Amanda, over on the Dead White Guys blog, just posted asking about how people rated books. I'm copying and pasting my comment here, because I'm pretty sure everyone rates books differently. Just like the teacher who hands out As on a rare occasion, my 5 star rating is reserved for something special.
In GoodReads, here is how I have it divided:
5 stars - amazing, life-changing, I will buy a copy if I don't own it
4 stars - solid, good book, might even read again someday
3 stars - okay but not my style, or it didn't live up to the hype
2 stars - just not great, nothing special
1 star - surprised I finished it, a disappointment
What isn't really included here is the way I feel about the rare book I give 5 stars to. It is the book I finish and immediately reread the first bit because I don't want it to be over, or will write fan mail to the author, or stop and read parts out loud because I want to hear them, or literally clasp the book to my chest and take breaks because I want to make it last. That, and only that, is a five-star book.
Showing posts with label meta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meta. Show all posts
Friday, July 29, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Reading Poetry
I remember sitting in the AP American History/English Block class I took my junior year of high school, not even trying to contain my skepticism over the symbolism Mrs. Aragon was berating me for not understanding in a poem. I remember thinking - if it is so obvious, why am I not getting it? And what if I see something differently from the teacher? Did each poem get written with some kind of key or legend that students just weren't given (and if so, where could I get my copy)? Understanding the poems of early Americans came with a certain amount of ire, and, well, boredom. As much as I love violets, I still would rather hike through the woods on my own and come across one than read another word of Wordsworth or Longfellow trying to describe them to me.
For a long time, poetry and I - we were through. It felt entirely too academic, and too saturated in historical and mythological references that I never thought I'd entirely grasp. Nobody had to know that I never read any.
At the same time, I have always paid great attention to song lyrics. Sometimes I like songs because of the words, forget the music part. Somehow I had created a mystical divide between song lyrics and poetry, thinking poetry was something dry and academic while song lyrics could be emotional and personal. I'm not sure where the desire to read poetry came back.... somewhere around the time I read The Anthologist and when I started writing for my own entertainment during National Novel Writing Month.
I started devouring poetry again, often reading the collected works of a poet. Mark Strand. Carl Sandburg. The Black Mountain poets. Mina Loy. Emily Dickinson. There wasn't any rhyme or reason to it, but for some of it, I did use the poets mentioned in Baker's book (which I obsessively created an index to). And I found that I could almost always find a poem or two that I really connected with, that touched me on a deep level. It seemed worth it to me, so poetry and I are back on, tentatively.
Without tests to take, without well-meaning teachers instructing me as to the meaning of a poem, here's how I think about it.
1. I skim a volume first. If I'm not finding little tidbits that I resonate with, I put it aside. I am even pickier about poetry than I am about novels. I don't usually care to read long-form poems (although some have won me over, Ginsberg) or dedication poems, and frequently am turned off by poems inspired by art, war re-enactments, or flowers. What is that, 80% of poetry? 90%?
2. If it something I'm feeling into, I skim, then I go back and read more carefully. I find a poem can rarely be fully appreciated in one sitting or one time through.
3. Once I find one I really like, I often read it out loud. It just seems that poetry should be heard, even in my own voice. The last volume of Margaret Atwood poems I read, The Door, included a CD with the poet reading some of her writing, which was a huge asset.
Who is your favorite poet? Do you have anything to recommend to me?
For a long time, poetry and I - we were through. It felt entirely too academic, and too saturated in historical and mythological references that I never thought I'd entirely grasp. Nobody had to know that I never read any.
At the same time, I have always paid great attention to song lyrics. Sometimes I like songs because of the words, forget the music part. Somehow I had created a mystical divide between song lyrics and poetry, thinking poetry was something dry and academic while song lyrics could be emotional and personal. I'm not sure where the desire to read poetry came back.... somewhere around the time I read The Anthologist and when I started writing for my own entertainment during National Novel Writing Month.
I started devouring poetry again, often reading the collected works of a poet. Mark Strand. Carl Sandburg. The Black Mountain poets. Mina Loy. Emily Dickinson. There wasn't any rhyme or reason to it, but for some of it, I did use the poets mentioned in Baker's book (which I obsessively created an index to). And I found that I could almost always find a poem or two that I really connected with, that touched me on a deep level. It seemed worth it to me, so poetry and I are back on, tentatively.
Without tests to take, without well-meaning teachers instructing me as to the meaning of a poem, here's how I think about it.
1. I skim a volume first. If I'm not finding little tidbits that I resonate with, I put it aside. I am even pickier about poetry than I am about novels. I don't usually care to read long-form poems (although some have won me over, Ginsberg) or dedication poems, and frequently am turned off by poems inspired by art, war re-enactments, or flowers. What is that, 80% of poetry? 90%?
2. If it something I'm feeling into, I skim, then I go back and read more carefully. I find a poem can rarely be fully appreciated in one sitting or one time through.
