Himself's 2011 - And Beyond - Reading Log

[Himself]

Currently Reading:

 

Catch-22, Joseph Heller

 

Read:

 

December, 2010

 

1. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson 5/5

2. Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer 4/5

3. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson 2/5

4. Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl 5/5

5. Dirk gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams 4/5

6. The Time Machine, H. G. Wells 3/5

7. Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut 4/5

 

January, 2011

 

1. Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne 3/5

2. Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy 4/5

3. Point Omega, Don Delillo 4/5

4. The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy 3/5

5. Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth 5/5

6. King Lear, William Shakepeare 5/5

7. Contact, Carl Sagan 3/5

8. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley 5/5

9. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro 4/5

 

February, 2011

 

1. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Edited February 4, 2011 by Himself

[Himself]

TBR, both pile and ethereal

 

1. Adams, Douglas – Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

2. Adams, Douglas – Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

3. Aquinas, Saint Thomas – Summa Theologica

4. Aristotle – Nicomachean Ethics

5. Aristotle – Politics

6. Aristotle – The Poetics

7. Asimov, Isaac – Forward the Foundation

8. Asimov, Isaac – Foundation

9. Asimov, Isaac – Foundation and Earth

10. Asimov, Isaac – Foundation and Empire

11. Asimov, Isaac – Foundation’s Edge

12. Asimov, Isaac – Prelude to Foundation

13. Asimov, Isaac – Second Foundation

14. Asimov, Isaac – Youth

15. Aurelius, Emperor Marcus – Meditations

16. Austen, Jane –The Complete Works

17. Auster, Paul – Invisible

18. Auster, Paul – The New York Trilogy

19. Ayer, A. J. – Language, Truth and Logic

20. Bacon, Francis – Essays

21. Blake, William – Poems

22. Blake, William – Songs of Innocence and Experience

23. Borges, Jorge Luis – Labyrinths

24. Bradbury, Ray – Fahrenheit 451

25. Bradbury, Ray – Something Wicked This Way Comes

26. Bradbury, Ray – The Illustrated Man

27. Bronte, Emily – Wuthering Heights

28. Brooks, Max – The Zombie Survival Guide

29. Brooks, Max – World War Z

30. Bulgakov, Mikhail – The Master and Margarita

31. Burgess, Anthony – A Clockwork Orange

32. Byron, George Gordon – Don Juan

33. Camus, Albert – The Plague

34. Carroll, Lewis – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

35. Carroll, Lewis – The Game of Logic

36. Carroll, Lewis – The Hunting of the Snark

37. Carroll, Lewis – Through the Looking-Glass

38. Carson, Kevin – Organization Theory

39. Carver, Raymond – Beginners

40. Cervantes, Miguel de – Don Quixote

41. Chabon, Michael – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

42. Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich – Uncle Vanya

43. Child, Lee – Killing Floor

44. Chodorov, Frank – The Rise and Fall of Society

45. Cicero, Marcus Tullius – Letters

46. Cicero, Marcus Tullius – Treatises on Friendship and Old Age

47. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

48. Conrad, Joseph – Lord Jim

49. Conrad, Joseph – Notes on Life and Letters

50. Conrad, Joseph – Under Western Eyes

51. Darwin, Charles – On the Origin of Species

52. Dawkins, Richard – The God Delusion

53. Dawkins, Richard – The Greatest Show on Earth

54. Dawkins, Richard – The Selfish Gene

55. Defoe, Daniel – Robinson Crusoe

56. Descartes, Rene – A Discourse on Method

57. Diamond, Jared – Guns, Germs and Steel

58. Dickens, Charles – The Complete Works

59. Doctorow, Cory – For the Win

60. Dostoevsky, Fyodor – Notes from Underground

61. Dostoevsky, Fyodor – The Brothers Karamazov

62. Dostoevsky, Fyodor – The Idiot

63. Dumas, Alexander – The Count of Monte Cristo

64. Dumas, Alexander – The Three Musketeers

65. Eco, Umberto – Foucault’s Pendulum

66. Eco, Umberto – On Beauty

67. Eliot, George – Middlemarch

68. Eliot, T. S. – The Waste Land

69. Faulkner, William – The Sound and the Fury

70. Feyerabend, Paul – Against Method

71. Feynman, Richard – Six Easy Pieces

72. Feynman, Richard – Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman

73. Flaubert, Gustave – Madame Bovary

74. Flaubert, Gustave – Sentimental Education

75. Flaubert, Gustave – The Temptation of St. Antony

76. Forster, E. M. – A Room with a View

77. Forster, E. M. – Where Angels Fear to Tread

78. Frankl, Viktor E. – Man’s Search for Meaning

79. Franklin, Benjamin – The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

80. Franzen, Jonathan – Freedom

81. Gallico, Paul – The Snow Goose

82. Genette, Gerard – Narrative Discourse

83. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von – Faust

84. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von – The Sorrows of Young Werther

