Books Read 2006
That's it. I can't put off doing this any longer; I'm such a perfectionist that I want to do a great, thoughtful job of capturing why I liked, or didn't like, each of the following books. I think I'm just a lot busier than I've been in past years, and so this project has languished. And the year is almost a third over already.
So, without further ado, these are the books I read last year.
Books I Read This Year (2006)
Red
Ted Dekker
I'm a sucker for finishing a trilogy. This was the middle book.
The Now Habit: A Strategic Guide for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play
Neil Fiore
Procrastination is one of my biggest problems. Far beyond the realization that "procrastination is bad," this book drills into some of the principles of "why" and presents some practical techniques. I recommend it for chronic procrastinators.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Stephen D. Levitt
I would have loved this book even had I not been trapped on an airplane. The author shares a lot of surprising insights resulting from his research. Some of it is a bit controversial. (One chapter ties the legalization of abortion to a drop in violent crime rates sixteen years later, for example.)
White
Ted Dekker
I'm a sucker for finishing a trilogy. This was the last book.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi
One of the better books I've ever read, this book is about how mountain climbers and chess players and other diverse individuals describe their experiences in very similar ways. Explains how these "flow experiences" are attainable by all people, no matter how ordinary, and presents factors whose presence or absence contributes to flow.
The Cartoon Guide to Genetics
Larry Gonick
Turned out to be a timely read. I wish I remembered a little more, but at the time I was awestruck by what I thought to be a decent comprehension of the process of genetic reproduction. The cartoons make a three-dimensional topic much more accessible than simple textual descriptions. Highly recommended.
Mister God, This Is Anna
Fynn
The title implies a cutesy sort of gift-book read. This was actually quite worthwhile and thought-provoking. It's the true account of a remarkable child, written by someone who knew her. She seemed to have access to a deep and profound way of seeing the world; this book is about that, and about some of her near-mystical insights about God (articulated in very plain, rough language). Recommended.
The Way of the Superior Man
David Deida
I was hoping for another insightful manifesto of the masculine psyche along the lines of Fire in the Belly (or its lighter-weight Christian counterpart, Wild at Heart). This book was either dangerously profound or dangerously wrong, and I wasn't sure until a few days had passed after finishing it. It spoke with a compelling certainty and a poetic delivery, and it had been well-reviewed on Amazon. The author makes some very bold claims about gender roles (polarities); claims about certain patterns that will be true about the interactions of men and women, if they are properly aligned with their true sexual polarities. Claims about what "all" women want ("don't force the feminine to make decisions"). And ultimately, most disturbingly, claims that appear to set the bar lower for women ("the feminine is chaotic and tempestuous, the opposite of rationality so don't expect her to always be able to engage at a rational level"). At one point I thought, "He's not describing women, he's describing children" - as if women should be excused from the journey of spiritual growth and emotional self-mastery simply because they don't have the same capacity. There are probably some true generalizations here as well, but they're dangerously intermixed with bad ones and I don't think I'll pick it up again.
Black Dogs
Ian McEwan
Another good read from Ian McEwan, author of Saturday. Hint: the black dogs are a symbolic premonition of the future. (Er, I think that's all I can remember, but it is well-written and I remember liking it.)
PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives
Frank Warren
If you haven't read PostSecret, then you don't know what you're missing. Profound and raw, written by a host of anonymous people sharing their closest secrets, it sustains multiple readings.
Kornwolf
Tristan Egolf
A rare impulse-borrow from the library; I usually find it depressing to pick up unfamiliar titles from the new fiction section, if I haven't already seen them at the New Books table at Borders. Impressions like "Secondhand" and "less relevant" associations flicker into my mind. This was a really interesting book by a now-dead visionary writer, a werewolf story set among the Amish. As someone who grew up in a rural area that had a good smattering of Amish, I enjoyed the backdrop, and the style was early Stephen King (with perhaps a more intellectual bent). Not sure I loved the ending so much, but . . . arroooooooh.
The Miraculous Adventures of Edward Tulane
Kate DiCamillo
I read this in one sitting on a stolen weekday afternoon at Borders. For a long children's book, it was enjoyable and moving and good enough to vie with the "classics" I'll always hold dear. (Well, maybe not The Wind in the Willows good.)
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Jeannette Walls
An awesome book that I devoured on our vacation to Arizona, these are the memoirs of someone with a very, very unusual childhood. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed every page; the writing style is so good and engaging. I highly recommend this as one of my favorite books I've read in recent memory.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky
Short and sweet; a coming-of-age story told in first-person perspective. A great read.
The Seven Levels of Intimacy
Matthew Kelly
Provides a good model of the multiple "levels" of relationship between people. While it may or may not be an exactly correct model, it's really much more helpful and measurable than a vague scale between "intimate" and "not intimate." It first disassociates intimacy from sex, then spends about a hundred pages in setup talk about human relationships, and then delineates the seven levels. It was interesting to think of people in my life and identify where I was on the continuum with each one (although it's not always a clearly demarcated boundary and you might be in different areas with the same person in different aspects of life). The first level is "cliches" (someone in your office building, "hey, how're you doing"); the second level is "facts" (weather, sports); the third level is "opinions"; the fourth level is "hopes and dreams"; the fifth level is "feelings"; the sixth level is "faults, fears, and failures"; the seventh level is "legitimate needs." Obviously the book explains itself better than my summary can, but aside from a couple of rather plodding sections it was and is a recommended read.
