Books read by Celiacardun

So I'm back for the second year and I have my hopes up because last year I managed to read 41 books ànd finish my PhD :-). Now I'm done with that and have scheduled 3,5 months of travelling and holiday - so I'm hoping to get to 75 this year!

I've started off with 1. Long walk to freedom by Nelson Mandela. I find (auto)biographies very interesting because it gives a good view of the person or of the era. In this case I'm learning lots about South Africa and apartheid.

(and I'm still finishing two other books which I counted in 2011...).

Hi Celia! Until so far I avoided biographies, but I want to read a few this year. I've got the autobiography by Charlie Chaplin for Christmas, so I'm going start with that. I'll come back to see what you think about the Mandela-biography!

Welcome back!

Glad to see you back with us again, Celia!

I will be interested in seeing what you think of Mandela's book when you are done with it.

Just read your description on the intro thread. Congratulations on finishing the thesis! I know what a relief it is to get that done! I hope this year you do find you have more time for reading.

I grew up in the Netherlands, though not near Nijmegen - I was living in various places north of den Haag because my father worked for the European Space Agency in Noordwijk. I went back for a visit in 2010, the first time in about 15 years - it made me quite nostalgic for things I'd long forgotten.

I have a pile of biographies that I have acquired and not yet read, so one of my aims for this year is to read more of them. I did start Long Walk to Freedom many years ago but gave up after a short while, I don't remember why. I look forward to hearing your views on it.

Woohoo, congratulations on finishing the PhD!

Thanks Gennyt and Zoe! Yes I'm very happy to have finished, although I will only truly be finished after the defense which is at the end of Feb. Until then still too much to do!

I finished Long Walk to Freedom and I found it really inspiring! I also found it gripping because of my lack of knowledge of the whole situation. I just knew he spent 20+ years on Robben Island and that he brought about the end of Apartheid. So I was very curious how that was brought about.

The most difficult part to read, I thought, were the middle years, once he truly becomes a freedom fighter and there is a lot of political stuff going on (well, that's a major part of the whole book of course, but in those years he talks about many parties and organisations and people who are involved so you sometimes loose a bit track of who is who). I though the Robben years might be a bit dull, but actually that was the most inspiring part of the book. Absolutely amazing to see how he gets through that, continues the freedom fight in prison and still stands for what he beliefs and not become an embittered man. He's even the one who reaches out to the government to start talks!

Something else I got out of it is the power of argument. Mandela was a lawyer and at many times he brought about a change by following the proper canals and making a case - he also does that in prison which leads to many changes for the good for example in the conditions there. I found that very admirable as he was dealing with a prejudiced system which was getting even more prejudiced with all kinds of new apartheid laws.

I also loved certains quotes in the book. This one is about the moment when he was set free after the 27 years in prison: "As so often happens in life, the momentousness of an occasion is lost in the welter of a thousand details". I'm hoping to avoid that feeling during my defense!!

And two other quotes I'd like to share here are:

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." (Nelson Mandela, p. 856).

"I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity." (Nelson Mandela, p. 858)

If anyone has any recommendations for biographies, let me know! I'm now on to the voyages of Captain Cook!

Hi Celia! That's a great review. I'm afraid that my to-be-read-pile is growing again.
I just love the two quotes you shared with us!

Do you prefer (auto)-biographies, or do you also like to read a (half-)fictional adaptations, e.g. historical novels? Because I can remember a book about Napoleon (Die Familie Bonaparte) which I liked very much.

#7: Nice review, Celia! I need to read Long Walk to Freedom one of these days. I am glad to see you found it so inspiring. I hope I do too!

Thanks for the review - I really must read that one some day.

Have you read any biographies by Claire Tomalin? I seem to have gathered quite a few in my TBR pile, and I'm part way through one of them, about early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. She's also written on Samuel Pepys, Charles Dickens (twice) and Jane Austen.

Cool, another person from the Netherlands! I'll be following your thread with interest!

Thanks for the compliments - funny, I suppose this was my very first review if you can call it like that - I always wondered a bit how to actually write such a thing, but I guess just putting my thoughts about the book on paper (without it needing to cover every positive and negative aspect of the book) is already enough!

#Persephone yes I usually also like historical novels - although I tend not to like it when they 'invent' too much about a famous person because we don't know everything. Then I prefer either a biography or a historical novel with an invented person. For example, I didn't really enjoy A Taste of Sorrow because of this. I'm still looking for a good Bronte biography (I have read the biography of Charlotte Bronte by Gaskell)
#Gennyt I read the one of Jane Austen once, but that's all. I'll keep that in mind!
# Yhoitink I was trying to find your thread, but didn't succeed - could you point me to it?

