The Books Read Thread: 2009 Edition

[DragonHeart]

Updated Guidelines:

• You may post as often as you like, sans double-posting of course.
• New posts can have just one book [see next point].
• Your first post may contain just the list of books you've read, updated as often as you like. Subsequent posts must have some form of commentary about each book added to your list. The comments do not have to be added to the master list in your first post.
• You may comment on other members' lists or begin a discussion based on the lists in this thread. If a discussion gets a lot of attention we may split it into its own thread but for now everything can go in here.
• Magazines are now acceptable, as are novellas, short stories, and poetry.

My own list will likely begin with my next post since I haven't actually finished anything yet.

But anyways, here's a question to start off the new discussion-enabled thread: if you made any New Year's Resolutions, did you make any pertaining to literature?

I have. My resolution is to read every unread/unfinished book I currently own this year. I will not let myself buy any new books (with a few exceptions of course) until I have done this.

~DragonHeart~

[lottiepop]

Oooh good thread! Anyway I have to say I have not thought of any new years resolutions involving literature. I probably should though, it's a good idea.

So far this year I have read:

1. The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall.
2. The seven days of peter crumb by Johnny Glynn
3. Not on the label by Felicity Lawrence

The seven days of peter crumb is like an english updated version of American Psycho and is really well written.

[ChloChloAriadne]

This year so far, I've read

1 - Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

I recently bought the three Dexter novels and just finished the first last night, although I had borrowed it from the library and read it before the series started. Excellent, although as I've recently seen the series, I keep hearing the narration in Michael C Hall's voice. Go me.

[Chez Daja]

OUT - Natsuo Kirino.

I'm still reading it, but I'm about halfway through and I already love it. It's about middle aged Japanese women working in a boxed lunch factory, all leading boring and miserable lives. One of the women has an alcoholic gamling husband who also cheats on her with prosititutes. One day, after an arguement, she strangles him and then asks her factory worker friends to help her dismember and hide the body.

Excellent book so far. (I'm not spoiling anything... Most of what I've told you is in the blurb.)

[Clint]

I've read Timeline by Michael Crichton. It's about this group of historians who go back in time to save their professor and bring him back to the present day, but the mission isn't that simple. They become fugitives, and their lives are at great risk.

I've read The Sword of Bedwyr by R. A. Salvator. For twenty years the lands of Eriador have suffered under the power of the evil Wizard King, Greensparrow. Luthien Bedwyr does not understand the situation, until his friend is murdered by the king's thugs. He and his thieve friend Oliver deBurrows team up with the wizard Brind'Amour in a rebellion against the evil overlords.

I've read The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. It's about a mysterious disease which spread throughout a small town in Arizona after a satellite crashed practically dead center in the town. As you can tell, I've become somewhat of a Michael Crichton fan. I just can't seem to put his books down.

I haven't finished any other books.

[DragonHeart]

Finally, something to report.

Grail Bird: The Rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker by Tim Gallagher. Finished this last night. A very interesting account, with a sad yet hopeful end. (No, the author didn't die.)

Wild Bird Magazine, Jan/Feb 09 issue: Some interesting articles and as always, beautiful photography. I particularly liked the bit about putting out citrus and exotic fruit for birds, as it's an idea I'm definitely interested in trying myself.

ETA: I read Timeline when it first came out and remember enjoying it. Haven't read it since then, so perhaps it's time for a reread. Have you seen the movie version? I don't recall hearing much, if anything about it other than the trailers running on T.V.

~DragonHeart~

[OceanEyes28]

I always meant to participate in one of these. Here we go!

Read:
The Actor and the Target by Donnellan. It's about Donnellan's method of acting that involes discovering a "target" outside of yourself to react to and attempt to change (versus trying to create and play an emotion, which is impossible and always looks fake). It's one of the best and most helpful things I've ever read about acting.

Tartuffe by Moliere. It's a satirical play about hypocrites in the 17th century. Holy men who tell other people how to live their lives. It's really funny, even if the end is a little tagged on. But people regularly praised the monarchy in power within their plays during those times, so it wasn't a big surprise.

Currently reading:
Sins of the Scripture by John Shelby Spong. It's already amazing. He breaks down the scriptures used to justify hatred, has great arguments, and manages to still find hope in the Bible. He's Christian, so am I, but he uses a lot of reason and I really appreciate that.