85. Gogol, Nikolai – Dead Souls

86. Gogol, Nikolai – The Collected Tales

87. Gould, Stephen Jay – The Mismeasure of Man

88. Harding, Paul – The Tinkers

89. Hardy, Thomas – Tess of the d’Urbervilles

90. Hawthorne, Nathaniel – The Scarlet Letter

91. Hayek, F. A. – The Road to Serfdom

92. Heller, Joseph – Catch-22

93. Hemingway, Ernest – A Farewell to Arms

94. Hemingway, Ernest – The Old Man and the Sea

95. Hemingway, Ernest – The Sun Also Rises

96. Hitchens, Christopher – God Is Not Great

97. Hitchens, Christopher – Hitch-22

98. Hitchens, Christopher – The Portable Atheist

99. Hobbes, Thomas – Leviathan

100. Hofstadter, Douglas – I Am a Strange Loops

101. Hoppe, Hans Hermann – Democracy

102. Hugo, Victor – Les Miserables

103. Hume, David – An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

104. Huxley, Alduous – Point Counter Point

105. Irving, Washington – The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow

106. Ishiguro, Kazuo – Never Let Me Go

107. Jacobson, Howard – The Finkler Question

108. Jevons, William Stanley – Elementary Lessons in Logic Deductive and Inductive

109. Jordan, Robert – The Eye of the World

110. Joyce, James – Dubliners

111. Joyce, James – Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

112. Joyce, James – Ulysses

113. Kafka, Franz – The Metamorphosis and Other Stories

114. Kafka, Franz – The Trial

115. Kant, Immanuel – The Metaphysical Element

116. Keats, John – Endymion

117. Keats, John – Lamia

118. Kerouac, Jack – On the Road

119. Keyes, Daniel – Flowers for Algernon

120. Kierkegaard, Soren – Fear and Trembling

121. Kierkegaard, Soren – The Sickness unto Death

122. King, Stephen – Insomnia

123. King, Stephen – It

124. King, Stephen – The Stand

125. Klingberg, Torkel – The Overflowing Brain

126. Knowles, Sir James – The Legends of King Arthur

127. Lewis, Michael – The Big Short

128. Locke, John – Conduct of the Understanding

129. London, Jack – The People of the Abyss

130. London, Jack – White Fang

131. Lovecraft, H. P. – Against the World, Against Life

132. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia – One Hundred Years of Solitude

