gonegain attempts to read 75 books in 2010.

I'll fill in the blanks as we go along, since I prefer taking the books as they come. There will probably be a bit of Joyce Carol Oates, some graphic novels, a few classics and a big slab of Sherlock Holmes in there, though.

Here's to big plans, and great books!

BOOKS 1 - 10

1. Young Stalin (Den unge Stalin) - Simon Sebag Montefiore
2. Ignorance: A Novel - Milan Kundera
3. The Two Towers - J. R. R. Tolkien
4. The Return of the King - J. R.R. Tolkien
5. Döda paret och deras "vänner" - Joakim Pirinen
6. Ett nytt land utanför mitt fönster - Theodor Kallifatides
7. Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe - Bill Bryson
8. Ett barns memoarer - Selma Lagerlöf
9. A Little Love Song - Michelle Magorian
10. I döda språks sällskap: en bok om väldigt gamla språk - Ola Wikander

BOOKS 11 - 20

11. Das Gefängnis der Freiheit - Michael Ende
12. Strangers in Paradise - Pocket Book 1 - Terry Moore
13. Strangers in Paradise - Pocket Book 2 - Terry Moore
14. Strangers in Paradise - Pocket Book 3 - Terry Moore
15. The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes - Neil Gaiman
16. The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll's House - Neil Gaiman
17. The Sandman Vol. 3: Dream Country - Neil Gaiman
18. The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists - Neil Gaiman
19. The Sandman Vol. 5: A Game of You - Neil Gaiman
20. The Sandman Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections - Neil Gaiman

BOOKS 21 - 30

21. The Sandman Vol. 7: Brief Lives - Neil Gaiman
22. The Sandman Vol. 8: Worlds' End - Neil Gaiman
23. The Sandman Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman
24. The Sandman Vol. 10: The Wake - Neil Gaiman
25. The Sandman Endless Nights - Neil Gaiman
26. A Pinch of Snuff - Reginald Hill
27. Midnight Fugue - Reginald Hill
28. Jugend Ohne Gott - Ödön von Horváth
29. A Killing Kindness - Reginald Hill
30. An April Shroud - Reginald Hill

BOOKS 31 - 40

31. It - Stephen King
32. Salem's Lot - Stephen King
33. Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
34. The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For - Alison Bechdel
35. Pictures of Perfection - Reginald Hill
36. Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Stories - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
37. Macbeth - William Shakespeare
38. Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
39. The Stranger House - Reginald Hill
40. Deadheads - Reginald Hill

BOOKS 41 - 50

41. Dialogues of the Dead - Reginald Hill
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.

BOOKS 51 - 60

BOOKS 61 - 70

BOOKS 71 - 75

Welcome to the group and LT!

Thank you, drneutron!

First book finished! Young Stalin - great mixture of dry facts and suspenseful action. My preconceptions of the early days of Russian Communism and the roles of Stalin, Lenin and Trotskij in the making of the Soviet empire were mostly turned on their heads. Also interesting to learn a little bit more of the Caucasus region.

What's something that surprised you about Stalin?

That, according to the book he was very well, if mostly self-, educated and used to read constantly. That he was a promising poet in his youth. Also, my idea of Lenin and Stalin before reading the book was that Lenin was more of an idealist and that Stalin, when he came to power, used a fundamentally different kind of politics than his predecessor. To put it very simply, Lenin seemed like more of a good guy (I suppose this was an unforgivably naive way of looking at it). This book shows how Lenin and Stalin had very similar ideas on how the nation should be governed and that Lenin, in the revolutionary days, simply used Stalin to carry out his dirty work (bank robberies, political murders and so on) while he was in exile, writing pamphlets. I am over-simplifying of course. The book paints a very complex picture of Stalin and the time leading up to the October revolution. Very interesting book, I thought.

My local library has a copy of Young Stalin, so I will pick it up some time. It looks like something I would like.

I would definitely recommend it!

Just got back from watching the movie "Bright Star" about John Keats, and finished Ignorance on the way home. A bit overwhelmed by the mix (great acting! wonderful love story! beautiful poetry! sad novel! amazing style!) and will try to write a few words about the book someday soon.

Anyone seen the movie btw?

My husband and I saw "Bright Star" a few months ago and loved it. We pulled out our Keats collections in the days that followed and enjoyed refreshing ourselves with his verse.

What Oates' novels/novellas/short fiction/plays/essays are you hoping to read this year? Any in particular?
There is an Oates group here, if you're interested. It's not very active but it's a place to be among other Oates fans.

Thanks for the link to the Oates group. I'll be sure to check it out. :) She is one of my favourite authors, and I tend to read at least one or two of her books every year. I thought I might read "Dear Husband", since I've never read much of her short fiction before. I also picked up one of her Rosamond Smith stories at second hand book store before Christmas, which I thought seemed interesting (I think it's called "Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon" in English). Last year I only got around to reading My Sister, My Love by her, but that was really good.

So, two short reviews:

Ignorance: A Novel by Franco-Czech novelist Milan Kundera is a story about two Czech emigrés who return to their native country after being away for more than twenty years. The novel describes their experiences as exiles and the problems of returning to a home that is no longer yours. We make sense of our lives in relation to other people, through memories shared by others, but for the exiles in the novel, that shared sense of memory, the chronology, is disrupted and memory is revealed as a form of illusion.

