The 50 Book Challenge 2010

Post by **Zac Miley** » 01 Jan 2010 10:48

So in case people don't know the story, the goal is to read 50 books for the year, slightly less than one a week. Each book you read you post up here with a quick review (if you like) and preferably the page number to keep us honest. You don't have to get to 50 and you can keep going past 50 if you like too.

I purposefully left one story left in this book so I could start 2010 off right:

1. Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders.

Most of the stories were good, but there were a few with odd quirks. Saunders is a great short story writer, for sure, though.

dp · Post by dp » 02 Jan 2010 16:42

50 books here I come!

1. One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey by Sam Keith 222pg

A book, written in journal form, about this guy who goes into the wilderness of Alaska after retiring and lives there by himself for a year. It talks a lot about his everyday chores and stuff, but it's really interesting and shows what it takes to go off and build your own little cabin and live in the wilderness. It has some amazing photos in it to. It doesn't want to make me go live in the wilderness or anything, but the way he talked about his cabin and the care he put into constructing it made me want to create something I could step back and be proud of.

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 03 Jan 2010 16:07

Last year I got to 12 books. My goal this year is to read more than that and to write longer reviews of the books. If the book is by Danish authors or authors I feel like writing about, I am gonna write some about them aswell.

1. JÃ¸rgen Leth & Morten Sabroe- "That's why they fuck so much in this country" (333 pages)

This book is basicly an e-mail correspondence between the two Danish authors and journalists JÃ¸rgen Leth and Morten Sabroe.
Sabroe is from 1947 and known for his journalist style which consists of a lot of personal feelings and knowledge on the subject. His own books also almost always contain autobiographical elements.
JÃ¸rgen Leth was born in 1937. He is a Danish author, poet, journalist, cycling commentator and filmmaker. He used to be the honorary consul of Denmark on Haiti but that was taken away from him when he published his autobiography â€œThe Imperfect Manâ€

daLai · Post by **daLai** » 04 Jan 2010 03:50

1. Lao She - Beneath the Red Banner 187p.

dp · Post by dp » 04 Jan 2010 19:38

1. One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey by Sam Keith 222pg
2. Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America by Theodora Kroeber 238pg

Ishi stumbled into a ranch in 1911 expecting to be killed. Two anthropologists heard about him, took him under their wing, taught him some English and let him take up residence in the museum they were affiliated with. This is an extremely personal and touching biography of the last wild native in North America by the wife of one of those two anthropologists. Written simply, but full of information and a tragic history. Great book.

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 07 Jan 2010 03:30

I think I want in this year - not for 50, but for however many. Not 50 especially since the next book I'm getting is 800 pages or so.
That book sounds cool Danny.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 08 Jan 2010 09:40

I'm in! I'm reading about 4 books right now (I'm terrible about starting and never finishing books), hope to finish them pretty soon and then on to MORE!

Anyways, I found this great article on improving your reading speed. It's an exercise you'll have to do for about 10 minutes a day for a few weeks, but once you do it can improve your reading speed (with the same level of comprehension) dramatically. I did this for the first time last night and my reading speed went from 418wpm to 869wpm!

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/20 ... -learning/

Seriously check it out. FREE and well worth 10-20 minutes of your time!

gMoney · Post by **gMoney** » 09 Jan 2010 01:20

I just started reading more ever since I've been bored with everything else there is that comes to mind when I'm bored. I've already read two books this year anyway, so I might as well do this. I might not make 50, because I've only read less than a handful of books outside of school and stuff, but I'll try.

1. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery 113 pages.

I got this book in like 5th grade from my teacher, who gave us all the book when we were done with 5th grade because some teacher in some book did that or something. And my sister had another copy because its a french book and she ended up becoming a french major or something. So I had two copies of this book. And I figured that since I had only read part of it, I'd read it again. Its kind of a children's story about a boy who lives on a little planet and decides to leave home, so he travels to many other planets inhabited by strange adults who do things that don't make sense to the boy, like drinking to forget the shame that comes from drinking, and counting stars to make money to buy more stars, and ordering people to do what they decide to do anyway and such. He eventually stumbles onto Earth, and learns shit or something important. It makes a couple good statements about life, and it was short, so it was worth the read.

