Brian. Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 (edited) My aims for the coming year are quite simple. Reduce my physical TBR by only buying a new physical books for every 3 or 4 read. Use the library and charity shops where possible. Beat the fear of large books. Knock some more off my 1001 challenge and round the world challenge Although I have read 19 more books in 2013 than 2012 I have only read 470 more pages. Although I do like novellas I have found myself avoiding large books and I want to change that in 2014. I won't be setting myself a target of hit in 2014 because I genuinely don't know how much reading I'll get done and I just want to concentrate on enjoying the books I do read. Edited December 17, 2013 by Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 17, 2013 Author Share Posted December 17, 2013 (edited) To Be Read. The Rachel Paper - Martin Amis Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami Hard-Boiled Wonderland & the End of the World - Haruki Murakami The Human Stain - Philip Roth The Plot Against America - Philip Roth Dracula - Bram Stoker Brighton Rock - Graham Greene A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway Tales from the Thousand and One Nights - Anonymous Emma - Jane Austen The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli Frankenstein - Mary Shelley Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess Ulysses - James Joyce The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac Christ Stopped At Eboli - Carlo Levi Nausea - Jean-Paul Sartre The Age of Reason - Jean-Paul Sartre Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut Pompeii - Robert Harris The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh The Acid House - Irvine Welsh Filth - Irvine Welsh The Black Dahlia - James Ellroy Archangel - Robert Harris Enigma - Robert Harris Berlin Game - Len Deighton Smiley's People - John le Carre Popcorn - Ben Elton To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee Harper The Shipping News - Annie Proulx The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro The Love of the Last Tycoon - F. Scott Fitzgerald Shallows - Tim Winton The Collectors - David Baldacci Contact - Carl Sagan The Tesseract - Alex Garland Madame Bovary - Gustave Falubert The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson Where Angels Fear to Tread - E.M. Forster White Castle - Orhan Pamuk The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde Don Quixote - Cervantes Maggie Cassidy - Jack Kerouac The Hypnotist - Lars Kepler All That I Am - Anna Funder Mort - Terry Pratchett We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood Final Testament of the Holy Bible - James Frey Germinal - Emile Zola The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell Moth Smoke - Mohsin Hamid Life of Pi - Yann Martel Deadline - Simon Kernick The Hobbit - Tolkien The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe Lord of the Flies - William Golding Sign of the Cross - Chris Kuzneski Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco A Week in December - Sebastian Faulks The Road - Cormac McCarthy The Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien The Two Towers - Tolkien The Return of the King - Tolkien The Whale Rider - Witi Ihimaera Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift The Help - Kathryn Stockett Cairo Swan Song - Said Mekkawi Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen The Book Thief - Markus Zusak The Following Story - Cees Nooteboom Flats & Quake - Rudolph Wurlitzer Last Evenings on Earth - Roberto Bolano Almost Transparent Blue - Ryu Murakami One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs Dead Souls - Nikolai Gogol Fathers and Sons - Ivan Turgenev Confessions of an English Opium Eater - Thomas de Quincey The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt Put Out More Flags - Evelyn Waugh The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys Cancer Ward - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Neuromancer - William Gibson A Sorrow Beyond Dreams - Peter Handke One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey Robopocalypse - Daniel Wilson Out - Natsuo Kirino Born Under a Million Suns - Andrea Busfield Man in My Basement - Walter Mosley Dark Spring - Unica Zurn The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein Confessions of a Mask - Yukio Mishima Smack - Melvin Burgess The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller Airframe - Michael Crichton The Girl in Berlin - Elizabeth Wilson The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera We Are All Made of Glue - Marina Lewycka Two Caravans - Marina Lewycka American Gods - Neil Gaiman My Apprenticeship - Maxim Gorky My Childhood - Maxim Gorky Dubliners - James Joyce The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster 2666 - Roberto Bolano The Plague - Albert Camus Edited December 17, 2013 by Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 17, 2013 Author Share Posted December 17, 2013 (edited) Books Acquired. Edited December 17, 2013 by Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 17, 2013 Author Share Posted December 17, 2013 Open for business. Post away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 (edited) I have read these off your TBR pile Brian...but some of them were a long time ago. They were all good I would happily read any of them again. Emma - Jane Austen A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver Lord of the Flies - William Golding Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift The Help - Kathryn Stockett The Book Thief - Markus Zusak The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys American Gods - Neil Gaiman I have THESE on MY TBR: Frankenstein - Mary Shelley To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee Harper Madame Bovary - Gustave Falubert The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood Life of Pi - Yann Martel Lord of the Flies - William Golding (need to re-read) Confessions of an English Opium Eater - Thomas de Quincey Edited December 18, 2013 by vodkafan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signor Finzione Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 I found The God of Small Things to be a bit dull and confusing the first time I read it, but upon re-reading it I realised that it's actually beautiful. (Although trying to teach it to a class of A-level students who hated it was less than beautiful . . .) I also enjoyed Gulliver's Travels, Oryx and Crake, The Secret Agent, Mort, Dracula, The Book Thief, The Lovely Bones and all the Tolkien. I absolutely hated Joyce and de Quincey, so good luck with those! Good luck also with reducing the book-buying. I try it every year and it never works. Have a good year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 These I loved or really liked: To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee Harper Mort - Terry Pratchett The Hobbit - Tolkien The Book Thief - Markus Zusak The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey These are on my TBR: On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami Dracula - Bram Stoker Tales from the Thousand and One Nights - Anonymous Emma - Jane Austen Frankenstein - Mary Shelley Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy Ulysses - James Joyce The Love of the Last Tycoon - F. Scott Fitzgerald Madame Bovary - Gustave Falubert The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde Don Quixote - Cervantes A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce Germinal - Emile Zola Life of Pi - Yann Martel Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe The Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien The Two Towers - Tolkien The Return of the King - Tolkien Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein Dubliners - James Joyce These are on my wishlist: Contact - Carl Sagan The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell Neuromancer - William Gibson The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells American Gods - Neil Gaiman The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster Happy Reading in 2014 ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marie H Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 You have a great list there Brian, especially Dracula - Bram Stoker Brighton Rock - Graham Greene Emma - Jane Austen To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee Harper and these are absolutely classics: The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro Germinal - Emile Zola Life of Pi - Yann Martel Lord of the Flies - William Golding One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez and I have there on my TBR too A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli Frankenstein - Mary Shelley Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood The Book Thief - Markus Zusak One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Dead Souls - Nikolai Gogol The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells Hope you have a good reading year . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidsmum Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 I love looking at people's new lists Bird Song Sebastian Faulks On Chesil Beach Ian Mckewan To Kill A Mocking Bird Harper Lee The Help Kathryn Stockett The Book Thief Marcus Zusak All great reads but if i had to pick one then the Harper Lee would win hands down I also have on my TBR pile Dracula Bram Stoker The Shipping News Annie Proulx Remains Of The Day Kazuo Ishiguro Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert Where Angels Fear To Tread E M Forster The God Of Small Things Arundhati Roy Oryx & Crake Margaret Atwood We Need To Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver Life Of Pi Yann Martel Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe A Week In December Sebastian Faulks The Road Cormac McCarthy The Corrections Jonathon Franzen One Hundred Years Of Solitude Gabriela Garcia Marquez We Are Made Of Glue Marina Lewyka Two Caravans Marina Lewycka Good job you don't live near me Brian, i can see you'd be serious competition in the charity shops Happy Reading in 2014 Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 18, 2013 Author Share Posted December 18, 2013 Thanks for the comments. Kidsmum - This year I donated far more than I bought so I would probably just increase your charity shop buying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobblybear Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Some good ones on your TBR list. Some I particularly enjoyed are: Contact - Carl Sagan To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee Life of Pi - Yann Martel The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt Airframe - Michael Crichton The Help - Kathryn Stockett The Book Thief - Kathryn Stockett Happy reading for 2014. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissy Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 Happy Reading in 2014 Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devi Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Happy reading in 2014 Brian! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 I'm still reading through Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima and I am really enjoying it. I had hoped that I would have finished it by now but I have had little chance to read recently due to work and study commitments. I was unsure how much I would actually like it as I didn't really get on with The Temple of the Golden Pavilion but I now suspect this was due story itself not appealing to me rather than the writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted January 20, 2014 Author Share Posted January 20, 2014 Confessions Of A Mask by Yukio MishimaSynopsisConfessions of a Mask is the story of an adolescent who must learn to live with the painful fact that he is unlike other young men. Mishima's protagonist discovers that he is becoming a homosexual in polite, post-war Japan. To survive, he must live behind a mask of propriety.(taken from Goodreads)My Thoughts I've had this book on my TBR for about a year but after reading The Temple of the Golden Pavilion I had my doubts as to whether or not I would like it. I found that book to be slow and plodding and the writing never grabbed me at any point. At the start of the year I decided that I would tackle some of the books that I have been putting off so this seemed to be a good place to start. The subject matter is probably more suited to me than The Golden Pavilion. The story follows Kochan through his adolescent years while he is coming to terms with that fact that he is gay. In the younger years of the story he just sees this as getting on with his male friends better than the females he knows. As this progresses he realises that he doesn't have the same interest in girls as his friends and this inevitably leads of quite a lot of soul searching. As a survival mechanism he develops a kind of mask to show the rest of the world that he is 'normal'. This even goes so far as to develop a relationship with the sister of one of his friends. He starts to feel that he could love this girls and is hopeful for the relationship until they kiss. The writing is similar to The Golden Pavilion but this time I felt far more involved and interested in the book. Mishima portrays the pain and mental anguish really well and I found myself reading the book in big chunks. I did need quiet to read it though as there is a lot involved on each page. 4/5 (I really liked it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobblybear Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Nice review. It sounds like a pretty interesting subject, so I have added it to my wishlist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Nice review ! It sounds interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I am hopelessly behind in checking out everyone's new reading lists for the year, but I still want to wish you a great reading year ahead. You have an awesome-looking TBR pile. I have read some of those and have many others on my TBR pile, so I look forward to reading your reviews! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 So I managed a grand total of 0 books read for pleasure during February. I read plenty about engineering related topics but they weren't always pleasurable. My work load seems to be easing up a little so hopefully I'll manage a few at least in March. I'm going to start with Start Where You Are by Pema Chodron. I've had this book on my shelves for a while and I think I may have read it before. It is calling to me though and it feels like a good time to read it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I hope you have a better reading month in March ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Just think, the only way from here is up! I hope you have a more enjoyable reading month in March. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 I have managed to do some reading this week, it has been great. I've got 3 books on the go at the moment on 3 completely different topics. Start Where You Are - Pema Chodron Airframe - Michael Crichton Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle - Tom Venuto I don't usually read more than one book at a time but the variety of topics really suits me at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 I believe Airframe is on my wishlist. I hope you enjoy all three of the books . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobblybear Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 I've read Airframe a couple of times, and really enjoyed it (though I was slightly disappointed the second time around). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 I'm very late to this thread, I'm still making rounds in the new reading logs of the year You seem to have nice, simple aims for the year, I wish you good luck Your Books Acquired -thread is empty, does that mean you have not yet acquired any books this year? Your TBR is great as always, I can see the 1001 Books influence You have some really amazing books ahead of you, namelyDraculaA Clockwork OrangeTrainspottingTo Kill a MockingbirdThe HelpThe Book ThiefThe Art of Racing in the Rain And I really want to know what you think of The Road when you get to reading it. It's such a depressing movie... I do wonder if reading the book would be torturing oneself even further. And please let me know if The Man in My Basement is any good! I've been thining about it ever since 2010. Almost bought it. Didn't. Still regret it Confessions Of A Mask by Yukio Mishima Great review, this is going on my wishlist How are your studies going, by the way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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