Book Tally
Dec. 8th, 2008 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
froggy_dearI've been reading again. But, thinking about it, I can't recall all the books I've read this year. So I've decided to begin a running tally which I will link to in the sidebar of my LJ and update as necessary.
10/27/2009: My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme. I brought this along to read during my travel to and from a conference. And I did. All the way through. It is wonderful. Julia is engaging, forthcoming, and genuine as she speaks about discovering French food, learning French food, and the journey that was creating Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I could read the whole book in her voice, but it would have taken too long. Her voice is so strong throughout, often referring to the manuscript as the manuscribble, which in other voices could be cloyingly cute, but not here. I loved the book.
11/20ish/2009: Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell. A fine book. Entertaining, but I'm automatically suspicious of books featuring 6 pages of (presumedly positive, I didn't read them) reviews before we even get to the title page. Here's the thing - I liked it, it was easy to read and entertaining. But not wholly memorable. It pales in comparison to My Life in France, that's for sure. And from what I've heard, the film was kind of like that too.
9/30/2009: The High Crusade by Poul Anderson. A spaceship lands in 1345 England. The locals thrash the alien invaders, board the ship (because dude! they can get to France and the Holy Land in no time at all and thrash those guys too). But it goes awry and they end up on an alien planet, taking on an alien empire with technology vastly superior to English tech of 1345.
The best part about this book is the pretense to monastic writing. The story begins in the manner of a medieval manuscript, and we're reminded of that tone through out the book. Probably my favorite moment is when the monk (and narrator) is in conversation with the nobleman and others on the alien planet and has a break down because he realizes he doesn't know if it's Friday and if they'll all be damned for eating meat, and which of these alien animals and vegetables would the Bible prohibit anyway? A fun book. Especially if you like sci-fi and medieval stuff. Yay!
9/16/2009: The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson. This is action packed pulp sci fi. For the last two thirds of the books it's pretty much a continuous action sequence. It begins with a prologue which is pretty much just a neat little short story appended to the front of the book - It doubles as exposition. When I got to the story, I was annoyed that I had just read that neat little story and here I was with someone graduating from (the equivalent) of Star Fleet Academy. And he goes about, succeeding through nepotism. Then I got confused; it was 40 pages in and the story was about Star Fleet boy and the three adventurers the back cover touted had not yet been met. But then the author hit his stride and the prose moved from painful to pulp classic, which some recklessly awesome descriptions of stuff. I don't know if it's worth reading, but it was kind of fun to read once I realized that the guy writing the blurb on the back cover hadn't read the book.
Late summer 2009: The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I am going through a phase where, if the work is situated during or after some kind of apocalypse, I am interested. And I kind of had an idea that this was a book I should read. So I brought home my brother's copy from Wisconsin and read it. I finished this book in just a few evenings. I stayed up until 1:30 on a school night to finish it. This book is a compelling story and it made me cry. The post apocalyptic thing is just incidental, you know? The story is about people, and survival, and commitment to being human. And I am very interested to see the movie - the latest trailer strikes the entirely wrong tone. The book feels very grey. Very quiet, and very grey. The way it's written and stylized - at first I thought it would annoy me, but then I came to appreciate the way it really contributed to the atmosphere of the book. I would recommend this to anyone.
Early summer 2009: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. Let's preface this by saying that I have never read Pride and Prejudice in its original form, nor any other Austen book. Nor have I, to my best recollection, seen a film adaptation, with the possible exception of an episode of Wishbone. So it was all new to me; I didn't have a Jane Austen point of comparison. So... it was cute. I mean, I've now, kind of, read Jane Austen. I didn't love it. There were zombies and some minor ass kicking, but it was all sort of gimicky and shallow. I kept wondering, and trying to reconstruct, what the various zombie episodes translated to in the original. I would say it is good for light summer reading.
5/2: In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made by Norman Cantor. A pretty short book, and certainly not technical. The spacing on the page is quite wide. Cantor is clearly very conversant with medieval Europe, as well he should be, and this book reflects that. It feels like a good university lecture, where the professor can tell the story of what happened because she knows the material so intimately, and where she can slide from topic to topic to topic and make them all fit together. That said, I didn't actually like this book a whole lot. I can't put my finger on it. There was a lot of good information, but I think I was hoping that most of the book would focus on the material covered in the last chapter, but in greater depth. For a book about the wake of the plague, the book spent a lot of time in the plague. Cantor does do some interesting "What if"ing about various aspects of things: what if this guy or that guy hadn't died, mostly. Worth a read. Should be a pretty fast one.
