The 2013 Book Challenge

[dp]

1. A Life of Picasso: 1907-1917 by John Richardson 500pg
2. A Life of Picasso: 1917-1932 by John Richardson 592pg
3. Vertigo by W.G. Sebald 263pg
4. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson 116pg
5. Pastoralia by George Saunders 188pg
6. Campo Santo by W.G. Sebald 221pg
7. The Success and Failure of Picasso by John Berger 210pg
8. CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders 179pg
9. Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald 298pg
10. Quick Studies: The Best of Lingua Franca edited by Alexander Star 512pg
11. The Man of Feeling by Javier Marias 182pg
12. How Fiction Works by James Wood 265pg
13. Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner 181pg
14. The Unknown Matisse: The Early Years 1869-1908 by Hilary Spurling 480pg
15. Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard 208pg
16. On the Natural History of Destruction by W.G. Sebald 202pg
17. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse 286pg
18. At the Mind’s Limits by Jean Amery 111pg
19. Mating by Norman Rush 480pg
20. The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald 296pg
21. 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe by Mary Elise Sarotte 321pg
22. Whites by Norman Rush 150pg
23. The Art of Making Magazines edited by Victor Navasky and Evan Cornog 179pg
24. Mortals by Norman Rush 715pg


This was not quite as good as his first novel, Mating, but still worth reading. He has a third book coming out soonish I think, this time not taking place in Botswana, and I'm very excited for it.

I was considering some big ole Russian book to bring with me to Croatia. I think I may be leaning towards some big collection of Chekhov.

[dp]

1. A Life of Picasso: 1907-1917 by John Richardson 500pg
2. A Life of Picasso: 1917-1932 by John Richardson 592pg
3. Vertigo by W.G. Sebald 263pg
4. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson 116pg
5. Pastoralia by George Saunders 188pg
6. Campo Santo by W.G. Sebald 221pg
7. The Success and Failure of Picasso by John Berger 210pg
8. CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders 179pg
9. Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald 298pg
10. Quick Studies: The Best of Lingua Franca edited by Alexander Star 512pg
11. The Man of Feeling by Javier Marias 182pg
12. How Fiction Works by James Wood 265pg
13. Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner 181pg
14. The Unknown Matisse: The Early Years 1869-1908 by Hilary Spurling 480pg
15. Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard 208pg
16. On the Natural History of Destruction by W.G. Sebald 202pg
17. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse 286pg
18. At the Mind’s Limits by Jean Amery 111pg
19. Mating by Norman Rush 480pg
20. The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald 296pg
21. 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe by Mary Elise Sarotte 321pg
22. Whites by Norman Rush 150pg
23. The Art of Making Magazines edited by Victor Navasky and Evan Cornog 179pg
24. Mortals by Norman Rush 715pg
25. Open City by Teju Cole 259pg

I read this last year. Since then I've become very interested in Teju Cole and have read everything I can online by him. I enjoyed the reread, but sadly I think I enjoyed the second reading about as much as the first, and I had been anticipating liking it a whole lot more the second time.

I highly highly highly recommend you read his seven short stories about drones (each the length of a tweet).

http://storify.com/joshbegley/teju-cole ... out-drones

[Pasquar]

1) The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West 203 pg.
2) Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez 346 pg.
3) Whole Self/Whole World: Quality of Life in the 21st Century by Eric Gerinke 119 pg.
4) Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by Cornel West 219 pg.
5) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman 245 pg.
6) The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson 189 pg.
7) The White Man's Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in America by Winthrop Jordan 229 pg.
8 ) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass 99pg
9) La Raza: The Mexican Americans by Stan Steiner 392 pg
10) Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters 256 pg.
11) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig 406pg.

Mixed feelings. It (barely) had a plot, which was a nice break for me, because I generally read straight non-fiction. Having said this, I kind of wish there was more of a plot. It delves deep into the "Metaphysics of Quality" and I honestly find this book really hard to explain. People were asking me about it throughout the time I was reading and I really couldn't describe it. I definitely took away some things from this book, but it had it's down sides. At times, it just went into straight up philosophical language and jargon I don't really care for. Bringing Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Poincare, etc into the mix made it kind of hard to get through at times.