3. Once I find one I really like, I often read it out loud. It just seems that poetry should be heard, even in my own voice. The last volume of Margaret Atwood poems I read, The Door, included a CD with the poet reading some of her writing, which was a huge asset.
Who is your favorite poet? Do you have anything to recommend to me?
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Speed Dating Books
Lately my Books to Read list has started encroaching on 600. At this point, I'll never keep up! So I've committed to checking out piles of the available books and going through a sort of speed-dating process with them, so that I can remove the books I probably won't actually read from the list.
How does it work? I'm glad you asked. Since I've been overthinking it already, I might as well share it.
1. Start at the beginning of the list and pick out the books that you don't necessarily remember the reasons for adding them to the to-read list in the first place, or books that you were so sure I wanted to read that you may as well do so now. Don't include substantial books that you know you want to read eventually but will take a considerable investment (Infinite Jest, the Updike Rabbit series, etc.)
2. Check the various library catalogs you borrow books from and see if any are immediately available (this limits my options quite a bit, particularly when I want to go that day and don't have time from a transfer of books from the much better stocked main library).
3. Bring home a good-sized pile, maybe 7 books or so.
4. Open the book that appeals the most. I started with The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters because it had such a cool name. Read the first chapter.
5. Stop for a minute and ponder your experience. Did it really grab you? Are you into it? Is it everything you hoped for? Usually, if it has, you won't remember to stop after chapter 1. And if the answer is no, that doesn't mean you won't get back to it eventually. But if the answer is no, set it aside.
6. Repeat steps #4-5 with the next book. Stop when you find one that you want to keep reading, and finish it first.
7. Repeat steps #4-6 until you have read through what you feel interested in at the time, up until when the books expire. Only renew those that you really really want to read, otherwise use that time period as your speed-dating period. When the time is out, that book is over, unless you have some compelling reason to continue.
8. Remove the books from your to-read list that weren't as good as you were hoping, and write reviews for the books you have finally gotten around to.
Oh, what is that you are saying? You aren't obsessive like me, and therefore don't really have a to-read list? What are you waiting for? Combine all your post-it notes and mental notes and create a list! My favorite way has been in GoodReads since I can access it from anywhere, but a saved document would also work. There is reading to do!
How does it work? I'm glad you asked. Since I've been overthinking it already, I might as well share it.
1. Start at the beginning of the list and pick out the books that you don't necessarily remember the reasons for adding them to the to-read list in the first place, or books that you were so sure I wanted to read that you may as well do so now. Don't include substantial books that you know you want to read eventually but will take a considerable investment (Infinite Jest, the Updike Rabbit series, etc.)
2. Check the various library catalogs you borrow books from and see if any are immediately available (this limits my options quite a bit, particularly when I want to go that day and don't have time from a transfer of books from the much better stocked main library).
3. Bring home a good-sized pile, maybe 7 books or so.
4. Open the book that appeals the most. I started with The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters because it had such a cool name. Read the first chapter.
5. Stop for a minute and ponder your experience. Did it really grab you? Are you into it? Is it everything you hoped for? Usually, if it has, you won't remember to stop after chapter 1. And if the answer is no, that doesn't mean you won't get back to it eventually. But if the answer is no, set it aside.
6. Repeat steps #4-5 with the next book. Stop when you find one that you want to keep reading, and finish it first.
7. Repeat steps #4-6 until you have read through what you feel interested in at the time, up until when the books expire. Only renew those that you really really want to read, otherwise use that time period as your speed-dating period. When the time is out, that book is over, unless you have some compelling reason to continue.
8. Remove the books from your to-read list that weren't as good as you were hoping, and write reviews for the books you have finally gotten around to.
Oh, what is that you are saying? You aren't obsessive like me, and therefore don't really have a to-read list? What are you waiting for? Combine all your post-it notes and mental notes and create a list! My favorite way has been in GoodReads since I can access it from anywhere, but a saved document would also work. There is reading to do!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Why I Love Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
I'm having a little blog identity crisis. So many people review each book they read, but I already do that over in GoodReads and don't want to repeat myself. Besides that, I like to write little blurby reviews, and blogs seem to demand a lot more of me. (If you read this, I'd like to know if you think posting individual book reviews both places is redundant).
On to the subject at hand - post-apocalyptic fiction. I am actually a pretty upbeat, optimistic person, but one of my favorite sub-genres of literature is full of death and destruction, bloating bodies and decay, war and sickness, and so on. But hold on - I specify post-apocalyptic because to me that refers to stories told about the "after." I love all the ideas that authors have come up with as to how society would be recreated once it is destroyed. It can be an interesting commentary on what really matters, what could arguably need to be disposed of anyway, and the danger of returning ourselves right back to where we were before. I know the line is slim sometimes between post-apocalyptic and dystopian literature, but then again, not really. Most post-apocalyptic fiction revolves around a specific event - it can be nuclear, it can be medical, it can be political, but definitely something that happened that can be pinpointed and marked with a before and after.