[Benjisan]

Finished Reading:
Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

Currently Reading:
New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
Brisingr - Christopher Paolini

I don't really feel the need to explain what Twilight is about as i'm sure pretty much everyone here knows what it is about. However, in terms of Brisingr, it is the the third and final book in the Inheritance Trilogy series, a fantasy series set in the land of Alagesia, where humans, elves and dragons share a mystical bond with each other in the form of the mythical Dragon Riders, a cult of dragon and human/elven partners that protect the land from evil. The series basically is about the emergence of a young hatchling dragon, named Saphira, who becomes partnered to a human named Eragon, and who together set out originally to kill the creatures that had murdered Eragon's uncle, but end up on a valiant journey to complete the Dragon Riders mission of defeating the evil King Galbatorix who has set his own dictatorship up in Alagesia.

[Psiko]

FINISHED READING FOR 2009:

Candide by Voltaire - Published 1759, 131 Pages.
Watchmen by Alan Moore - 416 Pages.

PAGE TOTAL: 547

Let me tell you, this was one of the most enjoyable reads I've had in quite some time. Some of the humor, I am sure, is lost over the course of time (yay for the little references at the bottom of almost each page, clarifying some key spots in there). Regardless, it made me chuckle to read the exploits of this naive young man. The chapters are short and each one filled with some sort of new event or twist in the overall plot. Some twists make you say "wtf?", seriously. But for a short read, grab this classic. It was well worth the $4.95 I payed for it. I am certain, upon a second reading somewhere in the future, it will be even more enjoyable because I am sure there are subtleties that I overlooked along the way. Brilliant, satirical piece of writing. Not much more that I can say here.

CURRENTLY READING - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King.

[Chez Daja]

Natsuo Kirino - Real World.

Another Japanese story about a boy who murders his mother and 'befriends' four teenage girls as accomplices. The plotline is quite simple and less enjoyable than 'OUT', however it is an interesting read and perfectly translated if you choose the English version. Very deep character descriptions and opinions, alliances and emotions become blurred and mashed up into a series of self-doubt and nervous paranoia among more suseptible characters.
Very good read.

[Psiko]

Holy crap. I just finished reading Watchmen last night, and I must say that I AM IMPRESSED! For my first graphic novel, it has opened me to a whole new line of literature. And yes, I would certainly define this as being literature! The scope of it all, the plot twists and turns, the character development...all excellent. I can see why it is such a highly praised book.

In fact, look at me here giving this book high praise, too. I guess I must be on that bandwagon as well. Ha ha ha.

[Chez Daja]

Haruki Murakami - After Dark.
This is a modern Japanese novel based around two sisters. One is Mari, a quiet somewhat socially uncomfortable and modest girl, and her sister Eri who suffers from hikikomori. In the story, Mari spends her nights out in restaurants, reading -- she feels this is her release from her sisters' incapacity to deal with the real world.
There are other real life issues blanketted in the book... I'd only recommend it for people who are willing to give the book loads of mulling over and perhaps a reread. Great book.

[Hyzenthlay]

I went retro... Erm... Sort of. I read a really old copy of Alice's adventures in wonderland that my mum has. This copy is 57 years old, this publishers first edition was apparently printed in 1929. I don't know who it has been printed by before or since. I just know that I had a really good time reading it.

I've always found the mad tea party to be hilarious. It's so much better in book form, though. I can't believe I'd never read it before.

"It's always six o'clock now..." Is a classic quote. I can't believe how much Disney missed from the book. It's a fair few hilarious parts. Maybe other people have a different sense of humour, though.

Anyway. I'm now looking through a book my mum has had since she was a kid herself. It's a book devoted to disney and the films they have made. Should be good to actually READ them.

EDIT: Oh, it didnt take me long to read... Less than a night.

[Chez Daja]

Mari Akasaka - Vibrator.
This book is a really good insight into how the human mind can react to certain situations, particularly when somebody is at a low point in life. The main character is a trouble young woman, obsessed with vanity and self destructive behavior including self induced vomitting and binge drinking. One night, she encounters a trucker who she is instantly attracted to and they embark on a long road trip together. They begin a physical relationship through which she is able to conquer some of her personal demons. The ending quarter of the book shows the main characters' realisation that her problems will only decrease by helping herself and that her purely physical relationship with the trucker has aided her through her thought process.

