List the Books You Read in 2012, and Rate Them

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Note: My ratings are based mostly on enjoyment of the text.

1. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood -- 9/10. 2012 is off to a good start. This book was excellent. A compelling story that really kept me turning the pages. I loved the back and forth timeline; it was brilliantly utilized. Ths was my first Atwood book, and I'm looking forward to reading more from her.

2. Dubliners by James Joyce -- 7/10. If it wasn't by James Joyce and I didn't feel an overwhelming need to have liked it more than I did, it would have probably received a lower rating. I'm just not a huge fan of "slice of life" stories, now matter how beautifully written (and, honestly, I was expecting more in that department). I did find some of the stories charming, though, and the last paragraph of "The Dead" was particularly brilliant.

3. The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari -- 8/10. It's the story of a bet made between god and the devil on whether a kid (Joby), by the age of 40, will choose to be good and evil, and all of creation depends on his decision. I found it to be a very good read, very engaging, and I became very attached to the characters, while really hating others. One of the things that really bothered me, and something that knocked it down a point, is the author's overuse of italics. It became distracting. Still highly recommended, though.

4. Collected Fictions by J.L. Borges -- 8/10. Definitely some of the most interesting short stories I've read. I loved some, wasn't too crazy about others, and sometimes I just didn't know what the hell was going, but his originality really struck me as brilliant.

5. American Gods by Neil Gaiman --7/10. I wanted to like this book more than I did, even though I did really enjoy it. After all the praise, I was expecting too much, though. The ideas were original, but I just didn't find the main character's attitude about his situations believable.

6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë -- 7/10. It was good. The writing was good, but I just can't say that the story intrigued me throughout. I much preferred her experiences as a child and with the mad woman over the romance stuff, which was boring.

7. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie -- 8.5/10. I'm becoming more of a fan of magical realism, and this book is why. Strange story, well (and unusually) written, interesting characters. What more is there to say?

8. The City and The City by China Meiville -- 8/10. This is an author I've been meaning to read for some time,*and he didn't disappoint. The story was good, the world well built and original, and the writing nice and fast-paced. Just a very enjoyable read. I will definitely be checking out more of his work.

9. The Aeneid by Virgil -- 8/10. This was surprisingly enjoyable (I never have high expectations when going reading epic poetry, enjoyment wise). It was an excellent adventure story and quite fast paced. Plus, I loved the gory battle scenes. Movies like 300 really aren't far off the mark, it seems.

10. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien -- 10/10. This is a a semi-autobiographical book of (connected) short stories about the Vietnam war. I found it to be an amazing read; it's beautifully written; at times funny, horrifying, sad, and always poignant; a wonderfully quick paced read; and a non-heroic look at the Vietnam war. And don't think it's a book just for people interested in war--it's themes are universal. I seriously could not find a single flaw in this book.

11. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins -- 6.5/10. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, though I found some inconsistencies with the main character and a particularly annoying plot turn near the end. All in all, though, and enjoyable read. Read my review here.

12. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson -- 6/10. A good read with some pretty obvious flaws. It's a bit long-winded, often giving more backstory than the reader wants or needs, and the climax comes way to early. Salander, (the character referenced to on the title) is an excellent character, though.

13. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron -- 9/10. A beautifully written gothic mystery that brought to mind Poe and Hawthorne. The imagery was great, the prose lyrical, the story captivating, and the characters excellently crafted. A really good book.

14. The Iliad by Homer -- 6/10. I just couldn't get into this. Just too long and too much rambling on about so-and-so killing so-and-so and what not. It's been a long time since I've read it, but I think I enjoy The Odyssey much more.

15. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke -- 9/10. I think this is really one of the greatest prices of sci-fi ever written. Clarke seems to get short-changed whsn people discuss the great sci-fi authors, but he wrote some wonderful stuff--one just needs to find them within his huge oeuvre. Wonderful story, quickly paced, and incredibly thoughtful. A definite must read for any sci-fi fan.

16. Trumpet by Jackie Kay -- 8/10. A very unique novel about a female jazz singer who lived his life as a man, and the perspectives of those who knew him. The prose is absolutely beautiful--it's clear that Kay is a primarily a poet--but there just wasn't much of a plot . . . barely any at all, actually. That's fine for some, but not for me. If it had a bit more narrative, it would've gotten a 10.

17. The Pagoda by Patricia Powell -- 6/10. Another book similar to Trumpet, it is about a transgender man (I read both books for a class I'm currently taking), particularly a Chinese immigrant to Jamaica during the early 1900s. Maybe it's because I just read Trumpet, but I just couldn't get interested in this book, even though it was quite well written and compelling.

18. The Best Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant -- 6/10. Sometimes I read a book and think, "Am I missing something?" Well, file this collection of short stories in that category, because I didn't find them all that great. There were a couple I enjoyed, but after hearing over and over how Maupassant is one of, if not the, greatest short story writer of all time, I'm thoroughly unimpressed.

19. Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett -- 7/10. A good novel, but the plot got pretty slow at points and the second half of the book is almost exclusively a romance story, which I'm not a fan of. My favorite aspect of this novel was the incorporation of classical music.

20. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk -- 5/10. A murder mystery set in the 16th century Turkish art world. Despite the beautiful writing and interesting narrative style (why it actually got a 5), the story too often got bogged down in long descriptions and philosophical meanderings. Plus, I found none of the characters likable. A disappointing read from a Nobel prize winning author.

21. Night by Elie Wiesel -- 7/10. A good portrayal of the holocaust and all its horror. The writing is very minimalsric (it's easy to see why it's widely used in schools), but that's not a bad thing in this case, though it was a little too simple for my taste. It could have been longer, too.

22. The Best Short Stories of O. Henry by O. Henry -- 7/10. There's no doubt that O. Henry had quite a lot of skill with the written word, but his stories, while some of them being excellent, all followed the same "twist ending" formula that become obvious--I was rarely unable to guess the twist. It seemed some of his stories suffered in that the only goal they served was to trick the reader with a clever ending.

23. Mosses from an Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- 8/10. Hawthorne really is a master of his craft. Barring a few, I found all the short stories in his first collection quite wonderful. His writing is absolutely beautiful. My favorite stories were "Young Goodman Brown," "Earth's Holocaust," "The Celestial Railroad'" and "Roger Malvin's Burial," the last of which being my favorite.

24. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins -- 7.5/10.*Even though most claim the it as their favorite, I enjoyed Catching Fire more than The Hunger Games, but maybe that's because I knew so much already before reading THG. It kept me turning the page, that's for sure, despite it's flaws--cliches and sappy love triangle, principle among them.

25. X-Men: Messiah Complex by Ed Brubaker, et al -- 9/10. I wasn't going to include comics in my list, but this was so good (and so long, at 350+ pages) I thought it deserved a spot. The story centers around rescuing the first mutant child after nearly all mutants' powers were taken away in a precious story line. The story is convoluted like all comics, but I found it to be well crafted, well thought out, and well written--the dialogue, especially.

26. The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov -- 5/10. Well, pretty much the same situation as Maupassant, only worse. A lot of the stories seemed pointless, or plotless. They would just end with absolutely no payoff. I guess I didn't get it. I enjoyed a few stories.

[Desolation]

1. The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth - 9/10...This was my first exposure to Roth, and it definitely made me want to keep going through his catalog.
2. Post Office by Charles Bukowski - 6/10...Reading Bukowski is nice because it makes me feel like a better human being. Otherwise, he kind of annoys me.
3. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon - 7/10...Kind of hard to make heads or tails of it. I've heard it frequently said that this is the most accessible of Pynchon's books, but I think they meant "shortest." It seems to me that Pynchon works better when he has more space to spread his wings.
4. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - 8/10...I liked it a lot. It was even very difficult to put down.
5. Watt by Samuel Beckett - 9/10...Kind of like speeding down a highway in reverse on LSD with a low quality mash-up of Black Flag and Mozart blasting at top volume.
6. White Noise by Don DeLillo - 10/10...Funny, angry, creative, compelling. I couldn't find any fault with it.
7. Mercier and Camier by Samuel Beckett - 7/10...Not quite up to par with Watt, but still entertainingly disorienting.
8. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy - 9/10...Tolstoy shows about as much power and insight here in 50 pages as he did with 1,200 pages in War and Peace.
9. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf - ?/10...Sometimes, a good book needs to stir a while in your head before you can say whether or not you actually enjoyed it. Woolf's an incredibly powerful writer, I can at least say that much.
10. Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth - 8/10...I kind of wish that I had read Portnoy's Complaint first, as it seems that it would've greatly informed this reading. Still very good, though.
11. V. by Thomas Pynchon - 10/10...What a book! Long, rambling, hard to follow, almost perfect from start to finish. A perfect example of the word "Difficult" being thrown around callously at truly captivating novels.
12. Nightwood by Djuna Barnes - 8/10...A remarkable study of destructive desire rendered in beautifully poetic prose.
13. The Recognitions by William Gaddis - 10/10...For two weeks, every single drop of energy and mental faculty that I could muster has gone into reading this gigantic novel. It really took a lot out of me, but it was well worth it. In just under 1,000 pages Gaddis manages to stuff in themes ranging from the nature of reality/authenticity, religious satire, the creative process, and so much more. There's a new truth bursting from every page.
14. Malone Dies by Samuel Becket - 10/10...The best Beckett I've read so far. His long, winding internal monologue reaches a natural apex in the corner of a dark room.
15. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf - 8/10...It was a very beautiful book. Sometimes it sank, but the moments when it grabs one by the frontal lobe and pulls them streaming down the river with it make it an wonderful read.
16. Dubliners by James Joyce - 7/10...I'm used to reading novels, so I had trouble deciding how to approach this collection of short stories. One of the chief advantages was being able to simply skip a story if I didn't care for it and move onto the next (I only did this twice, with "Counterparts" and "A Mother"). Not all of the stories were great, but there were a few real knockouts. "Little Cloud" was stupendous in particular. But, naturally, it was "The Dead" that really, really stood out (on its own, it would be a 10, surely).
17. At Swim - Two - Birds by Flann O'Brien - 9/10...Great, strange little book. I'll definitely be digging deeper into O'Brien's works.
18. Exiles by James Joyce - 7/10...Good, not great. At first, it seemed like a bit of a love song from Joyce to Joyce and against everyone else. But, in the end, I came out thinking "Aw, he loves his wife. That's sweet."
19. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway - 5/10...I love Hemingway, and think that he's written many great works. This isn't one of them. I get the over-arcing themes...Quiet perseverance, grace under pressure, man is not made for defeat, and so on...But all of his books cover those things pretty well. This came off as redundant and dull to me.
20. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - 10/10...This is the second time that I've read it, and it hit me in a much more profound way this time around. Really brilliant read.
21. Ulysses by James Joyce - 11/10...I've been preparing to read this for the last 3 years. Since I got out of high school, I've been on a self-study course of literature, and this is a fitting end. Next week, I start my time in proper college. As such this was a strategic read...I wanted it to be the last book that I read from an "uneducated" nonacademic viewpoint. I wanted the words to flow over me, without any worry of stopping every few sentence to break down and analyze everything. I'm happy with what I didn't understand of this towering novel. As an added bonus, I managed to finish it on Bloomsday, and I'll probably be coming back to both it and Portrait every couple of years. I have no qualms about calling Ulysses the greatest book I've ever read.

