Allama will give this a try.

In 2008 I did the 50-book challenge but somehow lost track of it by September or so. In 2009 I forgot about logging entirely until it was, in my mind, too late to start.

The opening of a new decade seems a perfect time for altering my past behavior. I am determined to read 75 books this year and to keep detailed track of them all.

Cheers and best of luck to my fellow bibliophiles!

Currently Reading:
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Prince Ombra by Roderick MacLeish
What a Wonderful World! 2 by Inio Asano
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard

Completed
1/7/10 - Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, 468 pages
1/8/10 - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 215 pages
1/19/10 - American Gods by Neil Gaiman, 588 pages
2/6/10 - Honey and Clover, Volume 6 by Chica Umino, 200 pages
2/8/10 - Honey and Clover, Volume 7 by Chica Umino, 200 pages
2/21/10 - Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier, 398 pages
3/11/10 - Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki, 296 pages
3/14/10 - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 214 pages
5/19/10 - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, 184 pages

First-time Reads: 9
Re-reads: 0

TBR Mountain: 5
Recently Acquired: 4

Total Pages Read: 2,763

Welcome!

Thank you! It's interesting to read the lists already being posted by others for this year. The number of books some have managed to get through in the first 4 days is pretty daunting!

Welcome to the group!

If you have not already done so, you might want to check out the 'Introductions' thread and meet your fellow group members here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/79114

Oh thank you, I hadn't noticed that! I'll post there now.

Hi Alana - I loved Snow Crash, but I've a feeling a lot of people didn't - how are you enjoying it?

The 385 pages I've gotten through thus far have been quite enjoyable, addictive even. Unless the ending is extremely underwhelming I imagine Snow Crash is at least a 4-star for me.

On Thursday night I finished Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and on Friday afternoon I finished Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. 2 down, 73 to go! :D

As of this moment, I am starting to read Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I've heard this is a marvelous book so wish me luck!

Oh it is - I hope you enjoy it!

Congratulations on getting the first 2 under your belt. Nice start to your reading year.

>10 flissp: So far I am! This year is starting out with books I thought I would really enjoy and they've lived up to my hopes thus far. Snow Crash had as fitting an ending as I'd hoped. What about it do you think other readers didn't appreciate?


>11 alcottacre: Thanks very much! It's going well, though my lack of free reading time is making it a little hard.

#12 Re Snow Crash - to be honest I don't know - I've just read some fairly dismissive comments in the past! It's been a long time since I read it, but I did find it fun, whereas Quicksilver (the first of his Baroque Cycle) I really struggled with - I've yet to finish it. Have you read The Diamond Age? I think that's the one I enjoyed the most...

Snow Crash was the first and only book of Stephenson's that I've had the pleasure of reading. Thanks for the recommendation! I'll give The Diamond Age a try.

For my next read, I'd like to get to another book from my TBR mountain that I am ashamed to not have read. Here are some options (all of which I fully intend to choose at some point this year):

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Help me choose, oh faithful LT brethren!

I vote for Wicked or A Brief History of TIme.

The Importance of Being Earnest or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

I only read Life of Pi of the listed books, and I liked it very much.

Lots of great choices, but I think I'd pick The Bell Jar as the one that had had the biggest impact on me (of those I've read in your list).

Wow, no doubled recommendations so far. Very similar to the results I've seen in my Book Nudgers thread.

Keep 'em coming, I'll be ready to start a new one later today!

P.S. I've finished American Gods!

What did you think of American Gods? From your list I'd vote for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead because I love Tom Stoppard

American Gods was engrossing to say the least. I literally couldn't put it down. I had a couple of very minor issues with it but overall I think it was a great novel.

Between this thread and the one I posted in the Book Nudgers group, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead got the most votes so I will begin reading it tonight. Thanks for your help, everyone!

Ohhhhhhh Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead--what fun! If you can find the find the film version (also written by Stoppard), it's quite a treat as well.

My sons watched the film many years ago, and loved it so much that my oldest son, who was in the fourth grade, insisted on reading Hamlet (which he didn't like nearly as well). Last year, all three of them had it on their Amazon wish lists for Christmas (and they all got it!).

