Piyush's 75 Challenge

Apologies for joining so late, have read quite a bit this year, will try to put it authorwise to avoid repetition, here is a dose of Douglas Adams to start with...
#1 Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy
#2 Restaurant at the end of the universe
#3 Long Dark Teatime of the soul

#4 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
#5 Crime And Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Woah!!!! you have been reading the long stuff!!! You should give yourself some extra credit reads. i tried Hitchiker last year and just couldn't get into it. Looks like you're a fan though.

Welcome.

Oh yes, I am a big Douglas Adams fan. Here are some books by another one of my fav. authors, Kurt Vonnegut

#6 Cat's Cradle
#7 Player Piano
#8 Jailbird
#9 Blue Beard

#10 Aesop's Fables - Aesopus
#11 The Naked Ape - Desmond Morris
#12 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum

#13 Life, The Universe And Everything - Douglas Adams
#14 So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish - Douglas Adams
#15 Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams

#16 Cards On The Table - Agatha Christie

#17 2001 A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke

I just got hooked on Hitchhiker. I'm kicking myself for not buying Restaurant at the End of the Universe along with the first book. I'm going stir crazy waiting for the rest of the series to arrive from Amazon! I can't wait to read Vonnegut. I put several of his books on my wish list, and I'm hoping a few of them will show up for my birthday in two weeks.

9
Great!
It woulb be better for you order the remaining 4 books of the series as well. Hope your friends get you Kurt Vonnegut books too...
Happy Reading!!!

#18 Dragons of Autumn Twilight - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
#19 Dragons of Winter Night - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
#20 Dragons of Spring Dawning - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

#21 Exodus - Leon Uris
#22 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
#23 Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There - Lewis Carroll
#24 Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom

#25 Love Story - Erich Segal
#26 1984 - George Orwell

#27 Time Of The Twins - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
#28 War Of The Twins - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
#29 Test Of The Twins - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

I tried some pages of Hitchhiker in the book of my friend when she was visiting me, but then she took it with her and could not continue. I loved it, so I found a e-book. But I can't force myself to read much on the screen and it's a bit too long to print it on my home printer. So, I'll try to hunt it in the library ;)

What do you think about this book? And others of this author as well.

Douglas Adams is an awesome author and so is this trilogy. I have read 2 more of his works and Young Zaphod Plays It Safe. While Young Zaphod Plays It Safe isnt the best of his works (it is good enought though), Long Dark Teatime of the soul & Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency are really amazing. Once you start liking his writing style, trust me there is no going back. If you like Douglas Adams, you might also like to try Kurt Vonnegut.

#30 Firstborn - Paul B. Thompson & Tonya R. Carter
#31 The Kinslayer Wars - Paul B. Thompson & Tonya R. Carter
#32 The Qualinesti - Paul B. Thompson & Tonya R. Carter

I tried already 1 or 2 books of Kurt Vonnegut and I liked them. But I liked more this small part of the writing of Douglas more. Well, I will check again in the library on Monday, if not - maybe I will need to overcome my attitude with reading from the screen ;)

Yeah, this is the biggest advantage of on screen reading, unavailability doesnt hamper your reading...sampling becomes easy...and sometimes I have to have some book @ say 04:00 hrs!!!
Tell me anything else you have read in the recent past worth sharing?

#33 Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
#34 Good Wives - Louisa May Alcott

Goshhh... That's a difficult question to answer ;) It depends a lot if you like one field only or you read a lot of different books ;) Did you tried maybe The city of dreaming books?

No, haven't read that one, but I do read different books as you put it :)

Hehehe... Then (besides "The city...") I also liked lately The Crimson Petal and the White, besides that also 2 short novels Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran & Oscar and the Lady in Pink. But those are for sure not similar to books of Kurt or Douglas ;)

#35 The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

Man, Dragonlance is awesome! You've been reading some good books lately.

Is this your first time through The Fountainhead? I jsut finished it a few weeks ago for the first time. I am curious about your thoughts on the book.

arc14
Yeah, read quit a bit of fantasies including LOTR, HP, Wheel Of Time, Bartaemus, His Dark Materials, Earthsea, Narnia, etc. Started reading Dragonlance this year only and found it quite good.

blackdogbooks
Yeah, read it for the first time and was disppointed. Actually, liked it as a fiction but not as a philosophical book (which some people claim it is!). Her ideas of individualism and objectivism are quite old and pretty obvious! Her characters though framed well lack reality. I dont have any issues with her pro-capitalist line of thinking though...

