List the Books You Read in 2012, and Rate Them

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate them I just want to keep track of what I've read.

Nothing To Envy: Real Lives in North Korea Barbara Demick

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Frederick Douglass

Singing the Master: The Emergence of African American Culture in the Plantation South Roger D. Abrahams

Night Show Richard Laymon

[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.

[Jassy Melson]

I finished David Copperfield--which took me three months to read (I think I'm losing my interest in Dickens). Next up is Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate them I just want to keep track of what I've read.

Nothing To Envy: Real Lives in North Korea Barbara Demick

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Frederick Douglass

Singing the Master: The Emergence of African American Culture in the Plantation South Roger D. Abrahams

Night Show Richard Laymon

Forest Mage Robin Hobb

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Robin Hobb seems like a name I've heard a lot when it comes to fantasy. How was Foret Mage?

[OrphanPip]

Robin Hobb seems like a name I've heard a lot when it comes to fantasy. How was Foret Mage?

She's OK, her attention to themes of colonialism and environmentalism differentiate her a bit from the usual fantasy writers. The sort of fantasy American frontier setting of the novel is a refreshing departure from the medieval European like setting, but she's not the first to do that.

[Babyguile]

Robin Hobb seems like a name I've heard a lot when it comes to fantasy. How was Foret Mage?

You should definately read her then if you keep hearing her name. She is popular for a reason. I liked this book, but I certainly wouldn't start with that book or that trilogy if you're new to Hobb because it is considered to be her poorest work. In fact, I imagine that only diehard Hobb fans (like myself) could manage to make it through to the end of that trilogy. It has a lot of flaws.

[Babyguile]

The sort of fantasy American frontier setting of the novel is a refreshing departure from the medieval European like setting, but she's not the first to do that.

Yes! and she is an antidote to a lot of fantasy trash in many other ways besides.

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate them I just want to keep track of what I've read.

Nothing To Envy: Real Lives in North Korea Barbara Demick

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Frederick Douglass

Singing the Master: The Emergence of African American Culture in the Plantation South Roger D. Abrahams

Night Show Richard Laymon

Forest Mage Robin Hobb

The Curse of the Mistwraith Janny Wurts

[OrphanPip]

