Books completed...

Submitted by johnbonham on Fri, 06/15/2007 - 11:14
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  1. 2007 (starting in May), with entirely subjective rating...
  2. The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith - C
  3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - B+
  4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien - A-
  5. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger - B
  6. The Dark Phoenix Saga - Marvel - C-
  7. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving - A+... One of the best books I've ever read, if not THE best.
  8. The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom - B... Simple, quick read that is filled with wisdom, however cliche that wisdom might be. Enjoyed this one overall though. Albom does a great job of giving us an overall view of one man's life.
  9. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon - C+... I have no doubt that this is a fantastic book and that Chabon is an amazing writer, but I just couldn't get myself into the story. Will be revisiting this one later...
  10. Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone - J. K. Rowling - B ... finally decided to read the series after seeing the last film, which was fantastic. First one was okay... I hear that they get much better after the 2nd...
  11. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling - B+ ... nice light entertainment...
  12. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris - A-
  13. Into Thin Air - John Krakauer - B+ ... not as captivating as Into the Wild, in my opinion... I'll re-read it at some point, most likely.
  14. Tales of Hoffman - E.T.A. Hoffman - The Sandman, The Mines at Falun, The Choosing of the Bride ... B-
  15. The Betrothed - Alessandro Manzoni - B+
  16. Old Goriot - Balzac - B
  17. The Deep Dark - Gregg Olsen - C
  18. Fortune's Fool - Turgenev - B+
  19. I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell - Tucker Max - A- for what it is, which is a book that should be ashamed of itself. Pretty damn funny though.
  20. Crime & Punishment - Dostoevsky - B+
  21. A Doll's House - Ibsen - B+
  22. La Bete Humaine - Emile Zola - B
  23. The Road - Cormac McCarthy - B+ ... enjoyed this one, but really felt like its ending was rushed. May be more McCarthy's style than anything, though.
  24. Effi Briest - Theodore Fontane - C ... most god awful thing I've read in a long time. Could NOT get into the story...
  25. Resurrection - Tolstoy ... A- ... this one, on the other hand, was great!
  26. The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist ... C ... pretty disappointing collection of graphic novels based on Chabon's novel...
  27. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold - C ... eh, never could get into the story. Something about her style was hard to feel comfortable with.
  28. John Livingston Seagull - C+ ... Oh, I don't know. Too thin...
  29. Books in 2008...
  30. When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops? - George Carlin ... B
  31. Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse ... B
  32. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov ... B+, amazing book ... will read this one again some day
  33. The Plague - Albert Camus ... B; A for the first 100 pages or so...
  34. The Deputy - Rolf Hochhuth ... C
  35. The Little Clay Cart - King Shudraka ... B ...not a bad play at all, wish I hadn't rushed its reading...
  36. Perfume - Patrick Suskind ... A ... one of the finest novels I have ever read. Home Run.
  37. The History of the Siege of Lisbon - Jose Saramago ... C- ... opposite of my experience with Perfume...
  38. Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain ... B- ...freakin' awesome for the first half, then rapidly drops off. I think he got tired of writing as it gets rather lifeless...
  39. Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino ... B- ...ultimately fairly satisfying as a concept, but hardly an enjoyable read...
  40. Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for an Age of Terrorism - David Cortright ... C ... uninspired...
  41. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald ... B
  42. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling ... B
  43. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling ... B+
  44. The Pearl - John Steinbeck ... B
  45. The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch ... A for content, rating for writing unapplicable...
  46. Homegrown Democrat - Garrison Keillor ... A ...wow
  47. Winter's Bone - Daniel Woodrell ... C+
  48. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury ... B+
  49. The Sovereignty and Goodness of God - Mary Rowlandson ... B-
  50. Bread Givers - Anzia Yezierska ... A ...ultra-readable, thought-provoking, emotionally bare piece of great "fiction."
  51. Edgar Huntly - Charles Brockden Brown ... C- ...aieeee
  52. Nise Daughter - Monica Sone ... C ... man, I had so much hope for this book. Sadly, it ends up being an extremely straight forward, rather dry step-by-step account that spends entirely too much time building up and then skirts past the main point of the book as if the author didn't really want to remember the interactions between people etc. in the internment camps (or possibly blocked it, I suppose). Very disappointed. :(
  53. Gift from the Sea - Anne Morrow Lindbergh ... B+ ...decent little light joyful hopeful book
  54. The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison ... B
  55. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ... A
  56. The Virginian - Owen Wister ... C- ... man, totally not my style.
  57. The Rise of Silas Lapham - William Dean Howells ... C- ... snooooze...
  58. I Am Legend - Richard Matheson ... C+ ... totally underdeveloped. Film was better.
  59. O Pioneers! - Willa Cather ... B+ ...waaaay better than I had feared
  60. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou ... C+ ...just not that interesting to me.
