Challenge: 50 Books discussion

First year trying this challenge out. Not sure that I'm going to make it (I generally read a lot less than 50 books in a year, and I'm finishing up my Masters Thesis in the next few months), but I'm going to try my darndest. :)

So, I know we're only a week in, but I've realized that I'm not going to be able to finish off 50. But I'm not a quitter! Nope. I've just decided to modify my goal a little. I generally don't read more than 25 books in a year (I love to read, but I'm a bit slow about it), so I've set my realistic goal for 30 in 2011.

30 will still be an improvement over what I usually manage, and setting a lower goal will keep me from picking up smaller, easier books to try and accomplish it. (I'd go for page numbers, but I read about half my books on the Nook, and the page counts are weird on there.)

I've loved reading through people's posts since joining this group (got some interesting books to check out!), and I admit that I'm impressed and a little jealous by those of you that can read multiple books a week (which I can only manage when I'm on vacation).

So this is just an update for anyone who cares that I'm not dead. Just slowly plugging along. :)

You're finishing your Masters, no wonder you don't have the time to read :/

But I wish you luck in both areas. Some years are busier than others and that's okay. Goals are good, too, but it's the journey that counts, right? I wish you an enjoyable reading year nonetheless :)

Thanks Susanna.

I wish an enjoyable reading year to you as well. :)

Finally finished a book. Go me!

1. Hearts In Atlantis

At first it was hard to get into this one, because I generally expect something a little more "horror" when I read Stephen King, and this was not that type of book. There was a little bit of the King style at the end of "Low Men in Yellow Coats" (the first of the five stories that make up this book), but most of the stories were just Vietnam-era-related stories about regular people with no horror elements whatsoever. But once I got going I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would. I actually liked "Hearts in Atlantis" - the second story - the best (I've seen a number of comments that say only "Low Men" is really any good, but I disagree). "Blind Willie" didn't do anything for me, but the rest of the book was quite good. I was just expecting something different when I started, that's all.

Kate wrote: "Finally finished a book. Go me!

1. Hearts In Atlantis

At first it was hard to get into this one, because I generally expect something a little..."

I haven't read any Stephen King in a long time, but this one intrigues me. I'll have to add it to my to-read list (which is LONG...!)

Good luck, Kate!

2. Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory

I'll admit that world history was never my strongest subject, so I didn't know anything about this story going in, except for a vague idea about how a dead body had been used to fool the Nazis that I picked up from hearing about the movie version of "The Man Who Never Was". I thought that this book was really well done and very interesting and, hey, I learned things! I got a little confused at times, simply because there were so many people involved (many of whom had more than one name, being spies and all) that I couldn't always keep track of the minor players. But other than that it was a very good book on a really interesting subject.

3. Veronika Decides to Die

I hadn't heard anything about this book until about six months ago when I saw a trailer for the film version. While I wasn't all that interested in seeing the movie (despite my love of Sarah Michelle Gellar), I was intrigued enough to put the book on my TBR list, where it just kept calling to me. So finally, I decided to read it.

I don't know why I loved this book so much. When it starts out, Veronika is an absolutely unsympathetic character. She tries to kill herself simply because she's bored and wakes up in an insane asylum only to find out that she failed in the short term but did enough damage that she won't survive very long. (This is not a spoiler - it's in the summary on the back cover.) Also, the ending seemed pretty predictable. Either it was going to be depressing (and she was going to die) or it was going to be a cop-out (and she was going to live).

(I won't tell how it actually ended, obviously, but it was both surprising - to me - and satisfying.)

While there were a few parts (and characters) that annoyed me (I really wanted to punch the doctor in the face by the time it was all said and done), overall I ended up being sucked into the story of Veronika's last week. I was actually sad that I was reading it on my NOOK at B&N, because it meant that I could only read for an hour at a time (the price for free reading). But in the end I'm really glad that I read it.