133. Maugham, W. Somerset – Of Human Bondage

134. McCarthy, Cormac – Blood Meridian

135. McCarthy, Cormac – The Road

136. McEwan, Ian – Atonement

137. Melville, Herman – Moby Dick

138. Mill, John Stuart – On Liberty

139. Miller, Henry – Tropic of Cancer

140. Mises, Ludwig von – Human Action

141. Mises, Ludwig von – The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality

142. Mitchell, Margaret – Gone With the Wind

143. Montaigne, Michel de – On Solitude

144. More, Thomas – Utopia

145. Nabokov, Vladimir – Lolita

146. Nietzsche, Freidrich – Ecce Homo

147. Orwell, George – Why I Write

148. Palahniuk, Chuck – Pygmy

149. Pascal, Blaise – Pensees

150. Paton, Alan – Cry, the Beloved Country

151. Pinker, Stephen – The Blank Slate

152. Poe, Edgar Allan – The Complete Works

153. Pound, Ezra – Hugh Selwyn Mauberley

154. Powell, Padgett – The Interrogative Mood

155. Proust, Marcel – Swann’s Way

156. Pynchon, Thomas – Gravity’s Rainbow

157. Pynchon, Thomas – The Crying of Lot 49

158. Pynchon, Thomas – V.

159. Racine, Jean Baptise – Phaedra

160. Roth, Philip – American Pastoral

161. Roth, Philip – Portnoy’s Complaint

162. Roth, Philip – The Human Stain

163. Rothbard, Murray N. – Man, Economy, and State

164. Roussea, Jean-Jacques – The social Contract

165. Russell, Bertrand – History of Western Philosophy

166. Sagan, Carl – Contact

167. Sagan, Carl – Cosmos

168. Sagan, Carl – Pale Blue Dot

169. Sagan, Carl – The Demon-Haunted World

170. Schopenhauer, Arthur – Essays on Human Nature

171. Schopenhauer, Arthur – On the Suffering of the World

172. Seslick, Dr Dale – Dr Dale’s Zombie Dictionary

173. Shakespeare, William – The Complete Works

174. Shaw, Bernard – Pygmalion

175. Shea, Ammon – Reading the Oxford English Dictionary

176. Shea, Ammon – Satisdiction

177. Sheldrake, Rupert – Morphic Resonance

178. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft – Frankenstein

179. Sinclair, Upton – The Jungle

180. Smith, Adam – The Wealth of Nations

181. Spinoza – Ethics

182. Stephenson, Neal – Snow Crash

183. Stevenson, Robert Louis – Treasure Island

184. Stoker, Bram – Dracula

185. Stowe, Harriet Beecher – Uncle Tom’s Cabin

186. Swift, Jonathan – Gulliver’s Travels

187. Tacitus, Caius Cornelius – The Histories

188. Thackeray, William Makepeace – Vanity Fair

189. Thompson, Hunter S. – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

190. Thoreau, Henry David –Civil Disobedience

191. Thoreau, Henry David – Walden

192. Thoreau, Henry David – Walking

193. Tolstoy, Leo – Anna Karenina

194. Tolstoy, Leo – The Death of Ivan Ilyich & Other Stories

195. Tolstoy, Leo – War and Peace

196. Trollope, Anthony – Barchester Towers

197. Trollope, Anthony – Doctor Thorne

198. Trollope, Anthony – The Warden

199. Twain, Mark – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

200. Twain, Mark – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

201. Twain, Mark – The Prince and the Pauper

202. Twain, Mark – What is Man? and Other Essays

203. Verne, Jules – A Journey to the Centre of the Earth

204. Verne, Jules – Around the World in 80 Days

205. Verne, Jules – Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea

206. Vinci, Leonardo da – Notebooks

207. Virgil – The Aeneid

208. Voltaire – Candide

209. Vonnegut, Kurt – Breakfast of Champions

210. Vonnegut, Kurt – Cat’s Cradle

211. Vonnegut, Kurt – Slaughterhouse-Five

212. Wells, H. G. – The Invisible Man

213. Wells, H. G. – The Time Machine

214. Wells, H. G. – The War of the Worlds

215. Whitman, Walt – Leaves of Grass

216. Wilde, Oscar – The Picture of Dorian Gray

217. Wilson, Robert Anton – The Illuminatus! Trilogy

218. Woolf, Virginia – To the Lighthouse

219. Yalom, Irvin D. – The Schopenhauer Cure

220. Yalom, Irvin D. – When Nietzsche Wept

Edited January 5, 2011 by Himself

[Himself]

Reserved

[Himself]

Here goes my first attempt at reviewing:

 

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson

 

The thought which was in my mind in perpetuity while making my way through this roman à clef was "These guy are totally bat-shhhhhhh insane." Thompson's prose is far from prosaic; It is as riveting and absorbing as anything I have read. My main problem with this book lies more in its form than anything else, its gonzo journalistic nature made it feel like it dragged. Writing that, though, I begin to feel that that is more because of my frame of reference and its aberrant nature, more than an actual flaw with the novel. An excellent foray into the culture of his era and the nature of the drug community: I certainly recommend it to anyone who has not read it.

 

5/5

 

Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer

 

I love Foer's fiction writing, so going into this I was worried that his humorous style would not transfer well. Luckily, not even half a page into the book, my fears were assuaged. Foer skilfully weaves in parables and anecdotes from his life and research, while not once straying from, what I would call, effective and objective journalism. Reading this soon after first witness the wonders that are David Wallace's journalistic forays, especially Consider the Lobster, the book shines a little less brightly that it would have otherwise.

