The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

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Zac Miley
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Post by Zac Miley » 12 Jul 2012 13:46

How do you have time for anything else Danny? Quite the list, dude.

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

Dorian Gray set the bar a little high - I wasn't a fan of most of his stories.

My next book is either Catch-22 or one of the two Vonnegut books I've borrowed.
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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Post by Outsider » 12 Jul 2012 15:53

Which Vonnegut books have you got?

I think he's terrific, but he can be hit-or-miss.

One of his books that I thought was very good but probably doesn't make most fan's "top 5" list is "Bluebeard".

I'd recommend this one to you because it's all about a fictional painter, but has some actual artists as supporting characters, and the main character muses on painting and art alot, of course. The main character could be said to be a combination of Vonnegut himself and perhaps one or two famous artists...

I'd say that Bluebeard, in general, is Vonnegut's ode to art.
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Post by bigdirtyfoot » 14 Jul 2012 05:58

21. Transformational Weight Loss, Charles Eisenstein, 143 pg.

This is the third book I have read by Eisenstein, and although it was my least favorite, it is still very good. "Transformational Weight Loss" is very similar to "Yoga of Eating," although the ideas seem better developed. It was written specifically with obese or overweight people in mind, but I found that it contains good advice for everyone. Eisenstein does a great job of showing how all desires and needs in life connects with food. He shows that people often substitute food for desires that they need to fulfill, so they chronically overeat because they are using food in place of unmet needs like connection, love, freedom, identity, and the sense of adventure. The other big thing I took away from this book was that people tend to overeat because they are eating "fake" food, and so their bodies feel the need to keep attempting to grab nutrition from food that has very little. These people are chronically malnourished, and often perpetually dehydrated as well. Similar to the Michael Pollan book I just read, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual," "TWL" encourages common sense practices like eating real food instead of processed junk, engaging in daily movement, and only eating when we are truly hungry.

What is interesting about Eisenstein is that he often gives advice that people want to hear, but phrases it in a way that won't enable them to take it in a negative direction. For example, he says that people should eat what they want, when they want. But he wants us to really pay attention to the entire experience of eating food - how it tastes, how it makes us feel, etc. Eisenstein advises against conventional Western approaches to exercise, explaining that most people hate exercise because it becomes routine, or that it feels too much like work. When advice is phrased like this, it seems incredibly easy to gain control of not only our relationships with food, but also all of the connected aspects of life.

I definitely liked "TWL," and would recommend it to everyone! It's not mind blowing, but it makes a lot of sense and may help us evolve into a species that make more sensible decisions. I look forward to reading more from Eisenstein - he is a superb writer who puts forth fresh ideas that agree with me.
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Post by dp » 16 Jul 2012 10:53

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 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. 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
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by dp » 19 Jul 2012 06:07

36. Skylark by Deszo Kosztolanyi 222pg
37. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell 213pg

Skylark was written in the 1920s by a Hungarian writer. It's about Skylark, a 35 year old "old maid" living with her parents in a small Hungarian city. Skylark is described as "unintelligent, unimaginative, unattractive, and unmarried" and her parents are obsessed with her in a weird way. I don't really know how to talk about this book but it was very strange and very enjoyable to read.

Down and Out was great. I enjoyed Homage to Catalonia enough to try out some more Orwell and this didn't disappoint. I've got The Road to Wigan Pier in my stack of books to read now.

Bluebeard is also one of my favorite Vonnegut books, perhaps only second to Mother Night.

And Zac, I don't really do very much else, particularly this summer. Since about mid-June I think I've been reading anywhere from 3 to 5 hours a day usually.
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Zac Miley » 21 Jul 2012 15:05

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

All three of those were very, very good.