4/15: Spinning in the Old Way: How (and why) to make your own yarn with a high whorl handspindle by Priscilla A. Gibson Roberts. This little book is an excellent reference for many aspects of hand spinning. I was really hoping to get a little more technique from it, but I was edified to learn that I wasn't doing anything really "wrong." I'm glad to have it on hand, but am also very glad that YouTube exists, because for some things, it's just easier to see others do it.
4/3: World War Z by Max Brooks. I really enjoyed reading this. I had no idea what I was in for as I bought the book on a whim. But I found it to be a great work of storytelling. Very believable - that is, very realistic for a book about those who survived the living dead. I'd recommend it to anyone. It really performs as an oral history of the zombie war, just like the subtitle says.
3/21: Earthworks by Brian Aldiss. I first grabbed this over a month ago to read while at the dentist's office. It's kind of been my "waiting room book" since then. Read it while waiting for 2 or 3 dental appointments and for one blood donation. Finished it this weekend. Short book. Didn't totally love it. I mean, it's fine, and an interesting vision of the future, but a little bit lacking in.... something. The main character escapes from a farm, crashes a boat, and does a lot of running, and halucinating. It'd be a pretty good B-movie.
3/19: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann. I heard about this book, although not a lot, and thought it sounded interesting. So I bought it with Christmas Amazon money. I found it really fascinating, and an great jumping off point for those interested in knowing more. I also found it very persuasive and I'm inclined to agree with the author's assertions that the Native American population was quite large, that they managed the landscape, and that their civilization is not given enough credit. I was most fascinated by the Appendix on quipu, which I had known of before, but not known as much about. Written by a journalist, so it's very accessible. Only thing that bothered me is that there's an extensive notes section at the back of the book, but no indication of notes in the text. Consequence of being popular nonfiction, perhaps?
1/15/2009: The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters. I got this book as a Christmas gift and, honestly, I wasn't sure what to make of it. So I read it. And was very surprised to find myself enjoying it. Certainly not the usual kind of book I read, but very fun. It is the story of a late 19th century Egyptologist with 21st century outlooks and the mystery she encounters one excavation season. Also her clever son, hot tempered but loving husband, and the "preternaturally intelligent" cat, Bastet. The language is the best thing about this book - I'm not sure the reader could actually solve the mystery presented. But fun.
12.26.2008: Orbit One by Mel Jay. I decided I wanted a quick read that I could finish over Christmas break. I grabbed Orbit One from our collection of pulp style slim science fiction books. The cover didn't draw me in but the proclamation in the front blurb of "DEATH FROM THE FOURTH DIMENSION" had me pretty interested.
First off, the title has almost nothing to do with the story. And the story, while a pretty good idea, is not exactly well written. There is a creative use of metaphor. Example: "His thoughts went out in circles and then went back to his plough like a boomerang, a mental boomerang." There are an overabundance of ellipses, question marks, and exclamation marks. The author also has a tendency to repeat, tell again, write the same thing three times. So the prose is really distracting. And I found the ending lacking - there was no respect for the prime directive, I tell you what. I didn't mind reading the book, but I'm sure there are better ways to spend 144 pages.
Also, for the record, the front blurb lies. The fourth dimension is not involved. Just... no.
12/2008: The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels. An accessible read, but not what I was hoping for. A social history of Satan. Main point: religious groups tend to identify their opposition as sent by/influenced by/being Satan. I was more interested in the one chapter where the literary evolution of satan was discussed. Originally, "the satan" was just a kind of bad spirit, not the basis of all evil. I'd still be interested in the literary evolution of the concept.
11/2008: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis I know I read this when I was a young teenager, but I couldn't remember anything about it. And it combines a couple of my favorite things - science fiction and the middle ages - so it was required reading again. A good book if you like science fiction and the middle ages.
11/2008: Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Woman by Caroline Walker Bynum This is one of those books that gets the adjective "seminal." Very well researched, very thorough, Bynum lays out her argument in plain terms which I like a lot. Very interesting stuff.
10/2008: Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg Science fiction/fantasy with a distinctly middle ages feel... or at least pre-industrial. Another book I'm pretty sure I read as a young teen, but could remember nothing about. Kind of an epic story, with a long travel, a growing cast, and a final battle. And juggling.
