Books, again (2007)
Following the lead of a couple of my other friends, I've decided to restart the plan of making a list of the books I've read. This time I'll try a more orderly method and list them as I read them. (Don't know if I'll get back to past years, but at least this could end up being a list of books I read starting in 2007).
Paper Books
1) Carl Sagan: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Darkness (finished 01-12) Excellent. I strongly recommend it to everyone.
2) Isaac Asimov: Foundation and Earth (finished 01-16) Good, though I think weaker than the other Foundation books.
3) Stephen King: The Green Mile (finished 01-22) Good, different from King's usual fare, which made it interesting.
4) Kelley Armstrong: Stolen (finished 01-24) Alright. Rather trite, though.
5) Eric Stiller: Keep Australia on Your Left (finished 02-07) Excellent travel book about kayaking (partway) around Australia
6) Anthony Swofford: Jarhead (finished 02-11) Very good.
7) Barbara Michaels: The Wizard's Daughter (finished around 02-15) Pretty crap.
8) Poul Anderson: Byworlder (finished 02-24) Very interesting take on why aliens might visit us.
9) Bram Stoker: Dracula (finished 03-11) Good, but the diary style made it less engrossing than other books.
10) Robert Silverberg (editor): Earthmen and Strangers (finished 03-11) Mostly good, though being a variety of authors there was a wide range of quality in the different stories.
11) Dean Koontz: Velocity (finished 03-13) Enjoyable, fairly typical Koonts.
12) David Brin: Startide Rising (finished 03-17) Quite good, surprisingly so given the mass-market style of the cover.
13) Robin Cook: Contagion (finished 03-22) Better than the last few Cook novels I've read.
14) Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason: The Rule of Four (finished 03-29) As one reviewer said, it's like DaVinci Code for people with brains. Highly recommended.
15) Poul Anderson: Dialogue with Darkness (finished 04-02) Also really good. Variety of short stories about humankind expanding into the dark beyond Earth.
16-18) J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings (finished 05-05, counts as three even though they were in one volume) Excellent, obviously. Actually makes me want to reread Herodotus, of all people.
19) Michael Connelly: Trunk Music (finished 05-18) Pretty good. LA cop story by someone who knows what he's talking about.
20) John Grisham: The Broker (finished 05-25) Surprisingly good. I am a bit wary of "pop fiction", but this first Grisham novel I've read was quite enjoyable.
21) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (finished 07-28) Very good ending to a quality series. I'll probably write a separate post about it at some point. (I read it a second time after #22, but figured it wouldn't exactly be fair to count the same book twice so close together.)
22) Kathleen Ann Goonan: Light Music (finished 08-08) Fairly well-written, though a bit too mystical to count among my favorite science fiction.
23) David Markson: Wittgenstein's Mistress (finished August sometime, didn't really pay attention) Interesting, but it took me several months to get through it, since the stream-of-consciousness from the perspective of a crazy person is hard to get into for long periods of time.
24) Lee Child: The Visitor (finished 08-21) Pretty good, along the lines of John Grisham. I was disappointed in the "twist" at the end, though, since I saw it coming from about a third of the way through and then dismissed it as both too obvious and too outlandish.
25) L.E. Modesitt, Jr.: The Ethos Effect (finished 08-28) A good bit of worldbuilding, combined with discussion of some compelling ethical questions.
26) I know there was at least one other book I finished in September before leaving Mexico. Problem is, I can't for the life of me remember what it was...
27) Orson Scott Card: Shadow of the Giant (finished, say, 10-15) A good conclusion (?) to the Shadow series that follows events on Earth while Ender (of Ender's Game fame) is on the first colonization ship.
28) Douglas Adams: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (finished 12-15) Good, as before. I'm counting the individual parts separately, even though I have them all in one volume.
29) Neil Gaiman: Midnight Days (finished 12-29) Excellent, as with the rest of the Gaiman I've read.
Audio Books (downloaded and then heard from my iPod)
1) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (finished 01-09) Excellent, as are the rest of the HP series.
2) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (finished 01-22)
3) Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet (finished 01-25) Very good. More interesting and engaging than the Sherlock Holmes short stories, in my opinion.