I wouldn't say I've read everything in this genre, but practically. I most recently finished The Stand by Stephen King. It often tops post-apocalyptic lists, but I was avoiding it because of a previous bad reading experience with him (Insomnia not being the best place to start). I finally buckled down and read it in a few days when I was home sick with a cold. Of course, since the virus in The Stand that kills almost everyone in the world manifests just like a cold, you could argue that this may not have been the best reading material. And I've had dreams inspired by the book every night since I started reading it. To me, that just speaks to how good it is. The characters are interesting, his descriptive power is obvious (to a fault, as I can still pretty much smell rotting bodies in my head, ugh), and the twist of the battle of good and evil makes for a slightly supernatural bent. I'm happy to take back what I said about King before, and say that this belongs on the list of the best of post-apocalyptic writing. I read the revised and expanded edition, but honestly it could have been even longer. I wanted to know more about what happened after the end.
So if The Stand is on my list, what else would be? I definitely have opinions on this.
First, a collection of short stories called The Wastelands, compiled and edited by John Joseph Adams. I was actually pointed toward this when I was the (lucky) librarian for a course called Apocalypse and Unrest in Contemporary Media, and it fueled the fire. Not only are the stories fantastic and varied, there is a great list in the back of post-apocalyptic novels that I added to my reading list. The stories that have stuck with me even two years later are Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels by George R. R. Martin and When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow. Not to mention the ending of Bread and Bombs by M. Rickert.
Short stories are a great way to explore an idea, but they lack the world development that I enjoy so much in the longer form of a novel. My favorites include Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, which has a fascinating story of a woman who ends up leading a new religion in the aftermath. It is followed by the sequel of Parable of the Talents. The reason these so captured me was the re-creation of society. I would love to re-read these sometime soon.
My other favorites have to be the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood, even though the third book isn't out yet. Oryx and Crake entertwines with The Year of the Flood and portray a post genetic engineering, post environmental destruction, post sweeping plague nation. It isn't quite to the rebuilding stage, as the wacky cult of God's Gardener's predates the "flood" and tries to survive past it, but you definitely get a sense that the time might be past for humanity, even though some still survive. I love Atwood's humor, her criticism of society, and her unethical characters. It somehow translates to a believability that doesn't come across many other places.
I'm sure some people reading this are shocked I don't include some other titles on my list. I've read Alas, Babylon but you could argue that it is more of a pre-apocalypse book, they just know it is coming. Earth Abides didn't capture me as much as some of the others, but I like how it portrays the earth-as-champion, over the destructive temporary humanity. I read the first of the S. M. Stirling series, Dies the Fire, but it came across to me as the fantasy of every D&D player, to prove that there was always a reason to study medieval weaponry... I found it tiring. I wouldn't even include The Road on my list, just because I thought the sparseness left too much to be desired. I know most would disagree with me on that one.
There are still some left I haven't read and have been saving for a rainy day - A Canticle for Leibowitz, which I've heard has some humor in it, and the graphic novel series Y: The Last Man.
On to the subject at hand - post-apocalyptic fiction. I am actually a pretty upbeat, optimistic person, but one of my favorite sub-genres of literature is full of death and destruction, bloating bodies and decay, war and sickness, and so on. But hold on - I specify post-apocalyptic because to me that refers to stories told about the "after." I love all the ideas that authors have come up with as to how society would be recreated once it is destroyed. It can be an interesting commentary on what really matters, what could arguably need to be disposed of anyway, and the danger of returning ourselves right back to where we were before. I know the line is slim sometimes between post-apocalyptic and dystopian literature, but then again, not really. Most post-apocalyptic fiction revolves around a specific event - it can be nuclear, it can be medical, it can be political, but definitely something that happened that can be pinpointed and marked with a before and after.
I wouldn't say I've read everything in this genre, but practically. I most recently finished The Stand by Stephen King. It often tops post-apocalyptic lists, but I was avoiding it because of a previous bad reading experience with him (Insomnia not being the best place to start). I finally buckled down and read it in a few days when I was home sick with a cold. Of course, since the virus in The Stand that kills almost everyone in the world manifests just like a cold, you could argue that this may not have been the best reading material. And I've had dreams inspired by the book every night since I started reading it. To me, that just speaks to how good it is. The characters are interesting, his descriptive power is obvious (to a fault, as I can still pretty much smell rotting bodies in my head, ugh), and the twist of the battle of good and evil makes for a slightly supernatural bent. I'm happy to take back what I said about King before, and say that this belongs on the list of the best of post-apocalyptic writing. I read the revised and expanded edition, but honestly it could have been even longer. I wanted to know more about what happened after the end.
So if The Stand is on my list, what else would be? I definitely have opinions on this.
