The Ratings

To make life easier for me I've also devised a rating system. Every book gets a rating of 1-5 and here's what it means. (adapted from it's original form from the beginning of last year.)

5 - I loved it, I'm going to own it, I am in fact going to buy multiple copies and promote this book by handing them out for free at church socials and company picnics.

4 - I liked it. I definitely want to have a copy in my library and recommend it to most people.

3 - I liked it well enough, if I see a cheap used copy of it I'll snag it for my collection. I would recommend this book to some people or for specific reasons.

2 - I didn't hate, didn't like it either. I wouldn't generally recommend it to most people.

1 - I hated it or severely disliked it. There has to be a serious problem with the writing or the subject matter for a book to get this rating. In the last 2 years I've only run across 2 or 3 of these. The likelyhood that one of these will appear on the blog is pretty low since...why waste time on something so bad?

2006: How it went and how it didn't went and the 2007 challenge!!

Well, I won't call 2006 a flop because I got a lot of good reading done but I most definitely got derailed and didn't even come close to any of my goals. To avoid getting down about it I'm going to go ahead and close out this year a little early and get a jump on 2007.

So how'd I do?
Well I read about 65 books (not counting the ones that are going to end up under 2007 *shush don't tell anyone*). I discovered many new authors that I enjoyed even if I didn't love every one of them. I think I will continue to pursue some of those lists even if I don't do it in such a rigid way.

What went wrong?
Life intruded. It does that. A lot. *rolls eyes* A lot of good things happened for me and a lot of really tough things happened. Taking care of them just came out above reading. While I really enjoy the lists pursuing them the way I did was very rigid and not nearly as pleasurable as I'd thought it would be. I think planning about a month at a time is really all I should be doing.

So on to newer and brighter things...

2007 Challenge!

Pray for me. I'm trying for 200 again. I'm going to try going back to the roots by posting reading lists on a monthly basis and recaps at the end of each month. I'm keeping the rating system I devised for last year (5's really really good...1 is like a screwdriver to the eye)

I might pursue published reading lists but I'm only going to post them once I finish them with a review of the list.

As always I'll start over at book 1 at the beginning of the year for bookkeeping purposes. 20% of them (or 1 out of 5) needs to be non-fiction. I can't reread books from last year and have them count but I can from the year before that (2005) as long as I write a new review with new insights. Children's and Young Adult books are fair game as are manga and graphic novels.

The List of Lists - an Index for 2006

The purpose of this post is to create an index of the lists that I've tackled over the year and provide easier navigation. Click on a list title to take you to see the master post for a list. From there you can view the individual book reviews by clicking on their titles or look at the list review by clicking on the appropriate link at the bottom of the post. Click here to see an explination of this year's challange and the new rating system.

1. Connie Willis: Too Good To Miss -- (review)
2. Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

a: Science Fiction
b: Fantasy
c: Horror

3. Academia: The Joke
4. Mothers and Daughters
5. Friend's List: Ryan L.
6. Friend's List: David L.
7. Dewey Deconstructed

64. A Mother and Two Daughters

by Gail Godwin (544 pgs)

Rating: 3

Nell is the mother, Cate and Lydia are the daughters. When husband and father, Leonard Strickland, dies suddenly the three women are thrown back together and forced to change. Lydia, who is always correct but nevertheless divorcing her husband Max, Cate the hippie/activist that never slows down, and Nell the mother who's never lived for just herself.

Mom and I read A Mother and Two Daughters back in August or so. (Sorry the post is so late.) Mom observed, and I agree with her, that it seems like nothing much happens. This observation is true in a way and false in others. Many things happen in this novel. Many shocking, wonderful, horrible, elating things. What doesn't happen, is all this things being pulled into a single story. The narrative is very 'day in the life of' and I don't think that the author did this by mistake. I don't much enjoy it though. The writing, itself, is masterful and there were many points in the book that I enjoyed.

recommended to people who like slice of life narratives.

63. Lovely Bones

by Alice Sebold (352 pgs)

Rating: 4

Susie is dead. She dies horribly and, after she dies, she watches her family come to terms with her death. She sees her family struggle not to fall apart and she follows the affect she had on two friends from school as they grow and become adults. Susie is dead.

The Lovely Bones is a novel that is very interesting for the way that it is told. The perspective of a child's ghost is a bit strange and intriguing. I do have to agree with some of my friends that the voice is somewhat more mature than expected but I find this did not disturb me. The characters are interesting and the family is believable. I'm glad that I read this but I doubt that I will ever read it again.