#36 Robin Hood - Henry Gilbert

Msg 27 and 29, I think I agree with you mostly. Rand's writing was very captivating but she seemed so bent on peddling her philisophical perspectives that the story and characters suffered.

#37 Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis

#38 Green Mile - Stephen King
#39 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - Stephen King
#40 The Shining - Stephen King

I think The Shining is one of King's best books. What did you think about this one?

You are on a King tear!!!!! Thoughts?

Message 34: I think it is "The Best" of King's works. The movie though decent didn't do justice to the book.

Message 35: The Shining is already amongst my favourites, The Green Mile was a decent read too, but I guess that will be all for now, time to sample other writers :)

#41 The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice

I agree with you regarding the movie The Shining Jack Nicholson was so darn campy and simply seemed to make fun of the true gothic horror of what was occurring in the hotel.

Have either of you tried the newer version of the story made for TV? I am not sure it captures the story perfectly but it does a better job with the story, while falling a little short on the sheer terror created by the book.

I haven't hears of the newer vision of The Shining made for tv movie...It sounds interesting.

I read this book years ago and still remember the vivid image of the hedge figures moving steadily through the snow...oh, and then there was the image of the clock on the mantle...

King's best book by far!!!!!

Yep, it was a better translation, but there's something about Jack sticking his head through the door, and "Here's Johnny"! 8^}

I haven't heard of this new version either, will definitely try it. With the book, you could envision all the horrors, am not sure if a series however good would be able to do justice to the book. Ironically, the scene I liked most in the film was the one "All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy" was not there in the book!

#42 Illusions - Richard Bach

Hello
I read Illusions awhile ago. What did you think of this book?

I am haunted by Kubrick's two dead twins asking Danny if he wants to play. I thought I would have an easier time getting through that part of the book, but it was worse on the page. I put the book down and tried the movie again, only getting as far as the woman in the tub. Picked up the book and it was worse again. But I finished it that time. All of those images, both written and visual are among the most haunting for me.

The hotel in Estes Park, CO, which I visited a couple of years ago and was used in both movies, was quite creepy all on it's own.

thanks for the information re. the hotel where the Shining was filmed. I'm learning something new every day from LT.

Now, I think I should go back and read the book since it was so long ago that I did so.

It's on my list for my Scotland trip next week. That and The Stand. We're almost at group-read status!

WOW..you are going to Scotland! How very exciting! I did a google search for the Estes Park, CO hotel...It is beautiful (on the outside.)

Another interesting factoid. The other movie filmed there......."Dumb and Dumber". I know, that's too weird. But it's true. It is beautiful on the inside, too. But I can see what inspired King. He wrote the book after staying there. When I visited, I picked up a room medallion which was marketed for the book and movie. It says, "Room 217 Overlook Hotel". That's one of the bad rooms in the book.

Because of this recent discussion re. The Shining, I'm going to rent the movie this weekend and watch it again.

I've never seen the movie but the book really, really spooked me. I haven't read a Stephen King for YEARS! He has an amazing talent for describing just enough to really twist your imagination into painful shapes.

#43 Young Zaphod Plays It Safe - Douglas Adams

Yeah, its our own imagination he uses to get back to us in an evil, twisted way, you then realise how much horror your own mind is capable of producing :)

I have always maintained that one of the difficultyies many movie writers/producers/directors have with King's work is that his horror affects the imagination of the reader in a way that the visual interpretation could never attain.

#44 The War Of The Worlds - H. G. Wells

#45 The Time Machine - H.G. Wells

On The Shining--new version. It's a miniseries starring Steven Weber and Rebecca de Mornay and I enjoyed it much more than the Kubrick version (which, incidentally, both of my children and I would boycott if we could). I agree that some of the terror isn't as strong as the book, but I have to tell you that when those trimmed animals start moving--well, I've got my feet off the floor! The Shining and The Stand were both adapted as mini-series by King and then directed by Mick Garris, and I think he did a decent job on both of them.

