Best The Stolen Child (Keith Donohue) A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Ishmael Beah) Mountains beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (Tracy Kidder)
Worst
*The Road * (Cormac McCarthy) The Sociopath Next Door (Martha Stout) Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid (Lemony Snicket)
Had to slog but it was sufficiently worthwhile Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond (Pankaj Mishra)
2007
Number of books: 125
Difference from previous year: +65
Number of pages: 36,821
Mean pages/book: 294.568
Number of fiction (includes children’s/young adult, poetry, fictive humor): 58
Number of non-fiction: 67
Reviews posted here. I’ll get the last 2 done this week.
Goals for 2008
Read 50+ books, of which at least one per month is long, complex, or professional.
It’s already January here, almost lunchtime. Today, I’ll finish John Burdett’s Bangkok Tattoo. It’s been very good, even with all of the little distortions one always sees in a local book like this. For instance, the protagonist is part owner of a bar in Soi Cowboy but at one point must go over to the Nana Plaza bar area to buy his beloved Northeastern snack of assorted insects. That scene was probably written in simply to give Nana Plaza a mention, the same as a similar restaurant scene set in the Patpong bar area later, because I can tell you that there is indeed at least one insect cart set up right in the middle of Soi Cowboy. He could have bought his bugs right outside the door of his bar.
After that, I will read Mr. Paradise, by Elmore Leonard.
What a coincidence; I’m about 2/3rds of the way through Burdett’s Bangkok 8, which I picked up at random from my workplace’s unofficial lending library.
Before that, it was my second rereading of Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, which along with The Baroque Cycle certainly rewards rereading.
I read 88 books this past year, although some of them were formulaic mysteries or techno-thrillers. If I had more work to do I would have less time to read for pleasure, but more money with which to buy books.
My goal is to read 100 books in 2008, but a faint “ahem!” coming now and then from my bookshelf of unread books seems to be emanating from Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which I have promised I will read, and which will make the goal of 100 books a bit iffier.
I finished George R.R. Martin’s A Clash of Kings yesterday evening. Which was unfortunate, since the library wasn’t open today (well, yesterday) and won’t be tomorrow (well, today, technically) and I desperately want to start A Storm of Swords.
I read some doozies this year, so I went by page count. 47 books or 14192 pages which turned out to be only 36 actual books.
I went on a deep post-apocolyptic/dystopian bend courtesy of the kind folks here at the SDMB. Richard Matheson, both I am Legend and Hell House, Fell in love with “The Handmaid’s Tale” and followed up with “Oryx and Crake.” Tried some of the Discworld stuff but wasn’t too thrilled with it, although I liked parts of them better than others. I haven’t given up yet.
Right now I’m in the middle of a book titled Cryptography, which is neato cool, but a heavy read. Next up? I’m tackling the Cthulu mythos.
I will read 50 books proper this year. I’ve gotten a Nokia 770 internet tablet which is the worlds best reading in bed, reading anywhere ebook reader, and yes, I’ve seen, touched and tried the Kindle.
Bangkok 8 is very good, and *Bangkok Tattoo * is an excellent follow-up. I’ve never understood why authors change real things ever so slightly. For instance, in Bangkok 8 he had the Buddha shrine in the wrong corner of Nana Plaza, even though he was obviously familair with the place. He used real bar names for Nana Plaza, but made up fake names for bars in Soi Cowboy. (Dart-shooting vaginas are real, however. Many’s the night I’ve held a balloon over my head to have some cutie shoot it out of my hand in that manner. The best I ever saw was one girl in Midnite Bar in Soi Cowboy who could hit a moving target! Now THAT was talent.)
Lisey’s Story By Stephen King and The Witness by Sandra Brown.
Coming up on my bookpile is Hello Darkness by Sandra Brown and then Deal Breaker (that will be a reread) by Harlan Coben.
After those, in order: Echo Park- Michael Connelly, Drop Shot- Harlan Coben, The Husband- Dean Koontz, and The Cold Moon- Jeffery Deaver
I really, really need to find/get Self Defense by Jonathan Kellerman and the next one after that in the Alex Delaware series (It’s either The Web or The Clinic, I forget which) so I can start reading him again. I like reading series books in order and even though I have all the other Alex Delaware books after those two, I can’t/won’t read them until I read those two first.
I love those books. I’m jealous that you still have two more to read.
*Eifelheim *was very good so I’ve just ordered Michael Flynn’s The Wreck of the River of Stars, as suggested by **wonderlust **in last month’s thread.
Right now I’m going through a new collection of Connie Willis short stories and novellas, The Winds of Marble Arch, which includes several of her Hugo and Nebula winners. I’ve read most of them before but they’re all worth a second read.
I also started the last of the Lord Peter/Harriet Vane mysteries written by Jill Paton Walsh, A Presumption of Death.
Tomorrow I’ll stop by and pick up the new Patricia Briggs paperback, Iron Kissed.
Hmm, can I join? Ive never joined the book club thingy, but I really think I need to. In fact I might just start a pit thread about the people that surround me, which will tell you more about that, but anyway, Im going to start reading/posting to this thread.
I got The Gum Thief for Christmas, and Long Nights on Air (actually gifted “from” my son… to me… bought by me… but I’ll take what I can get)
I just finished the first one. Normally I loooooove Douglas Coupland, but this book, not so much. I like phrases, sentences, paragraphs, characters, situations, observations, but the basic plot/meat of the story? I didnt like it. At all, especailly the little “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?” type story within a story. Anyone else read this? Or would that be a thread of its own?
I read alot, and yet a whole bunch less than I used to. A fifty book goal for the year is pretty worthy for me though I think.
Juliefoolie, you’re in! We don’t need no stinking memberships.
Also consider jumping over to goodreads and joining the SDMB group there. You can start a “shelf” in your account called “2008” and input any book you read this year.
Currently on the bedside table:
Book to re-read: Belgrave Square by Anne Perry
Brain-Candy Quick Read: Bloodline by F. Paul Wilson (the latest in the increasingly ho-hum Repairman Jack series)
Classic I Should Have Read Years Ago: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Xmas Gift Book for reading out loud with Husband: The Book of General Ignorance, subtitled Everything You Know Is Wrong.
