Books read in 2007

Posted by melydia on January 1, 2008 No comment

1. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
2. Cover the Butter by Carrie Kabak
3. Gullible’s Travels by Cash Peters
4. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
5. The Seven Towers by Patricia C. Wrede
6. The Husband by Dean Koontz
7. Hal Spacejock by Simon Haynes
8. Blue Springs by Peter Rennebohm
9. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
10. Ambercore by Troy Williams
11. The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
12. The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan
13. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
14. Hick by Andrea Portes
15. Eats, Shites and Leaves by A. Parody
16. The Stand by Stephen King
17. Ana’s Story by Jenna Bush
18. Bill the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison
19. Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos
20. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
21. Anybody Can Write by Roberta Jean Bryant
22. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
23. Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of the Robot Slaves by Harry Harrison
24. The Good Guy by Dean Koontz
25. The Echelon Vendetta by David Stone
26. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
27. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
28. The Pelican Brief by John Grisham
29. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
30. Neuromancer by William Gibson
31. Thinner by Stephen King
32. Not a Happy Camper by Mindy Schneider
33. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
34. Mistress Masham’s Repose by T.H. White
35. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
36. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
37. The Weatherman by Steve Thayer
38. Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich
39. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
40. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
41. Nine Tomorrows by Isaac Asimov
42. Berserker by Fred Saberhagen
43. Death Note Volume 1 by Tsugumi Ohba
44. Jim Henson’s Designs and Doodles by Alison Inches
45. Wolf Whistle by Lewis Nordan

All in all, I averaged about eight days per book. Not bad, not bad at all. My increased commute time meant more audiobooks too, a trend that will doubtless continue through 2008.

Books listened to in 2007
1. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
2. Pompeii by Robert Harris
3. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
4. How I Write by Janet Evanovich and Ina Yalof
5. 1776 by David McCullough
6. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
7. Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner
8. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
9. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
10. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
11. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
12. Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner
13. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
14. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
15. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
16. Animal Farm by George Orwell
17. Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
18. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
19. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman
20. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
21. The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner
22. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
23. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
24. The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips
25. The Planets by Dava Sobel
26. Don’t Know Much About the Civil War by Kenneth C. Davis
27. Superstition by David Ambrose
28. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
29. Ticktock by Dean Koontz

Books started but not finished
* The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams
* Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
* Witch Hunt by Ian Rankin
* Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear
* Disclosure by Michael Crichton
* Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
* The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
* Blood Music by Greg Bear

Ticktock by Dean Koontz

Posted by melydia on December 28, 2007 No comment

Your typical Dean Koontz story: Ordinary Man finds ordinary life turned upside down out of nowhere by Pure Evil, in an event that is usually inexplicable and/or random. Most of book involves Ordinary Man being chased by Pure Evil. Along the way he finds or confirms his True Love. In the end, Pure Evil is destroyed, Ordinary Man is (re)united with his True Love, and everything ends happily.

In Ticktock, Vietnamese-American Tommy Phan discovers a strange ragdoll on his doorstep which turns into a demon trying to kill him. Most of the book is spent on Tommy and his newfound love Del fleeing from said demon. Del is extremely mysterious in what I suppose was meant to be an amusing way, but I thought she was really obnoxious, and I couldn’t figure out what Tommy saw in her. On the other hand, I loved Tommy’s mother.

Yes, the story is a tad silly (Del’s secrets, when finally revealed, are even sillier), but it’s Koontz. If you like Koontz, you’ll like this one. It’s a fun, light read.

BookCrossing

Posted by melydia on November 29, 2007 1 comment

BookCrossing, in a nutshell, is the art of sharing books. Similar to Where’s George in concept, this website provides you with a unique BookCrossing ID number for your book, which is then used to track the book on its journeys. How it travels is a matter of serendipity: passed between friends, sold on eBay, whatever. The fun part is when people find your books and leave a journal entry on the site, letting you know where the book is and, if read, what they thought of it.

Releasing, as this kind of sharing is called, takes on a variety of forms. People start bookrings, wherein a book is passed from person to person through the mail. Some trade via the post or at local gatherings. Others maintain Official BookCrossing Zones, more or less a lending library with BookCrossing labels, all over the world. (Hunting for books is also a joy; I doubt I ever would have discovered the delight that is Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, had there not been an Official BookCrossing Zone there.) A friend of mine totes a wagon full of books to various events, which she calls her Mobile BookCrossing Zone.