2. Animal Farm by George Orwell 141 pages.

Another book that I started awhile ago but never finished. Actually, the entire english class I was in didn't finish the book. It took me about three days to read by myself, but it took like a month to read like 4 chapters in school. Ridiculous. Anyway, I'm sure everyone knows about animal farm, but for those who don't, animals find human oppression unjust, and overthrow a farmer and all animals live happily ever after, until the pigs gain too much power and things start to go wrong.

dun dun dun

I've heard about the story of Ishi, Danny. It sounds pretty interesting. The focus of my english class last semester was primarily Native American stuffs, and we saw a short video about Ishi during one of the days when the professor didn't have anything else to teach us. I never learned about everything that happened to him after he was found, but I'll definitely add that book to my list of stuff to read.

LauriA · Post by **LauriA** » 09 Jan 2010 02:43

1. Sophie's World (Sofies verden) by Jostein Gaarder, 437 pages

Good summary of the history of western philosophy. I liked it.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 09 Jan 2010 06:51

Iron Clad Ben wrote:I'm in! I'm reading about 4 books right now (I'm terrible about starting and never finishing books), hope to finish them pretty soon and then on to MORE!

Anyways, I found this great article on improving your reading speed. It's an exercise you'll have to do for about 10 minutes a day for a few weeks, but once you do it can improve your reading speed (with the same level of comprehension) dramatically. I did this for the first time last night and my reading speed went from 418wpm to 869wpm!

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/20 ... -learning/

Seriously check it out. FREE and well worth 10-20 minutes of your time!

Have you thought about getting a job writing text for spambots? I think you'd be really good at it...

daLai · Post by **daLai** » 09 Jan 2010 06:52

Has anybody here read Infinite Jest by David F. Wallace yet ? It sounds pretty interesting, but I'm not sure what to make of the information on the back and it is 980 pages thick...Can anyone recommend this book ?

dp · Post by dp » 09 Jan 2010 08:00

I'm going to read Infinite Jest two or three books from now! My copy is more like 1100 pages I think.

David Foster Wallace is a genius. My older brother who is a big influence in a lot of the stuff I read says it is by far his favorite book he's ever read. I read a collection of essays by him last year (A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again) and was blown away. I absolutely can not wait to get to Infinite Jest. If you're worried about the commitment though I'd definitely recommend the series of essays I read, but, and I feel this is kind of important, I'd highly suggest reading the final and longest essay of the book first because it is absolute gold.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 09 Jan 2010 11:18

Jeremy wrote:
Iron Clad Ben wrote:I'm in! I'm reading about 4 books right now (I'm terrible about starting and never finishing books), hope to finish them pretty soon and then on to MORE!

Anyways, I found this great article on improving your reading speed. It's an exercise you'll have to do for about 10 minutes a day for a few weeks, but once you do it can improve your reading speed (with the same level of comprehension) dramatically. I did this for the first time last night and my reading speed went from 418wpm to 869wpm!

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/20 ... -learning/

Seriously check it out. FREE and well worth 10-20 minutes of your time!

Have you thought about getting a job writing text for spambots? I think you'd be really good at it...

Yeah I hear there's good money in it. Especially penis enlargement pills and "how to get laid" ebooks. But no, I just wanted people to try it. So try it or don't try it, up to you.

mtoolan · Post by **mtoolan** » 10 Jan 2010 11:32

1. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn 263 pages

To be honest I don't even know where to begin in a description of this book. I'm still pretty dazed from all of the things it has hit me with and I will be pondering this one for a long time. But without a doubt it is an amazing book and I strongly suggest it to everybody. Hopefully next time I post I'll be able to give some sort of detail for people to go on but for now I'll let you go into it as I did, knowing nothing about it.

mtoolan · Post by **mtoolan** » 10 Jan 2010 12:47

1. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn 263 pages
2. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 131 pages

I had started this a little while ago after seeing the Sherlock Holmes movie(which was much better than I had anticipated) and just finished it up after finishing Ishmael. It's definitely entertaining and I'm glad the movie changed the view I had of Holmes and his adventures in my mind.

bigdirtyfoot · Post by **bigdirtyfoot** » 10 Jan 2010 16:16

LauriA wrote:1. Sophie's World (Sofies verden) by Jostein Gaarder, 437 pages

Good summary of the history of western philosophy. I liked it.