4. River Marked

Ahh, the urban fantasy book: my biggest guilty pleasure.

One of my favorite series, although this new one was my least favorite of the books so far. I enjoyed some of the new characters and I thought that the villain was interesting, if a little over the top, but I prefer when the story involves all the minor characters that we know and already love. Aside from the very beginning and the very end it was all Adam and Mercedes (with the new supporting cast that this book gave us). This was the reason that, previous to this, Bone Crossed was my least favorite: I would prefer if they would just develop the characters we already know rather than ignore them completely and throw new people at us that we'll never see again (although I do kind of hope that Coyote shows up again).

Not a bad book by any means, and I still enjoyed it and plowed through it as I did the others, it just wasn't my favorite of the series.

5. Heart-Shaped Box

In the rational part of my brain, I do not believe in ghosts. Still, that doesn't mean that they don't freak me out.

This is a decent ghost story that is creepy right out of the gate. It tails off a little toward the end, but I'd still rate it as an above-average scary story. The ghost himself was wonderfully creepy - it was just in the parts where the ghost wasn't around where it slipped a bit. And the ending wrapped things up a little too cleanly for my taste, but it was well-executed, which counts for something (I'll take too clean over poorly-executed any day).

Overall, a quite good (but not great, could have been scarier) horror tale, made more impressive by this being Hill's first novel. Good job, Joe. Your Daddy taught you well.

Kate wrote: "5. Heart-Shaped Box

In the rational part of my brain, I do not believe in ghosts. Still, that doesn't mean that they don't freak me out.

Thi..."

Okay, confession time! I bought this book as soon as it came out, and I think I got about 1/4 of the way through it, before I finally threw in the towel...
- Not because it wasn't written well
- Not because the story lagged
Why, then?
Because it scared the holy hell out of me!!!
Whatever made me think I could read such a thing, I have no idea. In fact, I never even picked it up unless my husband was home, sitting right next to me. But, no dice - this firmly cemented my position as a Grade A chicken.

I gave the book away as soon as I could - I didn't even want it in my house anymore!! LOL!

Haha, that's great. We'll, at least I'm not alone in thinking it was pretty darn scary - the beginning of the book especially. I was definitely creeped out. Fortunately, I actually LIKE to be creeped out. But I don't think any less of you for not finishing. :)

6. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Excellent book. Wrapped up the trilogy well. I still think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the best of the three (the only one that I gave 5 stars), but the other two got a strong 4 stars. The story was great, but I just found the little things bothered me a little more in this book; things like Larsson's writing style (do I really need to know everything the minor character ate for breakfast?) and how every single female character inexplicably falls in love with Mikael. But maybe that was me just being picky. And it only took me out of the book slightly. Overall I still really enjoyed it, and this third book started right in with the story, unlike the other two which took their sweet time getting going, so I can't really complain.

So, after the second book I sat down with an IKEA catalog to go over everything Salander bought for her apartment...

No book to report, but I just wanted to say that I handed in my thesis yesterday! So I hope for much more free (reading) time in the future. :)

Congratulations!!!!!!!

Applause! Applause!

Thanks guys!

7. From a Buick 8

Okay, I first want to note that I DO read books other than horror and sci-fi. But I'm planning a move in about a month and a half and am trying to get rid of as many hardcovers as I can before then. And the majority of my hardcovers are bargain books I picked up while I worked at a bookstore, where they would hold out any Stephen King books for me when they came in. So there you go. But I do love Mr. King.

This book is another odd one. Not so much scary, but certainly disconcerting. Gave me a shiver once or twice. It's not considered one of his better pieces of work, but I have to say that once I got into the story I was seriously hooked. Maybe it was the way the story was told - it was basically a group of people sitting around telling the story of this old Buick Roadmaster that wasn't really a Buick but seemed to be some weird living-but-not-living portal to some other world - so everything in the story has already happened. I know some people don't like this - obviously all of the characters that are sitting around telling the story are going to live through what they're telling - but I like the way it allows for telegraphing of what is to come, dropping little hints about the bad things they haven't got to yet. Sucked me right it.

