Top 10 Books First Read During 2012

[Kurosawa Fan]

Thought I might as well get this started, since I just finished my first one.


1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins


Read it in two days, so it was certainly doing something right, but it sure took it easy on Katniss throughout the entire Games, and the book definitely suffered from failing to develop a decent villain. I'll probably read the other two, but will wait until summer. I'm not feeling compelled to squeeze them all in before my semester begins.

[Mara]

It's okay. She has real pacing problems, but there's something there.

I think that's one reason I'm kind of excited about the film-- it seems like, with the right treatment, it could correct the problems of the book and be a slick little adventure.

[Kurosawa Fan]

It's okay. She has real pacing problems, but there's something there.

I think that's one reason I'm kind of excited about the film-- it seems like, with the right treatment, it could correct the problems of the book and be a slick little adventure.

Yeah, it sure was convenient that

[

Show Spoiler

when Katniss finds Peeta and has to nurse him back to health, no one looks for them and nothing happens. Also, she's spared killing anyone aside from the the boy who kills Rue, and the mercy-killing of Cato. She's essentially scaled down to a passive survivalist for the great majority of the competition.

]

[lovejuice]

My first reading of the year is Manuel Puig's "Heartbreak Tango." Puig is among my favorite authors but this book is quite a garbage. :sad:

[Melville]

1. The Trumpets They Play! (Al Columbia, 1998) [comic] - 9.5
2. The Silent Cry (Kenzaburo Oe, 1967) - 8.5
3. Under the Autumn Star (Hamsun, 1906) - 8.5
4. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Yukio Mishima, 1963) - 8.5
5. On the Road (Kerouac, 1957) - 8.5
6. Concrete (Thomas Bernhard, 1982) - 8
7. A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings (Hamsun, 1909) - 8
8. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte, 1847) [reread] - 8
9. The Road (Cormac McCarthy, 2006) - 7.5
10. Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (trans. Schmidt, 1868-1900) - 7.5
11. Struwwelpeter: Fearful Stories & Vile Pictures to Instruct Good Little Folks (Heinrich Hoffmann, 1845) [picture book] - 7.5
12. The Complete Stories (Kafka, 1909-24)
    
    • overall - 7
    • The Metamorphosis [reread] - 10
13. Tales of Love and Loss (Hamsun, 1895-1905) - 7
14. A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Flannery O'Connor, 1953) [short story] - 7
15. Early/Socratic Dialogues (Plato, c. 399-387 BC)
    
    • Apology [reread] - 7.5
    • Crito [reread] - 7.5
    • Euthyphro [reread] - 7
    • Gorgias - 5
16. Paying For It (Chester Brown, 2011) [comic] - 7
17. Middle and Late Dialogues (Plato, c. 380-347 BC)
    
    • Theatetus - 7
    • Parmenides - 6.5
18. Murphy (Beckett, 1938) - 6.5
19. Don Quixote (Cervantes, 1615) - 6.5
20. Building Stories (Chris Ware, 2012) [comic] - 6.5
21. Congress of the Animals (Jim Woodring, 2011) [comic] - 6
22. The Essential Tales of Chekhov (Chekhov, 1886-1899) - 6
23. Philosophical Investigations (Wittgenstein, 1953) - 5.5
24. Wise Blood (Flannery O'Connor, 1952) - 5.5
25. The Queen of Spades (Pushkin, 1834) [short story] - 5.5
26. (32) Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe, 1835-49)
    
    • overall - 5
    • The Tell-Tale Heart, Ligeia, The Black Cat, some others - great
27. The Corrections (Franzen, 2001) - 5
28. Paradise Lost (Milton, 1674) - 4.5
29. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte, 1847) - 4
30. Nichomachean Ethics (Aristotle, c. 340BC) - 4
31. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886) - 4
32. The Republic (Plato, c. 380BC) - 3

[Duncan]