Having said that, I can say that I definitely felt I had to finish this book when I started it. I usually read 2-3 books at a time, but I pretty much couldn't put this book down or read another book until I finished it, I felt a real draw to it which I hadn't felt in a little while.

[Jeremy]

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]

A quick read to break up the monotony of the other book I've been struggling on for the last couple of months . Ender's Game seems to have a large cult following, which is why I read it, but I found it very silly and unbelievable, and wasn't very impressed. It's basically just a child fantasy about being amazing and saving the world. Philip K Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (the basis of the movie and remake - Total Recall) is an amusing version of this genre that I was reminded of.

There are many weaknesses in the plot, but the thing that got the most is that when the government decided to risk the existence of humanity on the abilities of children they not only didn't have any offered reason to think it would work, but the previous military strategist capable of defeating the "buggers" had been an adult. I guess you can create a paradox from that though - if they were so stupid as to bet the existence of humanity on non-existent children (at the time the decision was made), then maybe children would be more intelligent than them.

The other thing that really annoyed me is how serious and stressful the children found the game, which is essentially laser tag in zero gravity. That isn't stressful, and when you consider that the lack of immediate incentives and the ages of the children, their behaviour becomes unbelievable, especially when you find out how short the battles are actually lasting for.

Anyway it was a good break from Solzhenitsyn, where I'm finally on the home straight.

[Pasquar]

1) The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West 203 pg.
2) Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez 346 pg.
3) Whole Self/Whole World: Quality of Life in the 21st Century by Eric Gerinke 119 pg.
4) Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by Cornel West 219 pg.
5) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman 245 pg.
6) The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson 189 pg.
7) The White Man's Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in America by Winthrop Jordan 229 pg.
8 ) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass 99pg
9) La Raza: The Mexican Americans by Stan Steiner 392 pg
10) Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters 256 pg.
11) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig 406pg.
12) Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins 265pg.

"... if you bomb a city and then rebuild it, the data shows a huge spike in economic growth"

This book was a tell-all of an actual 'Economic Hit Man' (EHM) whose job was to produce economic reports for third-world companies that would justify them taking out massive loans from the World Bank and IMF, which they would never be able to repay, and make them subject to the United State's imperial empire. The company he worked for (MAIN, which doesn't exist anymore) was an electric company which sought to talk countries into investing in massive infrastructure projects. His jobs was to fudge economic data and statistics to encourage them to use U.S. companies, like MAIN, to do the job.

John Perkins is just one of MANY EHMs and there are many more today then when we was active (late 60s-early 80s). They represent oil, energy, and weapons companies like MAIN, Bechtel, Halliburton, Texaco, etc. His job took him to Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, and Panama. He tells about what he did in each country and also provides commentary for what has happened in the years since he left his job as an EHM such as 9/11, our warsd with Afganistan and Iraq, the rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and the return of the Panama Canal to U.S. control.

The book in actuality is short and easy to read, but now that I'm summarizing it, I realize that he really covered a lot of ground! I definitely suggest it to anyone not familiar with U.S. imperialism historically.

I do have my issues with in simply in how Perkins tries to relate his own story to justify what he did. He talked throughout the whole book about how he felt guilty about what he was doing, but he kept receiving perks and raises, so he just kept on going. He spoke of his education at a prep school in New Hampshire as something he had to vilify, which angered me to read. He seemed to be completely blind to his privilege until he finally decided to publish this book.

Overall, the historical content from his perspective is something that should be read!

[bigdirtyfoot]

9. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke, 218 pg.

Alien overlords peacefully invade Earth to end all war, helping to unite a world government and create a near utopia. Clarke does a really great job of fleshing out the plot of this book, with quirky sequences like the Ouija board night, a young boy's surreal dreamscapes, and the end of the world as we know it. I wasn't completely sold on the characters, but I suppose this book wasn't supposed to be very character-focused. Overall I did enjoy it, although it wasn't the quickest read for me. Maybe I have a lot going on in my life right now, or perhaps the book just didn't draw me in as well as other books have in the past. "Childhood's End" is still an amazing science fiction book, and I would recommend it to sci-fi fans.

Yet again, this year my life is getting in the way of my reading goals. Not really that big of an issue - life is going well. I would just like to have read more so far this year!

