divinenanny's 1010 challenge

I have hesitated to take part in this challenge because I hate to leave things uncompleted, and 100 books a year is a bit too ambitious for me. Also, I have noticed that it is very hard for me to plan ahead with reading, as I don't want to "force" myself into reading anything I don't feel like reading at that particular time.

But, I will try... Now, let me think of some categories...

Okay, categories:

C-1) Non-Fiction History (10/10)
C-2) Other non-fiction (10/10)
C-3) Historical fiction (10/10)
C-4) Science fiction (10/10)
C-5) Fantasy and Fantastic Tales (10/10)
C-6) Winners (10/10)
C-7) Classics (10/10)
C-8) Dutch language (10/10)
C-9) Vampires and the like (10/10)
C-10) Catchall 10/10)

Okay, new plan: As 100 books is too ambitious, I am going to narrow it down to 50, 5 in each category. Starting date will be 10-10-2009, with the book I am reading then. The end date will be either one year from now (10-10-2010) or at the end of 2010.

All selected books are gathered in my 1010 Challenge Collection.

10/10/2009 edit: Change of plans once again. I am having so much fun filling my categories that I am going back to 10 books per category, split in 5/5 (idea stolen from LA12Hernandez). I plan to read at least 5 books per category (for 50 books total) with the possibility of reading more. To leave room for new acquisition I give myself permission to change around unread books at will :D.

* Books in italics are wishlisted books.

Ticker:




List of books read:

October 2009 (start 10-10-2009) (7 books, 93 to go)
1. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
2. A History of Histories - John Burrow
3. The Templar Legacy - Steve Berry
4. Azincourt - Bernard Cornwell
5. In Alle Staten - Max Westerman
6. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
7. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

November 2009 (12 books, 81 to go)
8. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
9. Philip Hoare - Leviathan
10. Geert Mak - De Brug
11. Preston & Child - Dodenboek
12. Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five
13. Fergus Kerr - Thomas Aquinas (Very Short Introductions)
14. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
15. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
16. White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
17. Julie & Julia - Julie Powell
18. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
19. Let the right one in - John Ajvide Lindqvist

December 2009 (8 books, 73 to go)
20. The Death of Kings - Michael Evans
21. She - H. Rider Haggard
22. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
23. Firmin - Sam Savage
24. Dead until Dark - Charlaine Harris
25. The Age of Wonder - Richard Holmes
26. The Magicians - Lev Grossman
27. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

January 2010 (12 books, 61 to go)
28. Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris
29. Nebra - Thomas Thiemeyer
30. Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
31. Blood Music - Greg Bear
32. Het ei van Salaì - Monaldi & Sorti
33. De grote wereld - Arthur Japin
34. Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr
35. Excession - Iain M. Banks
36. Eleanor of Aquitaine - Alison Weir
37. The Complete Fables - Aesop
38. The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
39. Sovereign - C.J. Sansom

February 2010 (14 books, 47 to go)
40. Revelation - C.J. Sansom
41. Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs
42. I wish I'd been there - Byron Hollinshead (ed.)
43. The Great Mortality - John Kelly
44. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
45. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
46. Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger
47. King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard
48. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
49. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
50. The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
51. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
52. Feersum Endjinn - Iain M. Banks
53. The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

March 2010 (14 books, 33 to go)
54. The Complete Maus - Art Spiegelman
55. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
56. Handling the Undead - John Ajvide Lindqvist
57. Persepolis - Marjane Sartrapi
58. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
59. People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks
60. Inversions - Iain M. Banks
61. Dracula - Bram Stoker
62. Duel - Joost Zwagerman
63. Nothing (VSI) - Frank Close
64. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror - Robert Louis Stevenson
65. From Demons to Dracula - Matthew Beresford
66. The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt
67. The Natural History of Unicorns - Chris Lavers

April 2010 (10 books, 23 to go)
68. The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova
69. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
70. Look to Windward - Iain M. Banks
71. The Return of Tarzan - Edgar Rice Burroughs
72. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
73. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
74. Classical Mythology (VSI) - Helen Morales
75. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
76. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brönte
77. Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde

May 2010 (6 books, 17 to go)
78. To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
79. The Owl Killers - Karen Maitland
80. Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
81. The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde
82. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Seth Grahame-Smith & Jane Austen
83. Club Dead - Charlaine Harris

June 2010 (10 books, 7 to go)
84. Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson
85. A long way down - Nick Hornby
86. The Biographer's Tale - A.S. Byatt
87. Het Zeewezen - John Ajvide Lindqvist
88. Rashomon - Ryunosuke Akutagawa
89. De schaduw van de wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
90. Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris
91. Nederland van Prehistorie tot Beeldenstorm - Wim Blockmans (ed.)
92. Onmacht - Charles den Tex
93. The Passage - Justin Cronin

July 2010 (4 books, 3 to go)
94. Nation - Terry Pratchett
95. Superfreakonomics - Steven Levitt
96. Persian Fire - Tom Holland
97. Animal Farm - George Orwell

August 2010 (2 books, 1 to go)
98. Rubicon - Tom Holland
99. Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

September 2010 (1 book, 0 to go)
100. Christianity: A Very Short Introduction - Linda Woodhead

C-1 - Non Fiction History

10/10

1) Persian Fire - Tom Holland (Started 19-7-2010 - Finished 21-7-2010 #96
2) Eleanor of Aquitaine - Alison Weir (Started 20-1-2010 - Finished 23-1-2010 #36)
3) The Great Mortality - John Kelly (Started 4-2-2010 - Finished 7-2-2010 #43)
4) The Death of Kings - Michael Evans (Started 1-12-2009 - Finished 2-12-2009 #20)
5) Thomas Aquinas: A very short introduction - Fergus Kerr (Started 7-11-2009 - Finished 8-11-2009 #13)
6) The Complete Fables - Aesop (Started 23-1-2010 - Finished 24-1-2010 #37)
7) The Natural History of Unicorns - Chris Lavers (Started 27-03-2010 - Finished 28-03-2010 #67)
8) A History of Histories - John Burrow (Started 12-10-2009 - Finished 16-10-2009 #2)
9) I wish I'd been there - Byron Hollinshead ea. (Started 3-2-2010 - Finished 4-2-2010 #42)
10) Nederland van prehistorie tot beeldenstorm - Wim Blockmans ed. (Started 12-06-2010 - Finished 15-06-2010 #91)

C-2 - Other non-fiction (not Medieval History)

10/10

1) Persepolis - marjansatrapi::Marjane Satrapi (Started 03-03-2010 - Finished 03-03-2010 #57)
2) Superfreakonomics - Steven D. Levitt (Started 3-7-2010 - Finished 7-7-2010 #95)
3) From Demons to Dracula - Matthew Beresford (Started 21-03-2010 - Finished 22-03-2010 #65)
4) Leviathan - Philip Hoare (Started 2-11-2009 - Finished 3-11-2009 #9)
5) Christianity; A very short introduction - Linda Woodhead (Started 20-09-2010 - Finished 23-09-2010 #100)
6) Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction - Helen Morales (Started 15-04-2010 - Finished 15-04-2010 #74)
7) In alle staten - Max Westerman (Started 21-10-2009 - Finished 22-10-2009 #5)
8) Nothing: A Very Short Introduction - Frank Close (Started 18-03-2010 - Finished 19-03-2010 #63)
9) The Age of Wonder - Richard Holmes (Started 10-12-2009 - Finished 16-12-2009 #25)
10) Julie and Julia - Julie Powell (Started 19-11-2009 - Finished 24-11-2009 #17)

C-3 - Historical fiction

10/10

1) Agincourt - Bernard Cornwell (Started 20-10-2009 - Finished 21-10-2009 #4)
2) Revelation - CJ Sansom (Started 27-01-2010 - Finished 01-02-2010 #40)
3) The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova (Started 28-03-2010 - Finished 06-04-2010 #68
4) The Owl Killers - Karen Maitland (Started 04-05-2010 - Finished 10-05-2010 #79
5) Sovereign - C.J. Sansom (Started 26-01-2010 - Finished 27-01-2010 #39)
6) The Templar Legacy - Steve Berry (Started 17-10-2009 - Finished 20-10-2009 #3)
7) Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson (Started 16-05-2010 - 01-06-2010 #84)
8) The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown (Started 25-02-2010 - Finished 26-02-2010 #53
9) People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks (Started 12-03-2010 - 15-03-2010 #59)
10) To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis (Started 29-04-2010 - Finished 03-05-2010 #78)

Books about or set in historical times

C-4 - Science fiction

10/10

1) The Passage - Justin Cronin (Started 22-06-2010 - Finished 29-06-2010) #93
2) Blood Music - Greg Bear (Started 12-1-2010 - Finished 13-1-2010 #31)
3) Excession - Iain M. Banks (Started 18-1-2010 - Finished 20-01-2010 #35)
4) Never let me go - Kazuo Ishiguro (Started 17-02-2010 - Finished 18-02-2010 #48)
5) Feersum Endjinn - Iain M. Banks (Started 23-02-2010 - Finished 24-02-2010 #52)
6) Inversions - Iain M. Banks (Started 15-03-2010 - Finished 16-03-2010 #60)
7) Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (Started 07-04-2010 - Finished 08-04-2010 #69)
8) Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell (Started 8-10-2009 - Finished 12-10-2009 #1)
9) Saughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (Started 6-11-2009 - Finished 7-11-2009 #12)
10) Look to Windward - Iain M. Banks (Started 9-4-2010 - Finished 12-4-2010 #70)

C-5 - Fantasy and Fantastic Tales

10/10

1) The Magicians - Lev Grossman (Started 16-12-2009 - Finished 18-12-2009 #26)
2) The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde (Started 24-11-2009 - Finished 25-11-2009 #18)
3) Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman (Started 8-2-2010 - Finished 11-2-2010 #44)
4) Stardust - Neil Gaiman (Started 01-03-2010 - Finished 01-03-2010 #55)
5) American Gods - Neil Gaiman (Started 03-03-2010 - Finished 12-03-2010 #58
6) Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde (Started 27-04-2010 - Finished 28-04-2010 #77)
7) Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones (Started 10-05-2010 - Finished 10-05-2010 #80)
8) The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde (Started 11-05-2010 - Finished 11-05-2010 #81)
9) Dead to the world - Charlaine Harris (Started 10-06-2010 - Finished 11-06-2010 #90
10) Nation - Terry Pratchett (Started 01-07-2010 - Finished 02-07-2010 #94)