1. Aphra Behn - History of the Nun - 6/10, I get a lot of enjoyment out of how ridiculous early prose stories can be.
2. Aphra Behn - The Fair Jilt - 7/10. This one is more ridiculous than the other, and thus better in my book.
3. Eliza Haywood - Love in Excess - 6/10. Not big on amatory fiction really, but this is one of the 3 best selling novels of the 18th century.
4. Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist - 9/10. Not really one of Dickens' best, but it's one of his funnier novels, and who can forget Fagin, Mr. Bumble, or Sikes.
5. Lynn Breedlove - One Freak Show - 7/10, a transcription of lesbian/trans man musician and comic Lynn Breedlove's show One Freak Show, essentially a series of humorous anecdotes about her life and the status of trans people in the LGBT community in the United States. Some parts of it are not that great, but it's a short breezy read, so the bad parts are easy to overlook.
6. Richardson - Pamela - 5/10. This is a painful read but a very influential book, the first part is much better than the "how to be a good housewife" manual that forms the final part of the novel.
7. Arthur Conan Doyle - Sign of Four - 8/10. Campy, fun Sherlocke Holmes novel that is terribly racist in parts.
8. Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey - 9/10. Probably Austen's funniest novel, we all know a girl like Isabella Thorpe.
9. Robert Louis Stevenson - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 9/10. This is a re-read, but it's always a fun light read.
10. Craig Thomson - Habibi - 8.5/10. Wonderful graphic novel, but a bit long in parts. I particularly like the tongue and cheek retelling of the Noah's arc story. I don't think it's as powerful a comment on how people relate to religion as Blankets, maybe because of the lack of personal depth that Thomson's earlier work had.
11. Henry Fielding - Joseph Andrews and Shamela - 7/10. A fun read. To get the most out of Shamela you have to read Pamela first.
12. Daniel Defoe - Journal of the Plague Year - 5/10. I thought I had included this since I read it in January, but oh well. It's an OK read, a lot of it is terribly boring reprinting of death statistics and Defoe's meandering philosophizing on the best way to handle a plague, but it is occasionally spiced up with Defoe's clever little "slice of life" stories. Defoe's Rebecca is a much better novel, I read it last year and it was a lot of fun.
13. Horace Walpole - The Castle of Otranto - 6/10. Bizarre novel that opens with someone being mysteriously crushed by a giant helmet that appears out of nowhere.
14. Henry James - The Aspern Papers - 8/10. There's something special about this that's hard to place a finger on.
15. Michael Adams - Unlikely Utopia: The Surprising Triumph of Multiculturalism in Canada - 8/10. Great book that addresses a lot of the misinformation and media hysteria about immigrants with actual empirical evidence. Pollster Michael Adams doesn't shy away from waxing philosophical on ideas like Canadian and Quebecois national identity, which is probably the weakest part of his book when he tries to explain why the data is as it is. However, the data he gathers itself is compelling evidence that multiculturalism has not failed, but has been successful and is continuing to be even more successful as a strategy of integration for a just and liberal society.
16. Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - 6/10. Some of the short stories from this collection are better than others, but there's a definitely recognizable formulaic tendency that makes many of the less original "cases" a little boring. Although, plenty of the fun campy nonsense of Holmes.
17. Margaret Harkness - In Darkest London - 7/10. Mixed feelings about this admittedly poorly constructed novel, but there is a certain power in the stark depictions of the impoverished East End of London in the 1880s. Reminiscent of The Jungle.
18. Michael Moorcock - Elric of Melnibone - 7/10. Interesting little fantasy novel that is surprisingly still a fresh departure from the normal range of fantasy despite its age.
19. Michael Moorcock - The Sailor on the Seas of Fate - 8/10. I like this one too.
20. Philip Pullman - Northern Lights - 6/10. Interesting fantasy novel.
21. Philip Pullman - The Subtle Knife - 8/10. I find this one a lot more interesting than the first in the series. There's a strikingly difference of tone and feel between novels in this series, much like in Moorcock's series.
22. William Godwin - Caleb Williams - 7/10. An early social critique of the state in novelistic form, showing Godwin's own scepticism towards any form of institution. There's something very Frankensteinish in some scenes where Caleb is being chased across Great Britain by Lord Falkland, I'm sure it influenced his daughter's novel.
23. Oscar Wile - The Picture of Dorian Gray - 10/10. Always worth a re-read.
24. Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Trooper - 5/10. Meh, there's something interesting about the narrative structure of this text, and how little action there is in the novel that is mostly about the idea of civic responsibility and military service. The political philosophizing is preposterous but amusing like most of Heinlein's wacko ideas.

[Paulclem]

[I]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.

.

Mieville is a great writer. I thought The City and The City was the weaker of his novels, but it was still very good.

Perdido Street Station is really good, but I thought The Iron Council the best.

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate them I just want to keep track of what I've read.

Nothing To Envy: Real Lives in North Korea Barbara Demick

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Frederick Douglass

Singing the Master: The Emergence of African American Culture in the Plantation South Roger D. Abrahams

Night Show Richard Laymon

Forest Mage Robin Hobb

The Curse of the Mistwraith Janny Wurts

Women in Athenian Law and Life Roger Just

[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

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate them I just want to keep track of what I've read.

Nothing To Envy: Real Lives in North Korea Barbara Demick

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Frederick Douglass

Singing the Master: The Emergence of African American Culture in the Plantation South Roger D. Abrahams

Night Show Richard Laymon

Forest Mage Robin Hobb

The Curse of the Mistwraith Janny Wurts

Women in Athenian Law and Life Roger Just

The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman

[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.