Lemonwalrus' 50 Books in 2009

My new years resolution this year was to average a book a week in 2009. (So I am actually shooting for 52 books in 2009, but I'm sure you guys won't mind if I read a couple extra. :P) Then a few weeks ago I stumbled upon LT and figured I would join this group and maybe get a few good recommendations while keeping track of my progress.

That being said, I have already fallen behind (College are hard. :() but I am not too worried because I perform mindless labor 6 hours a day during the summers and then have the rest of the day with which to do as I please.

January:
1. Carrie by Stephen King
2. Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut

February:
3. Homeland by R. A. Salvatore
4. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
5. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

March:
6. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

April:
7. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Strange Tales by Robert Louis Stevenson
8. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
9. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
10. Cell by Stephen King

May:
11. How Great Generals Win by Bevin Alexander

June:
12. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

July:
13. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

August:
14. Poop Culture by Dave Praeger
15. Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

September:
16. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

October:
17. Slan by A. E. Van Vogt

November:

December:
18. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Currently Reading:
Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku
The Billion-Dollar Molecule by Barry Werth

If you have any recommendations based on what I have read, I am definitely open to suggestions.

Carrie was a Christmas gift from a friend, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I definitely plan to read more by King during the course of the year.

Slaughterhouse-five was just a classic that I had heard highly praised written by an author that I had never read before (I am not nearly as well read as I would like to be), so I thought, 'what the heck?'. I could not be happier that I chose to read this book. I ran out and got Cat's Cradle and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater almost as soon as I finished. I expect to read more Vonnegut throughout the year also. So far 2 for 2. :)

Unfortunately, at about this time, life happened, and I realized I have, like, classes and stuff that need some attending to. Which is why I didn't open a book for leisure's sake for about the next 3 weeks.

Homeland came to me by way of a book swap of sorts, where 5 friends and I put our names in a hat, drew them, and then you had to read a book chosen by the person who's name you drew. (Yes, we are nerds, what of it?) My friend, who has read every word Salvatore has ever put on a page, started me out with Homeland, the first of the 'Drizzt' books, chronologically speaking, and I must say I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much that during my spring break I intend to read the 2nd and 3rd installments of the trilogy.

Cat's Cradle was amazing. I read the entire book in two marathon sessions. (It's a rather short read, so I guess the sessions weren't THAT grueling.) Unfortunately for me, the second of those two sessions was on a night I had earmarked as an all-nighter with which to study for my Bio Exam. I still stick by my original prediction that Vonnegut will take up a large amount of my time this year, and I also acquired Timequake this afternoon.

Reading Goals for this year: Read at least;
5 Books written by Female authors
(1/5)
1 Book written within the last year
(1/1)
1 Book written before 1900
(1/1)
15 Books by authors I have never read before
(9/15)
1 Book I have read before
(1/1)
5 Non-Fiction books
(3/5)
5 Books recommended by friends/relatives
(5/5)
1 Book recommended by someone on LibraryThing
(1/1)
1 Book recommended by someone else on LibraryThing
(0/1)
1 Autobiography
(0/1)
1 Book I pick up at the book store with no prior knowledge
(0/1)
1 Multi-book series (Trilogy, etc.)
(0/1)

I think you'll like Ender's Game. My brother enjoys all Michael Crichton's books so I'm gonna assume you can't go wrong with that as well. I'm glad you enjoyed Kurt Vonnegut; I've been meaning to read his books for a long time and now might actually try to get to them this year as per your recommendation!

Hi stephxsu,

I have yet to meet a person that has read Ender's Game and didn't enjoy it, so I am pretty sure that I will enjoy it a lot. I tend to enjoy classics and other widely popular books, as you can probably already tell.

I am glad to hear that you are giving Vonnegut a chance, and hope you enjoy him if and when you get around to it.

Yay! Another person loving Vonnegut! One of my all-time favorite authors! I highly recommend Hocus Pocus, Mother Night,Jailbird and Bluebeard by him.

I'll look forward to reading your thread!

Thanks for the recommendations readeron!

I was definitely in need of a guiding hand to show me the way through Vonnegut's works, as I know nothing about them and there are 20 or so.