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
A scary but good read; I'd always meant to read it, but based on a final-straw recommendation from rdecker, I picked it up. It's set in a fascist, religiously intolerant society in the not too distant future. I now understand why it's a classic.
The History of Love
Nicole Krauss
I was on a roll with the book-club fiction genre at this point. This was a good novel, moving and sometimes laugh-out-loud, about several disconnected story arcs that finally get linked in the end. I liked it a lot.
Mindfulness in Plain English
Bhante H. Gunaratana
A book about meditation. My main takeaway is that it sounds like something I ought to be doing, especially with my mind's tendency to dominate with repetitious thought patterns. This is a good way to clear and calm yourself. There are several kinds of meditation, and I believe this book is about the vipassana variety. I have no experience with doing this, though, and I'm having trouble motivating myself to start (ie, making time).
Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I just wanted to have a book with whores in the title in my reading list. Just kidding; I've enjoyed two other books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the past. This one was much shorter, and could possibly be his last--he's quite old now. His books evoke another time and place for me, and are all translated from the Spanish.
To Feel Stuff
Andrea Seigel
A good, modern love/psychology story. Snappy, not too long.
I'm a Stranger Here Myself
Bill Bryson
A collection of columns about life in America from travel essayist Bill Bryson. Enjoyable, but somewhat lightweight.
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
Chuck Klosterman
A "pop culture manifesto" that really consists of several topical essays, occasionally devolving into stream of consciousness rants. Usually entertaining, though, and sometimes painfully true. Occasionally arrogant and wrong-headed, but a page-turner nonetheless.
His Majesty's Dragon
Naomi Novik
Jane Austin meets Patrick O'Brien. A well-written story about an English naval captain who intercepts an invaluable about-to-hatch dragon's egg from the French. A solid tale set in an alternate reality where dragons coexisted in the time of the Napoleonic War; great visual battles ensue. Book one of three. Read while in the hospital after Audrey's delivery.
Throne of Jade
Naomi Novik
Captain and dragon go to the Orient. Book two of three. Read while in the hospital with Dana's pancreatitis. (These books and hospitals - maybe that association is what's stopped me from picking up book three.)
See also previous years' lists - Books Read 2003 and Books Read 2004 and Books Read 2005.
So, without further ado, these are the books I read last year.
Books I Read This Year (2006)
Red
Ted Dekker
I'm a sucker for finishing a trilogy. This was the middle book.
The Now Habit: A Strategic Guide for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play
Neil Fiore
Procrastination is one of my biggest problems. Far beyond the realization that "procrastination is bad," this book drills into some of the principles of "why" and presents some practical techniques. I recommend it for chronic procrastinators.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Stephen D. Levitt
I would have loved this book even had I not been trapped on an airplane. The author shares a lot of surprising insights resulting from his research. Some of it is a bit controversial. (One chapter ties the legalization of abortion to a drop in violent crime rates sixteen years later, for example.)
White
Ted Dekker
I'm a sucker for finishing a trilogy. This was the last book.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi
One of the better books I've ever read, this book is about how mountain climbers and chess players and other diverse individuals describe their experiences in very similar ways. Explains how these "flow experiences" are attainable by all people, no matter how ordinary, and presents factors whose presence or absence contributes to flow.
The Cartoon Guide to Genetics
Larry Gonick
Turned out to be a timely read. I wish I remembered a little more, but at the time I was awestruck by what I thought to be a decent comprehension of the process of genetic reproduction. The cartoons make a three-dimensional topic much more accessible than simple textual descriptions. Highly recommended.
Mister God, This Is Anna
Fynn
The title implies a cutesy sort of gift-book read. This was actually quite worthwhile and thought-provoking. It's the true account of a remarkable child, written by someone who knew her. She seemed to have access to a deep and profound way of seeing the world; this book is about that, and about some of her near-mystical insights about God (articulated in very plain, rough language). Recommended.
The Way of the Superior Man
David Deida
I was hoping for another insightful manifesto of the masculine psyche along the lines of Fire in the Belly (or its lighter-weight Christian counterpart, Wild at Heart). This book was either dangerously profound or dangerously wrong, and I wasn't sure until a few days had passed after finishing it. It spoke with a compelling certainty and a poetic delivery, and it had been well-reviewed on Amazon. The author makes some very bold claims about gender roles (polarities); claims about certain patterns that will be true about the interactions of men and women, if they are properly aligned with their true sexual polarities. Claims about what "all" women want ("don't force the feminine to make decisions"). And ultimately, most disturbingly, claims that appear to set the bar lower for women ("the feminine is chaotic and tempestuous, the opposite of rationality so don't expect her to always be able to engage at a rational level"). At one point I thought, "He's not describing women, he's describing children" - as if women should be excused from the journey of spiritual growth and emotional self-mastery simply because they don't have the same capacity. There are probably some true generalizations here as well, but they're dangerously intermixed with bad ones and I don't think I'll pick it up again.