John - the two I have are Sirens of Titan (which I'm about 50 pages into) and Bluebeard. Sounds like Bluebeard is right up my alley, I can't wait to get to it.
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 Zac Miley » 28 Jul 2012 20:14

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
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 Jul 2012 15:25

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

Just got back from vacation on a lake with lots of books
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by dp » 02 Aug 2012 13:08

44. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse 218pg

This is the 3rd book by Hesse I've read (the others being Siddhartha and Demian) and they always make me think a lot and become introspective about certain things, and while there are generally a number of passages in each that are gems, I can't say that this book or the others I've read by him are particularly enjoyable or "great".
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Zac Miley » 03 Aug 2012 08:21

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 (I read this one a while ago, forgot to add it to my list)

My room mate has a large pile of Japanese novels, if you couldn't tell. I'm up to to 19 books for this summer.
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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Post by Jeremy » 05 Aug 2012 20:38

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
20. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - 209pp [ebook]
21. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami - 467pp [ebook]

Really thought provoking and intriguing, but actually I got to the end and I wasn't sure about what the book was about at all. Leaves a lot unexplained, but I think in a good way. I suppose it's a metaphorical coming of age story. Definitely worth a read.

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Zac Miley » 07 Aug 2012 12:57

I felt pretty much the same way after finishing it, Jeremy.

I don't know how much Murakami you've read, but my favorite so far is A Wild Sheep Chase. It's actually a fairly similar story to Kafka on the Shore but more efficient, I think. If you're interested in more I would suggest that one.
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 bigdirtyfoot » 11 Aug 2012 11:12

22. Picture This: A Novel, Joseph Heller, 352 pg.

Heller does a better job with "Picture This" than with some of his other books, but it still falls a bit short. A major part of the book is told from the view of Aristotle inside of Rembrandt's famous painting of Aristotle contemplating the bust of Homer. There is a lot of history, both real and exaggerated, strewn throughout the book, and some parts of it were interesting or funny. But most of it just seemed to drag on and on, rather pointlessly. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone unless they had already read "Catch 22" first.

23. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger, 214 pg.

This is a classic coming-of-age story written by J.D. Salinger. It takes place in New York during December 1949. The main character is Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year old boy who is a bit of a troublemaker and adventure-seeker. Caulfield has recently been kicked out of a prep school at the end of the fall semester. The story is told from his point of view, over the period of a couple of days.

I had already read this book once, but I enjoyed it even more this time around. Not much happens, but Salinger's writing style is strong and full of detail.

24. Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger, 201 pg.

"Franny" and "Zooey" are a short story and novella, respectively. Both stories focus on the Glass family, which consists of youngest daughter, Franny, and youngest son, Zooey, along with several older siblings and mother. The short story of "Franny" is fairly boring, but important to understand her character in the novella portion of this book. I found Franny to be unlikable, but I identified with Zooey a little bit more... even though he was a bit of a jerk, I could tell he really did care about the rest of his family.

Salinger does a really great job with these two stories. The dialogue is entirely believable, which is an awesome thing. The characters are fully-fledged, and the reader is able to understand their behaviors. I read this book for my book club, and really enjoyed it.
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by dp » 16 Aug 2012 17:14

45. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño 898pg

I will definitely be reading more by Bolano.
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by dp » 17 Aug 2012 14:19

46. Phantoms on the Bookshelves by Jacques Bonnet 133pg

Basically a love letter to books and book ownership. Pretty enjoyable.
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by bigdirtyfoot » 19 Aug 2012 16:11

25. What Comes After Money?: Essays from Reality Sandwich on Transforming Currency and Community, edited by Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan, 269 pg.

This is a pretty awesome book - it's a compilation of several authors' articles that were originally published on Reality Sandwich. The premise of all of these articles is that our current definition of money and economics isn't working. Instead of simply complaining (Admittedly, I am wont to do this on a regular basis.), these are actual suggestions to supplement our existing money systems (local currencies, Transition Towns, etc.) or create entirely new systems of value and exchange like spiritual economics.

Now, I'm not an economist, nor do I understand a lot of what these authors are saying. But I do agree that our current monetary system does not fit the reality of our situation. A capitalist system assumes that there will be infinite resources forever, but we not only have finite resources, we may be close to depleting all of them! But there is hope. The belief in scarcity has been fed to us by the minority of people who have influence through the media and stand to gain profit from our following that lie. But we have plenty on Earth to sustain the entire population, if only we don't let it go to waste as it does now. I am confident that we can create a better world if we follow some of the advice in this book and begin rejecting the messages that the mass media and corporations want us to believe.

