misscurly's 2007 stuff read list

Submitted by misscurly on Tue, 01/02/2007 - 10:46
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  1. January

  2. Where Angels Fear to Tread by EM Forster
  3. Finished: Jan 2
  4. Opening Line:They were all at Charing Cross to see Lilia off--Philip, Harriet, Irma, Mrs. Herriton herself.
  5. Comments: I just don't understand the obsession with duty and loyalty. The characters are so focused on it, they lose understanding of the originaly meaning. And I'm still not entirely sure why angels are afraid of a small town in Italy.
  6. Rating: 2/5
  7. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  8. Finished: Jan 12
  9. Opening Line:It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
  10. Comments: Totally awesome. I like how each chapter was a story itself, and each book, so that as long as you read at least a chapter in one sitting you had action and intrigue. On picking this up I had no idea it was about the French Revolution, and now I want to learn more about the historical event.
  11. Rating: 5/5
  12. A Short History of the French Revolution by Jeremy Popkin
  13. Finished: Jan 19
  14. Comments: Easy to read, and it covered all the important details. Unfortunately a little dry.
  15. Rating: 4/5
  16. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
  17. Finished: Jan 31
  18. Opening Line:No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.
  19. Comments: I've read a few other Jane Austen books, and thought them the equivalent of the modern romance. I hate romance novels. They're too florid, with people using fancy words and not actually saying what they mean, and no real profound ideas. This novel was better; it was mostly a romance, but it has this youthful, hopeful air. It's almost like the authoress was trying to share her rosy, teenage (and possibly naiive) world view. I found it refreshing when juxtaposed with the nonsense of society.
  20. Rating: 3/5

  21. February

  22. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
  23. Finished: Feb 5
  24. Comments: I found this really boring. I knew all of the rules of proper punctuation already. I was thrown off because the book is written to an audience in the UK and an audience in America, but neither of those are the same as Canadian punctuation rules so some of the things I was agreeing with the Brits and some with the Americans.
  25. Rating: 1/5
  26. The Trial by Franz Kafka
  27. Finished: Feb 15
  28. Opening Line:Someone must have traduced Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.
  29. Comments: I feel like Joseph K after reading this. I found it very frustrating and confusing. Is the modern legal system really all this bad? How could he have lost with all those people willing to help him? Why didn't he call for the policeman's help at the end? Would it have been better if he'd gone off to the country and totally ignored the Courts?
  30. Rating: 5/5
  31. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
  32. Finished: Feb 20
  33. Opening Line:I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.
  34. Comments: I liked it, but I sort of felt like something was missing. Like it was an autobiography, but he had added a few details that weren't true. Or like he was telling someone else's story.
  35. Rating: 4/5

  36. March

  37. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemmingway
  38. Finished: March 4
  39. Opening Line:In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains.
  40. Comments: Well, I liked it, but I'm not sure why it got so much attention. I thought the action was a little predictable. I really wanted him to be caught. What will he do without his wife? Sit around all day getting drunk and reading the papers, I guess. He was much more interesting with her. I wish the baby had lived, it would have made things much more interesting.
  41. Rating: 3/5
  42. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
  43. Finished: March 27
  44. Opening Line:My true name is so well known in the records or registers at Newgate, and in the Old Bailey, and there are some things of such consequence still depending there, relating to my particular conduct, that it is not to be expected I should set my name or the account of my family to this work; perhaps, after my death, it may be better known; at present it would not be proper, no, not though a general pardon should be issued, even without exceptions and reserve of persons or crimes.
  45. Comments: Entertaining, but very long.
  46. Rating:4/5

  47. April

  48. The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley
  49. Finished: April 8
  50. Opening Line:Once upon a time there was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was Tom.
  51. Comments: I know that the book is meant for children, however he copy that I linked to is actually an abriged version, whereas I read an unabriged version (as old as myself!). The arbidged version does seem like a children's story, but the one I read reminds me a lot of Le Petit Prince, in that the tone is childish but the issues mentioned are wholly adult. It's a very strange mix, but I do think it would be good to read to children of a certain age. It wasn't really to my taste.
  52. Rating:2/5
  53. The Red Dragon Thomas Harris
  54. Finished: April 16
  55. Opening Line:Will Graham saw Crawford down at a picnic table between the house and the ocean and gave him a glass of iced tea.
  56. Comments: I liked the movie, so I thought I'd read the book. It was a quick read, and a page turner for sure.
  57. Rating:3/5
  58. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
  59. Finished: April 20
  60. Opening Line:Clare: It's hard being left behind. (Prologue)
  61. Comments: In all the years I've been reading, never before has a book made me cry. Time Traveler's Wife had me crying for an entire chapter. The characters were written so well, they seem like real people I know, and the time travelling caused by faulty genes seems entirely believable (despite my being a biologist). This novel is amazing.
  62. Rating:5/5

