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Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Great Gatsby (re-read) - F.Scott Fitzgerald
Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
So Far From the Bamboo Grove - Yoko Kowashima Watkins
The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow
My favorite book, The Great Gatsby, remains my favorite, for now.
Note: My rating are mostly based on *enjoyment*, and do not take into account the historical literary value of the text.
1. An Autumn War by Daniel Abraham -- 9/10
2. The Price of Spring by Daniel Abraham -- 9/10 for Abraham's The Long Price Quartet. Lyrically written with original ideas, which is quite rare and refreshing for the fantasy genre.
3. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- 8/10. Excellent book. I love Hawthorne's haunting prose.
4. City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer -- 7/10. Nice and bizzarre set of short stories set in an equally bizzarre fantasy world. It's like 50s, 60s film noir with a bunch of fungus.
5. Don Quixote by Cervantes -- 7/10. Good, but too long--I was board by the end. Probably a better idea to read the first half, put it down for a while, and then read the second half. Alas, I didn't do that.
6. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens -- 7.5/10. It was good. Nice historical piece.
7. Inferno by Dante -- 9/10. I love hell, so I loved this. A must read if there ever was one.
8. Purgatorio by Dante -- 8/10. Not as enjoyable a read as Inferno.
9. The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams -- 5/10. It was okay. Its strong point was the world Williams' creates, but annoying characters ruin it.
10. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis -- 8/10. The wonderful historical setting and good writing redeem the draggy plot.
11. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair -- 5/10. A wonderful novel completely ruined by the preachy, soapbox ending.
12. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin -- 9/10. The first book in my favorite fantasy series. Excellent characters, gritty plot, and good writing. A must-read for any fantasy lover.
13. Paradiso by Dante -- 7/10. Just couldn't get into it. The 7 is mostly for the beautiful language. I like the dark imagery of hell--the light and exuberant imagery of heaven does not interest me.
14. The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin -- 7/10. Okay fantasy story. A bit overrated, in my opinion.
15. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck -- 8/10. Surprisingly good family narrative. Didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did.
16. The Darkness that Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker -- 6.5/10. Dark and gritty fantasy. Too much misogynism, though.
17. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon -- I honestly don't know what to give this. Definitely the strangest book I've ever read.
18. The Warrior Prophet by R. Scott Bakker -- 6/10. Continued with the dark grittiness.
19. To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf -- 5/10. Not sure what the big deal is. The stream-of-consciousness writing is good, but the story was just boring. Maybe I missed something.
20. The Thousandfold Thought by R. Scott Bakker -- 6.5/10. And okay ending to an okay trilogy. I don't plan on reading the rest of the series (this trilogy was just part 1).
21. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens -- 7/10. It was alright. Not much more to say, really.
22. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe -- 3/10. Overly preachy, stereotypical and racist depictions of African Americans, one-dimensional characters, and uninteresting writing. I'm being generous with a 3.
23. Moby Dick by Herman Melville -- 10/10. One of the greatest novels ever written, period.
24. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin -- 8/10. Much more enjoyable than the first story of Le Guin's Earthsea series.
25. The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin -- 8/10. Another really good story. Good adventure.
26. Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin -- 9/10. Out of the four Earthsea novels I read, this was the most different, which is why I liked it. Not much action or magic, but a wonderfully subdued story.
27. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon -- 9.5/10. Excellent story with wonderfully fleshed-out characters. Plus, I love comic books, so it was a great read.
28. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky -- 6/10. I liked the writing and parts of the story, but it just didn't seem like much happened, which I guess was part of the point.
29. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin -- 9/10. A wonderfully inventive and unique sci-fi novel. One of my faves in the genre.
30. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde -- 8/10. Wonderfully witty dialogue paired with a very dark story. A very good read.
31. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin -- 9/10. Repeat what I said for A Game of Thrones.
32. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley -- 8/10. A good, dark story written very well. A little heavy on the philosophical meanderings at times, though.
33. Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon -- 7.5/10. A much more accessible book than Gravity's Rainbow. Bizzarre and funny.
34. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy -- 10/10. Dark, violent, and disturbing. In the hands of a less talented writer it would seem nothing more than a book going for shock value, but the lyricism of McCarthy make it a masterpiece.
35. Paradise Lost by John Milton -- 10/10. Brilliant. I've never read epic poetry that's grabbed me so completely.
36. A Storm of Swords -- 9.5/10. Probably the best out of the series so far (though I've yet to read the fifth book). Wonderful surprises, good action, good characters, and an engaging plot. What more could one want from a fantasy story?
37. Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate by Walt Whitman -- 6/10. I had to read this for a class. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
38. Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant -- 6/10. Rather disappointing. After hearing so many great things about Maupassant, I was expecting more. The language was just dull, though maybe it was the translation's fault. There were moments of brilliance, like the dual scene and the death of Forestier.
39. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin -- 8/10. This is often said to be a poor book in Martin's series, and while I agree that it isn't as good as its predecessors, I still find it to be quite an entertaining page-turner.
40. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury -- 9/10. Still a favorite of mine. I love Bradbury's lyrical prose.
41. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury -- 8/10. Some wonderful stories, a few not-so-wonderful, but the good definitely outweigh the bad.
42. A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin -- 6/10. A let down. Could have been a lot shorter. Though some of the plot points were interesting, it didn't move forward enough. Seemed like more set up for upcoming books.
43. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo -- 7.5/10. Not bad, dragged a bit in places. The title is a bit misleading, as Quasimodo really doesn't have that huge of a role, though that's the fault of the English translation of the title.
44. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad -- 10/10. After my fourth or fifth read, still one of my favorites. Is it racist? Yes. It's far from perfect, really, but I love the prose. Plus, I consider it to be the first "serious" piece of literature I read and appreciated, so it has a special place in my mind.
45. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut -- 9/10. Weird, weird, weird. And quite funny, definitely gave me a few chuckles (which is rare for me). Vonnegut always seems to me like an easier-to-read Pynchon, and that makes him more enjoyable.
46. Grendel by John Gardner -- 7.5/10. Another weird one, but good nonetheless. An interesting idea, telling Grendel's (the foe of Beowulf) side of the story. The experimentation (suddenly switching into the structure of a play, or verse, for example) seemed too forced and unoriginal, though.
47. East of Eden by John Steinbeck -- 8.5/10. A wonderful read. I love Steinbeck's easy-to-read prose. This book may have also had the best character development I've ever read.
48. The Knight: Book One of The Wizard Night by Gene Wolfe -- 7/5. Wolfe is quite possibly the most interesting sci-fi/fantasy author out there. A lot of his stuff is like of Joyce decided to write sci-fi. This is different, though, in that i is more accessible, and that takes a little away from it.
49. The Wizard: Book Two of The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe -- 6/10. Didn't really seem to get better. It was alright.
50. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut -- 9/10. What can I say? I just like Vonnegut.
51. Selected Essays from The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism -- -/10. Although I didn't read all of this 2700+ page tome, I did read enough of it for my grad class this semester to count as a book. I also don't want to rate it, as all essays were by different authors, and they weren't necessarily read for enjoyment. I learned a lot, though.
52. On the Road by Jack Kerouac -- 5/10. Bland plot, uninteresting writing, and not very likable characters. Character creation was good, but that wasn't enough.
53. The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories by Franz Kafka -- 8/10. Very unusual stories, but definitely entertaining. My favorite was "In the Penal Colony."
54. Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov --9/10. Even though the plot lagged a bit in places, the beautiful prose made up for it. I found it to be a wonderfully disturbing book.
Are you going to do another for 2012? I thought it was a good idea.
Great year. A lot of rememberable books.
The 3 that moved me the most and will be remembered clearest must be:
1: On the Road: The Original Scroll by Jack Kerouc
2: Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
3: The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
My final list of 2011:
1. My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk -- 9/10. Orhan Pamuk is simply brilliant and one of my favorite authors. It reminds me alot about Ecos "Name of the Rose" though I greatly prefer Pamuk.
2. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy -- 7/10 First book of McCarthy I ever read. Liked it very much.