10/2008: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs Pulpy goodness. Read most of this on a flight from Rochester to Seattle. Enjoyable science fiction.
Arbitrary starting point.
10/27/2009: My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme. I brought this along to read during my travel to and from a conference. And I did. All the way through. It is wonderful. Julia is engaging, forthcoming, and genuine as she speaks about discovering French food, learning French food, and the journey that was creating Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I could read the whole book in her voice, but it would have taken too long. Her voice is so strong throughout, often referring to the manuscript as the manuscribble, which in other voices could be cloyingly cute, but not here. I loved the book.
11/20ish/2009: Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell. A fine book. Entertaining, but I'm automatically suspicious of books featuring 6 pages of (presumedly positive, I didn't read them) reviews before we even get to the title page. Here's the thing - I liked it, it was easy to read and entertaining. But not wholly memorable. It pales in comparison to My Life in France, that's for sure. And from what I've heard, the film was kind of like that too.
9/30/2009: The High Crusade by Poul Anderson. A spaceship lands in 1345 England. The locals thrash the alien invaders, board the ship (because dude! they can get to France and the Holy Land in no time at all and thrash those guys too). But it goes awry and they end up on an alien planet, taking on an alien empire with technology vastly superior to English tech of 1345.
The best part about this book is the pretense to monastic writing. The story begins in the manner of a medieval manuscript, and we're reminded of that tone through out the book. Probably my favorite moment is when the monk (and narrator) is in conversation with the nobleman and others on the alien planet and has a break down because he realizes he doesn't know if it's Friday and if they'll all be damned for eating meat, and which of these alien animals and vegetables would the Bible prohibit anyway? A fun book. Especially if you like sci-fi and medieval stuff. Yay!
9/16/2009: The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson. This is action packed pulp sci fi. For the last two thirds of the books it's pretty much a continuous action sequence. It begins with a prologue which is pretty much just a neat little short story appended to the front of the book - It doubles as exposition. When I got to the story, I was annoyed that I had just read that neat little story and here I was with someone graduating from (the equivalent) of Star Fleet Academy. And he goes about, succeeding through nepotism. Then I got confused; it was 40 pages in and the story was about Star Fleet boy and the three adventurers the back cover touted had not yet been met. But then the author hit his stride and the prose moved from painful to pulp classic, which some recklessly awesome descriptions of stuff. I don't know if it's worth reading, but it was kind of fun to read once I realized that the guy writing the blurb on the back cover hadn't read the book.
Late summer 2009: The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I am going through a phase where, if the work is situated during or after some kind of apocalypse, I am interested. And I kind of had an idea that this was a book I should read. So I brought home my brother's copy from Wisconsin and read it. I finished this book in just a few evenings. I stayed up until 1:30 on a school night to finish it. This book is a compelling story and it made me cry. The post apocalyptic thing is just incidental, you know? The story is about people, and survival, and commitment to being human. And I am very interested to see the movie - the latest trailer strikes the entirely wrong tone. The book feels very grey. Very quiet, and very grey. The way it's written and stylized - at first I thought it would annoy me, but then I came to appreciate the way it really contributed to the atmosphere of the book. I would recommend this to anyone.
Early summer 2009: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. Let's preface this by saying that I have never read Pride and Prejudice in its original form, nor any other Austen book. Nor have I, to my best recollection, seen a film adaptation, with the possible exception of an episode of Wishbone. So it was all new to me; I didn't have a Jane Austen point of comparison. So... it was cute. I mean, I've now, kind of, read Jane Austen. I didn't love it. There were zombies and some minor ass kicking, but it was all sort of gimicky and shallow. I kept wondering, and trying to reconstruct, what the various zombie episodes translated to in the original. I would say it is good for light summer reading.
5/2: In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made by Norman Cantor. A pretty short book, and certainly not technical. The spacing on the page is quite wide. Cantor is clearly very conversant with medieval Europe, as well he should be, and this book reflects that. It feels like a good university lecture, where the professor can tell the story of what happened because she knows the material so intimately, and where she can slide from topic to topic to topic and make them all fit together. That said, I didn't actually like this book a whole lot. I can't put my finger on it. There was a lot of good information, but I think I was hoping that most of the book would focus on the material covered in the last chapter, but in greater depth. For a book about the wake of the plague, the book spent a lot of time in the plague. Cantor does do some interesting "What if"ing about various aspects of things: what if this guy or that guy hadn't died, mostly. Worth a read. Should be a pretty fast one.
