugenio Lisboa
21. The Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath

Finished:
1. Averno by Louise Gluck
2. Stephanie or a Previous Existence by Herbert Rosendorfer
3. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
4. Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
5. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
6. The Dedalus Book of French Horror: 19th Century by Terry Hale
7. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
8. Collapse by Jared Diamond
9. Gray Apocalypse by James Murdoch
10. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
11. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
12. Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
13. Dead As A Doornail by Charlaine Harris
14. Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
15. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
16. From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger by Lorna Dee Cervantes
17. Stories in Stone: A field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography by Douglas Keister
18. Fool by Christopher Moore
19. Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
20. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Abandoned:
The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
Perdido Street Station China Mieville







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Other Challenges:

Congratulations on reaching the last semester of law school! Yea!
--BJ

Thank you! It's been a really long 3 years. lol.

I, unfortunately, had to give up on The Fabric of the Cosmos. I usually love physics books but this one just dragged and dragged. I *hate* giving up on books, but since I'm trying to complete the challenge I can't stick with books that I find myself hating like I used to do. I'm giving myself credit for the pages I read but I'm moving on to Averno by Louise Glück.

I'm going to try to pick up abandoned books again sometime in the future.

I finished Averno. Here's the review.

I'm starting Stephanie or a Previous Existence by Herbert Rosendorfer. I'm a huge fan of the Dedalus Publishing Company and peruse their publishing list often. I found this book named Stephanie (which is my name) with an image of nails on the cover (I'm sort of an amateur hand model, the hand on the cover even looks like mine). When I read that the Author is a Judge (I'm in law school) and that the book dealt with a woman who remembers a previous life as a Spanish Duchess who murders her husband, that pretty much sealed the deal, this book was obviously meant for me.

Hi, Stephanie!
Sounds like fate! I hope it turns out to be a great book!
--BJ

BJ - It was! haha.

I just finished Stephanie or a Previous Existence which was not what I expected but still good. Here's the review.

I'm beginning A Farewell to Arms... since... if you can believe it, I've never read Ernest Hemingway. This one is also on 1001 Books to Read Before You Die and 100 Greatest Books of All Time.

Hi, Stephanie!
I have not read A Farewell to Arms but I hear it is great. I have read two books by Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea, both of which I thought were fantastic. I can't wait to see what you think of this one.
--BJ

BJ - I still working on A Farewell to Arms but I'm really enjoying it so far. I really like Hemingway's writing style, I'll definitely be reading For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea.

I've also started Stories in Stone: A field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography by Douglas Keister. It's more of a reference book, it's very well illustrated - so far I'm enjoying it very much.

Hi, Pretear! Welcome to the 50-Book challenge! (That makes me sound like an 'old-timer' but really I'm just a few months ahead of you!) Hope you like Naked as much as I did. Parts of it were a bit raunchy, but I still had to laugh.

P.S. My son's girlfriend is just finishing law school too! Congratulations!!!

Pretear - I also had never read Hemingway before last year and always considered it a big gap. I dipped my toe in by finishing The Old Man and the Sea last year and wasn't that impressed. However, I'm now half-way through For Whom the Bell Tolls and after a confusing first few pages, I am really enjoying it. Stories in Stone sounds awesome! I have a (creepy?) fascination with old cemeteries....so that sounds right up my alley.

>12 callen610: It took me three attempts over several years to get through The Old Man and the Sea before I could finish it and really enjoy it. That might be one of those books that, for whatever reason, has to be read at the "right" time.

My grandfather used to take us on trips during which we would visit cemeteries and look up long gone relatives. I might do some genealogy myself. I never got to see his records.
--BJ

BB - Thank you! : ) I'm glad to be here but it looks like I'm probably not going to hit the 50 mark this year because of the Bar Exam. I'm going to try to keep reading as much as possible though. And I'll definitely let you know what I think about Naked.

