The 50 Book Challenge 2009

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 27 Feb 2009 02:31

1. "Oh, Romeo" by Merete Pryds Helle (126 pages)
2. "I sammenbrudets tjeneste" which means "In the service of the breakdown" by Das Beckwerk and Mikkel Bolt (237 pages)
3. "Mr. Vertigo" by Paul Auster (313 pages)
This was a good read. The story was moving and inspirering. I like his characters and subject matters(I have also read The New York Trilogy).

What do you all think about Paul Auster?

bigdirtyfoot · Post by **bigdirtyfoot** » 27 Feb 2009 18:38

1. God is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens, 307 pg.
2. Great American Hypocrites, Glenn Greenwald, 290 pg.
3. The Monster of Florence, Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi, 322 pg.
4. Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age, editors Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan, 351 pg.
5. Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence, Mitch Earleywine, 328 pg.
6. Another Roadside Attraction, Tom Robbins, 337 pg.
7. Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick, 352 pg.
8. PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story, Alexander and Ann Shulgin, 978 pg.
9. Desolation Angels, Jack Kerouac, 409 pg.
10. The Wheel of time, Carlos Castaneda, 209 pg.
11. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, Daniel Pinchbeck, 411 pg.

Pinchbeck gathers a wide variety of information. His main subjects include crop circles, Mayan prophecies, psychedelic drug-induced visions, modern uses of technology and philosophical concepts from Jung and Nietzsche. Unfortunately, as was the case with his previous book, Breaking Open the Head, Pinchbeck stretches himself too thin. Lacking a specific direction or focus, he attempts to explore every nook and cranny of the 2012 phenomenon, often losing sight of his original intentions mid-sentence. Worse, he occasionally leaves several stones unturned and moves onto something else. Yet, other than the stylistic problems that Iâ€™ve grown accustomed to with Pinchbeckâ€™s writing, there is some very useful and timely information to be found here. Overall, I think this is a must-read, especially for those interested in the concept of consciousness transformation in 2012. You can find my full review here.

daLai · Post by **daLai** » 01 Mar 2009 10:10

1. Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart 197p.
2. Saul Bellow - The Adventures Of Augie March 536p.
3. Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep 220p.
4. Joseph Heller - Catch-22 519p.
5. Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons - Watchmen 436p.
6. Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go 282p.

mirra · Post by **mirra** » 01 Mar 2009 13:10

1. Septuagenarian Stew by Charles Bukowski
2. Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness by Charles Bukowski
3. Mockingbird Wish Me Luck by Charles Bukowski
4. South Of No North by Charles Bukowski
5. The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills by Charles Bukowski
6. Notes Of A Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
7. Book Of Dreams by Jack Kerouac
8. Selected Poems by Malcolm Lowry

bigdirtyfoot · Post by **bigdirtyfoot** » 02 Mar 2009 19:51

1. God is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens, 307 pg.
2. Great American Hypocrites, Glenn Greenwald, 290 pg.
3. The Monster of Florence, Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi, 322 pg.
4. Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age, editors Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan, 351 pg.
5. Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence, Mitch Earleywine, 328 pg.
6. Another Roadside Attraction, Tom Robbins, 337 pg.
7. Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick, 352 pg.
8. PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story, Alexander and Ann Shulgin, 978 pg.
9. Desolation Angels, Jack Kerouac, 409 pg.
10. The Wheel of time, Carlos Castaneda, 209 pg.
11. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, Daniel Pinchbeck, 411 pg.
12. Wizard's First Rule, Terry Goodkind, 820 pg.

This is the first book in Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. Richard Cypher, the protagonist, lives in a fairly peaceful world with his elderly pal Zedd, who is known as a cloud reader. Along comes Kahlan, a beautiful girl from beyond what is known as â€œthe boundary,â€

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 03 Mar 2009 15:53

Dude you smashed that book! 800 pages in 3 days is a good effort. I'm currently reading The Great War For Civilisation by Robert Frisk which is 1200 pages and I'm at about 160. Rather daunting. I might fall behind the rate to get to 50 this month. It's good though, and I'm planning on doing some serious reading over the weekend.

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 03 Mar 2009 22:14

1. "Oh, Romeo" by Merete Pryds Helle (126 pages)
2. "I sammenbrudets tjeneste" which means "In the service of the breakdown" by Das Beckwerk and Mikkel Bolt (237 pages)
3. "Mr. Vertigo" by Paul Auster (313 pages)
4. "After Dark" by Haruki Murakami (217 pages)

bigdirtyfoot · Post by **bigdirtyfoot** » 04 Mar 2009 19:40

Jeremy wrote:Dude you smashed that book! 800 pages in 3 days is a good effort.

I wish I could say I read it in 3 days. However, I'm still in the process of finishing books I started in 2008. I actually started that one in August, I think - an ex-coworker let me borrow it. And I'm almost done with the Paradiso part of Dante's Divine Comedy so that'll be the last one from 2008 (although I think I started in 2007 actually) that I need to finish.

But I *did* read the last 500 pages in two days, so I guess that's worth something.

Rishell · Post by **Rishell** » 05 Mar 2009 04:39

1. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer 498 pages
2. New Moon by Stephanie Meyer 563 pages
3. Go Ask Alice Anonymous 228 pages
4. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 328 pages
5. Choke by Chuck Palahniuk 293 pages
6. Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik 218 pages
7. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey 430 pages
8. Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews 411 pages

I liked it!

