50 Book Challange

Here it is the 2nd of 2009...shall we start our own 50 book challenge?

I doubt I'll be able to make 50 myself, but, hey, I am all for lofty goals.

(Plus our What are you reading now? topic is getting rather long.)

Happy New Year, all!

Daniel

Hmm. Maybe we could have an underachievers 20 book challenge?! :D

I just finished Omnivores Dilemma which was great. Now I'm thinking about You: An Owners Manual

My list beyond that is
Kindred
Getting Started Knitting Socks
My Name is Red
The Screwtape Letters
The Divine Comedy
Tracking Trash
The Robber Bride
The Knitters Book of Yarn
The Mysts of Avalon
American Gods
Don Quixote
A Distant Mirror
A Mercy
Crime and Punishment
Ulysses
Outlander
The Lathe of Heaven
The Meaning of Wife

Is this list your planned reading for this year?

Don Quixote is on my planned list, too.

Hi Bard. Yes. The list is meant to be a budget constraint and also to keep me from reading all fluff. Last years albatross was Atlas Shrugged. This year Ulysses. I'm actually looking forward to Don Quixote.

Do be careful with Ulysses ;)

Have a study guide: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/Ulysses.id-153.html

dont bother with study guides. read it out loud. joyce is an "ear" writer, meant to be heard with the ears, ie. enjoy it. take the weight out of your shoulders.

I'm attempting the 999 Challenge. I've only just started the first book for it (The Library at Night). My plan is to read nine books a month from my lists just in case the year sneaks away from me - I refuse to rush to catch up.

Well, I am done with Watchmen and onto a Librarything book The Mystic Arts of Erasing all signs of Death.

Should be fun!

(One down...49 to go)

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the first book I started and finished in 2009. I also recently finished The Anglo Files and Neptune Noir. I started The Library at Night and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society but didn't make it far before they came due at the library, so now I'm at the end of the queue again (#5 and #82 - oof).

Oh chanale, I hate that and I haven't figured out how to renew online.

I loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, though. Very sweet read.

Renewing online is a neccesary feature, especially when the books somehow disappear from the library book basket the day they're due...

11> True dat. Books seem to sprout legs and walk off around here. Two children's library books have gone missing for more than a month and are due soon - I fear I'll have to pay for them (and here I haven't even had a penny in late fees for over a year).

10> You use the county system, yes? I use the city system's website - I find it easy to renew through it, but I have other complaints.

Yes, I do use the county system. That's nice that you can renew. I'm so pleased that they deliver the book to your local library, but wow, a little more time please.

How long is the check-out period for the county? The city allows books out for 3 weeks (up to 6 with renewal). My bigger problem is with their DVDs; I can't tell you how often I've waited for weeks or months for a hold to come through only to receive the wrong item.

Three also, I'm just a slow reader. :)

I should have started Guernsey as soon as I brought it home knowing I wouldn't be able to renew it, but there were other books due first. I tend to check out more books than I could possibly read in three weeks - it's a sickness. :)

Oh, gosh, I need to catch up!

No more TV when I get home: I must read!

Anyway, I finished The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston

It was very good! But a bit cathartic for some, I do believe. I did post a review for the world to see.

I am rereading two books. Jurassic Park and Neuromancer. We'll see how that goes. I have not read the former since Junior High...we'll see how much I remember.

I read Marked and So You Think You Know Jane Austen?. Tonight I need to read The Zookeeper's Wife (would it kill me to start my reading group's selection more than 30 hours before the discussion?) - TV has been interfering with my reading, too.

I just finished Maps and Legends, essays and shorts, very much enjoyed by this Chabon fan... and started The Raw Shark Text Diary (or something like that) -- verrrrry strrrraaaaaange so far...

and its too beautiful a day out there to waste it studying, so I think I'll twist the boys' arms and head for the park to read a bit more...

MrsH you can renew on the county system (I use it all the time). If a book is on hold though you can't renew it. I've gotten a couple late fees thinking I renewed something and when I took it back found out I hadn't. On the county website you need to go to the request/renew system put your info in and then click the important buttons. If you can't figure it out ask the librarians,they'll show you.