But the hotel--first time as an adult I was standing in the Yosemite Lodge, I about freaked. One of my children refused to enter the main room which exactly like the hotel in the miniseries. Yeow!

Any other King favorite adaptations?

#46 - Brisingr - Christopher Paolini

aha!! Piyush, I am assuming you've read all the rest of the series... what do you reckon? The Uk trade press has made a big deal out of the supposed "rivalry" between Stephanie Meyer's books and the Eragon series - I haven't read any of either, but am interested to get a reader's perspective.

Hey Flossie, I did read the first two parts, Christopher Paolini is decent but not that great. When it comes to plotting the characters of those fictional races, I can think of none other than J. R. R. Tolkien and Paolini's writing is highly inspired by the LOTR and Dragonlance series, but then once you start a series, unless its too damn boring, you have to follow it through!

I havent yet read the Twilight Series and hence can't comment on the same, hope its different from Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.

#47 The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie

#58 - "Any other King favorite adaptations?"

Carrie. Always loved that movie!

#48 - A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
#49 - The Tombs Of Atuan - Ursula K. Le Guin
#50 - The Farthest Shore - Ursula K. Le Guin

Well, on the King adaptations--generally I like the ones King wrote himself or co-produced, but It was a good one (again forgiving some casting) and scared the wits out of my then middle school son. Not only will he not go anywhere near storm drains if he's walking, he won't drive near one or park over one. I liked Hearts in Atlantis very much because, again, the heart is there. And I love The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. For equal time, I intensely dislike the Kubrick version of The Shining and also Dreamcatcher (which, to my mind, lost all redemption possibility in the rewrite), and I haven't made my mind up about Desperation, having only watched it once.

And you?

Hard to pick a worst King adaptation to movie, there are soooo many bad ones. I have to agree with Dreamcatcher though I really didn't enjoy the book that much either. Pet Semetary was pretty bad, and then they made sequels, a truly heinous crime. Stand by Me is probably a toss up with The Shawshank Redemption for the best in my mind. But, I hav ethis theory about King adaptations where the true horror stories just can't be translated to the screen because part of King's effectiveness is touching us all in our deeply held, imagined frights, which are personal but he taps into them.

I have found the movie/TV versions of his stuff to be universally bad. In fact, the only book that I ever thought had the fainstest possibility of being good was Cujo - mostly because it was a thing that could happen and most of the awfulness of it was not mental. It was right there in the car and in the driveway, slavering and ready to tear everybodys' head off. For the others at least half, if not more of the horror was linked up almost inextricably to what was going on in the characters' heads.

I actually thought The Stand did a passable job for a TV adaptation.

I did not see the TV one, mostly because I hated the Jack Nicholson one so much.

That's The Shining, Fourpawz2, with Nicholson, on which you and I agree. The television version of it is much, much closer to the book, so you might want to try it. Although, Blackdog, I do agree that often the horror which you feel when you read is awfully hard to convert into screen time which pass censor after censor after censor.

Interested no one mentioned Misery. I thought the film did a pretty good job of this, personally, although from memory some of the violence was rather scaled back.

Must confess I haven't watched ANY King adaptations apart from Misery and Stand By Me. I'm a total wimp about horror movies. I always had to be sent home at sleepovers.

And re. the comments on imagination: It was a book that totally grabbed and chilled me until the last 100 pages or so - at which point I was, "What? A (physical description of fearsome horrific spirit of book deleted to avoid spoiler - hopefully)???" - because the not-entirely-realised shape in my mind terrified me infinitely more than the thing the kids battle in the final sequence.

OMG, Prop2, is my face red! Of course that wasn't The Stand. With regard to The Stand, I thought it was o.k. - not great, but not awful. I guess I just prefer my King to be on the printed page. However, in recent years, I've decided that he ran out of original ideas somewhere right after Needful Things and that ever since then he has been blending or recycling his old stories in order to make new ones.

Fourpawz...
I couldn't agree with you more regarding your observations of King. I gave up on him because it seemed to me he was boringly repeatitive and really milking the audience and discrediting our intelligence.

The Tommyknockers was God awful!

Agreed.....not one of his best!!!! I don't agree that he is just recycling for all of his recent publications. Some of them have been a little old hat but some have been really good ole King. Like any writer, I think, he doesn't always hit the mark.