[DragonHeart]

It took a solid week of daily effort on my part, but I finally made my way all the way through Dan Simmons' The Terror. Now, it's not a bad book, but it is quite large, weighing in at 900-something pages in the mass market paperback edition. =O It's also very dense reading and if you don't have at least some vague knowledge of history you'll miss a lot of details. (It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize "Esquimaux" was the old British word for Eskimo.) It's essentially historical fiction with a supernatural flavor. Utterly engrossing but as bleak as the arctic ice upon which the story occurs. I recommend it, especially as a winter read for added chills.

I also started and finished Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. Fast and easy, especially after The Terror. Excellent writing, but I just don't find them as hilariously funny as many others seem to. Still good stories, regardless.

~DragonHeart~

[Govinda]

What have I read this month? Oh dear.

Aha! Over New Year I read Kingdom Come by JD Ballard. It begins when a man's father is shot in a large shopping mall in a nondescript suburban town, and unravels into a chilling critique of how consumerism is modern religion and how advertising can push people to anything. It's really gripping, so well though-out, and puts its point across well. It scared me.

To be honest though, it's not that great a book. The characters, even the narrator, are well and truly outshone by their surroundings and the whole thing sounds unreal most of the time. Douglas Coupland managed to make the whole world falling asleep seem realistic, but Ballard fails to do that even with a perfectly plausible-sounding riot or ten. The events in the final few chapters also seem too big for the idea presented, like a step too far. It's good, but not great.

I then read For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. It's the story of a young American, Robert Jordan, who has gone to Spain to fight on behalf of the opposition to General Franco's fascists. It's deeply set in real history.

It begins with Jordan being dispatched to aid a small band of guerilla fighters in the southern mountains. The entire point of the book is the plan to blow up a bridge and allow the opposition army to make a major move against Franco's force. I started reading thinking that this would happen very quickly. It does not.

For a while, I got annoyed about that. It seemed that Hemingway was taking forever to make things happen, playing out Jordan's time with the bandits to ridiculous lengths. But after a while I came to see and appreciate why he was doing it. By taking the band, this microcosm of Spain's civil war, Hemingway manages to capture the sentiments of the entire nation. As per usual for him, he also spends quite a lot of time mulling over the mind, duty, and fate of soldiers through Jordan's memories.

The standout thing about the novel is, as far as I am concerned, the guerilla band. It's rare to find characters so well drawn and so real. The dialogue of the entire book is translated directly into English from what they would be saying in their old-timey Spanish, but for some reason that just makes them seem more real. Pilar, the stern old matron; Maria, the young woman with whom Jordan comes to the conclusion that happiness is happiness no matter how short a time it is lived for; Pablo, the angry and frightened intelligent man who represents the reason the Spanish lost in the end; and Anselmo, the old mountain guide who personifies, with Pilar, everything that was good about that old country. Those two do not want to kill, but will, and through his exploration of that Hemingway draws some very real and stark conclusions about why Franco won.

The ending was magnificant, and I really recommend this one. Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

I was going to read Haruki Murakami after that, but decided against it. Murakami is exceptional, but next to Hemingway it felt rubbish. So I gave up very quickly and moved to something more dependable, and read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez for about the hundredth time.

If you have never read this book, read it now. It's just wonderful. Each character sings, and their stories are all fraught with a seething mix of pure joy and unheeded solitude. The book tells the story of the Buendía family, beginning with Úrsula and Jose Arcadio Buendía as they journey across the mountains, in search of the sea, before giving up and founding the town of Macondo.

From there we watch four more generations, including but not limited to: an army general, a woman incapable of love, an angel, 17 Aurelianos with crosses of ash forever on their foreheads, a woman trapped alone in the house that killed her husband, a mechanic hounded by butterflies, a man haunted by a banana massacre, his twin defeated by a great flood; and so many more. In the background a major civil war plays out, but is never the focus; lives in faraway places do not touch Macondo too often.

I can't do it justice by talking about it, so I'm going to stop now. But please read it.

This very morning I finished Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk. I'll need to re-read it at some point to fully grasp it. What a book. The end line is one of the more resonant I've ever read. I loved every page, every million plot twists. It begins looking fairly simple, but by the end you recognise no-one; nobody except the invisible monster who is narrating the story.