3. The Crossing by Cormack McCarthy -- 6/10. Second book in the Border trilogy. Bacame a bit too repetitive at the end.
4. Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy 5/10. Not much to say about it. Didn't leave a permanent impression on me.
5. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking -- 5/10. Pretty nice write up of the history of astro physics by one of the most intelligent persons alive. It was meant for the lay man without much knowledge of physics. Too simplified for my taste.
6. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens -- 4/10. Dickens novelle takes plave in propably the most interesting time in the history of mankind: The French Revolution. However, I just felt dissapointed. The characters seemed shallow and I din't get to care for them. Really looses in comparison to Hugos master piece Les Miserable
7. The Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin -- 7/10. Very inspirational from a man that lived an incredible life and shaped the fate of a nation.
8. Dracula by Bram Stoker -- 8/10. So chilling. I loved the prose and way it was written in letters.
9. Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov -- 5/10. If Nabokov hadn't grew up in the Soviet Union and never heard of Kafka I would say I would say he was in for a law suit on plagiarism.
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen -- 6/10. It was entertaining. But I expected more. Actually liked the movie better...
11. Complete Works by John Keats x/10. I have no right to judge this work. I expected some kind of love poetry and wasn't prepared for all those greek/roman epics. It was educational though.
12. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway 10/10 -- Read it in one sitting of two hours. Two of the best hours of my life. It totally moved me.
13. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 8/10 -- I have never read Hemmingway before, but now consider myself a fan.
14. Ditte Menneskebarn by Martin Andersen Nexø -- 8/10. A danish classic about the tragic life of the poor Ditte. Social realism from the turn of the century. Well written and heart gripping.
15. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami -- 7/10. I was pleasently surprised by Murakamis first big novelle. A really nice read.
16. Lingua Tertii Imperii by Victor Klemperer -- 9/10. Worth reading for anyone interested in how the Nazis seduced the germans, propaganda or holocaust. It really makes you wonder about the language being used in the media today.
17. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin -- 10/10. A work of genious. One of the true achievements of mankind. So clearly written, so many great examples. It completely stunned me how Darwin 150 years ago came to his conclusions based on nothing more than careful observations of life. Still worth reading today. And it really made me happy that nowhere in the book does Darwin make any insinuations that man descended from apes.
18. Mord i San Francisco by Dan Turell -- 6/10. Just another chrime novel by my favorite Danish author. They never have great plots, but the prose is outstanding.
19. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley -- 7/10. At times dull and slow, but the questions it raises about life and death and mans place in the world, him playing god, is still very much important.
20. Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction by Joseph Conrad -- 3/10. I didn't like it. At all. To me it was just boring.
21. The Road by Cormac McCarthy -- 8/10. When I think of The Road I think of the colour grey. I found it to actually be very scary. Very brutal.
22. On the Road (The Original Scroll) by Jack Kerouc -- 10/10. One of the best novels I have ever read. I loved it from start to end. I loved Jack. I loved Neil. I loved everything about it. It made me want to leave everything behind and go out into the unknown- to "know time".
23. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami -- 7/10. It is so much more than a book about running and so much more than a book about Murakami.
24. The Possessed by Fjodor Dostojevskij -- 9/10. Great literature and unforgettable characters (is it weird to actually like Verkhovenskij?!). Though it can't compare to his very best works.
25. Doppler by Erlend Loe -- 6/10. Funny little Norwegian book.
26. Populärmusik från Vittula by Mikael Niemi 6/10. Funny little Swedish book.
27. Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami -- 3/10. The follow-up to A Wild Sheep Chase. To me this is Murakamis worst work.
28. Der Vorleser by Bernhard Schlink -- 5/10. I am trying to brush up my German before starting on the great one (Kafka, Nietzsche, Grass etc). This wasn't great.
29. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy -- 7/10. Blood Meridian has gotten alot of praise on these boards. I don't really know what to think about it. I found it a bit dull and very American in a Steinbeck way. I might have to come back for a reread someday.
30. History of the World volume IX: Spains Century by Carl Grimberg 6/10. Th 16th century isn't that interesting..
31. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee --9/10. I will never forget Scout, Boo and Atticus.