I read this a year or two ago and found it pretty interesting. It's definitely a good history, but some of the writing/plot got on my nerves. I'm glad to find someone else who's read it and liked it.

And I've been hearing a lot about Infinite Jest recently as well... I wonder if I should try to tackle it this year? I've got so many books that are 600+ pages on my list already. I guess I'll just have to see.

dp · Post by dp » 10 Jan 2010 17:21

1. One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey by Sam Keith 222pg
2. Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America by Theodora Kroeber 238pg
3. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown 449pg

A History of the plains Indians from 1860-90. Focuses almost exclusively on the ones who fought back. One of the most depressing books I've ever read. It makes me feel great shame towards the US.

bigdirtyfoot · Post by **bigdirtyfoot** » 11 Jan 2010 10:38

1. The Great Shark Hunt: Gonzo Papers, Volume 1, Hunter S. Thompson, 602 pg.

This is the seventh book that I have read by Thompson, and it is one of the best. There is so much in here! The span of time this covers is from 1962 to 1978. Everything from Jimmy Carter to Muhammed Ali, Haight-Ashbury to Peru, shark hunting to the Kentucky Derby, is included in this tome. If you haven't checked it out before, you probably should. You can read my review of it here.

Runkstafari · Post by **Runkstafari** » 11 Jan 2010 11:26

I'm liking the challenge! already on three books! the first one.

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk (around 250-260pgs). Just like all other Palahniuks books, amazing. about an artist who grew up in a small trailer park in Oklahoma and would paint pictures of these beautiful landscapes and houses. then she goes to art school and meets this boy that says he has seen her art before (her houses and landscapes) and he knocks her up and basically forces (but not really forces) her to move to his home island (waytensea island). and then this huge plot unfolds with a bunch of crazy shit that would ruin it if i said anything more.

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk (around 260pgs). As the back cover reads, more twists than a stack of pretzels and more turns than an octagon. This one is about a Journalist who gets on this assignment about SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). As he is reporting he finds something unusual at all the cases, a library book checked out and is always open to pg. 27. And with that once again a massive plot unfolds and all this crazy shit happens that I cant say or else it would ruin the book.

Border Songs by Jim Lynch (291 pgs). This book I bought because the cover art I wanted hanging on my wall, I didn't think it was going to be a great book until I read it. It's about a 30 mile stretch of the B.C. border and U.S. Border in Washington State. Brandon Vanderkool gets kicked off his dads farm in Washington (not kicked off but his dad doesnt want him working for him, he still lives there though) and gets a job for the Border Patrol. Which is great for him because he is an avid bird watcher (as is me) and he knows every song of all the birds there so he loves his job because he just patrols and listens to birds. But because of his bird watching he's always in these quarky places that no one would normally check so he gets into a lot of crazy things with marijuana smugglers. Lots of interesting comments in this book from a character "Wayne Rousseau". To which you find out nearly right away that Brandon is in love with Waynes daughter but has a very hard time telling peoples emotions and is severely dyslexic so he was never good at talking to people (he was home schooled his last 3 years of high school).

I would suggest reading all three of these books, they all are very worth while and pretty easy reads (I read 1 of them every two days for 6 days).

h0ag3yb3atZ · Post by **h0ag3yb3atZ** » 12 Jan 2010 18:33

I'm down for the challenge. Already got two down in the new year.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas- Hunter S. Thompson
A Confederacy Of Dunces-John Kennedy Toole