In order to keep my 50 book challenge from just becoming a Vonnegut fest, (not that there is anything wrong with that) I have set myself a rule that I cannot read the same author back to back. So I need to intersperse Vonnegut with others, which should be easy enough.

Although I might make an exception to the rule for trilogies and whatnot, we'll see.

Hi, Lemonwalrus!
I am also planning to read Ender's Game on recommendation from my daughter -- I hope in March. And I want to read both The Voyage of the Beagle and On the Origin of Species this year, too. So I can't wait to read your reviews.

I hope your bio exam went ok and good luck with your reading challenge! :)
--BJ

I went into the god delusion and atheist, and I came out an atheist, so I guess he didn't make any negative progress. :P I really liked Dawkins' writing, and I will read some more of his stuff in the future. (which is good since most of it is recommended reading for bio majors anyways.) Idk, I like to read in the library/other places, and having a controversial book like this one in your hands in a public place is just asking for a debate that I don't want to have in the first place, but I was able to read it relatively undisturbed. Dawkins also wrote the introduction to the version of Voyage/Origins that I have and just started, so that was interesting as well.

How are you liking Catch-22? If you like it you might try a newish book called The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway.

Finally finished Catch-22. I really liked it, it just took me a lot of time due to school and other events that have been absorbing my free time like a sponge. I have a big exam a week from here on out it seems, so reading for fun might not be possible until late April or early May. I liked the book, and I might read the sequel, although I have never heard much about it so I just might not.

I had to give up on Voyage/Origins for the time being, it is simply too dense to read alongside stuff that I have to read for my classes. But it should be a good way to keep my mind sharp during the summer. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (and other tales by R. L. Stevenson) seems short enough that I should be able to finish it before the end of march, which will put me behind by about 6 books from my goal pace. :( Hopefully in April I can make time to read 4 or more to get a little bit caught up, but who knows.

Also, tash99, judging from the LT reviews, I think I will like The Gone Away World, I'll definitely pick it up next time I find myself in a bookstore.

Finally finished Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Strange Tales, which was a recommendation/gift from the same friend that gave me Carrie.

Since I can't find it on LT, the stories included were:
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Markheim
Thrawn Janet
Olalla
The Body-Snatcher
The Bottle Imp
The Isle of Voices

I liked the title story, but am afraid I would have liked it much more if I hadn't gone into it knowing the ending. Bittersweet result of the story being so good that it is popular knowledge over a century after it was written.

Markheim I didn't particularly enjoy, although Stevenson's writing blew me away, I just wasn't particularly into the story.

Thrawn Janet...I just couldn't digest the dialect. (If any of you plan on reading it, here is a good scottish dialect glossary I found http://everything2.com/title/Scottish%2520Dialect%253A%2520A , I would not have been able to read it otherwise.)

Olalla is my new favorite short story, unseating The Yellow Wallpaper. I am a bit of a sucker for a particular type of female character though, which might have something to do with it, but I just loved this story.

The Body-Snatcher; pretty good, but not as good as Olalla and the last 2 stories.

The Bottle Imp was really interesting. The kind of story that, if you remember enough details, would make for a good campfire tale.

The Isle of Voices...pretty much same review as The Bottle Imp actually. Very enjoyable read.

Unfortunately I let my 2 english major friends find out that I enjoy Victorian writing...so we will see how that goes.

Thanks for the link to the Scottish dialect glossary. There have been times when I needed that but never thought that one would exist! :)
--BJ

>13 Lemonwalrus: re Olalla: A short story even better than The Yellow Wallpaper??? I'm sold.

Glad to help billiejean.

And I hope you are not disappointed girlunderglass.

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater was the first work by Vonnegut that I won't be giving 5 stars. A very quick and enjoyable read, to be sure, but was just lacking something that Slaughterhouse five and Cat's Cradle both had. A lot of the enjoyment I got from the book was actually due to the weird ways in which it connected to the other works of Vonnegut's that I have read.

A small problem that I have, I will be reading Ender's Game next, which I am excited about, but I plan to read Cell after that, but the copy that I have, which is borrowed from a friend, smells like an ash tray. Is there a way to get rid of the smell without risking any damage to the book? I've heard freezing books is supposed to help, but I am not sure exactly what that entails. Hopefully some of you have successfully de-stinkified a book before and can help me out.