The jist is, a young catalogue model is shot while driving along the freeway and wakes up without a jaw. She can't speak, and decides that the plastic surgery looks too painful. While in hospital, she meets the stunning, the wonderful Princess Princess, the transgender Queen Supreme that is Brandy Alexander, and from there the story unfolds.

I can't say any more than that without giving the entire plot away. It is so intricate, so nuanced, such a wonderful portrayal of deceit, of unreality, of the invisible forces and monsters of life that are sexuality, family, and love. It really is excellent, Palahniuk doing what he does best, adapting the common theme of his books (escaping the system) to fit the worlds of vanity and sex.

[Benjisan]

Finished Reading:
Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
White Tiger - Kylie Chan

Currently Reading:
Brisingr - Christopher Paolini
Red Phoenix - Kylie Chan

Brisingr is the 3rd and final book in the Inheritance Trilogy. It centres around a young man by the name of Eragon, who discovers a dragon egg in the nearby forest of his home village of Carvahall. The egg hatches and he beomes partnered with a sapphire coloured dragon whom he names Saphira. However, there are powerful forces who want to reclaim Saphira and as a result kill Eragon's uncle, whom he lives with. Meanwhile, as Saphira and Eragon hunt down his uncle's murderers, a political faction known as the Varden are fighting against the governing dictator of the land of Alagaesia - King Galbatorix. Eragon and the Varden's destinies eventually become intertwined as they work together for the sole purpose of freeing Alageasia from the corrupt and evil King Galbatorix. Full of magic, swordplay, mythical creatures and adventure. Highly entertaining. The movie did not do the books justice

Red Phoenix is the 2nd book in Kylie Chan's Dark Heavens Trilogy. The story is set around a nanny by the name of Emma Donaghue who becomes a full time nanny for her employer Mr. John Chen's five-year-old daughter Simone. What she doesn't realise is that her employer is actually Xuan Wu, Chinese God of the North Wind, and her life becomes comlplicated as she is pulled into a world of demons, magic, and martial arts. A funny, compelling and highly recommended read

[Psiko]

A few updates:

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Writer's Market - 2009 Edition
On Writing by Stephen King

Short Stories:

A Scandal in Bohemia by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Case of Identity by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Boscombe Valley Mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Autopsy Room Four by Stephen King

[Clint]

I finished Congo by Michael Crichton and The Chase by Clive Cussler in the past few months. I haven't really had much time for reading so far this year, because I've been busy with other things.

[RamesesII]

So far this year i have got back into reading i had to stop because of kids lol but now they are old enough to read my books to even though they don't understand what i am reading.

Anyway this year i finally finished reading The Redemption of Althaus by David and Leigh Eddings.
I have also finished Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly
and i am currently reading Tales of the Otori and almost finished.

[Govinda]

Catchup time. Like ketchup, but not as good on sandwiches.

I think the first thing I read after Invisible Monsters was I, Lucifer by Glenn Duncan. The basic jist of the story is that God has decided that soon Earth's time will draw to a close, but before then he wants to see if he can convince Lucifer to repent and come back to the kingdom of heaven. In order to achieve this, God sends angels to Lucifer and says that he can spend one human month occupying the body of a depressed writer. If Lucifer can live this month as a good person and learn to see the value in humanity, he can return to heaven if he chooses; or he could just say no altogether.

Of course, Lucifer agrees to God's proposal, and the story begins. On the face of it, it is an extremely original, innovative story, and Duncan plays it out as such; but a story can only take a book so far.

The wit in this novel is immense, and it had me properly laughing a fair few times. Duncan takes the character of Lucifer presented to us in the Bible and gives him a modern, sharp, relentlessly funny voice. His reference to the Archangel Michael as 'once a carrier pigeon, always a carrier pigeon' is classic.

I had a really big problem with this book though, and that problem was the author. Glen Duncan is utterly a writer's writer; the whole book is bound up in writing cliches and scenes in the office of a publisher. The writer whose body Lucifer occupies is that of Declan Gunn, which must be the most transparent anagram of 'Glen Duncan' in history. The story gets lost quite a lot, with Duncan steering Lucifer off to explore a modern issue with all the literary grace of a tractor, or to contemplate the fate of the writer yet again.