C-6 - Winners and nominees

10/10

1) Rubicon - Tom Holland (Hessell-Tiltman 2004) (Started 28-07-2010 - Finished 03-08-2010 #98)
2) Animal Farm - George Orwell (Hugo 1996) (Started 28-07-2010 - Finished 28-07-2010 #97)
3) Doomsday Book - Connie Willis (Hugo 1993) (Started 11-2-2010 - Finished 15-2-2010 #45)
4) Kafka on the shore - Haruki Murakami (World Fantasy Award 2006) (Started 08-08-2010 - 23-08-2010 #99)
5) The Complete Maus - Art Spiegelman (Pulitzer Prize 1992)(Started 26-02-2010 - Finished 01-03-2010 #54)
6) The Road - Cormac McCarthy (Pulitzer Prize 2007) (Started 18-2-2010 - Finished 19-2-2010 #49)
7) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - murakami Haruki Murakami (Yomiuri 1996) (Started 13-4-2010 - Finished 14-4-2010 #72)
8) The Handmaid's Tale - atwoodmargaretatwood::Margaret Atwood (Arthur C. Clarke Award 1987) (Started 19-12-2009 - Finished 25-12-2009 #27)
9) White Tiger - Aravind Adiga (Booker Prize 2008) (Started 19-11-2009 - Finished 19-11-2009 #16)
10) Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (Booker Prize 2009) (Started 11-11-2009 - Finished 18-11-2009 #15)

* Award winning and nominated books, fiction and non-fiction.

C-7 - Classics/1001 Must Read Books

10/10

1) Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (Started 28-10-2009 - Finished 1-11-2009 #8)
2) Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen (Started 22-04-2010 - Finished 24-04-2010 #75)
3) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (Started 8-11-2009 - Finished 10-11-2009 #14)
4) Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (Started 22-2-2010 - Finished 23-2-2010 #51)
5) King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard (Started 17-2-2010 - Finished 17-2-2010 #47)
6) The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle (Started 24-1-2010 - Finished 25-1-2010 #38)
7) Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs (Started 2-2-2010 - Finished 2-2-2010 #41)
8) The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson (Started 19-03-2010 - Finished 20-03-2010 #64)
9)Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë (Started 24-4-2010 - Finished 27-04-2010 #76)
10)The Return of Tarzan - Edgar Rice Burroughs (Started 12-4-2010 - Finished 12-4-2010 #71)

* I am normally not a fan of a book everyone "must have" read, but lately I've been wanting to read some classics.

C-8 - Dutch language

10/10

1) Het ei van Salaì - Monaldi & Sorti (Started 13-1-2010 - Finished 14-1-2010 #32)
2) Het Zeewezen - John Ajvide Lindqvist (Started 03-06-2010 - Finished 07-06-2010 #87)
3) Dodenboek - Douglas Preston (Started 4-11-2009 - Finished 6-11-2009 #11)
4) Rashomon en andere verhalen - Ryunosuke Akutagawa (Started 07-06-2010 - Finished 08-06-2010 #88)
5) Nebra - Thomas Thiemeyer (Started 9-1-2010 - Finished 10-1-2010 #29
6) De Schaduw van de Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Started 08-06-2010 - Finished 10-06-2010 #89)
7) De Brug - Geert Mak (Started 3-11-2009 - Finished 4-11-2009 #10)
8) De Grote Wereld - Arthur Japin (Started 14-1-2010 - Finished 14-1-2010 #33)
9) Duel - Joost Zwagerman (Started 18-3-2010 - Finished 18-3-2010 #62)
10) Onmacht - Charles den Tex (Started 16-06-2010 - Finished 16-06-2010 #92)

* I almost never read books in my mother tongue. In fact, in 2009 I have only read 3 (out of 86) books in Dutch. I am a bit ashamed, so I will make a conscious effort to read more in Dutch.

** All books in the subcategory 'originally written in Dutch' were freebies for the Week of the Book (boekenweekgeschenken) and the Week of Reading. Maybe this reading will inspire me to actually pay for a Dutch book written by a Dutch writer... Shame shame shame....

C-9 - Vampires and the like/Horror

10/10

1) Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris (Started 25-12-2009 - Finished 2-1-2010 #28)
2) Let the right one in - John Ajvide Lindqvist (Started 26-11-2009 - Finished 30-11-2009 #19)
3) Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr (Started 15-1-2010 - Finished 17-1-2010 #34)
4) Dead until Dark - Charlaine Harris (Started 9-12-2009 - Finished 10-12-2009 #24)
5) Dracula - Bram Stoker (Started 17-3-2010 - Finished 18-3-2010 #61)
6) The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks (Started 19-2-2010 - Finished 22-2-2010 #50)
7) Handling the Undead - John Ajvide Lindqvist (Started 02-03-2010 - Finished 02-03-2010 #56)
8) The Historian - Elisabeth Kostova (Started 23-10-2009 - Finished 28-10-2009 #7)
9) Club Dead - Charlaine Harris (Started 13-05-2010 - Finished 16-03-2010 #83)
10) Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (Started 15-4-2010 - Finished 15-4-2010 #73)

C-10 - Catchall

10/10

1) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer (Started 22-10-2009 - Finished 23-10-2009 #6)
2) She - H. Rider Haggard (Started 2-12-2009 - Finished 7-12-2009 #21)
3) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer (Started 7-12-2009 - Finished 8-12-2009 #22)
4) Firmin - Sam Savage (Started 8-12-2009 - Finished 9-12-2009 #23)
5) Microserfs - Douglas Coupland (Started 11-1-2010 - Finished 12-1-2010 #30)
6) Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger (Started 16-2-2010 - Finished 16-2-2010 #46)
7) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Seth Grahame-Smith (Started 11-05-2010 - Finished 13-05-2010 #82)
8) The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt (Started 22-3-2010 - Finished 27-3-2010 #66)
9) A long way down - Nick Hornby (Started 01-06-2010 - Finished 02-06-2010 #85)
10) The Biographer's Tale - A.S. Byatt (02-06-2010 - 03-06-2010 #86)

* My motto is to read everything I buy (so I read reverse chronologically to what I bought, newest first), so to catch anything that doesn't fit, this category is a must!

I like your categories. I may be stealing some ideas for books!

That's really impressive that English is not your native tongue yet you do most of your reading in the language. I went to the Netherlands in 1997 and it was one of my favorite places I have ever visited. I still crave Dutch pancakes every now and then. Yum!

Hi Amy-Sue,

I think I read English easily because everything around me is bilingual. I work in English (Dutch colleagues, but the language of the project I work on is English), TV is in English, signs might be in English... so reading is easy. And as I do it all the time, it has become really a second language for me.
And as for pancakes, they are quite easy to make with ingredients that you can find everywhere. See here for a recipe: http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/europe/dutch/pannekoeken1.html, but much more, even a YouTube instruction video can be found online.

And I am glad you like my categories. I am thinking I might expand them back to ten books a category, but just have the goal to read at least 5 in each category, as I have so many ideas!

When I went to the Netherlands it was to visit a friend of DH(an American living in Amsterdam) and he says he gets frustrated at times trying to practice his Dutch because it is so bi-lingual there. All the Dutch people that he meet want to practice their English and he wants to practice his Dutch. I was amazed at how easy it was to get around by the amount of English there was printed on signs and I had fun trying to match up the Dutch with the English.

Thanks for the recipe for the pancakes! I'll have to give them a try.

The people at my work here, who came from abroad (UK, USA) have the same complaint. We switch to English as soon as we here an accent. To practice our own English, and to be friendly to foreigners. And it happens everywhere, shops, transportation, health-care. I can imagine it will be difficult to learn Dutch then.

I hope the pancakes taste good ;)

Woohoo, one down, 99 more to go :D
I just finished Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell in the category C-7 Classics. I read this book because it is so ingrained in our culture (Big Brother is Watching You), I wanted to know what it was all about. I have read utopia books before (Brave New World, Utopia), and would place this in the same category. I really liked the book, and give it 4 stars.

Now, for my next book... I decided to move from category to category, and my next one will be.... A history of histories by John Burrow from category C-2.

>17 divinenanny:
I'll be very interested in what you think of A History of Histories. It was the first book I bought for my Kindle, and I read it on and off for 17 months. I found it very heavy going in the areas in which I have little background (Roman history, for instance).

#18, I'll let you know as soon as I finish. I think I might find it less heavy, as I am quite used to reading the heavier history books, though I do expect to have a hard time when he gets to the 17th/18th/19th century, as that is my least favorite period (though it's getting better now).

#18, I stand corrected. The book is a lot heavier than I expected. I expected a book about the history of historiography, however, Burrow described much of the history itself. Since I am not that interested in Greek history, the first part was a bit of a drag. Let's see if it picks up. I guess it is always easier to read something heavy and dense if you are really interested in the material. Part 2 (Rome) should be a bit better and parts 3 (Christendom) and 4 (Revival of Secular History) should be great. We'll see. My reading plan is to have this book finished on Friday...

>20 divinenanny:
I'm rooting for you!

And the second one is done... phew...
A History of Histories by John Burrow. When I bought the book, I figured it would be about historians from Greek times to now. Describe the historian, the works he/she wrote, and why it was so special.
The book itself was much more extensive. I understand why, to understand a historian you have to understand the period he/she is living in. It's just that I personally don't really care for any period except the middle ages and renaissance. This made the book a bit of a drag for me. Don't get me wrong, the writing was very well, everything was explained and linked together, and Burrow is very clear about what he will and won't look into. The book did give me a better insight into the history of historical writing/study, which was the aim, so that's why I am giving the book 3 stars.

Of course, since in principle it is a book about books, it did give me two new additions to my TBR pile...
The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg and The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo... Even reading books you already own is bad for your wallet ;)

Edited to fix touchstones

Good for you getting through A History of Histories so quickly! That book would take me forever to get through, and I am a history lover too. That's awesome that you finished such a tome so early in the challenge!