First, a collection of short stories called The Wastelands, compiled and edited by John Joseph Adams. I was actually pointed toward this when I was the (lucky) librarian for a course called Apocalypse and Unrest in Contemporary Media, and it fueled the fire. Not only are the stories fantastic and varied, there is a great list in the back of post-apocalyptic novels that I added to my reading list. The stories that have stuck with me even two years later are Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels by George R. R. Martin and When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow. Not to mention the ending of Bread and Bombs by M. Rickert.
Short stories are a great way to explore an idea, but they lack the world development that I enjoy so much in the longer form of a novel. My favorites include Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, which has a fascinating story of a woman who ends up leading a new religion in the aftermath. It is followed by the sequel of Parable of the Talents. The reason these so captured me was the re-creation of society. I would love to re-read these sometime soon.
My other favorites have to be the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood, even though the third book isn't out yet. Oryx and Crake entertwines with The Year of the Flood and portray a post genetic engineering, post environmental destruction, post sweeping plague nation. It isn't quite to the rebuilding stage, as the wacky cult of God's Gardener's predates the "flood" and tries to survive past it, but you definitely get a sense that the time might be past for humanity, even though some still survive. I love Atwood's humor, her criticism of society, and her unethical characters. It somehow translates to a believability that doesn't come across many other places.
I'm sure some people reading this are shocked I don't include some other titles on my list. I've read Alas, Babylon but you could argue that it is more of a pre-apocalypse book, they just know it is coming. Earth Abides didn't capture me as much as some of the others, but I like how it portrays the earth-as-champion, over the destructive temporary humanity. I read the first of the S. M. Stirling series, Dies the Fire, but it came across to me as the fantasy of every D&D player, to prove that there was always a reason to study medieval weaponry... I found it tiring. I wouldn't even include The Road on my list, just because I thought the sparseness left too much to be desired. I know most would disagree with me on that one.
There are still some left I haven't read and have been saving for a rainy day - A Canticle for Leibowitz, which I've heard has some humor in it, and the graphic novel series Y: The Last Man.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Books Read 2010
I definitely read more in 2010 than I have in recent years, but that is by number of books, not by page number. I haven't added them up this year. The few books in italics were re-reads. Below each section I'll indicate my favorites of the year!
Fiction - General and Literary
Allen, Sarah A. - The Girl Who Chased the Moon (269 pgs)
Atwood, Margaret - Oryx and Crake (376 pgs)
Atwood, Margaret - The Year of the Flood (434 pgs)
Baker, Nicholson - Room Temperature (116 pgs)
Bloom, Amy - Away (240 pgs)
Bloom, Amy - Love Invents Us (205 pgs)
Bolaño, Robert - 2666 (898 pgs)
Bolaño, Robert - Monsieur Pain (134 pgs)
Bratenberg, Gerd - Egalia's Daughters (269 pgs)
Byatt, A.S. - The Children's Book (675 pgs)
Bynum, Sarah - Ms. Hempel Chronicles (193 pgs)
Calvino, Italo - If On a Winter's Night a Traveler (260 pgs)
Carey, Peter - Parrot & Olivier in America (380 pgs)
Catton, Eleanor - The Rehearsal (312 pgs)
Clifford, M. - The Book (302 pgs)
Coetzee, J. M. - Diary of a Bad Year (229 pgs)
DeLeeuw, Brian - In This Way I Was Saved (294 pgs)
DeLillo, Don - Point Omega (117 pgs)
DeLillo, Don - White Noise (310 pgs)
Donoghue, Emma - Room (321 pgs)
Egan, Jennifer - A Visit from the Good Squad (274 pgs)
Ferris, Joshua - Then We Came to the End (385 pgs)
Forster, E.M. - Howard's End (352 pgs)
Franzen, Jonathan - Freedom (562 pgs)
Galgut, Damon - In a Strange Room (180 pgs)
Galloway, Steven - The Cellist of Sarajevo (235 pgs)
Giordano, Paolo - The Solitude of Prime Numbers (288 pgs)
Greene, Graham - Our Man in Havana (242 pgs)
Hegarty, Ciara - The Road to the Sea (304 pgs)
Hely, Steve - How I Became a Famous Novelist (322 pgs)
Highsmith, Patricia - The Talented Mr. Ripley (295 pgs)
Hoffman, Alice - The Story Sisters (325 pgs)
Hornby, Nick - Juliet, Naked (406 pgs)