So far I am loving the play and am hoping to find the film version somewhere online so I don't have to resort to begging my housemates to put it on their Netflix queue. Gary Oldman and Tim Roth seem like they would be real a treat together!

Life has been a mad rush lately so my reading time has suffered, though I recently got through Honey and Clover, Volume 6 and Honey and Clover, Volume 7 by Chica Umino. I also started Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier.

Let me recommend Anansi Boys, which I enjoyed even more than American Gods.

...and I'm going to second ronincats recommendation!

>28 ronincats: and 29 I fully intend to acquire a copy of Anansi Boys as per your recommendations!

Today I finished Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier after letting it languish on the shelf for over a week with only a few pages left to be read. It was an enjoyable read and there were parts at which I couldn't put it down but the ending was a bit rushed, like she suddenly realized there were a bunch of loose ends to tie up and she'd promised her editor it would be under 400 pages. I mostly liked it, though.

Yesterday I started Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, a classic that I somehow never got around to in my school years. My friends seem to have had a very different set of reactions so I'm interested to see which camp I fall into after completing it.

Edited to fix touchstones. Sometimes my Blackberry likes 'em, sometimes it doesn't!

The thing I've noticed with a lot of people who've read Catcher in the Rye is that those who read it for the first time when they were still a teenager (or at least early twenties) seem to have enjoyed it much more than those who read it when a bit older - I suppose it's all down to how much you can identify, or at least sympathise with Holden.

I loved it myself, but I haven't read it since I was at school. There is a moment, right at the end, (in the rain with Phoebe) that will always stick in my memory and that just makes the book for me. I look forward to your thoughts!

With the career change I've been going through lately my reading time has suffered but today I found a couple hours in which to read all the way through Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki. It's an interesting account of her time as a maiko and geiko in the Gion Kobu but the narrative can be a little flat at times.

>31 flissp: So far I find that I have to transport myself back into my own adolescent mind to really appreciate Catcher in the Rye, confirming the pattern you've noticed. I have a bit left to go but will check back in when I finish!

Good luck with the career change!

I almost forgot to mention that I finished The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger on March 14th. Getting into the protagonist's head and heart and identifying with him on a meaningful level took me the better half of the book but once I did so I found him to be a likable, understandable young man. He seemed only minorly (if at all) aware of why he did many of the things he did throughout the story, something that spoke to my own experiences as an adolescent. The ways in which he reacted to his internal confusion can't be too foreign to anyone who has gone through their teenage years with less-than-stellar parents. In the end he showed his good heart clearly, I thought.

flissp, that moment in the rain with his sister really ended the book perfectly. There are so many reasons why it fit that it's hard to even begin describing them.

I read parts of The Catcher in the Rye at high-school, but it never reallu aught my attention. I decided to give it another go, so I bought it a couple of weeks ago and will start it soon. Looking forward to it, and have to admit I am a bit curious about the scene with his sister now.

#34 I'm glad you thought so too - while (although I loved the book), there are many books that I prefer, I think that that, as with the final page of Lord of the Flies, that particular snapshot of The Catcher in the Rye will always stick with me - I just think it's a wonderful moment.

My apologies to the month of April! I began a new job at the very end of March and adjusting to it has consumed most of my time and energy. Now that I have settled in I am ready and willing to get back to my favorite activity.

On Friday I started Prince Ombra by Roderick MacLeish, a book I saw on my parents' bookshelves throughout my entire childhood but never picked up, and today I have begun The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. For over a decade friends and acquaintances have been pushing me to read the Wheel of Time series but I always said I would wait until book 12 came before starting it. That time has come!

Wish me luck, everyone! I'm moving to a new apartment at the end of this month so there may be another rocky patch on my reading path.

Luck!! Congrats on the new job, and the new digs. Don't you hate it when RL interferes with LT?

Congratulations on the new job!

I feel ya. Moving and new jobs have totally slowed down my reading this spring. I hope the move goes smoothly for you!

Thanks guys, that's sweet of you! It's all going well so far. :)

Last week I finished Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie. It was a fast read and not only because it's so short. The book is very story-driven with little diversion from the plot and it kept me "sucked in" for the majority of the time I spent reading it.

#41: I liked that one, too.