Ok, you win, Ender's Game was just as amazing as everyone who ever told me about it said it would be. Either 4.5 or 5 stars imo, haven't decided yet. I had certain parts of it spoiled while I was reading it by a friend that read my copy which he borrowed from me about a month ago...but I will get over it, if I have to, I guess. :(

For any of you that have read the full Ender series, what order would you suggest? I fell in love with enough of the characters and with the universe itself, (And Card) so I definitely want to continue.

My daughter has been telling me this for a long time. I was all set to read it when I lost it. I don't know how! Now I want to go look for it!
--BJ

Wooo, first time so far that I have actually read a month's share of books in a month, and there is still 10 days left in April!

Cell was terrifying at times, and one heck of a reading experience. Recommended by the same friend that recommended Carrie and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (So far she is 3 for 3. :)) Idk, I can't go too far without feeling like I am spoiling, so I will just leave it at that.

Now pulling a 180 and re-reading A Farewell To Arms.

"smells like an ash tray"

Just one word for the Lemonwalrus: FABREEZE
Works like a charm for me!~!
What a fascinating thread. I just found you today and this is really interesting. I love how disciplined you are and how you have set up your reads. It will be thought-provoking to see your choices throughout the year.
A belated welcome to you.

Ok, so it's been a while, but better late than never, so I'm going to do a seven book update.

You may notice that in the 6 months I have been away from LT, I have only read 7 books. :( It seems I overestimated the amount of time I was going to have/want to read over the summer, but oh well, these things happen. It is also plain to see that I won't make my goal, but maybe I can reach 1/2 of the goal, and at the very least I can set a benchmark for me to shoot to beat next year. With that said, on to the mini-review things that I seem to do for the books that I read.

How Great Generals Win was mediocre. I discovered Alexander while walking through a borders when I saw by far his most famous work, How Hitler Could Have Won World War II, and was instantly interested. I picked it up and read it and liked it enough that within a few weeks I had picked up 4 more of his books. I have since read 2 of those 4, this one being the latest. I don't regret buying his books, but his writing can be quite mundane at times, so I guess I would only recommend his books to people who know that they are nerdy about military history. (Also, have an atlas handy if you read one of his books, unless you know the exact placement of every single small city in the entire world, which he apparently assumes we do.)

A Farewell to Arms was about as good as I remembered it. I read it first in highschool, about 5-6 years ago, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I guess there is something to be said for the fact that it is one of the only two books that I have ever read more than once. I think once I get most of Vonnegut under my belt I might start consuming all the Hemingway I can find.

The Hunger Games was great. I picked it up because if fulfilled my goals of reading a book by a female author and of reading a book written in the last year...and also because I absolutely love dystopian novels. I suppose I am a bit older and have more Y chromosomes than the target audience, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I have since picked up Catching Fire and plan to read it relatively soon.

Poop Culture...odd choice of reading material, I know, but just hear me out. So I have this aunt and uncle that give books as gifts for every family meeting in which gifts can reasonably be given, and generally speaking they always give me a book that I would never have picked out of my own volition. That being said, I always read them, and 90% of the time it turns out to be a great book, Poop Culture falls into that 90%. It is a rather in depth look at the effects of poop on our modern world. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I would have read it in public though.

Sirens of Titan was very good. I'm very happy that I consistently enjoy Vonnegut, because word got out that I was a fan of his dangerously close to my birthday and I now own about 75% of his works. I'd like to talk about the book itself, but I am afraid I might inadvertently spoil things, so I will just move on.

Neverwhere was enjoyable. I felt like expanding my horizons so this book was someone else's choice and I guess I lucked out. I'm not running out to pick up more works by Gaiman, but I will probably read more by him in the future.

Slan was amazing. I have been a fan of A. E. Van Vogt since the aunt/uncle mentioned above gave me a copy of The Voyage of the Space Beagle, but unfortunately I had been unable to find any more of his works. That was until a friend and I went to the local used books store just off campus and I found 8 more of his books. I got them all at $2 a piece and now my 1940's-1970's sci-fi thirst is quenched for the forseable future.