1. Middlemarch, George Eliot
2. The Histories: Book 1, Herodotus
3. The Castle, Franz Kafka
4. Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters, J.D. Salinger
5. Antwerp, Roberto Bolano
6. Bartleby the Scrivener, Herman Melville
7. Summertime, J.M. Coetzee
8. Blow-Up and Other Stories, Julio Cortazar
9. The Soft Machine, William S. Burroughs

[Melville]

1. The Silent Cry (Kenzaburo Oe, 1967) - 8.5
2. Under the Autumn Star (Hamsun, 1906) - 8.5
3. A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings (Hamsun, 1909) - 8
4. Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (translator Paul Schmidt, 1868-1900) - 7.5
5. Murphy (Beckett, 1938) - 6.5
6. (32 of the) Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe, 1835-49) - 5

The Silent Cry was big, intricate, and strange. The prose and dialogue read like the monotone speech of a robot obsessed with the grotesque, with both the narration and the characters endlessly explaining the meaning of every minute occurrence, all in the same morbid, unnaturally technical tone. Such an explicit style is sometimes frustrating, but it's also compelling in its idiosyncrasy, and it suits the state of the narrator, who is variously detached from and repulsed and vaguely baffled by existence. The characters in general feel themselves flung into existence, into themselves and what they are culpable for, and they grapple with it. Japan's post-war social decay provides an undertone to this, but it's placed within a broad depiction of how the characters' take personal meaning from their place in a larger personal and cultural history; the way they define themselves and see the world is not just colored by, but integrally connected to the way they interpret that history, which can never truly be known, since its events are buried by time and appropriated into a web of cultural meanings. The ending, which the book so carefully builds to, is profoundly moral: it's a call to action, to risking something and going beyond oneself, and thereby achieving wholeness and meaning for oneself.

[Melville]

1. The Silent Cry (Kenzaburo Oe, 1967) - 8.5
2. Under the Autumn Star (Hamsun, 1906) - 8.5
3. Concrete (Thomas Bernhard, 1982) - 8
4. A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings (Hamsun, 1909) - 8
5. Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (trans. Schmidt, 1868-1900) - 7.5
6. The Complete Stories (Kafka, 1909-24) - 7
7. Murphy (Beckett, 1938) - 6.5
8. Philosophical Investigations (Wittgenstein, 1953) - 5.5
9. (32) Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe, 1835-49) - 5
10. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886) - 4

The Kafka collection was surprisingly mixed in quality: some of the greatest things I've read—The Metamorphosis was even better than I remembered— but also some very tedious things. The stories with a particular focus on agitation and repetition (alongside the usual absurdity) were great, and they seem obvious influences on Beckett and Bernhard. Thirty-five pages of the obsessive anxiety of a burrowing animal = literary gold.

[Melville]

1. The Silent Cry (Kenzaburo Oe, 1967) - 8.5
2. Under the Autumn Star (Hamsun, 1906) - 8.5
3. Concrete (Thomas Bernhard, 1982) - 8
4. A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings (Hamsun, 1909) - 8
5. Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (trans. Schmidt, 1868-1900) - 7.5
6. Early/Socratic Dialogues (Plato, c. 399-387 BC)
   Apology - 7.5
   Crito - 7.5
   Euthyphro - 7
   Gorgias - 5
7. The Complete Stories (Kafka, 1909-24) - 7
8. Murphy (Beckett, 1938) - 6.5
9. Philosophical Investigations (Wittgenstein, 1953) - 5.5
10. The Queen of Spades (Pushkin, 1834) [short story] - 5.5
11. (32) Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe, 1835-49) - 5
12. Paradise Lost (Milton, 1674) - 4.5
13. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886) - 4
14. The Republic (Plato, c. 380BC) - 3

Comics

1. The Trumpets They Play! (Al Columbia, 1998) - 10

[Melville]

