Chaos Reading discussion

Inspired by Leo's suggestion in another thread.

Not necessarily books published in 2012, but what were the best books you read this year? The worst? Spill it here.

I'll start!

My Best:
Lolita
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Gone Girl
Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
Annabel
(I know that's a lot, but it was a good year apparently)


My worst:
Without a doubt, XVI. This is why.

What about the rest of you? Feel free to elaborate on why you liked/disliked certain books this year!

I'll chime in:

My best:
The Sound and the Fury (blew me away)
Sense and Sensibility
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays (enjoyed the tragicomedy of these plays)
The Moonstone (a re-read; just a lot of Victorian fun)

My worst:
The Illuminator (the worst of the year)
The Cat's Table
A Theory Of Relativity
Saving Fish from Drowning
Kristin Lavransdatter

I'll go! I had a lot of rereads this year, so a few favs:

My best:
Season of Migration to the North
Train Dreams
Last Evenings on Earth
A Storm of Swords
The Recognitions
Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories

As I mentioned in the previous thread, I don't have much of a 'worst' list, as I rarely finish a book that I hate. I was pretty disappointed with Lone Wolf though, as far as children's books about animals go.

Woohoo! I'll have a think and come back. Just wanted to express my appreciation for this thread :-)

Tough one, as I had a big year too, but my favourites for 2012 are (according to my shelving system):
For The Win (or possibly Makers or Little Brother - one of the Cory Doctorow books anyway)
Perdido Street Station
The Scar
House of Leaves
High-Rise
Riddley Walker
The Flame Alphabet
Feed by M.T. Anderson
and John Dies at the End
I'm starting to think Piercing kinda belongs there too.

As for least favourite? I really didn't read many bad books. My book analysis graph reads like an upside down pyramid, which is either a testament to my easy-going nature with regard to scoring *cough* or a sign that I chose my books well this year! To be fair, I had a lot of good books to choose from. ;P
I would say: The Knife of Never Letting Go, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, Lord of the Flies and maybe Halting State. Some of the Cory Doctorow short stories perhaps. I have a love/hate thing with that guy!

Ruby wrote: "...
House of Leaves
High-Rise
Riddley Walker..."

I would have had HoL on mine, but I haven't finished my re-read. Pretty sure this would go on my all-time favorites list. Riddley Walker is also one of my all-time favorites (I think I mentioned that before when it came up. So, have you read Cloud Atlas yet?").

I have been impatiently waiting to read John Dies at the End, as I'm a movie first kinda person, and it STILL isn't in general release. I did save a copy of 'John and Dave and the Temple of X'al'naa'thuthuthu' before it was taken down, though.

Whitney wrote: "I did save a copy of 'John and Dave and the Temple of X'al'naa'thuthuthu' before it was taken down, though. ..."

You. Are. A. Legend. :)

Best:
Infinite Jest (...?)
Gravity's Rainbow (huh?)
Ulysses (huuuuh??)
2666 (brghuuuugh??)
Finnegans Wake (?!@*&^!!???)
The Gormenghast Novels
1Q84
Pale Fire
Moby-Dick

Worst:
Grotesque (laughable)
The Catcher in the Rye (laughable out loudable)
The Flame Alphabet (salt)
American Psycho (artless)

:D

Oh! And Greed might be my favourite of all but I haven't finished it yet :-)

Hahaha, Leo! I'll remember "laughable out loudable". Catcher in the Rye is my base reference for a certain kind of bad review.

Best: (> 4 stars)
Little Brother
Wolf and Iron
Gardens of the Moon
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Altered Carbon
Schild's Ladder
The Patience of the Spider
Incandescence
Railsea
Perdido Street Station
The Killing Moon
Angelmaker
The Windup Girl

Worst:
I didn't finish any of these:
I Am Number Four
Sunset Rising
The Flame Alphabet
The Passage
I did finish these, but may regret it:
The Last Good Man
Ship of Magic
Sundiver
The Night Circus

Ruby wrote: "Whitney wrote: "I did save a copy of 'John and Dave and the Temple of X'al'naa'thuthuthu' before it was taken down, though. ..."

You. Are. A. Legend. :)"

http://www.johndiesattheend.com/updat...
"Anyway, due to popular demand, the web-exclusive adventure John and Dave and the Temple of X’al’naa”thuthuthu is back online."

