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

[ContinentalOp]

Here we go again. Gonna shoot for 30 books this year.

1. Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go by George Pelecanos- 7.5
2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon- 5

[dreamdead]

1. Pym, Mat Johnson

[Dead & Messed Up]

1. Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)

[Lucky]

Shooting for a book a month.

1. Light Years - James Salter

[D_Davis]

1. Imajica, by Clive Barker

Very good, but I doubt it will end up on my top 10 list at the end of the year. Man, it took me a long time to get through the ~1,000 pages as well.

[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.

[dreamdead]

1. Pym, Mat Johnson
2. Goodbye, Columbus and Five Other Short Stories, Philip Roth

[D_Davis]

1. Matadora, by Steve Perry
2. Imajica, by Clive Barker

[Chac Mool]

1. Rope Burns (F.X. Toole)
2. Foundation (Isaac Asimov)
3. Krakatoa (Simon Winchester)

[Dead & Messed Up]

1. Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
2. The Double-Shadow and Other Stories (Clark Ashton Smith)

[Dukefrukem]

1. Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)

Great book.

I too also finished Hunger Games. I didn't find it particularly compelling. A lot of hype, reminded me of the hype surrounding Da Vinci Code, which was also underwelming. If they decide to make a trilogy out of the movies, I’ll move to the other two books.

I'm gonna read King's new Time Travel book next.

[D_Davis]

1. Matadora, by Steve Perry
2. In Other Worlds, by A.A. Attanasio
3. Imajica, by Clive Barker

[Derek]

1) The French Lieutenant's Woman (John Fowles) 9.5

Rereads:

Franny & Zooey (JD Salinger) 10

Well, now I'm spoiled for the rest of the year. F&Z held up as well as I could have hoped and the Fowles is one of the best books I've ever read, possibly the best ever set in the Victorian era. Absolutely remarkable.

[D_Davis]

1. Matadora, by Steve Perry
2. In Other Worlds, by A.A. Attanasio
3. Fifty-One Tales, by Lord Dunsany
4. Imajica, by Clive Barker

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2. The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare

Never thought I'd rank that below The Hunger Games. It deserves that spot. That's one of the more unpleasant things I've read in awhile. Misogynistic and ugly. Very unfortunate way to start the semester.