Certainly not for everybody, and I wouldn't recommend it for someone just trying out King, but for someone who already likes his style, I'd recommend it. Personally, I couldn't put it down.

I also want to note that while I was at first a fan of the little "Reading Challenge" thing on the profile, I've decided that it makes me mad now that it's telling me I'm three books behind schedule. It's stressing me out. Haha.

Kate wrote: "3. Veronika Decides to Die

I hadn't heard anything about this book until about six months ago when I saw a trailer for the film version. While ..."

I loved this book as well, it was hard for me to put down. There was something about it that drew me in.

8. The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy

Finally finished this one!

I actually very much enjoyed this book, but it was slow going. Started it back at the end of November. But it's not the type of book that you can just sit down and read for hours on end. Lots of statistics and such.

To start, I am really not the target audience for this book. I love The Sports Guy, read everything he writes for ESPN, and I love Boston sports (which helps, because he is unashamedly biased toward Boston). But I watch basketball for the pure enjoyment of it and don't pay much attention to the details. (I have a running joke with a guy at work that I talk sports with because I will mention a player - Russell Westbrook for example - and he'll ask me what position he plays and then laugh, because unless it's point guard (who I can figure out if I watch the team enough), I generally will have no idea. My response to that particular question: 'I don't know. He's small.') But I enjoyed this book because I was able to appreciate all of the antidotes about players that I know of (even if I was too young to watch them), but I also learned a lot.

A lot of people complain that the book is biased toward the Celtics. Obviously. Try and write an objective history of a sport when you grew up going to games for one particular team. You're obviously going to know (and love) that team more than any other. But I thought that he did a good job of taking his Boston bias out of the book more often than not (but again, I have the same Boston bias, so I didn't really care). And his opinions are just that: opinions. You might not agree with his ranking of players, but it's his book. You think you could do better? Go write a book.

Overall an enjoyable book about the history of basketball and all of its greatest players. The thing about The Sports Guy that I like best is that he writes as a fan, not as a reporter. So you're going to get opinions that you might not agree with and his writing may not be as polished as some, but you know that going in if you've ever read any of his ESPN columns. I thought it was good, and it gave me an appreciation for the NBA, and certain NBA players, that I never had before.

9. Next

I need to preface this review with two things. 1) I just finished my Masters degree in Human Genetics and 2) one requirement of the program was a class on scientific ethics.

This book was interesting in a science-fiction way (similar to Crichton's Jurassic Park, although not as impressive a story). Good story, mostly fast paced, kept me interested. And the science was decent (again, in a Jurassic Park kind of way, where they don't really get anything wrong technically, but the science is either so far off in the future or not really attainable that it's still science-fiction).

With that said, this book pissed me off! It made genetic scientists look really bad, like we're all unethical bastards wouldn't think twice about ruining someone's life if it would make us a buck. And every scientist in the book (even the minor characters... even the 'good' characters) failed at even the most basic principles of scientific ethics. So while the reader part of me enjoyed the story, the scientist part of me had many thoughts of throwing this book against the wall.

10. The King of Torts

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. The story was pretty good, I was curious to see how things turned out in the end. But the protagonist was so unlikable that it was hard to garner any sympathy when things started to go downhill for him. Even when he attempted to redeem himself it was like "Great, you're doing what you should have done 300 pages ago. Good for you."

So, good story, bad characters, pretty much works out to an average read.

11. Pretties

I read Uglies a while ago, so it took me a few chapters to really remember what was going on, but I thought that this was a good sequel to that book. Not quite as good, but certainly enjoyable, especially once I got used to the "pretty-speak" used by most of the characters. A compelling young-adult sci-fi series. I'll definitely pick up the third book to see how things turn out.