Isherwood, Christopher - A Single Man (186 pgs)
Jacobson, Howard - The Finkler Question (307 pgs)
Jeter, John - The Plunder Room (295 pgs)
Kafka, Franz - Metamorphosis (76 pgs)
Kerouac, Jack - On the Road (307 pgs)
Keyes, Daniel - Flowers for Algernon (274 pgs)
Kostova, Elizabeth - The Swan Thieves (565 pgs)
Krauss, Nicole - Great House
Langer, Adam - The Thieves of Manhattan (259 pgs)
Larsson, Stieg - The Girl Who Played With Fire (503 pgs)
Larsson, Stieg - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (563 pgs)
Le Carre', John - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (379 pgs)
Mackie, Emily - And This Is True (346 pgs)
Mahajan, Karan - Family Planning (264 pgs)
Mawer, Simon - The Glass Room (405 pgs)
McEwan, Ian - The Comfort of Strangers (153 pgs)
McEwan, Ian - Solar (304 pgs)
Mendelsohn, Jane - American Music (237 pgs)
Mitchell, David - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (479 pgs)
Mohamed, Nadifa - Black Mamba Boy (280 pgs)
Niven, Jennifer - Velva Jean Learns to Drive (404 pgs)
Petterson, Per - Out Stealing Horses (258 pgs)
Rachman, Tom - The Imperfectionists (272 pgs)
Russo, Richard - That Old Cape Magic (261 pgs)
Sackville, Amy - The Still Point (307 pgs)
Seth, Vikram - An Equal Music (484 pgs)
Shaw, Ali - The Girl with Glass Feet (287 pgs)
Shteyngart, Gary - Super Sad True Love Story (334 pgs)
Stewart, Leah - Husband and Wife (344 pgs)
Stockett, Kathryn - The Help (451 pgs)
Stuart, Julia - The Tower, The Zoo, and the Tortoise (304 pgs)
Best of fiction: Phew, great year. The Krauss, Kerouac, Petterson, Rachman, Seth, and Mitchell were all great. So was the Stockett, and the Atwood were even better the second time through.
Fiction - Science Fiction and Fantasy
Abbot, Edwin A. - Flatland (239 pgs)
Abercrombie, Joe - The Blade Itself (529 pgs)
Bacigalupi, Paolo - The Windup Girl (359 pgs)
Bradley, Darin - Noise (222 pgs)
Doctorow, Cory - Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (208 pgs)
Gibson, William - Zero History (404 pgs)
Heinlein, Robert - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (383 pgs)
LeGuin, Ursula - The Left Hand of Darkness (286 pgs)
LeGuin, Ursula - The Dispossessed (387 pgs)
Mieville, China - The City and the City (312 pgs)
Priest, Cherie - Boneshaker (416 pgs)
Sawyer, Robert - WWW:Wake (356 pgs)
Swirsky, Rachel - A Memory of Wind (no pgs)
Swirksy, Rachel - Eros, Philia, Agape (no pgs)
Tepper, Sheri S. - A Plague of Angels (560 pgs)
Tregillis, Ian - Bitter Seeds (352 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - Palimpsest (367 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - The Grass-Cutting Sword (129 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - Yume No Hon (149 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - The Orphan's Tales, vol. 1: In the Night Garden (483 pgs)
Wilson, Robert C. - Julian Comstock (413 pgs)
Yu, Charles - How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (239 pgs)
Best of science-fiction and fantasy: This is the year I fell in love with Catherynne Valente, and Palimpsest was probably my favorite book all year.
Fiction - YA
Bacigalupi, Paolo - Ship Breaker (323 pgs)
Collins, Suzanne - The Hunger Games (374 pgs)
Collins, Suzanne - Catching Fire (391 pgs)
Collins, Suzanne - Mockingjay (400 pgs)
Erskine, Kathryn - Mockingbird (235 pgs)
Myers, Walter Dean - Lockdown (256 pgs)
Williams-Garcia, Rita - One Crazy Summer (218 pgs)
Fiction - Graphic Novels
Doxiadis, Apostolos Logicomix (352 pgs)
Kindt, Matt - Revolver
Nonfiction including travel writing and memoirs
Apple, Sam - Schlepping through the Alps (288 pgs)
Carr, Nicholas - The Shallows (276 pgs)
Dunn, Jancee - Why is my Mother Getting a Tattoo? (208 pgs)
Feldman, Jessica, ed. - What Should I Read Next? (282 pgs)
Katz, Vincent - Black Mountain College: Experiment in Art (328 pgs)
Harris, Mary E. - The Arts at Black Mountain College (315 pgs)
Horowitz, Joseph - Artists in Exile (458 pgs)
Janzen, Rhoda - Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (221 pgs)
Johnson, Marilyn - This Book Is Overdue! (272 pgs)
Mahoney, Rosemary - Down the Nile (304 pgs)
Medina, John - Brain Rules (299 pgs)
Reardon, Joan - As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto (432 pgs)
Riotte, Louise - Carrots Love Tomatoes (224 pgs)
Shonagon, Sei - The Pillow Book (268 pgs)
Watkins, Glenn - The Gesualdo Hex (384 pgs)
Williams, Jonathan - A Palpable Elysium: portraits of genius and solitude (175 pgs)
Wilson, Edward - The Future of Life (229 pgs)
Best of non-fiction: The Nicholas Carr was just excellent, as were the letters of Julia Child.