For now I'm just totally relieved because on Monday I successfully defended my PhD thesis which means I'm now really done with it (the book was finished earlier, but the months running up to the defense are pretty busy and stressful too!). So now I'll really have some more time for reading! My sister-in-law gave me a pile of 13 books (Dickens, Stevenson, Thackeray etc.) to read just in case I am confronted with a 'black hole' which they say happens after finishing a PhD - well I hope it will because that will be a nice break!

Anyways, sorry for the ramble, now on to my reading progress of the last month:

2. Short history of nearly everything - I am going to count this one this year because I only read about two chapters last year or so. This time I listened to it - and loved it again. I really love that book, it's one of my favourites, and I think I'll keep going back to it until I know all the fun facts!

3. The lost ones by Norah Lofts - an interesting historical novel about Caroline Matilda, the youngest sister of George III, who becomes queen of Denmark. Very sad story - but I liked to learn more about a part of history I know nothing about yet.

4. Mr. Darcy broke my heart - ok that's a last minute PhD stress-related reread :-) I might discount this one if I do easily get to 75!

And at the moment I'm reading way too many books at the same time, so I hope to finish a couple soon, because this is a bit too much:

5. Philosophical Baby
6. Collapse
7. Jane Eyre
8. Voyages of Captain Cook
9. Steve Jobs
10. Breinfabels & hersenkronkels - about the human brain.

So lot's of reading to do - and finally some time to do it!

Many congratulations on your successful defence of your thesis. I know what that relief feels like when you are finally done. Enjoy the freedom to read!

Wow I've been away for quite some time... For almost four months I was traveling though, that is my excuse. Time to update the books I've read, hopefully I'll still be able to remember them all...

Numbers 8-10 I never really properly started (except Steve Jobs) so I'll let them off the list until I start them again (and finish!)

So (not in chronological order):
8. Het diner : finished it tonight after I gave it as a present to someone and got hooked on the first pages. Interesting read, how the story unfolds, the morals. Although I remain curious about what disease the guy actually had that made him so violent.
9. Eat, Pray, Love : a re-read I was looking forward to. It made a big impression when I first read it and still got a lot from it second time around.
10. A book on the little village Gamboa in Panama, which I visited this year. Don't know the title but it was an interesting read, detailing the history of the village, architecture, seasons.
11. Norsemen in the west: fun read (although an old book) about the Vikings from Greenland going to what is now Canada.
12. Hiding place: I was in the US and people were surprised I did not know this book, so I read it. Although a bit too religious in many parts, I enjoyed reading the story.
13. Blink: I loved this book! So interesting to read.
14. Outliers: this one too!
15. The tipping point: and this one too! Very relevant read for people in communication/ marketing.
16. The house at Riverton: very nice and easy read, made it clear how fast the world has changed between 1910 and 2000 - in the span of one lifetime.

I might be forgetting some, to be added later...

Working on: Steve Jobs, a book on enneagrams, Mill on the floss, A new earth, Sovereign

And in the category stress-related re-reads not necessarily to be counted ;) Pride and Prejudice, the seven HPs, Kruistocht in spijkerbroek, Hasse Simonsdochter...

Hmm, I'm not doing to well this year on the 75 book challenge... Oh well I can try again next year...

Welcome back! You are entitled to count rereads if you wish: some people do, and how you interpret the challenge is up to you. Either way, isn't it great to have favourite books we can go back to in stressful times.

I only read The Hiding Place for the first time this year though I've known about it for years. As I grew up in the Netherlands, it was good to read a book set in familiar places, though describing a very different and difficult time.

Thanks! I think the most of the fun is in the listing of the books and shortly describing what I thought about them - although I really thought I would stand a better chance of getting to 75 this year! Oh well :-) Although I'm doing a good job, reading a lot at the moment. One more month to go!

17. A new earth by Eckhart Tolle: mostly I enjoyed reading this book, it certainly added to Power of Now and had some enlightening passages. But there were also parts that were less relevant or more difficult to understand.
18. Sovereign: an entertaining read, sometimes possibly a bit too much violence (although I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and I just read Hungergames - so then Sovereign does not have that much brutality in comparison!)
19. The Hunger Games: when another friend recommended this to me, I thought, let's give it a try. I was not attracted at all to the basic premise of the books and kind of hoped the story would play out differently, but in the end, basically all three books are about death, war, cruelty, brutality and lots of blood. Not necessarily my type of books... I was still hooked on the story, especially in book 1 and 2. In book 3 I got a bit fed up with all the brutality and was wondering how much more damage a person can take - well a whole lot more. I thought the end of book 3 was a bit disappointing - less of a clear 'path' in the books (why oh why does she go off on her own mission which does not lead anywhere?) and too much for my taste about bloodshed and cruelty. I listened to most of the three books, that might also be a factor that made the bloodshed a bit too much for me to bear.
20. Catching Fire: see above
21. Mockingjay: see above
22. Pillars of the Earth: another nice read, set in medieval times, centering around the building of a cathedral. I enjoyed reading it, was curious about the development of the story lines and how, in the end, they were tied up together. Again, also in this case, I got a bit fed up by the cruelty and evil of William - and of course there was no hope for him to die as long as there were still many pages left in the book... I liked the development of Philip in the book, and the contrast with bishop Waleran. Both religious men, but in the hands of Philip, religion is converted into something that works for the good of the people, whereas Waleran just abuses it to get what he wants (power, money).
23. Third girl by Agatha Christie: one I hadn't read before. As always nice to read.