12. The Regulators

Making another dent in my collection of horror books. Out of those I've read so far this year, though, this one was my favorite. Pretty scary and intense and (at least to me) not at all predictable. There wasn't really one main character, which really left it so that anyone could die, which kept me on my toes. I haven't read Stephen King's Desperation yet (which is the "companion" novel to this one, written by his alter-ego Richard Bachman), but I'll probably move it up my list of King books to get a hold of.

13. Macbeth

I debated whether or not to count it as a book, but I've decided to. Because it's my list and I can do what I want.

My thoughts: Macbeth is a dick.

Not a bad tragedy, although not among my favorites that I've read so far (my favorite is still Othello). It's the first of his plays that I've read on my own, though, so that was interesting. Really had to pay attention to what I was reading since I didn't have a teacher there to make sure I didn't miss anything. Scared the cat, though, when I started reading out loud...

14. Jane Eyre

Wow. I wish I could give this more than five stars. I absolutely loved this book.

I blame high school for turning me off from classic literature (I love to read, and I'll read almost anything, but I've always been a bit hesitant around a lot of the classics) and I wish I had read this sooner. Great book. Might end up cracking my top five, but at least makes my top six.

15. A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages

My tastes cover a broad range of subjects. An example: I was quite disappointed this year when I realized that Game 6 of the NBA Finals fell on the same night as the Tony Awards. I watched basketball (come on, Game 6!), but I do love musical theater. I would live in New York if I could in any way afford it. And I have always loved Kristin Chenoweth.

My love of Miss Chenoweth (and how could you not love her? Seriously, she's adorable... and then she opens up her mouth to sing and Holy crap!) was purely just from watching her on TV and listening to her Broadway recordings, so I didn't actually know anything about her as a person. This book was pretty interesting and I liked learning about her life and what brought her to where she is.

Her book talks a lot about faith (she's a Christian in the Hollywood/Broadway circles and that can't always be easy), but doesn't preach, and I liked that she seemed like a fairly normal person from a good family who worked hard to get where she is and didn't just coast with the talent she was given. Pretty interesting book if you're a fan of hers.


Favorite little bit of information: I actually watched Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip when it was on, and I was surprised now to learn that the character of Harriet was somewhat based on Kristin (she and Aaron Sorkin have been on-again-off-again for a while) and the whole 700 Club story actually happened to her.

16. The Other Boleyn Girl

I need to read more historical fiction. I really enjoyed this book. I knew very little about the times of Henry VIII going into this, and as far as the Boleyns went, I had only ever heard of Anne. I'm sure that this book isn't 100% accurate, but I liked the story that the author chose to tell here and really enjoyed hearing it all from the point of view of Mary as opposed to Anne. I definitely plan to read more by this author in the future.

I don't have anything against historical fiction, but please be aware that Phillippa Gregory plays very loosely with facts; a great deal of what she says in her various books are based on fantasies.

Rose

Oh, don't worry, I generally take any historical fiction I read as loosely based in fact. I just like her style of writing.

Okay, but I think Phillippa Gregory's "style of writing" includes tons of filler (which could easily be omitted).

Rose

To each his own. I, for one, enjoyed the book. It's fiction. If I want to read about the true story of Henry and Anne, I'm sure there is a non-fiction book I could read. But thanks for your input.

17. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away

This book was just okay. I didn't realize when I started that it was a collection of his newspaper columns rather than an actual book. I liked it enough that I want to read one of his books, though.

Kate wrote: "17. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away

This book w..."
I'd suggest either A Walk in The Woods or In a Sunburned Country. I've read several of his books, but those two are the ones that always made me laugh the hardest.

Good to know. Thanks for the recommendation, Lindsey. I'll pick one of those two for the next one.

18. Furies of Calderon

Great. Another sci-fi/fantasy series that I enjoy. Now I'm going to have to go and buy and read the rest of the books. Damn.