The majority of this book - 80% or so, was easy for me to read and follow. There were things that made me laugh or say "Oh yeah, that makes sense." But the remaining 20% was hard for me to grok. I would warn any potential readers that there might be parts of this book that may not click. In addition to this, a potential reader could actually create this book for free by finding out what the article titles are and reading them directly on the Reality Sandwich website. I didn't do this because it is easier for me to read at extended length on paper and because I wanted to give Reality Sandwich some compensation for the value that it gave me with this book. I highly recommend everyone read at least a few of these articles, because you might as well brace yourself for what might be coming down the pipeline.
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by dp » 22 Aug 2012 07:10

47. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami 296pg

This is a re read for me. I'm in the middle of two other books right now but I just randomly picked this off my bookshelf because I felt like reading something sad.
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 22 Aug 2012 16:23

bigdirtyfoot wrote: Now, I'm not an economist, nor do I understand a lot of what these authors are saying. But I do agree that our current monetary system does not fit the reality of our situation. A capitalist system assumes that there will be infinite resources forever, but we not only have finite resources, we may be close to depleting all of them! But there is hope. The belief in scarcity has been fed to us by the minority of people who have influence through the media and stand to gain profit from our following that lie. But we have plenty on Earth to sustain the entire population, if only we don't let it go to waste as it does now. I am confident that we can create a better world if we follow some of the advice in this book and begin rejecting the messages that the mass media and corporations want us to believe.

I guess I'll comment on this more when I finally finish the book I'm on at the moment, but I disagree with both your premises here - capitalism assumes infinite resources and we are close to depleting all of them. What's interesting is that people have been making predictions that we're about to deplete a number of resources since the 19th century, and they've never been correct. This comes back to Adam Smith and the invisible hand. Competition (be it economic, biological or social) leads to people adopting the best strategy for the value of what they're competing over (via natural selection - ie. those that adopt the best strategy win, and the losers die or adapt and adopt the best strategy). However when the value changes, the best strategy changes. Hence with any resource, attempts at finding replacements has only been made to the point where the cost is equal or less than the current cost of that resource (and by "resource" and "cost" it doesn't have to be financial - it can be any resource and cost relating to competition - finding mates, animals finding food, plants competing for nutrients, sport, parking spaces - you name it). So we haven't run out of resources because after the cheapest available amount of the resource is exploited, the costs of that resource go up, and the value of finding alternatives becomes comparable - and so far we've found an alternative, or a new way of exploiting, recycling or being more efficient with the resource.

So for example, in 1865 Stanley Jevons wrote a book about the industrial revolution, claiming that because the consumption of coal was growing exponentially, it wouldn't be long until England ran out of coal, and there would be economic collapse. In 1914 the US Bureau of Mines estimated there was only enough oil left for 10 more years. In 1939 the Department of Interior predicted only 13 more years of oil, and then made the same prediction in 1951. In 1972 Paul Ehlrich claimed that we would run out of gold, silver, mercury, and zinc all before 1990 (and he's still making the same predictions, just pushing back the date we'll run out of resources). In fact the "known" reserves" of most of these items is going up, despite consumption (because we're getting better at finding and using them, because as the cost changes, strategies change).

As an anecdote related to this, in 1980 economist Julian Simon offered a bet of $10,000 that any raw material, that the opponent could pick, would have dropped in price at least one year later. Ehrlich and two colleagues took him up (saying that "the lure of easy money is irresistible"). They chose chromium, copper, nickle, tin and tungsten and a period of 10 years. They lost, and indeed some of those resources had dropped in price by nearly 75%. This idea that we're running out of resources is centuries old, and almost never right.

