The 2012 Fifty Book Challenge

[PoisonTaffy]

Funny, I got to around the 20 pages mark and I absolutely hated it too. I picked it up because I read a review saying it's what Cloud Atlas should've been if it had reached the literary goals it supposedly set for itself, but I thought it's just pompous shit.

I'm going to give it another go based on your recommendation.

[lilo]

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


The Geek Manifesto: Really, really good. A call to arms for people who care about rational debate and science to have their voices heard politically. Obviously preaching to the converted in my case, but I'd urge anybody who believes in rationalist philosophy but isn't politically active to read this book. It's aimed at those kinds of people, so if you're some kind of new age hipster, you should probably read somebody like Sagan or Dawkins instead (ie. a book trying to convince you of the value of science, rather than trying to convince science minded people to involve themselves with politics, because if you read this book, you obviously don't accept the premise). A random interesting fact I took from this is that testing on people's actual reactions to gluten show that 4 out of 5 people who claim to have some kind of gluten intolerance don't.

Mortality: A selection of columns from Vanity Fair by Hitchens while he was dying. I had read most, or all of these when they were originally published, but enjoyed re-reading them. Definitely recommended for fans of Hitch, or for people with, or who know people with cancer.

The Tiger's Wife: Relatively light fiction. This is the author's first novel, and it showed. It's a bit all over the place, and filled with unnecessary flashbacks. I was a little unsure whether it was attempting to defend the Bosnian genocide. It certainly seemed to be making some rather dubious suggestions of moral equivalence between the actions on either side. The plot is rather silly too, and I think the attention this book has received is merely due to the subject matter (children in war, domestic violence, modernity vs superstition and tigers), rather than dealing with this subjects in an interesting manner. In fact I often felt like the book was just a collection of cliches, stitched together by a silly plot. Easy to read anyway.

Edit; This was Jeremy by the way.

[Zac Miley]

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

A short book of very good poetry which took me a long time to read.

I've also read about half of Magical Realist Fiction: an Anthology for a class.

Wittgenstein next I think.

[Jeremy]

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

One of those books that I thought I'd read, but realised while reading Tiger's Wife that actually I hadn't, or at least I certainly hadn't read the end or the short stories that follow the end. Anyway I was inspired by that book to read it, and got a copy at the airport, and read it over the flight from one side of Australia to the other (Perth to Hobart). It's certainly darker and more violent than the impression I had, but was fun and amusing too, although silly. I guess one of those "standards" that everybody should read, but probably haven't. From the era when things could still be violently killed in kids books

[Jeremy]

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]

Not really a fan. Too vague and I couldn't relate to the characters very well. I guess like the other Murakami I read, the book feels like it's completely a metaphore, but I don't really get it. I guess he's just trying to paint a beautiful picture of loneliness and loss, but I think other authors have done this in a much better manner. The only thing uncliched about this is the absurdness, which is a lot less than Kafka, but still a bit of a kick. I can imagine that hipsters would love this kind of thing

[dp]

Speaking of Kafka...

57. The Trial by Franz Kafka 276pg


Unlike the rest of Kafka that I've read, I absolutely loved this book. I now understand why people still read Kafka.

I also read If on a winters night a traveler... through Cloud Atlas, although in my case it was hearing Mitchell say in an interview with Michael Silverblatt on Bookworm that Cloud Atlas was a version of If on... except with a mirror at the end so you see the resolution of the stories. So i picked it up with the understanding that anything that influenced Cloud Atlas is worth checking out.

Jeremy, I heard such great things about The Tiger's Wife, and I just couldn't get past the 2nd page. Now I know not to try again.

[Jeremy]

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]

Apparently I read this many years ago, but didn't really remember it, and have a vague goal of reading all of the recent very popular fiction (Dan Brown, Twilight, 50 Shades of Grey), although not necessarily this year just on and off over the next few years. I don't have high expectations, but I think those books are important aspects of Western culture and having some knowledge of them is probably good.