1. The Silent Cry (Kenzaburo Oe, 1967) - 8.5
2. Under the Autumn Star (Hamsun, 1906) - 8.5
3. Concrete (Thomas Bernhard, 1982) - 8
4. A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings (Hamsun, 1909) - 8
5. On the Road (Kerouac, 1957) - 8
6. Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (trans. Schmidt, 1868-1900) - 7.5
7. The Complete Stories (Kafka, 1909-24) - 7
8. A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Flannery O'Connor, 1953) [short story] - 7
9. Early/Socratic Dialogues (Plato, c. 399-387 BC)
   Apology - 7.5
   Crito - 7.5
   Euthyphro - 7
   Gorgias - 5
10. Middle and Late Dialogues (Plato, c. 380-347 BC)
    Theatetus - 7
    Parmenides - 6.5
11. Murphy (Beckett, 1938) - 6.5
12. Don Quixote (Cervantes, 1615) - 6.5
13. The Essential Tales of Chekhov (Chekhov, 1886-1899) - 6
14. Philosophical Investigations (Wittgenstein, 1953) - 5.5
15. The Queen of Spades (Pushkin, 1834) [short story] - 5.5
16. (32) Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe, 1835-49) - 5
17. The Corrections (Franzen, 2001) - 5
18. Paradise Lost (Milton, 1674) - 4.5
19. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886) - 4
20. The Republic (Plato, c. 380BC) - 3

Comics

1. The Trumpets They Play! (Al Columbia, 1998) - 10
2. Paying For It (Chester Brown, 2011) - 7
3. Congress of the Animals (Jim Woodring, 2011) - 6

[Melville]

1. The Trumpets They Play! (Al Columbia, 1998) [comic] - 9.5
2. The Silent Cry (Kenzaburo Oe, 1967) - 8.5
3. Under the Autumn Star (Hamsun, 1906) - 8.5
4. On the Road (Kerouac, 1957) - 8.5
5. Concrete (Thomas Bernhard, 1982) - 8
6. A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings (Hamsun, 1909) - 8
7. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte, 1847) [reread] - 7.5
8. Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (trans. Schmidt, 1868-1900) - 7.5
9. Struwwelpeter: Fearful Stories & Vile Pictures to Instruct Good Little Folks (Heinrich Hoffmann, 1845) [picture book] - 7.5
10. The Complete Stories (Kafka, 1909-24)
    
    • overall - 7
    • The Metamorphosis [reread] - 10
11. Tales of Love and Loss (Hamsun, 1895-1905) - 7
12. A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Flannery O'Connor, 1953) [short story] - 7
13. Early/Socratic Dialogues (Plato, c. 399-387 BC)
    
    • Apology - 7.5
    • Crito - 7.5
    • Euthyphro - 7
    • Gorgias - 5
14. Paying For It (Chester Brown, 2011) [comic] - 7
15. Middle and Late Dialogues (Plato, c. 380-347 BC)
    
    • Theatetus - 7
    • Parmenides - 6.5
16. Murphy (Beckett, 1938) - 6.5
17. Don Quixote (Cervantes, 1615) - 6.5
18. Congress of the Animals (Jim Woodring, 2011) [comic] - 6
19. The Essential Tales of Chekhov (Chekhov, 1886-1899) - 6
20. Philosophical Investigations (Wittgenstein, 1953) - 5.5
21. The Queen of Spades (Pushkin, 1834) [short story] - 5.5
22. (32) Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe, 1835-49)
    
    • overall - 5
    • The Tell-Tale Heart, Ligeia, The Black Cat, some others - great
23. The Corrections (Franzen, 2001) - 5
24. Paradise Lost (Milton, 1674) - 4.5
25. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte, 1847) - 4
26. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886) - 4
27. The Republic (Plato, c. 380BC) - 3

[Melville]

1. The Trumpets They Play! (Al Columbia, 1998) [comic] - 9.5
2. The Silent Cry (Kenzaburo Oe, 1967) - 8.5
3. Under the Autumn Star (Hamsun, 1906) - 8.5
4. On the Road (Kerouac, 1957) - 8.5
5. Concrete (Thomas Bernhard, 1982) - 8
6. A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings (Hamsun, 1909) - 8
7. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte, 1847) [reread] - 8
8. The Road (Cormac McCarthy, 2006) - 7.5
9. Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (trans. Schmidt, 1868-1900) - 7.5
10. Struwwelpeter: Fearful Stories & Vile Pictures to Instruct Good Little Folks (Heinrich Hoffmann, 1845) [picture book] - 7.5
11. The Complete Stories (Kafka, 1909-24)
    
