Fifty book challenge 2008

[Will_Couper]

1. The Rules of the Game - Neil Strauss
2. The Hungry Moon - Ramsey Campbell
3. Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
4. Still-Watch - Mary Higgins Clark
5. Riverworld and Other Stories - Philip Jose Farmer
6. The Book of Philip Jose Farmer - Philip Jose Farmer
7. Graham Masterton Omnibus: The Hymn and Night Plague - Graham Masterton
8. Crooked Little Vein - Warren Ellis
9. Me, Hood! - Mickey Spillane
10. The Body Lovers - Mickey Spillane
11. Out of Space and Time - Clark Ashton Smith
12. Tooth and Nail - Ian Rankin
13. Class Dis-Mythed - Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye
14. Myth-Gotten Gains - Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye

15. Against A Dark Background - Iain M Banks

The last book of his I read, I thought was pretty weak. This was much better, although the tone wavered quite a lot edging from vaguely Douglas Adams silliness to black comedy to simply being very brutal. Enjoyable though.


Will

[jondejonjon]

Originally Posted by jondejonjon

1. The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli
2. Permission Marketing - Seth Godin
3. The 33 Strategies of War - Robert Greene
4. Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War - Robert Coram
5. A Book of 5 Rings - Miyamoto Musashi
6. Small is the new big - Seth Godin
7. America Unchained - Dave Gorman
8. Starbucked - Taylor Clark
9. Eisenhower on Leadership - Alan Axelrod

10. Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bachs
11. Drop the Pink Elephant - Bill McFarlan

[Will_Couper]

1. The Rules of the Game - Neil Strauss
2. The Hungry Moon - Ramsey Campbell
3. Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
4. Still-Watch - Mary Higgins Clark
5. Riverworld and Other Stories - Philip Jose Farmer
6. The Book of Philip Jose Farmer - Philip Jose Farmer
7. Graham Masterton Omnibus: The Hymn and Night Plague - Graham Masterton
8. Crooked Little Vein - Warren Ellis
9. Me, Hood! - Mickey Spillane
10. The Body Lovers - Mickey Spillane
11. Out of Space and Time - Clark Ashton Smith
12. Tooth and Nail - Ian Rankin
13. Class Dis-Mythed - Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye
14. Myth-Gotten Gains - Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye
15. Against A Dark Background - Iain M Banks

16. Feersum Endjinn - Iain M Banks

I found this much more satisfying than the last book I read of his, although, strangely I didn't find it quite a comedic. Enjoyable though.


Will

[Purplerose]

1. Dean Koontz - Demon Seed
2. Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner
3. Cecelia Ahern - P.S. I Love You
4. Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
5. Julie Bertagna - Exodus
6. Ian McEwan - Atonement
7. Jean Plaidy - The Royal Road to Fotheringay

[johnnie walker]

1. Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon
2. Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age
3. Joe Abercrombie - The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One)
4. Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon
5. Terry Pratchett - The Light Fantastic
6. China Miéville - The Iron Council
7. Ian Irvine - The Curse on the Chosen (Book Two of the Song of the Tears trilogy, part of the Three Worlds Cycle)
8. Richard Dawkins - Unweaving the Rainbow
9. Joe Abercrombie - Before They Are Hanged (The First Law: Book Two)
10. Terry Brooks - The Sword of Shannara (Book One of the Sword of Shannara trilogy)
11. Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash.
12. Richard Morgan - Broken Angels
13. Raymond E Fiest - Wrath of a Mad God (Book 3 of the Darkwar saga)
14. Stephen Donaldson - The Power that Preserves (The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Book 3)
15. Neal Stephenson - Quicksilver (Volume One of the Baroque Cycle)
16. Terry Brooks - The Elfstones of Shannara (Book Two of the Sword of Shannara trilogy)
17. Cory Doctorow - Little Brother (Released on Creative Commons Licence - download for free )
18. Allen Carr - The Easy Way To Stop Smoking
19. John Gribbin - Science: A History20. Arthur C Clarke & Stephen Baxter - The Light of Other Days
21. Dan Abnett - The Horus Heresy book 1: Horus Rising (Warhammer 40k)
22. Ian C. Esselmount - Night of Knives (A Novel of the Malazan Empire)

This book is based in the same world as Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Dead series. Both Steven and Ian created the Malazan world together and have always planned to write books in the same universe.

