Fifty book challenge 2009

[Pretty Kitty]

Originally Posted by Runt

So all of his books are DULL then? (so dull that I actually got the title wrong up there ^ it's actually Master of the World that I couldn't finish).

80 days around the world was awrite but I cannot put into words how utterly shite 20,000 leagues under the sea was.
I think he must have copied most of it straight out of a marine biology text book. I'm just trying to figure out if he put 8 page long wafflings about the different species and subspecies of eels was to pad it out a bit and to hide the fact that there is fuck all plot.
I am so raging that it took me so long to read that. I wish I was more defeatist when it came to shite books, if I have started a book it will get finished.
I could have been doing so many more productive things, waxing Brian's toes for example.
End of rant.

[endless psych]

Originally Posted by endless psych

Originally Posted by endless psych
1) The Stuff of Thought - Steven Pinker
2) Counterknowledge - Damian Thompson.
3) Can robots Really think? - Peter Cave
4) Freakonomics - Stephen D Levitt, Stephen B. Dubner
5) Mistakes were made (but not by me) - Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson.
6) Elephants on acid - Alex Boese
7) Chaos - James Gleick
8) The black swan - Nicholas Taleb Tassim
9) Predictably irrational - Dan Ariely
10) Quirkology - Richard Wiseman
11) Emergency - Neil Strauss
12) Irrationality - Stuart Sutherland
13) Flat Earth News - Nick Davies
14) Critical Mass - Phillip Ball
15) The Road - Cormac McCarthy
16) The motorcycle Diaries - Ernesto 'CHE' Guevara
17) Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
18) Human Universals - Donald E. Brown
19) Omnibus #1: At the mountains of Madness - HP Lovecraft
20) The Zombie Survival Guide - Max brooks
21) World War Z - Max Brooks
22) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen and Seth Graham Smith
23) Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance - Robert M Pirsig

24) What works? Evidence based policy and practice in public services -Huw Davies, Sandra Nutley and Peter Smith (EDS)

[supernothing]

1. Cormac McCarthy - The Blood Meridian
2. Ryzard Kapuscinski - The Soccer War
3. Ryzard kapuscinski - My African Life
4. JM G Le Clezio - Terra Amata
5. Roberto Bolano - The Savage Detectives
6. John Fante - The Road To Los Angeles
7. William Falconer - As I Lay Dying
8. Jean Claude Izzo - A Sun For The Dying
9. Cormac McCarthy - The Road
10. David Peace - GB84
11. Cormac McCarthy - All The Pretty Horses
12. Cormac McCarthy - The Crossing
13. Sudhir Vankatesh - Gang Leader for a Day
14. Roberto Bolano - Last Nights On Earth
15. Albert Camus - The Fall
16. Ryzard Kapuscinski - Another Day of Life
17. Mischa Glenny - McMafia
18. Jean Claude Izzo - Total Chaos
19. Florrian Zeller - The Facination of Evil
20. Introducing Camus
21. Cormac McCarthy - Cities of the Plain The last book in the Border Trilogy which as a whole is probably the best thing I've ever read. I can't recomend it highly enough - the writing itself is phenomenal and has totally changed the way I think of the craft, and the story and characters are just the best ever. I don't know what to do now i've finished it.

[Runt]

Aww man, I just picked up Twighlight - I'm 60pages in and feel like I'm in high school again, wishing I was a character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer /loser kid.

ps. I'm in love with Edward.

[Runt]

Twilight.

[sylvianorth]

Originally Posted by Runt

Twilight.

The Twilight saga is awful but compulsive reading. Pretty much NOTHING happens in Books 2 and 3 but wait til you get to book 4, lawdy.

[Runt]

Originally Posted by sylvianorth

The Twilight saga is awful but compulsive reading. Pretty much NOTHING happens in Books 2 and 3 but wait til you get to book 4, lawdy.

I started and finished the first one yesterday and LOVED it. It's such a load of teenager shite but lovely trash...although I was disappointed they kissed so soon. I was wondering what the other books will be like...probably not interest me in the same way coz it was the smooshy love stuff I liked and I guess that's over with now.

[sylvianorth]

Originally Posted by Runt

I started and finished the first one yesterday and LOVED it. It's such a load of teenager shite but lovely trash...although I was disappointed they kissed so soon. I was wondering what the other books will be like...probably not interest me in the same way coz it was the smooshy love stuff I liked and I guess that's over with now.

Haha, no, not at all. New Moon is SUPER dramatic. Every conversation Edward and Bella ever have goes along the lines of 'I love you desperately and looking into your eyes tips my soul into overdrive blah blah blah', they never seem to have normal 'Hi Bella how was your day?' type chats. I'd give it a bash if you loved the first one!

