The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

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bigdirtyfoot
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by bigdirtyfoot » 27 Nov 2012 15:37

Jeremy: Terence McKenna is the creator of Timewave Zero, yes. I believe that December 21, 2012 is simply the end of the 5,125 year-old cycle in the Mayan calendar. I don't presume to know what will happen on that day. I certainly don't think it's the "end of the world" but maybe it will be significant somehow? If nothing else, hopefully it's a damn good Winter Solstice.

33. Psychedelic Drug Research: A Comprehensive Review, David Jay Brown, 45 pg.

This is a straightforward book that covers psychedelic research from the 1960s to current day. It covers studies on ketamine, iboga, psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, and salvia divinorum. There are mentions of other substances, such as mescaline and DMT, but they do not receive dedicated chapters.

I found this to be a great resource, and since the author plans to update it every six months it should continue to get better with time. The book starts with an overview of psychedelics in medicine and then goes into detail with each of the above substances. The last third of the book goes beyond the medical application of psychedelics and considers how they affect pleasure, creativity and problem-solving, ESP and psychic phenomena, and higher dimensions and nonhuman entity contact.

I would suggest this book to anyone interested in the topic. As I said, it is straightforward and a great overview of what is currently going on in psychedelic research.
David Wilder

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by dp » 02 Dec 2012 11:45

I've been super busy recently. The total amount of procrastination time when I'm busy and when I'm not busy is equal, the only difference is that when I'm really busy I do more high quality procrastinating things. Thus I've been reading a boatload.

61. Environmental Inequalities: Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1945-1980 by Andrew Hurley 246pg
62. The Friar and the Cipher by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone 320pg
63. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 247pg
64. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson 204pg
65. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami 180pg
66. Voices of German Expressionism edited by Victor Miesel 210pg
Danny P.

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by dp » 13 Dec 2012 08:58

67. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco 502pg

This was one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. The two main characters are Sherlock Holmes and Watson like characters except set in a 14th century (if I recall correctly) monastery where a number of monks keep dying. The premise sounded a little hokey to me, except that Umberto Eco was/is a respected medieval scholar. I'm realizing Eco is a famous dude, but I only heard of him a few weeks ago. There seems to be a consensus (or something, I've just seen this by looking at what people have been writing about Eco) that this is a very hard read, and that the main character's pages of speeches on philosophy, the scholastic methods of the medieval ages, in depth discussion of the politics of the mendicant friars, etc. are boring and/or difficult. This may be because of the incredibly awesome Medieval Manuscript Studies class I just took the final exam for on Monday, but I didn't find this book onerous at all. This is a Top 5 book for the year.

68. George Grosz: An Autobiography by George Grosz 311pg

I've been getting really into German Expressionism. This was about 85% exactly what I wanted/expected and about 15% tedious writing from someone who clearly isn't a writer.
Danny P.

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Asmus » 14 Dec 2012 04:54

Could you write a little more about the book? George Grosz is one of my favorite artists, so I am very interested.
Also Expressionism is German.
And props for 68 books in a year! That's hardcore!

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by dp » 22 Dec 2012 10:10

I read the collection of writings by German Expressionist paintings "Voices of German Expressionism" and the George Grosz section, while short seemed like he was one of the more emotionally stable artists included in the book. A lot of the things in that collection were claims that a new spiritual style of painting was going to save the world and it was all very naive and kind of embarrassing to read. Grosz seemed much more practical than that. He isn't really my favorite of the expressionists, I prefer Otto Dix, some Kokoschka, and some Max Beckmann, but some of Grosz's drawings are really fantastic.

The book is a pretty simple retelling of his life. He goes over his childhood and the death of his father, and then his life in school before he found a deep interest in art, including a very, very, very detailed section about the time he saw his first fully naked female. He goes over briefly all parts of his life through art school, the war, the Weimar Republic, and running off to New York in the early 30s. The most interesting section is when he talks about Dada. I had no idea how involved he was with the whole movement, and it's very funny to read about. Grosz, like me, is very suspicious of big flowery theorizing about art, so I enjoyed seeing his perspective on all the big art movements and events he was a part of. If you like George Grosz, you will most likely find this autobiography very interesting.

69. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 255pg
70. The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald 237pg
71. The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald 296pg

The Hobbit was my favorite book as a kid so I had to read it one more time before I saw the movie.
Danny P.

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Re: Re:

Post by Jeremy » 22 Dec 2012 15:29

I've been avoiding re-reading The Hobbit, because I read the LOTR books just before the movies came out, and then found the plot changes (and especially character changes) very hard to get past. I'm hoping the less I remember of the books, the more I'll like it :P

1. Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams - 229pp [ebook]
2. I Am Legend by Richard Matherson - 180pp [ebook]
3. The Drowned World by JG Ballard - 158pp [ebook]
4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding - 248pp [ebook]
5. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre - 338pp [ebook]
6. Galactic Human Handbook: Entering The New Time: Creating Planetary Groups by Sheldon Nidle and Jose Arguelles - 157pp
7. The Future Eaters by Tim Flannery - 407pp
8. Tasmania; A Natural History by William E. Davies Jr. - 236pp
9. Complexity: A guided tour by Melanie Mitchell - 368pg [ebook]
10. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams - 306pp [ebook]
11. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle - 108pp [ebook]
12. Free Will by Sam Harris - 66pp
13. Australian Freshwater Ecology: Processes and management by Andrew Boulton and Margaret Brock - 244pp
14. Arguably by Christopher Hitchens - 800pp [ebook]
15. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley - 405pp [ebook]
16. The Godfather by Mario Puzo - 447pp
17. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami - 624pp [ebook]
18. Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there by Richard Wiseman - 341pp [ebbok]
19. Freakonomics: A rouge economist explores the hidden side of everything - revised edition by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner - 242pp
20. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - 209pp [ebook]
21. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami - 467pp [ebook]
22. The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World by Bjorn Lomborg - ~250pp
23. The Geek Manifesto: Why Science Matters by Mark Henderson - 249pp
24. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens - 128pp
25. The Tiger's Wife: A novel by Tea Obreht - 336pp
26. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling - 218pp
27. The Sputnik Sweetheart: A novel by Haruki Murakami - 229pp [ebook]
28. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling - 309pp [ebook]
29. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - 528pp [ebook]
30. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - 429pp
31. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by j.k. Rowling - ~300pp [ebook]
32. The Signal and the Noise: The art and science of prediction by Nate Silver - 457pp
33. The Vertical Farm: Feeding The World in the 21st Century by Dr. Dickson Despommier - 268pp

An interesting concept, but this book is severely lacking in actual content. I think the key argument in favour of these farms is also not based on a very factual basis - he claims that degradation of soils in particular will make conventional farming impossible in the near future and offers some anecdotes. Fortunately I think the actual large scale evidence shows that while this is a problem, it's not going to cause an enormous catastrophe in the near future. Without that happening, I'm not convinced that vertical farms of this scale will ever become economically profitable and thus widespread, although I have no doubt smaller scale urban farming will be a strongly growing industry, and that in some very particular circumstances, vertical farms of a larger scale will be profitable. The book also contains a lot of errors about the state of the world, which are perhaps just simplifications, but some seem to be complete errors. It also is completely unreferenced (although there are chapter by chapter "suggested readings"), which makes it particular difficult to verify any of the claims made that I found hard to believe. I guess I would say that I find the concept very interesting, and can see a lot of benefits, but find the book itself rather poor. Still I guess if you're particularly interested in this kind of stuff you have to read Despommier. I guess something I took from this is that technology in agriculture is still improving at a dramatic rate, and the projections of mass famine in the next century based on assuming farming productivity remains static while population rises will be false. Productivity will almost certainly continue to increase, and as demand pushes up prices, things like vertical farms may become economically viable methods of producing large amounts of food in relatively small areas.

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Pasquar » 26 Dec 2012 15:47

OMG I just spent about an hour going over books I read this year and gave them all a review. Modified logged me out and it didn't post.