  61. Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey ... B+
  62. Memories of My Melancholy Whores - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ... B
  63. Turtle Island - Gary Snyder ... B- ...moments of brilliance, but certainly not the entire work.
  64. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck ... A ...I can't believe I never read this one. Outstanding.
  65. Man Without A Country - Kurt Vonnegut ... A+
  66. Blood on the Forge - William Attaway ... B+
  67. Refuge - Terry Tempest Williams ... A
  68. The Shell Collector - Anthony Doerr ... A+ ... best short story collection I've ever read. Absolutely stunning.
  69. Ceremony - Leslie Marmon Silko ... B
  70. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy ... A- ...easily the most complexly written book I've come across. Amazing piece of art. No doubt in my mind I'll read it again some time.
  71. Cannery Row - John Steinbeck ... B-
  72. Balsamroot - Mary Clearman Blew ... B+
  73. No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy ... A+ ... stunning
  74. Fat Girl - Judith Moore ... A-
  75. Four Seasons in Rome - Anthony Doerr ... B
  76. When You Are Engulfed In Flames - David Sedaris ... B ... pales compared to Me Talk Pretty One Day, but still fairly enjoyable.
  77. Watchmen - Alan Moore ... A ... holy crap!
  78. Aliens Omnibus, Vol. 1 - Mark Verheiden, et al ... B- ... had higher hopes for this one as I love the lore...
  79. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fizgerald ... C- ... really didn't enjoy this one at all. Sorry! ;-)
  80. The Best American Non-Required Reading 2003 - Ed. Dave Eggers ... B+ ... very enjoyable series!
  81. Letter To A Christian Nation - Sam Harris ... A-
  82. The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction - Ed. Joyce Carol Oates and Chris Beha ... A- ... one of the very best collections of this kind I've read. Taught a bunch of these stories in an advanced fiction writing class at University. Great conversation starters.
  83. The Best American Non-Required Reading 2004 - Ed. Dave Eggers ... C ... very disappointing compared to the previous year.
  84. The Americans - Robert Frank ... B
  85. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck ... B+ ... good book, stunning conclusion. STUNNING conclusion.
  86. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ... C ... probably went into this one without proper background. Rather chaotic.
  87. The Year of Magical Thinking - Joyce Carol Oates ... B-
  88. On Writing - Stephen King ... A+ ... terrific.
  89. Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami ... C+ ... starts out really strong, loses steam, stumbles around for awhile. Kind of disappointed by the end.
  90. Acts of Revision: A Guide for Writers - Ed. Wendy Bishop ... B ... not the sort of book you read straight through. Nice little guide on the subject, though.
  91. The Tempest - Shakespeare ... C ... just don't really enjoy Shakespeare. So sorry...
  92. Twelfth Night - Shakespeare ... C
  93. The Merchant of Venice - Shakespeare ... C
  94. The Overcoat - Nicolai Gogol ... C+ ... just doesn't really stick around in my mind. Seemed to have pacing issues.
  95. Summer '09...
  96. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien ... B ... this is probably my favorite of the three...
  97. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien ... B- ... great moments smothered by extended periods of overwrought writing. Not a huge Tolkien fan, but I was probably ruined by seeing the films first.
  98. Closing Time - Joe Queenan ... A ... I really, really enjoyed this memoir. Joe gets a ton of criticism, and I haven't read his other material, but this seems like a very honest look back on his life. And it's incredibly funny and touching at the same time.
  99. Willful Creatures - Aimee Bender ... C+ ... a bit too bizarre for its own good. Love Aimee, and love some of her stuff, but this collection missed more than hit.
  100. A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green - Thomas Cahill ... B- ... a must-read for the content, but the writing's average. Everyone should be familiar with this story, though.
  101. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad ... C+
  102. Danging Man - Saul Bellow ... B
  103. Carrie - Stephen King ... B- ... predictable as hell and ends up quite thin as a book. I still believe King shines only in the short story...
  104. Jim The Boy - Tony Earley ... B+ ... great, uplifting book. Enjoyed this one very much. Look forward to its sequel.
  105. The New Kings of Non Fiction - Ed. Ira Glass ... A+ ... every essay is interesting, every essay is worth reading, every essay is well written. Best anthology of its kind I've seen.
  106. The Stranger - Albert Camus ... B- ... The Plague is far, far better. This is a bit overrated in my opinion.
  107. Last Days of the Dog Men - Brad Watson ... C+ ... totally love this guy's style, but this is a fairly weak set. Was a bit distracted while reading it though.
  108. Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the New Global Economy - John Bowe ... B ... well written, interesting, and eye opening...
  109. Plainsong - Kent Haruf ... A ... probably the best piece of fiction I've read this summer.
  110. Hunger - Elise Blackwell ... B+ ... another great one.
  111. Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors - Lizzie Cunningham ... A- ... very interesting stuff for those interested in Indian history, culture, and/or food...
  112. Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs At The Turn of the Millenium - Ed. John Bowe ... B+ ... consistently interesting insight into the working world. A great book to peruse and eventually finish...
  113. The Botany of Desire - Michael Pollan ... A+ ... best non fiction book I've ever read... probably. Pollan's fantastic.
  114. The Old Man and The Sea - Ernest Hemingway ... B
Author Comments: 