 

It is refreshing to read a thoroughly thought through argument that is also extremely well presented. At no point did any conclusions that Foer posited seem rushed or unsubstantiated. After reading this, I would be extremely disappointed in myself were I not to - at the very least - cease eating factory farmed, and fast, food.

 

4/5

[Kylie]

Excellent reading list you have there, Himself.

 

Your reviews are great as well. I'm going to enjoy reading them throughout next year.

[Himself]

Excellent reading list you have there, Himself.

 

Your reviews are great as well. I'm going to enjoy reading them throughout next year.

 

Thanks! I have made the decision to start jotting down notes on whatever book I am reading, so the reviews should be getting more substantial and thought through for the coming books.

 

After looking at your 2011 thread, I'm a little embarrassed about the total lack of consistent or coherent order present in my reading list.

[Chrissy]

After looking at your 2011 thread, I'm a little embarrassed about the total lack of consistent or coherent order present in my reading list.

I wouldn't be embarassed Himself, Kylie is in a league of her own when it comes to books and reading. She's not called 'The Mistress Of Books' for nothing!

[Kylie]

After looking at your 2011 thread, I'm a little embarrassed about the total lack of consistent or coherent order present in my reading list.

 

 

Don't be embarrassed; I've been on the forum for a few years, so I've had plenty of time to refine my reading lists over the years. I also take a very nerdy pleasure in sorting out my reading lists. I've spent hours working on them - I could have read an entire book in that time!

 

I wouldn't be embarassed Himself, Kylie is in a league of her own when it comes to books and reading. She's not called 'The Mistress Of Books' for nothing!

 

Haha Chrissy.

[Himself]

Thanks for the reassurances, folks.

 

I've spent hours working on them - I could have read an entire book in that time!

 

Yeah, that's part of what motivated me to just form my list as I went, rather than attempting to thoroughly organize anything.

[Himself]

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

 

Uggghh. I did not really enjoy this. The prose was, in my opinion, awful, especially in comparison to what I am and have been reading. The story was trite, though that is because it forms the basis for virtually all pirate stories that followed. One can tell that it was written as a children's novel; I definitely would have enjoyed it much more had I read it 5+ years ago.

 

2/5

[Ben]

Interesting reviews Himself, and good luck with the 2011 reading. You have an impressive looking list and I look forward to reading your thoughts through the year.

Edited December 28, 2010 by Ben

[Himself]

Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl

 

Let me begin by saying how extremely impressed I am, not only with the book, but with its author. Viktor Frankl was a holocaust survivor who lived through the horrors of Auschwitz and Dachau, as, essentially, a slave labourer and, at times, a doctor. This makes the very objective, yet utterly heartfelt, analysis of the psychology of the holocaust prisoner all the more amazing. His style is excellent, extremely clear, neither verbose nor laconic, yet he wastes not a single word.

 

The second part of the book deals more directly with the school of psychotherapy he developed, called logotherapy. Many of my own thoughts are echoed in his writing, with regards to the source and, by extension, methods of treatment for sufferers of mental illness. That is not to say there are not points on which I disagree, but they are incidental to the thrust of his school of thought.

 

Please read this.

 

5/5

[Kidsmum]

I've heard of Vikor Frankl & this sounds like a book I'd enjoy

[Himself]

Reviews for my recent reads will come soon, haven't had a chance to type up my thoughts

 

I've heard of Vikor Frankl & this sounds like a book I'd enjoy

 

Enjoy might not be the right word, but it is definitely a good read.

[Himself]

Reviews at light speed:

 

Dirk gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams

 

Very funny, though not as funny as the Hitchhiker's series, though I enjoyed the references, idea, and stories much more. Give it a read

 

4/5

 

The Time Machine, H. G. Wells

 

Long rambling, exceptionally formal sentences. The style of the era, I suppose. Decent sci-fi jaunt across time.

 

3/5

 

Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut

 

My first experience with Vonnegut; I thoroughly enjoyed it. Vonnegut is extremely witty and deeply sardonic the whole way through.

 

4/5

 

Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne

 

Similar in style to Wells' Time Traveller. Enthralling enough, but lacking in...something.

 

3/5

 

Just updated my TBR pile, added my actual books to the list. 220 books, I'm intimidated.