I'm convinced that my TBR pile will never get smaller, it will only keep growing. Between friend recommendations, LT, book store and library browsing, library book sales, swaps etc. The pile is doomed to only increase and not decrease.

I really dislike spending forever on a book. I see how the reading goes on the first day, and then set a plan to finish the book in a set amount of days. It's a guideline, but I am all made up of inner-rules and schedules, so it helps me :)

But now I am going to read something lighter for a while. My next one will be The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry and after that a borrowed book, Agincourt bij Bernard Cornwell...

Third one down!
The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry. Trash in its finest form! Searching for the Templar treasure, supposedly hidden away back in the fourteenth century, Cotton Malone runs into all kinds of people searching for the same thing. A cross between Dan Brown and Indiana Jones.
Steve Berry is my guilty pleasure. I know his books will entertain me, so I decided to read this after reading a couple of heavy, serious and loooong books in these past couple of weeks. I am giving it four stars.

I hope to be reading The Templar Legacy soon too as it was a free kindle download. Glad it got the trash seal of approval! You definitely need those light books thrown in with the tomes to mix things up.

Ha, my plan for this week is working. Lot's of light and quick books!
This morning I finished number four, Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell. Although I think Cornwell is a pretty male writer (lot's of fighting and war) this one was recommended (and lent) to me, so I read it. I really liked it. Yes, it was a lot of war and fighting, but in between you learn something about how war was fought back in the fifteenth century, what the composition of companies was like, and how ordinary archers terrified the French. For a good quick read, this book gets four stars.

>27 divinenanny:
People lending you books can be a mixed proposition. My nephew, who collects first editions of all Star Wars printed items (novels, comic book series, even young adult novels), lends me anything that happens chronologically after the movies (I'm not interested in the earlier stuff). I'm not interested in the comic books either but read them because he's insistent. The novels are usually very good, and three of the upcoming entries are on my SF list, although I think one may come in too late for the challenge. The caveat is that I have to return them to him in mint condition (or replace them). Still, it's a great connection with him, and whenever we see each other we have lots to talk about.

Lately he's been trying to interest me in the Jim Butcher books, and I have one of his books on my challenge pile. Then I have a neighbor who drops off books she thinks I'll find interesting. Another book or two on the 101010 pile. I'm trying not to bang my head on the wall. Well, at least I've gotten to the point in life where I can start a book and not finish it, and try a book loaned to me as a must-read and give it back unread if I don't want to waste the time after trying it.

#28, and normally I am not a fan of borrowing books, but this friend follows my reading so he has a good idea of what I will like.
I dislike lending books to friends because I like to keep a paperback back pristine, no cracks or folds, and nobody else I know does this. But then I just remember, chill, it is a book, it isn't worth that much, friendship is worth more.

Finished #5, it is going nice in my fast read week :D
It was In alle staten by Max Westerman. Max Westerman was a reporter for Dutch TV, stationed in the US (NYC) for twenty years, and in this book he writes about the US, the changes, the preconceptions. The book is from 2007, so a bit dated at points, but all in all a nice read. He doesn't love the US unconditionally, but he doesn't hate it as much as some Europeans either, he is just really open and Dutch about everything, which I like. A nice read, four stars.

Fast weeks are fun. Sounds like a good week so far.

I hate lending books too because I hardly ever get them back. I only ever give books away now.

The last book of this fast reading week is #6 of the 1010 challenge: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I have and have read Everything is illuminated. Extremely Loud is an incredibly sad and touching story about dealing with loss. The main character is Oskar, who lost his father in 9/11, but it also tells the story of his grandparents, who lost everything in the bombing of Dresden. I had tears in my eyes reading this book, and it deserves five stars.

I reread my first book for the 1010 challenge. It was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I read this book years ago, while in school. I remember I took a long time in reading it because I did not want it to end. It is certainly one of my favorite books ever.

So I was a bit apprehensive to read it again, because what if it didn't hold up? Well, I needn't have worried, because I love it even more now.

The book follows three generations of historians, in the 1920s, 1950s and 1970s (the story is written down in 2008) in their search for Dracula. They search in archives and libraries for information, and visit locations in Eastern and Western Europe. The book is a combination of historical fact and scary fiction. It is wonderfully written through letters and stories, and I highly recommend it. It gets five stars again. :)

I see you have Fortey's Dry Storeroom No. 1 on your list. I have that at home at the moment, hadn't decided whether to add it to 101010, but recently finished his Trilobite. He also just came out with a 4th edition of Fossils: The History of Life which I've requested at the library. Have you read anything else by him?

I read Diamond's Collapse, liked it tremendously except for 1st section which I found slow. I've got his Guns, Germs and Steel on my 101010 list.

I haven't read anything else by Fortey, to be honest, until I found this book I never even heard of him. What attracted my in Dry Storeroom No. 1 is my (and my boyfriend's) background in Museology, and our love for natural history museums. I am really looking forward to reading it, also because I know of some of the cool things that are hidden in the Natural History Museum (Bill Bryson told us a bit about it in A Short History of Nearly Everything).

I haven't read either Diamond books, but I am really looking forward to both. I might put Guns, Germs and Steel on my 1010 list too, but I am afraid my non-fiction category will need no help in filling itself ;).

I have wanted to read The Historian for years and it is has been in my TBR pile forever. Glad to hear it is so good. Maybe it's time to dust it off. I've been finding the size of it daughting, but you make it sound so good!

Guns, Germs, and Steel is one of my DH favorite books of all times. I know it will find its way into one of my list soon. Maybe not this list, but soon because he is dying to talk about it with me. He says it is fascinating.

I just have candidates for my 101010 categories rather than official commitments, but both Jared Diamond books are on that list.

Amy-Sue, I know that The Historian is a love or hate book. Looking at the reactions on the LT talk boards some people absolutely hate it, and some love it (same like The Time-Traveller's Wife and other books). I loved it, with my love for history, mystery, research and a bit of suspense. It made me want to read Dracula too, and I have also placed a book about the Dracula myth (including in The Historian) on my wishlist (From Demons to Dracula: The Creation of the Modern Vampire Myth).

Kristenn, my books are all candidates too. If one book leads to another and I might change all my books up until I have read them. :)

And Jane Eyre was my #8. I read this book for my Classics/1001 category.

I loved the story. I always thought that the language and the feel of the story would be too old fashioned for my liking, but I loved it. I read the Penguin Classics version, and what I disliked was the introduction/foot notes. Even though the introduction had a spoiler warning, the foot notes spoiled the story anyway, without warning. I will be sure not to check the footnotes next time during a first read. This book gets five stars from me!

>39 divinenanny: One of my all-time favorites. I read it many times as a girl and watch all the productions that are made.

Finished my 9th book: Leviathan by Philip Hoare, a book about mankind's fascination with the whale. The book was nice, but it was mostly about Herman Meville and whale hunting, and not so much about whales themselves and with earlier fascinations with whales (middle ages etc.). All in all a nice story though, with great pictures and an important (and sad) message. Three stars.

And a quick 10th book: De Brug (The Bridge) by Geert Mak about the Galata Bridge in Istanbul, and the people that live and work on the bridge. It tells the story of daily life in Istanbul for the poorest people, of Turkish honour and of the history of Turkey from the end of the Ottoman empire until now. A short fast read. I am not a huge fan of Geert Mak, and this one was ok, three stars.

A weekend away and a lot of time spent on (broken-down) trains gave me three more finishes for my 1010 list.

#11 -> Dodenboek (Book of the Dead) by Preston and Child. This book is part of the Pendegast series, and the last of a trilogy. I haven't read any of the others, but I could infer a lot from the story. It was a thriller, with a bit of historical mystery, but in the end it was all about a maniac-killer. Nice fast read, but cheap (why are the writers trying to sell me a Macbook??), three stars.

#12 -> Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I got this book after recommendations and seeing it mentioned on a lot of places. I have a hard time in putting this book in a category (I chose classics in the end, because it is on the 1001 books list). It can be science fiction because of the time travel, but it could be just fiction too. Either way, I really liked it, four stars.

#13 -> Thomas Aquinas: A very short introduction by Fergus Kerr. I had seen the Very Short Introductions series in stores before, and I wanted to try one, so I picked Thomas Aquinas because I wanted to learn more about him. The book was more about his theology/philosophy than I expected, but still a very good read. Four stars.

#14 -> Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. My fourth classic already. After loving Jane Eyre I wanted to read this book, also in preparation of reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies one day soon. I loved this one too (though I liked Jane Eyre one star better), especially the humor. Mr. Bennet is my favorite! Four stars.

I'm glad you liked Slaughterhouse-Five! I picked up a copy of it a few weeks ago and I hope to read it for my 1001 Books category. I keep planning to start it, but some how I never get round to it. Maybe an LT recommendation will give me the push I need!

Push push push ;) It is not a long read, but I really liked it. So go read ;)

#15, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I'll be honest here, I had never heard of Hilary Mantel before she won the Booker Prize this year for Wolf Hall. In my effort to read more prize winners, and because it is a historical novel of the 1500s, I picked it up (or actually, my boyfriend gave it to me). The writing style is peculiar, but I loved reading it. It creates this entire mood. The story is that of Thomas Cromwell, from youth up until 1535 when Thomas More is executed, told from his perspective. For once he is not the bad guy. I gave the book five stars.

Glad to hear you liked Wolf Hall so much. I have it on my 1010 list also.

#16, White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Another one for my winners category. The story of an Indian man and how he is making it in India. Good writing, disturbing story. Four stars.

There goes #17 Julie and Julia, an unplanned buy at the airport when I was trying to get rid of some last franks... But no regrets! I really do not like to cook, I can't see the point of all the energy that goes into it, with big chances of the food being ruined, and even if it comes out ok, it being gone in half an hour. I am just too practical. But luckily this book was more about the Julie/Julia project and the year of the project than the cooking. I liked Julie Powell's writing, and will go see the movie someday... Four stars.