Generally recommended for those who enjoy reading fiction. Not recommended for young audiences as the first chapter is pretty hard to take.

62. Dune

By Frank Herbert (544 pgs)

Rating: 5

Paul Atreides, son of Jessica and the Duke Leto, has a mysterious and profound destiny. When his family is displaced from his native world of Caladan to the hell planet Arrakis, Paul is 15. Already he has been taught in the arts of sword fighting, mentats, ruling, and the Bene Gesserit sisterhood. It’s this last which is odd.

This is perhaps my fourth or fifth reading of Dune. Obviously, I like it but I admit that the first time I read it, I was none too impressed. Dune is one of those books that almost requires rereading. It is dense, full of philosophy, and packed with foreshadowing and devious plot-development. While it is perhaps not the best book in the English cannon, it is one of the few books I enjoy rereading.

PS don’t bother with they movies…they are all very visually stunning crap in comparison.

Recommended to everyone who reads science fiction.

61. The Hour of the Gate

By Alan Dean Foster (304 pgs)

Rating: 3

In this sequel to Spell Singer, Jon Tom finds himself it a continuing quest to defeat the plated folk and save the warmlands with an ultimate goal of getting back to his own world. Jon Tom and his friends travel through strange places to find allies in people steeped in myth.

Not as engaging as the first book, The Hour of the Gate was still an enjoyable read. The plot was not as strong and it seems Foster sacrificed it for character development. Many of the characters went through a series of startling revelations but many of them seemed somewhat forced and/or predictable.

While I enjoyed this book I wouldn’t recommend it on it’s own. As a member of a series, it is enjoyable and worth reading.

60. Japanese By Spring

by Ishmael Reed (240 pgs)

Rating: 4

Professor Puttbutt is the son of a prominent military family and non-tenured faculty at the Jack London college in California. He is an African American who rants against affirmative action. He is a coward and a radical alternately with one hell of a mean streak.

I am honestly not sure what to make of Japanese By Spring. It was relatively easy to read but the commentary on ethnicity, PCness, and academia is probably going to take a while to sink in. There was a certain preachy feel to the epilogue and I find it very strange that author showed up as a character several times throughout the novel. I suspect that Reed used forms of African and African American story telling that I am just not familiar with. I did tend to identify with the sort of overarching sense of frustration that accompanies discussion of ethnicity throughout the narrative. It’s difficult to glean Reed’s position on many of the topic but I’m leaning to the conclusion that Reed doesn’t have a position on them. It’s possible that the novel is a farce only intended to expose the ridiculousness of the entire current discourse.

As I said. I don’t know. I have no particular insight.

I tentatively recommend the book in a general sense because recommending it to specific people would indicate I understood it more than I really did. But I do recommend it because it is making me think about these topics and I believe that’s a valuable thing.

59. Living Dead In Dallas

By Charlaine Harris (272 pgs)

Rating: 4

Sookie and Bill (the vampire)are being loaned out to a conclave of vampires in Dallas who are in need of some gentle fact finding. Gentle in the no torture sense. Meanwhile a Maenid has turned up in the area and uses Sookie's flesh as a billboard.

The writing in Living Dead In Dallas is more polished than the first book in the series but it still has some large flaws. For example there is a plot element that only appears in the beginning and at the end of the book. This would not be a problem accept that I actually forgot all about it until it appeared to resolve a secondary plot line. I begin to sense some movement towards the supernatural orgies phenomenon and I'm not pleased about it. However, bearing all that in mind, this was still and enjoyable quick read.

Recommended to the vampire fans and anyone who liked the first book.

58. Japanese Women Don't get Old or Fat

By Naomi Moriyama and William Doyle (288 pgs)

Rating: 3

The newest (to me at least) in the *name a cultural group* don't get fat books. This one is a snarky explanation about why Japanese diet is superior to all others. Much like the Mediterranean and the French, it has some very good points. There are some nice recipes and I'm sure the japanophiles will appreciate the cultural superiority.

To me the most useful thing in Japanese Women Don't get Old or Fat are the Japanese breakfasts and special ingredient suggestions. Moriyama also makes an interesting point about the American giant sized dinner plates.

Recommended for people who like the Japanese culture and food. I suspect that this is a 'gateway book' into cooking Japanese food.