Edited January 1, 2011 by Himself

[Ben]

Hey Himself, I have Douglas' Hitchhiker series on my to-be-read list. As you've given Dirk gentley's Holistic Detective Agency a 4/5 and say his other stuff is better, I'm guessing you'd recommend me pushing them up the list a little?

Edited January 1, 2011 by Ben

[Himself]

Hey Himself, I have Douglas' Hitchhiker series on my to-be-read list. As you've given Dirk gentley's Holistic Detective Agency a 4/5 and say his other stuff is better, I'm guessing you'd recommend me pushing them up the list a little?

 

The Hitchhiker's Guide is a great series, and the individual books are very quick reads. I'd recommend you give them a read whenever you get the chance.

[Ben]

The Hitchhiker's Guide is a great series, and the individual books are very quick reads. I'd recommend you give them a read whenever you get the chance.

Thanks I'll be sure to get to them soon. (:

Edited January 2, 2011 by Ben

[Himself]

Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy

 

This is the first Cormac McCarthy book I have read. I found his style a little difficult at first, but eventually I got the hang of it and began to really enjoy read it. Much of the action - and the book is almost entirely action - is extremely concisely written and I often found myself having to read entire passages more than once to really get what was happening. I also had to reread many and much of the soliloquys of the character judge.

 

This book is violent. Easily the most violent book I have read. Fortunately McCarthy does a truly excellent job with the - many - violent scenes, so there is no feeling of gimmick. It is comparable to a Peckinpah film, in terms of shear gore.

 

I want to go back and read this again at some point.

 

4/5

[Kylie]

Interesting! I've read The Road and have been keen on reading something else by McCarthy. Is Blood Meridian a war novel?

[Himself]

Interesting! I've read The Road and have been keen on reading something else by McCarthy. Is Blood Meridian a war novel?

 

No, it is a Mid 19th century western. Most of the novel is spent following a group of "scalphunters".

[I'mRose]

Reviews at light speed:

 

 

Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne

 

Similar in style to Wells' Time Traveller. Enthralling enough, but lacking in...something.

 

3/5

 

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

 

Uggghh. I did not really enjoy this. The prose was, in my opinion, awful, especially in comparison to what I am and have been reading. The story was trite, though that is because it forms the basis for virtually all pirate stories that followed. One can tell that it was written as a children's novel; I definitely would have enjoyed it much more had I read it 5+ years ago.

 

2/5

 

 

I have both of these books on my TBR list and I've been putting of reading them forever. Perhaps I should put them even further back... I want to read some classics but sometimes I get the feel that they are overrated.

 

You have some awesome books on your list, please let me know what you think of the Ray Bradbury once! I've been wanting to read the forever but had not had the time nor resources t buy them.

 

I am gonna but The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins though cause I've been wanting that one forever.

 

I loved the Count of Monte Cristo, you should really read that one!

 

I hope you have a great year of reading!!

[Himself]

I have both of these books on my TBR list and I've been putting of reading them forever. Perhaps I should put them even further back... I want to read some classics but sometimes I get the feel that they are overrated.

 

If you are going to read classics I would not go with one of those. Time Machine is still worth a read, though, and it is very short. My favourite author from the late 19th century and turn of the century period is Joseph Conrad. Give him a try.

 

You have some awesome books on your list, please let me know what you think of the Ray Bradbury once! I've been wanting to read the forever but had not had the time nor resources t buy them.

 

Will do. I think I am going to read a classic or two next, but I will prioritise him on my sci-fi list.

 

I am gonna but The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins though cause I've been wanting that one forever.

 

I loved the Count of Monte Cristo, you should really read that one!

 

I hope you have a great year of reading!!

 

Thanks, you too!

[Janet]

1. Adams, Douglas – Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

Did you happen to watch the BBC4 (I think?) showing of this over the Christmas period? I've not read this book, although I have read the Hitchhikers books. I enjoyed it and thought the lead character was excellent (and the supporting cast too, come to that) but I've no idea if it was good in terms of the book?

[Himself]

Did you happen to watch the BBC4 (I think?) showing of this over the Christmas period? I've not read this book, although I have read the Hitchhikers books. I enjoyed it and thought the lead character was excellent (and the supporting cast too, come to that) but I've no idea if it was good in terms of the book?

 

I have not watched it yet, but my friend says that there are a couple major plot differences. I know it starred Stephen Mangan, and he's great. I have it recorded, hopefully I will be able to get to it this weekend.