wflooter480's 50 books of 2010

This is my very first thread and challenge! I have to say that I'm pretty excited to keep track of what I read this year. I'm not sure if I will quite make it to 50, but I'll give it a go. I have over 60 books on my shelf that I haven't read, so I don't plan on buying many more books, although my wishlist seems to keep growing. I plan on reading Infinite Jest with Le Salon starting in March, so I have a feeling that will take me a good while to finish, seeing as I've already attempted it twice and failed. This time I will succeed dagnabit! I'd also like to read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings this year if I can manage it.

Books of 2010:

1) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (finished 1/1/10)
2) Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (finished 1/10/10)
3) The Road by Cormac McCarthy (finished 1/17/10)
4) The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway (finished 2/1/10)
5) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (finished 3/5/10)
6) Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver (finished 3/16/10)
7) What is the What by Dave Eggers (finished 4/24/10)
8) Paula by Isabel Allende (finished 6/15/10)
9) City of God by E.L. Doctorow (finished 11/14/10)
10) Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (finished 12/1/10)

Neverwhere was a fun read. There were times when I thought it was getting a bit predictable. I mean, a girl named Door who opens doors? A woman named Hunter who hunts? I could feel that someone's going to die and someone is going to be a traitor. Despite the feeling of knowing these things are going to come to fruition, it was exciting to read it unfold. The dark world of London Below and its inhabitants were creepy and mysterious if not even beautifully depicted. Despite the frightening encounters, odd creatures and death lurking around every corner (dun dun duuuuun), London Above was portrayed as far creepier.

If you have the chance, read the Neverwhere comic book adaption. The art really captures the feel of the book.

d_perlo, thanks for the recommendation! I'll check it out!

Wow, The Road was such a powerful read! It brought tears to my eyes. The way McCarthy wrote it was perfect. Sentence fragments. Simply constructed dialogue. Short sentences, paragraphs and sections. You never find out the man and the boy's names and rightfully so. In such a scarce and scorched wasteland, it would be superfluous anyway. I thought this book was brilliant and disturbing.

I don't think I'm going to count DFW's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again until I've finished the whole book (and I think I may split it up between other books that strike my fancy at the moment), but I did finish the title essay last night. I liked it a lot. It was funny and honest, sometimes despairingly so.

Another dark and powerful read for me in The Cellist of Sarajevo. Makes me wonder what kind of person I would be during war. Honestly I don't know if I would run away or stand with my mouth open and frozen wishing I was one of those helping.

Now I'm off to stare at my books and wonder which one I should read next. Something a bit lighter is in order I do believe.

Finally finished A Confederacy of Dunces. Just had a hard time sitting down and reading in February.

I liked it. Ignatius was a liar and an annoying one at that. I felt very frustrated at times with his crazy antics and enabling mother. The other characters felt very real and convincing. The annoyingness definitely felt familiar.

Finished savoring Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver at lunch today. It was so beautifully written I found myself sad that the story was coming to a conclusion. Usually I want to rush to the end to find out how it ends, but with this book I slowed way down, rereading paragraphs because I didn't want the sweet prose to end.

This is a first person narrative told by Codi Noline, who has been told she's different making her feel like an outsider all her life, but eventually comes to realize she's been an insider (and a deeply loved one at that) all of her life. The tragedy and love throughout the book were understated and full at the same time.

Major big stars for this book. I loved it and I am looking forward to reading more Kingsolver.

What is the What was so well told and authentic that I would not have thought that Eggers was the same author who wrote A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius which I read a few years ago. Achak's voice was clear and sobering, yet hopeful and inspiring. The determination to survive is unlike anything I could truly comprehend. To walk hundreds of miles, starving, being killed by men for no apparent reason, being eaten by the wild animals only to be confined to a refugee camp for years. Then to finally immigrate to the US only to struggle in such a lame and pathetic way. There was rampant jealousy, senseless death, robbery, and even murder. That was the saddest and most frustrating part of all. They had survived all of the tragedies in Sudan to come to America to find different yet equally devastating problems. What is inspiring is that after all of the obstacles, struggles, defeats, problems and just pure crap, Achak survives and thrives.

It was not an easy read in the sense that there were problems and road blocks at every turn. However, the narrative was powerful and compelling.

Very good, definitely recommended! I love the power that books have to take you to a place you can barely imagine and bring it to life with such emotion.

Isabel Allende's heartbreaking memoir, Paula, was an incredible journey. If I had one word to describe this book it would be love. I adored it and look forward to reading more of her works.

Ok, so it only took me five months to read this last book, which is only indicative of me, not the book. Although, City of God was not at all what I was expecting. For some weird reason (only because the jacket description said so) I was expecting a more mystery and less religious angst. I'm not saying it wasn't great, brilliant even; I just went in expecting something it wasn't and it threw me off. It also didn't help that we moved and didn't read for several weeks.

Ugh, so much for 50 books this year. :/

Wellps, nothing like a couple 14 hour+ car ride and one sleepless night (thanks to my upstairs neighbors) to get me to finish a book in a week these days.

Water for Elephants was a good book. I enjoyed the characters, whom I found to be believable and mostly provocative. The plot was easy to follow, however it was somewhat predictable. It was for the most part a very happy ending. Sure, a couple people died, but the main characters found peace and happiness in the end in a fairly hollywood ending. I could definitely see this being made into a movie. Just looking it up on IMDB, I see that it is. And Robert Pattinson playing Jacob?!?! Oh, no! Not how I pictured that character in the least, hence I am 99% positive I will NOT see this movie. I have this thing where I either watch the movie or read the book. VERY rarely do I do both. I've done it twice, both unintentionally and both read before seen. The Road which I actually thought was really well done and captured the heart and feel of the book. The other was I Am Legend; both of which I didn't care for in the least.

I guess, what I'm meaning to say is that this book seems to easily translate into a screenplay. Which is to say that it was easy to read, enjoyable and engaging, however on the fluff side of things in my opinion.

So, there's the end of that. Not quite 50 books. HA! I'm currently reading The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver and it's goooood!

Here's to good books read in 2010, more to come in 2011. :)