Seriously, though, quite an enjoyable fantasy story. Reminded me vaguely of the Wheel of Time books (at least the three I've read) only less "epic". I prefer Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books to this series, but I honestly do plan to read the rest of these books, because although it started out a little slow, I very much enjoyed this story.

19. 2001: A Space Odyssey (audiobook)

I read this as an audiobook. The narrator was quite good. There was also a forward by Clarke which was quite interesting. I didn't realize that he wrote the screenplay with Kubrick at the same time that he wrote the book, so even though the movie came out first, this isn't an adaptation of it, since it was all written together.

I have never seen the movie (I know, shame on me), although I've heard that it actually makes a little more sense if you have read the book, so I decided to give this a go. It got technical in some points which is always a little hard when you're listening rather than reading actual pages, but for the most part I think I understood what was going on. The ending was... weird and a little bit confusing, but it was probably meant to be. I'll be sure to check out the movie now as well.

20. Gerald's Game

Had a few creepy moments, but overall I wasn't a fan.

Kate wrote: "19. 2001: A Space Odyssey

The ending was... weird and a little bit confusing, but it was probably meant to be."

Wait till you watch the movie ;)

21. Ghost Story

I absolutely LOVE The Dresden Files. Favorite series of books. This book was an excellent addition. I was very curious to see how this was going to play out with the main character...

*SPOILER*

...dying at the end of the last book. But it was quite an interesting story and fun to see Dresden play ghost. Kind of limited his efforts at helping people. Great addition to the series, though. And, as always, can't wait for the next one.

22. Dream Country (The Sandman #3)

It's been a while since I read The Doll's House (The Sandman #2), but fortunately this collection is more of a stand-alone, with four stories that bring in characters from the series but don't really follow the same plot. (The problem is going to come next, when I start on #4).

I enjoyed this collection, although not quite as much as the first two. Interesting stuff, though. I love the way Neil Gaiman writes, and his comics are no exception. I just don't know why it's taken me so long to get back into them.

23. Season of Mists (The Sandman #4)

Brilliant. THIS is why I love Neil Gaiman.

24. A Game of You (The Sandman #5)

Not quite up to par with Season of Mists but still very enjoyable. I liked the characters and the two different worlds we saw. Nice story and an interesting message. I just didn't like it as much as some of the others, because my favorite character is (obviously) Morpheus (the Sandman) and he only had a very small role in this book, and I wasn't a huge fan of the artists in this collection. But still a great read.

25. Me Talk Pretty One Day (audiobook)

This was an audiobook that I listened to at the gym. Definitely made the workouts go by faster. And I tried to keep myself from laughing out loud so I didn't get weird looks, but I was smiling to myself a lot of the time. Quite a funny read. This was my first David Sedaris, and I'll definitely be picking up another. Also, I highly recommend the audiobooks, because they're read by the author, and they definitely add to the experience.

26. Fables and Reflections (The Sandman #6)

This, like Dream Country, was a series of individual stories. They were very good, but I much prefer the sets that tell one story all the way through. Still, quite enjoyable. And I absolutely LOVED little Dream and Death. They were adorable.

Kate wrote: "25. Me Talk Pretty One Day

This was an audiobook that I listened to at the gym. Definitely made the workouts go by faster. And I tried to keep m..."

David Sedaris is quite the funny guy. I'm currently reading When You Are Engulfed In Flames on the bus and when I'm waiting for buses; the other day a stranger saw me reading the book and came up to me to chat about it, and we both said we've been caught laughing out loud at Sedaris' writing quite a few times :)

27. A Game of Thrones

This one took a few weeks, but it was completely worth it. Once again, I'm kicking myself for getting hooked on another scifi/fantasy series when I'm already in the middle of too many (especially when each book remaining in this series has over 1,000 pages), but I'm glad I read this one. Great epic fantasy stuff. And now I'm very excited to get my hands on the first season of the HBO series. Can't wait to see how they played it out.