    • overall - 7
    • The Metamorphosis [reread] - 10
12. Tales of Love and Loss (Hamsun, 1895-1905) - 7
13. A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Flannery O'Connor, 1953) [short story] - 7
14. Early/Socratic Dialogues (Plato, c. 399-387 BC)
    
    • Apology [reread] - 7.5
    • Crito [reread] - 7.5
    • Euthyphro [reread] - 7
    • Gorgias - 5
15. Paying For It (Chester Brown, 2011) [comic] - 7
16. Middle and Late Dialogues (Plato, c. 380-347 BC)
    
    • Theatetus - 7
    • Parmenides - 6.5
17. Murphy (Beckett, 1938) - 6.5
18. Don Quixote (Cervantes, 1615) - 6.5
19. Building Stories (Chris Ware, 2012) [comic] - 6.5
20. Congress of the Animals (Jim Woodring, 2011) [comic] - 6
21. The Essential Tales of Chekhov (Chekhov, 1886-1899) - 6
22. Philosophical Investigations (Wittgenstein, 1953) - 5.5
23. Wise Blood (Flannery O'Connor, 1952) - 5.5
24. The Queen of Spades (Pushkin, 1834) [short story] - 5.5
25. (32) Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe, 1835-49)
    
    • overall - 5
    • The Tell-Tale Heart, Ligeia, The Black Cat, some others - great
26. The Corrections (Franzen, 2001) - 5
27. Paradise Lost (Milton, 1674) - 4.5
28. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte, 1847) - 4
29. Nichomachean Ethics (Aristotle, c. 340BC) - 4
30. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886) - 4
31. The Republic (Plato, c. 380BC) - 3

[Melville]

Final list for the year:

1. The Trumpets They Play! (Al Columbia, 1998) [comic] - 9.5
2. The Silent Cry (Kenzaburo Oe, 1967) - 9
3. Under the Autumn Star (Hamsun, 1906) - 8.5
4. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Yukio Mishima, 1963) - 8.5
5. On the Road (Kerouac, 1957) - 8.5
6. Concrete (Thomas Bernhard, 1982) - 8
7. A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings (Hamsun, 1909) - 8
8. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte, 1847) [reread] - 8
9. The Road (Cormac McCarthy, 2006) - 7.5
10. Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (trans. Schmidt, 1868-1900) - 7.5
11. Struwwelpeter: Fearful Stories & Vile Pictures to Instruct Good Little Folks (Heinrich Hoffmann, 1845) [picture book] - 7.5
12. The Complete Stories (Kafka, 1909-24)
    
    • overall - 7
    • The Metamorphosis [reread] - 10
13. Tales of Love and Loss (Hamsun, 1895-1905) - 7
14. A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Flannery O'Connor, 1953) [short story] - 7
15. Early/Socratic Dialogues (Plato, c. 399-387 BC)
    
    • Apology [reread] - 7.5
    • Crito [reread] - 7.5
    • Euthyphro [reread] - 7
    • Gorgias - 5
16. Paying For It (Chester Brown, 2011) [comic] - 7
17. Middle and Late Dialogues (Plato, c. 380-347 BC)
    
    • Theatetus - 7
    • Parmenides - 6.5
18. Murphy (Beckett, 1938) - 6.5
19. Don Quixote (Cervantes, 1615) - 6.5
20. Building Stories (Chris Ware, 2012) [comic] - 6.5
21. Congress of the Animals (Jim Woodring, 2011) [comic] - 6
22. The Essential Tales of Chekhov (Chekhov, 1886-1899) - 6
23. Philosophical Investigations (Wittgenstein, 1953) - 5.5
24. Wise Blood (Flannery O'Connor, 1952) - 5.5
25. The Queen of Spades (Pushkin, 1834) [short story] - 5.5
26. (32) Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe, 1835-49)
    