Now I was planning on reading something in the science fiction/fantasy/horror category (expanded from just SF) but brought The Eyre Affair with me. Although I guess this could be qualified as fantasy of some sort... mmm. Maybe time for a shift :)

And #18, The Eyre Affair. This book was a recommendation from the LT talk boards, several people were very enthusiastic about this book/series. I have to say, for the first 150 pages, I didn't really like it. In my opinion the writer was trying to do too much, explain the world the story is set in, and also develop the story. But when he was confident the reader understood the general feel of the world, the story got a lot better. Four stars in the end, and I will read the other parts of the series...

I really do not like to cook, I can't see the point of all the energy that goes into it, with big chances of the food being ruined, and even if it comes out ok, it being gone in half an hour.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who thinks this way! I've never felt that the effort of cooking was really worth it in the end.

#52, Luckily my partner loves to cook :D

divinenanny & _Zoe_, you two need to order The Joy of Cooking. ;)

Finished #19, Let the right one in, suggested to me as a different vampire novel (different from Twilight). And different it was. The writer, John Ajvide Lindqvist is from Sweden, and this book, despite the horror in it, still retains that scandinavic feel. I really liked the calm flow of the various threads of the story. The vampire Eli was something different than the vampires we know, but it was a very good description and story. I would have liked to know more about Eli's back story (that's what intrigues me about vampires, living centuries) but all in all it wasn't needed for the story. I know there is a movie from this book, but I am no horror movie fan, so I won't see it. Four stars.

I am just racing through this... #20 was The Death of Kings by Michael Evans. This book is about royal deaths in medieval England (1066-1475 I believe). Originally I thought this book would describe how they died, but in fact it is more about how their death are described and what the reaction to the death was. Which makes sense of course, as we can never know for sure how something like this happened. Anyway, the book is divided into chapters based on how the king died (murder, battle, old age) and what the reaction was (cult, mourning). The book itself is very chaotic, many parts are repeated ad nauseam as if each chapter has been written separately. Other than that the book was a nice informative read. Three stars.

Sinterklaas brought me a big pile books so a fresh influx of books into the list, such as #21, She, a classic boys adventure by H. Rider Haggard (Of King Solomon's Mines fame). The book is from the end of the nineteenth century, and I love the style of it. The main story is about inherited parchment scrolls and a pottery shard which tell the story of ancient relatives. The main characters travel to Africa to find out the truth, meet an undiscovered savage tribe with a strange and scary queen, called simply She. Great story, great suspense. Four stars.

I think I have to restructure my categories a bit. My catchall is quickly filling up, and I foresee more books in the future that won't fit anywhere else. So, when I have some time and a clear head, I will look at my categories again, maybe rename or delete one, and move some books around.

Meanwhile, I finished #22, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. This is one of those books I would never have know about were it not for the LT forums and members. And I am glad I learned about it, because I absolutely loved this book. I loved the characters, the story, everything. If anything, I thought the book was too short! Five stars.

Haven't restructured yet, but have read #23, Firmin, a book about a literary rat in Boston and his life. At first I found the writing a bit too much, but after I got into it I really liked the book. I loved the descriptions of the surroundings, and the book titles Firmin attached to certain situations. Four stars.

I have Sam Savage's latest book, The Cry of the Sloth, on my 101010 list, and I've been hearing good things about Firmin as well.

I love your matter of fact and to the point reviews! Also, from what you've liked so far I think we have somewhat similar tastes. I'm starring your thread!

@60, kistenn, Thanks for the tip, I didn't know that and will look at this right away!

@61, GingerbreadMan, Thanks! I always want to write a long review, but the fact of the matter is that I write in this post right after reading the book, and then I usually don't have the frame of mind to write long and well thoughtout reviews.... those are for later....

And #24... Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris. I got the 8-book box-set for Sinterklaas, without ever having read one Sookie Stackhouse book. When I started the book I didn't really like it, a bit too overdone, but in the end I found it quite nice. Not as good as some of the books I have read the past couple of weeks, but for entertainment purposes it was fine. Not too original, but that's what you get with vampires these days. Three stars.

There are people out there who would kill for the eight book boxed set, so keep you address a secret! I'm hunting down similar books for my sister-in-law, who loves the sexy-vampire-with-feelings genre. Can you recommend any lesser known titles?

@64: Actually, I am just starting out in this genre myself. I have also bought Wicked Lovely as a fit in this genre, and gifted The Immortals to my SIL. I also have City of Bones and Blue Bloods on my wishlist... And of course it all started with Anne Rice's series, which is more adult in writing and subject matter. I also liked Let the right one in which is a more horror like vampire novel.

Meanwhile, I finished #25, one of the last "big" books of this year because I have vacation in two days, so no more train journeys for reading... #25 was The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes about the second wave of scientific discovery in the UK (first was in the enlightenment with Newton and those guys) during the Romantic times. The book follows the lives of John Banks, William (and his sister Catherine and his son John) Herschel and Humphry Davy, and describes their scientific discoveries and work, as well as how it relates to the times they lived in. The book contained a bit too much poetry for my liking, but I do understand why, in relation to the romantics. I did like the links described between artists and scientist, and I loved the descriptions of the wonders that were discovered. When looking back it is amazing work these men and women did, and I find it fascinating that they found out so much with seemingly so little material. Four stars.

#26 was The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I got this book because I loved Codex and I was expecting the same thing, but I was happily surprised it wasn't. Without giving too much away, let's just say that Grossman read Narnia right before starting to write this book. It was an adult version of Harry Potter and Narnia with a dark side. I loved it, it was great! Five stars.

divinenanny & _Zoe_, you two need to order The Joy of Cooking. ;)

Responding to this long-ago comment... I actually own The Joy of Cooking, but I still find it too hard!

Ohhh I'm glad you enjoyed The Magicians! I can't wait to read it.

Hi Anny,

Just want to react on your Dutch category: I also had one last year with the 999 challenge, and now again with the 1010 challenge (not published in this group, I may still do). I also have to really try to read Dutch books, otherwise it's all English or translated.

I try to take into account the new books at the library so that I can at least read the currently favorite new Dutch books.

Happy reading!

Judith

Lots of good history books on here. Thanks for the recommendations!

>69 judithann: Hi Judith, I am not a library member, but reading online (Volkskrant, NRC and nu.nl book pages) I am trying to keep track of Dutch new books. I am still clinging to English, but enjoying my Dutch a bit better now.

>70 cmbohn: Cmbohn, glad you like my history lists. I love history, and now that I am out of school, I enjoy reading up on them recreationally.

Just before Christmas I finished my 27th book, making me believe I will make my 100 books for this list :D #27 was The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. It was my first Atwood. I find that I enjoy distopyan future books more and more, even though I am not one for the unhappy stories. I think I like them because there is something optimistic in them, there is always someone either defying the system or surviving. This one was in the form of a diary/audio recording. I really liked the impersonal speech at the end explaining what happened around the time of the story. Four stars.

Now that you've read the book, there is a very good movie version of same that is worth looking at.

>72 RidgewayGirl: Thanks for the tip. I am usually not one for movies, but as you say that it is a good version I shall try to find it.

Meanwhile reading is slow during my break (I start work again tomorrow) but I read two more books:

#28 Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
The second in the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse series. Very similar to the first one, entertaining but not much depth. Three stars.

#29 Nebra by Thomas Thiemeyer
A book that combines archeology and the supernatural, in this case focussing on the Nebra skydisk and Germany. A nice read with a slow start but an existing and action packed ending. A true Thiemeyer. Four stars.

And #30, Microserfs by Douglas Coupland. I had read (and seen the TV series) JPod before and really liked it, so I was looking forward to its predecessor, Microserfs. However, I was disappointed by this book. I think because it felt so much the same as JPod, the gimmick of a hip narrative had worn out for me. Also, and maybe this was the goal, the story went nowhere, got a goal, then ended abruptly with something completely different. No more Coupland for me, I think. Three stars.

I've promised myself to give Coupland a go many times, but never seem to get around to it. My image of his works are very much like what you describe above. Back into the TBR sediment girlfriend in a coma sinks...

I read Generation X back when it was new but remember absolutely nothing, not even whether I liked it.

I've only read two of Douglas Coupland's books, Generation X and Hey! Nostradamus, and enjoyed both of them. It's a shame if you let one bad experience put you off from reading more especially after saying you enjoyed the first one so much.

#77, it is not so much that I am saying that I would never ever read Coupland ever again, it just that I think that there are many books I will like better than his that are out there (or on my shelves...) waiting to be read. He has just sunk on my author priority list...

And all the trains and delays have given me time to read another book, #31, Blood Music by Greg Bear. I have been in the mood for some SF lately so from my recent acquisitions pile I picked Blood Music to read. The premise is an intelligent cellular "thing" that is created in a lab in California, and that is let out and spreads. The book describes the epidemic and the reactions to it. Somewhat theoretical, but a very nice book to read. Four stars.

@78, thanks for the clarification. Good to hear that you enjoyed your next book more.

#32, Het ei van Salaì by Monaldi & Sorti. I have been buying and reading the books by Italian writers Monaldi & Sorti ever since they first came out in Holland. They write a series of hefty books about castrate singer and spy Atto Melani, and then this series about Salaì, the foster child and assistant of Leonardo Da Vinci. They always claim that the stories they tell (mostly about political/papal scandals) are real. I don't believe that, but it is nice that the stories are based on true facts (with regards to characters, places and event, maybe not so much the conspiracies).
This was another good one, about the supposed conspiracies surrounding who discovered America (Vespucci, Columbus, Templars, Vikings....). Told by Salaì in his down to earth language as a report to a judge, it was very interesting and a nice read. Four stars.

#33, De grote wereld by Arthur Japin. A book week gift (boekenweekgeschenk) so a very short read (they are all about 90 pages). The book describes the life of Lemmy, a little person who lives in the years before WWII in dwarf villages and sideshows. It describes how he grew up in Dreamland (Coney Island) in a village for little people with his parents (also little), how he lost his parents, joined a traveling village and emigrated to Germany for love. The story is told right before WWII, when the nazis destroy the village he and his wife live in, and they try to get out of Germany before true prosecution starts. Short but intense story. Three stars.

#34 Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, a YA novel about faeries (as opposed to vampires). A nice book, makes me want to read others in the series. Basic story is about a girl that sees (and fears) faeries, but is chosen by the Summer King as his queen. It reads like an introduction, but an interesting one. Four stars.