Also, This is a book i won in a competition.

[princessoPUNK]

Not in order! These are ones i have definitely read since New Years.

1. Wicked - Gregory Maguire (very good, dark, and not at all musical like surprisingly)
2. Freud's Alphabet - Jonathan Tel
3. Islam, A Short History - Karen Armstrong
4. A wedding in December - Anita Shreve
5. Light on Snow - Anita Shreve
6. Swallowing Grandma - Kate Long
7. Queen Mum - Kate Long
8. Start from Here - Sean French
9. Venus as a Boy - Luke Sutherland
10. The Piano - Jane Campion
11. The Wind Singer - William Nicholson
12. Slaves of the Mastery - William Nicholson
13. The Wind on Fire - William Nicholson
14. Imagined London - Anna Quindlen
15. Love Story - Erich Segal
16. Wintering - Kate Moses (Sem fiction on the last moths of Silvia Plath's life, excellent book)
17. The Self Preservation Society - Kate Harrison
18. The Realm of Shells - Sonia Overall
19. Human Punk - John King
20. Everyday life in the Viking Age - Jacqueline Simpson
21. The Developing Child - Helen Bee
22. A Teachers' Guide to the Psychology of Learning - Michael J.A. Howe
23. Literacy and Language in the Primary Years - Wray and Medwell
24. The Study of Language - George Yule
25. Six Religions int the Twentieth Century - W. Owen Cole
26. Child Development and Teaching Pupils with Special Educational Needs - Tilstone and Layton
27. Drama in the Curriculum - Jon Somers
28. Joan Bakewell - The Centre of the Bed
29. Labrynthe - Kate Mosse

[Delilah]

Originally Posted by Delilah

1) Deborah Curtis - Touching From A Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division.
2) Louise Welsh - The Bullet Trick.

3) Irvine Welsh - The Bedroom Secrets Of The Master Chefs.

A great read. I did figure out where the story was going half way through but the twist at the end was amazing.

[triggerhappy]

Originally Posted by Rowsbette

1. Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
2. D. H. Lawrence - The Rainbow
3. Evelyn Waugh - A Handful of Dust
4. James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
5. Evelyn Waugh - The Loved One
6. Philip Pullman - Northern Lights
7. Philip Pullman - The Subtle Knife
8. D. H. Lawrence - Women in Love
9. Ford Madox Ford - The Good Soldier
10. Virginia Woolf - To The Lighthouse
11. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime & Punishment
12. Joseph Conrad - Under Western Eyes
13. Laura Hird - Born Free
14. Harold Pinter - The Birthday Party
15. Samuel Beckett - Play
16. Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot
17. Samuel Beckett - Happy Days
18. Samuel Beckett - Krapp's Last Tape
19. Muriel Spark - A Far Cry From Kensington
20. Hilary Mantel - Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
21. Harold Pinter - The Room / The Dumb Waiter
22. Harold Pinter - A Slight Ache
23. Harold Pinter - The Caretaker
24. Milan Kundera - Immortality
25. William Shakespeare - The Tempest
26. Kurt Vonnegut - A Man Without a Country
27. Ian McEwan - The Cement Garden
28. William Shakespeare - The Merchant of Venice
29. Muriel Spark - Loitering with Intent
30. Margaret Atwood - The Edible Woman
31. William Shakespeare - Anthony and Cleopatra
32. Dodie Smith - I Capture the Castle
33. William Shakespeare - Macbeth
34. William Shakespeare - Othello
35. William Shakespeare - King Lear
36. Philippe Dijan - Betty Blue

37. Jean Rhys - Good Morning, Midnight

I wasn't a big fan of Wide Sargasso Sea but I loved this. Very bleak, though.

Looking at that list I reckon you must be at Glasgow Uni doing English Lit? Third year?

If you're not, that's a pretty fine list of chosen reading...

