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Thread: Top 10 Books First Read During 2013

  1. #51
    Quote Quoting baby doll (view post)
    • Notes From Underground (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1864)
    • Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy, 1895)
    • The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925)
    • Amerika (The Man Who Disappeared) (Franz Kafka, 1927)
    • Laughter in the Dark (Vladimir Nabokov, 1932)
    • Despair (Vladimir Nabokov, 1934)
    • The Last Tycoon (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1941)
    • The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger, 1951)
    • Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe, 1958)
    • The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen, 2001)
    Updated for the end of May-beginning of June. Total number of books read: ten.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  2. #52
    Best Boy ContinentalOp's Avatar
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    1. L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy- 8.5
    2. Devil Red by Joe R. Lansdale- 8
    3. The Mourner by Richard Stark- 8
    4. Dead Aim by Joe R. Lansdale- 7.5
    5. Sunset and Sawdust by Joe R. Lansdale- 7
    6. The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman- 7
    7. Cell by Stephen King- 7
    8. The Time Machine Did It by John Swartzwelder- 6
    Out of ****:
    Chef- ** 1/2
    The Interview- ** 1/2
    White Bird in a Blizzard- ** 1/2
    Frank- *** 1/2
    A Walk Among the Tombstones- ***

  3. #53
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    1. Selected poems and letters (Keats, 1816-1820) - 8
    2. Philosophy of Existence (Karl Jaspers, 1938) - 8
    3. Lyrical Ballads (Wordsworth and Coleridge, 1798) - 7.5
    4. The Courage to Be (Paul Tillich, 1952) - 7
    5. Pensees (Blaise Pascal, 1669) - 7
    6. Ice (Anna Kavan, 1967) - 7
    7. The Third Policeman (Flann O'Brien, written 1940/published 1967) - 7
    8. All-Star Superman (Morrison and Quitely, 2009) [graphic novel] - 6.5
    9. Franny and Zooey (J.D. Salinger, 1961) - 5


    I've been starting a lot of books and finishing few. Pensees was interesting. I'd previously read a short selection from it that describes Pascal's wager, but I didn't know that much of the book is made up of Pascal's extreme pessimism and loathing. That bleak context aside, or perhaps because of it, Pascal's wager struck me as very compelling this time through. Of course he wants the wager to apply only to Christianity, but it really applies to belief in any kind of infinite transcendence of our known, finite existence. If you're gambling with your existence, and you have nothing to lose except a meagre claim to following the dictates of "reason" (a vague term I see obnoxiously claimed by proponents of so-called new atheism), then betting on transcendence is a good bet to make.
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

    lists and reviews

  4. #54
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    1.) Way Station (Clifford D. Simak, 1963)
    2.) The Divinity Student (Michael Cisco, 1999)
    3.) House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski, 2000)
    4.) Horns (Joe Hill, 2010)
    5.) The Crimson Petal and the White (Michel Faber, 2002)
    6.) My Work is Not Yet Done (Thomas Ligotti, 2002)
    7.) The Light is the Darkness (Laird Barron, 2011)
    8.) Come Closer (Sara Gran, 2003)
    9.) The Hoard (Alan Ryker, 2012)
    10.) Penpal (Dathan Auerbach, 2012)
    ...

    [
    ]
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  5. #55
    Super Moderator dreamdead's Avatar
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    1. Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
    2. Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol
    3. Albert Camus's The Plague
    4. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
    5. Willa Cather's O Pioneers!
    6. Don Lee's Country of Origin
    7. Kevin Powers's The Yellow Birds
    8. Sherman Alexie's Indian Killer
    9. Françoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse
    10. Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye
    [
    ]
    The Boat People - 9
    The Power of the Dog - 7.5
    The King of Pigs - 7

  6. #56
    Screenwriter Duncan's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Melville (view post)
    I've been starting a lot of books and finishing few.
    Tell me about it. I think I've finished 1 of the last 5 books I've started. Haven't been liking anything. Reading How Should a Person Be? right now and finding it pretty insufferable.
    Wishful thinking, perhaps; but that is just another possible definition of the featherless biped.

  7. #57
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    Read my first three books of the year all on my trip. All were quite good.

    1. Eleanor and Park (Rainbow Rowell)
    2. A Princess of Mars (Edgar Rice Burroughs)
    3. The Awakening (Kate Chopin)

  8. #58
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting EyesWideOpen (view post)
    1. Eleanor and Park (Rainbow Rowell)
    YAY! I thought this was great.
    ...and the milk's in me.

  9. #59
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Mara (view post)
    YAY! I thought this was great.
    I flew through it. Rowell has a great handle on the two teenage characters and the ending was ....

    I'd post more but can't use spoilers on my phone.