And an addition to the re-read pile: Shadowy Horses - which reminds me I should order another one of her books for the Christmas holidays :-)))

I've just finished 24. Forgotten Garden and absolutely loved it. Kate Morton is an accidental discovery of mine when I bought House at Riverton with my last pounds before flying out of Northern Ireland, and I'm very happy I did! This one was a bit more difficult to keep track of the different persons and where they were at in time, so you have to pay attention, but I also liked that. In between readings I was going over the story and the info given to try and figure it out. I guessed the main mystery about two third through, but how exactly the child ended up on a boat to Australia by herself only became clear towards the very end. Now I bought Secret Keeper, I'm already looking forward to it!

And I'm going to list 25. Steve Jobs, because I'm gonna finish that one soon. I almost put it away because I got too annoyed by it, but then I switched from audiobook to e-book and that helped. I don't admire Steve Jobs at all, although I must admit I think it is very good that he had such passion for the products the company was creating. As it is said in the book, it is an exception that a CEO cares so much about the products and not just about money and shareholder value. It is also interesting to get some insight into the creation of all these products, especially the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

So let's see - including rereads, my count now is 36 books... Hmm, five short of the count last year. On the other hand, some of the books this year were much thicker than last year!

I've finished 25. Steve Jobs, which became more interesting as it went on. It also gave insight into the business world at CEO level, how fluid it all is, how easily it can change. And how much it does depend on the leader of a company.

26. Land of the Painted Caves - I managed to finish this because I wanted to know how the series would end, but I thought it was a terrible book. I loved the first four books of the series, didn't much like the fifth book, but this one was seriously bad. Not much happens. You can skip the first 450 pages and then you haven't missed any crucial plot elements. There are just too many descriptions of painted caves - if she would have printed photos with it, it would have been a good travel guide! - without anything interesting happening. I actually cheated a bit on this book, because I literally couldn't get through it, so I looked up a summary online, then flicked through the many cave descriptions and then read part three when finally something actually happens. It is such a shame, because there was such potential for the story, for example I really thought she would be bringing the Clan and the Others more together, have them understand each other better, but nothing of that. And so much repetition, every time yet again people are afraid of Wolf and wonder about her accent...

I also want to list 27. Personality types. Using the enneagram for self-discovery because I've been reading that quite a bit this year. Very interesting stuff, first to determine your own type, then also to see what type people around you are. The book is helpful, but I do not always like the descriptions. There's much emphasis on the negative aspects of each type, sometimes too much. There are also some statements in the books that proclaim a truth that I not necessarily agree with. So it is a helpful tool, but some descriptions that I found online were more helpful to me.

And then it's 2013 and I'm finishing off the 75 book challenge of 2012 with one other book:

28. The Mill on the Floss: I started reading this one around summer, it was the book on my night table, so I only read 1 or 2 pages each night. But on Sunday I decided to get more invested in it and finish it before the year was out, and that worked! I only got invested in the book by the time part three arrives - everything until Maggie en Philip meet again did not really grip me. Especially at the beginning of the book, with the extensive descriptions of the childhood and the feelings and thoughts of every aunt and oncle I had a hard time even to read one page... In the end, I quite liked the story, Maggie's struggles, the restrictions society imposed on women in that age. Although I very much liked to read in the introduction about George Eliot's life itself, which shares resemblances with Maggie's but turns out very different because Eliot made other choices, not heeding her brother nor society which might disapprove of the choice. I don't think, however, that I'm going to read anything else by George Eliot after Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss...

Total count:
- 27 new reads
- 12 rereads

39 books in all - two books less than last year. Hmmm.... Oh well! (on the other hand, I did read some very fat books this year - e.g. the biography of Nelson Mandela and Steve Jobs and the Land of the Painted Caves).

Ready to start a new challenge for 2013!

39 books! Still a pretty good number. :)

Thanks! In any case it's loads more than most people around me read so that makes me feel a bit better :)

I really need to read some Kate Morton this year. I've heard wonderful things about her books.

She was one of my surprise discoveries this year. Of the three I read, I would recommend Forgotten Garden, I liked that one best, I think. But it's a close call...