[Jeremy]

12) Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins 265pg.

When you read books like this, that make such significant conspiracy theory claims, do you do any research to check whether they're true? A lot of people view this book as fraudulent, and many of the claims as not only false, but very easy to prove that they're false. It sounds like you believe it. Is that because you haven't looked at the criticisms, or because you looked at them and didn't find them convincing?

@David Damn Life! One of the things I'm looking forward to about having a child is being able to add hundreds of children's books to my list, or if my niece is anything to go by, the same book over and over

[Jeremy]

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]
9. The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570pp

Finally finished. I think this took me 2 months to read . There's no doubting that it's a brilliant book, and by far the best book I've read this year. The depth and subtly is something that seems so rare and impressive, and I found all the characters impressively crafted, complex, and relatable. There's symbolism everywhere you look, and at a different scales with in the story. Obviously the story is largely about the oppression and injustice of the Soviet regime, and it's a very sad and depressing book, often filled with hopelessness. I did find it quiet difficult to read, firstly because I found it hard to remember who the characters were, especially because most of them have real names and a nickname, and I found the Russian names hard to remember and often had to skip back to figure out who they were talking about. It was also difficult because it's not a book about things happening, but about the lives, discussions, and small moments of people sitting around in a cancer ward. It's very detailed and slow, and I found it hard to maintain a good attention span. I wouldn't say it got tedious, but it was certainly difficult to read a lot in one session. I feel like this is more of a negative reflection on me than on the book though. Despite it being difficult, and making getting to 50 this year particularly challenging, I'm also really glad I stuck with it and got through it. Expect me to read some relatively light stuff for a bit now though (and happier)

[Pasquar]

1) The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West 203 pg.
2) Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez 346 pg.
3) Whole Self/Whole World: Quality of Life in the 21st Century by Eric Gerinke 119 pg.
4) Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by Cornel West 219 pg.
5) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman 245 pg.
6) The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson 189 pg.
7) The White Man's Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in America by Winthrop Jordan 229 pg.
8 ) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass 99pg
9) La Raza: The Mexican Americans by Stan Steiner 392 pg
10) Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters 256 pg.
11) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig 406pg.
12) Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins 265pg.
13) Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 371pg.

Very good.

This is a pretty popular book and I've been meaning to get around to it. It's a work of fiction based around actual events in Afganistan like the Soviet intervention and subsequent 9 year war and turmoil afterwards with factions like the Taliban. The story itself was very interesting, based around Amir, the main character, who is a privileged Pashtun and his best friend Hassan, who is his Hazara servant. I definitely learned a bit about the region and customs/culture of Afganistan, what it was like before the Soviet intervention, and what it has become since. I like how the author continually used native language (Persian/Arabic) throughout the book.

I definitely recommend it!

[Jeremy]

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]
9. The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570pp
10. Sideshow; Dumbing down democracy by Lindsay Tanner - 202pp

Lindsay Tanner is a retired Australian politician who served for many years as a senior minister in the Labor Party, our equivalent of the Democrats. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which is about the change in the way politics is presented in the media, and indeed the way politicians present themselves to the media. As the subtitle suggests, it's about the focus on trivialities and superficialities instead of serious content, and the increased hyperbole and partisan attitudes. I did feel that he often supported his arguments with anecdote instead of meaningful evidence, and I think he was too generous to politicians and the public, at the expense of the media. I'd be more convinced by an argument that all three groups are to blame. The media gives the people what they want, this forces politicians to resort to PR and spin to get enough attention, the people see through this and become further disengaged etc. Anyway it's still very good, and I think goes a long way to explaining the lack of deep and reasoned analysis in politics, and the rise of emotion and outrage driven politics. I would say it's still worth reading for people outside of Australia, since the problem is international, and many of the examples and evidence cited is international.

[bigdirtyfoot]

10. A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor, 252 pg.

This is the second book by O'Connor that I have read, the first being "Wise Blood." I wasn't a huge fan of either book, although I liked this one a lot more. It is a collection of short stories that feature old-timey characters and events, which are often fairly upsetting and ghastly. Bottom line for me was that I feel like O'Connor makes a fine effort at writing in her own voice, which is unique and well-crafted, but that it's just not for me. She does an amazing job of describing the surroundings of a place or the inner dialogue that a character has, but I just wasn't really interested in what was happening in the stories.