[lawpark]

1. The Vision of God - Vladimir Lossky. 7/10. About Orthodox theology, written middle of last century. Vladimir is a Russian theologian living in the emigre community in France; his father N.O. Lossky is a philosophy who has written a History of Russian Philosophy with the last section covering his own son Vladimir.

2. Pathways of Modern China - Ray Huang. 8/10. Chinese book. A refresher for me about Ray Huang's view on history. I find it more authentic than last I read him (about a decade ago), as he is honestly trying to interpret Chinese history in the 20th century such that the sacrifices of his fathers' and his own generation are not all wasted.

3. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Volume 1- Jeroslav Pelikan. 8/10. A 5-volume classic completed in 1970's. Trying to account for doctrinal development in a somewhat "objective" style.

4. Sophocles I / Three Tragedies - 9/10. This the Grene / Lattimore edition of the 3 Theban Plays. I find myself liking them a lot - mostly because the plays are quite fast-paced. Among the three, I personally like Oedipus the King the most.

5. An Outline of a Theory of Civilization - by Fukuzawa Yukichi. 9/10. Written in 1875. I read a Chinese translation. Actually very impressed by this pragmatic visionary . What he wrote over 130 years ago still strikes me as true and right direction if we were put back to 1875 again. This dude deserves to have his face printed on 10,000 Yen bills!

6. Lectures on Divine Humanity - by Vladimir Solovyov. 7/10. Lectures in 1878-1811. Most interesting is his "Sophiology" - but he didn't expound much on it actually. Vs. Fukuzawa (they wrote at around the same time), he was clearly the idealistic visionary who got things wrong.

7. Toynbee on Toynbee - A Conversation between Arnold J. Toynbee and G. R. Urban. 8/10. Book was published in 1974 based on a radio conversation when Toybee was 83 years old. The two parts of this small book shows how the world of historiography (i.e. the fundamental issues faced with doing / writing history) really has not changed that much.

8. Gita Govinda. Original by Jayadeva in Sanskrit, translated into English by Lee Siegel. 8/10. Part of the now bankrupt Clay Sanskrit Library series. Dual theme of erotic love and bhakti devotion to Krishna, written in poem / song form.

9. Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction - written by Steven Grosby. 6/10. One of the Oxford pocketbooks. The book itself is actually not bad, my low ratings just reflect my lack of interest in the subject. It is one of the few VSI's that I wish is actually shorter.

10. On the Epochs of History (German Title: Über die Epochen der neueren Geschichte)- by Leopold Ranke. 8/10. I read a Chinese translation. It was a set of lectures delivered to the Duke of Bavaria in 1854, published after Ranke's death in 1888. Ranke was founder of modern history as an academic discipline - yet in this work this aspect of Ranke is by now means clear.

11. African History: A Very Short Introduction - by John Parker and Richard Rathbone. 8/10. Another one in the Oxford series. It is really a book an the "meta-historiography" of African history rather than African history itself. Highlighted how almost everything we know as happening in Africa has its roots during the modern (roughly post-1400) period.

12. The World from 1450 to 1700 - by John Wills Jr. 8/10. A fast pace worldwide tour through the "pre-modern" world in the new tradition World History in less than 160 pages, written by the author 1688: A Global History.

13. The Completion of Traditional China (by two Japanese authors). 7/10. A pocket-book published in 1977 in Japan, as a 11-volume series of "Eastern Ocean History". I read a Chinese translation from Taiwan. Narrative stopped very abruptly right before the Opium War - but the focus on foreign trade and silver-based economy is innovative for its time.

14. Who made the history of the past 500 years - by Han Yuhai. 9/10. A Chinese work that tries to integrate World Systems Theory and other authors into a cohesive viewpoint of modern World History and Chinese History - divided into two-phases of the Long 16th Century and the Long 19th Century.

15. French Literature: A Very Short Introduction - by John Lyons. 9/10. Very enjoyable introduction that sheds light on the times, key authors, works, themes and styles. Surprised to find how Pascal was portrayed as an influential outsider even within the tradition of French Literature.

16. Nalan Xingde Ci Poetry Selection - selected and commented on by Sheng Dongling. 7/10. A Chinese work Nalan Xingde was an early Qing dynasty talented genius who died young. His ci poetry is too sad for me - but I found the occasion of attending a funeral to flip through the ~100 short poems selected.

17. A Study on Tangshi Pinhui - by Shen Dongcheng. 4/10. Ph.D. thesis that is just a bunch of statistics. Tangshi Pinhui is arguably the first truly "canonical" Tang poetry selection (with 5,000+ poems selected), completed in early Ming dynasty. The more famous, later and much shorter selection 300 Tang Poems is clearly influenced by Tangshi Pinhui.

[mona amon]

My list so far -

1. First book of 2012 - Charlotte Bronte's Shirley (re-read). Not her best, but still the work of a genius. 8/10
2. The Tale of Genji - Murasaki Shikibu (re-read). A beautiful book which I enjoyed very much, and it's been around for a thousand years, so a well deserved 10/10
3. The Good Earth - Pearl Buck. Well written. Flows well and has many good points, but a bit simplistic and falls just below the mark. 6/10
4. The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner. What a beautiful book! Quentin Compson and Benjy and Caddy will haunt me forever! 10/10
5. Daddy-Long-Legs - Jean Webster. I saw it on project Guttenburg and downloaded it as I remember liking it as a kid. A very sweet, innocent sort of story. 7/10
6. My Antonia - Willa Cather. There's something very appealing about well written, nostalgic, childhood reminiscences like this one, and I did like it, but on the whole it was ho-hum. 6/10

To make my list longer -
Short Stories -
1. The Killers - Earnest Hemingway. 9/10
2. A rose for Emily - William Faulkner. 7.5/10

Plays -
1. The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare. Not my favourite Shakespeare. The only great parts were the ones with Shylock in it, the trial scene especially. The rest of the play sucked, if I may say so. 8/10
2. The Jew of Malta - Marlowe. I thought it would be a big bore, but it turned out to be a cracker! 6.5/10

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie 6.5/10

[Paulclem]

1. The Departure by Neal Asher. A solid sci fi about an overcrowded dystopian earth that has become ruled by a world government - with frequent references to the Eurozone - which has decided to annihilate a large portion of the billions who would die anyway. Our hero, Adam Saul, has developed an organic interface to computers and implanted it in his brain in order to overcome the military backed bureacracy. Pacy beginning to a new series. 7/10
2. The House of the Dead by Doestoyevsky. A brilliant depiction of life in a Siberian jail in the 19th century. The characterisation, the relentless drudgery described, the themed chapters that veer away from a chronological account, the events that punctuated the years in jail and the pathos of the men and animals all combine in to a life of slow horror. 10/10
3. The Battle for Crete by Anthony Beevor. An interesting and comprehensive account of the fall of Crete in WW2 when the Germans launched their first and only parachute invasion. It charts the dithering and incompetence of the British command, and how they lost a battle they nearly won. 8/10
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip Dick. Set in a dystopian, nuclear future, a Bounty Hunter is charged by the police department to "retire" 6 new androids produced by a shady corporation. It examines the relationship of man to living and non-living beings in an autopsy of empathy. A good, though provoking read. 8/10
5. Nightwatch by Terry Pratchett. This concerns the time travels and trials of Commander Vimes in Ankh-Morpork. It's a great plot, and an enjoyable read. The thing with Pratchett's books is the weak humour, often based upon tired stereotypes such as the "Aunties" that patrol certain streets and are reputedly deadly with an umbrella. We've seen this kind of thing with the Grannies in Monty Python. Nevertheless a good read. 7/10
6. Embassytown by China Mieville. You never know quite what you're going to get with Mieville's work, as the blurb never does justice to the story. I had a space opera preconception about this book, but was surpried to find it being about language - the hosts of an alien planet have a unique way of communicating with humans - which may prove to be an allegory about the failure of human cultures to speak and understand one another. There's political intrigue, exotic aliens and landscapes, and a story that is both surprising and interesting. 8/10
7. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. This book has everything, love, death, betrayal, hermits, ghosts, giant hands, helmets and feet, murder, corsairs, a lost child, a discovered son, a mad Lord, sentences of death, usurpers, piety, familial love, tragedy, coincidence, melodrama, imprisonment, escape. divine justice... For a book written over 200 years ago, it has it's qualities and flaws. It is plot driven with little development of character or a sense of place, but, as one of the first gothic novels it deserves a whirl. 6/10
8. Archangel by Robert Harris. A very good thriller set in post Glasnost Russia. Fluke Kelso, a hisorian whose specialism is Stalin, is drawn into a political intrigue that takes him to the heart of Russian politics laced with murder, insanity and power. 9/10
9. The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton. Very good sci fi with credible, well thought out worlds, and an interesting take on ethnicity and religion in space. It races at a thumping pace - all 1100 pages - and this is only part one of a trilogy. 8/10
10. A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin. The story continues apace whilst we catch up with Bran, Jon, Davos and Tyrion to mention but a few. An excellent read with great, grotequeries of characters roaming an evocative and dangerous landscape. 9/10
11. D-Day by Anthony Beevor. A comprehensive account of D-Day and the battle for Normandy. Beevor is a good story teller with an eye for relevant and interesting detail. 9/10

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Note: My ratings are based mostly on enjoyment of the text.

1. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood -- 9/10. 2012 is off to a good start. This book was excellent. A compelling story that really kept me turning the pages. I loved the back and forth timeline; it was brilliantly utilized. Ths was my first Atwood book, and I'm looking forward to reading more from her.

2. Dubliners by James Joyce -- 7/10. If it wasn't by James Joyce and I didn't feel an overwhelming need to have liked it more than I did, it would have probably received a lower rating. I'm just not a huge fan of "slice of life" stories, now matter how beautifully written (and, honestly, I was expecting more in that department). I did find some of the stories charming, though, and the last paragraph of "The Dead" was particularly brilliant.

3. The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari -- 8/10. It's the story of a bet made between god and the devil on whether a kid (Joby), by the age of 40, will choose to be good and evil, and all of creation depends on his decision. I found it to be a very good read, very engaging, and I became very attached to the characters, while really hating others. One of the things that really bothered me, and something that knocked it down a point, is the author's overuse of italics. It became distracting. Still highly recommended, though.

4. Collected Fictions by J.L. Borges -- 8/10. Definitely some of the most interesting short stories I've read. I loved some, wasn't too crazy about others, and sometimes I just didn't know what the hell was going, but his originality really struck me as brilliant.

5. American Gods by Neil Gaiman --7/10. I wanted to like this book more than I did, even though I did really enjoy it. After all the praise, I was expecting too much, though. The ideas were original, but I just didn't find the main character's attitude about his situations believable.

6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë -- 7/10. It was good. The writing was good, but I just can't say that the story intrigued me throughout. I much preferred her experiences as a child and with the mad woman over the romance stuff, which was boring.

7. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie -- 8.5/10. I'm becoming more of a fan of magical realism, and this book is why. Strange story, well (and unusually) written, interesting characters. What more is there to say?

8. The City and The City by China Meiville -- 8/10. This is an author I've been meaning to read for some time,*and he didn't disappoint. The story was good, the world well built and original, and the writing nice and fast-paced. Just a very enjoyable read. I will definitely be checking out more of his work.

9. The Aeneid by Virgil -- 8/10. This was surprisingly enjoyable (I never have high expectations when going reading epic poetry, enjoyment wise). It was an excellent adventure story and quite fast paced. Plus, I loved the gory battle scenes. Movies like 300 really aren't far off the mark, it seems.

10. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien -- 10/10. This is a a semi-autobiographical book of (connected) short stories about the Vietnam war. I found it to be an amazing read; it's beautifully written; at times funny, horrifying, sad, and always poignant; a wonderfully quick paced read; and a non-heroic look at the Vietnam war. And don't think it's a book just for people interested in war--it's themes are universal. I seriously could not find a single flaw in this book.

11. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins -- 6.5/10. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, though I found some inconsistencies with the main character and a particularly annoying plot turn near the end. All in all, though, and enjoyable read. Read my review here.

12. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson -- 6/10. A good read with some pretty obvious flaws. It's a bit long-winded, often giving more backstory than the reader wants or needs, and the climax comes way to early. Salander, (the character referenced to on the title) is an excellent character, though.

13. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron -- 9/10. A beautifully written gothic mystery that brought to mind Poe and Hawthorne. The imagery was great, the prose lyrical, the story captivating, and the characters excellently crafted. A really good book.

14. The Iliad by Homer -- 6/10. I just couldn't get into this. Just too long and too much rambling on about so-and-so killing so-and-so and what not. It's been a long time since I've read it, but I think I enjoy The Odyssey much more.

15. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke -- 9/10. I think this is really one of the greatest prices of sci-fi ever written. Clarke seems to get short-changed whsn people discuss the great sci-fi authors, but he wrote some wonderful stuff--one just needs to find them within his huge oeuvre. Wonderful story, quickly paced, and incredibly thoughtful. A definite must read for any sci-fi fan.

16. Trumpet by Jackie Kay -- 8/10. A very unique novel about a female jazz singer who lived his life as a man, and the perspectives of those who knew him. The prose is absolutely beautiful--it's clear that Kay is a primarily a poet--but there just wasn't much of a plot . . . barely any at all, actually. That's fine for some, but not for me. If it had a bit more narrative, it would've gotten a 10.

17. The Pagoda by Patricia Powell -- 6/10. Another book similar to Trumpet, it is about a transgender man (I read both books for a class I'm currently taking), particularly a Chinese immigrant to Jamaica during the early 1900s. Maybe it's because I just read Trumpet, but I just couldn't get interested in this book, even though it was quite well written and compelling.

18. The Best Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant -- 6/10. Sometimes I read a book and think, "Am I missing something?" Well, file this collection of short stories in that category, because I didn't find them all that great. There were a couple I enjoyed, but after hearing over and over how Maupassant is one of, if not the, greatest short story writer of all time, I'm thoroughly unimpressed.

19. Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett -- 7/10. A good novel, but the plot got pretty slow at points and the second half of the book is almost exclusively a romance story, which I'm not a fan of. My favorite aspect of this novel was the incorporation of classical music.

20. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk -- 5/10. A murder mystery set in the 16th century Turkish art world. Despite the beautiful writing and interesting narrative style (why it actually got a 5), the story too often got bogged down in long descriptions and philosophical meanderings. Plus, I found none of the characters likable. A disappointing read from a Nobel prize winning author.

21. Night by Elie Wiesel -- 7/10. A good portrayal of the holocaust and all its horror. The writing is very minimalsric (it's easy to see why it's widely used in schools), but that's not a bad thing in this case, though it was a little too simple for my taste. It could have been longer, too.

22. The Best Short Stories of O. Henry by O. Henry -- 7/10. There's no doubt that O. Henry had quite a lot of skill with the written word, but his stories, while some of them being excellent, all followed the same "twist ending" formula that become obvious--I was rarely unable to guess the twist. It seemed some of his stories suffered in that the only goal they served was to trick the reader with a clever ending.

23. Mosses from an Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- 8/10. Hawthorne really is a master of his craft. Barring a few, I found all the short stories in his first collection quite wonderful. His writing is absolutely beautiful. My favorite stories were "Young Goodman Brown," "Earth's Holocaust," "The Celestial Railroad'" and "Roger Malvin's Burial," the last of which being my favorite.

24. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins -- 7.5/10.*Even though most claim the it as their favorite, I enjoyed Catching Fire more than The Hunger Games, but maybe that's because I knew so much already before reading THG. It kept me turning the page, that's for sure, despite it's flaws--cliches and sappy love triangle, principle among them.

25. X-Men: Messiah Complex by Ed Brubaker, et al -- 9/10. I wasn't going to include comics in my list, but this was so good (and so long, at 350+ pages) I thought it deserved a spot. The story centers around rescuing the first mutant child after nearly all mutants' powers were taken away in a precious story line. The story is convoluted like all comics, but I found it to be well crafted, well thought out, and well written--the dialogue, especially.

26. The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov -- 5/10. Well, pretty much the same situation as Maupassant, only worse. A lot of the stories seemed pointless, or plotless. They would just end with absolutely no payoff. I guess I didn't get it. I enjoyed a few stories.

27. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy -- 8/10. Over all a quite enjoyable read. I think the biggest strength of the books is character development--I was always looking forward to seeing what was next for the main people. It doesn't receive a perfect score because I think it's longer than it needs to be and because some of the longer militaristic sections didn't interest me. And I skimmed the second epilogue, which seemed completely self-indulgent on Tolstoy's part.

28. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins -- 7.5/10. A good inclusion to a good series. Not much more to really say. It had the same flaws and strengths the first two did. She knows how to end chapters on cliff-hangers, that's for sure.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Note: My ratings are based mostly on enjoyment of the text.

1. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood -- 9/10. 2012 is off to a good start. This book was excellent. A compelling story that really kept me turning the pages. I loved the back and forth timeline; it was brilliantly utilized. Ths was my first Atwood book, and I'm looking forward to reading more from her.

2. Dubliners by James Joyce -- 7/10. If it wasn't by James Joyce and I didn't feel an overwhelming need to have liked it more than I did, it would have probably received a lower rating. I'm just not a huge fan of "slice of life" stories, now matter how beautifully written (and, honestly, I was expecting more in that department). I did find some of the stories charming, though, and the last paragraph of "The Dead" was particularly brilliant.

3. The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari -- 8/10. It's the story of a bet made between god and the devil on whether a kid (Joby), by the age of 40, will choose to be good and evil, and all of creation depends on his decision. I found it to be a very good read, very engaging, and I became very attached to the characters, while really hating others. One of the things that really bothered me, and something that knocked it down a point, is the author's overuse of italics. It became distracting. Still highly recommended, though.

4. Collected Fictions by J.L. Borges -- 8/10. Definitely some of the most interesting short stories I've read. I loved some, wasn't too crazy about others, and sometimes I just didn't know what the hell was going, but his originality really struck me as brilliant.