Callen - Stories in Stone is a must for people like us (that is... people with creepy fascinations with old cemeteries, lol.) Every where I go I try to look up any old cemeteries. There are some excellent ones in Florida, there's just something so interesting about them. My boyfriend bought me this book after we visited Charleston and we saw very old graves that had very elaborate designs and symbols on them.

SP - Noted. I definitely feel that way about some books too. I tried to read The Alchemist in high school and just couldn't get into it - I'm going to try again now as an adult and see if I can appreciate it more.

BJ - I wish I could do that more than anything. We're immigrants so our family history is very scattered.

Oh, no! The Alchemist is on my list this year and I've already bought it. Well, I could keep on ignoring it, I guess. That seems to have worked for about 30 other books piled up around the room. Too bad I don't have law exams to study for! ;-)

Haha, no, please don't avoid reading it. I think I was just too immature at the time. I'm actually Brazilian and lately I've had a desire to reconnect with my ancestral culture so I bought this book in Portuguese. I don't know how well I'll be able to read it but I guess we'll see. Let me know your thoughts when you do read it.

huh--now I don't know what to think of The Alchemist; I read it as an entering college student at eighteen (summer reading), and quite a few of us had the reaction we were too old for it!

Hmm... well let's see I tried to read it in I think 11th grade so that was 9 years ago. I can't really remember exactly what made me put it down but I think I was bored by it. Why did you feel you were too old for it? Is it just really simplistic?

>17 Pretear:, Oh, no! I love having an excuse for not reading a book. I'm going to blame you all the way! ;-)

Good luck on the bar exam! :) Remember that you know more than you think you do! And try to get some sleep every night during the exam.
--BJ

Pretear - I finally received Stories in Stone from my library - what an awesome reference guide! I can't wait to head out to my favorite cemetery (ooohh....how sick that sounds......ug...) and look around.

Awesome!! Keep me posted on what you find. : )

I finished A Farewell to Arms. I'm silly about reading classics. I always want to discuss them ad infinitum, but I don't really know people with whom I can do that. My significant other was an English major in college and we were supposed to read this together so that we could discuss it but he lost his copy of the book. Frustrating. Here's the review.

I'm starting Collapse: How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail by Jared Diamond. He's lecturing about this book at my university next week so I'm going to try to get through as much as possible in order to attend.

I've gotten behind on reading posts, but I wanted to stop by and say hello. I enjoyed your review of A Farewell to Arms.
--BJ

: ) Thank you.

I'm half way through Collapse and I'm really enjoying it so far - but a friend of mine lent me a few books a long time ago... and now that we're both graduating, she wants them back. Haha. So I have to take a break from reading my own books to read the ones she lent me. First, is Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi. It's short so I'm going to try to knock it out quickly.

That book looks interesting. I look forward to seeing what you think of it. Have a great day!
--BJ

Finished Woman at Point Zero, Here's the review. It was a quick read, but I didn't love it.

The same friend who gave me that previous book gave me Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe so I'm going to start that today. Can't wait to get back to Collapse.

Just finished Things Fall Apart. Buuuut... it's 2am so I haven't written a review. I really enjoyed it though so I think I have a lot to say about it.

I've been reading a lot of heavy stuff lately so I think it's time to read some silliness - after I finish Collapse, I'm going to start Fool by Christopher Moore. I'll read King Lear first, it's one of the plays that for whatever reason I've never gotten a chance to read. And I've vowed to stop reading spoofs and re-tellings without first reading the original.

I have Things Fall Apart in my tbr. Glad to see that you liked it. :)
--BJ

I loved Things Fall Apart. So much to talk about with that book.

BJ - Read it!! It's very fast... I couldn't get into it at first but it's really just amazing.

BB - I know - I think the last page of this book is the most poignant comment about cultural imperialism I've ever read.

Here's the review.

I took a day to pick up an abandoned book - I finished The Dedalus Book of French Horror: The 19th Cenury edited by Terry Hale. It was a tough one to get through. Here's the review.

I try to be reading a poetry book, a short story book, a fiction and a non-fiction book at all times so I'm going start The Dedalus Book of Portuguese Fantasy edited by Eugenio Lisboa to replace the previous Dedalus installation.