Black Dogs
Ian McEwan
Another good read from Ian McEwan, author of Saturday. Hint: the black dogs are a symbolic premonition of the future. (Er, I think that's all I can remember, but it is well-written and I remember liking it.)
PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives
Frank Warren
If you haven't read PostSecret, then you don't know what you're missing. Profound and raw, written by a host of anonymous people sharing their closest secrets, it sustains multiple readings.
Kornwolf
Tristan Egolf
A rare impulse-borrow from the library; I usually find it depressing to pick up unfamiliar titles from the new fiction section, if I haven't already seen them at the New Books table at Borders. Impressions like "Secondhand" and "less relevant" associations flicker into my mind. This was a really interesting book by a now-dead visionary writer, a werewolf story set among the Amish. As someone who grew up in a rural area that had a good smattering of Amish, I enjoyed the backdrop, and the style was early Stephen King (with perhaps a more intellectual bent). Not sure I loved the ending so much, but . . . arroooooooh.
The Miraculous Adventures of Edward Tulane
Kate DiCamillo
I read this in one sitting on a stolen weekday afternoon at Borders. For a long children's book, it was enjoyable and moving and good enough to vie with the "classics" I'll always hold dear. (Well, maybe not The Wind in the Willows good.)
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Jeannette Walls
An awesome book that I devoured on our vacation to Arizona, these are the memoirs of someone with a very, very unusual childhood. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed every page; the writing style is so good and engaging. I highly recommend this as one of my favorite books I've read in recent memory.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky
Short and sweet; a coming-of-age story told in first-person perspective. A great read.
The Seven Levels of Intimacy
Matthew Kelly
Provides a good model of the multiple "levels" of relationship between people. While it may or may not be an exactly correct model, it's really much more helpful and measurable than a vague scale between "intimate" and "not intimate." It first disassociates intimacy from sex, then spends about a hundred pages in setup talk about human relationships, and then delineates the seven levels. It was interesting to think of people in my life and identify where I was on the continuum with each one (although it's not always a clearly demarcated boundary and you might be in different areas with the same person in different aspects of life). The first level is "cliches" (someone in your office building, "hey, how're you doing"); the second level is "facts" (weather, sports); the third level is "opinions"; the fourth level is "hopes and dreams"; the fifth level is "feelings"; the sixth level is "faults, fears, and failures"; the seventh level is "legitimate needs." Obviously the book explains itself better than my summary can, but aside from a couple of rather plodding sections it was and is a recommended read.
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
A scary but good read; I'd always meant to read it, but based on a final-straw recommendation from rdecker, I picked it up. It's set in a fascist, religiously intolerant society in the not too distant future. I now understand why it's a classic.
The History of Love
Nicole Krauss
I was on a roll with the book-club fiction genre at this point. This was a good novel, moving and sometimes laugh-out-loud, about several disconnected story arcs that finally get linked in the end. I liked it a lot.
Mindfulness in Plain English
Bhante H. Gunaratana
A book about meditation. My main takeaway is that it sounds like something I ought to be doing, especially with my mind's tendency to dominate with repetitious thought patterns. This is a good way to clear and calm yourself. There are several kinds of meditation, and I believe this book is about the vipassana variety. I have no experience with doing this, though, and I'm having trouble motivating myself to start (ie, making time).
Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I just wanted to have a book with whores in the title in my reading list. Just kidding; I've enjoyed two other books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the past. This one was much shorter, and could possibly be his last--he's quite old now. His books evoke another time and place for me, and are all translated from the Spanish.
To Feel Stuff
Andrea Seigel
A good, modern love/psychology story. Snappy, not too long.
I'm a Stranger Here Myself
Bill Bryson
A collection of columns about life in America from travel essayist Bill Bryson. Enjoyable, but somewhat lightweight.
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
Chuck Klosterman
A "pop culture manifesto" that really consists of several topical essays, occasionally devolving into stream of consciousness rants. Usually entertaining, though, and sometimes painfully true. Occasionally arrogant and wrong-headed, but a page-turner nonetheless.
His Majesty's Dragon
Naomi Novik
Jane Austin meets Patrick O'Brien. A well-written story about an English naval captain who intercepts an invaluable about-to-hatch dragon's egg from the French. A solid tale set in an alternate reality where dragons coexisted in the time of the Napoleonic War; great visual battles ensue. Book one of three. Read while in the hospital after Audrey's delivery.
Throne of Jade
Naomi Novik
Captain and dragon go to the Orient. Book two of three. Read while in the hospital with Dana's pancreatitis. (These books and hospitals - maybe that association is what's stopped me from picking up book three.)
See also previous years' lists - Books Read 2003 and Books Read 2004 and Books Read 2005.