Filling in my progress in my categories makes me realise I need to reshuffle. Only 1 read in Rereads and TBR, and 7 in SF/Horror/Fantasy and 5 in Catchall. I expect to read even more of that first category, so I will probably split it up in SF and Horror/Fantasy and make a general fiction category for some of the Catchall books...

#35 was Excession by Iain M. Banks, a SF novel in the Culture series/universe. The story seemed to be a bit chaotic at first, with several different story lines. The main story lines were the Excession (a mysterious object that appeared) and the Affront (a particularly nasty and mean species). It took me a bit of effort to get through, but the final 150 pages, where it all comes together and the full story is shown were all worth it. Four stars.

#36 was Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir. My first non-fiction of the year, and I loved it. With reading all these books about the (early) middle ages you sometimes come across characters who are fascinating and you want to know more about. Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of two kings, mother of two (and a half), with her blood running through just about every royal house still in Europe is pretty fascinating. She wasn't a nice silent docile wife either, and lived for over 80 years in a time when 40 was old.
The book by Alison Weir describes the life of Eleanor, from before birth until a little after her death, including the actions of her husbands, sons and daughters. The book is a very nice read, set up in a chronological story. Four stars and highly recommended.

Today I read The Complete Fables by Aesop (#37), basically for the same reason as I read about Eleanor. References are always popping up, and now that I have read them, I can see so much is based on them. One that stuck with me was expression "the swan song", which is based on one of the Aesop's fables. A must read for anyone interested in iconography, fairy tales and moralities. 4 stars.

And I could not put #38 down! It was The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from my series of boys adventure novels. This was another classic. Strange unknown place, rumors, unknown people, adventure. Oh, and dinosaurs of course. Every bit as good as She was. Very nice writing (not at all hard to read even though it is almost a 100 year old story). Four stars.

On the recommendation and because of her enthousiastic review, I finally picked up Sovereign by C.J. Sansom (#39). I only bought it about 2.5 years ago :D. Anyway, this is the third book in the Matthew Shardlake series and it was as good as I remember the first two being. This book deals with Henry VIII's progress up to York while married to Catherine Howard. Shardlake is put in charge of the petitions and also needs to watch over a prisonner by Archbischop Cranmer. Anyway, lots of intrigue, death, attacks, wrapped up in a great historical novel. Go read it :D. Four stars.

I read the last (for now) book in the Matthew Shardlake series, Revelation (#40). The book itself was good. The story dealt more with a murder mystery than with the political situation of the time. Unfortunately I liked the politics in the previous book better, because it seemed this murder mystery could have taken place in any time. I was also slightly annoyed because sometimes I got the feeling that Sansom was telling parts of the story just to show off his knowledge of the time period (what's with the teeth?!). And the whole Barak/Tamasin thing... But despite all that (I guess I just have a Sansom overload for a bit) I liked the book. Four stars.

I also shuffled my categories a bit. TBR is now combined with Rereads as I really only see myself read 5 in each. I split up the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror category (as I had already read 8 out of 10 books). I made the new category "Vampires and the like" for books in the True Blood (and similar) series. Any SF/Fantasy/Horror books not fitting in the new category will be in this category. Now all my reading tallies even out pretty well :D.

Good to know the rest of the Shardlake series is good. I've still only read Dissolution so far but have the other 3 on my tbr shelves for some point in the future. I'll hopefully get to Dark Fire some time this year but not sure about the others.

I must get round to Revelation: I really enjoyed the other three, and that one's been sat on the shelf for months. Thanks for the reminder!

The Shardlake series books are guaranteed wins. Like one, like 'em all :D

#41 was a quick read, another boys classic, Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. My last boys classic (for now). I knew of the story of Tarzan (though have never seen any movies/musicals about Tarzan) but the book was a pleasant surprise. The book tells the story of Lord Greywater and Lady Alice, and their son, as they are abandoned on an uninhabited stretch of African coast. Long story short, the parents die and the baby is raised by an ape (not a gorilla). It then switches to how Tarzan grows up and learns about himself in the jungle. The final parts of the story deal with the coming of Jane and her party, when Tarzan first encounters white men.
The story itself was a really good read, but it was also a good read knowing what we know now. I could not stop thinking about the whole Nature vs. Nurture debate, as Burroughs describes the gentleman nature of Tarzan several times. Four stars, and a highly recommended read.

I finished I wish I'd been there this morning (#42). This is a collection of 20 essays by historians about the moment in world history they wish they were a fly on the wall. They are arranged chronologically and range from Alexander the Great to the surrender of Germany with General Montgomery. I liked the essays leading up to the seventeenth century the best, but I knew that before I started reading. Some of the historians had a pretty specific field (science, music or art history) and they appealed a bit less to me. I am just not that interested in music, science or art history that I need exact descriptions of the works or theories to understand what is happening. All in all a nice collection, three stars.

Finished The Great Mortality (#43) this morning about the Black Death in the fourteenth century. The story told in this book is truly frightening. It is so hard to imagine that about 50% of all people died, that there was no cure, and there was no stopping it. The book itself was not so amazing unfortunately. A lot of the anecdotes are told more than once, and there is no clear line in the story. It is like the writer made a checklist of subjects and just wrote a piece about each subject. Also, I am not quite convinced about the qualifications of the writer. I feel he did not do the search for what really caused the Black Death and how it spread justice as he seemed convinced it was Y.Pestis and nothing was going to change his convictions. Three stars.

I Wish I Had Been There sounds interesting!

@94, It sure is, and they have several other books in this series, one dealing specifically with American history, and another about Europe.

While on a trip to London I bought and read #44, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. The book was extra special because it is set in London, so I was experiencing all the locations while reading the book, which was great. The book is about London, which is divided in London Above, which we all know, and London Below, which is where people and things who fall through the cracks end up. Richard Mayhew, from London Above, rescues a girl who turns out to be from London Below, and gets dragged into a quest to find out who killed her family. It is an exciting adventure and Gaiman described everything in a great way. I could really imagine all this happening Below. My first five star book of this year.

I have Neverwhere lined up for this year also. Good to know Gaiman doesn't let us down. I think I'll see if I can track down the TV series as well at some point.

I loved Neverwhere the book but the Miniseries was God-awful!

I started it but didn't finish for some reason. Maybe I will give it another try.

Neverwhere is one of those books I really owe a lot to. It was that book that resparked my interest in fantastical literature as an adult, opening my eyes to the fact that there were other facets than the "magic and elves" high fantasy (which has rarely been my cuppa).

Re the miniseries: I haven't seen it, but isn't the book based on Gaiman's own teleplay?

I know nothing about the miniseries, but Wikipedia says that Gaiman and Lenny Henry (Chef!) wrote the miniseries and it was later adapted into the book.

And I know exactly what you mean GingerbreadMan. This type of Fantasy attracts me a lot more than the high fantasy, and if there are more books like that I want them all ;). I started by buying more Gaiman ;)

I'd seen somewhere (but forget where) that Gaiman felt a little constrained with the screenplay so decided to develop the story into a book as well.

Finished #45, Doomsday Book by Connie Willis on my way home today. Despite the negative conversations in the "Most Abandoned Book" topic, I loved it. I thought I would, I mean, a story about historians who time travel to they study. Anyway, this story is about Kirvin, who is sent back to 1320 without all the necessary preparations. Meanwhile, back in 2057, in Oxford, the crew and scholars that stay behind have to deal with their own crisis. It is a mix of science fiction, adventure and historical fiction. Recommended (four stars).

Finished two more books in the last two days.

Yesterday I read Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (#46). I bought this book because I loved The Time Traveller's Wife. I was a bit apprehensive about reading this one, because the general opinion on LT seemed to be that this was a disappointment after TTTW. Luckily, I am blessed with an incredibly bad memory, so I just remember loving TTTW, not what it was exactly that I loved.
Anyway, I loved Her Fearful Symmetry too. It is not as wonderful and surprising as TTTW was, but it was great none the less. The story was wonderfully written, great characters, and I could not wait to read it all. Four stars.

And the today I read King Solomon's Mines (#47) by H. Rider Haggard. I am really getting into the classics and the adventure stories! This was another great one that partly inspired Indiana Jones. An adventure looking for a lost brother (and the treasure of King Solomon) in South Africa. Great story. Four stars.

I was really surprised how much fun King Solomon's Mines was and I really didn't mind all those Victorian values! I see you also enjoyed She, which I have always thought maybe too silly but I think I will track it down.

...and for those who like Neverwhere you might enjoy King Rat by China Melville, bit more gritty but similiar in tone and setting.

I finished #48, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. In the front of the book, one of the review blurbs compared it to The Handmaid's Tale and I can really see that. I won't give too much of the story away, but like The Handmaid's Tale this book is written in the first person. This is the life story of Kathy, a carer. Slowly in the course of the book we find out why she and her friends are special and different. A thought provoking and lovely book. Four stars.

I read The Road (#49) last Friday. The writing style in this book took some getting used to (no names, no chapters, just fragments). Also, I was happy I knew from the beginning that the story would not be a happy one. All in all I think this was a very powerful story, though it left me wanting more. More answers (what happened to make the world this way?) and more closure (what happens to the boy?). Four stars.

I finished The Zombie Survival Guide this morning (#50). I seem to be on a dystopian/world destruction/bleak future run lately. This is the companion/prequel to World War Z which I loved, both because of the story and of the style (oral history). This is the book that is heavily referred to in WWZ. It reads like a guide, so some information is less interesting than others, but it more than makes up for it with the "Recorded Attacks" section in the end of the book. What I love about Max Brooks is that he has created this whole alternative history, but instead of describing it, he offers us the books we would have had if that world were real (a survival guide and a history book). Great stuff! Four stars.

I am halfway there! 50 down, 50 to go!

wow you are reading fast, I think I have only read about 12 books this year!

I think I partly enjoyed The Road because of all the unanswered questions. Have you seen the film? I felt it tried to pin it down a bit more and lost something in the process. Although to be honest there were many other flaws that were much worse!

I really enjoyed World War Z too, although I did wince with the jokey comment that all us Brits went and hid in our castles.. if only! ;-)

Haha, at least you Brits have castles ;) We Dutchies have rivers filled with zombies floating down stream ;).