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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by lilo » 26 Aug 2012 06:31

1. Agatha Christie - Miss Marple & Mystery (collection of short stories)
2. Kerry Greenwood - Urn Burial
3. Anna Stothard - The Pink Hotel
4. Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go
5. Martina Cole - The Runaway
6. Agatha Christie - Detectives & Young Adventurers (collection of short stories)
7. Nancy Mitford - Love In A Cold Climate
8. Kate Morton - The Distant Hours
9. Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger
10. Benjamin Law - The Family Law
11. Kerry Greenwood - Blood & Circuses
12. Anonymous - A Woman In Berlin
13. Mulgray Twins - No Suspicious Circumstances
14. Jon Richardson - It's Not Me, It's You
15. Neville Shute - A Town Like Alice
16. Richard Llewellyn - How Green Was My Valley
17. Chloe Hooper - The Tall Man
18. Kate Grenville - The Secret River
19. John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let The Right One In
20. Dodie Smith - I Capture The Castle
21. Wilkie Collins - The Woman In White
22. Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey
23. Stella Tilyard - The Tides Of War
24. Jim Thompson - The Killer Inside Me
25. Mandy Sayer - Love In The Years Of Lunacy
26. Belinda McKeon - Solace
27. Karin Altenberg - Island Of Wings
28. Emma Donoghue - The Sealed Letter
29. Robert Frank - The Return Of The Economic Naturalist
30. Caitlin Moran - How To Be A Woman
31. Jonathan Coe - The Rotters' Club
32. Kate Grenville - Sarah Thornhill
33. Marieke Hardy - You'll Be Sorry When I'm Dead
34. Tina Fey - Bossypants
35. Georgina Harding - Painter Of Silence
36. Patrick de Witt - The Sisters Brothers
37. Peter May - The Black House
38. Rusty Young - Marching Powder
39. Penelope Lively - How It All Began
40. John Charalambous - Silent Parts

41. Ann Patchett - State Of Wonder
Very silly. All about a man who goes missing in the Amazon, and his colleague goes to find him, and there's this bark that the indigenous women eat that keeps them fertile into old age, and the mystery of what happened to the man that goes missing. So, so silly. Why do I read this stuff?

42. Kathryn Stockett - The Help
I really liked this. I read this and then watched the movie a few days later. I think I prefer the book, I liked how it was written from different perspectives.

43. Ruth Park - The Harp In The South
Really fantastic, I can't believe I haven't read this until now. It's a bit like an Australian version of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, but Ruth Park was a much better writer than Betty Smith was. My grandmother grew up in inner-city slums, but never spoke about her childhood - this book helped me understand a little better what it must have been like.

44. Anna Funder - All That I Am
Brilliant, absolutely wonderful. Well deserving of the Miles Franklin.

45. Emma Donoghue - Room
This was also great. It was a little hard to get into at first because you have to get used to the style, but once you've got your head around that it was mesmerising, and heartbreaking.

46. John Charalambous - Furies
I like this one because it's set in a small country town very much like the one I grew up in. It's very different to the other book by this author that I've read this year, and I think I prefer this one, he seems to know more about what he's writing about here.

47. John Christopher - The Death Of Grass
John Wyndham style science fiction - excellent.

48. Tom Rob Smith - The Secret Speech
Incredibly silly.

49. Richard Flanagan - Wanting
I'm very glad I liked this book, because Richard Flanagan is a customer of mine, and last time I served him I was reading this, and I said I'd tell him what I thought of it next time I saw him. The two storylines weaved together well, and gave me a better understanding of the not-so-distant tragic history of my state.

50. Tom Bissell - Chasing The Sea: Lost Among The Ghosts Of Empire In Central Asia
About the author's travels through Uzbekistan, with history and interesting tidbits weaved in.

I haven't been reading very much at all lately, and I'm definitely not going to make it to 100 books by the end of the year - but hitting 50 is still pretty good! Yay!
Elizabeth

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dp
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Re: The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

Post by dp » 26 Aug 2012 09:11

48. The Penal Colony by Franz Kafka 317pg

This is a collection of everything published in Kafka's lifetime. I'm really glad to have read it. Some of the stories I found extremely enjoyable such as "Conversation with a Supplicant", "A Hunger Artist", and "In the Penal Colony" but other than those most of them were just really really weird in a very unique way that I'd never really experienced before.
Danny P.

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