32. History of the World volume X: The Age of Luis XIV by Carl Grimberg 6/10. The 17th century isn't that interesting..
33. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce --8/10. To my surprise I liked it alot. Had my fears after having read Ulysses but Artist was actually readable.
34. After Dark by Haruki Murakami -- 8/10. Very strange and pleasent. One of his best works after Kafka on the Shore and Norwegian Wood.
35. Dubliners by James Joyce -- 7/10. Another pleasent surprise from Mr. Joyce. I might actually consider rereading Ulysses now.
36. History of the World volume XI: England Takes the Lead by Carl Grimberg -- 7/10. The 18th century IS that interesting.
36. Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee by Thomas Brussig -- 7/10. A really good read about growing up in the shadow of the Berlin wall.
37. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin -- 7/10. One of the best Sci-Fi novels I have read.
38. Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn-- 3/10. Felt like reading some very light literature. This was too light though.
39. Hundehoved by Morten Ramsland -- 8/10. Extremely funny, well written and entertaining. A modern danish classic.
40. After the Quake by Haruki Murakami -- 8/10. I think I have now read his entire authorship (atleast what has been translated into Danish). A few reallly beautiful short stories. Now I gotta go see Norwegian Wood in the theatre.
41. Stormland by Hallgrimur Helgason -- 7/10. I did not like it much. However, it did made me think alot about our society today and how every aspect of public life from politicians to journalists seems to be getting dumber.
42. Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn -- 9/10. Very scarry, very sad. I think it tells a lot about the human nature. It really moved me, and as a med student it was interesting (and scarry) to see how cancer diseases were treated not so long ago, how patronizing the doctors were and how the patients reacted to their deadly diseases.
43. Star Wars: Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn -- 5/10. Better than volume 1. Still not great.
44. Star Wars: The Last Comand by Timothy Zahn -- 3/10. Complete rubbish. I was really cheering for the imperials at the end...
45. Submarino by Jonas T. Bengtsson -- 5/10. Decent. I think the movie is better.
46. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller -- 7/10. I liked it a lot. Reminded me a little too much of M*A*S*H and the soldier cartoons (don't know what it is called in English). Yossarian is awesome.
2011:
1) The postman always rings twice - James Mallahan Cain
2) The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
3) The Goldfish - Robert Lynd
4) The Little Angel: a book of essays - Robert Lynd
5) A confederacy of dunces - John Kennedy Toole
6) Lost Horizon: A Novel - James Hilton
7) The Call of the Wild - Jack London
8) Of mice and men - John Steinbeck
9) In defence of pink- Robert Lynd
10) Augustus Carp: esq., by himself, being the autobiography of a really good man - Henry Howarth Bashford
11) Focus - Arthur Miller
12) The orange tree: a volume of essays - Robert Lynd
13) Zuleika Dobson - Sir Max Beerbohm
14) It's a fine world - Robert Lynd
15) The Maltese falcon - Dashiell Hammett
16) War versus peace: a short treatise on war - Jacob Funk
17) Death Be Not Proud - John Gunther
18) The cockleshell - Robert Lynd
19) I tremble to think - Robert Lynd
20) Dawn - Elie Wiesel
21) Max Flambard - John Bede Dalley
22) The story of my life - Helen Keller
23) What the doctor ordered - Victor Bridges
24) My life and hard times - James Thurber
25) Life's a pudding: an autobiography - Guy Nickalls
26) Fountains of faith - William Arthur Ward
27) The secret of the creek - Victor Bridges
28) Peter in peril - Victor Bridges
29) Blue silver - Victor Bridges
30) Porterhouse blue - Tom Sharpe
31) It happened in Essex - Victor Bridges
32) The Girl from Belfast - Victor Bridges
33) The Tenth Commandment - Victor Bridges
34) Both sides of the road - Robert Lynd
35) Malvinas requiem - Rodolfo Fogwill
36) The thirty-nine steps - John Buchan
37) Only The Morning - John Bede Dalley
38) New Zealand - Ngaio Marsh
39) The Autobiography of Willam Carlos Williams
40) Beds – Groucho Marx