Friday, October 9, 2009

Des Livres

So far I have thirteen books left before I reach my goal of reading 50 books this year! I have compiled a list of books that I would like to read next and came up with twelve.
Here, in alphabetical order, with an explanation:

84 Charing Cross Road
by Helene Hanff
-recommended/ in preparation for the London trip this spring

Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea
by Steven Callahan
-read a good review/recommendation

The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll
by Alvaro Mutis
-read somewhere one's life would be incomplete until this book had been read

The Big Over Easy
by Jasper Fforde
-I read the beginning of this book ages ago and loved it but had to surrender it to the proper owner before I got very far

Blindness
by Jose Saramago
-recommended by a friend

Blink
by Malcom Gladwell
-recommended by a friend

Founding Brothers
by Joseph J Ellis
-required for my Political Science class

Gideon's Trumpet
by Anthony Lewis
-required for my Political Science class

Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
-I think this is an interesting story and hope it will be a good read. I know the guy had flaws, but no one is perfect, right?

The Name of the Wind
by Patrick Rothfuss
-recommended by a friend

Water for Elephants
by Sara Gruen
-read a good review/recommendation

The Wild Trees
by Robert Preston
-came across this book a while ago, thought it looked interesting, and haven't had the chance to read it yet

Now here's where you come in. I need a thirteenth book! Recommend something to me! Also, if you see something on my list that you read and didn't like or that you want to read too, or something/anything you might want to comment on, go right ahead. Here's to fifty books!

3 comments:

LP said...

Well, I say definitely yes to 84 Charing Cross Road, but you know that.

I suppose you should also definitely read the two books for your Poly Sci class. Actually, I've heard other people at the Shelf recommend Founding Brothers.

And I highly recommend The Name of the Wind. But you also know that, too.

Is The Big Over Easy the Humpty Dumpty one? I started that - got maybe four or five chapters in - then gave it up because it started flagging. And the critics were all comparing it to Doug Adams, but I didn't think it was that funny. Adrien says Fforde's Thursday Next books are better. So I recommend the first one of that series: it's called The Eyre Affair (I think).

I also highly recommend The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V S Redick. In addition, if you need 50 books for next year, the sequel to Red Wolf Conspiracy is coming out in a month or so (it's called The Rats and the Ruling Sea).

Finally, there's a series of detective-type mystery novels set in ancient Rome in the early AD 70s that I think are delightful - very well written and great characterization, humorous and somewhat suspenseful (though not nail-bitingly so). If you don't want to read the whole series, I recommend at least the first two. They are called The Silver Pigs and Shadows in Bronze, and the author is Lindsey Davis.

Oh, and if you haven't read Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy yet, I recommend that, too.

Okay, that's all for now.

Zach and Kelly said...

The only book on your list that I have read is Into The Wild. I thought it was a very good read - my one complaint is the author stopped to often to tell everyone how he was exactly like Chris and then would go on for a couple chapters about his own adventures. No offense, but I didn't pick up the book to read about the author. Anyhow, I still think it's a pretty good book.

-Kelly

Shannon said...

oh weird, I hadn't heard that. that's kind of silly on the author's part. everyone is really only reading the book to read about chris.