Fuck this!
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Jeremy
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Re: Re:

Post by Jeremy » 26 Dec 2012 22:45

1. Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams - 229pp [ebook]
2. I Am Legend by Richard Matherson - 180pp [ebook]
3. The Drowned World by JG Ballard - 158pp [ebook]
4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding - 248pp [ebook]
5. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre - 338pp [ebook]
6. Galactic Human Handbook: Entering The New Time: Creating Planetary Groups by Sheldon Nidle and Jose Arguelles - 157pp
7. The Future Eaters by Tim Flannery - 407pp
8. Tasmania; A Natural History by William E. Davies Jr. - 236pp
9. Complexity: A guided tour by Melanie Mitchell - 368pg [ebook]
10. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams - 306pp [ebook]
11. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle - 108pp [ebook]
12. Free Will by Sam Harris - 66pp
13. Australian Freshwater Ecology: Processes and management by Andrew Boulton and Margaret Brock - 244pp
14. Arguably by Christopher Hitchens - 800pp [ebook]
15. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley - 405pp [ebook]
16. The Godfather by Mario Puzo - 447pp
17. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami - 624pp [ebook]
18. Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there by Richard Wiseman - 341pp [ebbok]
19. Freakonomics: A rouge economist explores the hidden side of everything - revised edition by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner - 242pp
20. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - 209pp [ebook]
21. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami - 467pp [ebook]
22. The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World by Bjorn Lomborg - ~250pp
23. The Geek Manifesto: Why Science Matters by Mark Henderson - 249pp
24. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens - 128pp
25. The Tiger's Wife: A novel by Tea Obreht - 336pp
26. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling - 218pp
27. The Sputnik Sweetheart: A novel by Haruki Murakami - 229pp [ebook]
28. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling - 309pp [ebook]
29. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - 528pp [ebook]
30. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - 429pp
31. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by j.k. Rowling - ~300pp [ebook]
32. The Signal and the Noise: The art and science of prediction by Nate Silver - 457pp
33. The Vertical Farm: Feeding The World in the 21st Century by Dr. Dickson Despommier - 268pp
34. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - 212pp [ebook]

Enjoyed the movie (although not my favourite Ghibli) and saw this randomly browsing Google Books and so bought the ebook for my phone (most of my ebooks are read on a Kindle). Reading books on your phone (Samsung Galaxy S3) with Google Books was fine. The book is pretty silly. Less serious than the movie, and certainly missing some of the big themes (Howl spends his time trying to pick up girls instead of trying to stop war), but was a fun light read.

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Zac Miley » 28 Dec 2012 17:18

1. Letters Between Friends: Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse
2. Three Artemis Fowl books which I will count as one, Eoin Colfer
3. A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway
4. The Road, Cormac McCarthy (reread)
5. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, David Foster Wallace
6. Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis
7. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
9. The Tradition of the New, Harold Rosenberg
10. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: Finca Vigia edition, Ernest Hemingway
11. Gerhard Richter: Portraits, Stefan Gronertis, Hubertus Butin
12. Working Space, Frank Stella
13. Caravaggio, no specified author
14. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
15. Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges
16. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
17. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
18. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Stieg Larsson
19. The Man Within, Graham Greene
20. The Complete Short Stories of Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde
21. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
22. A Wild Sheep Chase, Haruki Murakami
23. Garden of Eden, Ernest Hemingway
24. Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
25. Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut
26. Bluebeard, Kurt Vonnegut
27. The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus
28. Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
29. The Key, Junichiro Tanazaki
30. Diary of a Mad Old Man, Junichiro Tanazaki
31. Snow Country, Yasunari Kawabata
32. Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories, Franz Kafka
33. A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman
34. What is Art For?, Ellen Dissanayake
35. The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa
36. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
37. Illuminations, Arthur Rimbaud
38. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein
39. Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
40. The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
41. This is not a Pipe, Michel Foucault
42. Minimalism, Kenneth Baker
43. Vija Celmins, Phaidon
44. Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich
45. Magical Realist Fiction, David Young, Keith Holloman
46. The Stranger, Albert Camus
47. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Two of my new favorite books - The Stranger in particular is pretty incredible.
Jay (8:06:01 PM): Bu-bu-buu-buug--Looks up, and the feeling goes away like a sneeze-bu-buuuh-BULLLSHITTT
Jay (8:06:14 PM): *wipes bellybutton*

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by dp » 29 Dec 2012 22:47

72. The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco 422pg
73. A Life of Picasso: 1881-1906 by John Richardson 548pg

I read The Stranger earlier this year and really enjoyed it too.