5. American Gods by Neil Gaiman --7/10. I wanted to like this book more than I did, even though I did really enjoy it. After all the praise, I was expecting too much, though. The ideas were original, but I just didn't find the main character's attitude about his situations believable.

6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë -- 7/10. It was good. The writing was good, but I just can't say that the story intrigued me throughout. I much preferred her experiences as a child and with the mad woman over the romance stuff, which was boring.

7. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie -- 8.5/10. I'm becoming more of a fan of magical realism, and this book is why. Strange story, well (and unusually) written, interesting characters. What more is there to say?

8. The City and The City by China Meiville -- 8/10. This is an author I've been meaning to read for some time,*and he didn't disappoint. The story was good, the world well built and original, and the writing nice and fast-paced. Just a very enjoyable read. I will definitely be checking out more of his work.

9. The Aeneid by Virgil -- 8/10. This was surprisingly enjoyable (I never have high expectations when going reading epic poetry, enjoyment wise). It was an excellent adventure story and quite fast paced. Plus, I loved the gory battle scenes. Movies like 300 really aren't far off the mark, it seems.

10. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien -- 10/10. This is a a semi-autobiographical book of (connected) short stories about the Vietnam war. I found it to be an amazing read; it's beautifully written; at times funny, horrifying, sad, and always poignant; a wonderfully quick paced read; and a non-heroic look at the Vietnam war. And don't think it's a book just for people interested in war--it's themes are universal. I seriously could not find a single flaw in this book.

11. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins -- 6.5/10. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, though I found some inconsistencies with the main character and a particularly annoying plot turn near the end. All in all, though, and enjoyable read. Read my review here.

12. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson -- 6/10. A good read with some pretty obvious flaws. It's a bit long-winded, often giving more backstory than the reader wants or needs, and the climax comes way to early. Salander, (the character referenced to on the title) is an excellent character, though.

13. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron -- 9/10. A beautifully written gothic mystery that brought to mind Poe and Hawthorne. The imagery was great, the prose lyrical, the story captivating, and the characters excellently crafted. A really good book.

14. The Iliad by Homer -- 6/10. I just couldn't get into this. Just too long and too much rambling on about so-and-so killing so-and-so and what not. It's been a long time since I've read it, but I think I enjoy The Odyssey much more.

15. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke -- 9/10. I think this is really one of the greatest prices of sci-fi ever written. Clarke seems to get short-changed whsn people discuss the great sci-fi authors, but he wrote some wonderful stuff--one just needs to find them within his huge oeuvre. Wonderful story, quickly paced, and incredibly thoughtful. A definite must read for any sci-fi fan.

16. Trumpet by Jackie Kay -- 8/10. A very unique novel about a female jazz singer who lived his life as a man, and the perspectives of those who knew him. The prose is absolutely beautiful--it's clear that Kay is a primarily a poet--but there just wasn't much of a plot . . . barely any at all, actually. That's fine for some, but not for me. If it had a bit more narrative, it would've gotten a 10.

17. The Pagoda by Patricia Powell -- 6/10. Another book similar to Trumpet, it is about a transgender man (I read both books for a class I'm currently taking), particularly a Chinese immigrant to Jamaica during the early 1900s. Maybe it's because I just read Trumpet, but I just couldn't get interested in this book, even though it was quite well written and compelling.

18. The Best Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant -- 6/10. Sometimes I read a book and think, "Am I missing something?" Well, file this collection of short stories in that category, because I didn't find them all that great. There were a couple I enjoyed, but after hearing over and over how Maupassant is one of, if not the, greatest short story writer of all time, I'm thoroughly unimpressed.

19. Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett -- 7/10. A good novel, but the plot got pretty slow at points and the second half of the book is almost exclusively a romance story, which I'm not a fan of. My favorite aspect of this novel was the incorporation of classical music.

20. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk -- 5/10. A murder mystery set in the 16th century Turkish art world. Despite the beautiful writing and interesting narrative style (why it actually got a 5), the story too often got bogged down in long descriptions and philosophical meanderings. Plus, I found none of the characters likable. A disappointing read from a Nobel prize winning author.

21. Night by Elie Wiesel -- 7/10. A good portrayal of the holocaust and all its horror. The writing is very minimalsric (it's easy to see why it's widely used in schools), but that's not a bad thing in this case, though it was a little too simple for my taste. It could have been longer, too.

22. The Best Short Stories of O. Henry by O. Henry -- 7/10. There's no doubt that O. Henry had quite a lot of skill with the written word, but his stories, while some of them being excellent, all followed the same "twist ending" formula that become obvious--I was rarely unable to guess the twist. It seemed some of his stories suffered in that the only goal they served was to trick the reader with a clever ending.

23. Mosses from an Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- 8/10. Hawthorne really is a master of his craft. Barring a few, I found all the short stories in his first collection quite wonderful. His writing is absolutely beautiful. My favorite stories were "Young Goodman Brown," "Earth's Holocaust," "The Celestial Railroad'" and "Roger Malvin's Burial," the last of which being my favorite.

24. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins -- 7.5/10.*Even though most claim the it as their favorite, I enjoyed Catching Fire more than The Hunger Games, but maybe that's because I knew so much already before reading THG. It kept me turning the page, that's for sure, despite it's flaws--cliches and sappy love triangle, principle among them.

25. X-Men: Messiah Complex by Ed Brubaker, et al -- 9/10. I wasn't going to include comics in my list, but this was so good (and so long, at 350+ pages) I thought it deserved a spot. The story centers around rescuing the first mutant child after nearly all mutants' powers were taken away in a precious story line. The story is convoluted like all comics, but I found it to be well crafted, well thought out, and well written--the dialogue, especially.

26. The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov -- 5/10. Well, pretty much the same situation as Maupassant, only worse. A lot of the stories seemed pointless, or plotless. They would just end with absolutely no payoff. I guess I didn't get it. I enjoyed a few stories.

27. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy -- 8/10. Over all a quite enjoyable read. I think the biggest strength of the books is character development--I was always looking forward to seeing what was next for the main people. It doesn't receive a perfect score because I think it's longer than it needs to be and because some of the longer militaristic sections didn't interest me. And I skimmed the second epilogue, which seemed completely self-indulgent on Tolstoy's part.

28. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins -- 7.5/10. A good inclusion to a good series. Not much more to really say. It had the same flaws and strengths the first two did. She knows how to end chapters on cliff-hangers, that's for sure.

29. Babylon Revisited: And Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald -- 7/10. So far, and aside from Hawthorne and Poe, my favorite of the "great" short story writers, though I still wasn't blown away, except for one story: "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz." that one I'd give a 10/10.

30. Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay -- 6/10. A good, entertaining YA fantasy novel. It was my first read of Kay, and while I wasn't immensely impressed, I may give him another chane. The biggest weakness of the story was the adult character--I found their willingness to go along with the two main characters, aged 15, and their crazy stories a bit far-fetched. I wish the adults had stayed out of it. I did like how history was woven into the fantasy story, though.

31. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison -- 9/10. My first novel by Morrison, and I really, really liked it. I love novels that sort of bend genres, and this one did that for sure, mixing family drama with mystery with suspense thriller (at times), all combined with supernatural overtones and a superb prose style. Will definitely be reading more by her.

32. The Aspern Papers by Henry James -- 4/10. Not much more to say than I found it boring. Boring story, boring characters, and man did it draaaaag. And there wasn't even a payoff at the end.

33. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James -- 5/10. Felt I had to give James one more chance. Won't be giving him another. While the story was more interesting, it also dragged and had uninteresting characters. I didn't get the ending at all and didn't care enough to try and figure it out.

[Desolation]