Poetry
Bird, Caroline - Watering Can (82 pgs)
Budy, Andrea (ed) - When She Named Fire (409 pgs)
D.A., Adebe - Ex Nihilo (72 pgs)
Fenton, Elyse - Clamor (77 pgs)
Graber, Kathleen - The eternal city (74 pgs)
Hayes, Terrance - Lighthead (95 pgs)
Kilalea, Katharine - One Eye'd Leigh (53 pgs)
Loy, Mina - The Lost Lunar Baedeker (236 pgs)
Malech, Dora - Shore ordered ocean (93 pgs)
Masters, Edgar Lee - Spoon River Anthology (248 pgs)
Morse, Drew (ed) - The 2007 Rhysling Anthology (131 pgs)
O'Sullivan, Leanne - Cailleach: the Hag of Beara (82 pgs)
Parisi, Joseph - 100 Essential Modern Poems by Women (282 pgs)
Pastan, Linda - Queen of a Rainy Country (77 pgs)
Pastan, Linda - PM/AM (112 pgs)
Pushkin, Alexander - Selected Lyric Poetry (204 pgs)
Ryan, Kay - The Best of It (270 pgs)
Sandburg, Carl - The Complete Poems (797 pgs)
Strand, Mark - Selected Poems (152 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - Apocrypha (121 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - Oracles (82 pgs)
Youn, Monica - Ignatz (69 pgs)
Best of poetry: Adebe and Valente. This reminds me that I want to go back and read more of Mina Loy.
Short Stories
Barth, John - Lost in the Funhouse (201 pgs)
Baxter, Charles - A Relative Stranger (223 pgs)
Bloom, Amy - A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You (163 pgs)
Bloom, Amy - Where the God of Love Hangs Out (201 pgs)
De Lint, Charles - Muse and Reverie (350 pgs)
Diaz, Junot - Drown (208 pgs)
Donaghue, Emma - Touchy Subjects (278 pgs)
Eisenberg, Deborah - Twilight of the Superheroes (225 pgs)
Fowler, Karen Joy - What I Didn't See: Stories (208 pgs)
Franco, James - Palo Alto (197 pgs)
Homes, A. M. - The Safety of Objects (173 pgs)
Johnson, Denis - Jesus' Son (133 pgs)
Lahiri, Jhumpa - Unaccustomed Earth (333 pgs)
Meloy, Maile - Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It (219 pgs)
Munro, Alice - Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories (323 pgs)
Munro, Alice - Too Much Happiness (304 pgs)
Orringer, Julie - How to Breathe Underwater (226 pgs)
Tolstoy, Leo - Tolstoy's Short Fiction (510 pgs)
Best of short stories: Denis Johnson, Maile Meloy, and Amy Bloom.
Fiction - General and Literary
Allen, Sarah A. - The Girl Who Chased the Moon (269 pgs)
Atwood, Margaret - Oryx and Crake (376 pgs)
Atwood, Margaret - The Year of the Flood (434 pgs)
Baker, Nicholson - Room Temperature (116 pgs)
Bloom, Amy - Away (240 pgs)
Bloom, Amy - Love Invents Us (205 pgs)
Bolaño, Robert - 2666 (898 pgs)
Bolaño, Robert - Monsieur Pain (134 pgs)
Bratenberg, Gerd - Egalia's Daughters (269 pgs)
Byatt, A.S. - The Children's Book (675 pgs)
Bynum, Sarah - Ms. Hempel Chronicles (193 pgs)
Calvino, Italo - If On a Winter's Night a Traveler (260 pgs)
Carey, Peter - Parrot & Olivier in America (380 pgs)
Catton, Eleanor - The Rehearsal (312 pgs)
Clifford, M. - The Book (302 pgs)
Coetzee, J. M. - Diary of a Bad Year (229 pgs)
DeLeeuw, Brian - In This Way I Was Saved (294 pgs)
DeLillo, Don - Point Omega (117 pgs)
DeLillo, Don - White Noise (310 pgs)
Donoghue, Emma - Room (321 pgs)
Egan, Jennifer - A Visit from the Good Squad (274 pgs)
Ferris, Joshua - Then We Came to the End (385 pgs)
Forster, E.M. - Howard's End (352 pgs)
Franzen, Jonathan - Freedom (562 pgs)
Galgut, Damon - In a Strange Room (180 pgs)
Galloway, Steven - The Cellist of Sarajevo (235 pgs)
Giordano, Paolo - The Solitude of Prime Numbers (288 pgs)
Greene, Graham - Our Man in Havana (242 pgs)
Hegarty, Ciara - The Road to the Sea (304 pgs)
Hely, Steve - How I Became a Famous Novelist (322 pgs)
Highsmith, Patricia - The Talented Mr. Ripley (295 pgs)
Hoffman, Alice - The Story Sisters (325 pgs)
Hornby, Nick - Juliet, Naked (406 pgs)
Isherwood, Christopher - A Single Man (186 pgs)
Jacobson, Howard - The Finkler Question (307 pgs)
Jeter, John - The Plunder Room (295 pgs)
Kafka, Franz - Metamorphosis (76 pgs)
Kerouac, Jack - On the Road (307 pgs)
Keyes, Daniel - Flowers for Algernon (274 pgs)
Kostova, Elizabeth - The Swan Thieves (565 pgs)
Krauss, Nicole - Great House
Langer, Adam - The Thieves of Manhattan (259 pgs)
Larsson, Stieg - The Girl Who Played With Fire (503 pgs)