Kundera is a wonderful writer, and in the two books I've read by him, I've found the style (unbearably) light and very easy to read, although he deals with very serious, thoughtful matters.

I'm not sure what to say about The Two Towers, except that I've been trying to read the whole trilogy for a couple of years, and only ever got through the first book. Well, this time, having just seen the movies again and with lots of free time on my hands, I decided go straight to The Two Towers and give it another go. It was great. Lots of fun to read. :) I even took a liking to Frodo this time around.

The question now is whether to march straight into the last book or go on to something completely different...

#20: I am intrigued by the sound of Ignorance, so I am going to look for that one. Thanks for the recommendation.

#21: Kundera really is a wonderful writer. I'll try to read some of more of his stuff this year.

I feel like I'm lagging behind a bit on the reading, but semester just started and I've been working quite a bit extra the past couple of weeks. I suppose I could put course literature on the list, but that would feel... wrong. Like I was dirtying the whole idea, somehow. :)

Well, finished The Return of the King last night, and now feel completely absorbed in Tolkien land. I liked this one a lot, too. I'm surprised I like the language so much, I remember having a problem wih it last time I tried. Could be I read the Swedish translation, which has been under a lot of criticism (even by JRRT himself). Last year I read a book by the translator of the new Swedish version (Erik Andersson), describing his work on the series. Lots of interesting stuff about, for example, how to go about translating the names of places and peoples. Trivia: in the first Swedish translation of "The Hobbit", Bilbo was named Bimbo...

Now: whither to go after Middle-Earth?

#22 Aiks. Was poor Bilbo named Bimbo? I guess that was sort of unfortunate. Maybe those editions will become collectors items in a while. Sometimes I don't know why they translate the names in the first place, a bit annoying really.

In the Dutch translation (very good, even won a prize for it) some names were translated too, but in a very good way, they kept the right feeling.
It is one of the few books I read in English too, so I could compare ;-)

#23: Yes, it's a tricky question. Some names obviously have meaning, or at least are meant to evoke certain connotations (e.g. Merry and Peregrin), but translated names often run the risk of sounding pretty silly...

#24: It would be interesting to hear some of the Dutch names. :)

> 25
Mostly the Hobbits have translated names:

Bilbo & Frodo Balings = Blibo & Frodo Baggins
Sam Gewissies = Samwise Gamgee
Meriadoc (Merijn) Brandebok = Meriadoc (Merry) Brandybuck
Peregrijn (Pepijn) Toek = Peregrin (Pippin) Took
Roosje Katoen = Rosie Cotton

and Aragorn's nickname (Strider) is translated into Stapper

#26: Thanks! :) I suppose the Hobbits' names are often translated because they are supposed to seem familiar, near, like home? Interesting to hear the Dutch names.

Yesterday, my friend and I watched Jan Troell's movie "The Emigrants", and today I read another book on emigration. Why this theme now, I don't know.

Theodor Kallifatides is a Swedish writer, who emigrated from Greece in the 60's. Ett nytt land utanför mitt fönster (A new country outside my window) is a short chronicle about his life, his writing and the alienation he feels in Sweden, as well as in Greece. Here's an excerpt, because I think it's beautiful (at least it is in the original...) and because I would like to remember it:

"I began writing this with the purpose of figuring out what has become of me after thirty-six years of living as a stranger.
I have not become Swedish, even though I am no longer the Greek I thought I was. I am not even fully a stranger. Quite simply, I can not say what it is I have become. My Ithaca remains, but it does not wait for me. I will not make that journey. I have taken another path and it is not too late to return. It is too early.
There are moments when I feel more naked than the day I was born, when there was at least the umbilical cord, and I grieve, as for an unhappy love affair.
But there are also moments when I feel peace, because I learned to love something other than what was given to me.
I sometimes wonder how many millions of people, now and in the future, whose lives will be like this; without a language of their own, without a death of their own.
Is there anything that could save them? Perhaps the heroic knowledge that they have experienced great losses, an insight that might lead to a new Metaphysics, where they will no longer search for the meaning of life, but for life itself. In the long run, they might create a new world for themselves, as well as for everyone else.
For my own part, I am waiting for the eight wonder of the world. To wake one morning and see a new country outside my window.“

> 27
Yes, I think you are right, the hobbits are supposed to make you feel at home.

> 28
I lived for 7 years in a part of Rotterdam, where over 90% of the inhabitants came from other countries. They all felt similair, not home in Rotterdam, not at home in their former country.
This writer describes this beautifully!

Anita

>28 goneagain: & 29: I agree, that was a very moving description of how I imagine so many emigrants must feel! Thanks for sharing it.

#29 & 30: Yes. I like his idea that in order to survive/live through the experience of living as a stranger with your integrity intact, you need to keep a heroic outlook on your own life. He writes a lot about the importance of 'självbild', the idea you have of yourself, the mythos you build up around your life.