4) H. G. Wells: War of the Worlds (finished 01-27)
5) H. G. Wells: The Time Machine (finished 01-29)
6) Jules Verne: A Journey to the Interior of the Earth (English Translation) (finished 02-02) All three of these were good, but typically of turn-of-the-century SF, didn't have very compelling characters, preferring to play off the scientific speculation itself.
7) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (finished 02-15, at which point I decided to quit beating around the bush and listen to the other three, as well)
8) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (finished 02-18)
9) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (finished 02-22)
10) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (finished 03-05)
11) Philip K. Dick: Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? (alas, an abridged version) (finished 03-08) Good, though I'd have preferred unabridged.
12) Earnest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea (finished 03-14) Good. Much as I detest Charlton Heston politically, he has a great voice for reading this one.
13) Frank Herbert: Dune (finished 04-25) Excellent, as it was the last time I read it. I'm now waiting for a coworker to give me audiobooks of the rest of the series, since this made me want to go through the whole thing again.
14) Frank Herbert: Dune Messiah (finished 05-16) Not too great, but you've got to read this one to fully understand the rest of the series.
15) Frank Herbert: Children of Dune (finished 05-18) Excellent. (As are the next three, so I'm not going to write anything additional about them.)
16) Frank Herbert: God Emperor of Dune (finished 05-23)
17) Frank Herbert: Heretics of Dune (finished 05-28)
18) Frank Herbert: Chapterhouse: Dune (finished 06-03)
19) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: Dune: House Atreides (finished 06-18) Surprisingly good. I wasn't expecting too much, since however well these two may write, they don't do it like Frank (Brian's dad). But I quite enjoyed it, despite the minor inconsistencies of the sort that sometimes crop up even when a single author later decides to write prequels. (Asimov's Foundation series comes to mind. As does the Hitchhiker's Guide "trilogy", the very name of which (there are like 5 books) is contradictory.)
20) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: Dune: House Harkonnen (finished 06-28) Also quite good.
21) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: Dune: House Corrino (finished 07-05) Good as well, though it introduced more plot inconsistencies than the previous two.
22) Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men (finished 10-07) A delightful (relatively) short story, made all the better by the guy who was reading it.
Paper Books
1) Carl Sagan: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Darkness (finished 01-12) Excellent. I strongly recommend it to everyone.
2) Isaac Asimov: Foundation and Earth (finished 01-16) Good, though I think weaker than the other Foundation books.
3) Stephen King: The Green Mile (finished 01-22) Good, different from King's usual fare, which made it interesting.
4) Kelley Armstrong: Stolen (finished 01-24) Alright. Rather trite, though.
5) Eric Stiller: Keep Australia on Your Left (finished 02-07) Excellent travel book about kayaking (partway) around Australia
6) Anthony Swofford: Jarhead (finished 02-11) Very good.
7) Barbara Michaels: The Wizard's Daughter (finished around 02-15) Pretty crap.
8) Poul Anderson: Byworlder (finished 02-24) Very interesting take on why aliens might visit us.
9) Bram Stoker: Dracula (finished 03-11) Good, but the diary style made it less engrossing than other books.
10) Robert Silverberg (editor): Earthmen and Strangers (finished 03-11) Mostly good, though being a variety of authors there was a wide range of quality in the different stories.
11) Dean Koontz: Velocity (finished 03-13) Enjoyable, fairly typical Koonts.
12) David Brin: Startide Rising (finished 03-17) Quite good, surprisingly so given the mass-market style of the cover.
13) Robin Cook: Contagion (finished 03-22) Better than the last few Cook novels I've read.
14) Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason: The Rule of Four (finished 03-29) As one reviewer said, it's like DaVinci Code for people with brains. Highly recommended.
15) Poul Anderson: Dialogue with Darkness (finished 04-02) Also really good. Variety of short stories about humankind expanding into the dark beyond Earth.
16-18) J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings (finished 05-05, counts as three even though they were in one volume) Excellent, obviously. Actually makes me want to reread Herodotus, of all people.
19) Michael Connelly: Trunk Music (finished 05-18) Pretty good. LA cop story by someone who knows what he's talking about.