Lucifer's tales of the kingdom of heaven are ascerbic and achingly funny. His voice is sexy and relentlessly entertaining. However, Duncan's voice occaisionally slips through and just makes you angry; meanwhile, he takes a brilliant idea for a plot and steers it into the ground time and again. But I did keep reading until the end.

After that I read The Book of Dave by Will Self. Again, a magnificent idea; a deranged taxi driver whose life has completely unravelled loses the plot and writes his own version of how the world should be. He buries this book, The Book of Dave, in the soil of Hampstead Heath in London. Hundreds of years later, after most of London has been submerged by rising seas, the book is found and becomes the dominant religion. Brilliant!

However, what Self does to this concept is bizarre. He chose a staggared chapter structure, which is fine if it suits the story; but his takes leaps of hundreds of years, changes of character, I assume with the intent of keeping the reader asking questions. It goes 2550, 2002, 2530, 1987, and so on. It isn't really confusing, but instead of keeping you guessing it just gets annoying.

Then there's the plot. Self spends a lot of time explaining why Dave is the unhappy man he is, and wrings out the facts of a sad life to the point of utter tedium. Self seems to think that he's the first man who's discovered this niche and seeks to explore it. It feels condescending, the way he refers to Dave's life as a working class phenomenon. Overall, Self speaks of this kind of life exactly like most rich people do: he has never lived like that, and has never sought to understand someone who has except for his own ends.

I didn't finish the book. That is rare. I spent a lot longer reading it that I should have, simply because it wasn't enjoyable; but I wanted to continue, because he spent time writing it and I wanted a fuller understanding. I skipped the penultimate chapters of both the new and old words and skipped straight to the unsatisfying end with a few questions remaining; not questions about the book itself, but questions that Self posed to the reader himself and then didn't answer. Like the Motos. Motos are these apparently half-car/half-human creatures that the people of the Heath live off. Very early on Self lets us know that each of these creatures has the brand 'CalBiotech' burned onto their skin, and in the next chapter Dave the taxi driver meets a man who works for that same company, a shady looking business. And then that idea is completely dropped and forgotten.

I really didn't like this one.


After that I moved swiftly on to a book I'd been saving for myself : Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. And oh my!

This book is stunning. Wonderful. It begins an unassuming story about a man in a mystery elevator going to a mystery interview; within pages strange things have started. Before long the simple life of a worker has unravelled in a way he could never have imagined.

There are two worlds in the books, and the chapters alternate between them, much like the Book of Dave but without the mindless time shifts and pomp. The first world is that of a simple, nameless computer worker working on the side of the System in the information wars. The other world is a magical place called The End of the World, a Town walled in and populated by monotonous, happy people and magical beasts.

The characters are well drawn and, despite none of them having names beyond labels, believeable and whole. Their conversations are witty and realistic. You feel like you know them at the end of the book, and when the main protagonist makes his final choice at the end of the novel, you're left feeling like you understand; his choice is a beautiful, deeply complex one that really leaves you thinking.

If there is one problem with this book, it is that the real-world story is so well paced and intriguing that you might find yourself paying less attention to a few End of the World chapters than you really should just because you want to find out the next twist in the real world.

Murakami deals with some very big ideas in this book, and does so with such subletly; he leaves breadcrumbs for you to follow, and you feel yourself learning as the protagonist does.

I adored this one. It was stunning. I can't wait to read it again.

[Led Zeppelin]

Books I finished in 2009 ^^

1. The Warrior Heir- It's an epic battle between good and evil when a boy named Jack figures out a startling truth about himself =3...
2.The Wizard Heir- Second book to the Heir trilogy...In this book the main character is Seph McCauley who's forced to go to a private school in the middle of nowhere for causing a tragic fire at an after-hours party...
3. The Dragon Heir- Third book to the heir trilogy...this one contains the point of view of a few of the main character in their battle to protect the town they love =]...Warning: All three of these books contain magic and wizardry...which is why I loved them ^^
4. The Looking Glass Wars- This books is like Alice in wonderland with a bit of a twist and in my opinion was an magnificient book =]
5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone ^.^

Currently re-reading Harry Potter at this moment then after that I'm going to re-read Keys to the Kingdom since the final book in the series is coming out in September ^^

*Will edit this post whenever I read more books =]

[Calvan]

So far this year i have read.