P.S they do very little more than kissing as well

[princessoPUNK]

Originally Posted by princessoPUNK

1. Diary of a Wife - Anias Nin
2. Scoop - Evelyn Waugh
3. Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination - Helen Fielding
4. The Weight of Water - Anita Shreve
5. A Wedding in December- Anita Shreve
6. The Unconsoled - Kazuo Ishiguro
7. Love, Etc. - Julian Barnes
8. Vienna - Eva Menasse
9. The Family Way - Tony Parsons
10. A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy - Charlotte Grieg
11. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
12. The Pilot's Wife - Anita Shreve
13. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
14. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
15. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
16. Class, The Secret diary of a Teacher in Turmoil - Jane Beaton
17. Those Faraday Girls - Monica McInerney
18. Stories we Could Tell - Tony Parsons
19. My Favourite Wife - Tony Parsons
20. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne
21. Q and A - Vikas Swarup
22. Testimony - Anita Shreve
23. The Snows of Kilimanjaro - Ernest Hemingway
24. P.S. I love You - Cecilia Ahern
25. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
26. How to be Good - Nick Hornby
27. Art Therapy with Children on the Autistic Spectrum - Kathy Evans, Janet Dubowski
28. The History of Love - Nicole Krauss
29. Plan B - Emily Barr
30. The Sweetheart Season - Karen Joy Fowler
31. The Other Ariel - Lynda K. Bundtzen
32. The Perfect Life - Rafaella Barker
33. Eragon - Christopher Paolini
34. The Oxford Murders - Guellermo Martinez
35. Inner Circle - T.C. Boyle
36. Friday Nights - Joanna Trollope
37. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

38. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
39. Year of Wonder - Geraldine Brooks
40. Body Surfing - Anita Shreve
41. The Gallows' Girl - Melanie Gifford



I must have read Wuthering Heights at least 20 times, so I feel like I am cheating by including it. Someone mentioned Anne of Green Gables to me the other day, and I now have to read it again. I watched Little Women(the modern one) for the first time in about 6 years the other day, so am going to read it and Jo's boys too. Kids classics ahoy!

Originally Posted by sylvianorth

Haha, no, not at all. New Moon is SUPER dramatic. Every conversation Edward and Bella ever have goes along the lines of 'I love you desperately and looking into your eyes tips my soul into overdrive blah blah blah', they never seem to have normal 'Hi Bella how was your day?' type chats. I'd give it a bash if you loved the first one!

P.S they do very little more than kissing as well

I agree! You should keep going if you enjoyed the first one. The 4th is epic compared to the rest of them though. The whole series is a a bit like reading Point Romance with vampires and werewolves, but it gets quite grown up in the end! I liked them all, but its worth reading the first three just to understand the last one.

[Rowsbette]

Originally Posted by princessoPUNK

I must have read Wuthering Heights at least 20 times, so I feel like I am cheating by including it.

It is amazing though, and a classic. As long as you haven't read it yet this *year* I'd say it's fine to include it!

1. Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
2. Angela Carter – The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History
3. Angela Carter – Heroes and Villains
4. Angela Carter – Shadow Dance
5. Ford Madox Ford – The Good Soldier
6. Sarah Gamble – The Fiction of Angela Carter
7. Angela Carter – Several Perceptions
8. D. M. Thomas – The White Hotel
9. John Berger – Ways of Seeing
10. William Leith – The Hungry Years: Confessions of a Food Addict
11. Hanif Kureishi – My Beautiful Laundrette and The Rainbow Sign
12. Christine Geraghty – My Beautiful Laundrette
13. Richard Yates – Revolutionary Road
14. Emma Smith – The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare
15. Thomas Hardy – Tess of the D'Urbervilles
16. William Shakespeare – Titus Andronicus
17. William Shakespeare – Hamlet
18. William Shakespeare – Othello
19. Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights
20. Robert Louis Stevenson – The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
21. Bram Stoker – Dracula
22. William Shakespeare – Twelfth Night
23. William Shakespeare – Measure for Measure
24. Oscar Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray
25. William Shakespeare – King Lear
26. William Shakespeare – Macbeth
27. William Shakespeare – The Winter's Tale
28. S. L. Bethell – The Winter's Tale: A Study
29. Thomas Hardy – The Mayor of Casterbridge
30. Chistina Rossetti – Goblin Market and Other Poems
31. William Shakespeare – The Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint
32. Simone de Beauvoir – The Woman Destroyed
33. T. S. Eliot – Collected Poems 1909-1962
34. D.H. Lawrence - The Rainbow
35. Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
36. Joseph Conrad - The Secret Agent
37. T. S. Eliot - The Cocktail Party
38. T. S. Eliot - The Family Reunion
39. D. H. Lawrence - Women in Love
40. Jane Smiley – A Thousand Acres
41. Ariel Levy – Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture
42. Mireille Guiliano - French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure
43. Kate Atkinson - When Will There Be Good News?
44. Mollie Hunter - A Stranger Came Ashore
45. Agatha Christie - Evil Under the Sun
46. Guillermo Martinez - The Oxford Murders
47. Italo Calvino - If On a Winter's Night a Traveller
48. Ben Goldacre - Bad Science

49. Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure
50. Henry James - The Aspern Papers

I was a bit cheeky and started a short one for number 50, to make sure I hit my target. My resolution not to buy many more books is seriously flagging as the reading list for my course is now available, and I've fallen in love with that wee messy secondhand bookshop off Otago Street... Voltaire and Rosseau, I think? Found LOADS of cracking Victorian and feminist texts in there for a pound a pop, including a lovely hardback book of poetry published in 1897. I know, I'm a geek, but it pleases me that shops like that still exist in this day and age.

[april]

1. Post Office - Charles Bukowski
2. Factotum - Charles Bukowski
3. Women - Charles Bukowski
4. Hollywood - Charles Bukowski
5. The Most Beautiful Woman in Town - Charles Bukowski
6. The Importance of Being Ernest - Oscar Wilde
7. The Man Who Fell To Earth - Walter Tevis
8. The Rum Diary - Hunter S. Thompson
9. Pink Flamingos and Other Filth- John Waters
10. William Burroughs - Naked Lunch
11. My Education: A book Of Dreams - William Burroughs
12. Cats Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
13. Modern Recording Techniques - Huber/Runstein

Got a couple of hardback autobiographies to work on (Mark E. Smith and Paul O'Grady) but can't read them on the train!

[princessoPUNK]

Originally Posted by Rowsbette

It is amazing though, and a classic. As long as you haven't read it yet this *year* I'd say it's fine to include it!

I've fallen in love with that wee messy secondhand bookshop off Otago Street... Voltaire and Rosseau, I think? Found LOADS of cracking Victorian and feminist texts in there for a pound a pop, including a lovely hardback book of poetry published in 1897.

I have not, the last time I read it was Some time last year, and I didn't include it then, for the same reason!

I am going to have to go visit that shop, I didn't know it was there! Yay for second hand books. Dave looks worried every time I go into a bookshop(made all the worse by my working in one!). The Works is re-opening in Glasgow, so people will be able to get cheap books there again!

I have fallen a bit short, I had hoped to read 50 by the end today, which isn't going to happen. Uni reading got in the way!

[Rowsbette]

It's probably some folks' idea of a nightmare, but if you enjoy rummaging you're sure to find a few great bargains. Just beside Tchai Ovna, it is. Although I never make it beyond the "Everything's £1" room.



There's another nice wee second-hand bookshop the next lane down, which is more ordered but slightly more expensive. Still only, like, £3 for decent quality texts though, and handy if you're after something specific.

Ah, I used to love The Works! Remember getting a lovely Narnia boxset for buttons. Whereabouts is it opening, d'you know?

[princessoPUNK]

Originally Posted by Rowsbette

It's probably some folks' idea of a nightmare, but if you enjoy rummaging you're sure to find a few great bargains. Just beside Tchai Ovna, it is. Although I never make it beyond the "Everything's £1" room.

http://base.googlehosted.com/base_me...7&size=1&hl=en

There's another nice wee second-hand bookshop the next lane down, which is more ordered but slightly more expensive. Still only, like, £3 for decent quality texts though, and handy if you're after something specific.

Ah, I used to love The Works! Remember getting a lovely Narnia boxset for buttons. Whereabouts is it opening, d'you know?

I to have the Narnia Set! It's opening on Sauchiehall St, a bit up the road from where the old one is, I work in the Paisley one, which is great, but bad for my bank balance.

[xph0ria]

Originally Posted by xph0ria

1. Terry Pratchett - Carpe Jugulum
2. Terry Pratchett - Lords and Ladies
3. Gregory Maguire - A Lion Among Men
4. Andrew Davidson - The Gargoyle
5. Stephenie Meyer - Twilight
6. Michael Crichton - The Lost World
7. Jesse Kellerman - The Brutal Art
8. Gregory Maguire - Mirror, Mirror
9. Stephenie Meyer - New Moon
10. Ryu Murakami - Audition
11. Terry Pratchett - Thief of Time
12. Matthew Pearl - The Last Dickens
13. JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
14. Stephenie Meyer - Eclipse
15. Christopher Ranson - The Birthing House
16. Terry Pratchett - Mort
17. Kerry Cohen - Loose Girl
18. Stephen King - Cycle of the Werewolf
19. John Connelly - The Killing Kind
20. Stephenie Meyer - Breaking Dawn
21. John Connelly - The Black Angel
22. Terry Pratchett - Maskerade
23. Stephen King - Danse Macabre
24. Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
25. Dan Brown - Angels and Demons

26. Stephen King - Salem's Lot
27. Alan Carr - Look Who It Is
28. JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
29. Russel Brand - My Booky Wook