20) John Grisham: The Broker (finished 05-25) Surprisingly good. I am a bit wary of "pop fiction", but this first Grisham novel I've read was quite enjoyable.
21) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (finished 07-28) Very good ending to a quality series. I'll probably write a separate post about it at some point. (I read it a second time after #22, but figured it wouldn't exactly be fair to count the same book twice so close together.)
22) Kathleen Ann Goonan: Light Music (finished 08-08) Fairly well-written, though a bit too mystical to count among my favorite science fiction.
23) David Markson: Wittgenstein's Mistress (finished August sometime, didn't really pay attention) Interesting, but it took me several months to get through it, since the stream-of-consciousness from the perspective of a crazy person is hard to get into for long periods of time.
24) Lee Child: The Visitor (finished 08-21) Pretty good, along the lines of John Grisham. I was disappointed in the "twist" at the end, though, since I saw it coming from about a third of the way through and then dismissed it as both too obvious and too outlandish.
25) L.E. Modesitt, Jr.: The Ethos Effect (finished 08-28) A good bit of worldbuilding, combined with discussion of some compelling ethical questions.
26) I know there was at least one other book I finished in September before leaving Mexico. Problem is, I can't for the life of me remember what it was...
27) Orson Scott Card: Shadow of the Giant (finished, say, 10-15) A good conclusion (?) to the Shadow series that follows events on Earth while Ender (of Ender's Game fame) is on the first colonization ship.
28) Douglas Adams: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (finished 12-15) Good, as before. I'm counting the individual parts separately, even though I have them all in one volume.
29) Neil Gaiman: Midnight Days (finished 12-29) Excellent, as with the rest of the Gaiman I've read.
Audio Books (downloaded and then heard from my iPod)
1) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (finished 01-09) Excellent, as are the rest of the HP series.
2) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (finished 01-22)
3) Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet (finished 01-25) Very good. More interesting and engaging than the Sherlock Holmes short stories, in my opinion.
4) H. G. Wells: War of the Worlds (finished 01-27)
5) H. G. Wells: The Time Machine (finished 01-29)
6) Jules Verne: A Journey to the Interior of the Earth (English Translation) (finished 02-02) All three of these were good, but typically of turn-of-the-century SF, didn't have very compelling characters, preferring to play off the scientific speculation itself.
7) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (finished 02-15, at which point I decided to quit beating around the bush and listen to the other three, as well)
8) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (finished 02-18)
9) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (finished 02-22)
10) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (finished 03-05)
11) Philip K. Dick: Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? (alas, an abridged version) (finished 03-08) Good, though I'd have preferred unabridged.
12) Earnest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea (finished 03-14) Good. Much as I detest Charlton Heston politically, he has a great voice for reading this one.
13) Frank Herbert: Dune (finished 04-25) Excellent, as it was the last time I read it. I'm now waiting for a coworker to give me audiobooks of the rest of the series, since this made me want to go through the whole thing again.
14) Frank Herbert: Dune Messiah (finished 05-16) Not too great, but you've got to read this one to fully understand the rest of the series.
15) Frank Herbert: Children of Dune (finished 05-18) Excellent. (As are the next three, so I'm not going to write anything additional about them.)
16) Frank Herbert: God Emperor of Dune (finished 05-23)
17) Frank Herbert: Heretics of Dune (finished 05-28)
18) Frank Herbert: Chapterhouse: Dune (finished 06-03)
19) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: Dune: House Atreides (finished 06-18) Surprisingly good. I wasn't expecting too much, since however well these two may write, they don't do it like Frank (Brian's dad). But I quite enjoyed it, despite the minor inconsistencies of the sort that sometimes crop up even when a single author later decides to write prequels. (Asimov's Foundation series comes to mind. As does the Hitchhiker's Guide "trilogy", the very name of which (there are like 5 books) is contradictory.)
20) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: Dune: House Harkonnen (finished 06-28) Also quite good.
21) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: Dune: House Corrino (finished 07-05) Good as well, though it introduced more plot inconsistencies than the previous two.
22) Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men (finished 10-07) A delightful (relatively) short story, made all the better by the guy who was reading it.