  63. June

  64. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  65. Finished: June 7
  66. Opening Line:When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.
  67. Comments: A really quick read, and very good imagery. It got me a little choked up at some points. I'm also glad that there wasn't too much explained; we never really know their names, or what the man did, or what really happened. I guess it shows us how unimportant all those things are in such a world.
  68. Rating: 5/5
  69. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
  70. Finished: June 27
  71. Opening Line: 'Well, Prince, Genoa and Lucca are now nothing more than estates taken over by the Buonaparte family.
  72. Comments: I liked the "peace" part; the story about the actual people was very well written and interested. I just hated how Tolstoy kept sticking in his personal opinion about history and the war and the state of Russian. If I wanted to read non fiction, I would.
  73. Rating: 3/5

  74. July

  75. Earth by David Brin
  76. Finished:July 10
  77. Opening Line:First came a supernova, dazzling the universe in brief, spendthrift glory before ebbing into twisty, multispectral clouds of new-forged atoms.
  78. Comments: I think this story is really appropriate for the current times, as it's becoming more chic to be environmentally conscious. Hard to believe the story was written in 1989, when the internet was just a glimmer of what it's become today.
  79. Rating:4/5
  80. Just Checking: Scenes from the Life of an Obsessive Compulsive by Emily Colas
  81. Opening Line:I like to make stars in my head, or trace them with my finger.
  82. Finished: July 18
  83. Comments: I was hoping this story would be uplifting. It was really just sad, but I guess I should have expected a book written by someone with OCD to dwell on certain things and ignore others. She seemed to feel her life was great while working as a waitress, and I know from experience that is not somewhere I would like to consider the peak of my life. It was interesting to see some aspects of the same illness in her parents and offspring.
  84. Rating: 2/5

  85. August

  86. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
  87. Opening Line:"I was born in the city of Bombay...once upon a time."
  88. Finished: August 6
  89. Comments: Salman Rushdie is a really humorous writer, but I'm not really a fan of magical realism. I'm always wondering if the author is being literal or figurative.
  90. Rating: 2/5
  91. Emma by Jane Austen
  92. Opening Line:Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.
  93. Finished: August 8
  94. Comments: I really don't like Jane Austen. She rambles on and on. And I don't think the subject matter she selects is at all interesting. And the story tied up too neatly at the end.
  95. Rating: 2/5
  96. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
  97. Opening Line:The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane.
  98. Finished: August 12
  99. Comments: She really is a great storyteller. I couldn't hardly put the book down, and finished the entire story in one day. I was really disappointed with the ending, and I don't like her habit of just randomly introducing things close to the end. Like Dumbledore's brother, who took on such a big role, or the Deathly Hallows themselves.
  100. Rating: 3/5
  101. Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
  102. Opening Line:If you're going to read this, don't bother.
  103. Finished: August17
  104. Comments: Really not worth reading, like the first line tells you. Victor is a sex addict who works in the 16th century and ends up thinking he's Jesus Christ. But it turns out his whole life is based on lies told by basically everyone he knows. No wonder the poor guy is reaching out for some carnal relations. Most of the story was boring or just embarassing to read. Fight Club made me read this, but it was nowhere near the same quality. Maybe that paranoid tone he uses only works the first time, and then he just sounds like another crazy.
  105. Rating: 1/5
  106. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
  107. Opening Line:Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.
  108. Finished: August 27
  109. Comments: I found some of the more descriptive parts of the book disturbing (reminding me of people like R Kelly and a man recently in the news for raping his 2 year old daughter), but in the end I found myself disliking Dolores instead of Humbert.
  110. Rating: 2/5

  111. September

  112. The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
  113. Finished: Sept 1
  114. Opening Line:
  115. Comments: So boring, it took me a 4 hour car ride to work up the dedication to finish the last 4 pages.
  116. Rating: 1/5
  117. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
  118. Finished: Sept 6
  119. Opening Line:Tom glanced behind him and saw the man coming out of the Green Cage, heading his way.
  120. Comments: A good story, really much better than the movie (though how could ou picture Dickie as anyone other than Jude Law?).
  121. Rating: 3/5
  122. The Last Victim by Jason Moss
  123. Finished: Sept 12
  124. Opening Line:There's a little strip mall in an older, residential area in Las Vegas, far from the chaos of the other, more famous Strip.
  125. Comments: It wasn't nearly as interesting as it sounded.
  126. Rating: 1/5
  127. The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
  128. Finished: September 25
  129. Opening Line:My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost.
  130. Comments: I really didn't understand most of this book. I don't relate with the characters or the setting, or any of the situations. I sort of felt there wasn't a point to the story, but that the author just decided to stop writing. There wasn't any form of closure, but then there wasn't really any climax either. I don't really hate it, but I wish I hadn't taken the time to read it.
  131. Rating: 1/5

