Book List, in alphabetical order by author
·
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Best
in the series. My favorite character is Ford, so any chapters that
involve him are the best :-). Definitely worth reading several times.
·
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Ok
·
Life the Universe and Everything. Also ok
·
So Long and Thanks for All the Fish. Again
ok
·
Mostly Harmless. Best left unread.
·
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Very
good, and full of useful information, such as: If you're lost follow someone
who looks like they know where they are going.
·
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I
haven't read this one since high school, so I don't actually remember much
about it, except that I liked it.
- Isaac Adamson.
- Tokyo Suckerpunch. Words
cannot describe how great this book is. Buy this book. Read this book. Go
to the website and email the writer and tell him how great the book is.
Then read the book again.
- Hokkaido Popsicle.See
above.
- Dreaming Pachinko.
This is sitting waiting to be read, but I haven't gotten around to
it yet. The above enthusiasm has completely waned.
- Vassily Aksyonov.
- In Search of
Melancholy Baby. Another book I haven't read in years, but it
was enjoyable enough to buy.
- John Bayley.
- Elegy for Iris.
Sweet and sad and funny. I couldn't find a good link for
John Bayley, so I linked to the movie Iris (which I haven't seen
yet).
- Judy Blume
- Smart Women. Don’t ya just love the 80s?
- Wifey. Don’t ya just love the 70?
- Dan
Brown.
- The Da Vinci Code. Before
reading this book, I hadn't ever heard about Da Vinci hiding codes in his
art or about the secret society he was in or anything. So, this
book was interesting in that aspect. It wasn't the greatest book in
the world, and didn't have the greatest ending, but it was still a good
read.
- Richard F. Burton (Ed.)
- "The book of
the thousand nights and a night : a plain and literal translation of the
Arabian Nights Entertainments / translated and annotated by Richard F.
Burton." Got it from Willis Library. Hard to read since it was
in older English (1800's). Interesting to see that the Arabic slang
hasn't changed much though. Really interesting to read the original
stories. What was most interesting was to read the footnotes with the
British guy trying to explain Arabic culture to British people of the
time. I guess that's before England was overrun by Arabs. I'd like to
read the rest some day, but it is pretty hard to read and I like lighter
reading these days.
- Tim Burton.
- The Melancholy
Death of Oyster Boy. Very funny and weird. It takes about
10 minutes to read.
- Raymond
Chandler.
- Everything besides Poodle
Springs is great. I love these books. I read the Little
Sister in 1987 or 1988 I think, and then started my collection. Since
the, I've read them about every year. All of them. I love these books. I
really love them. Read these books. They're great.
- Poodle Springs. I
tried reading this but it didn't sound right. It was mostly written
by Robert Parker. From the publisher: "When Raymond Chandler
died in 1959, he left behind the first four chapters of a new Philip
Marlowe thriller. Now three decades later, Robert B. Parker, the
bestselling creator of the Spenser detective novels, has completed POODLE
SPRINGS in a full-length masterpiece of criminal passion."
- Selected Letters. Kind
of like an autobiography, but it's just a bunch of letters that he wrote
over the years. I enjoyed reading them
- Mary
Higgins Clark.
- On the Street Where
You Live. I love mysteries, sometimes even cheesy ones.
Sometimes I even like stuff about reincarnation. But I really don't like
bad writing. I kind of liked the story here, but I didn't like the way
she put the words together. I would have liked it better if I read it
when I was like 8 ot 9.
- Diane Mott
Davidson.
- I started with Tough
Cookie and really enjoyed it. Also, the cookie recipes were
good. Then I read Dying for Chocolate, Sticks and Scones, Killer
Pancake, the Grilling Season, and Prime Cut.
Basically, all of the books are the same. They follow a
formula, like Nancy Drew books, or like any TV show. They really
are enjoyable fluff. So, if you need something to read on the bus
or plane, these are the books for you.
- Barbara Ehrenreich.
- Nickel and Dimed:
On (Not) Getting by in America. I did not like this book very
much, and yet I could not stop reading it. It's a journalistic sort
of thing. The lady decided to find out what it is like to be poor,
so she took like $1000 and got jobs waitressing, working at Walmart, etc.
in 4 different cities. In the first city she seemed
enthusiastic and put a lot of effort into it. By the last city it
seemed like she just wanted to go home, which is understandable.
Anyway, the people she worked with made the book worth reading.
The lady who wrote the book seemed like someone I would rather not
know, if you know what I mean. This book was taken from the Bluestockings
reading list.
- Erskine.
- Adam and Eve,
Though He Knew Better. Very nice book. Very interesting. Kind
of funny, but mostly just interesting. If you're not familiar with
Erskine (and I'm not) he seemed to like to write about historical or
mythical figures, but making them seem very ordinary. I was just walking
through the library, desperate for something to read, when I came across
a bunch of his books and the titles looked interesting. Since I'm
familiar with the Adam and Eve story, I enjoyed this book.