57. Dead Until Dark

by Charlaine Harris (304 pgs)

Rating: 3

Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress at a bar in rural Louisiana but she's also a telepath plagued by the constant awareness of everyone's thoughts. Vampires, however, as it turns out are telepathic blanks to her which is much better than knowing what people are thinking all the time and very attractive in a potential mate. Cue Bill the vampire.

Dead Until Dark is part of the new vampire romance/mystery genre. Lucky for us Harris is a decent writer. Sookie and Bill are both immediately interesting characters. The premise is, if not believable, pretty compelling and the mystery was pretty decent although there were not many opportunities for the reader to figure it out ahead of the character. Actually there was no way for the reader to figure it out first, so I would suggest reading this for the mystery aspect. I think the series has potential.

Recommended to people who like the Anita Blake series but got tired of the supernatural orgies.

56. How To Be Good

by Nick Hornby (305 pgs)

Rating: 5

Katie Carr is a doctor. She cares about people. She cares about world issues. She tries very hard 'to be good.' And she is good to. Isn't she? Ok she doesn't invite homeless people into her home or give away all her excess income but she can still be good. Right? Right!? One would think so but when her husband goes from first class prick to reborn secular saint, he challenges her sense of comparative goodness.

How to be Good is hilarious and sad. It challenges ideas of goodness particularly in contrast to meeting one's own needs. While it does make a lot of very good points I think the most interesting facet was in how it pointed out how difficult it is to argue with the righteous. We know that we need to take care of ourselves and deserve to have the luxuries we work for, but it's hard to argue that when someone pulls a 'but people are starving in India.' How do you defend yourself without feeling like a prick and is it even possible to?

Recommended for people who like to dwell on the grey.

Update

Sorry...things have gotten away from me and I'm at least a half dozen book reviews behind.

I believe I'm also seeing the collapse of the list system. It's a lot of fun but it's beginning to feel very restrictive so I may just say I'm going to still be persuing the lists but I think I'll be reading many many things off list as well. I'll start catching up as well over the next few days.

55. Ogre, Ogre

By Piers Anthony (320 pgs)

Rating: 2

Smash the Ogre and Tandy the half nymph half human trek across Xanth at the instigation of the Humphrey the Good Magician as the answer to two half-formed questions.

It's a coming of age story. It's a romance. It's all about the groovy soul swapping, man. It's all about the puns. gag Ogre, Ogre is a total let down if I hadn't finished it (as I was tempted not to) I wouldn't have discovered it has a marginally redeeming, if overly moralistic, ending. It's slow, plastic, overly punny boredom. Come on Piers, I'm disappointed in you. I know you can do better.

recommendation? SKIP IT.

54. Salem's Lot

by Stephen King (656 pgs)

Rating: 4

A writer returns to a brief home of his youth in rural Maine to confront a fear that wakes him up in the night even as an adult. Yet he finds that there's more to fear than old houses and ghosts as an ancient evil moves into 'Salem's Lot and slowly takes over the town.

'Salem's Lot is a vampire story in the classic sense. No vague sensuality. No barely veiled trashy romance novel thriller. Salem's Lot is a spooky chilling story reminiscent of Dracula, the Countess Bathory, and good 'ole Vlad Teppes. It is, however, a six hundred and fifty six page spooky chilling story. A daunting size by any measure. Is that length truly needed, yes to a certain extent. While the novel has only three or four main characters, it is truly horrible because of 'the town' as a unit. The space is used to flesh out the town's character and characters as much as follow the plot.

It is slow going most of the way through but it is also a contemplative book about concepts of Evil and evil. I recommend this to people who enjoyed reading Dracula and to Anne Rice fans to get them back to the origins of the genre.

53. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary - NF

by Simon Winchester (242 pgs)

Rating: 4

Dr. Minor and Dr. Murray are about as different as possible but they shared a common pursuit: the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED is particularly interesting because it not only is a dictionary in the normal sense but it also provides quotations for each meaning and shade of meaning every word has. After a ragged beginning, Dr. Murray is put in charge of the enormous project of creating the OED. To do this he, as did his predecessors, appealed to the learned populace to volunteer much of the labor of collecting quotations. Oddly it was several years before Dr. Murray realizes that one of his most valuable volunteers is actually institutionalized as criminally insane.