Next up...

Catch-22
The Maltese Falcon
"Alone Against Tomorrow" by Harlan Ellison
Lincoln's Melancholy

Hemingway short stories...

Slothrop3305/10/2008

If you read War & Peace, I would highly suggest the new translation by Pevear; they excel with the Russians.

johnbonham05/11/2008

I was thinking of going with the Constance Garnett translation, as I have heard it's the gold standard although is a little tough to get into initially...
I have heard great things about the Pevear version. I especially enjoyed the McDuff version of Crime and Punishment... do you have an opinion about Garnett vs. Pevear? Esp. as it compares to McDuff's C&P?

Thanks for the feedback!

Slothrop3305/11/2008

I don't know McDuff. There is a great articly in the NYRB recently about Pevear vs. Garnett. Basically, you are reading Garnett as she evens out all of the novelists into a similar Victorian prose. Magarshack is pretty horribly in my opinion as well. Nabokov rails against Garnett as well.

Belladonna10/21/2008

We've read a lot of the same books! Just thought I'd let you know, I just finished Owen Meany tonight - I can't stop thinking about the ending - incredible!

johnbonham10/22/2008

Nice to hear from you :)

I've talked with more than one person who had issue with Owen Meany, but to me it's simply a well-crafted, entertaining book with some depth and an approachability that is hard to do while maintaining said depth. And the ending was one of the strongest points of the whole endeavor

Belladonna10/22/2008

Yes, it's easy to guess on what some of those "issues" may be. The book definitely raises some interesting questions, along with some religious & political debates. But I'm just going to refer back to your own great wording and agree that "it's simply a well-crafted, entertaining book with some depth and an approachability that is hard to do while maintaining said depth." You should be a writer yourself!

Anyway, it's a book that stands out and will leave me thinking about it for a long time, and that is a mark of a well-written story in my opinion.

johnbonham10/22/2008

Well, I like to say that I am a writer from time to time. Of course, when I told a particular friend of mine that I was getting my degree in English with a Writing Emphasis, he replied "Oh, you mean Starbucks?"

I have very supportive friends.

parasionok04/21/2009

What did you think of Memories of My Melancholy Whores? I bought it a couple of months ago but it is still sitting on my bookshelf and I cannot decide whether to give it a try or to get rid of it. There are so many negative reviews and I don't want to spoil my impression on Marquez though I read him when I was in my early 20s and maybe now I won't like him any more anyway.

Have you read 2666 yet?

johnbonham04/21/2009

I thought it was decent. To be fair, I haven't read Marquez's other works, so I can't really comment on it vs. Love in the Time of Cholera, One Hundred Years of Solitude, etc. The friend who lent it to me is a HUGE Marquez fan and really liked Memories, but she did comment that she thinks it's a work that is best read by those that are already familiar with the man's work. I think that the fact that it's a short book and with the comments from my friend, it'd probably be worth your time.

2666... not familiar with it. Give me the scoop! :-)