I'd like to be reading more poetry myself - do you have any suggestions?

Hmm - well, we seem to be into more else the same kind of stuff so I think you might really like Louise Glück (if you haven't read her already). Her poetry deals with mostly familial relationships, life, death, etc. and often she uses mythological and religious imagery. My personal reason for enjoying her poetry to so much is that it seems to speak to my personal life experiences. She's probably my favorite modern female poet. I really liked Ararat. : ) I also really love Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Ahhhh I'm back! I finished the Bar Exam and now I can read, read, read, (non-law books) I can hardly contain myself.

I still have to finish Collapse but I actually decided to read some fluff, need to let my brain relax a little - so I picked up book 1 of the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Series Dead Until Dark. I'm a big fan of True Blood and people say the books are just as good so why not. It's funny because I've been mulling over whether or not I should read the Twilight Series but I really just can't bring myself to do it. I'm something of a literature snob (even though I think it's pretty silly to be that way). And although I really enjoy a sordid angsty vampire tale, I just really dislike what Twilight represents. I don't know - I might still read it if I can borrow it from someone.

After that I'm going to read a book that was sent to me through Early Reviewers - Gray Apocalypse. I love science fiction but it's not really the type of book I would usually read, I'm looking forward to trying something new.

It's so nice to be back. : )

Congratulations on finishing the bar exam! That is a huge accomplishment! Yea!!
--BJ

I second the congratulations! Enjoy the well-deserved time off :)

Thank you both very much! : )

I finished Dead Until Dark. Here's the review.

I'm going to keep reading the book series but it's really not as compelling as the TV show. It's a quick, light, fluffy, and smutty read so it's not a huge waste of time. And it's definitely nice to not have to think so hard after studying for two months.

Finished Collapse By Jared Diamond. Here's the review. I really liked this book but my desire to read it significantly slowed down towards the end. I do recommend it though, it's a really interesting way to look at political and social turmoil.

I'm beginning Gray Apocalypse now.

I can't wait to hear what you think of Gray Apocalypse. I have been thinking of getting that book.
--BJ

Finished Gray Apocalypse. I'm going to kick it back to LT community. I can't really say I enjoyed it. But I do think it's a good first effort for a fledgling author.

I'm going to read Living Dead in Dallas because it should be a quickie then I'm going to go back to reading some of the books I was reading before I had to start studying for the bar exam.

Finished Living Dead in Dallas. I'm still not loving the series, I won't bother to post my review because it's not very insightful. I just overwhelmingly prefer the television series. I'm going to pick up the Dedalus Book Portuguese Fantasy but I think I might read it simultaneously with Fool.

Finished Club Dead another book from the Sookie Stackhouse series, Here's the review. I'm really not sure why I keep reading these because I don't really like them, at all. I'm 3/4s through Dead to the World and still working on a few others already mentioned in previous posts.

Finished Dead to the World, I'm now reading Dead As A Doornail. I believe this will be my last Sookie Stackhouse novel for a while. The brainlessness is getting to me and I think I need to read something more serious to switch things up.

I giving up on the Sookie Stackhouse books for the time. They're boring and the main character is a sex driven dolt. The stories are getting predictable and two dimensional. I'm going back to the roots to clear my mind of the drivel. I'm starting Memories of my Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I'm still laughing, I'm sorry! It's just so funny to hear you're going from a book because the character is "a sex-driven dolt" to Memories of my Melancholy Whores, though I'm sure, given the author, that the tone of the book, as well as the quality of the writing, will be much different. Happy reading!

lol. Well you're right on both observations.

Finished Memories of my Melancholy Whores - I LOVED it.

Here's the review (reproduced instead of linked because it seems people prefer to just read the contents in the thread.)

