DEL's Reading Journal for 2010

I won't be starting my current one over, so those interested can go to the link below to find my list of the first 50 or so books I read this year.

I should note that many times I'll have multiple books going at the same time, two or three for myself, and another three or four for classes. For this reason there are times when I'll finish more than one book in quick succession.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/80172

I'm just starting from now to keep track here though will probably finish up the year with the 100 Book Challenge list too. The way my life's going these days, I'm pretty much done with organized reading challenges, at least for the time being.

Too many people on the 75/100 Book Challenges. I like the dozen or so we seem to have here.

I agree this is much more manageable. I can actually read all these threads but in the 75 books challenge it is just too much.

Yeah, I feel kinda guilty about this, but I only really frequent my own thread over on the 75 Challenge. Just too too many.

53 Changes
This is the most recent installment in the Dresden Files series, and I've been waiting almost all summer to read it. Holy **** was it worth it. More than any of the other books I think, Changes lives up to its title. The book quite literally takes most everything we know about the Dresden Verse and turns it on its head. I'm totally pumped for the next one. Thankfully, I've got Side Jobs coming out in a month or less to tide me over.

my only disappoint with Changes was how little anything was resolved or changed with Thomas. I'd really like to see Jim go into that relationship and do something positive for him.

I'd like Butcher to do ANYTHING positive for Dresden.

54 Fullmetal alchemist. 1

A personal favorite in both manga and anime form. Definitely a series aimed at teenagers or older. The series details the exploits of the preteen/teenage Elric Brothers, Ed and Al, who work to regain their original bodies after an attempt to bring their mother back from the dead fails, taking Al's body and Ed's right arm and left leg in the process.

The manga isn't quite as humorous as either anime version, containing stories that FMA Brotherhood skips over. Starting in a small town we see the brothers take down a false prophet before going up against a corrupt military official, and a bunch of terrorists on a train. Because of my own personal interests I found the first story most engaging of the three, although seeing how Al takes down Yoki, the corrupt military official through deception was pretty cool too.

Hi, DEL ~ Just finnished my second graphic novel ~ a Dresden work called Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher. I've not gotten into manga or anime (they are different from graphic novels, right?) but maybe one of these days. I never thought I'd enjoy graphic novels either. :)

#7 - Butcher seems to leave themes for a book or two. Somethign will crop up in one book be explored in the next, and then dropped for a bit, before being taken up once again (or else abandoned altogther) I suspect Thomas has more to play, but maybe not even in the next book. It's another of Butcher's writing style issues that I find slightly annoying.

>11 reading_fox: I actually kind of liked the fact that not much with Thomas was resolved. Harry was focused on making sure his daughter was safe. That was his whole focus throughout Changes. To somehow Add in some grand revelation about Harry and Thomas would, to me, have seemed awkward and out of place, especially given Harry's personality.

55 Spontaneous Evolution

A book on "New-Edge Biology." The word play got extremely annoying after a while, but overall I thought it was a worthwhile read. Will probably be reading it again sometime so I can properly annotate it.

56 Logicomix

57 the Fall of Reach

Imagine the love-child of Ender's Game and the Starship Troopers movie, and you'll come pretty damn close to Fall. I never thought I'd like an adaptation of a VIDEO GAME, but this book bleeding ROCKS.

58 ROD: Read or Die volume 2

Hmm, a manga about a special agent who works for a library, is a bibliophile, and has magical control of paper. Do I love it? HELL YES!

Okay, going to look for ROD: Read or Die volume 2. (Is that it's real name? How I'd find it?)

The stories seem relatively self contained, however, it is the second volume of a series, so you might want to read volume one first. You'll want to look for "Read or Die, Volume 1." You can see the LT entry for it here: http://www.librarything.com/search_works.php?q=read+or+die

59 the Perfect Sword

A great little picture book with a great message.

60 Side Jobs

A collection of (almost) all the short stories and novellas Jim Butcher has written set in the Dresden Files Universe. Not really a bad story here, though definitely spoilery if you aren't current on the series. Some of my favorites were its my Birthday Too, Day off, the Warrior, and Aftermath, the novella that begins 45 minutes after the end of Changes.

61 Questionable Content, volume 1

The first volume to be released of one of my favorite webcomics.

62 Unseen Academicals

Pratchett's latest entry in his famous (or is that infamous?) Discworld series. Football (soccer) turned on its head to hilariously absurd results. Highly recommended.

63 the Five-Minute Miracle

Springett teaches an excellent spiritual healing technique that seems to jibe well with everything I know of this kind of work.

64 Zen Keys

65 the Self-Esteem Trap

An excellent book that I think more people need to read. Essentially makes the point that self-esteem is gained not through telling a child they are special, but helping the child prove to themselves they can be self-reliant. It also demonstrates how we've sabotaged ourselves with the idea of being "special." This is the second time I've read this book and I enjoyed it just as much if not more this second time through.

66 Three Stations

An enjoyable page-turner of a detective novel set in Moscow starring a Russian investigator named Arkady Renko. Smith does a great job of characterization, and portraying the reality of the Russian system. Recommended to me by a friend who majored in Russian and has spent time in-country, so I'm pretty confident of its accuracy.

67 Buddha's Brain

About the brain and meditation. Probably the best book in this genre I've read. Note its not a science book about the effects of meditation on the brain.

This looks like a really good one, Frank. I'm inundated with books from the holidays right now, but I want to pick this one up. What made it stand out for you?

In large part it was the style. A lot of books I've found seem to muddle psychology and Buddhist teachings. This book, to my mind, was much better done in terms of the use of psychology and meditation. There is, by and large, a clear distinction, one is rarely if ever addressed while the other is in the forefront, and the practices and psychology that are discussed complement each other perfectly.

Thanks! I know what you mean. I'll look forward to reading this one.