Here's the running list of the books that I have read, along with relavent information should you want to find them. Click on the title to read the entry about that book, or just scroll down till you find something that interests you. If it's not linked, I haven't finished writing about it. Sometimes I read faster than I write. Books are listed in reverse chronological order by the date that I finished reading them. It is safe to assume that I started the next book on the same day or the morning after I finished the last. Here's the Introduction if you want to read it. Suggestions are always welcome.
Eventually:
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
Translated from the Italian by William Weaver
c.1980, 1984
Harcourt, Inc.: San Diego
535 pages
October 28, 2006
Devil in the Details:
Scenes From An Obsessive Girlhood
by Jennifer Traig
c. 2004
Little, Brown and Company: New York
246 pages
September 30,2006 (ish)
Mountains Beyond Mountains:
The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World
by Tracy Kidder
c. 2003
Random House: New York
304 pages
September 15, 2006
Enchantment
by Orson Scott Card
c. 1999
Ballentine Books: New York
415 pages
August 1, 2006
Naked
by David Sedaris
c. 1997
Little Brown and Company: New York
291 pages
July 26, 2006
Me Talk Pretty One Day
by David Sedaris
c. 2000
Little Brown and Company: Boston
272 pages
July 18, 2006:
We Need To Talk About Kevin
by Lionel Shriver
c. 2003
Counterpoint: New York
400 pages
July 16, 2006:
An Unquiet Mind
by Kay Redfield Jamison
c. 1995
Vintage Books: New York
219 pages
July 12, 2006:
Running With Scissors
by Augusten Burroughs
c. 2002
Picador: New York
304 pages
July 11, 2006:
Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs
by Chuck Klosterman
c. 2003
Scribner: New York
246 pages
July 10, 2006:
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
by Edmund Morris
c.1979
The Modern Library: New York
780 pages
June 25, 2006:
A Long Way Down
by Nick Hornby
c. 2005
Riverhead Books: New York
333 pages
June 21, 2006:
The Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
c. 2001
Harcourt, Inc.: Orlando
319 pages
June 13, 2006
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky
c. 1999
Pocket Books: New York
213 pages
June 12, 2006
A Prayer For Owen Meaney
by John Irving
c. 1989
Random House: New York
617 pages
June 9, 2006
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by Italo Colvino
Translated from the Italian by William Weaver
c. 1979, 1981
Harcourt, Inc.: San Diego
260 pages
June 2, 2006
Walking a Literary Labyrinth:
A Spirituality of Reading
by Nancy M. Malone
c. 2003
Riverhead Books: New York
208 pages
June 1, 2006
Peter and the Starcatchers
by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
c.2004
Hyperion Books For Children: New York
451 pages
May 31, 2006
Kill as Few Patients as Possible
Oscar Landon, M.D.
c. 1987, 1997
Ten Speed Press: Berkley, CA
109 pages
May 29, 2006
Something Borrowed
by Emily Griffin
c. 2004
St. Martin's Griffin, New York
322 pages
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Naked
Naked
by David Sedaris
c. 1997
Little, Brown and Company: New York
291 pages
by David Sedaris
c. 1997
Little, Brown and Company: New York
291 pages
So as stated in the last entry (for Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day) this book came from paperbackswap.com. My life has been kind of crazy this last week, and this seemed the right kind of book for the sort of disjointed reality, so I picked it up immediately after the last one.
I enjoyed this book as much as the other, but in a very different way. I felt that Sedaris did less well in this book of leaving his extraordinary characters with their humanity (here the absurdity level reminded me more of Running With Scissors on occasion, the jade carving Jesus freak and the penis collecting union man come to mind) but perhaps a better job creating the mood and the reality of the situations that he faced.
I am a planner, a worker, a student, a person with goals and a vision for the next step. Sedaris was a hitchhiker, a dropout, a migrant worker living out of a trailer. It is not a life that I can relate to, and really, I know, not a life that I want, although sometimes I wish that I could convince myself to just pack it up and go. (Maybe this is what I am doing with the upcoming trip to Europe, but it seems that spending two years saving money and planning it out will take some of the mystery out of the whole thing, and obviously there is no hitchhiking or migrant apple picking in my future.) I did find myself intrigued by his wanderings, and by the stories, both good and bad that came from them, and that's what sucked me in. This book had a decent amount of continuity, at least the essays were presented chronologically, and that pulled me in a little more than Me Talk Pretty One Day, because there was some sense of "what happens next?" that I felt less in the other book.
And it did make me think more about the way that I lead my life, as a planner, unlike Sedaris, as someone who is mostly the same around everyone, unlike one of his coworkers, as someone who would probably not really enjoy a week at a nudist colony, but who might need it anyway (like Sedaris I suppose).
So all in all, a good book, although another that I will be passing on without a sense of attachment. This is the kind of book that I for one can mostly read and be done with, I would suggest that if you want it, swap for it, so that if it makes a different impression on you (I can see where it might, depending on where you are coming from) you can keep it, and if not, you can send it along until it finds someone who will want to keep it.
Another ringing endorsement for the wonder that is paperbackswap.com.
I enjoyed this book as much as the other, but in a very different way. I felt that Sedaris did less well in this book of leaving his extraordinary characters with their humanity (here the absurdity level reminded me more of Running With Scissors on occasion, the jade carving Jesus freak and the penis collecting union man come to mind) but perhaps a better job creating the mood and the reality of the situations that he faced.