Lets see this year I've read"

Into the Wild -I reread it for the first time since it was first published
Afoot and Afield in San Diego County -my boys are starting to enjoy hiking
The Warded Man -library thing ARC , very enjoyable
Thunderstruck- gift for Christmas, a true life tale of murder and the beginning of radio
Travels with Charley- a fun read
Angels and Demons- needed something to read while in Big Bear.

I'm not sure what's next.

I finished Annie on My Mind and I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, and I'm two essays away from finishing Reading in Bed: Personal Essays on the Glories of Reading. There are far to many books started but on the back burner at the moment.

Oh, that sounds like fun!

So far, I have three down, The Will of the Empress, Physical Science in the Middle Ages and Minima Moralia. Only 47 more to go!

And I have three books-in-progress: Harry Potter et L'École des Sorciers (which is going dreadfully slowly, due to my terrible French), The Scientific Revolution (which I read on my brand-new Kindle whenever I find myself on a bus/train/tram/metro with some spare time) and Possessing Nature (the book I *should* be devoting all of my time to finishing, but am not....)

I enjoyed The Will of the Empress, but then I have liked all the Circle of Magic books.

Here's my reading for January:

Books Read in 2009, * indicates reread

1. Eight Cousins* by Louisa May Alcott
2. Rose in Bloom* by Louisa May Alcott
3. Ambulance Ship by James White
4. Mort* by Terry Pratchett
5. Soul Music* by Terry Pratchett
6. Frederica* by Georgette Heyer
7. Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
8. The Wizard Hunters by Martha Wells
9. The Annotated Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
10. The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett
11. Rilla of the Lighthouse* by Grace May North
12. Ginnie Come Lately by Carola Dunn
13. Griffin's Castle by Jenny Nimmo
14. The Game by Diana Wynne Jones
15. Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines

If you are interested in my reviews, check out
Ronincats’ Thread

ronincats - The link isn't working. Repost, please?

Thanks, chanale. Let me try again.

Ronincats’ Thread

There, I think I finally have it working. I should have checked it earlier when I first posted it!

Wellity, wellity... I have been busy and away for a while...I even went on a cruise! See that Carnival ship out your window over there? That was what I went on...

Anyway, in spite of it being a vacation, I did not get a lot of time to relax. I finished a great little novel called Three Minutes on Love, of which I received from the Early Reviewer. I reviewed it...and I even sent the LT link to the author. She wrote me back telling me that she really liked the review I gave her.

I am now reading The Master and Margarita. OMG, what a fun book so far!

I also finished and reviewed Jurassic Park. It's interesting rereading it as an adult versus when I read it while in Middle School... It was still entertaining, but I got something else out of it... I understood the philosophies.

Happy Reading, and thanks for being a San Diego Bibliophile!

(We are really up there on the list of messages and members.)

Oh cool, I just finished the Omnivore's Dilemma. Have you read any of Pollan's other books? I was thinking about picking one up.

I finally finished The Master and Margarita, which I did not want to end, for I was enjoying it far too much.

Now, I am reading a borrowed sci-fi called Altered Carbon.

I hope all of you are well.

Daniel

I've been in a blue funk-induced reading standstill. I only managed to read one book in the last month (Betrayed - vampire pap populated by idiot characters but inexplicably appealing even so). I just started Middlesex yesterday, which is too late to finish it in time for my discussion group tonight.

I have to update my profile page to fit what I am reading. I have been procrastinating :-P

I just finished, last Monday, a book called Altered Carbon that was very good. It's a hard-boiled mystery novel set in the far future, which lead to an interesting genre and premise in of itself.

I have recently discovered a new genre called Bizarro. It's a more modern take on the Weird genre of the 20s and 30s that H. P. Lovecraft is known for. Because of this, I am now reading The Bizarro Starter Kit (Orange). It is not something I would recommend to everyone merely due to the potentially offensive nature of the stories, but they are imaginative (and not to mention enjoyable) nonetheless.