Larsson, Stieg - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (563 pgs)
Le Carre', John - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (379 pgs)
Mackie, Emily - And This Is True (346 pgs)
Mahajan, Karan - Family Planning (264 pgs)
Mawer, Simon - The Glass Room (405 pgs)
McEwan, Ian - The Comfort of Strangers (153 pgs)
McEwan, Ian - Solar (304 pgs)
Mendelsohn, Jane - American Music (237 pgs)
Mitchell, David - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (479 pgs)
Mohamed, Nadifa - Black Mamba Boy (280 pgs)
Niven, Jennifer - Velva Jean Learns to Drive (404 pgs)
Petterson, Per - Out Stealing Horses (258 pgs)
Rachman, Tom - The Imperfectionists (272 pgs)
Russo, Richard - That Old Cape Magic (261 pgs)
Sackville, Amy - The Still Point (307 pgs)
Seth, Vikram - An Equal Music (484 pgs)
Shaw, Ali - The Girl with Glass Feet (287 pgs)
Shteyngart, Gary - Super Sad True Love Story (334 pgs)
Stewart, Leah - Husband and Wife (344 pgs)
Stockett, Kathryn - The Help (451 pgs)
Stuart, Julia - The Tower, The Zoo, and the Tortoise (304 pgs)
Best of fiction: Phew, great year. The Krauss, Kerouac, Petterson, Rachman, Seth, and Mitchell were all great. So was the Stockett, and the Atwood were even better the second time through.
Fiction - Science Fiction and Fantasy
Abbot, Edwin A. - Flatland (239 pgs)
Abercrombie, Joe - The Blade Itself (529 pgs)
Bacigalupi, Paolo - The Windup Girl (359 pgs)
Bradley, Darin - Noise (222 pgs)
Doctorow, Cory - Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (208 pgs)
Gibson, William - Zero History (404 pgs)
Heinlein, Robert - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (383 pgs)
LeGuin, Ursula - The Left Hand of Darkness (286 pgs)
LeGuin, Ursula - The Dispossessed (387 pgs)
Mieville, China - The City and the City (312 pgs)
Priest, Cherie - Boneshaker (416 pgs)
Sawyer, Robert - WWW:Wake (356 pgs)
Swirsky, Rachel - A Memory of Wind (no pgs)
Swirksy, Rachel - Eros, Philia, Agape (no pgs)
Tepper, Sheri S. - A Plague of Angels (560 pgs)
Tregillis, Ian - Bitter Seeds (352 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - Palimpsest (367 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - The Grass-Cutting Sword (129 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - Yume No Hon (149 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - The Orphan's Tales, vol. 1: In the Night Garden (483 pgs)
Wilson, Robert C. - Julian Comstock (413 pgs)
Yu, Charles - How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (239 pgs)
Best of science-fiction and fantasy: This is the year I fell in love with Catherynne Valente, and Palimpsest was probably my favorite book all year.
Fiction - YA
Bacigalupi, Paolo - Ship Breaker (323 pgs)
Collins, Suzanne - The Hunger Games (374 pgs)
Collins, Suzanne - Catching Fire (391 pgs)
Collins, Suzanne - Mockingjay (400 pgs)
Erskine, Kathryn - Mockingbird (235 pgs)
Myers, Walter Dean - Lockdown (256 pgs)
Williams-Garcia, Rita - One Crazy Summer (218 pgs)
Fiction - Graphic Novels
Doxiadis, Apostolos Logicomix (352 pgs)
Kindt, Matt - Revolver
Nonfiction including travel writing and memoirs
Apple, Sam - Schlepping through the Alps (288 pgs)
Carr, Nicholas - The Shallows (276 pgs)
Dunn, Jancee - Why is my Mother Getting a Tattoo? (208 pgs)
Feldman, Jessica, ed. - What Should I Read Next? (282 pgs)
Katz, Vincent - Black Mountain College: Experiment in Art (328 pgs)
Harris, Mary E. - The Arts at Black Mountain College (315 pgs)
Horowitz, Joseph - Artists in Exile (458 pgs)
Janzen, Rhoda - Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (221 pgs)
Johnson, Marilyn - This Book Is Overdue! (272 pgs)
Mahoney, Rosemary - Down the Nile (304 pgs)
Medina, John - Brain Rules (299 pgs)
Reardon, Joan - As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto (432 pgs)
Riotte, Louise - Carrots Love Tomatoes (224 pgs)
Shonagon, Sei - The Pillow Book (268 pgs)
Watkins, Glenn - The Gesualdo Hex (384 pgs)
Williams, Jonathan - A Palpable Elysium: portraits of genius and solitude (175 pgs)
Wilson, Edward - The Future of Life (229 pgs)
Best of non-fiction: The Nicholas Carr was just excellent, as were the letters of Julia Child.