I read this fast because I commute for a little over 3 hours daily, in which I just close myself off with my iPod and book ;). Later this year I am planning some bigger reads (I have Under the Dome and Quicksilver on my TBR mountain). That and my love for non-fiction will slow me down ;).

Oh, and about the movie of The Road... I haven't seen it. I am a bad movie watcher, I hardly ever watch them. When I do it is while I am doing something else.... In a small screen in the upper right corner of my desktop. :)

Just finished #51, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Another book I picked up for my effort to read more classics. I also read this book to prepare for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters which I will try to find next to read later this year.
The language in this book took some getting used to (again) but in the end it was a really nice book about engagements and suitors. I love Jane Austen's humor :D. Four stars.

Very curious about World war Z. Congrats on your halfway mark!

I'm not a horror fan at ALL but somehow I was compelled to read World War Z and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm also still haunted by it, two or three years later....

I read the Zombie Survival Guide first. Mainly because it came out first. The first 2/3 is more for skimming than for really reading.

@ 111, That is one of the things I loved so much about World War Z, though the subject (zombies) is horror, what makes the story horrific is the idea of a World War 3/Z against an enemy that is near invincible, and the personal way the story is told. You can really feel that it could be you.

#52 was Feersum Endjinn, one of the science fiction books of Iain M. Banks not set in the Culture universe. The location of this book is Earth, but in the far far far future. Man has left the earth to look for better places, and left behind some people who did not like the advanced technology. No advancements were made, and in time, detailed knowledge of it was lost. They do make use of it though, most of all the Crypt, a sort of Data Cluster that everybody can tap into and even live in (after death, which does not have to be permanent). Anyway, the catalyst is The Encroachment, a space cloud that threatens to block out the sun and moon, thereby ending all life.
The story follows four main characters as they all seem to have something to do with a plot to save the Planet. It becomes a bit hard to follow sometimes, especially the story of Bascule, who, because of dyslexia or some other disorder, writes his story phonetically. Reading phonetically written sentences, including numbers and signs, in a language that is not your own can be very tiering, as you have to sound most of it out.
Anyway, all in all the story was really nice, and it all came together great in the final sections. Four stars.

I finished #53, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I have read Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, and liked them (in a way). However, this was at least 7 years ago, before I read as much as I do know, before I knew better what was good. Even then Brown's writing style managed to annoy me (as he was announcing every thing that happened at least 10 pages in advance).
This time it seemed worse. The short chapters. The flash forwards. And the unbelievability of the story. I believed this one even less than any of the others. In the beginning the first thing I thought of was the movie "What the bleep do we know!?". I did not buy it then, and I don't know. I think that is what annoys me the most about Brown, his insistence that it is all real.
Anyway, the story was ok (even though he used basically the same characters as always), the mystery was ok. Two stars for effort.
But I am glad I have read it now, so I can move on to bigger and better things.

@112 I'm going to have to pick up World war Z, no question about it! I like Banks, with or without M, but he is a bit hit and miss, I feel. When he's good, he's usually really good, but he's also written quite a few books that have sorely disappointed me. I'm following the Culture series for now, but this sounds interesting!

@114, GingerbreadMan, I agree, Banks is not always the greatest, but up until now I have always enjoyed his stories in the end.

Finished #54, The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman, a graphic novel about Spiegelman's father's memories of his time during the second world war. This is a must-read book, but it is not a nice book. I had to read it in bursts, and it really affected me. The combination of the story of Vladek's time in the war and the story of the relationship between father and son, and the son's struggle to be a 'survivor' really made this story special. Very well done, five stars.

To brighten my day, I read #55, Stardust by Neil Gaiman yesterday after finishing Maus. A very nice short fairy tale about a fallen star, a kingdom without a king, and witches. Great story, great fantasy, nice and uplifting. Four stars.

I must admit the endind of Stardust quite upset me. That poor girl left all alone! :)

@117, True, but it reminded me of Lord of the Rings, of Arwin....

@115 I guess I always want him to blow me away like first time I read The wasp factory of The player of games...

I read stardust many years ago I remember nothing of the ending! Damn, I'm curious now :)

@119, Yeah, I can see that. But there aren't many writers who are that good. I haven't read The wasp factory yet (I am sticking to his SF/M. work) but I loved The Player of Games.

And I never remember endings. My memory is so terrible I could read Harry Potter and not remember who the bad guy is...

I finished #56, Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist last night. This book, written by a Swede and taking place in Sweden, approaches the zombie subject from a whole other direction. One night, there is an electrical storm, appliances will not turn off anymore. All of a sudden the tension disappears, but then the dead come back to life, all people who died within the last two months. They want to go home.
The book explores what these people (the 'reliving') are, what they want, what should happen to them, is this a blessing, is it a curse? They aren't man eating soulless beings, making the decisions for government, army and family a lot more difficult.
Interesting book, interesting perspective. Four stars.

And there goes #57, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. This is the famous graphic novel about Satrapi's youth in pre- and post-revolution Iran and abroad in Austria. The book tells the story of growing up, of the changes of the revolution, of the hope, fears and dreams, and of the troubles. I thought it was a very good book and a touching story. Four stars.

@120, I think I preferred Let the Right One in (actually who am I kidding I preferred the film, philistine that I am!). Somehow it seemed to be haunting and oddly more realistic, I could never quite but into Handling the Undead. Anyway I really hope they translate more of his work.

It's been forever since I popped in here. I went on a reading "strike" for almost 4 months so I have a lot of catching up to do! You have read a lot of good books and are really knocking out the challenge! You are going to be done in no time.

@122, clfisha, I don't watch films, especially not horror, so for me it is the book. I think I preferred Let the right one in too, but I think that is more because Handling the Undead really touched a nerve (what would I do if somebody I loved, who died, came back?). I liked them both though and hope the movie helps translation of his work along...

@123, Amy-Sue, a strike... oy! I might slow down but could never quit. I think. And yeah, I have been putting some real thinking into my wishlists and tbr lists trying to read the things I really want to read :D

@122 and 124: I've read all Lindqvist's four books, and the latest- Människohamn, which has the double meaning of "Harbour for humans" and "Human disguise" has to be bound to be translated - especially with the success of the first two books. Keep an eye out, for me it was a very close second to Let the right one in, but on the epic scale of Handling the undead!

@125, Oh, I wish I read your message sooner, I had the German version of Harbour for Humans in my hands yesterday. Ah well, if it is not translated before I visit Germany again I will pick it up then. Good to know it is good.

@125, I just found out that there is a Dutch translation too! I usually read English, but I don't think I can wait... :D

#58 took a bit longer. It was American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I am so glad I discovered him, I love all I have read by him so far. This was another great fairy tale with wonderful mythology and history behind it. The story is hard to describe (old and new gods battle in and for America) but is absolutely wonderful and gripping. Five stars.

@127: Cool, can't wait to hear what you think. If noihing else, you'll never listen to Smiths in quite the same way :)

Finished #59 this morning, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. This books was interesting to me on two levels. On the one hand just the story, the different chapters dealing with different historical events to do with the book. The stories were very interesting though sad in most parts. I felt the story of Hanna was sometimes a bit too much (I cared more about the book) but I can see why it was in there.
On the other hand, this book tells the story of an object, the haggadah. This ties into my studies of Museology and all the layers of story an object can tell us. Not only that of the creator and why it was created, but also of the life of the object. Which is why it should never be restored to a new-like state, but be preserved as is. The object is so much more than just the object.
A great book, four stars.

I finished #60, Inversions by Iain M. Banks. This is one of the Culture books, though you (and I) wouldn't notice it. It was only after I finished reading and I researched a bit online that I saw what was going on. The story is divided in two. One side follows the (foreign) personal doctor of a king, the other the (foreign) personal bodyguard of an usurper. They live in neighboring countries and seemingly don't have much to do with each other. The setting is a different planet, though the society sounds late European Medieval. All in all the stories were nice, though I had expected the connection between them to be a bit more obvious, at least in the epilogue. Three stars.

This has filled up my Science fiction/Fantasy/Horror category. But, I see myself reading more in that category, so I will do a reshuffle again soon. Probably split Science Fiction and Fantasy, and move Horror to Vampires and the Like....

@130 I thought that was an odd one of Banks and fell a bit flat for me. It was neither one thing not the other, doesn't work (or make sense) as a standalone fantasy but then again wasn't a culture book either.

@131, clfisha, true, but I do feel that in the whole Culture universe, it sort of makes sense. It reminded me a lot of the main story in the State of the Art, where the Culture visits earth... Inversions is not a must read, but I am not sorry I read it.

I finished both #61 and #62 this morning. #61 was Dracula, another book in my effort to read more classics. I have tried to read Dracula before, when I was in high school. Both the old fashioned language and the epistolary style made me put down the book back then. I figured since I recently found out I actually love all these classics, I had to try Dracula again. An arterial motive is that I have also recently picked up the book From Demons to Dracula about the creation of the modern vampire myth, and figured I would like that book a whole lot better if I had actually read the classic and ultimate vampire novel.
And now I loved it, I could not put it down. Of course there were some style and language things that in a modern book I would not have liked, but here it was okay. The thing that struck me the most, is that after about 400 pages of finding out about Dracula and researching and finding him, the final battle takes about 1 page. That's something I don't think you see in many modern books. I liked to see that some typical ideas about vampires were seen here, except the most important one. As far as I read and understood it, Dracula can survive daylight... Now I am looking even more forward to From Demons to Dracula to see what that was all about. Great book, must read! Four stars.
#62 was a short, dutch book, Duel by Joost Zwagerman. This book is handed out currently because of the Week of the Book (buy a Dutch book, get this book for free). It is a short book about a director of a (closed) Dutch modern art museum who struggles with the meaning of art and modern art. It is a lovely book examining the meaning of art, and of objects, and of the role of museums and people buying art. Four stars.

#63 was Nothing, A Very Short Introduction by Frank Close. I like these Very Short Introductions on subjects I know nothing about. I am not a beta person, so most of this book (mostly about physics) went over my head, but I felt Frank Close did a good job of slowly trying to explain what is going on. I liked that he set up the book chronologically, starting with ancient Greek philosophers all the way up to the LHC at Cern. Three stars (for not liking the subject that much, not for bad writing).