My favorite form, however, is the traditional wild release, where you leave a book in a public place for someone else to find. It’s fun to think up unusual locations, or places that somehow relate to the title of the book being released. Whenever I drive to visit my family, who live over 700 miles away, I release books along the way. Most books are caught, but very few people leave journal entries, even anonymously. There are loads of reasons for this, of course: no internet access, want to read it first, simply forget about it, etc. However, when someone does journal a book you released, it can be the highlight of your (and their) day. For example: my favorite journal entry, from a recent Road Trip Release at a gas station.

I would like to note that despite all this giving away, my to-be-read pile has done nothing but grow since I joined BookCrossing. BookCrossers are generous to a fault. It’s also vastly expanded my reading interests.

To see all the BC books that have passed through my hands over the years (as well as a running tally of books read this year), visit my bookshelf.

Reposted from my CCS blog.

Scary Mary

Posted by melydia on November 27, 2007 No comment

I heart movie trailers re-edited to give a completely different impression of the story than was intended. Here we have a delightfully creepy take on Mary Poppins.

(Thanks to happyturnip for the link.)

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Posted by melydia on November 11, 2007 No comment

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson: This is really two books. One is the story of Daniel Burnham and the construction of the World’s Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago world’s fair. The other is about serial killer H. H. Holmes. Other than time and place, the two stories have almost nothing in common, but this doesn’t distract from the book as a whole. This is nonfiction written like a novel, with vivid details and memorable characters. I was completely sucked in, perhaps all the more because I knew it was true. I never realized just how much modern popular culture stems from this fair. The story of Holmes was fascinating as well, to the point where I’m kind of surprised I’d never heard of him. Definitely recommended to anyone with an interest in this time period.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

help a friend

Posted by melydia on November 2, 2007 No comment

A friend of mine is in a bit of a bind. Her furnace died and she can’t afford a new one. Please note that she is not asking for donations. However, there are ways you can help:

* Purchase a copy of Saving the World in Your Spare Time or some of its associated merchandise.
* Get some great Sherlock Holmes stuff.
* Purchase some clever starving artist merchandise.

Not a Happy Camper by Mindy Schneider

Posted by melydia on October 16, 2007 No comment

Not a Happy Camper by Mindy Schneider: This memoir about the author’s experiences at an eight-week camp in the summer of 1974 is not one I would have read had I not won it in a contest, but it was a nice story. The author spends most of her time in the woods bemoaning her unpopularity and chasing boys, which is made more interesting with a thorough sprinkling of amusing anecdotes. While I don’t expect this quick little read to appeal to anyone who was never a 13-year-old girl or a camper, it was a pleasant diversion.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Blog Action Day 2007

Posted by melydia on October 15, 2007 No comment

Today is Blog Action Day. The basic idea is for everyone to blog about a single issue. This year that issue is the environment. I’m too tired to think up original content tonight, so I’m going to recommend some environmentally-themed books:

* Zodiac by Neal Stephenson: A fast-paced novel where eco-terrorists are (more or less) the heroes.
* Saving the World in Your Spare Time by Laura Klotz: A friendly little book full of tips not only on helping the environment, but on making the world a better place in general.
* Barbapapa’s New House by Annette Tison: The Barbapapa family, sick of all the pollution, leave the people and get a new house. One of my favorite books as a child.

Thinner by Stephen King

Posted by melydia on October 14, 2007 No comment

Thinner by Stephen King: It’s a painfully simple concept for a story: overweight man runs down gypsy, man’s judge friend gets him off, gypsy’s father curses man, man begins to lose weight at a horrifying rate, man hunts down gypsy’s father to get curse removed. Considering all the stuff up to and including the man getting cursed happens before the book even begins, there is definitely not enough story here to fill 300+ pages. It all feels like padding – the altercation with the doctor, the stories of the judge and police chief, even the lengthy bit of tracking down the gypsy caravan. It would have been much better as a short story. I hear the movie is good, which makes sense – this is something that could easily be condensed into a 90-minute film without losing anything. (Though I hear the ending is different, which is a shame since that was one of the few parts of the book that didn’t drag on endlessly.)

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Chick-Fail-A

Posted by melydia on October 9, 2007 No comment

Today I tried to redeem the coupons I received from Free Chicken and Coke at Chick-Fil-A. The promotion is over now, but basically you filled in a form with your name and address, and you received two coupons in the mail: one for a free chicken sandwich, and one for a free medium Coke. Anyway, I tried to redeem them today and I was told I could only use one of the coupons. Apparently “free chicken and Coke” means “free chicken one day, free Coke another day.” Lame.

Oh well, I still got my free sandwich. And I paid for some fries. I can’t pass up a chance at Chick-Fil-A waffle fries.

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