The Drawing of the Three: The Dark Tower pt.II - Stephen king -Roland,The Gunslinger has to form seek the help of three chosen, Don't mess with Lobstrocities.

Star Wars- The Clone wars - Karen Traviss- If you've seen the movie you know what happens.

The Wastelands: The Dark Tower pt.III - Stephen king- The Gunslinger and his party begin to forge their path to the Dark tower.

Darth bane The path of destruction - Drew Karpshyn- Dessel is a Cortosis miner, He kills someone and joins the sith army, Later to learn of his affinity for the dark side of the force he becomes a sith lord. Darth bane.

Darth bane: The Rule of Two - Drew Karpshyn - Bane takes up an apprentice and kills a bunch of jedi.

Not very many i know.

[Govinda]

So I finished The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The ending sucked, mostly because ol' Fyodor took the 'paid by the page' concept really to heart and spent the best part of fifty pages summing up the boring parts of the story in a clunky style. I admit, I skipped most of that part.

The one gem waiting at the end of the book was Ivan's chat with the Devil (also, have a sneaking suspicion that that was where Glen Duncan stole the idea for I, Lucifer from. My ire continues).

Overall, though, The Brothers Karamazov was a winner. Every character had found their resolution by the end, except perhaps peripheral ones like Lizaveta. The final verdict on Fyodor Pavlovich's murder is another Dostoevsky metaphor about crime and guilt, which you will know is a repeated theme of his if you've ever been within sniffing distance of Raskolnikov and his St Petersburg rants.

I think Dostoevsky was saying that a world without God, even if he doesn't exist, would be unimaginable. Take Alyosha: not into God for God's sake, but into God for the sake of unity, togetherness, and mutual belief. He was the happiest. Ivan decides against God, and ends up talking to the Devil. Fyodor and Mitya, the voluptuaries who have nothing to do with God proceedings, end up dead and pretty much dead. Father Zosima dies happy, surrounded by friends, and proceeds to rot; but he wasn't sad. The women, as per usual, are pretty much plot devices who succumb to 'hysterics' once every few pages and then serve some tea.

There were no weddings though. I wanted Ivan and Katerina Ivanovna to get it on, and maybe they will after Ivan gets sane again, who knows. Despite Alyosha being my all-time favourite, his love interest annoyed me to death (and was also, what? 14? 15?). I long for the days of Avdotya Romanovna and Razumikhin on that front.

Overall, now that it's over, I miss my boys already. I will go back to them one day. Another stunner from Dostoevsky.

After that, I consumed (that's the only word that fits) American Gods by Neil Gaiman. And oh wow. Basic jist is that every god brought to America by the immigrants (think Odin, Anansi, Loki) is still living there, though all are suffering from a lack of belief, and a lack of power. They're not happy. Add into this the new gods, the fat kid who is the internet, the coiffed Media, and their guns and cars, and you've got a war on your hands between the old and the new. However, this war will require some persuasion, as the old gods don't fear the new; and the man with the plan is the mysterious Wednesday, a chain-smoking, grinning con-man.

In the middle of this we find Shadow. Recently released from prison, he finds himself working for Wednesday as he sets about rallying the old gods for war.

I loved Shadow. By the end you really feel like you know him. With this book, it's hard to divulge much without giving the entire plot away. The eventual outcome took me by surprise, even if I had it nailed a few pages before Gaiman actually said it. Superb.

The old gods are great travelling companions, and each is as unique as their name. They in-fight like old men, and Shadow observes them with a wry keenness while fighting to sort out his own life.

Interpersed with the story chapters are little stories with titles like 'Coming to America' and 'Meanwhile...' I loved these bits. Each was just an individual tale about the current life of a god in America, or about how a god came to America. The first one makes your face go a bit funny when you realise what Bilquis is doing to the guy, but the quality is still there.

Add into this the fact that Gaiman's a pretty funny writer; he has a cute, kind of Pratchett-but-less-out-there turn of phrase, and sometimes from nowhere will produce nuggets such as, 'Opiates are the religion of the masses.' Gaiman's writing style, which masters the art of being deep while being completely accessible, will keep you readng even if the story doesn't (though I guarantee you, it will).