#51 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig

Sorry, we sort of took over for awhile there on the King stuff. What did you think of Zen? I jsut read it this year.

Yes please, I plan to read Zen next year, I would like to know what others here think of it.
btw, yes, I did read your review blackdogbooks.

I got hooked when the first discussion about gravity started, somewhere around Page 40, the time when I thought I would be able to read it in one go, but how wrong I was! The book though brilliantly written, drags a bit at times and those are the times its difficult to maintain the same level of interest. Having said that, the reason I couldn't finish the book in one go was that I had to take time off to reflect on the philosophical ideas brought forth in the book. The discussion on a seemingly simple topic like quality and the wide range of interpretation derived from that seemingly simple topic encompassing works done by major philosophers of yester years is simply amazing. On a personal level, I was able to relate to the frustration Phaedrus feels while his stint at the university for reasons well discussed in the book.

My only advice, dont try to rush through the book and read it when your mind is relatively calm and can absorb the ideas and the associated discussions.

#52 Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert T. Kiyosaki & Sharon Lechter

Good advice from PiyushChourisa on Zen!!!

Thanks blackdog, just read your review for this one and totally concur with your analysis, the last few lines in particular!

Thanks, I consider that very high praise!!!

You honour me too much!

#53 Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë

Piyush - how did you like No 53? It's on my TBR pile, so I hope to read it one day ;) And I already saw the movie, I hope it will not destroy my joy during reading ;)

#85--Oh, how I hope you saw a good film version of the story. There are several that are quite middling and could interfere with enjoying the book. Most films also only cover the first 16 or so chapters, so you have a lot more story to go through when you read!

Quite a decent read...sometimes tagged as the best love story ever...was a bit skeptic therefore (had my fill of romantic stories with A Walk To Remember and Love Story)...wont mind reading another one like this...maybe I didn't do the book justice in this post, have a mild you may say aversion to love stories :)

#54 The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari - Robin S. Sharma

You can't just leave a title like that on your thread and not comment!!!!!!

To be frank, I HATED that book, thats why didn't feel like commenting on such a pathetic book.
I understand that there are quite a few people who would vehemently disagree with my comment, but then, thats what this place is for, to have discussions and arguments :)

#55 The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum
#56 The Bourne Supremacy - Robert Ludlum

Thus read the first two parts of the Bourne Trilogy, will read the third one later though, sems I had too much of Robert Ludlum!

The books are so very much different from the movies, the movie borrows the characters and the plot, but then decides to weave a different story altogether!

A score of 2.5/5 for both from me.

I'm curious what you thought. I had read the books first, long before I saw the movies. After just reading, I thought The Bourne Identity was good; The Bourne Supremacy was not good and The Bourne Ultimatum was really bad.

When I saw the movies, I was a bit unsettled in the first one because the plot lines are so different and I liked the book's plot line better. However, I eventually got it through my head that "this is just a different story that happens to have the same title" and I ended up liking both movies.

Edit: touchstones taking too long to come back (boy, LT is getting slow), so just going with italics

Very true! The book's plot is better than the movie's, but I found the movies decent enough.

I guess in that case, it was a good decision to postpone The Bourne Ultimatum to next year. I had to do a similar adjustment while reading the book, me having seen the movie earlier (the same The Bourne Ultimatum being the worst applies to the movie too though).

Sorry, I had the opposite reaction. I enjoyed the movies as sheer escapist thrillers; I was able to completely suspend any disbelief. When I went back and read The Bourne Indentity, I found the characters so cardboard and the plot so unbelievable, I couldn't enjoy them. This may be one rare instance where the movie version of something ruined a book for me.

Sorry, I'm traveling and using someone's Mac (which I am not familiar with) and I got a little computer epilepsy with the submit button.

Blackdogbooks
When you put it this way, I am inclined to agree with you, the movie was certainly more engaging and entertaining, my only point of dissention being that the plot and the storyline of the book had much more depth than that of the movie...

I've never re-read The Bourne Identity (I would never even consider re-reading the other two). I wonder what I'd think of it now. Oh well, not going to bother...TBR pile is too big. :-)

Hmmm, actually, I liked the movies much better than I liked to books. Especially the way they wove the ending of the second movie into the plot of the third movie.