I am a planner, a worker, a student, a person with goals and a vision for the next step. Sedaris was a hitchhiker, a dropout, a migrant worker living out of a trailer. It is not a life that I can relate to, and really, I know, not a life that I want, although sometimes I wish that I could convince myself to just pack it up and go. (Maybe this is what I am doing with the upcoming trip to Europe, but it seems that spending two years saving money and planning it out will take some of the mystery out of the whole thing, and obviously there is no hitchhiking or migrant apple picking in my future.) I did find myself intrigued by his wanderings, and by the stories, both good and bad that came from them, and that's what sucked me in. This book had a decent amount of continuity, at least the essays were presented chronologically, and that pulled me in a little more than Me Talk Pretty One Day, because there was some sense of "what happens next?" that I felt less in the other book.
And it did make me think more about the way that I lead my life, as a planner, unlike Sedaris, as someone who is mostly the same around everyone, unlike one of his coworkers, as someone who would probably not really enjoy a week at a nudist colony, but who might need it anyway (like Sedaris I suppose).
So all in all, a good book, although another that I will be passing on without a sense of attachment. This is the kind of book that I for one can mostly read and be done with, I would suggest that if you want it, swap for it, so that if it makes a different impression on you (I can see where it might, depending on where you are coming from) you can keep it, and if not, you can send it along until it finds someone who will want to keep it.
Another ringing endorsement for the wonder that is paperbackswap.com.
Me Talk Pretty One Day
Me Talk Pretty One Day
by David Sedaris
c. 2000
Little Brown and Company: Boston
272 pages
by David Sedaris
c. 2000
Little Brown and Company: Boston
272 pages
This is one of those books that I saw so many times on tables and display shelves in bookstores everywhere that I went that curiosity got the better of me, and when I saw it at the bookstore a couple of weeks ago, I made a note and searched for it on paperbackswap.com, and had it sent to me be someone in California or Texas or something. (I take a moment here to say that if you are not a member of paperbackswap.com, you should go and join now, its a wonderful thing that gets you free books and allows you to share books that you don't need anymore with people who are going to read them.)
Anyway, the book got to me on Monday, and Tuesday was the day that I had set aside for a full night desperate, this time I really will do this, cleaning of my bedroom (usually an unimaginable disaster area.) I am not a good cleaner, and so I give myself incentives to keep working, and in this case, reading was this incentive. This was a good book for that purpose, because it is a collection of autobiographical essays that are not necessarily connected to one another. That means that each has a definitive end (good for the, "one essay and then back to cleaning" mentality.) Also, because they're disjointed in some ways, there was no feeling of being interrupted by short spurts of reading, something that bothers me sometimes when I just want to know what happens.
I didn't realize when I got this book that it was a memoir of sorts. I suppose that I am on something of a memoir kick right now. The reviews on the back and in the inside cover of this book seemed to suggest that I would be rolling on the floor in sidesplitting laughter and happy to be alone in the house for the night. It wasn't quite that entertaining, but there is very little that I read that pulls that kind of laugh out loud reaction from me (only Douglas Adams and Dave Barry come to mind.) The essays were amusing, some a little absurd, but all around entertaining. It seems that Sedaris has led the kind of life in which he is surrounded by people of extremes (although not as extreme as those that are hanging out with young Augusten Burroughs) and he is able to see and communicate the humor in these situations while still leaving these people with their humanity, something that I think Burroughs occasionally failed to do.
I enjoyed this book for the purpose that it served, but I will be paperback swapping my copy away this evening, as it didn't make any kid of enormous impression on me. However, I had already ordered another of Sedaris' books with this one, and so you get that next (or before this, since I am posting both tonight) because it seemed more like the right kind of book to be reading when I am in kind of a start and stop sort of place, so I can say that I enjoyed it enough to want to read more right away, not too great an endorsement from someone who always wants to [read. more. now.] but an endorsement nonetheless.
Anyway, the book got to me on Monday, and Tuesday was the day that I had set aside for a full night desperate, this time I really will do this, cleaning of my bedroom (usually an unimaginable disaster area.) I am not a good cleaner, and so I give myself incentives to keep working, and in this case, reading was this incentive. This was a good book for that purpose, because it is a collection of autobiographical essays that are not necessarily connected to one another. That means that each has a definitive end (good for the, "one essay and then back to cleaning" mentality.) Also, because they're disjointed in some ways, there was no feeling of being interrupted by short spurts of reading, something that bothers me sometimes when I just want to know what happens.
I didn't realize when I got this book that it was a memoir of sorts. I suppose that I am on something of a memoir kick right now. The reviews on the back and in the inside cover of this book seemed to suggest that I would be rolling on the floor in sidesplitting laughter and happy to be alone in the house for the night. It wasn't quite that entertaining, but there is very little that I read that pulls that kind of laugh out loud reaction from me (only Douglas Adams and Dave Barry come to mind.) The essays were amusing, some a little absurd, but all around entertaining. It seems that Sedaris has led the kind of life in which he is surrounded by people of extremes (although not as extreme as those that are hanging out with young Augusten Burroughs) and he is able to see and communicate the humor in these situations while still leaving these people with their humanity, something that I think Burroughs occasionally failed to do.
I enjoyed this book for the purpose that it served, but I will be paperback swapping my copy away this evening, as it didn't make any kid of enormous impression on me. However, I had already ordered another of Sedaris' books with this one, and so you get that next (or before this, since I am posting both tonight) because it seemed more like the right kind of book to be reading when I am in kind of a start and stop sort of place, so I can say that I enjoyed it enough to want to read more right away, not too great an endorsement from someone who always wants to [read. more. now.] but an endorsement nonetheless.
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