  10. #60
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting EyesWideOpen (view post)

    1. Eleanor and Park (Rainbow Rowell)
    2. Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)
    3. A Princess of Mars (Edgar Rice Burroughs)
    4. The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
    5. Charlotte Street (Danny Wallace)
    Another book down! These have been so good I've promised myself to read more even when I'm done with my trip.

  11. #61
    Whole Sick Crew Benny Profane's Avatar
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    1. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
    2. Battle Cry of Freedom - James M. McPherson
    3. Don Quixote - Miguel Cervantes
    Now reading: The Master Switch by Tim Wu

  12. #62
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    1. Eleanor and Park (Rainbow Rowell)
    2. Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)
    3. A Princess of Mars (Edgar Rice Burroughs)
    4. The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
    5. Charlotte Street (Danny Wallace)
    6. Heart-Shaped Box (Joe Hill)
    TV Recently Finished:
    Catastrophe: Season 1 (2015) A
    Rectify: Season 3 (2015) A-
    Bojack Horseman: Season 2 (2015) A
    True Detective: Season 2 (2015) A-
    Wayward Pines: Season 1 (2015) B

    Currently Playing: Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise (replay) (XB1) / Contradiction (PC)
    Recently Finished: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (PS4) A+ / Life is Strange: Ep 4 (PS4) A / Bastion (replay) (PS4) B+

  13. #63
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    1.) Way Station (Clifford D. Simak, 1963)
    2.) It (Stephen King, 1985)
    3.) The Divinity Student (Michael Cisco, 1999)
    4.) House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski, 2000)
    5.) The Crimson Petal and the White (Michel Faber, 2002)
    6.) My Work is Not Yet Done (Thomas Ligotti, 2002)
    7.) The Light is the Darkness (Laird Barron, 2011)
    8.) All You Need is KILL (2004, Hiroshi Sakurazaka)
    9.) The Pilo Family Circus (Will Elliott, 2006)
    10.) Horns (Joe Hill, 2010)
    ...

    [
    ]
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  14. #64
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    1. Eleanor and Park (Rainbow Rowell)
    2. Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)
    3. A Princess of Mars (Edgar Rice Burroughs)
    4. The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman)
    5. The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
    6. Charlotte Street (Danny Wallace)
    7. Heart-Shaped Box (Joe Hill)
    TV Recently Finished:
    Catastrophe: Season 1 (2015) A
    Rectify: Season 3 (2015) A-
    Bojack Horseman: Season 2 (2015) A
    True Detective: Season 2 (2015) A-
    Wayward Pines: Season 1 (2015) B

    Currently Playing: Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise (replay) (XB1) / Contradiction (PC)
    Recently Finished: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (PS4) A+ / Life is Strange: Ep 4 (PS4) A / Bastion (replay) (PS4) B+

  15. #65
    Quote Quoting baby doll (view post)
    • Notes From Underground (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1864)
    • The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde, 1890-91)
    • Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy, 1895)
    • The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925)
    • Amerika (The Man Who Disappeared) (Franz Kafka, 1927)
    • The Luzhin Defense (Vladimir Nabokov, 1930)
    • Laughter in the Dark (Vladimir Nabokov, 1932)
    • Despair (Vladimir Nabokov, 1934)
    • Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe, 1958)
    • The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen, 2001)
    Updated for the end of June-beginning of July. Total number of books read: Thirteen.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  16. #66
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    1. Essays in Pragmatism (William James, 1880-1907) - 8.5
    2. Selected poems and letters (Keats, 1816-1820) - 8
    3. Philosophy of Existence (Karl Jaspers, 1938) - 8
    4. Lyrical Ballads (Wordsworth and Coleridge, 1798) - 7.5
    5. The Courage to Be (Paul Tillich, 1952) - 7
    6. Pensees (Blaise Pascal, 1669) - 7
    7. Ice (Anna Kavan, 1967) - 7
    8. The Third Policeman (Flann O'Brien, written 1940/published 1967) - 7
    9. All-Star Superman (Morrison and Quitely, 2009) [graphic novel] - 6.5
    10. Franny and Zooey (J.D. Salinger, 1961) - 5
    11. Rabbit, Run (John Updike, 1960) - 4.5
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

    lists and reviews

  17. #67
    Quote Quoting Melville (view post)
    1. Rabbit, Run (John Updike, 1960) - 4.5
    I started reading this just before Dorian Gray and gave up after like fifty pages. I mean, Jesus Christ, do we really need all that description of the guy walking down the street and driving his car?
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  18. #68
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting baby doll (view post)
    I started reading this just before Dorian Gray and gave up after like fifty pages. I mean, Jesus Christ, do we really need all that description of the guy walking down the street and driving his car?
    I didn't mind the large quantity of descriptions, since Updike at least has a flair for them. He makes things stand out in distinctive ways. (Maybe not so distinctive nowadays. His style has seemed to permeate contemporary literary fiction.) But the narrative was decreasingly interesting after its opening section. The more the book explored Rabbit, and his reasons for being an irresponsible, self-centred jackass, the less interesting he and his story became. And then the final section diverged from realism into an ill-fitting ridiculousness.
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