1. The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth - 9/10...This was my first exposure to Roth, and it definitely made me want to keep going through his catalog.
2. Post Office by Charles Bukowski - 6/10...Reading Bukowski is nice because it makes me feel like a better human being. Otherwise, he kind of annoys me.
3. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon - 7/10...Kind of hard to make heads or tails of it. I've heard it frequently said that this is the most accessible of Pynchon's books, but I think they meant "shortest." It seems to me that Pynchon works better when he has more space to spread his wings.
4. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - 8/10...I liked it a lot. It was even very difficult to put down.
5. Watt by Samuel Beckett - 9/10...Kind of like speeding down a highway in reverse on LSD with a low quality mash-up of Black Flag and Mozart blasting at top volume.
6. White Noise by Don DeLillo - 10/10...Funny, angry, creative, compelling. I couldn't find any fault with it.
7. Mercier and Camier by Samuel Beckett - 7/10...Not quite up to par with Watt, but still entertainingly disorienting.
8. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy - 9/10...Tolstoy shows about as much power and insight here in 50 pages as he did with 1,200 pages in War and Peace.
9. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf - ?/10...Sometimes, a good book needs to stir a while in your head before you can say whether or not you actually enjoyed it. Woolf's an incredibly powerful writer, I can at least say that much.
10. Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth - 8/10...I kind of wish that I had read Portnoy's Complaint first, as it seems that it would've greatly informed this reading. Still very good, though.
11. V. by Thomas Pynchon - 10/10...What a book! Long, rambling, hard to follow, almost perfect from start to finish. A perfect example of the word "Difficult" being thrown around callously at truly captivating novels.
12. Nightwood by Djuna Barnes - 8/10...A remarkable study of destructive desire rendered in beautifully poetic prose.
13. The Recognitions by William Gaddis - 10/10...For two weeks, every single drop of energy and mental faculty that I could muster has gone into reading this gigantic novel. It really took a lot out of me, but it was well worth it. In just under 1,000 pages Gaddis manages to stuff in themes ranging from the nature of reality/authenticity, religious satire, the creative process, and so much more. There's a new truth bursting from every page.
14. Malone Dies by Samuel Becket - 10/10...The best Beckett I've read so far. His long, winding internal monologue reaches a natural apex in the corner of a dark room.
15. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf - 8/10...It was a very beautiful book. Sometimes it sank, but the moments when it grabs one by the frontal lobe and pulls them streaming down the river with it make it an wonderful read.
16. Dubliners by James Joyce - 7/10...I'm used to reading novels, so I had trouble deciding how to approach this collection of short stories. One of the chief advantages was being able to simply skip a story if I didn't care for it and move onto the next (I only did this twice, with "Counterparts" and "A Mother"). Not all of the stories were great, but there were a few real knockouts. "Little Cloud" was stupendous in particular. But, naturally, it was "The Dead" that really, really stood out (on its own, it would be a 10, surely).
17. At Swim - Two - Birds by Flann O'Brien - 9/10...Great, strange little book. I'll definitely be digging deeper into O'Brien's works.
18. Exiles by James Joyce - 7/10...Good, not great. At first, it seemed like a bit of a love song from Joyce to Joyce and against everyone else. But, in the end, I came out thinking "Aw, he loves his wife. That's sweet."
19. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway - 5/10...I love Hemingway, and think that he's written many great works. This isn't one of them. I get the over-arcing themes...Quiet perseverance, grace under pressure, man is not made for defeat, and so on...But all of his books cover those things pretty well. This came off as redundant and dull to me.
20. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - 10/10...This is the second time that I've read it, and it hit me in a much more profound way this time around. Really brilliant read.
21. Ulysses by James Joyce - 11/10...I've been preparing to read this for the last 3 years. Since I got out of high school, I've been on a self-study course of literature, and this is a fitting end. Next week, I start my time in proper college. As such this was a strategic read...I wanted it to be the last book that I read from an "uneducated" nonacademic viewpoint. I wanted the words to flow over me, without any worry of stopping every few sentence to break down and analyze everything. I'm happy with what I didn't understand of this towering novel. As an added bonus, I managed to finish it on Bloomsday, and I'll probably be coming back to both it and Portrait every couple of years. I have no qualms about calling Ulysses the greatest book I've ever read.
22. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - 9/10...Class reading. This is the 3rd time I've read the book, and for this class I read 5 critical analyzes of the novel. I feel like I understand it pretty well at this point. Great novel, always a favorite.
23. Charlotte Temple by Susana Rowson - 2/10...Class reading. Meh.
24. Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville - 8/10...Class reading. Brilliant.
25. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs - 7/10...Class reading. It's not exactly high art, but it was a very moving and informative read that packed quite a punch.
26. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - 6/10...Class reading. Suitably captivating while reading, but it sort of disappears once the book is closed. It's a very important book, though.
27. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman - 10/10...Class reading. Another one I've read on my own before, but I somehow loved it even more this time than last.
28. Daisy Miller: A Study by Henry James - 9/10...Class reading. Well, if it's an indication of what I thought of this, I went out and got three more of James' books after our class discussion.
29. The Awakening by Kate Chopin - 9/10...Class reading. Beautifully written, emotionally powerful, and all around captivating and sad in a sort of hopeful way.

[Buckthorn]

1. Trust me I'm a junior doctor by Max Pemberton- 6/10. A very funny and eye opening account of a doctors first year in medicine
2. The last werewolf by Glen Duncan 6/10. A good story about the last werewolf on earth, this started out really well but I found it slowly went downhill.
3. Skipping Christmas by John Grisham 5/10. A story about a family who decide to skip Christmas. It was funny in some places and would be nice to read at Christmas.
4. Under the dome by Stephen King 7.5/10. This started out really well, a story about a town that suddenly gets cut off from the outside world by an invisible dome, its a good story but I was expecting a bit more from Stephen King
5. Small man in a book by Rob Brydon 6/10. Rob Brydon's autobiography, I'm not a huge fan of autobiography's but this was really interesting.
6. Where does it hurt by Max Pemberton 7/10. The junior doctors second year of medicine spent working in a drug and alcohol clinic is a real eye opener and really funny as well
7. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey 8.5/10. I didn't think I would like this but I loved it, the story of a couple in 1920's Alaska who can't have children, then one night they build a child from snow.
8. The doctor will see you now by Max Pemberton 7/10. The junior doctors 3rd year in medicine back in hospital in dementia and A&E. This was funny but also touching.
9. Labyrinth by ACH Smith 8/10. This is a novelization of the movie Labyrinth, it was a fleshed out version of the movie but immensely enjoyable.
10. Do androids dream of electric sheep by Philip K Dick 8/10. An extremely thought provoking book, really like it.
11. Wolfsangel by M.D. Lachlan 7/10. A good fantasy about magic, gods and werewolves
12. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 8/10. I didn't think I was going to like this a story about 24 kids from the districts of Panem forced to fight to the death, but I ended up loving it. It reminded me of the Running Man by Richard Bachman but was unputdownable
13. The words of making by David Forbes 8/10. The second book in the Osserian saga about a prince who is the most powerful wizard in hundreds of years. They are basic fantasy novels but there is something about the books that I really enjoyed
14. Catching fire by Suzanne Collins 7/10. Second book in the Hunger Games, a good book but not as good as the first.
15. The commanding stone by David Forbes 8/10. Third book in the Osserian saga, really enjoyable but a bit disappointing at the end. There was supposed to be a fourth book which would tie up all the loose ends, but its not going to happen.
16. The mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 7.5/10. The final book in the Hunger games, this was better than the second but still not as good as the first. Mockingjay had a good ending but the middle of the book felt sloppy and weak.
17. The stand by Stephen King 9/10. I think I've read this 5 times now, its one of my favourites and was as brilliant as always
18. Pirate latitudes by Michael Crichton 4/10. Didn't enjoy this anywhere near as much as some of his other books, bit of a disappointment.

[Paulclem]

1. The Departure by Neal Asher. A solid sci fi about an overcrowded dystopian earth that has become ruled by a world government - with frequent references to the Eurozone - which has decided to annihilate a large portion of the billions who would die anyway. Our hero, Adam Saul, has developed an organic interface to computers and implanted it in his brain in order to overcome the military backed bureacracy. Pacy beginning to a new series. 7/10
2. The House of the Dead by Doestoyevsky. A brilliant depiction of life in a Siberian jail in the 19th century. The characterisation, the relentless drudgery described, the themed chapters that veer away from a chronological account, the events that punctuated the years in jail and the pathos of the men and animals all combine in to a life of slow horror. 10/10
3. The Battle for Crete by Anthony Beevor. An interesting and comprehensive account of the fall of Crete in WW2 when the Germans launched their first and only parachute invasion. It charts the dithering and incompetence of the British command, and how they lost a battle they nearly won. 8/10
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip Dick. Set in a dystopian, nuclear future, a Bounty Hunter is charged by the police department to "retire" 6 new androids produced by a shady corporation. It examines the relationship of man to living and non-living beings in an autopsy of empathy. A good, though provoking read. 8/10
5. Nightwatch by Terry Pratchett. This concerns the time travels and trials of Commander Vimes in Ankh-Morpork. It's a great plot, and an enjoyable read. The thing with Pratchett's books is the weak humour, often based upon tired stereotypes such as the "Aunties" that patrol certain streets and are reputedly deadly with an umbrella. We've seen this kind of thing with the Grannies in Monty Python. Nevertheless a good read. 7/10
6. Embassytown by China Mieville. You never know quite what you're going to get with Mieville's work, as the blurb never does justice to the story. I had a space opera preconception about this book, but was surpried to find it being about language - the hosts of an alien planet have a unique way of communicating with humans - which may prove to be an allegory about the failure of human cultures to speak and understand one another. There's political intrigue, exotic aliens and landscapes, and a story that is both surprising and interesting. 8/10
7. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. This book has everything, love, death, betrayal, hermits, ghosts, giant hands, helmets and feet, murder, corsairs, a lost child, a discovered son, a mad Lord, sentences of death, usurpers, piety, familial love, tragedy, coincidence, melodrama, imprisonment, escape. divine justice... For a book written over 200 years ago, it has it's qualities and flaws. It is plot driven with little development of character or a sense of place, but, as one of the first gothic novels it deserves a whirl. 6/10
8. Archangel by Robert Harris. A very good thriller set in post Glasnost Russia. Fluke Kelso, a hisorian whose specialism is Stalin, is drawn into a political intrigue that takes him to the heart of Russian politics laced with murder, insanity and power. 9/10
9. The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton. Very good sci fi with credible, well thought out worlds, and an interesting take on ethnicity and religion in space. It races at a thumping pace - all 1100 pages - and this is only part one of a trilogy. 8/10
10. A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin. The story continues apace whilst we catch up with Bran, Jon, Davos and Tyrion to mention but a few. An excellent read with great, grotequeries of characters roaming an evocative and dangerous landscape. 9/10
11. D-Day by Anthony Beevor. A comprehensive account of D-Day and the battle for Normandy. Beevor is a good story teller with an eye for relevant and interesting detail. 9/10
12. Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith. A very good thriller about a Moscow Chief investigator Inspector Arkady solving the deaths of three people in Moscow. The action moves from Moscow to the US, with good characterisation and a plot that keeps you guessing. 7/10
13. All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings. A good account of the battles of WW2 not covered by Hastings. This includes the Pacific campaign, Burma, Singapore, with good overviews of the other campaigns. Hastings dispels some myths about who actually won the war, despite the claims, and is good at describing the thought that went into strataegic decisions, and the repercussions of those momentus events. 7/10

[lawpark]

1. The Vision of God - Vladimir Lossky. 7/10. About Orthodox theology, written middle of last century. Vladimir is a Russian theologian living in the emigre community in France; his father N.O. Lossky is a philosophy who has written a History of Russian Philosophy with the last section covering his own son Vladimir.