  132. October

  133. Erewhon by Samuel Butler
  134. Finished: October 29
  135. Opening Line:If the reader will excuse me, I will say nothing of my antecedents, nor of the circumstances which led me to leave my native country; the narrative would be tedious to him and painful to myself.
  136. Comments: Regardless of the opening line, I found most of the narrative tedious. Sort of a mix between Gulliver's Travels and The Time Machine, it ends with some justifications for slavery. An interesting mix, but the writing style just couldn't support the curious tone that should have been present. Having also read The Way of All Flesh, I feel that Mr. Butler should have stuck with Jane Austen's reccomendations and continue writing about 2 or 3 upper class English families. This exploring thing just didn't seem to work.
  137. Rating: 1/5

  138. November

  139. A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
  140. Finished: Nov 18
  141. Opening Line: Looking back to all that has occurred to me since that eventful day, I am scarcely able to believe in the reality of my adventures.
  142. Comments: Poor Harry had to follow his crazy uncle into the depths of the Earth to prove he was a man, but in the end he got to marry Gretchen and became a respected member of society. At several points in time I had to wonder why he didn't just throw up his hands in frustration and go back home. But he didn't and everything worked out. I wish I had someone like silent Hans to follow (or lead) me everywhere and rescue me from all the precipices I'm about to wander off. This really is a great story!
  143. Rating: 5/5
  144. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
  145. Finished: Nov 21
  146. Opening Line: (Prologue)She hurries from the house, wearing a coat too heavy for the weather.
  147. Comments: I really enjoyed this book. It had an air of the mysterious and secretive, the dirty underside to a normal life. The intricate interwoven lives was beautifully done, and the insight at the end (of how all the lives were really related) was a nice ending. I think I might enjoy The Hours even more when I've also read Mrs. Dalloway. I've read some of Virginia's novels in the past, and I found them hard to understand. The Hours seems to provide some new insight; I never considered Virginia was mostly insane. I'm inspired to read a biography, and a critical reading guide for her works, and then to try out Mrs. Dalloway.
  148. Rating: 5/5
  149. Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam
  150. Finished: Nov 28
  151. Opening Line:
  152. Comments: I thought it was an interesting read, but not especially well written or insightful. The final story about SARS was funny.
  153. Rating: 2/5

  154. December

  155. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  156. Finished: Dec 19
  157. Opening Line: Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colnel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
  158. Comments: To me, it seemed very cynical. It reminds me of that movie As Good As It Gets because it seemed like each member of the family really only had one good moment in their lives, and after that everything was downhill. I also had the feeling (augmented by the repeated names) that it was really the same few people reliving the same mistakes over and over until they learned. I wonder if the last Amaranta and Aureliano learned? It leaves you something to ponder.
  159. Rating: 4/5
  160. I am Legend by Richard Matheson
  161. Finished: Dec 25
  162. Opening Line: On those cloudy days, Robert Nevil was never sure when sunset came, and sometimes they were in the streets before he could get back.
  163. Comments: I actually listened to the audiobook version of this novel on my ipod during one of those ridiculously long car rides of the holiday seasone. I found the narrator added that much extra to the actual story, so I will likely listen to more books in this way. I am Legend wasn't nearly as great as I thought it would be. For one thing, Robert is more afraid and traumatized than I imagined, so instead of representing a foundation for replenishing the human race, he's just as bad as the fanatics that succumbed to the plague. The best part was the ending, because it was the only part that really seemed connected with the main concept. It also seemed too much time was spent trying to sound scientific, when nothing came of it. Isn't it funny that Will Smith is cast to play a blonde haired, blue eyed man of german descent?!
  164. Rating: 3/5
Author Comments: 

* I hate it, don't even bother looking at it
** I don't like it, but I might reccomend it to the right person
*** It was OK, but I won't ever read it again
**** I liked it, I would read it again
***** I loved it, I will buy it for sure

Every time I read something, I ask myself, "is this a good book?" and then "is this the best of this type of book I've read?". If it is a good book, and one of the best of its type, then I buy it to reread. If it's a poorly written book, but one of the best I've read, then I've found a gap to fill in my reading.

cmonster11/21/2007

This list is utterly fabulous. I really hope you keep going through next year.

And I hear you on Mr Ripley. I cannot believe he could be other than Jude Law at this point.

misscurly11/29/2007

Well thank you! I'm trying to get a good mix of old and new, classics and bestsellers. I'm open to suggestions if you're interested. Of course, I almost think it's a losing battle, because I always hear about more books I want to read in a year than I can ever read in a year, so the list of "to-read" keeps growing.

misscurly12/19/2007

"Cease, cows! Life is short!" (Marquez, 381)