[Rowsbette]

Originally Posted by triggerhappy

Looking at that list I reckon you must be at Glasgow Uni doing English Lit? Third year?

Yup, well spotted. I take it you did that too...?

I'm regretting choosing the Shakespeare module though... it was so I'd free up space in my final year, but looks like I won't be doing ANY modules in English after this one.

[triggerhappy]

Originally Posted by Rowsbette

Yup, well spotted. I take it you did that too...?

I'm regretting choosing the Shakespeare module though... it was so I'd free up space in my final year, but looks like I won't be doing ANY modules in English after this one.

Ha ha, yeah - finally finished my degree last year (after embarking upon it back in the heady days of 2000...) and scammed a 2:1.

Are you doing joint honours? I thought everyone had to do the Shakespeare module at some point? My favourite module was by far the TC in Children's Lit - legitimately writing essays about Roald Dahl made final year immensely more enjoyable!

[Rowsbette]

Well done! For some reason I was under the impression you were still studying... did you take a post-grad?

Yeah, I'm doing Joint Honours with Film and TV... I'm not sure if single honours students have to take Shakespeare but I think it was recommended to everyone. I thought it'd mean I'd do 3 modules in 3rd year and 1 in fourth, but since I'm doing an extended essay dissertation in Eng Lit I won't be taking any next year. Still, it means I can go back to see all the Victorian / Modernism lectures again, I don't really trust myself to remember lectures from more than a year before the exams!

Children's Lit sounds fun but I don't think I'd have chosen a Topic Course anyway, I quite fancied the popular Victorian one but I reckon with no exams they'd be looking for a really high standard of coursework.

[triggerhappy]

Originally Posted by Rowsbette

Well done! For some reason I was under the impression you were still studying... did you take a post-grad?

Yeah, I'm doing Joint Honours with Film and TV... I'm not sure if single honours students have to take Shakespeare but I think it was recommended to everyone. I thought it'd mean I'd do 3 modules in 3rd year and 1 in fourth, but since I'm doing an extended essay dissertation in Eng Lit I won't be taking any next year. Still, it means I can go back to see all the Victorian / Modernism lectures again, I don't really trust myself to remember lectures from more than a year before the exams!

Children's Lit sounds fun but I don't think I'd have chosen a Topic Course anyway, I quite fancied the popular Victorian one but I reckon with no exams they'd be looking for a really high standard of coursework.

Thought about post-grad, but decided to go out into the big bad world instead - I miss being a student but I do think that seven years is enough...

The TCs do require quite a high standard of writing, but they are honestly much more fun than regular modules - plus they reduce the number of exams which was a godsend for me. Seven finals in 13 days was enough!

What's your dissertation topic?

[Rowsbette]

Originally Posted by triggerhappy

Thought about post-grad, but decided to go out into the big bad world instead - I miss being a student but I do think that seven years is enough...

The TCs do require quite a high standard of writing, but they are honestly much more fun than regular modules - plus they reduce the number of exams which was a godsend for me. Seven finals in 13 days was enough!

What's your dissertation topic?

Yeowch, seven finals sounds pretty intense. I had two FTV exams this year so hopefully I won't have THAT many come next spring...

I'm looking at the use of mirrors in literature, mostly focussing on Angela Carter but not exclusively so. Did you do an Eng Lit dissertation? I think there's only about 20-odd in my year doing one by extended essay...

[triggerhappy]

Originally Posted by Rowsbette

Yeowch, seven finals sounds pretty intense. I had two FTV exams this year so hopefully I won't have THAT many come next spring...

I'm looking at the use of mirrors in literature, mostly focussing on Angela Carter but not exclusively so. Did you do an Eng Lit dissertation? I think there's only about 20-odd in my year doing one by extended essay...

Aye, the title was "Art for art's sake: The Function of Decadent Art in the Work of Oscar Wilde." Pretty uninspired subject - I decided it five minutes before the proposal was due in (which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the project!)

Yours sounds interesting though, who else are you looking at?

[Semprini]

I appear to have failed this challenge quite hideously, mostly due to taking an absolute fucking age to get through War and Peace.