The Professor and the Madman is a compellingly written work of non-fiction. It was quite difficult to put down and, aside from a section on the history of lexicography, it was a well paced narrative. Winchester draws as sources: military records, hospital notes, correspondence, and records from the present offices of the OED. He weaves these disparate sources into a nearly seamless story that is fascinating and melancholy. He also points out the subtle irony that had Dr. Minor been treated for his schizophrenia, it is possible that the OED would not exist in it's current form.

Recommended to people with very large vocabularies and students of the English language.

52. Childhood's End

by Arthur C. Clarke (224 pgs)

Rating: 4

Mankind stands on the brink of launching themselves into space and then the Overlords show up. Who are the Overlords? Interstellar busybodies intent on forcing mankind to mature into a peaceful species. Of course there's more to it...but no one's entirely sure what and therein lies the intriguing mystery.

Childhood's End is certainly science fiction but I wouldn't argue with anyone who wanted to put in horror. There's no boogie monsters or scary blood filled scenes, just a very chilling concept. The writing is adequate although not stellar. This a completely plot driven book. Don't expect to fall in love with any of the characters. That being said...it's a really good book that's difficult to talk about without giving something important away.

Read it, all ye sci fi fans.

51. A Long Way Down

by Nick Hornby

Rating: 3

Four complete strangers individually decide to toss themselves from the top of 'Topper's House' on December 31st. Interestingly, after meeting each other, they all decide not to commit suicide and start setting about 'what comes next.' What comes next is a mess.

Despite its somewhat morose premise, A Long Way Down is not a depressing book. It's meandering style and engaging (but bizarre) characters meld into an interesting disorganized narrative about the ups and downs of life. I think in some places the narrative is a little jarring, particularly when switching between the American narrative voice and the British ones. Still it was an interesting exploration of the subject. Surprisingly uplifting, Hornby reminds us that quality of life is a matter of perception. While I doubt I'll ever want to read this book again, I'm glad I put the time into it. It's not a bad thing to laugh at our dark sides now and again.

Recommended for people going through a rough time and people who've read too many gothic romances.

List 7: Dewey Deconstructed

Source: More Book Lust (p 62-78)

This is a list that follows, in a general way, the Dewey classification system. The system is broken into its 10 'centuries' and Pearl then gives suggestions in each broad grouping. Most of the recommendations are non-fiction and this does actually constitute another 'mega-list.'

I thought long and hard before choosing another mega list, particularly when I'm still working on the massive Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror list. In the process I thought very seriously about why I'm doing this book journal at all. Of course, I hope that people read it and enjoy it, but I think for me it is more about a process of self education. I have always read a massive amount and enjoyed reading but I have not always read widely; sticking mainly to fantasy, some science fiction, and general fluff as a teenager.

I think, in fact, that it is a comment on the educational system that I managed to stay in honors level English all the way through High School and was not exposed to creative non fiction or much in the way of modern literary fiction. Now this is not really a criticism of my teachers themselves, most of them were very good, but it is comment on the homoganization that seems to be encouraged in public education. I can't remember any teacher being interested in what I was reading outside of class. I really don't know what this is a function of or whether my retrospective expectations are too high but I do wish that I'd had a little more guidance in my reading material.

So I feel that this blog and particularly this year's challenge is really a process of self education. And to that end, I've pick the most varied non-fiction list I could find.

So here we go:

* indicates books mentioned but not really part of the list.

000's:
A dangerous section for me. Books about books! and reference material to boot. I am not, however, reading the entire Encylopedia Britannica...even I am not that insane.

1. So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading by Sara Nelson
2. A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire by Janice A. Radway
3. A Child's Delight by Noel Perrin
4. Encyclopedia Britannica (yeah right!)
5. Another Part of the Wood: A Self Portrait by Sir Kenneth Clark*

100's:
Philosophy and psychology.

6. The Cult of Personality: How Personality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage Our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves by Annie Murphy Paul
7. Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns
8. On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
9. The Art of Dying: How to Leave This World with Dignity and Grace, at Peace with Yourself and Your Loved Ones by Patricia Weenolsen
10. The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant
11. Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by Edward Craig
12. The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy by Colin McGinn
13. The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
14. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World by David Abrams

200's:
Religion.

15. World Religions by John Bowker
16. The Religions of Man (aka The Worlds Religions) by Huston Smith
17. The Illustrated World's Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions by Huston Smith?
18. God: A Biography by Jack Miles
19. Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother by Lesley Hazleton
20. The Battle For God by Karen Armstrong

300's:
Social Sciences.