So, all in all, I've found two new favourites. Good times.

[Lithium]

As of right now I am only going to post the list of books I have read over the period of 2 months.

• Twlight
• New Moon
• Eclipse
• Breaking Dawn

• the Host

• Only the Ring Finger Knows Novel 1: The Lonely Ring Finger
• Only the Ring Finger Knows Novel 2: Left Hand Dreams of Him
• Only the Ring Finger Knows Novel 3: The Ring Finger Falls Silent

[Chez Daja]

Ring - Koji Suzuki.

I really liked this book but I hated the translator. The story itself was impecible, but the wording was sometimes gritty and horrible. It didn't flow like a normal book should. That said, I appreciate the fact that it's a translation and take it that the original is much better.
It's a novella of the film and tells you the story of a middle aged newsreporter who watches a cursed video tape and is warned that he has only seven days to live. From there, he has to find out what exactly it is that he needs to do in order to save his life.

Spiral - Koji Suzuki.
Sequel to Ring, Spiral has the same shitty translation as Ring did. That said, I couldn't just stop reading the books because of various errors. I enjoyed this, but it seemed to drag on forever, sometimes relaying useless facts that later held no significance. It's basically a rehash of Ring, with differing characters and a slight relay on the first book.

[Hjortkayre]

The books I've read so far this year:

• Dagon (and Other macabre Tales) by HP Lovecraft
• Blaze by Stephen King
• Cell by Stephen King
• Darkfall by Dean Koontz
• Shattered by Dean Koontz
• Slash's Biography
• The Truth by Terry Pratchet
• Making Money by Terry Pratchet
• Mort by Terry Pratchet
• Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchet
• Shade's Children by Garth Nix
• The Beast House by Richard Laymon

At the moment I'm reading Quake by Richard Laymon.

[DragonHeart]

My goodness, I've fallen quite behind in my updates.

Let's see if I can remember them all...

Goblin Quest
Goblin Hero
Goblin War

A fun trilogy that both pokes fun of fantasy and tells a good story with lots of humor. Told from the point of view of the first god-worshipping (in a manner of speaking) goblin, chronicling his many misadventures among humans, dragons, orcs, and other goblins.

Dragon Outcast
Dragon Strike

The next two books in the Age of Fire series. The crippled Copper finds his place and the three siblings are united as adults against their most fearsome enemy yet. As much as I enjoy the series, Dragon Strike felt underwritten to me. It felt too short, almost condensed. There was so much potential in the Red Queen and it was wasted, imo. Ah well, still very good stories.

Way of the Shadows

Dark, gritty, bloody, and awesome. It's like Assassin's Creed on crack, with magic.

Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia

I've already spoken about this one several times, it's a beautiful read.

Cold Fire

My first Dean Koontz book. I enjoyed it though it did get really weird at the end. I'd definitely read another.

Green Rider
First Rider's Call
The High King's Tomb

Reread the entire trilogy...I just really connected with something in these books. That's my second full reread, not to mention how often I read each one while waiting for the next. It's actually fairly unusual for me to reread that much.

~DragonHeart~

[Govinda]

So I had a graphic novel phase.

Very recently I read Maus by Art Spieglman. I can't even put into words how good it was. It's about the Holocaust, and tells the story of Spieglman's Polish Jew parents. It begins with their happy life in Sosnowiec, and unravels to the point where his father, Vladek, finds himself in Auschwitz and his mother, Anja, in the horrific Birkenau. So close, but so far.

As well as drawing the stories from Poland and Germany, Spieglman lets us see his father telling him the story. His father has become the stereotypical mean, money-tight Jew, and Art laments this as he writes. What makes Maus so good is not the horrific tale of the Holocaust, but the modern parts. We get to see the effect that the Holocaust continues to have on Art and his girlfriend, on their families and the other camp survivors who live near Vladek in the old people's complex. We get to see that even though Art himself wasn't there, it still touches every aspect of his life. Vladek and Anja had another child before the war, called Richieu; he didn't make it, but one photograph of him did. Art spent his childhood competing with a photograph of a child who was happy and easy to love, born in a time of peace and prosperity for the Spieglmans of Sosnowiec.