[Jeremy]

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]
9. The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570pp
10. Sideshow; Dumbing down democracy by Lindsay Tanner - 202pp
11. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 345pp

I really enjoyed this. It was a bit unexpected. I'm a big fan of Pratchett and this is a rare foray into science fiction. It's a cool story, with smatterings of Pratchett humour, but a real focus on humanity and evolution. I thought it was very philosophical and thought provoking, but also very optimistic and positive. In a sense it reminded me a lot of Cloud Atlas - although very different too. That kind of optimism about humanity despite what adversity we may face. References to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance too. Spiritual in a humanistic sense.

[Jeremy]

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]
9. The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570pp
10. Sideshow; Dumbing down democracy by Lindsay Tanner - 202pp
11. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 345pp [ebook - google]
12. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott - 96pp

A cool idea, but I found this a little tedious, especially in the long descriptions of the misogynistic 2D society. Perhaps that's another reason why it's popular with engineers, mathematicians and physicists. Stephen Hawking ruined this concept anyway (with his description in Brief History of Time as to why 2D animals couldn't exist, although presumably a 2D animal that metabolised like a sponge does could).

[bigdirtyfoot]

11. Burning Chrome, William Gibson, 204 pg.

This is a brilliant science-fiction short story collection. All of the stories are written by William Gibson, with co-authors on three stories. I feel like this one ranks right up there with Neuromancer - the stories are captivating, mind-bending, and written in Gibson's unusual style. I always find myself being confused at the beginning of a story, only to have an "aha moment" about three-quarters of the way into it. It's at this point that everything seems to snap into place at once. He is truly a master at his craft, and this collection of stories was written before his novels, making it an inside look at how Gibson developed his writing style. There were two or three stories that didn't really grab me, but they weren't too bad to read. The rest of the stories really make up for it though! I'd highly suggest this to any fan of science-fiction.

[dp]

I read a book (or two?) before I left for Croatia that I didn't post here, and I have it written down at home, but I can't for the life of me remember what they are, but I'll log what I've read here so far and then put in the missing books when I return home.

I brought The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano and The Collected Stories of Jorge Luis Borges, although, I found out with delight that the city library here in Zadar has a big corner donated by the American State Department full of American books by American authors so I haven't touched the books I brought, which I'll save for when I'm traveling around Croatia without any access to libraries and stuff.

While it's been nice to have these books- I would have finished my two books I brought almost immediately and then been left with nothing to read- it's interesting to see that when a bookshelf full of fiction is limited to only American authors, it feels like more of an impoverished selection than I realized it would feel like. I guess I didn't realize to what an extent I rely on international literature.

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley 371pg
Herzog by Saul Bellow 371pg
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy 302pg
East of Eden by John Steinbeck 601pg
To The Lighthouse by Virgina Woolf 209pg

As far as I can tell, after 3 trips to the library, To the Lighthouse is the only book by a non-American writer in a bookshelf of perhaps 400-500 works of fiction. Maybe someone at the State Department just thought Virginia Woolf was American? Because EVERY other book is written by an American.

[Pasquar]

1) The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West 203 pg.
2) Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez 346 pg.
3) Whole Self/Whole World: Quality of Life in the 21st Century by Eric Gerinke 119 pg.
4) Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by Cornel West 219 pg.
5) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman 245 pg.
6) The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson 189 pg.
7) The White Man's Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in America by Winthrop Jordan 229 pg.
8 ) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass 99pg
9) La Raza: The Mexican Americans by Stan Steiner 392 pg
10) Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters 256 pg.
11) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig 406pg.
12) Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins 265pg.
13) Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 371pg.
14) Evidence of Things Not Seen by James Baldwin 125 pg.