Added books since Message 24

Books Read in 2009, * indicates reread, message # indicates where review is:

16. Twisted Tales From Shakespeare by Richard Armour (msg 76)
17. Remake by Connie Willis (msg 83)
18. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (msg 90)
19. The Reluctant Widow* by Georgette Heyer (msg 95)
20. A Little Princess* by Frances Hodgson Burnett (msg 98)
21. Tinker by Wen Spencer (msg 105)
22. These Old Shades* by Georgette Heyer (msg 114)
23. The Rescue of Ranor* by Wilanne Schneider Belden (msg 118)
24. Devil's Cub* by Georgette Heyer (msg 128)
25. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (msg 128)
26. The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
27 So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading by Sara Nelson
28. Miss Seldon's Suitors by Jeanne Savery
29. The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines
30. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
31. The Grand Sophy* by Georgette Heyer
32. Small Gods* by Terry Pratchett
33. The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson
34. The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
35. The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg
36. A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth Bunce

It has been another slow month. Besides magazines/newspapers and knitting books, I read only 1½ books (more vampires). I need to finish A Year Without Made in China by tomorrow night.

So, the Bizarro Starter Kit (Orange) was really great.

I've already started someone whom I have never read before: Dickens. In this case, it is going to be The Tale of Two Cities. Fun fun.

In the last month I finished Untamed (vampires), As Shadows Fade (more vampires), To Say Nothing of the Dog (for book group), and Death's Daughter (Amber Benson). I started Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America and Drood, which I really like so far, but I was so wiped out I just couldn't stay up to read.

You'll have to let me know what you think of Drood. :)

anybody get to the "One Book One San Diego" (that might not be the correct phrase) choice-- The Zookeeper's Wife? I recommend it, but now need a suggestion for Polish Underground/Warsaw Rising books to fill in the historical details. The other SD connection I polished off over spring break was Swinging for the Fences: Choosing to Live an Extraordinary Life by Alex Montoya, very inspirational...

I read most of The Zookeeper's Wife. Reactions from my book group weren't positive, but I hear many admire it.

The Wiki page for Polish Underground State mentions these:

Story of a Secret State
Fighting Warsaw

Okay, I finished A Tale of Two Cities. That took a lot longer than I wanted it to... Oh, well.... I did write one heck of a review for it, though!

I am not sure what I want to read next...maybe some borrowed books I should return ;)

Hit 50 books for the year today with The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip, review on my thread here in message 97.

Edited to correct touchstone.

All right! Finished Neuromancer for the second time, and liking it far better. Don't read it when you're sleepy!

Now, on to Broken Angels...

To #37 TeacherDad - - I read The Zookeeper's Wife recently and enjoyed it, although I thought it got off to a slow start.

Another great book about Poland during that time is The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945. This is a memoir written by the Polish musician Władysaw Szpilman. He tells how he and his family survived living in the Warsaw Ghetto, the deportation of Jews to extermination camps, the 1943 destruction of the Ghetto, and the 1944 Warsaw Uprising during World War II.

Szpilman wrote this book in 1945, directly after the war. According to his son, “it enabled him to work through his shattering wartime experiences and free his mind and emotions to continue on with his life.”

great suggestion PL, thank you!

I finished Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy and Vampire Academy, started Victorian Ghost Stories and continued with Drood and All Other Nights - both of which are more promising than anything else I've read in months.

Drood and All Other Nights are in the bag. Drood was very good until the last 100 (of nearly 800) pages, and I hear I wasn't the only one unimpressed by the ending.

I started two more: Tipping the Velvet (set 19c England) and The Glass Castle (my book group seems to pick a lot of memoirs). I'm enjoying Tipping, although not quite as much as Fingersmith so far.

In the past week I finished The Glass Castle and Living Dead Girl (leave it to me to pick something so dark for Disneyland reading). I've almost finished Tipping the Velvet, which is erotic and odd in a good way. Elsewhere I started recently; it's YA fantasy set in the afterlife where everyone ages in reverse.

Anyone out there? What are you all reading?

I just finished a set of rereads: two Heyers (The Quiet Gentleman which is not a favorite for a group read, and The Toll-Gate, which is a favorite, to clear my palate) and two Andre Norton's, The Zero Stone and Uncharted Stars. Getting ready to start Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis for one group read, and Deepwood by Jennifer Roberson for another group. Anyone read either of those?

I've never read any Heyers, but I've been meaning to one day.

I finished Elsewhere. Current reads are Persuasion (Austen) and Interpreter of Maladies (Jhumpa Lahiri). The former is the best book I've read all year (then again, I've read it at least 15 times), and the latter is excellent. Next I'll read Lahiri's The Namesake before starting her latest, Unaccustomed Earth, which is for my reading group in June.