I read the books many years ago when I was in a Ludlum reading frenzy, and generally enjoyed them. When I first saw the films, I was stunned at how much the plots were--well, totally changed. The credits showed Ludlum as a consultant and some arms' length producer, so he had to have approved the changes. Then I reread the books last year after the third film came out. I'm in agreement with Blackdogbooks here: they are two entirely different stories sharing some character names and titles. I really liked the films, and found the books harder to get through the second time because some of the mechanics were a bit tedious. However, I've been a fan of Ludlum's for years, so it's simply a case of I like both interpretations of a story line.

#57 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agath Christie

This is my fifth only Agath Christie book, second this year, and so far found this the best amongst the lot. This book is not unnecessarily complex as some of her other books tend to get and the flow was quite natural.

3.5/5 for this one

hi PiyushChourasia
I've never read Agath Chistie. I'll give her a try.
Thanks.

#103 Whisper: I don't know why it surprises me that you have not read Dame Christie before, Linda, but somehow it does. Of course, a lot of the authors I have never read before surprises me, too, so I guess you could say I am easily surprised, lol.

#103--My goodness! Think of all the pleasant hours you have ahead of you then. :-)

--Tad

Whisper, try And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express. Very good stuff! Also, most of the Miss Marple stories are good.

I am yet to read any of Miss Marple stories, read And then there were none last year, found it reasonably good, will add Murder on the Orient Express to my TBR list...

Thanks to all for the wonderful Agatha Christie suggestions.

Drneturon...I'm currently reading Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers -- one of the books I found on your list and it is fascinating.

#58 A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

5/5

I think Death on the Nile is still my favourite... oh, there are so many! What fun to be coming to them fresh.

Death of the Nile has been added to the ever growing TBR pile. Thanks

Mine too!

#59 The Flame Of Life - Alan Sillitoe

3.5/5

#60 Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie

Read on the recommendation of drneutron, very different and quite entertaining. The rest is the same as we write about any Agatha Christie book :)

3.5/5

Hurrah for Agatha Christie :) My mum actually suggested getting rid of her collection at her last major springclean. Yes, I am still just about speaking to her (she agreed to just tuck them all away on a high shelf in the end).

I do not know what I would do if my mother ever decided to get rid of her Christie collection, but I know how happy I was to discover on EBay someone who had 2 lots of Christie books for sale (something like 33 books total), and I got them for a song.

How odd that you all should be talking about Christie right now. I just made up my mind last week to do a private challenge inside my next 75 book challenge and read all of her mysteries, in order, over the next 2 years. Maybe then I will like mysteries better than I do now.

#61 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

4/5

How did you like The Woman in White? I read The Moonstone earlier this year after watching several video versions of the story, and greatly enjoyed it--enough to read a series of Collins' works in shorter novels. I enjoyed just about every one of those works, and especially the histories about Collins and Dickens. But every time I look at the length of Woman in White, I get cold feet about starting it.

I liked it very much, it was my first Wilkie Collins book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Though it is a bit lengthy, the story never drags or bores you, and the characters and the story is so very natural with little exaggeration. The only (wont say drawback) peculiarity of the book is its time frame (the book being written in 1860s), but then thats what classics are all about...

I suggest you to read it in parts (which are naturally there in the story) if length is the only constraint.

Thanks for your input on The Woman in White--it goes back toward the top of my TBR, because I do enjoy Collins' work.

I may save this for my Halloween reading next year with Dracula!!!!

Prop2gether
In that case, you should definitely read it!

blackdogbooks
It doesn't fall into horror genre, so you should consder rescheduling it for some other time :)

I'm a little more broad than that with my Halloween reading......it doesn't have to be horror exactly. And, though I've never read the book, I understood it to be peppered with mystery, gothic style, and ghost stuff. Am I wrong?

It is more on the lines of a crime story, a thriller you may say...though the setting of the story is medieval, I would refrain from calling it gothic, and there isn't any ghost stuff, the book does score some points on the mystery barometer though...

Okay, it may still fit into my Halloween writing, and I keep passing it on my shelves......gotta read it soon. Thanks for the clarification.