The Prague Cemetery was not particularly good. After the name of The Name of the Rose it was a real disappointment.
Danny P.

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 01 Jan 2013 00:20

Great effort Danny - 73 books!

I guess it's top 3 time.

1. Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell
I think of what I read this year, this is the book that influenced me the most, especially about how I think about the world, and why things happen. It covered a lot of topics, but in enough detail to make it not only interesting, but applicable.

2. The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg
I'm so glad I finally took the time to read this, because I've read many critiques of Lomborg and this book and generally believed them. Actually now, I think his general view is correct (regardless of whether or not a few errors can be found in a book with over 2000 references). This book really changed how I feel about the future and the state of humanity. As it turns out, I think things look positive, and I think those that predict environmental catastrophe in the near future have not looked at the evidence objectively. This book puts forward the case for looking just at the observed evidence and ignoring interpretations, and I think that's an important message.

3. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens
It was really hard to choose a number three from a number of excellent books. In the end I chose this, despite having read almost all of it as online articles, because even reading it again I felt particularly moved and inspired by Hitch, and his writing ability was phenomenal. I think one of my goals for this year will be to collect and read all his books.

Honourable mentions:
Lord of the Flies, Bad Science, I am Legend, The Future Eaters, Free Will, Arguably, The Red Queen, Battle Royale, Paranormality, Things Fall Apart, Kafka on the Shore, Freakonomics, The Geek Manifesto, Cloud Atlas, Confederacy of Dunces.

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by DTank126 » 01 Jan 2013 14:48

I read 10 books this year! Never read more than a few in one year before so this was huge for me. Started in May and got through...

1. Mother Night - Vonnegut Jr.
2. The Idiot - Dostoyevsky
3. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
4. Something Happened - Joseph Heller
5. Game of Thrones -George RR Martin
6. Clash of Kings - George RR MArtin
7. Catcher in the RYe - Salinger
8. A Storm of Swords - George RR Martin
9. Women - Bukowski
10. Legend of sleepy hollow and rip van winkle - Washington Irving
11. Eyeless in Gaza - Aldous Huxley

I read 11 actually! Forgot about that Bukowski one. I wanted to finish 2 more before the year ended but I ended up drinking too much the past few nights.... :oops:

My favorite of these was Catch 22 and my least favorite was SOmething Happened. Both by the same author. :lol: I'm wary to read any more Heller because I loved catch 22 so much but Something happened sucked so hard. More like Nothing Happened. So boring.

Props to y'all who reached 50, especially Danny. Over 70? You sick bastard. 8O

Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully I can reach 20 this year
Doug Tank

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Zac Miley » 01 Jan 2013 15:27

47 - so close.

Following Jeremy's lead. Picking a top 3 is real tough. I read a lot of good books this year.

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Marquez
Number one is pretty easy, though. This guy is a master of narrative and language. One of the most dense works of fiction I've ever read, and I don't think the book would've been better if anything were subtracted. The book has an extremely sophisticated plot which I think goes unnoticed by most readers. Marquez is one of the few writers I would label 'transcendent'.

2. Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
Calvino is an extremely talented thinker and writer - Invisible Cities is proof of that, in my mind. I think Danny called him 'too postmodern' in one of his other reviews, and I would agree, but he does it with integrity and honesty in this book and I have no qualms with his points of view. The format of this book is almost genius - it's a fictional recount of cities which serve as metaphors for parts of a kingdom, simultaneously critiquing language, philosophy, and nationalism. I suggest it to everyone.