I think with a lot of really popular mainstream culture, there's an understandable but unfair counter opposition. Yes this book is far from being a great work of literature, but I don't think it's terrible, and I think the "hate" is overstated - as is the case for the other books, and for lots of other culture (especially in music - Justin Beiber, One Direction, Nickleback etc.) I don't think it's a problem for mediocre art to be incredibly popular, especially in the case of books. Perhaps this is just me trying to be superior to both fans and haters (although I don't think that's the case).

I guess it's in the context of its impact that I read this book - I wasn't really thinking about the writing so much as thinking about why it had such a big impact. I think it's mainly a good combination of appealing values, and the appealing nature of the idea of having very cool/important latent talents. These books were so popular because they're engaging escapism stories, and because I think most people would find at least one of the three main characters very easy to relate to (if not all three).

I note, incidentally, that there was a topic on modified years ago, I guess after I'd read this (and the third one, which I have a better memory of reading before), where I rubbished the series (probably accurately, but perhaps also unfairly), and made a prediction about the end of the series. My memory of the prediction is that it was very close to the actual end of the series, but if that topic still exists and anybody can find it, I'd love to read it and be vindicated or humiliated (I've tried but couldn't find it).

I plan on reading the whole series in order over time (including re-reading book 3), but with other books in between.

@DP - I've just started reading Cloud Atlas (because of your review last year). JK Rowling to David Mitchell is a serious juxtaposition in styles.

[dp]

I get nervous when anyone says they are doing anything on my recommendation, and I feel the stakes are especially high because I have such high regard for Cloud Atlas.

My fingers are crossed that I didn't lead you in a bad direction.

[Jeremy]

Well my Kindle says I'm only 2% in, but thoroughly enjoying it so far. Funny too, and Tasmania already has a mention. Have had to look up a few words, but I don't mind that.

[Zac Miley]

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

Calvino was for a class. I thought it was quite good, an interesting format.

[dp]

58. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s by Donald Worster 290pg

For a class. The book was kinda meh. The class, however, is fantastic.

59. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry 377pg

I had never heard of this book or author until just a few days ago. D.T. Max, the author of the David Foster Wallace biography I read, is also a staff writer at the New Yorker and I was looking through the archives seeing what stuff he's written for the magazine and I saw this piece on Malcolm Lowry. A quick google search told me that Under the Volcano is one of those books that's at the top of literary lists of great books (I can't imagine who makes these decisions and how they do it) and so I checked it out and read it. I'm not sure I can comment on the book. There was a lot going on at all times and was overall a somewhat difficult read (but also one I didn't have trouble motivating myself to finish, if this says anything). Lowry was hailed as the next Joyce, although I find Lowry much easier to read, (although in terms of Joyce I've only read Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man).

I will say this, Lowry was a hopeless dipsomaniac who, among many other things, once tried to guillotine his wife, drank a bottle of olive oil because he thought it was hair tonic( trying to get drunk), had an unusually poorly endowed manhood, and was, perhaps, murdered by his wife. Oh, and also, people regard Under the Volcano as very autobiographical... so, yes, that's all I'll say.

[Jeremy]

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]

I enjoyed this a lot, and may read some more by David Mitchell at a later date. I think the writing was excellent, and the plot structure very clever, and worked well. However it's also a very ideological book, and I disagree with the ideology - of course I agree with the sentiments, as I'm sure everybody would, but I disagree with the premise about capitalism, technology and the human condition. People who are part of the "Occupy" movements would love this book, but the data of the world contradicts them (the relative income disparity between the richest 20% and poorest 20% is getting better not worse - if we can keep that trend going, within a few generations the gap will be negligible. Standards of living in almost every country in the world are improving. Environmental destruction and pollution is decreasing. etc. Thomas Smith has surely been proved correct. Consumers and producers influence each other - it's not a one way relationship. Our societies today are the freest, richest, healthiest and safest or any society at any time (including, indeed especially, indigenous societies). The human condition is not the strong eating the weak, it's the better our lives get, the more we whinge). Anyway /rant. It's a gripping series of loosely but cleverly interconnected stories, and definitely worth a read, although it's inspired me to get round to reading Steven Pinker's new book next:The Better Angels of Our Nature.