2. Pathways of Modern China - Ray Huang. 8/10. Chinese book. A refresher for me about Ray Huang's view on history. I find it more authentic than last I read him (about a decade ago), as he is honestly trying to interpret Chinese history in the 20th century such that the sacrifices of his fathers' and his own generation are not all wasted.

3. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Volume 1- Jeroslav Pelikan. 8/10. A 5-volume classic completed in 1970's. Trying to account for doctrinal development in a somewhat "objective" style.

4. Sophocles I / Three Tragedies - 9/10. This the Grene / Lattimore edition of the 3 Theban Plays. I find myself liking them a lot - mostly because the plays are quite fast-paced. Among the three, I personally like Oedipus the King the most.

5. An Outline of a Theory of Civilization - by Fukuzawa Yukichi. 9/10. Written in 1875. I read a Chinese translation. Actually very impressed by this pragmatic visionary . What he wrote over 130 years ago still strikes me as true and right direction if we were put back to 1875 again. This dude deserves to have his face printed on 10,000 Yen bills!

6. Lectures on Divine Humanity - by Vladimir Solovyov. 7/10. Lectures in 1878-1811. Most interesting is his "Sophiology" - but he didn't expound much on it actually. Vs. Fukuzawa (they wrote at around the same time), he was clearly the idealistic visionary who got things wrong.

7. Toynbee on Toynbee - A Conversation between Arnold J. Toynbee and G. R. Urban. 8/10. Book was published in 1974 based on a radio conversation when Toybee was 83 years old. The two parts of this small book shows how the world of historiography (i.e. the fundamental issues faced with doing / writing history) really has not changed that much.

8. Gita Govinda. Original by Jayadeva in Sanskrit, translated into English by Lee Siegel. 8/10. Part of the now bankrupt Clay Sanskrit Library series. Dual theme of erotic love and bhakti devotion to Krishna, written in poem / song form.

9. Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction - written by Steven Grosby. 6/10. One of the Oxford pocketbooks. The book itself is actually not bad, my low ratings just reflect my lack of interest in the subject. It is one of the few VSI's that I wish is actually shorter.

10. On the Epochs of History (German Title: Über die Epochen der neueren Geschichte)- by Leopold Ranke. 8/10. I read a Chinese translation. It was a set of lectures delivered to the Duke of Bavaria in 1854, published after Ranke's death in 1888. Ranke was founder of modern history as an academic discipline - yet in this work this aspect of Ranke is by now means clear.

11. African History: A Very Short Introduction - by John Parker and Richard Rathbone. 8/10. Another one in the Oxford series. It is really a book an the "meta-historiography" of African history rather than African history itself. Highlighted how almost everything we know as happening in Africa has its roots during the modern (roughly post-1400) period.

12. The World from 1450 to 1700 - by John Wills Jr. 8/10. A fast pace worldwide tour through the "pre-modern" world in the new tradition World History in less than 160 pages, written by the author 1688: A Global History.

13. The Completion of Traditional China (by two Japanese authors). 7/10. A pocket-book published in 1977 in Japan, as a 11-volume series of "Eastern Ocean History". I read a Chinese translation from Taiwan. Narrative stopped very abruptly right before the Opium War - but the focus on foreign trade and silver-based economy is innovative for its time.

14. Who made the history of the past 500 years - by Han Yuhai. 9/10. A Chinese work that tries to integrate World Systems Theory and other authors into a cohesive viewpoint of modern World History and Chinese History - divided into two-phases of the Long 16th Century and the Long 19th Century.

15. French Literature: A Very Short Introduction - by John Lyons. 9/10. Very enjoyable introduction that sheds light on the times, key authors, works, themes and styles. Surprised to find how Pascal was portrayed as an influential outsider even within the tradition of French Literature.

16. Nalan Xingde Ci Poetry Selection - selected and commented on by Sheng Dongling. 7/10. A Chinese work Nalan Xingde was an early Qing dynasty talented genius who died young. His ci poetry is too sad for me - but I found the occasion of attending a funeral to flip through the ~100 short poems selected.

17. A Study on Tangshi Pinhui - by Shen Dongcheng. 4/10. Ph.D. thesis that is just a bunch of statistics. Tangshi Pinhui is arguably the first truly "canonical" Tang poetry selection (with 5,000+ poems selected), completed in early Ming dynasty. This book influenced the more famous, later and much shorter selection 300 Tang Poems.

18. Spanish Literature: A Very Short Introduction. - by Jo Labanyi. 8/10. Also very well written. Covered only Spanish as a country / nation, not as a language though.

19. English Literature: A Very Short Introduction - by Jonathan Bate. 8/10. Written almost as a literature introduction. Again coverage excludes non-British authors, at least explicitly excludes American literature.

20. Italian Literature: A Very Short Introduction - by Peter Hainsworth & David Robey. 8/10. Interesting coverage of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. Plus how Italian lacks a driving vernacular language at its center until very recently.

21. Whose Bible is It? A Very Short History of the Scriptures - by Jaroslav Pelikan. 7/10. This is a bestseller written by a scholar. The interesting bit is primarily translation of Jewish Tanakh into Greek before Christianity.

22. Words of the World - by Abran de Swaan. 8/10. Use a metric 'Q-value' to study why and how specific languages gain prominance in specific regions. Essentially highlight the importance of numbers of second-language learners.

23. Basic Pimsleur Hindi - audio book. 7/10. First time I tried Pimsleur. Completed the 10 lessons (30 min each). Reasonably interesting way to get orientation to a new language.

[Desolation]

1. The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth - 9/10...This was my first exposure to Roth, and it definitely made me want to keep going through his catalog.
2. Post Office by Charles Bukowski - 6/10...Reading Bukowski is nice because it makes me feel like a better human being. Otherwise, he kind of annoys me.
3. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon - 7/10...Kind of hard to make heads or tails of it. I've heard it frequently said that this is the most accessible of Pynchon's books, but I think they meant "shortest." It seems to me that Pynchon works better when he has more space to spread his wings.
4. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - 8/10...I liked it a lot. It was even very difficult to put down.
5. Watt by Samuel Beckett - 9/10...Kind of like speeding down a highway in reverse on LSD with a low quality mash-up of Black Flag and Mozart blasting at top volume.
6. White Noise by Don DeLillo - 10/10...Funny, angry, creative, compelling. I couldn't find any fault with it.
7. Mercier and Camier by Samuel Beckett - 7/10...Not quite up to par with Watt, but still entertainingly disorienting.
8. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy - 9/10...Tolstoy shows about as much power and insight here in 50 pages as he did with 1,200 pages in War and Peace.
9. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf - ?/10...Sometimes, a good book needs to stir a while in your head before you can say whether or not you actually enjoyed it. Woolf's an incredibly powerful writer, I can at least say that much.
10. Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth - 8/10...I kind of wish that I had read Portnoy's Complaint first, as it seems that it would've greatly informed this reading. Still very good, though.
11. V. by Thomas Pynchon - 10/10...What a book! Long, rambling, hard to follow, almost perfect from start to finish. A perfect example of the word "Difficult" being thrown around callously at truly captivating novels.
12. Nightwood by Djuna Barnes - 8/10...A remarkable study of destructive desire rendered in beautifully poetic prose.
13. The Recognitions by William Gaddis - 10/10...For two weeks, every single drop of energy and mental faculty that I could muster has gone into reading this gigantic novel. It really took a lot out of me, but it was well worth it. In just under 1,000 pages Gaddis manages to stuff in themes ranging from the nature of reality/authenticity, religious satire, the creative process, and so much more. There's a new truth bursting from every page.
14. Malone Dies by Samuel Becket - 10/10...The best Beckett I've read so far. His long, winding internal monologue reaches a natural apex in the corner of a dark room.
15. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf - 8/10...It was a very beautiful book. Sometimes it sank, but the moments when it grabs one by the frontal lobe and pulls them streaming down the river with it make it an wonderful read.
16. Dubliners by James Joyce - 7/10...I'm used to reading novels, so I had trouble deciding how to approach this collection of short stories. One of the chief advantages was being able to simply skip a story if I didn't care for it and move onto the next (I only did this twice, with "Counterparts" and "A Mother"). Not all of the stories were great, but there were a few real knockouts. "Little Cloud" was stupendous in particular. But, naturally, it was "The Dead" that really, really stood out (on its own, it would be a 10, surely).
17. At Swim - Two - Birds by Flann O'Brien - 9/10...Great, strange little book. I'll definitely be digging deeper into O'Brien's works.
18. Exiles by James Joyce - 7/10...Good, not great. At first, it seemed like a bit of a love song from Joyce to Joyce and against everyone else. But, in the end, I came out thinking "Aw, he loves his wife. That's sweet."
19. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway - 5/10...I love Hemingway, and think that he's written many great works. This isn't one of them. I get the over-arcing themes...Quiet perseverance, grace under pressure, man is not made for defeat, and so on...But all of his books cover those things pretty well. This came off as redundant and dull to me.
20. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - 10/10...This is the second time that I've read it, and it hit me in a much more profound way this time around. Really brilliant read.
21. Ulysses by James Joyce - 11/10...I've been preparing to read this for the last 3 years. Since I got out of high school, I've been on a self-study course of literature, and this is a fitting end. Next week, I start my time in proper college. As such this was a strategic read...I wanted it to be the last book that I read from an "uneducated" nonacademic viewpoint. I wanted the words to flow over me, without any worry of stopping every few sentence to break down and analyze everything. I'm happy with what I didn't understand of this towering novel. As an added bonus, I managed to finish it on Bloomsday, and I'll probably be coming back to both it and Portrait every couple of years. I have no qualms about calling Ulysses the greatest book I've ever read.
22. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - 9/10...Class reading. This is the 3rd time I've read the book, and for this class I read 5 critical analyzes of the novel. I feel like I understand it pretty well at this point. Great novel, always a favorite.
23. Charlotte Temple by Susana Rowson - 2/10...Class reading. Meh.
24. Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville - 8/10...Class reading. Brilliant.
25. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs - 7/10...Class reading. It's not exactly high art, but it was a very moving and informative read that packed quite a punch.
26. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - 6/10...Class reading. Suitably captivating while reading, but it sort of disappears once the book is closed. It's a very important book, though.
27. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman - 10/10...Class reading. Another one I've read on my own before, but I somehow loved it even more this time than last.
28. Daisy Miller: A Study by Henry James - 9/10...Class reading. Well, if it's an indication of what I thought of this, I went out and got three more of James' books after our class discussion.
29. The Awakening by Kate Chopin - 9/10...Class reading. Beautifully written, emotionally powerful, and all around captivating and sad in a sort of hopeful way.
30. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser - 6/10...Class reading. It had a little bit too much Victorian flare for my tastes, but it wasn't bad.
31. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - 7/10...Class reading. I liked it a lot better this time around than the last time I read it, when I was 16. Still, all of the men in the book are ****ing *******s.
32. Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo - 7/10...I love DeLillo, so it only seemed right to read this before the movie comes out on Friday. It was very good, and DeLillo's dry language never fails to impress me. However, I couldn't help but notice that all of the best lines/scenes in the novel were easily compressed into the trailer for the movie.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Note: My ratings are based mostly on enjoyment of the text.

1. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood -- 9/10. 2012 is off to a good start. This book was excellent. A compelling story that really kept me turning the pages. I loved the back and forth timeline; it was brilliantly utilized. Ths was my first Atwood book, and I'm looking forward to reading more from her.

2. Dubliners by James Joyce -- 7/10. If it wasn't by James Joyce and I didn't feel an overwhelming need to have liked it more than I did, it would have probably received a lower rating. I'm just not a huge fan of "slice of life" stories, now matter how beautifully written (and, honestly, I was expecting more in that department). I did find some of the stories charming, though, and the last paragraph of "The Dead" was particularly brilliant.

3. The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari -- 8/10. It's the story of a bet made between god and the devil on whether a kid (Joby), by the age of 40, will choose to be good and evil, and all of creation depends on his decision. I found it to be a very good read, very engaging, and I became very attached to the characters, while really hating others. One of the things that really bothered me, and something that knocked it down a point, is the author's overuse of italics. It became distracting. Still highly recommended, though.

4. Collected Fictions by J.L. Borges -- 8/10. Definitely some of the most interesting short stories I've read. I loved some, wasn't too crazy about others, and sometimes I just didn't know what the hell was going, but his originality really struck me as brilliant.

5. American Gods by Neil Gaiman --7/10. I wanted to like this book more than I did, even though I did really enjoy it. After all the praise, I was expecting too much, though. The ideas were original, but I just didn't find the main character's attitude about his situations believable.

6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë -- 7/10. It was good. The writing was good, but I just can't say that the story intrigued me throughout. I much preferred her experiences as a child and with the mad woman over the romance stuff, which was boring.

7. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie -- 8.5/10. I'm becoming more of a fan of magical realism, and this book is why. Strange story, well (and unusually) written, interesting characters. What more is there to say?

8. The City and The City by China Meiville -- 8/10. This is an author I've been meaning to read for some time,*and he didn't disappoint. The story was good, the world well built and original, and the writing nice and fast-paced. Just a very enjoyable read. I will definitely be checking out more of his work.

9. The Aeneid by Virgil -- 8/10. This was surprisingly enjoyable (I never have high expectations when going reading epic poetry, enjoyment wise). It was an excellent adventure story and quite fast paced. Plus, I loved the gory battle scenes. Movies like 300 really aren't far off the mark, it seems.

10. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien -- 10/10. This is a a semi-autobiographical book of (connected) short stories about the Vietnam war. I found it to be an amazing read; it's beautifully written; at times funny, horrifying, sad, and always poignant; a wonderfully quick paced read; and a non-heroic look at the Vietnam war. And don't think it's a book just for people interested in war--it's themes are universal. I seriously could not find a single flaw in this book.

11. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins -- 6.5/10. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, though I found some inconsistencies with the main character and a particularly annoying plot turn near the end. All in all, though, and enjoyable read. Read my review here.

12. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson -- 6/10. A good read with some pretty obvious flaws. It's a bit long-winded, often giving more backstory than the reader wants or needs, and the climax comes way to early. Salander, (the character referenced to on the title) is an excellent character, though.

13. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron -- 9/10. A beautifully written gothic mystery that brought to mind Poe and Hawthorne. The imagery was great, the prose lyrical, the story captivating, and the characters excellently crafted. A really good book.

14. The Iliad by Homer -- 6/10. I just couldn't get into this. Just too long and too much rambling on about so-and-so killing so-and-so and what not. It's been a long time since I've read it, but I think I enjoy The Odyssey much more.

15. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke -- 9/10. I think this is really one of the greatest prices of sci-fi ever written. Clarke seems to get short-changed whsn people discuss the great sci-fi authors, but he wrote some wonderful stuff--one just needs to find them within his huge oeuvre. Wonderful story, quickly paced, and incredibly thoughtful. A definite must read for any sci-fi fan.

16. Trumpet by Jackie Kay -- 8/10. A very unique novel about a female jazz singer who lived his life as a man, and the perspectives of those who knew him. The prose is absolutely beautiful--it's clear that Kay is a primarily a poet--but there just wasn't much of a plot . . . barely any at all, actually. That's fine for some, but not for me. If it had a bit more narrative, it would've gotten a 10.

17. The Pagoda by Patricia Powell -- 6/10. Another book similar to Trumpet, it is about a transgender man (I read both books for a class I'm currently taking), particularly a Chinese immigrant to Jamaica during the early 1900s. Maybe it's because I just read Trumpet, but I just couldn't get interested in this book, even though it was quite well written and compelling.

18. The Best Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant -- 6/10. Sometimes I read a book and think, "Am I missing something?" Well, file this collection of short stories in that category, because I didn't find them all that great. There were a couple I enjoyed, but after hearing over and over how Maupassant is one of, if not the, greatest short story writer of all time, I'm thoroughly unimpressed.

19. Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett -- 7/10. A good novel, but the plot got pretty slow at points and the second half of the book is almost exclusively a romance story, which I'm not a fan of. My favorite aspect of this novel was the incorporation of classical music.

20. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk -- 5/10. A murder mystery set in the 16th century Turkish art world. Despite the beautiful writing and interesting narrative style (why it actually got a 5), the story too often got bogged down in long descriptions and philosophical meanderings. Plus, I found none of the characters likable. A disappointing read from a Nobel prize winning author.

21. Night by Elie Wiesel -- 7/10. A good portrayal of the holocaust and all its horror. The writing is very minimalsric (it's easy to see why it's widely used in schools), but that's not a bad thing in this case, though it was a little too simple for my taste. It could have been longer, too.

22. The Best Short Stories of O. Henry by O. Henry -- 7/10. There's no doubt that O. Henry had quite a lot of skill with the written word, but his stories, while some of them being excellent, all followed the same "twist ending" formula that become obvious--I was rarely unable to guess the twist. It seemed some of his stories suffered in that the only goal they served was to trick the reader with a clever ending.

23. Mosses from an Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- 8/10. Hawthorne really is a master of his craft. Barring a few, I found all the short stories in his first collection quite wonderful. His writing is absolutely beautiful. My favorite stories were "Young Goodman Brown," "Earth's Holocaust," "The Celestial Railroad'" and "Roger Malvin's Burial," the last of which being my favorite.

24. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins -- 7.5/10.*Even though most claim the it as their favorite, I enjoyed Catching Fire more than The Hunger Games, but maybe that's because I knew so much already before reading THG. It kept me turning the page, that's for sure, despite it's flaws--cliches and sappy love triangle, principle among them.

25. X-Men: Messiah Complex by Ed Brubaker, et al -- 9/10. I wasn't going to include comics in my list, but this was so good (and so long, at 350+ pages) I thought it deserved a spot. The story centers around rescuing the first mutant child after nearly all mutants' powers were taken away in a precious story line. The story is convoluted like all comics, but I found it to be well crafted, well thought out, and well written--the dialogue, especially.

26. The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov -- 5/10. Well, pretty much the same situation as Maupassant, only worse. A lot of the stories seemed pointless, or plotless. They would just end with absolutely no payoff. I guess I didn't get it. I enjoyed a few stories.

27. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy -- 8/10. Over all a quite enjoyable read. I think the biggest strength of the books is character development--I was always looking forward to seeing what was next for the main people. It doesn't receive a perfect score because I think it's longer than it needs to be and because some of the longer militaristic sections didn't interest me. And I skimmed the second epilogue, which seemed completely self-indulgent on Tolstoy's part.

28. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins -- 7.5/10. A good inclusion to a good series. Not much more to really say. It had the same flaws and strengths the first two did. She knows how to end chapters on cliff-hangers, that's for sure.

29. Babylon Revisited: And Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald -- 7/10. So far, and aside from Hawthorne and Poe, my favorite of the "great" short story writers, though I still wasn't blown away, except for one story: "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz." that one I'd give a 10/10.

30. Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay -- 6/10. A good, entertaining YA fantasy novel. It was my first read of Kay, and while I wasn't immensely impressed, I may give him another chane. The biggest weakness of the story was the adult character--I found their willingness to go along with the two main characters, aged 15, and their crazy stories a bit far-fetched. I wish the adults had stayed out of it. I did like how history was woven into the fantasy story, though.

31. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison -- 9/10. My first novel by Morrison, and I really, really liked it. I love novels that sort of bend genres, and this one did that for sure, mixing family drama with mystery with suspense thriller (at times), all combined with supernatural overtones and a superb prose style. Will definitely be reading more by her.