Poetry
Bird, Caroline - Watering Can (82 pgs)
Budy, Andrea (ed) - When She Named Fire (409 pgs)
D.A., Adebe - Ex Nihilo (72 pgs)
Fenton, Elyse - Clamor (77 pgs)
Graber, Kathleen - The eternal city (74 pgs)
Hayes, Terrance - Lighthead (95 pgs)
Kilalea, Katharine - One Eye'd Leigh (53 pgs)
Loy, Mina - The Lost Lunar Baedeker (236 pgs)
Malech, Dora - Shore ordered ocean (93 pgs)
Masters, Edgar Lee - Spoon River Anthology (248 pgs)
Morse, Drew (ed) - The 2007 Rhysling Anthology (131 pgs)
O'Sullivan, Leanne - Cailleach: the Hag of Beara (82 pgs)
Parisi, Joseph - 100 Essential Modern Poems by Women (282 pgs)
Pastan, Linda - Queen of a Rainy Country (77 pgs)
Pastan, Linda - PM/AM (112 pgs)
Pushkin, Alexander - Selected Lyric Poetry (204 pgs)
Ryan, Kay - The Best of It (270 pgs)
Sandburg, Carl - The Complete Poems (797 pgs)
Strand, Mark - Selected Poems (152 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - Apocrypha (121 pgs)
Valente, Catherynne M. - Oracles (82 pgs)
Youn, Monica - Ignatz (69 pgs)
Best of poetry: Adebe and Valente. This reminds me that I want to go back and read more of Mina Loy.
Short Stories
Barth, John - Lost in the Funhouse (201 pgs)
Baxter, Charles - A Relative Stranger (223 pgs)
Bloom, Amy - A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You (163 pgs)
Bloom, Amy - Where the God of Love Hangs Out (201 pgs)
De Lint, Charles - Muse and Reverie (350 pgs)
Diaz, Junot - Drown (208 pgs)
Donaghue, Emma - Touchy Subjects (278 pgs)
Eisenberg, Deborah - Twilight of the Superheroes (225 pgs)
Fowler, Karen Joy - What I Didn't See: Stories (208 pgs)
Franco, James - Palo Alto (197 pgs)
Homes, A. M. - The Safety of Objects (173 pgs)
Johnson, Denis - Jesus' Son (133 pgs)
Lahiri, Jhumpa - Unaccustomed Earth (333 pgs)
Meloy, Maile - Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It (219 pgs)
Munro, Alice - Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories (323 pgs)
Munro, Alice - Too Much Happiness (304 pgs)
Orringer, Julie - How to Breathe Underwater (226 pgs)
Tolstoy, Leo - Tolstoy's Short Fiction (510 pgs)
Best of short stories: Denis Johnson, Maile Meloy, and Amy Bloom.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Literary Blog Hop Week 2 - Most Difficult Literary Work
This week's question comes from Debbie Nance at Readerbuzz
What is the most difficult literary work you've ever read? What made it so difficult?
I imagine that since it asks "read," that implies actually finishing. Otherwise I'd be talking about how many times I have started-but-not-finished Ulysses by James Joyce. My only strategy with that one is to read it out loud, but I still end up putting it aside for something else. Nothing like a difficult book to get you to develop reader's ADD!
Some books that I've tackled that sometimes are considered difficult, such as Gravity's Rainbow, Les Miserables, and so on - these have been so enjoyable that it seemed completely worth it.
I'm going to choose Moby Dick for my answer to this question. Ah, Melville. I read this along with a group that was reading a chapter a day, and as Moby Dick has 365 chapters, it took a year. If I had read it on my own, I would surely have read it more quickly, so the process itself was a little tedious. I know this is supposed to be one of the great novels of life and death and obsession, and I definitely enjoyed the bits that had interesting characters and plot. Right when I would get into the story, Melville would go off on a tangent and talk about whale biology or the history of the shipping industry. Difficult books might give me reading ADD, but Melville clearly had writing ADD! Revenge, redemption, oh look, there's a pony! It was distracting and I wanted to abandon ship (har har) more than once, just on principle.
At the same time, I think of how many times reading one book has sent me off in search of more information about history or philosophies or people represented within it. Perhaps Melville was doing me a favor by providing all the possible context within the pages of one integrated novel!
As many difficult books as I have enjoyed, I still have several major ones I haven't gotten around to reading. I am trying to decide between War and Peace and Infinite Jest as the book I'll tackle during the winter holidays.
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