[dp]

60. The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro 340pg

This is a series of 8 short stories with female narrators/main characters living in Canada. If I'm not mistaken all of Munro's work is in short story form. Anyways, this book had the most well-written, believable, human female characters I've ever encountered in a book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it just goes to show that I need to read more female authors.

Jeremy- I'm glad you enjoyed Cloud Atlas! I plan to respond to your post in a day or two when I have a moment.

[bigdirtyfoot]

30. Machine Elves 101 (Or, Why Terence McKenna Matters), Daniel Moler, 45 pg.

This is a strong overview and resource list for all things Terence McKenna. I have read most of McKenna's books and listened to hundreds of hours of audio/video of his lectures, so I felt like a lot of the material was redundant for me. But this is a great introduction for someone new to McKenna. I have shared it with a few of my friends because they could use more McKenna in their lives. In addition, this is the first Reality Sandwich Single, and as of right now can be purchased from this link. I am a big supporter of Reality Sandwich and the Evolver.net movement so I encourage you to check them out!

31. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, J.D. Salinger, 213 pg.

This book concludes my reading of J.D. Salinger's works. I enjoyed it, although I didn't find it to be as strong of an effort as his other books. There are actually two novellas in this book. Both of them are written from the first-person perspective of Buddy Glass. The Glass family is common in Salinger's works. The first, "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" is a tale about the wedding of the eldest Glass sibling, Seymour. Buddy tells it from his viewpoint, in which the wedding is cancelled at the last minute and he ends up with members of the bride's party and eventually invites them back to his home only to find out that Seymour and his bride had eloped. This story is pretty interesting and well-written. The second novella is "Seymour: An Introduction" and I didn't like it so much. However, it is a great character piece, once again written from Buddy's perspective. He describes his older brother Seymour in full detail, but I never felt that grabbed by the text. Either way, Salinger is a great writer, so a Salinger book is still going to be better than the majority of books out there. I'd say give this one a read, but only if you've read the other books by Salinger first.

[Zac Miley]

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

I might actually get to 50 this year. That'd be neat. Currently in the middle of a few books, and I have a few others (TS Eliot, Steppenwolf, Great Gatsby) set aside for winter break.

I suggest everyone read The Little Prince if you haven't - it's a children's book, but very good. I read it a few times for a class, and had to write a small essay on it.

[bigdirtyfoot]

32. Why I Am Not Enlightened, Eliezer Sobel, 45 pg.

This Reality Sandwich single follows the story of its author, Eliezer Sobel, on his lifelong quest to achieve enlightenment. Or at least to explore it. Sobel takes us on an entertaining journey - his 30 years of study with teachers, gurus, shamans, healers, channelers, yogis, etc. Although he feels that he never achieved enlightenment, he stresses that he did make an effort.

I found the story to be fairly uplifting and funny. I have had many similar experiences, and therefore can relate to the author's story. The question I came away from this book with is, "What exactly is enlightenment and why have to been striving for it?" This book doesn't have any answers, just more questions. And in a way, that makes it even more enjoyable.

[Jeremy]

Isn't Terrence McKenna the time wave zero guy? I assume you don't think anything significant will happen on December 21?

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

Short review from my phone. Really good book. Both amusing and well crafted. Recommended reading.

[Jeremy]

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]

Oops, finished this a few weeks ago. I got really bored with the simplistic and stereotyped characters. Also Harry being so amazing is also boring. I don't know if I'll make it to the end of the series.

[Jeremy]

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

Mainly interesting but much longer than necessary and full of needless bits (like hearing about the different ways Note would go on tilt playing online poker). Could have been much more polished. Also many chapters offer no meaningful insights (such as the climate change chapter, which merely recounts the science, as found in any text book). Still the general thesis is good - numbers are the best method for making predictions - and I was also interested in the arguments for Bayesian stats. Worth a read if you care about trying to determine what is true, although I'm sure if you care about trying to determine truth you'll already know much of this.

[Zac Miley]

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

Danny, Louise Erdrich is a female author for you if you're still interested in that. I've only read 'Love Medicine', but she recently won the National Book Award for 'The Round House'. From what I've gathered, you're interested in American History, and she has an interesting Native American perspective on that - Love Medicine is about a Native American family in particular. I think most of her books are.