Thanks for the comments. :)

It's been snowing more or less constantly for months now (Ragnarök?) and you'd have thought this would be great for reading. Lots of snuggling up on the couch with blankets, books and cups of tea, while the snow falls slowly outside. For some reason, this has not happened as much as I would have liked. Too much studying to do, I think. Still, here are some short reviews:

Neither Here nor There by Bill Bryson was funny and easy to read, but not as good as some of his other stuff, I thought. It's about his travels in Europe, as a young man and then again, twenty years later. Among other places, he visits my home town and finds it terribly boring.

Ett barns memoarer (Memoir of a child) is a book of stories from Selma Lagerlöf's childhood. Interesting if you're interested in Lagerlöf's writing and/or life in countryside Sweden in the 1800's. There are some clues as to how Lagerlöf grew up to be the greatest female figure in Swedish literature and the first woman in the Swedish Academy; how she was encouraged to learn and write, how she attended balls and no one wanted to dance with her, how her gouverness told her that becoming a writer was not an impossible dream.

I first read A Little Love Song by Michelle Magorian when I was eleven or twelve, and loved it. For some reason, I was reminded of it a while back and decided to reread it in English. I still love it, inspite of its romanticism and somewhat simplified plot. Here's another young woman who dreams of becoming a writer in the England of the second World War. There's eccentric village people, the mystery of a woman who lived through the first war, first love, some societal critique and a hugely sympathetic love interest in the form of a pipe smoking young man running the local book store. No wonder I liked this as a kid.

Here's something that bothers me, though. On the cover is a small note: "Contains Adult Themes". Is this a common thing on books for t(w)eenagers in the UK/US? Sure, there is some sex in there, but nothing too terrifying. It bothers me because, if I'd picked up a book with that warning on it when I was eleven, I would have been too embarrased to check it out of the library. I would have missed out on this great story, with its mild allusions to, and depictions of, sexuality, which I were in fact not too young to deal with. It is also ironic, since the book deals to some extent with the hypocritical sexual morality of the time and the way books and thoughts were censored.

I've not seen that sort of warning in the UK. It might have a different impact though.

I remember one of my classmates raiding her dad's bookshelves when I was 12, and lending out Jackie Collins and Harold Robbins round the class.

Yes, you're right. That might very well be the result, too. :)

I think Adult Themes may include other themes besides sex and sexuality. The book may contain adult subject matter like drug use or even smoking (you mentioned a pipe). If there are no kids as characters in a book, chances are good that most of the themes are adult ones anyway.

Here in the U.S. some people take it upon themselves to ensure that books in libraries, especially school libraries, are up to their personal moral codes. A prime example is the frequency of challenges to the Harry Potter books which contain magic. Another concern of theirs is ensuring that elementary and middle school students can't access books written for teens with topics such as homosexuality or child abuse. Unfortunately, and predictably, such attempts at sheltering young students only serves to pique their interest in those books that much more.

I haven't seen such a note on a book yet. Was it a sticker added by the store or actually printed on the cover?

It was printed on the cover. I can't remember where it was published, though. I've read something about parents wanting to ban books from school libraries. It seems... well, almost quaint that parents should worry that their kids are reading the wrong books. I imagine the the impact on kids from commercials, tv, computer games and the Internet is a lot more direct, and more difficult to control. In a way, one should see it as a positive thing: that people still believe in the power of books. ;)

I döda språks sällskap: en bok om väldigt gamla språk (In the company of dead languages: a book about very old languages) by Ola Wikander is exactly what it says on the cover. It describes eleven, more or less extinct, languages such as Sumerian, Sanskrit, Coptic, Old English, Oscan and Akkadian. Each chapter presents a language, its culture, history, basic grammatical functions and a short translated text.

Highly interesting, fun to read and very informative; I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of languages (although, I don't suppose it will be translated to English any time soon). Most impressive of all is that Wikander, who knows all eleven languages presented (and then some: he has also translated works from Latin, Ancient Greek, Ugaritic - languages not covered in the book) was only 25 when the book was published. Damn him.

Also read Das Gefängnis der Freiheit (The prison of freedom) by Michael Ende this week, and will try to write a few words about that someday soon.

#37: Too bad that one has not been translated. I would have liked to try it. I read a book back in 2008 on dead and dying languages and think it is a fascinating subject.

So, for some reason I got into a reading funk a while back; nothing captured me, couldn't even finish The Angel's Game, which I thought was supposed to kind of a page turner. So I did what one does in a situation like this: started rereading The Sandman series. And Strangers in Paradise. And now I'm a happy reader again. Marvellous.

I am glad that you are a happy reader once again!

Well... It's been more than 8 months since I last updated my list. It's been a busy year. Which goes some way towards explaining all the Reginald Hill-books. I mean, I like him (and Sergeant Wield) a lot, but it's easy reading, stuff I can get into even when I'm kind of stressed out.

So. I added the books I remember having read to the list, but have probably forgotten quite a few. There is of course no way I'm going to get 75 titles up there by the 31st, but that's hardly important. The holidays are here, it's snowing outside and I've got a bunch of nice books lined up.

The new group for 2011 is up and running. I hope you will be joining us again!

thank you. I will!