- Solomon, My Son.
I really liked this one. I was more familiar with the story of
Solomon, plus there were many characters and an interesting plot. I want
to read more of Erskine's stuff.
- The Private Life of
Helen of Troy. This one I liked less because I don't know the story
of Helen of Troy. I know there's something to do with a wooden horse or
something; and I figured out some stuff from the book, but it would have
been better if I knew more about the real story. Also, there weren't very
many characters, and not much action.
- Janet Evanovich.
- High Five. This
book wasn't welll-written. Nevertheless, it's one of those books that you
find at the supermarket bookshelves, so you know it has mass-appeal. It
took about a day to read, and I read the whole thing, so what I'm trying
to say is that I kind of enjoyed reading it, but it's a guilty pleasure
because it's really not well written.
- Helen
Fielding.
- Bridget Jones's
Diary. I really liked this book. It's much better than the movie. My
boyfriend didn't enjoy it as much as I did (although he read most of it
and we usually don't agree on books). So, I think some of the humor is
best enjoyed by people who can emphathize.
- Bridget Jones's
Guide to Life. This is very cute. It takes about 10
minutes to read, since it has a lot of pictures. Very funny.
- Joanne Fluke.
- Chocolate Chip
Cookie Murder. This book was slow and had all the things that
are wrong with mysteries. She hid information and had a twist at the end.
She mislead the readers. It pretty much sucks. It's getting bonus points
for having recipes that looked good. I didn't try any of them, but I'm
optimistic. I thought that it was the first book this woman has written,
but then I found out that she's written other books and has used aliases.
This was just the first of this series of mystery cook books. I'm
severely disappointed.
- Dick Francis.
- Come to Grief.
I really dug this book. This one was well-written. I
don't know if I'd go to the effort of finding another one of his books.
By "effort" I mean actually going to the library and checking
one out. I really liked it though.
- Neil Gaiman.
- Sandman comic
books. I mean, graphic novels. Good to read, but kind of
nightmare-inducing.
- American Gods.
Really great book. It's so vivid, that after a few months I kept
thinking that it was a movie. It really is very good.
- Good Omens (with
Terry Pratchett)
I really liked the Sandman comics, and a friend recommended that I
read this. Oh, I did just read that they're thinking of making a
movie out of it, directed by Terry Gilliam
(Monty Python). I really liked this book. It's pretty feel-good,
considering that it concerns the end of the world. You should definitely
read it.
- Patricia
Highsmith.
- The Talented Mr.
Ripley. This was really good. I liked the movie, but I
liked the book even better. Ripley was much nicer in the book than
in the movie.
- Ripley Under
Ground. Just as good as the first. Not much action, but
much character development.
- Ripley's Game.
They recently made an awful movie with this title.
Although I'm sure it was meant to be based on the book, it was hard
to find any similarity.
- Boy Who Followed
Ripley. When reading these, keep in mind how many years have
gone by. It's about a decade in between each book, and it's
interesting to see how things change.
- Ripley Under Water.
It's a nice ending to the series.
- This Sweet
Sickness. I don't know how she did it. This book has kind
of the same plot as a Ripley book would, but a completely different feel.
- Nick
Hornby (Ed.)
- Speaking with the
Angel. This is a book of short stories, edited by Nick Hornby
(About a Boy and High Fidelity). There were 2 stories-I think- that I
didn't like. I really liked some of them. Some of them were really great.
- Le
Carre.
- Constant Gardner. I
read an article in the New Yorker about this book, and I didn't really know
who this author was. The article made the book look interesting, so I
bought it. Later I found out that he wrote all these spy novels that got
turned into Sean Connery movies, that sucked. This book really sucked. I
had nightmares the whole book through because the people were ordinary
and the circumstances were extraordinarily tragic. I guess that's an
indication of good writing, if it affects the reader so much. But this
book really sucked. The ending sucked. But I still gave Le Carre a second
chance.
- Taylor of Panama.
It sucked. This time the whole story sucked. I read it because a lot of
Lecarre's books became sucky movies, but they make a movie of this one
recently, so I thought it may not suck. So, I read most of the book. Then
I watched the movie, which sucked and was totally miscast. The movie had
a happy ending. Then I had to return to book before I finished, so I
skimmed the rest, and guess what. The book ended tragically (as far as I
could tell) and it sucked. Le Carre is not getting any more of time!
- Roy Lewis.
- Evolution Man or
How I Ate My Father. BUY THIS BOOK. I loved this book. It's so
wonderful. It's about prehistoric homosapiens-sapiens (back when there
were also neanderthals), but from a 1960's perspective. It's so funny. It
went out of print but they've started reprinting it (Random House). It's
so great. I got it from the public library, but then I ended up buying
it.