    • overall - 5
    • The Tell-Tale Heart, Ligeia, The Black Cat, some others - great
27. The Corrections (Franzen, 2001) - 5
28. Paradise Lost (Milton, 1674) - 4.5
29. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte, 1847) - 4
30. Nichomachean Ethics (Aristotle, c. 340BC) - 4
31. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886) - 4
32. The Republic (Plato, c. 380BC) - 3

[kuehnepips]

1. Stephen L. Carter: The Emperor of Ocean Park
2. James Sallis: The Killer Is Dying
3. Kobr/Klüpfel: Rauhnacht

[Benny Profane]

1. Underworld - Don DeLillo
2. A Sport and a Pastime - James Salter



Off to a great start.

[ThePlashyBubbler]

1. The Savage Detectives (Roberto Bolano)
2. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (J.D. Salinger)
3. Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
4. Other Electricities (Ander Monson)
5. 1Q84 (Haruki Murukami)
6. Tinkers (Paul Harding)

52 books, here I come!

[Benny Profane]

1. The Savage Detectives (Roberto Bolano)
2. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (J.D. Salinger)
3. Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
4. Other Electricities (Ander Monson)
5. 1Q84 (Haruki Murukami)
6. Tinkers (Paul Harding)

52 books, here I come!

Would like to know how this is possible in 18 days.

17.5 days, to be exact.

[ThePlashyBubbler]

Would like to know how this is possible in 18 days.

17.5 days, to be exact.

In short, unemployment. :|

To be fair I was midway through Blood Meridian at the beginning of the year and finished it on the second or so, and three of the other books (the Salinger, Monson, Harding) are under 200 pages each and relatively quick reads.

Pace will definitely be slowing now that I'm planning to tackle some longer books and hopefully working will afford me less time to be reading.

[ThePlashyBubbler]

1. The Savage Detectives (Roberto Bolano)
2. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (J.D. Salinger)
3. V. (Thomas Pynchon)
4. Beloved (Toni Morrison)
5. Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
6. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (Cormac McCarthy)
7. Habibi (Craig Thompson)
8. Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe)
9. Other Electricities (Ander Monson)
10. 1Q84 (Haruki Murukami)

[dreamdead]

1. At the Mountains of Madness, H. P. Lovecraft
2. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John le Carré
3. Pym, Mat Johnson
4. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
5. Clybourne Park, Bruce Norris
6. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie
7. Saffron Dreams, Shaila Abdullah
8. Goodbye, Columbus and Five Other Short Stories, Philip Roth
9. Fiskadoro, Denis Johnson
10. Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN, James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales

[Benny Profane]

1. The Savage Detectives (Roberto Bolano)
2. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (J.D. Salinger)
3. V. (Thomas Pynchon)
4. Beloved (Toni Morrison)
5. Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
6. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (Cormac McCarthy)
7. Habibi (Craig Thompson)
8. Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe)
9. Other Electricities (Ander Monson)
10. 1Q84 (Haruki Murukami)

Wow, you've got 4 of my all-time faves on that list.

[Benny Profane]

1. Underworld - Don DeLillo
2. A Sport and a Pastime - James Salter
3. Here and Now! - Pat Martino (autobiography)

[Benny Profane]

1. Underworld - Don DeLillo
2. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories - Franz Kafka
3. A Sport and a Pastime - James Salter
4. Here and Now! - Pat Martino (autobiography)

[Benny Profane]

1. Underworld - Don DeLillo
2. Look Homeward, Angel - Thomas Wolfe
3. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories - Franz Kafka
4. A Sport and a Pastime - James Salter
5. Here and Now! - Pat Martino (autobiography)

[kuehnepips]

1. Joseph Roth: Radetzkymarsch
2. Eugen Ruge: In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts
3. Stephen L. Carter: The Emperor of Ocean Park
4. James Sallis: The Killer Is Dying
5. Kobr/Klüpfel: Rauhnacht
6. Philipp Kerr: A Five Year Plan
7. S.J. Watson: Before I Go To Sleep