3. The Stranger, Albert Camus
Camus is a philosopher before a writer, but he is phenomenal at both. I'm fairly familiar with his absurdist views so I took that into my reading, and it probably helped it. It's difficult for me to describe this book, or to tell someone why they should read it. I think if you like reading, and have read a lot, or know Camus at all, then this book is essential. The Stranger felt, to me, like French Hemingway (which is hilarious to think about) - I also think that was on purpose.
Jay (8:06:01 PM): Bu-bu-buu-buug--Looks up, and the feeling goes away like a sneeze-bu-buuuh-BULLLSHITTT
Jay (8:06:14 PM): *wipes bellybutton*

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 01 Jan 2013 16:55

Well done on 11 Doug! I definitely view this as about achieving personal goals, rather than actually getting to 50 or not (although I'm going to get there in 2013).

Great top 3 Zac. Those are all books I want to read this year. One of my goals is to read a lot more fiction too. Actually just over half of this year was fiction, but I felt like most of it was just light reads on the side of reading serious non-fiction (I am usually reading 2 or 3 books at a time). This year I'm going to try and read challenging fiction, and especially tackle some of the larger books that I've been meaning to read for a while.

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by dp » 01 Jan 2013 22:59

1. Legs by William Kennedy 318pg
2. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr 276pg
3. Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte 407pg
4. The Volga Rises in Europe by Curzio Malaparte 281pg
5. Kingdom of Fear by Hunter S. Thompson 354pg
6. Is Voting for Young People? by Martin P. Wattenberg 225pg
7. Genius in Disguise: Harold Ross of the New Yorker by Thomas Kunkel 497pg
8. Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson 505pg
9. Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman 245pg
10. The Skin by Curzio Malaparte 344pg
11. Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman 880pg
12. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut 192pg
13. The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway 154pg
14. The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck 276pg
15. Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner 181pg
16. Life WIth Picasso by Francoise Gilot 350pg
17. Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace 321pg
18. Loving Picasso: The Private Journal of Fernande Olivier by Fernande Olivier 296pg
19. All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost by Lan Samantha Chang 208pg
20. Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself by David Lipsky 320pg
21. Snow by Orhan Pamuk 426pg
22. Everything and Nothing by Jorge Luis Borges 129pg
23. Open City by Teju Cole 259pg
24. The Avian Gospels: Book One by Adam Novy 275pg
25. The Pale King by David Foster Wallace 548pg
26. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery 325pg
27. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 383pg
28. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell 479pg
29. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin 694pg
30. A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin 1009pg
31. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell 309pg
32. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin 1177pg
33. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell 232pg
34. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin 1060pg
35. A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin 1016pg
36. Skylark by Deszo Kosztolanyi 222pg
37. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell 213pg
38. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell 232pg
39. The Stranger by Albert Camus 123pg
40. Hiroshima by John Hersey 152pg
41. The Pride and the Glory by Graham Greene 222pg
42. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway 211pg
43. The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson 204pg
44. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse 218pg
45. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño 898pg
46. Phantoms on the Bookshelves by Jacques Bonnet 133pg
47. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami 296pg
48. The Penal Colony by Franz Kafka 317pg
49. The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty by Dave Hickey 123pg
50. How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti 306pg
51. The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini by Benvenuto Cellini 457pg
52. Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 by Alfred W. Crosby 368pg
53. Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace by D.T. Max 356pg
54. The Damned Yard and Other Stories by Ivo Andrić 219pg
55. The Path to the Spiders’ Nest by Italo Calvino 185pg
56. If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino 260pg
57. The Trial by Franz Kafka 276pg
58. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s by Donald Worster 290pg
59. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry 377pg
60. The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro 340pg
61. Environmental Inequalities: Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1945-1980 by Andrew Hurley 246pg
62. The Friar and the Cipher by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone 320pg
63. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 247pg
64. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson 204pg
65. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami 180pg
66. Voices of German Expressionism edited by Victor Miesel 210pg
67. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco 502pg
68. George Grosz: An Autobiography by George Grosz 311pg
69. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 255pg
70. The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald 237pg
71. The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald 296pg
72. The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco 422pg
73. A Life of Picasso: 1881-1906 by John Richardson 548pg

Here's the full list. There may be other strategies for reading 73 books in a year, but from personal experience I can say one good way is to live in a 1 person apartment without a TV or internet access, and forsake friendships and social gatherings.