    lists and reviews

  19. #69
    Ain't that just the way EyesWideOpen's Avatar
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    1. Eleanor and Park (Rainbow Rowell)
    2. Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)
    3. A Princess of Mars (Edgar Rice Burroughs)
    4. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)
    5. The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman)
    6. The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
    7. Charlotte Street (Danny Wallace)
    8. Heart-Shaped Box (Joe Hill)
    TV Recently Finished:
    Catastrophe: Season 1 (2015) A
    Rectify: Season 3 (2015) A-
    Bojack Horseman: Season 2 (2015) A
    True Detective: Season 2 (2015) A-
    Wayward Pines: Season 1 (2015) B

    Currently Playing: Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise (replay) (XB1) / Contradiction (PC)
    Recently Finished: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (PS4) A+ / Life is Strange: Ep 4 (PS4) A / Bastion (replay) (PS4) B+

  20. #70
    A Bonerfied Classic Derek's Avatar
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    1. Being & Time (Heidegger)
    2. Discipline & Punish (Foucoult)
    3. Underworld (DeLillo)
    4. The Big Money (Dos Passos)
    5. Telegraph Avenue (Chabon)
    6. 1919 (Dos Passos)
    7. The Stars My Destination (Bester)
    8. Crash (Ballard)
    9. White Teeth (Smith)

  21. #71
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    1. The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester, 1956)
    2. The Tao Te Ching (tr. Sam Hamill, 2005)
    3. A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway, 1929)
    4. Full Dark No Stars (Stephen King, 2010)
    5. The End of Faith (Sam Harris, 2004)
    6. Horns (Joe Hill, 2010)
    7. The Essential Kabbalah (Daniel C. Matt, 1995)
    8. Writing Movies For Fun and Profit (Thomas Lennon & Ben Garant, 2011)
    9. Do the Work (Steven Pressfield, 2011)

  22. #72
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    1.) Way Station (Clifford D. Simak, 1963)
    2.) It (Stephen King, 1985)
    3.) The Divinity Student (Michael Cisco, 1999)
    4.) House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski, 2000)
    5.) The Walls of the Castle (Tom Piccirilli, 2012)
    6.) The Crimson Petal and the White (Michel Faber, 2002)
    7.) Kin (Kealan Patrick Burke, 2011)
    8.) My Work is Not Yet Done (Thomas Ligotti, 2002)
    9.) The Light is the Darkness (Laird Barron, 2011)
    10.) Headstone City (Tom Piccirilli, 2006)

    ...

    [
    ]
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  23. #73
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    1. The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester, 1956)
    2. The Tao Te Ching (tr. Sam Hamill, 2005)
    3. Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847)
    4. A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway, 1929)
    5. Full Dark No Stars (Stephen King, 2010)
    6. The End of Faith (Sam Harris, 2004)
    7. Horns (Joe Hill, 2010)
    8. The Essential Kabbalah (Daniel C. Matt, 1995)
    9. Writing Movies For Fun and Profit (Thomas Lennon & Ben Garant, 2011)
    10. Do the Work (Steven Pressfield, 2011)

  24. #74
    Best Boy ContinentalOp's Avatar
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    1. L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy- 8.5
    2. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris- 8.5
    3. Flashfire by Richard Stark- 8

    4. Devil Red by Joe R. Lansdale- 8
    5. The Mourner by Richard Stark- 8
    6. Every Shallow Cut by Tom Piccirilli- 7.5
    7. Dead Aim by Joe R. Lansdale- 7.5
    8. Sunset and Sawdust by Joe R. Lansdale- 7
    9. The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman- 7
    10. Cell by Stephen King- 7

    11. The Time Machine Did It by John Swartzwelder- 6
    Out of ****:
    Chef- ** 1/2
    The Interview- ** 1/2
    White Bird in a Blizzard- ** 1/2
    Frank- *** 1/2
    A Walk Among the Tombstones- ***

  25. #75
    And don't you know it ThePlashyBubbler's Avatar
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    1. The Book of Disquiet (Fernando Pessoa)
    2. Wittgenstein's Mistress (David Markson)
    3. The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake (Breece D'J Pancake)
    4. A Naked Singularity (Sergio De La Pava)
    5. The Street of Crocodiles (Bruno Schulz)
    6. Bartleby & Co. (Enrique Vila-Matas)
    7. Stories in the Worst Way (Gary Lutz)
    8. Your Face Tomorrow: Fever and Spear (Javier Marias)
    9. Omensetter's Luck (William H. Gass)
    10. A Balcony In the Forest (Julien Gracq)

    [
    ]
    Writing things for A Horizontal Myth.


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