I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez but I have to admit I had my doubts about this book after reading the first line. "The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin." Immediately, I was repulsed and faced with the question, is my all time favorite author a dirty old pervert? And thankfully after finishing the book I can say with some degree of certainty, no, he is not. There is no magical realism in this book. Instead the reader finds a philosophical and charming tale about aging and love that only GMM could spin. The main character, a dirty old pervert (no doubt), is perplexed by finding himself madly in love at the age of 90 after a life time of empty affairs. The two main characters are nameless. The girl, the object of the old man's affection, is speechless throughout the story. The main character is in love, but not with the girl herself, rather the idea of the girl. She is perfect, but only in his mind. For that reason, the main character is constantly reminding the reader that he prefers the girl while she sleeps and he is afraid of ever knowing her real name or seeing her out in public when she isn't naked and sleeping. To him she is not a real person. This theme of strange irrational love flows throughout the book and makes the underlying truth of the story bearable to a modern reader - an impoverished 14 year-old girl is forced to pseudo-prostitute herself to this old man in order to help feed her family. This book is a literary gem for anyone who can put that point aside, doing so is well worth it.

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I'm starting the The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

I don't know... I wasn't that fond of his male character's notion of love in his book, Love in the Time of Cholera. I'm still creeped out by your description. The fact that he's enamored with the girl doesn't make him any less of a pervert, does it? On the other hand, as I'm getting older, I think I better understand men's fascination with young, beautiful women.

That was my problem with the book too. As beautiful as the writing was, I couldn't really get my head around the fact that this was a 90 year old man obsessed with a teenaged prostitute. It probably merits a second attempt at some point, but I couldn't totally get past that the first time around.

Well the main character is definitely a perv (I meant that the author was not) there's no way around that but the love affair is so... um... farcical and illusory, I guess, that it made it easier to circumvent the perversion.

Started From the Cables of Of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger by Lorna Dee Cervantes. I've been all angst ridden since I started reading The Bell Jar.

Finished The Bell Jar. Wow. Just wow. I can't believe I waited so long to read this book. Nor can I believe how much I disliked Plath for no reason. I unfairly lumped her in with Kate Chopin who I passionately detest but The Bell Jar was definitely not anything like The Awakening. It was particularly eerie and exciting for me because I completely identified with the main character (minus the suicidal tendencies) all her observations about life, school, work, the future, gender relations, sex, and people are observations that I had also made during my life time. Her feelings were/are my own feelings. It was like Plath had pulled those thoughts from my head and put them on paper 20 years before I was even born. I have to say that this book is now in my top ten books of all time.

I'm now obsessed with Sylvia Plath and want to read every last possible bit of her writing.

From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger by Lorna Dee Cervantes is garbage. It seemed like such a powerful concept for a book of poems but it just didn't deliver, sadly. The only insightful written words were some of the quotations the author used as introductions to poems. Skip this one.

I've been trying to finish up some of the books that I've been reading for a while... but then the monotony got to me. (I'm weird about reading, I know.) In any case, I started reading Fool by Christopher Moore. I've been reading a lot of serious books as of late, so I decided to crack open a silly book. I've read all Moore's books with the exception of Island of the Sequined Love Nun. I love him. Sadly, I've never read King Lear (although I do know the story in a general sense) on which Fool is based. I hope that doesn't take away from the book.

Finished Stories in Stone: A field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography by Douglas Keister. It's a great reference book but probably not something I would recommended reading from cover to cover. I'm starting The Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath. I'm still obsessed.

Finished Fool which was great... funny and tragic. And to continue on with the silliness I'm starting Definitely Dead - contrary to my good sense. I'm also close to finishing The Metamorphosis on my iPhone. While I have an aversion to Kindle and company, it is very convenient to read on my phone since I always have it with me.

Definitely Dead wasn't as horrible as I had imagined but I am weary of the overbearing sexuality in every single book. Okay, as a reader, I get it. Sookie Stackhouse has a healthy sexual appetite. Let's give it a rest now.

I enjoyed Metamorphosis. Very depressing. But I couldn't stop projecting my own feelings onto the subject matter so I really missed out on the existentialism. Or maybe I didn't.