There were so many good books this year. If I think too hard about it I will never be able to choose a top 3, so this is my top 3 most enjoyable books of the year without too much thought.

Everything and Nothing by Jorge Luis Borges
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Trial by Franz Kafka

These, more than any other books read this year, produced jubilant giddiness in me as I read.

I do feel like I'm betraying all the other great books I read this year, but a list of every book I loved would probably run to about 30, and would not be very useful to anyone...
Danny P.

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Pasquar » 02 Jan 2013 11:13

For sake of keeping track, wanted to post the books I read this year. no reviews unfortunately, as I tried doing that earlier and it was lost :x Oh well.

1) Meaning of Marxism by Paul D'Amato
2) Zombie Capitalism by Chris Harman
3) Believing Brain by Michael Shermer
4) Brain Bugs by Dean Buonomano
5) Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Enreicht
6) Race Matters by Cornel West
7) Black Rage by William Grier and Price Cobbs
8 ) Stride Toward Freedom by Martin Luther King
9) The Autobiography of Malcom X by Alex Haely*
10) The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
11) The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom
12) Don't think of an Elephant! by David Lakoff
13) Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffery Canada
14) Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

I'm sure I'm missing one or two

* I'd say the best book I read this year was Malcom X's autobiography. EVERYONE needs to read this, it's a largely untold part of our history that unfortunately doesn't make its way into mainstream discourse. This provided a much needed and critically important view of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, the Nation of Islam, and race in general. This has left a lasting impact that inspired further reading/immersion into the issue of race in society (as you can see from a bunch of other books I read). I also really want to read up on the Black Power movement in the last 60s/early 70s, particularly the Black Panther Party. I got the Huey P. Newton Reader a while ago and need to read it.

I am currently reading a few, I always try to have a few books I'm reading at one time, which may be why I don't actually finish as many books, but to each his own

Reading:

Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez
The Rich and the Rest of Us by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail by Hunter S. Thompson
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Pasquar » 04 Jan 2013 11:45

Oh Yea and



15) Lies my Teacher Told Me by James Loewen
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by bigdirtyfoot » 08 Jan 2013 19:09

@DTank126: I read nearly all of Heller's books this year, and can let you know that you may not want to venture down that road. He hit the high mark with Catch-22 and never really catches up. I am currently reading Closing Time, which is the sequel to Catch-22, and it is actually pretty decent - but perhaps only because I was familiar with most of the characters from reading Catch-22. Interestingly, I thought Something Happened was one of his better non-Catch-22 books, so if you didn't like that one, I really couldn't recommend the rest.

@dp: Wow. Congrats on completing 73 books! That's pretty amazing. I was jealous of you when you pulled ahead early in 2012 and realized that I wouldn't be able to catch up. I hope you can continue in 2013!

@Jeremy: Your book choices always impress me, and I may pick a few from your list to tackle myself. I feel a bond with you from our 10 or 11 years on Modified together, and from doing the 50 Book Challenge each year. I hope you're doing well - good luck with the challenge in 2013, I'm sure you can meet your goal if you put in the effort.

My 2012 Reading List:

Reading List:

1. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
2. The Minority Report, Philip K. Dick
3. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
4. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
5. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Philip K. Dick
6. The Man Who Japed, Philip K. Dick
7. Now Wait For Last Year, Philip K. Dick
8. Shadows in Flight, Orson Scott Card
9. Something Happened, Joseph Heller
10. The Yoga of Eating: Transcending Diets and Dogma to Nourish the Natural Self, Charles Eisenstein
11. Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition, Charles Eisenstein
12. Good as Gold, Joseph Heller
13. Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future, David Wolfe
14. Confessions of a Crap Artist, Philip K. Dick
15. Prometheus Rising, Robert Anton Wilson
16. God Knows, Joseph Heller
17. The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike, Philip K. Dick
18. Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu
19. Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
20. Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, Michael Pollan
21. Picture This: A Novel, Joseph Heller
22. Transformational Weight Loss, Charles Eisenstein
23. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
24. Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger
25. What Comes After Money?: Essays from Reality Sandwich on Transforming Currency and Community
26. Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger
27. The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys, James Fadiman
28. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
29. Clans of the Alphane Moon, Philip K. Dick
30. Machine Elves 101, Daniel Moler
31. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction, J.D. Salinger
32. Why I Am Not Enlightened, Eliezer Sobel
33. Psychedelic Drug Research: A Comprehensive Review, David Jay Brown