32. The Aspern Papers by Henry James -- 4/10. Not much more to say than I found it boring. Boring story, boring characters, and man did it draaaaag. And there wasn't even a payoff at the end.

33. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James -- 5/10. Felt I had to give James one more chance. Won't be giving him another. While the story was more interesting, it also dragged and had uninteresting characters. I didn't get the ending at all and didn't care enough to try and figure it out.

34. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski -- 9/10.

35. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien -- 7.5/10.

36. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons -- 8.5/10.

37. The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov by Vladimir Nabokov -- 8/10.

[lawpark]

1. The Vision of God - Vladimir Lossky. 7/10. About Orthodox theology, written middle of last century. Vladimir is a Russian theologian living in the emigre community in France; his father N.O. Lossky is a philosophy who has written a History of Russian Philosophy with the last section covering his own son Vladimir.

2. Pathways of Modern China - Ray Huang. 8/10. Chinese book. A refresher for me about Ray Huang's view on history. I find it more authentic than last I read him (about a decade ago), as he is honestly trying to interpret Chinese history in the 20th century such that the sacrifices of his fathers' and his own generation are not all wasted.

3. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Volume 1- Jeroslav Pelikan. 8/10. A 5-volume classic completed in 1970's. Trying to account for doctrinal development in a somewhat "objective" style.

4. Sophocles I / Three Tragedies - 9/10. This the Grene / Lattimore edition of the 3 Theban Plays. I find myself liking them a lot - mostly because the plays are quite fast-paced. Among the three, I personally like Oedipus the King the most.

5. An Outline of a Theory of Civilization - by Fukuzawa Yukichi. 9/10. Written in 1875. I read a Chinese translation. Actually very impressed by this pragmatic visionary . What he wrote over 130 years ago still strikes me as true and right direction if we were put back to 1875 again. This dude deserves to have his face printed on 10,000 Yen bills!

6. Lectures on Divine Humanity - by Vladimir Solovyov. 7/10. Lectures in 1878-1811. Most interesting is his "Sophiology" - but he didn't expound much on it actually. Vs. Fukuzawa (they wrote at around the same time), he was clearly the idealistic visionary who got things wrong.

7. Toynbee on Toynbee - A Conversation between Arnold J. Toynbee and G. R. Urban. 8/10. Book was published in 1974 based on a radio conversation when Toybee was 83 years old. The two parts of this small book shows how the world of historiography (i.e. the fundamental issues faced with doing / writing history) really has not changed that much.

8. Gita Govinda. Original by Jayadeva in Sanskrit, translated into English by Lee Siegel. 8/10. Part of the now bankrupt Clay Sanskrit Library series. Dual theme of erotic love and bhakti devotion to Krishna, written in poem / song form.

9. Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction - written by Steven Grosby. 6/10. One of the Oxford pocketbooks. The book itself is actually not bad, my low ratings just reflect my lack of interest in the subject. It is one of the few VSI's that I wish is actually shorter.

10. On the Epochs of History (German Title: Über die Epochen der neueren Geschichte)- by Leopold Ranke. 8/10. I read a Chinese translation. It was a set of lectures delivered to the Duke of Bavaria in 1854, published after Ranke's death in 1888. Ranke was founder of modern history as an academic discipline - yet in this work this aspect of Ranke is by now means clear.

11. African History: A Very Short Introduction - by John Parker and Richard Rathbone. 8/10. Another one in the Oxford series. It is really a book an the "meta-historiography" of African history rather than African history itself. Highlighted how almost everything we know as happening in Africa has its roots during the modern (roughly post-1400) period.

12. The World from 1450 to 1700 - by John Wills Jr. 8/10. A fast pace worldwide tour through the "pre-modern" world in the new tradition World History in less than 160 pages, written by the author 1688: A Global History.

13. The Completion of Traditional China (by two Japanese authors). 7/10. A pocket-book published in 1977 in Japan, as a 11-volume series of "Eastern Ocean History". I read a Chinese translation from Taiwan. Narrative stopped very abruptly right before the Opium War - but the focus on foreign trade and silver-based economy is innovative for its time.

14. Who made the history of the past 500 years - by Han Yuhai. 9/10. A Chinese work that tries to integrate World Systems Theory and other authors into a cohesive viewpoint of modern World History and Chinese History - divided into two-phases of the Long 16th Century and the Long 19th Century.

15. French Literature: A Very Short Introduction - by John Lyons. 9/10. Very enjoyable introduction that sheds light on the times, key authors, works, themes and styles. Surprised to find how Pascal was portrayed as an influential outsider even within the tradition of French Literature.

16. Nalan Xingde Ci Poetry Selection - selected and commented on by Sheng Dongling. 7/10. A Chinese work Nalan Xingde was an early Qing dynasty talented genius who died young. His ci poetry is too sad for me - but I found the occasion of attending a funeral to flip through the ~100 short poems selected.

17. A Study on Tangshi Pinhui - by Shen Dongcheng. 4/10. Ph.D. thesis that is just a bunch of statistics. Tangshi Pinhui is arguably the first truly "canonical" Tang poetry selection (with 5,000+ poems selected), completed in early Ming dynasty. This book influenced the more famous, later and much shorter selection 300 Tang Poems.

18. Spanish Literature: A Very Short Introduction. - by Jo Labanyi. 8/10. Also very well written. Covered only Spanish as a country / nation, not as a language though.

19. English Literature: A Very Short Introduction - by Jonathan Bate. 8/10. Written almost as a literature introduction. Again coverage excludes non-British authors, at least explicitly excludes American literature.

20. Italian Literature: A Very Short Introduction - by Peter Hainsworth & David Robey. 8/10. Interesting coverage of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. Plus how Italian lacks a driving vernacular language at its center until very recently.

21. Whose Bible is It? A Very Short History of the Scriptures - by Jaroslav Pelikan. 7/10. This is a bestseller written by a scholar. The interesting bit is primarily translation of Jewish Tanakh into Greek before Christianity.

22. Words of the World - by Abran de Swaan. 8/10. Use a metric 'Q-value' to study why and how specific languages gain prominance in specific regions. Essentially highlight the importance of numbers of second-language learners.

23. Basic Pimsleur Hindi - audio book. 7/10. First time I tried Pimsleur. Completed the 10 lessons (30 min each). Reasonably interesting way to get orientation to a new language.

24. Dreaming in Hindi - Katherine Russell Rich. 8/10. Interesting memoir of authors' year of learning Hindi in a small town in Rajasthan in 2001, sprinkled with cultural observations about India and theories about Second Language Acquisition.

25. Read and Write Hindi Script - Rupert Snell. 8/10. Helps ease into reading Devanagari script.

26. Colonial Latin American Literature: A Very Short Introduction - Rolena Adorno. 7/10. Overall still interesting as the other VSI; my major grievance is that it completely ignores Portuguese works and almost 100 years between Baroque and Independence.

[Lykren]

0. The Tale of Genji. -/10. I started this the previous year. I can't rate it because it's now my favorite book.

1. Moby Dick. 8/10. Yes, it was long-winded and included too much information about whales, but the story was powerful enough and the descriptions florid (I like florid sometimes) enough to get it an 8.

2. Ulysses. 10/10. Well. I hadn't felt like this from reading a book since I was a child and everything was new. Some part of me had woken up by the time I was finished.

3. War and Peace. 9/10. Another good book to start the year off with. I didn't care too much for the parts about the war, but Natasha Rostov was really a great character, and more than enough to redeem the philosophical-historical bits. Which I also didn't like.

4. Pride and Prejudice and Emma both receive 9/10. (Perhaps I am using an inflated scale?) Loved these both extraordinarily. Pride and Prejudice felt sort of floating and charmed somehow, whereas Emma had, I thought, as much psychological introspection and insight as a Dostoevsky novel.

5. Sense and Sensibility. 7/10. While not as good as the other Jane Austen books, it was still a wonderful read, thanks to he luxurious style. Would that I could write like that!

6. Lord Jim. 6.5/10. Hard to follow. It did create a sufficiently murky atmosphere which served as an excellent backdrop to the theme of Jim's degradation, and some of the descriptions were quite poetic. But altogether the style felt like a mishmash somehow.

7. Tess of the D'Urbervilles. 7.5/10. Another stylistic tour de force. It makes me want to read more Hardy - although the ending seemed forced. Gosh, did it have to be so relentlessly sad for Tess?

8. Middlemarch. 8/10. I just like big novels, so that was a plus. I felt the writing really contained something in it of the English countryside. Some of the characters seemed a little weak.

9. Pygmalion. 6/10. Delightful. Insubstantial.

10. Brideshead Revisited. 8.5/10. I'm recommending this to everyone I know who likes to read. It reminded of The Great Gatsby in so many ways, which is a good thing. And what a heartbreaking love story.

11. Waiting for Godot. 5.5/10. I liked this much less than I expected. It just felt repetitive and dull and ugly and all sorts of icky things. Couldn't care less about Vladimir and Estragon. There was some redeeming wit, however.

12. The Homecoming by Harold Pinter. 8/10. Very creepy, and it made me ask a lot of questions inside myself. It also had skilled use of dialogue (obviously, to be good it has to, it's a play).

13. Jane Eyre. 7/10. Mr. Rochester was a wonderfully-constructed character, but I felt the romance between the two grew slightly unbelievable. And St. John wasn't all that interesting.

14. Wuthering Heights. 8/10. Man this was hard to rate. I wasn't sure I liked it after I read it, but it grew on me in memory. The story was hard to read at times, but that just meant it was well-communicated. The writing style was like air so clear and stiff it blinds you with tears.

15. A Tale of Two Cities. 6.10. More lively than the only other Dicken's I've read (Great Expectations) and some of the prose, especially in the first half (such as the chapter Echoing Footsteps) was great. I didn't care enough about the characters by the second half for the story not to sag for me, however.

And I just started The Good Soldier, quite good so far.