Oh no it isn't... at least not where the JDatE page points, but it does seem to be on somebody else's Tumblr without attribution: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-and...

Derek wrote: "Ruby wrote: "Whitney wrote: "I did save a copy of 'John and Dave and the Temple of X'al'naa'thuthuthu' before it was taken down, though. ..."

You. Are. A. Legend. :)"

http://www.johndiesattheend...."

So much awesome. Thanks, Derek! Last night I read this part of
This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It about zombies. I love this. It's not a spoiler, but feel free to read it or not.
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/63742...

Derek wrote: "Hahaha, Leo! I'll remember "laughable out loudable". Catcher in the Rye is my base reference for a certain kind of bad review.."

Jim wrote: ""laughable out loudable"....priceless "

Haha, glad we at least had some laughs at Salinger's expense :-)

Best:
Catch-22
Slaughterhouse-Five
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Fountainhead
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The French Lieutenant's Woman

Worst:
Infernal Devices (it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good)

It's been a good year...maybe I'm easily pleased

Best: (all 5 stars on my criteria)
The Walking Dead, Compendium 1
Cloud Atlas
Wizard and Glass
The Waste Lands
A Fire Upon the Deep
The Long Walk
Ender's Game
Handling the Undead
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

Worst: 2 stars or less
Cryptonomicon
City of Bones
Makers

At least if I run out of toilet paper, cryptonomicon will come in handy. I can get a year out of it....

Best
Cloud Atlas - Reread. Only 5 star this year.

White Teeth - Just finished. 4.5 stars, close but not quite 5 stars.

Worst
After the Apocalypse - Bought on a whim. Interesting stories, but the writing was very bad. Especially in the first few stories. It did get better, but it was distractingly bad.

Kingdom Come - Started good, but then just slowed up. My first Ballard read, preferred High-Rise much more.

Ben wrote: " Best
Cloud Atlas - Reread. Only 5 star this year."

I thought that said you were planning to reread it because you only gave it 5 stars this year. Perhaps you can improve that next time :)

Haha I can see how that was unclear. It was the only 5 star book I read this year, although it was a reread.

Ben wrote: "Worst
After the Apocalypse - Bought on a whim. Interesting stories, but the writing was very bad. Especially in the first few stories. It did get better, but it was distractingly bad.

Kingdom Come - Started good, but then just slowed up. My first Ballard read, preferred High-Rise much more.
..."

That's a shame. I have Kingdom Come on order!

Best:
The Passage
House of Leaves
Feed
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
The Name of the Wind

Worst:
John Dies at the End

Hehe. If you swapped WWZ & John Dies.. around, I'd be in agreement :)

Of the 60 books I've read (so far) this year, here are my top and bottom 10 each, in no particular order...

My faves, Best of 2012:

The Passage
The Twelve
Oryx and Crake
American Gods
The Time Machine
The God of Small Things
A Working Theory of Love
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Arcadia
Insane City

Least Loved, Worst of 2012:

The Map of Time
The Yard
Hidden Things: A Novel
Red Rain: A Novel
The Long Earth
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Brooklyn
A Possible Life: A Novel in Five Parts
Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life

Here are my lists. Funny how four of my worst reads are YA paranormal romance, maybe that's a sign that I should stop reading it...

My favo(u)rites:

A Monster Calls
On the Jellicoe Road
Howl's Moving Castle
Chime
Anansi Boys

And not:
Beastly
Illuminate
Wake
The Goddess Test
Wither

Theo wrote: "Here are my lists. Funny how four of my worst reads are YA paranormal romance, maybe that's a sign that I should stop reading it...

My favo(u)rites:
..."

LOL. You think? :)

BTW, I appreciate the optional (u) in "Favourites" too.

Ruby wrote: "Theo wrote: "
My favo(u)rites:
..."
I appreciate the optional (u) in "Favourites""

So do I. I almost randomly use those optional 'u's.

I think it's only optional for Americans, Derek. ;)

Ruby wrote: "I think it's only optional for Americans, Derek. ;)"

Absolutely not. In the US, it's just wrong to use it. In Canada, it's an option!

Derek wrote: "Ruby wrote: "I think it's only optional for Americans, Derek. ;)"

Absolutely not. In the US, it's just wrong to use it. In Canada, it's an option!"