#62 The Argumentative Indian - Amartya Sen

When I started the book, I was really amazed at the different themes put together right from Ashoka to Akbar, Vedas to Mill’s history of India. After I finished the book, I was not any wiser than when I had read the first 100 pages. The repetition of ideas with the very same examples doesn’t make reading any easier or interesting. While he criticizes nationalism throughout his book, citing Ravindranath Tagore, he himself comes across as one. Again, his views on arguments fall flat when one reads the single-minded views of his from which it becomes very evident that instead of thinking a given issue through and then making an analyzed and rational statement; he is much more inclined to use his arguments to prove his point. He has used the opposite view in some cases, but only to substantiate his own points rather than as a value add to the book and all objections to his theory which he couldn’t have explained away even in this unilateral channel of communication, he has conveniently ignored. Having made all these points, I cannot deny that the book is very informative and the author has been successful in bringing up most of the points which should be discussed when one wants to understand, discuss or write about India, for this I would rate this book above average with a score of 3.5 on a scale of 5.

I personally had more respect for Amartya Sen before I read this book and one of the reasons I am so critical of this book go beyond the obvious fact that it is badly written. If the same book had been written as “My Own Views”, I would have been more tolerant, but what really tested my patience was his effort to disguise his pre-conceived notions as the best an intellectual and rational mind can come up with. While his book may appeal more to an ill-read and/or uninformed audience, it didn’t appeal to me. Somewhere down the line, he seems to have lost contact with India as it has grown in the last decade and a half and I don’t only refer to the economic progress, but the country as a whole and maybe that is why this poor effort.

Finally, if I wouldn’t have known, I could have never guessed that an economist and that too a Nobel laureate has written this book.

3.5/5

re: msg 61 -- one big difference is that Paolini was a kid when he began the series and Tolkein had been working on his universe for years and was a seasone and an Oxford professor when he wrote. For what it is, I think Paolini's work is remarkable.

Thanks for all the stuff on Douglas Adams -- got some of his books in my big shipment and have been regarding them skeptically. Now I'll approach them with a bit more confidence :)

>127 PiyushC: more on the Argumentative Indian, please, Piyush :-)

suslyn

Thats true! Paolini has definitely done remarkable work given his age, lets hope he gets better with time and not get stuck with the same mistakes, still looking forward to his fourth book :)

Douglas Adams is quite good in what he does, while his writing style is a bit "different" with a touch of dark humour and sarcasm, people who like him just cannot get enough of him, me included :)

FlossieT

I am supposed to write a 5 page summary/review/discussion for one of my courses, will post excerpts from that within the next 7 days...which should be quite interesting given the diversity in our group; my group consists of a danish girl who has visited 30 odd countries, but its her first time in India; a swedish girl who hasnt been to many places, but its her third trip to India, an Indian who has lived most of his life in Kuwait and me, born and brought up in India :)

#63 Mysterious Affair At Styles - Agatha Christie

3/5

Enough of Agatha Christie for now! Reading 6-10 Agatha Christies every year seems like a good idea :)

Since Dame Christie wrote about 85 or so mysteries (and that is not including those published as Mary Westmacott), at the rate of 6-10 per year, you have several years of reading to look forward to, I would say!

alcottacre

Thats what I am counting on , they are easy and fun reads, dont want to exhaust them too soon :)

#64 Queen Of The Damned - Anne Rice

The third books of the Vampire Chronicles, very decent, well paced and quite gripping for someone who has read the first two parts and wonders at the apparent increase in both the volume and pace of the books down the series...For some reason, I feel Anne Rice should have stopped after this one, will be able to make a more informed comment next year when I get on with the rest of the series!

3.5/5

I had the same feeling. I did stop there, though my wife read on until the end. Based upon her comments, I'm fine with having stopped.

>135 PiyushC:: Piyush, I only ever read the first of these. Are they worth revisiting? (I stopped reading for the worst of reasons - someone I didn't like very much thought they were brilliant and at that point in my life it mattered A LOT to mark myself out. So there are some plus points to becoming an adult!)

TadaD

Yeah, even I think I shouldn't read them any further, but its kind of hard for me to leave a series unread, the only reason I will read the third part of the Bourne Series.