I have also reshuffled my categories again. Rereads and TBR have gone (the three books from that category have been moved to other categories. The new category is Fantasy and Fantastical tales. I have also placed all the books that I recently bought in London, and plan to read first into the categories, so I shouldn't have to reshuffle again for at least a month or so.

#64 was The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror by Robert Louis Stevenson. I wanted to read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as it is a classic that is referred to so much. I never knew the story was so short, and like Dracula, it was set up very differently then I would expect. A good story and a good read nonetheless. The other two stories were The Body Snatchers and Olalla, both of which I did not find as good. Might be because I am not scared by the same things as the people in Victorian England. Four stars.

#65 was From Demons to Dracula by Matthew Beresford, a book that analyses the Vampire myth from stone age up until now. The book was so so. I felt that the writer sometimes picked and chose from ancient legends, customs and myths to fit his story. Also, he kept referring to ancient demons as vampires, while saying that the word did not exist as such before 1770, and admitting that the ancient peoples did not see those demons as vampires. Interesting overview nonetheless, and a fun read (just not very scientific). Three stars.

@134 I'm curious - how long is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde really?

@135, In my Penguin Classic edition, it was (from memory) about 65/70 pages. In comparison, Dracula was nearly 400.

I finished #66, The Children's Book, a long but satisfying read. The story follows mostly the children of several families during the end of the nineteenth and begin of the twentieth century in South-East England. The families have artists (writers, potters, museum keepers) and keep in touch with artists and idealists (Fabians, anarchists, socialists, suffragettes) and are present at historical events (the world expo in Paris, the first performance of Peter Pan). Each child develops differently, and each family has its own problems. Lovely story, sad endings, happy endings. Four stars.

And there goes #67, The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Lavers. I bought this book after being so intrigued by the title. The book follows the myths and stories about unicorns and tries to find out which animals they might be based on. Very interesting reading. I am a bit disappointed the author never explained how we got from an ass or a goat to a majestic horse, but what he does explain sounds cool. I give the book three stars because I feel some of his conclusions are not really explained well enough.

I rearanged the categories again. "Medieval history" is now "non-fiction history" to accommodate some of the general history books from "Other non-fiction".

I was busy last week, but not at work, so no train trips, and almost no reading. My book of the week was #68, The Swan Thieves. I was a bit nervous to read this, as The Historian is one of my favorite books of the last years. The Swan Thieves got mixed reviews, with the main sentiment that it was not as good as The Historian.
Luckily I have to disagree. Yes, the story is completely different, a bit less of an adventure (no vampires but painters) and different periods. But I loved letting myself disappear in this book. The story was multi-layered and interesting, even though I figured out the "shocking" secrets about half way through. Four stars.

I finished #69, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I already had it on my TBR pile, but I read it now to participate in Atwood in April discussions. I read my first Atwood back in December (The Handmaid's Tale) and loved it. The description on the back of O&C made it sound really weird. However it was a dystopian novel. I "enjoyed" it very much, mainly because it showed the history leading up to the disaster and the life after. Very interesting concepts. Four stars.

#70 was some more SF for me, with Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks. This is another Culture novel. I really enjoyed this, because unlike some other Banks stories, you could follow the happenings a lot better here, learning as you go instead of one final climax that brings it all together. Intresting and enjoyable story. Four stars.

I've been keeping my list up to date, but not my reviews, so here come numbers 71 to 75 from the last two weeks:

#71, The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I wanted to read this book as the sequel/continuation of Tarzan of the Apes, which I loved more than I would have thought. On the other hand, the description filled me with dread, as I did not want anything bad to happen to Tarzan. In the end, I loved the book. It is one of the lovely nineteenth century adventures, complete with undiscovered tribes in the wilds of Africa. Great fun! Four stars.

#72, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. This is one of the books I got because of LibraryThing and the many times it was recommended here. And I absolutely loved it! The mix of Japanese modern life and traditional culture made me think of the Studio Ghibli movies. It gave me the same wonderful feeling. I will surely be reading more of Murakami's books, and give this one five stars.

#73, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. For me the last one in the classic horror trio together with Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I knew some of this book (I knew it was the doctor, not the monster that was Frankenstein), but not much. The story was great. Not very scary to modern standards, but very good. I did not expect the monster to be so eloquent, that was a surprise. Four stars.

#74, Classical Mythology, A very short introduction by Helen Morales. Another very short introduction. I initially thought (and this is my own fault for not reading the intro on the inside cover) this would be a nice short who's who of classical mythology. Instead it is a short overview of the influence classical mythology had and has on mankind. It shortly touches on our need for mythology, the sources, the beliefs and the Roman versus Greek mythology. I really liked the subjects, but I don't thing the Very Short Introductions format was right here, it was really too short to do it right. Now it just tried to describe many different subjects in a little over 100 pages. Either just one subject or more than 100 pages would have been better. Three stars.

#75, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. I was reading a depressing (to me) book (see below) and needed some cheering up. As I love Jane Austen's humor, I picked up Northanger Abbey for my reading. I loved the humor and the intrigue. Not literature of the highest order, but a great diversion. Four stars.

And unfinished Under the Dome by Stephen King. I tried reading this book. It was compared to The Stand, which I loved. So, although not all reviews were positive, I thought I might like this one. I liked the idea of the Dome (though I could not get The Simpsons Movie out of my head) and the search into what caused it. I also liked the analysis of what would happen to those in the dome (oxygen, weather, wind?). What I hated so much was the character of Big Jim Rennie and the general nastiness of the people in the village. It seemed just a succession of violent actions. I didn't think it had that much to do with the Dome, King could have chosen a nicer peopled village and I would have liked it more. I didn't finish it because in the end picking it up filled me with dread. Not for me unfortunately, as I was really looking forward to this one.

I've only ventured into Murakami-land since last summer, and really like what I find there! Sputnik sweetheart is my favourite so far, but I really like the wind-up bird too.

Thanks for the recommendation. Do most/some/all Murakami books have that supernatural element as found in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle?

I'ved only read those two! But as far as I konw, I think all of them effortlessly tread that borderline, yes.

Great :D It is always nice to have an author whose books you know you'll very likely love, and I think Murakami is another one on that list for me.

Glad you enjoyed your first foray into Murakami-land. So far I've read 4 of his books, Kafka on the Shore being my favourite, but keep hearing good things about The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle so it will probably be the next one I get to. It's residing on the tbr shelves at the moment.

You are zooming along! Frankenstein is on my TBR list too.

>Wolfy, I will be picking up more Murakami when I have money for books again (but how lovely it is to work on perfecting my wishlist for one big Amazon order)...

>cmbohn, Frankenstein is a nice read, I do recommend it :D

#76 was Wuthering Heights. I knew that this book was different from Jane Eyre (being it was written by a sister and not the same writer) and that some LT members didn't finish it... I did want to read it. Back in elementary school we learned English by translating song lyrics, and Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights was one of them. I now wanted to know the story behind it.
Although this is not a happy book (101 how to destroy two families), it was still a very good read. Depressing yet fascinating. 3 stars.

#77 was Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde. I liked The Eyre Affair, but it took me some time to get into the "universe". I had the same 'problem' with this book, but not as much. I really love the universe Ffrode creates here, it is just so creative. Another very good story, adventure, and makes me really want to read The Well of Lost Plots soon. Four stars.

#78 was To Say Nothing Of The Dog by Connie Willis, another book in the Oxford Time Travelling Historians series. This time they went back to the Victorian times, where one historian is hiding and recovering, they are searching for an ugly Bird Stump from Coventry Cathedral and they are trying to fix a time travelling mix up where a cat (extinct in 2060) travelled back to the future with one of the historians. A very good and interesting book, makes me want to read even more in this loosely connected series. Four stars.

#79 was The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland. Even though I was not that over the moon with Company of Liars I wanted to try another Maitland book, because she does seem to recreate my favorite time period (middle ages) very well. This was another ok book. I didn't hate it but didn't love it either. It was an okay read, with an interesting story about local superstition, the church and beguines in rural England. Three stars.

#80 was Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. This book pops up on LT Talk once in a while, always with a discussion about which was better, the book or the movie. To me it seems that it depends on what you experienced first. Those who saw the movie (by the brilliant movie maker Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli) first like the book, those who read the book first think the movie is wrong. I saw (and loved) the movie first, and with my extremely poor memory for plots, the movie seemed to follow the book quite closely. I enjoyed the book very much, and finished it in one day. I do have to wonder however, how confused I would have been by all the strange twists and turns if I didn't have the movie memories to "back it up" for me.... Either way, four stars from me.

#81 was The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde, the third book in the Thursday Next series. I loved this one even more than the last one I think. The world of Thursday Next and Jurisfiction is even more fleshed out here, and I love the original ideas (or not, there hasn't been one since 1884 and Flatland ;)). I need to read the other ones too. Four stars.

My kids love both the book and movie of Howl's Moving Castle. They saw the movie first, and watched it a few more times while we read the book together (a chapter a night). The book is very different, but true, I think, to the spirit of the book.

Indeed, I loved them both.

#82 was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. I read the original last year, mainly because I wanted to read this one and wanted to have read the original first. I was afraid this might feel too forced or too much like a gimmick, but I have to admit, I laughed out loud at some parts. The whole zombie/violence thing was very well woven into the story, I especially loved what they did to poor Wickham. Great enhancement of a great story. Four stars.

#83 was Club Dead by Charlaine Harris. A quick and fluffy read. Like previous parts to the Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood series, this reads like a movie/TV plot. A bit too suggestive, too much sex, and not too deep. But okay as entertainment. Three stars.

#84 was a very long and dense read, Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. I read Anathem last year, and was very impressed. I knew this was more historical than science fiction, and not even my preferred period (late seventeenth century). The book is really a combination of three different books, one following David Waterhouse, doctor, scientist, courtier, the other following Eliza and Jack (ex-slave and vagabond), and the last one having them come together. I love it when you follow different story lines in a book that come together in the end in unexpected ways. I am still not sure how I feel about this book. There was no main storyline, no main goal or adventure, just the description of what was happening in the world around our main characters. I did keep getting drawn back into the book, and I do plan to read part two in the cycle, Confusion. Minor irk were the geographical mistakes. Looks like the author did major research on the historical events, and then got out a modern map and wrote about Belgium and the IJsselmeer (both didn't exist in the seventeenth century). Four stars.