I had an anglophile friend in high school who got an 'F' on a paper because he used the 'u', as well as spellings such as 'theatre'. The teacher concluded the spelling was proof that he had plagiarized the paper. Appeal to higher authorities was successful in showing that he did not plagiarize the paper, and that the teacher was a jackass.

Huh. I also seem to fairly randomly spell words like 'theatre' in either English or US mode. I rather consciously choose whether or not to put a 'u' in 'color', but think I only notice '-re'/'-er' spellings depending whether my spell-checker is set to 'English (UK)' or 'English (US)'. Why can't my spell-chequer [sic] have an 'English (CA)' setting, where it allows either use! As a longtime programmer, I've definitely dropped the terminal '-me' in 'program'. That alone may have delayed my carpal tunnel syndrome by months.

My high school days were long before word processors existed, let alone MS Word. I had a very advanced manual typewriter that allowed either English or American spelling (-;

Mine, too...

I must admit, I stopped using "programme" when I became a Program Manager. Saved myself a lot of time!

The best and the worst I have read this year... hmm.. lets see

Favorites 2012

1) The Chronology of Water
2) Zazen
3) The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am
4) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
5) The Sense of an Ending
6) The Language of Flowers
7) One Day
8) Watch the Doors As They Close
9) When We Were Strangers: A Novel
10) The Hours

On top of my head and without thinking all that hard I´d say these were the novels I have enjoyed the most this year. Not really anything I have disliked so much that I want to shame-and-blame it in public now.

Ylva Nora wrote: "The best and the worst I have read this year... hmm.. lets see

Favorites 2012

1) The Chronology of Water
2) Zazen
3) The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am
4) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
5..."

Yay! Great list, Ylva. Feel free to help us out with the Nordic Literature shelf recommendations! Thread is here:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Ylva Nora wrote: "
Favorites 2012
...
3) The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am
"

As someone with a long-standing fascination with physics, I'm having a real problem with that title :-) [and, yeah, having read the blurb, I suspect the author understands that it's paradoxical]

I tried to understand that. I really did.

Einstein showed that as an object moves faster, it has more mass. At walking speeds, the difference isn't measurable.

But mass and size aren't the same thing. Maybe they mean they get denser the faster they walk?

Ruby wrote: "But mass and size aren't the same thing. Maybe they mean they get denser the faster they walk?"

Based on the description of the book, I really don't think the author is referencing relativistic physics at all....

Ssssh. Derek is enjoying this.

I think she is walking so fast (and so much?) that she's losing weight. That's what it means, it must be!

Ruby wrote: "Ssssh. Derek is enjoying this."

Oops, sorry. I'll make up for my faux pas:

So, Derek - if your twin was reading this book on a spaceship traveling close to the speed of light while you were reading it back on Earth, who would finish first?

Whitney wrote: "Ruby wrote: "Ssssh. Derek is enjoying this."

Oops, sorry. I'll make up for my faux pas:

So, Derek - if your twin was reading this book on a spaceship traveling close to the speed of light while ..."

Arrgh! Imminent brain implosion! I really shouldn't have started this... From his point of view, I'd finish first - and from mine, he would.

A. wrote: "One more to add to my previous list. I just finished Dom Casmurro, and it has shot straight to number one in the race for best book I've read this year. For anybody who's interested, you can find m..."

Wow, that's high praise!

Wait - Two more for my Worst of 2012:

I had forgotten about this one: Ass Goblins of Auschwitz
Review here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

And I just read this: Geriatric Rebels
Review here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

At least I read the second one expecting it to be bad.

It's odd though. There has definitely been a recent spate of people reading him on GR. I'm guessing there's been a new edition of one of the books released this year?

Ruby wrote: "Wait - Two more for my Worst of 2012:

I had forgotten about this one: Ass Goblins of Auschwitz
Review here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

And I just read this: Geriatric Rebels
R..."

You really should forget "worst reads", but I'm amazed that you expected Geriatric Rebels to be bad, but not Ass Goblins!

I was kind of hoping Ass Goblins would just be ironically bad. Who knew?

Also, since this thread started, I have two more "Best of 2012" books to add: Last Exit To Brooklyn and Palimpsest which both made it to my "Favourites" shelf. That rarely happens.

And here's a complete stranger's best of 2012. Just because:
http://www.abebooks.co.uk/books/avid-...