Flossie

If you liked Interview With The Vampire, chances are you would like the next two as well, reading till Queen of the Damned would cover "almost" everything mentioned in any of the first three books. The reason you mentioned is really bad, but then better late than never :)

Given my reading pattern, I am surprised at myself for not yet starting with the Twilight Series, maybe next year...

#65 God's Debris - Scott Adams

A masterpiece from the creator of the famous dilbert strips! A very short book written in an impeccable style which make you long for more. Becomes slightly repetitive towards the end, hence a star less in rankings, a very enjoyable read none the less.

The sequel The Religion War is in my TBR list for next year.

4/5

Flossie, Thanks for the honesty. I had to stifle the giggles!!! In any case, a different view. I wish I had stopped with Interview with a Vampire because I didn't enjoy the next installments. I just felt like she was sort of rehashing the same groudn without really going any deeper.

Msg 140 -- Hear! Hear! or is that Here! Here! Hmmm maybe I should just stay with the safer "ditto" :)

blackdogbooks

how many how you read so far? Agree with you that she didn't go much deeper but revolved around the same ideas, still I didn't mind it much.

#66 Fooled By Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

3.5/5

I get the titles mixed up, this was the days before I started using a reading journal, but I think I read two more after Interview.

I've read pretty much all of them. Interview with a Vampire was by far the best. The rest, meh...

ETA: I did enjoy Tale of the Body Thief, though.

blackdogbooks

You must have read The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned, those are the next two in the series.

drneutron

Tale of the Body Thief is the fourth in the series I guess, with this positive feedback will read this one atleast next year.

#67 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

3.5/5

#68 Life Of Pi - Yann Martel

4/5

> msg 148 -- i couldn't read it. 4/5 wow. I know I'm probably the only one who couldn't. I tried. Waited a year and tried again. Just couldn't do it.

Suslyn

Funny you would say that! For me too, this was the second try, the first one being some 3 years back, when I started this book, but for some reason left it having read only 40 odd pages!

I guess you also can give it another try, believe me its totally worth it!

Interestingly, I found Life of Pi this afternoon in a box that I had in my basement for three years. I tried to read it back then and lost interest. But, now, I'll give it another try.

Whisper

Now that is indeed interesting!

Whisper and Suslyn

I guess most people (me included) give up the book on first try is that the book is really slow for the first 100 odd pages and is a bit incoherent at times. But I am sure that if you read it through, you would like it.

#69 The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

5/5

oh yes Piyush, I read The unbearable lightness of being over ten years ago and remember it as a great book!

Oh yes, it is!
As soon I got to the concept of the Unbearable Lightness Of Being, I knew I am in here for a treat. The book was atleast as good as what I expected it to be, this was my first Milan Kundera, and I will surely read some more next year.

#70 Last Tango In Paris - Robert Alley

2/5

I will not be able to login for some time, have undertaken a course on Self exploration for which I need to go to a remote place and one of the requirements for the course is to be away from all fancy gadgets which include laptops, cell phones, i-pods, etc.

Will hear from you people again towards the last week of December before Christmas.

Incidentally, wrote my first review here on the book The Argumentative Indian - Amartya Sen and that should give you some idea as to why I normally don't venture into this field where anyways we have experts like blackdogbooks doing all the work for us.

Happy Reading to all!

Piyush,

That's a wonderfully nice thing to say but I am no expert. Not at all. I have enjoyed writing my thoughts on the reading I've done' this year and everyone's supportive nature has emboldened me to be more free with my writing. But there are lots of great readers and writers on the thread.

We will miss your posts for the next couple of weeks. Your journey sounds intriguing and I hope that it is fruitful beyond just its value as a course.

By the way, your review was good - just keep at it.

>157 PiyushC: Piyush, I thought your review was excellent - your views really came across and that is what I like in reviews - I want to read what you thought and felt about what you read - so don't think you have to be an expert (like BDB!) just express yourself in your own way.

Enjoy your retreat.

- TT

#71 Belgarath The Sorcerer - David Eddings
#72 Pawn of Prophecy - David Eddings
#73 Queen of Sorcery - David Eddings
#74 Magician's Gambit - David Eddings
#75 Castle Of Wizardry - David Eddings
#76 Enchanter's End Game - David Eddings

#77 The Trial - Franz Kafka

5/5

#78 Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

5/5

#79 Casino Royale - Ian Fleming

4/5

#80 Sphere - Michael Crichton

3/5

#81 Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

2.5/5

#82 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

3.5/5

Piyush congratulations on reaching *75* books!