- Naguib Mahfouz.
- Palace Walk Trilogy
(English). I read all three parts to the trilogy. I loved
reading these books! Although they were long, they only took a day or two
each to read. They were very soap-opera-esque and had a lot of
characters, but it didn't take very long to get to know each character.
What sucked was that the last book didn't have much of a conclusion. I
guess that was to leave an air of endlessness of life. I mean, it really
does just go on and you can conclude people's lives, unless they all
died, and that would pretty much suck. I really liked the flow of the
book and the language.
- Children of the
Alley. This is neat. It's a story of a family, going through several
generations, and it's meant to reflect the Biblical/Quranic stories, starting
from Adam and Eve, and going through Mohammed. It's really neat, unless
you're particularly religious or anti-religion. If you're pretty middle
of the road, you'll enjoy it.
- Arabian Nights and
Days. Pretty good book. It's a modernization of some of the
stories of the Arabian Nights. I liked it, but I'm not in a hurry to read
it again. I really like Mahfouz though.
- The Day the Leader
was Killed. Not the best of his books, but pretty reasonable.
It's also pretty short.
- Mamdouh.
- Mothballs
(English). Sucked. It's by an Iraqi woman about Iraqi life in
the eyes of a little girl with a jerk of a father. It may have just
sucked in translation, but it's hard to tell. I didn't understand most of
it because it "flowed" from first to second to third person. All
I can say is that the poor girl needed therapy, or maybe the author did.
It really sucked.
- Sue Miller.
- Inventing the
Abbotts and Other Stories. This book was so bad. I saw
the Inventing the Abbotts movie, and it was really good. The short
story really sucked. Well, it wasn't as bad as the other stories in
the book. But really, this woman doesn't know how to write.
- Angela Nissel.
- The Broke Diaries. Pretty
funny. Written in diary style, which works well for me.
Couldn't help but think that if she had some common sense she wouldn't be
so broke, but oh well. She ended up ok.
- Stephen Poliakoff.
- Perfect Strangers.
The continuing story of Balki and Cousin Larry. Just
kidding. It was actually a miniseries on BBC. I saw part 2
out of 3, and missed the first and last parts. So, I got the book.
I really enjoyed it. It's about a gigantic family reunion
from the perspective of Daniel, one of the adult cousins.
- Philibert Schogt.
- Wild Numbers. Really
really good. Creepy, but good. This is one of those that I pass around
for people to read. I really liked it. It's about a math professor and
some misadventures.
- David Sedaris.
- Me Talk Pretty One
Day. This was the first David Sedaris book I ever read. It was
hilarious. I really really enjoyed it. It's not fiction, and I prefer
fiction, but it was still great. It was really nice and sweet, but also
very very funny. Read this book.
- Holidays on Ice. This
one was really short. They were all holiday stories. The dept santa story
was great. I liked the Dinah story too. I think this was the book that
had the Christmas newsletter (fictional) that was pretty creepy. The book
was too short for me to call good. I hate to say that I judge a book by
the number of pages, but I do. So there.
- Barrel Fever. His
nonfiction is a lot better than his fiction. His fiction is just crazy.
But still enjoyable.
- Naked. This
one was nonfiction, and pretty scary. He really drove me crazy, because I
kept wanting to yell "No! That's a bad idea. Don't do that. Go
home." Obviously he survived all of his adventures, since he lived
to tell the tale, but it still drove me crazy.
- Alexander
McCall Smith.
- No. 1 Ladies'
Detective Agency. I picked up this book solely on the basis of its
title. It was really good. Very light and easy to read.
I think it took me about a day to read.
- Tears of the
Giraffe. This is the sequal to No 1. It was much better
then the previous one. It also took about a day to read.
- Morality for
Beautiful Girls. The third book in the series. It didn't
have much action, but had a lot of cultural information. It's nice
that all of these books have the big mystery, that lasts throughout the
whole book, but also there were little mysteries and a lot of character
development.
- Rex Stout.
- Some Buried Caesar.
Ok, so I watched the Nero Wolfe's on A and E and decided to
read a book. It was pretty good. A lot slower than the show
of course, but still prettty good.
- John Updike.
- S. This is my
favorite Updike book. It's the only one that I've read that I can
actually say that I like.This one is about a woman who joins a cult or
something, but doesn't really realize that she's in a cult. And the story
is told through her letters home.
- Couples. I
never really liked John Updike, except that I heard that he wrote a book
in the second person, which is supposedly neat. Anyway, I read this book
all the way through, so it couldn't have been that bad, but I didn't
really like it that much.
- Rebecca
Wells.
- Divine Secrets of
the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I didn't like the movie, but my mom
said to read the book. So, I read the book, and it was SO good.
Definitely a must-read.
Books I haven’t read yet but
would like to