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 05 Mar 2009 07:55

You never finished Twilight??? It gets better than New Moon, honest!

mtoolan · Post by **mtoolan** » 05 Mar 2009 11:02

1. Earth: The Sequel by Fred Krupp 252pgs
2. A Separate Peace by John Knowles 196pgs
3. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells 150pgs
4. The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells 140pgs
5. Rebel Giants by David R. Contosta 330pgs

Great read, it's about how Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day and it covers their life stories with emphasis on correlations between events in their lives. Being brought up in a pretty strict Catholic family I got this book so I could get some other view on Darwin other than him being an agent of the devil, but I also learned a lot about Lincoln, very interesting stuff.

Rishell · Post by **Rishell** » 05 Mar 2009 14:13

Oh I know it gets better!! I have the whole series... I just dont want it to end so I am waiting a bit and reading some books in between. I think I will finish the series to Flowers in the Attic and then read Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.

bigdirtyfoot · Post by **bigdirtyfoot** » 07 Mar 2009 21:44

1. God is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens, 307 pg.
2. Great American Hypocrites, Glenn Greenwald, 290 pg.
3. The Monster of Florence, Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi, 322 pg.
4. Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age, editors Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan, 351 pg.
5. Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence, Mitch Earleywine, 328 pg.
6. Another Roadside Attraction, Tom Robbins, 337 pg.
7. Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick, 352 pg.
8. PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story, Alexander and Ann Shulgin, 978 pg.
9. Desolation Angels, Jack Kerouac, 409 pg.
10. The Wheel of time, Carlos Castaneda, 209 pg.
11. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, Daniel Pinchbeck, 411 pg.
12. Wizard's First Rule, Terry Goodkind, 820 pg.
13. Buddhism: Plain and Simple, Steve Hagen, 159 pg.

This book also falls into the must-read category, in my opinion. I have read quite a few books on the subject, but this one is unique. Hagen effectively describes Buddhist concepts, focusing more on real-world application than definitions. This makes the book easy to understand and relatable. You can find my full review here.

bigdirtyfoot · Post by **bigdirtyfoot** » 08 Mar 2009 12:58

1. God is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens, 307 pg.
2. Great American Hypocrites, Glenn Greenwald, 290 pg.
3. The Monster of Florence, Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi, 322 pg.
4. Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age, editors Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan, 351 pg.
5. Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence, Mitch Earleywine, 328 pg.
6. Another Roadside Attraction, Tom Robbins, 337 pg.
7. Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick, 352 pg.
8. PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story, Alexander and Ann Shulgin, 978 pg.
9. Desolation Angels, Jack Kerouac, 409 pg.
10. The Wheel of time, Carlos Castaneda, 209 pg.
11. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, Daniel Pinchbeck, 411 pg.
12. Wizard's First Rule, Terry Goodkind, 820 pg.
13. Buddhism: Plain and Simple, Steve Hagen, 159 pg.
14. The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri, 798 pg.

I've been working on this book since early 2007, and finally finished it. Almost caught up on my reading now... this was a pretty big one for me. You can read my full review here.

daLai · Post by **daLai** » 08 Mar 2009 15:58

800 pages of Dante !?
I've read the first two parts of the Divine Comedy and that's been about 260 pages....

Do you own a commented copy or do I have a shortened version?

bigdirtyfoot · Post by **bigdirtyfoot** » 08 Mar 2009 18:18

I own a commented edition - the Everyman's Library edition. The book took me two years to read - I read each Canto twice. The first time I would read it straight through, and then I would read the Notes section for that Canto and highlight/transcribe notes into the actual Canto. Then I would re-read the Canto to give me a better idea of what it was trying to tell me the first time. And I finally finished!

daLai · Post by **daLai** » 09 Mar 2009 05:58

That'a good method. Did you read it in English ? I suppose you did, because in Italian...that has to be pretty hard ^^
I think I'll finish it this year, too, but you're right...you have to read each canto twice with notes and stuff to really get the meaning...I've read it in German and that is also pretty hard to understand for me. Nice read and great work of language...but very challenging.

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 09 Mar 2009 07:09

1. "Oh, Romeo" by Merete Pryds Helle (126 pages)
2. "I sammenbrudets tjeneste" which means "In the service of the breakdown" by Das Beckwerk and Mikkel Bolt (237 pages)
3. "Mr. Vertigo" by Paul Auster (313 pages)
4. "After Dark" by Haruki Murakami (217 pages)
5. "Kunsterns KÃ¸tere" which means "Bastards of Art" by Ole Lindboe (97 pages)

mirra · Post by **mirra** » 09 Mar 2009 09:36

1. Septuagenarian Stew by Charles Bukowski
2. Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness by Charles Bukowski
3. Mockingbird Wish Me Luck by Charles Bukowski
4. South Of No North by Charles Bukowski
5. The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills by Charles Bukowski
6. Notes Of A Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
7. Book Of Dreams by Jack Kerouac
8. Selected Poems by Malcolm Lowry
9. Love Is A Dog From Hell by Charles Bukowski

Cod · Post by **Cod** » 10 Mar 2009 16:14

1. Duma Key, Stephen King, 638pgs
2. The Death List, Paul Johnston, 416pgs
3. L'empire Des Loups, Jean-Christophe Grange, 464pgs
4. La Sombra del Viento, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 516pgs
5. Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Jeff Lindsay, 222pgs
6. Dearly Devoted Dexter, Jeff Lindsay, 207pgs

Two new books. I'ma a big fan of "Dexter" TV series so I decided to read novels it was based on. Both books were good read. The first one was very similar to the first season of "Dexter" and the second one was totally different story. Maybe that's why I liked the second one more. In the books Dexter is a little bit different than in the TV show, in my opinion. He's more "darkly". Also, some other characters are totally different (ex. La Guerta) and few of TV show's super cool characters are barely mentioned in books (Batista).