Yes indeedy P! Congrats on 75. So how did you find David Eddings? I was a real fan at one time but he has migrated to my 'buy no more' list

Woo Hoo!! Congratulations!

I, too, was a fan of David Eddings' earlier series, but his recent books are not to my liking at all.

I am currently reading the Mallorean Series as of now, he seems to be decent enough, though the Belgariad Series was better. He seems relatively closer to Robert Jordan in some sense, but ofcourse Robert Jordan is much more darker than David Eddings.

I agree that the Belgariad is better than the Mallorean series. I also read his Elenium and Tamuli series and liked them. I do not care for his recent stuff though.

Congratulations, Piyush!

I was a David Eddings nut as a teenager but never made it past the first book of the Tamuli. The Belgariad is now marketed specifically as YA in the UK, which I don't remember being the case when I was reading them.

I remember the Elenium books as being much darker than the Belgariad and Mallorean, but I've never read any Robert Jordan so don't know where they'd be on the spectrum!

Congrats on surpassing the 75!

>161 PiyushC:: I see you gave The Trial 5/5, so I guess you liked it. I plan to read this book in 2009, so I would be interested in your impressions.

- TT

Edding hit my Do Not Buy list after I realized he was writing the same basic story over and over. I enjoyed the Belgariad, but each succeeding series became more boring.

Congratulations and how did the self-exploration journey go?

I like Jordon's WOT but am most distressed that he died before the series was finished! ack!

Brandon Sanderson, one of LT's own and author of Elantris and Mistborn is working on finishing the last book. It was mostly finished, but needed a bit more work, apparently.

I'm going to wait to hear the reviews. I liked Elantris but I've rarely been satisfied with one author's ability to finish another's work. Fortunately, I stopped reading at Volume 5 of the series, waiting to get them all and read them in one shot so that I didn't have to keep re-reading to remember all the characters. So, if the last one is horrible, I'll just not do it. :-)

alcottacre
I guess I would also read the Elenium and Tamuli Series, maybe in January 2009, but with all the warnings, might stop there.

FlossieT
Robert Jordan books are a lot more intense and are by far the darkest fantasy books I have read, they do tend to get repetitive because of a very bottom heavy approach to his writing, I liked him a lot never the less, you may like to sample the first three if you are interested in his kind of writing.

Please add my congratulations to the list of many well wishers.

As far as dark fantasy, I found the Thomas Covenant books by Stephen R. Donaldson a lot darker. So, too, was the wonderful series by Anne Bishop, even though, somehow, in it's darkness it was light. LOL -- I'm sure that makes tons of sense and is clear as mud :)

TT

I absoultely loved the book. It was a typical Kafka book in which the helplessness of human being is actively glorified in all details. If you like Franz Kafka, you would definitely like The Trial.

blackdogbooks

It actually went quite well, the course structure and the associated results were quite astonishing and the experience was much better than I would have otherwise believed had I not been a part of this course.

suslyn

It was quite disappointing that he died when he did, (I know this reflects me in a rather bad light :P), but he should have hurried himself with the last part!

"somehow, in it's darkness it was light" - LOL. Have you started your own series, "Light in Darkness"?

now there's an idea... :)

Hope to get a free signed copy :)

#83 Guardians of the West - David Eddings
#84 The King of the Murgos - David Eddings

#85 Demon Lord of Karanda - David Eddings
#86 Sorceress of Darshiva - David Eddings

#87 Seeress Of Kell - David Eddings
#88 Polgara The Sorceress - David Eddings & Leigh Eddings

I thus end the year with a tally of 88 books, better than my best estimate of 75 (which I at that time thought to be a stretch) and the credit goes to you people for being so enthusiastic in providing encouragement, feedback and recommendations.

Top 10 Reads This Year in no Order of Preference:

01. A Clockwork Orange
02. The Trial
03. Crime and Punishment
04. 1984
05. Siddhartha
06. Cat's Cradle
07. Anna Karenina
08. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
09. The Satanic Verses
10. The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Wow, lots of classics this year, Piyush!

Yeah, I am biased towards Classics :)
Plan to read more next year.