The art was wonderful. The Jews are drawn as mice, the Nazis as cats. The Poles are pigs. Even in the modern sections, Art and Vladek, as well as Art's girlfriend and Vladek's deranged Auschwitz-survivor wife Mala, are mice. The Americans are Labradors, cuddly and trusting but ultimately a bit dim.

I'm rambling here. I can't put it into words. Just read it. It really makes you think. I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau once a few years ago, and it horrified me. I couldn't finish the tour, but never really got why; was it horror, disgust, or just misunderstanding? Now I know. While the barracks in Auschwitz itself may have been converted into storytelling exhibition panels, they never really allow you to understand just what it was like. While they are graphic, they're almost too real, and they sort of make out like once the Russians arrived everything was alright again. Maus just shows so much more.

What a thing to do on the part of Art Spielgman. Maus is so personal and often horrifying, even in the modern sections; you find yourself contrasting Vladek's 19-strong household in Sosnowiec with Art and Francoise's unwillingness to stay with him for even a few weeks. But I can see why it was done this way; it exposes you to the full horror, but also to the full guilt, awkwardness, and struggle to rebuild and then continue a life once you've stepped over the dead at war, in the camps, on the deranged starve-them-out-before-the-Red-Cross-get-here train journey. It exposes the longevity. Read it.


And then, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. This graphic novel tells the story of Marjane, or Marji, growing up in Tehran. Of how they revolted to replace the horrible Shah, and ended up with something so much worse.

Satrapi is witty, and she uses her art to convey that. Her distaste for the burqa is also revealed; her teachers are drawn as just black shapes with mean faces. From the inside out she shows us how wearing a denim jacket can be rebellion. She and her friends struggle with Islamic repression; Marji's parents worry about her so much that they send her to live in Austria. She speaks French, and attends a French school there.

What she finds shocks her. People think of her as a fundamentalist, and she is horrified to find herself denying her Persian nationality. She tells stories of war, and people say she is making it up. They spoilt teenagers she finds herself with think of her as a curiosity. For all their talk about Marx and war, it becomes offensively clear how little they understand.

Young Marji is an outsider wherever she goes. Too outspoken for Tehran, too defensive for Vienna. Again, the art beautifully reflects this.

It's really hard to describe just why Persepolis draws you in like it does. I can't define it. The themes of family, of self-expression, of loneliness and love scream and sing to you in equal measure.

It's not as good as Maus, but for a graphic novel beginner, it was great. It really helped me to understand just what drove the Islamic Revolution in '79, and how their world was clamped down after it. I imagine Satrapi was on the streets recently, and based on what she says of her family, I bet they were too; and I wish them the very best. What Satrapi really emphasises is that she thinks Persians are different to everyone else; not necessarily better, but very different nontheless. After reading her book I agree with her, though I can't understand how a country so vibrant lets itself continue so repressed. I'm sure they'll get fed up and start to meddle in it soon though. They're Persian, it'll get sorted when they decide it'll get sorted and not before. I for one wish them the very best of everything. Not fundamentalists, obviously; I mean Satrapi's Persians, those who partied under the Shah and then the Ayatollah. More power to them.

I am scouting for more graphic novels. But I bought the Grapes of Wrath to read next. I'm having a history phase just now. Holocaust, Iranian history, WW2 in China, the Great Depression...I'm really learning with these books. Might revisit On Green Dolphin Street to get my dose of love-based Cold War drama. Oh! I have Birdsong actually, someone gave me it. That can come after GoW. Sebastian Faulks' writing style always irritates me at points, but I got used to it in On Green Dolphin Street so I dare say I can do so again. Will have to revisit White Swans by Jung Chang. Now THAT is a book and a half.

[Unknown Entity]

Books I've read since the start of the year are:

~ Sabriel(Garth Nix)(I love this book - I've read it four times now).
~ Lirael (Garth Nix)
~ Labyrinth (Kate Mosse)(Re-reading now because I missed loads and read another book halfway through it - I'm stupid like that).
~ Getting Over It (Anna Maxted)(Another re-read - its a good book).
~ Falling (Sharon Dogar)
~ Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)(****ing hard to read on your own, but I got there!).
~ Looking For JJ (Can't remember)(I've lost it somewhere... I have a hunch my friend has it).

Total page count: 2655. (Labyrinth is 702 pages. Excluding Looking For JJ, so There is more than that anyway).