This was an interesting book that came from a semi-investigative report on Wayne Williams, a black man who was convicted of killing 23-29 children in Atlanta between 1979-1981. It was much more of a refelction on race relations in th United States in general. Baldwin wove in and out of the murder trials and the details of that, but he talked much more about the issue of race in society. I thought it was interesting to read, though I didn't quite understand all of the connections he was making all of the time. I further don't really know, after reading, what Baldwin's opinion of the whole case was. He pretty much said he did not believe that Williams was the murderer, but tended to only highlight aspects of the case that supported that view (the makeup of the jury, limited 'fabric evidence', etc), but I'd say it's worth checking out if you want a quick read. It's a long essay, so no break up into chapters or anything.

[bigdirtyfoot]

12. The Difference Engine, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, 492 pg.

I was really impressed with this work of fiction by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It is an alternate history set in Victorian Britain (1855) where great technological and social change is occurring due to the emergence of Charles Babbage's mechanical computer, the difference engine. The novel has three main characters: Sybil Gerard, political courtesan and daughter of an executed Luddite leader, Edward "Leviathan" Mallory, a paleontologist and explorer, and Laurence Oliphant, a spy posing as a travel writer. These three characters are linked together by a set of mysterious computer punch cards and a wide range of people clamoring for them. Rumor has it that the punch cards are a gambling Modus, a programme that would give its user the ability to place consistently winning bets.

I was most impressed by Mallory's story, which involves visiting a prostitute and infiltrating an unorganized gang of revolutionaries with a rogue cop and his two brothers. Gerard and Oliphant's stories are also interesting, but didn't grab me as much as Mallory's. Considering the length and depth of this book, I feel like I went through it really quickly. It is packed with suspense and incredible detail, and is more of a general fictional tale than science-fiction. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a satisfying page-turner, and will most likely return to it again in the future.

[bigdirtyfoot]

13. Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miler, 239 pg.

I think I read this in high school, roughly eight years ago, but I'm not sure if I ever finished it back then. I found it to be a really quick read this time around. "Death of a Salesman" features little snippets from the agonized protagonist's life, which all lead up to a devastating conclusion. The dialogue was pretty spot on, especially when characters were talking over each other. The characters were extremely believable, but not really likable. The plot/events were pretty boring though, and I found myself trying to just race through the book because I wanted to move on to another book soon. But I chose this one because it would be a quick read, so it definitely served that purpose.

[Jeremy]

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]
9. The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570pp
10. Sideshow; Dumbing down democracy by Lindsay Tanner - 202pp
11. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 345pp [ebook - google]
12. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott - 96pp
13. The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 424pp

Excellent. Probably better than the first. Very similar though. I guess they're both examples of "Utopian Fiction" and I really appreciated the optimism. It does get a little preachy at times, but I didn't mind too much. Really reminded me of Carl Sagan's fiction a lot. Definitely "Hard Science fiction" too, with many brief explorations of scientific concepts. There's a lot of cultural references too, including a dog called Snowy and a brief reference to Flatland, the book I just read . Highly recommended, but definitely read the first book first.

[Jeremy]

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]
9. The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570pp
10. Sideshow; Dumbing down democracy by Lindsay Tanner - 202pp
11. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 345pp [ebook - google]
12. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott - 96pp
13. The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 424pp
14. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - 320pp

This was ok, but I really found all the characters, including Charles (the main character) unlikeable and frustrating - especially after his surgery. It's basically the story of a retarded man who goes through a scientific experiment that makes him highly intelligent. All the support characters have completely self-interested interactions with him, both before and after the change of IQ. There are no genuinely nice characters in it, although a few get shamed into being nice. Even his girlfriend, who is probably supposed to be nice, came across as selfish. I also found the attempt to write Charles as a genius with no social skills as very unconvincing, and the focus on his sexual dysfunction was awkward. I guess this is a bit of an unfair criticism, given when the book was written, but there's a strong focus on Freudian psychology too, which is unfortunate.

Nonetheless, it is entertaining and mainly well written. Part of my negative reaction is probably the juxtaposition with the Pratchett & Baxter books, which are so optimistic about humanity, while this was so strongly negative. There's also an interesting backstory about the movie The Lawnmower Man (which is supposedly based on a Stephen King short story, and I remember watching the film and being surprised at how little connection there was, which was a shame because the short story is hilarious, but it turns out the film is strongly influenced by this book, and the very minor reference to Stephen King's short story was added by the producers because they thought it would sell better, and he later sued them and won).