Top Three:

3. Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition by Charles Eisenstein

Changed the way I view the global financial system, cultivated a desire to seek out true value in my life, and gave me hope for the future of our world. A pretty tough read for a non-economist like myself, but Eisenstein is a superb writer and made it fairly easy for me to grasp some of the more challenging topics. I will most likely re-read this in the future, and I hope that the way we exchange valuable services and products between people and groups grows toward some of the ideas in this book.

2. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick

I read a lot of PKD this year, but this was by far my favorite, and would possibly make a top three PKD list as well. The story is truly unique - a psychedelic trip inside of yet another psychedelic trip. A real mind bender. I'll be recommending this one as an entry PKD novel for likeminded folks for some time to come.

1. The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys by James Fadiman

This book was so influential for me that it has altered the course of my entire life. I don't want to get into my own personal history of using psychedelic substances, aside from saying that they have helped me to honestly assess parts of my life that are difficult to face, inspire me to live life to the fullest, and provided physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual development. Psychedelic compounds are not easy things to do - if used improperly they can scar you for a long time, which I have experienced and, with stubbornness and dedication, healed myself. However, when used responsibly, such as a tool for looking at things from different perspectives, a psychedelic substance can be incredibly valuable. This book offers sound advice for psychedelic journeys as both a participant and a guide, and sparked a desire to go into the psychedelic field in some form or another, which may mean a return to graduate school and a relocation within the next one or two years. After reading this book I felt so compelled to reach out to the author, and have been communicating with him and plan to meet up later this year. I can honestly say that this book changed my life, and I am continuously letting friends, family and co-workers borrow a loaner copy that the author sent me.

I was not happy with my reading list from this year, and I think it's because I made a huge mistake by picking Joseph Heller as my author for the year. His books decline after the first one, which is Catch-22. I was able to read all of J.D. Salinger's works, which was a lot of fun and I will be returning to them in the future. I participated in a local book club, which fell apart after a couple of meetings because I was the only one committed enough to finish the assigned books. That book club is rumored to start back up in 2013, which would be nice - it's fun to meet in person and discuss books! But we shall see. However, my actual year was amazing - I made so much progress with my health, finances, relationships, writing opportunities, confidence, etc. Therefore I have chosen not to let my paltry amount of completed books get me down. This year I found out that living my life is more important than meeting my reading goal, and that was a valuable lesson. At any rate, I'm glad to have participated in yet another 50 Book Challenge, and it's been fun chatting with all of y'all throughout the past year!
David Wilder

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 08 Jan 2013 19:50

Thanks Dave, I feel likewise. I'm glad you had a good year. I was a little disappointed with my reading list too, mainly the amount, but also I feel like I wasted a bit of time on shit stuff too. I've started trying to plan my reading a bit better, and also dedicate more time to it. Your list was interesting, but I think there's a lot there that I won't read. The PKD in your top 3 I probably will though!

Danny's list was great, as I commented. I like the range too, which I think is something I struggle with a little. We don't have a TV but we have internet access and I wasted too much time watching things on the computer and playing games, so this year I'm cutting down on those and reading more. I think it should be possible to have a social life and read a lot of books too. Just by cutting out watching TV I think most people would have enough time to read 50+ books. I hate that excuse people give for watching TV, that they just want to blob out and "not think." What would happen to the mental state of those people if they spent a month without watching TV - would they become more stressed or less stressed? I think the answer is obvious.

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