4/15: Spinning in the Old Way: How (and why) to make your own yarn with a high whorl handspindle by Priscilla A. Gibson Roberts. This little book is an excellent reference for many aspects of hand spinning. I was really hoping to get a little more technique from it, but I was edified to learn that I wasn't doing anything really "wrong." I'm glad to have it on hand, but am also very glad that YouTube exists, because for some things, it's just easier to see others do it.
4/3: World War Z by Max Brooks. I really enjoyed reading this. I had no idea what I was in for as I bought the book on a whim. But I found it to be a great work of storytelling. Very believable - that is, very realistic for a book about those who survived the living dead. I'd recommend it to anyone. It really performs as an oral history of the zombie war, just like the subtitle says.
3/21: Earthworks by Brian Aldiss. I first grabbed this over a month ago to read while at the dentist's office. It's kind of been my "waiting room book" since then. Read it while waiting for 2 or 3 dental appointments and for one blood donation. Finished it this weekend. Short book. Didn't totally love it. I mean, it's fine, and an interesting vision of the future, but a little bit lacking in.... something. The main character escapes from a farm, crashes a boat, and does a lot of running, and halucinating. It'd be a pretty good B-movie.
3/19: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann. I heard about this book, although not a lot, and thought it sounded interesting. So I bought it with Christmas Amazon money. I found it really fascinating, and an great jumping off point for those interested in knowing more. I also found it very persuasive and I'm inclined to agree with the author's assertions that the Native American population was quite large, that they managed the landscape, and that their civilization is not given enough credit. I was most fascinated by the Appendix on quipu, which I had known of before, but not known as much about. Written by a journalist, so it's very accessible. Only thing that bothered me is that there's an extensive notes section at the back of the book, but no indication of notes in the text. Consequence of being popular nonfiction, perhaps?
1/15/2009: The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters. I got this book as a Christmas gift and, honestly, I wasn't sure what to make of it. So I read it. And was very surprised to find myself enjoying it. Certainly not the usual kind of book I read, but very fun. It is the story of a late 19th century Egyptologist with 21st century outlooks and the mystery she encounters one excavation season. Also her clever son, hot tempered but loving husband, and the "preternaturally intelligent" cat, Bastet. The language is the best thing about this book - I'm not sure the reader could actually solve the mystery presented. But fun.
12.26.2008: Orbit One by Mel Jay. I decided I wanted a quick read that I could finish over Christmas break. I grabbed Orbit One from our collection of pulp style slim science fiction books. The cover didn't draw me in but the proclamation in the front blurb of "DEATH FROM THE FOURTH DIMENSION" had me pretty interested.
First off, the title has almost nothing to do with the story. And the story, while a pretty good idea, is not exactly well written. There is a creative use of metaphor. Example: "His thoughts went out in circles and then went back to his plough like a boomerang, a mental boomerang." There are an overabundance of ellipses, question marks, and exclamation marks. The author also has a tendency to repeat, tell again, write the same thing three times. So the prose is really distracting. And I found the ending lacking - there was no respect for the prime directive, I tell you what. I didn't mind reading the book, but I'm sure there are better ways to spend 144 pages.
Also, for the record, the front blurb lies. The fourth dimension is not involved. Just... no.
12/2008: The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels. An accessible read, but not what I was hoping for. A social history of Satan. Main point: religious groups tend to identify their opposition as sent by/influenced by/being Satan. I was more interested in the one chapter where the literary evolution of satan was discussed. Originally, "the satan" was just a kind of bad spirit, not the basis of all evil. I'd still be interested in the literary evolution of the concept.
11/2008: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis I know I read this when I was a young teenager, but I couldn't remember anything about it. And it combines a couple of my favorite things - science fiction and the middle ages - so it was required reading again. A good book if you like science fiction and the middle ages.
11/2008: Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Woman by Caroline Walker Bynum This is one of those books that gets the adjective "seminal." Very well researched, very thorough, Bynum lays out her argument in plain terms which I like a lot. Very interesting stuff.
10/2008: Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg Science fiction/fantasy with a distinctly middle ages feel... or at least pre-industrial. Another book I'm pretty sure I read as a young teen, but could remember nothing about. Kind of an epic story, with a long travel, a growing cast, and a final battle. And juggling.
10/2008: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs Pulpy goodness. Read most of this on a flight from Rochester to Seattle. Enjoyable science fiction.
Arbitrary starting point.
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