21. Why Thing's Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences by Edward Tenner
22. Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks
23. A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin
24. Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence by Gerard Jones
25. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim
26. Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy by Eric Hansen
27. The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean*
28. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
29. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
30. The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy by Nicholas Lemann
31. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations by Micheal Walzer

400's:
Language.

32. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
33. The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
34. Caught in a Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary by Elisabeth Murray
35. Eats Shoots & Leaves: A Zero Tolerance Guide to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
36. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey*
37. In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World by Christopher J. Moore
38. The Superior Person's Book of Words by Peter Bowler
39. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work That Defined the English Language edited by Jack Lynch
40. Descriptionary: A Thematic Dictionary by Marc McCutcheon

500's:
Natural Sciences and Mathematics:

41. An Obsession with Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair with a Singular Insect by Sharman Apt Russell
42. Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage by Robert Michael Pyle
43. Meetings With Remarkable Trees by Thomas Pakenham
44. Remarkable Trees of the World by Thomas Pakenham
45. Monsters of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind by David Quammen
46. The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen
47. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
48. The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson
49. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen Jay Gould
50. The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements by Peter Atkins
51. E=mc^2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis
52. The Joy of Pi by David Blatner

600's:
Technology and Applied Sciences.

53. Tools of the Trade: The Art and Craft of Carpentry by Jeff Taylor
54. The Secret Family: Twenty-four Hours Inside the Mysterious World of Our Minds and Bodies by David Bodanis
55. Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier
56. Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer
57. Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads
58. The Book Lover's Cookbook: Recipes Inspired by Celebrated Works of Literature and the Passages that Feature Them by Shaunda Kennedy Wenger and Janet Kay Jensen
59. One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty*
60. Where the Heart Is by Billie Lett*
61. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende*
62. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald*
63. A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina's Best Recipes by Louise Bennett Weaver
64. Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century by Laura Shapiro
65. Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America by Laura Shapiro

700's:
Arts, Games, and Sports.

66. An American Collection: Works from the Amon Carter Museum
67. Vermeer in Bosnia: Cultural Comedies and Political Tragedies by Lawrence Welschler
68. Jackie Robinson: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad
69. King of the World by David Remnick
70. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
71. Off Balance: The Real World of Ballet by Suzanne Gordon

800's:
Literary Theory and Literature.

72. No Other Book: Selected Essays by Randell Jarrell
73. Remembering Randall: A Memoir of a Poet, Critic, and Teacher Randell Jerrell by Mary Jarrell*
74. How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love With Poetry by Edward Hirsch
75. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt
76. I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory by Patricia Hampl
77. Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist by Walter Bernstein
78. Why Read? by Mark Edmundson

900's:
History and Geography.

79. Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy by Diana Preston
80. Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists by Tony Perrottet
81. Night Train to Turkistan: Modern Adventures along China's Ancient Silk Road by Stuart Stevens
82. Iron & Silk by Mark Salzman*
83. News from Tartary by Peter Flemming
84. Forbidden Journey: From Peking to Kashmir by Ella K. Maillart
85. A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts: Journeys in Kurdistan by Christiane Bird
86. All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer
87. The Fall of Baghdad by Jon Lee Anderson
88. Iliad by Homer*
89. The Lost and Found: The 9,000 Treasures of Troy: Heinrich Schliemann and the Gold that Got Away by Caroline Moorehead
90. From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present by Jacques Barzun
91. The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede
92. My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere by Susan Orlean

50. Centaur Aisle

by Piers Anthony (304 pgs)

Rating: 2

Dor is left temporarily in charge of Xanth while King Trent is in Mundania on a trade mission. Everything goes as well as can be expected but when King Trent doesn't return on time, Dor finds himself on a mission to find the missing monarch.

There are only two reasons why anyone would want to read Centaur Aisle. 1. to be able say one has read the entire series. 2. because there is one interesting plot point relevant to the series as a whole.

Otherwise, the characters are wooden and annoyingly whiney for the most part. The prose doesn't flow as well as in some of the other books in the series and frankly...I was bored. While things certainly happened...it felt very disjointed and episodic. The first half was amusing but doesn't make it worth reading the book.

While I didn't hate it, my recommendation is still to just skip it.