Following your reviews with interest. Another horror classic that I've recently read and enjoyed is Uncle Silas.

Sounds very good, onto the wishlist it goes! Talking about horror, I just ordered another John Ajvide Lindqvist called Människohamn or Het Zeewezen (The sea creature). It hasn't been translated to English yet, so as an exception to the rule I will read it in Dutch.

#85 was a quick one, A long way down by Nick Hornby. On the cover it said it was a funny read, I mostly found it tragic. In the end it was nice to see how everyone worked on their problems, but the group itself was just tragic. Four people all try to commit suicide by jumping of a building at the same moment and decide not to and try to help each other. Some characters were just too self destructing (Jess, Martin), some just too sad (Maureen). All in all a good but not very uplifting read. Three stars.

I picked up #86 (The Biographer's Tale by A.S. Byatt) at a second hand shop, purely based on the fact that I loved The Children's Book. Afterwards I read the reviews and they weren't very enthousiastic. I tried the book anyway and loved it. I can't exactly point out what I liked, it was a wandering tale of a student who steps out of the literary criticism field and decides to write a biography of a biographer. He hardly finds anything, except for material of a book he was writing when he disappeared in Norway's Maelstrom. Meanwhile he gets a job, finds girls, and discovers himself. Lovely writing, lovely storytelling. Four stars.

@159 I really enjoyed Människohamn! It's much more like Handling the undead than Let the right one in, but to me it's a stronger book than Handling... There are also some pretty nice observations of parenthood in there.

I am about 150 pages in now, and this is one of those books I want to read all at once yet also never want it to end. Great so far!

Don't know if you are a parent, but I had a hard time with that early disappearance. Kind of every parents worst nightmare, it really got to me.

I am not a parent, but I can imagine the nightmare.

I have finished #87, Het zeewezen (Människohamn), another great book by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It was definitely worth the wait and the price to me. What a great book. I love how Lindqvist explores the human consequences of his horrors. That is where the horror is, not the monsters themselves but what they mean and make happen. I loved the flashbacks, the exploration of island culture, myth and folklore. If you liked other Lindqvist books, find this one. Fantastic. The only slight complaint is the fast ending which is not analysed at all. But still a full five stars for me!

So glad you liked it!

Yeah, now I just want more Lindqvist books :D

#88 was Rashomon en andere verhalen by Ryunosuke Akugatawa, a short collection of stories written by the famous Japanese author. They were shorter than expected, and took some getting used to due to the cultural differences, but all in all a nice read. Three stars.

A new one is just out in Swedish. It's called "Lilla stjärna" (Little star), and is apparently about a child who can control people by her song.

I hope some publisher has it translated in English, Dutch or German... I can't wait!

#89 was De schaduw van de wind (The Shadow of the Wind) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I admit, I only picked this up because so many people seemed to love it, and it was on sale. But, I am not sorry, I loved this book and I just could not put it down. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be 'tragedy'. But it is also a mystery and uses the 'false witness' really well. The main character finds a book, reads it and falls in love. He tries to find out all he can about the author, and unravels the mysteries of the past. Meanwhile this takes place in Barcelona just after the war, so it also deals with the start of the fascist regime. Five stars.

@165 Sigh, its not available in English until September and then its just in hardback.. must learn to be more patient!

@171, one good thing is that it is definitely worth the wait...

#90 was Dead to the World, another Snooky Stackhouse/True Blood novel. Not much more to say than that. Three stars.

#91 was Nederland van Prehistorie tot Beeldenstorm. This is a history book that uses places to tell historical stories. This is part one, and tells 40 stories. Aside from some incorrect historical facts, and some writing styles I did not like (every story is by a different writer), I really enjoyed the book. So much so that I bought the other three parts, even though I do not care for the other time periods that much. Four stars.

#92 was a very short one, Onmacht by Charles den Tex. This book was given for free this month because it is month of the thriller here in The Netherlands. Short book about a marriage that is falling apart and the powerlessness of the people involved. Three stars.

@173
Who runs the free book program? I'd be very interested to hear how it works. It sounds not like anything I've ever heard of in the USA on a bigger-than-single-school scale.

It is a foundation (Stichting) for the collective promotion of the Dutch book (http://web.cpnb.nl/cpnb/index.vm?template=english). They have several big events during the year. The main one is the Book Week in March where you get a free book with every €12,50 you spend on Dutch books. This book, usually about 90 pages, is specifically written for this week and follows a theme.
Then we have the month of thriller, which is June. Also with a 90 page book gift, for every 12,50 spend on Dutch thrillers (Dutch language, not Dutch writers).
The final one with a book gift is "Nederland Leest" where they give out existing books by Dutch writers (at libraries) and everybody reads it at the same time.

Other than that they also hand out prizes for the best written and best illustrated children's books. They have a national reading (aloud) week, other prizes etc.

Very good foundation if you ask me :D

This happens every year? Wow. That's a really nifty idea -- it would promote books to people who are already regular readers, in a language they might not read otherwise but that is valuable in its own right, even creating a market for more of that work. Neat. Is €12,50 the price of a normal book by you? It seems expensive, but I suppose I've paid more than that for books in Europe...

Every single year :D And it is very popular. For example, the book week gift also gives you free travel on the train for one day (the Sunday of the book week) if you have that book with you.
When a book comes out, the hardcover can be about € 23,00, but most directly go to paperback for € 19.99. Later on some may get budget editions for € 10/15. Of course, online might be cheaper, and we do have one major bookclub that sells them a bit cheaper. But book prizes in Holland are set by law. The publisher has to set the prize, and bookstores cannot sell books for below that price unless in special circumstances (studygroups, bookclubs). This means that prizes stay high. After about 3 years publishers sell left over stock of unpopular books en masse to booksellers who sell this as Ramsj (remaindered books) and then they can be cheap. This is how I just picked up a box set (without the box) for € 30,00 instead of € 160,00...
That is one of the reasons I mainly buy UK books, I much rather spend GBP 7.99 for a book....

That's fascinating. I'd never have thought that the publishing-to-reading system could be so different from what I'm used to.

If I lived in the Netherlands, those prices for books might actually make me get a Kindle... or at least make sure I lived near a good library! I thought book prices were just barely sustainable here at US$7-10 (as in, people would actually buy them regularly at this price but not really at a higher price) -- budget editions for €15 don't seem very "budget". Huh. Though, maybe my perspective on prices here is warped, since most of what I remember buying, I bought as mass market paperback a decade ago...? Really interesting though...

Not many more updates, but I am still reading. Most books fit in categories that are full however, so I only post them in my 100 books a year thread. Please find my reviews there!

@179 Having trouble sticking to the 1010 challenge myself! Right I will go and peruse your 100 book challenge thread.

Okay, time for the final major update, because, I am DONE! woohoo, I read 100 books placed in ten categories of ten books each. The wrap up of the final seven books:

93. The Passage - Justin Cronin
I noticed this book on the Waterstones website, and it was promoted heavily by posters in Dutch train stations. After reading the description I just had to pick it up. I know this is just part one of a trilogy (that has no part 2 or 3 yet), but I decided to read it anyway, mainly because of the dystopian theme. The basic story of the book is, there is a virus in the jungle, the US army tries to develop it to make super soldiers, they fail and the world as we know it is destroyed. Then the story picks up 90 years later with a group of survivors. I loved the first part of the book the best (how did we destroy our world) and it took me a long while to get into the future part. However, I found the mythology behind the story well thought out, and I cannot wait to read the other parts. Five stars.

94. Nation - Terry Pratchett
A young adult novel about a micronesian island after a tsunami where a group of survivors (including one English girl) try to survive. A very nice and interesting story, bordering on fairy tale sometimes. Four stars.

95. Superfreakonomics - Steven Levitt
I held off buying this book because of some really bad reviews regarding inaccuracies and liberties with the truth, but read it as an ebook. It wasn't as good as the previous book, as it seemed the authors were not merely reporting stories, but trying to solve the problems. Entertaining though. Three stars.

96. Persian Fire - Tom Holland
After Millennium I just love Tom Holland, and even though this is not my favorite time period, it is extremely interesting to read Holland's story about Persia. Four stars.

97. Animal Farm - George Orwell
I can't believe I hadn't read this classic story yet. Knowing more about the meaning made it hard to read as a 'new' story, but all in all a very good, and still very current, story. Three stars

98. Rubicon - Tom Holland
Another Holland, this one about the Romans. Not my favorite period by far, too much testoron, but still very interesting. Three stars.

99. Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
This is my second Murakami, after “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”. On LibraryThing, opinions were mixed but people generally thought this book to be less than Wind-Up. I’m not so sure what I think. I loved Wind-Up as my first introduction to Murakami and his brand of magical realism, but I have to say I loved Kafka too. Of course Nakata was my favorite character, but I liked the whole book, with all it’s special story lines coming together. I also love how Murakami’s books give me the same nice feeling as Hayao Miyazaki’s movies. I need more Murakami! This book gets five out of five stars.

100. Christianity: A Very Short Introduction - Linda Woodhead
The last book I had to read was a non-fiction book. I picked a very short introduction about Christianity. The book describes the history of the faith, in the West, the East, the southern hemisphere and other countries. Also the faith for poor people, for men and for women. It was a good introduction but a bit dense because it packed 2000 years of worldwide information in 150 pages. In the end I am giving it three out of five stars.

Congratulations! Will you be continuing to post here, starting a new category challenge, or relaxing until the 1111 begins?

Congratulations, divinenanny!

Way to go!

Thanks everybody for the congratulations! RidgewayGirl, I won't continue here, but on my 100 challenge post. I will probably also start a reading diary in the Green Dragon. And I will be there for the 1111, but this time I will start January 1st.

congrats~ See you in the 11-11!

Woohoo! See you in 11 in 11! Nive to see a write-up of Kafka on the shore, it's one of my remaining titles for this challenge.

Congratulations on completing your challenge, looking forward to catching up with you in the 11-11 Challenge next year.