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The Year in Books - 2007
I started off the year impressed by reading about people who'd made a vow to read 50 to 100 books in 2007. For a brief while, I toyed with the notion of giving myself the same challenge, but I figured (what with planning a wedding, collecting and analyzing my data, writing up my dissertation, going on the job search and potentially moving across country) I already had a lot on my plate.
In any case, I did manage to squeak through a few novels and self-help books, and I think the year is far enough along at this point that it highly unlikely that I finish another book between now and the 31st (especially since the next book I've set my mind to read is Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit). In any case, I thought I'd revisit the books I read this year and reflect a little on what I did and didn't like about each.
So, without further ado...
1. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
Some of the dialog in this reminded me of the many late-night conversations I used to have as an undergraduate with my then (pro-communist, pacifist, existentialist, card-carrying environmentalist German) boyfriend. Definitely not a keeper (the book I mean - the boyfriend also had issues).
2. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
This book lasted me through through two transatlantic flights, one trip from Sweden to Germany, and a month of data-collection in Sweden. It needed to be savored and read carefully - but boy what a great read. I hated reading Great Expectations in high school and was wary of revisiting Dickens, but this completely changed my opinion. I can only hope that Martin Chuzzlewit is half as entertaining.
3. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
I fear I haven't done right by the Bronte sisters, Anne in particular, so I decided to give this fic a spin. It's saving grace was that it was rather short, but I can't really remember much else. I think there was a governess in it and she ended up falling in love and marrying someone, but I could be confusing that with another book by a different Bronte.
4. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
I think I was on something of a Bronte kick for a week back in March or something, and I happened to find an old hard-bound version of Villette. I enjoyed it far more than Agnes Grey but aside from vague impressions of the town, the school-mistress, and a stoic but plucky heroine, it really didn't leave nearly the impression that Bleak House did.
5. Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag
Ugh! Least favorite book I read all year. I broke down and bought this after facing the prospect of being stranded in the Cleveland airport for about 8 hours. As usual, a really deviant serial killer (or something) had left a mess and the hard boiled female detective (or coroner or PI or something) almost gets her ass killed tracking the bad guy down. There might have been some sex too, but I'm not sure. If there was a "love scene" it was completely unremarkable and unsatisfying (particularly as compared to the stuff the HP fandom produces).
6. Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Philips
Another airport buy. I think I was so disgusted by Hoag's thriller, that I picked this one up on my way out of the Trenton airport to read on the train back to Philly. I absolutely love SEP, though I haven't been as enamored of some of her more recent books. This, however, was laugh-out-loud fun - a keeper as far as romance novels are concerned. Speaking of SEP, seeing as she always writes about Texas, does she happen to live down here?
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Of course I read this puppy. THE book of the year! Never have I celebrated the release of a book before. Good fun. A somewhat dissatisfying read since to turn the last page meant it was OVER! *sob* (And the fandom hasn't been the same since.) However, I think it's bound to get better with time. I haven't given it a second go-round yet, but I have revisited certain scenes for the purpose of working on a piece of fanart, and I have enjoyed these moments more upon second viewing.
8. Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki & Sharon T. Lechter
An easy read, and something that has gotten me thinking about the way I approach money and live my life working for money. I think I've put my big life altering investment plans on hold (at least until the current cashflow after the wedding and big move evens out), but I expect I shall be revisiting this in the new year.
9. The Bilingual Edge: Why, When, and How to Teach Your Child a Second Language by Kendall King & Alison Mackey
Though I don't have kids, I'm still interested in reading about strategies for parents in the US trying to raise their children to speak more than one language. As I personally know these two scholars (both Assoc. Professors of Linguistics at Georgetown), I was very curious to get a feel for how they managed to package research in our field in a way that is accessible and interesting for non-experts.
10. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
I really liked the atmosphere of this book and the incorporation of this philosophical struggle in a children's tale. It was my first experience reading a book with something of a Steampunk atmosphere, and I found I liked it a great deal.
11. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
So once I read the first of the trilogy, I had to continue. I initially found it off-putting to begin with a new character and a new set of circumstances around a boy from our own world, but I was happy to see the characters from so many parallel world's meet up.
12. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
And I tore through this one to get to the end. My favorite part had to be the idea that we here in this universe have daemons too, even if we cannot see them. I wonder what kind of animal mine would be. (Gawd, I hope it's not a giant-ass spider!) What bothered me the most was the demise of Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel. Since they fell into that abyss with metatron, will their souls never make it to the underworld? Will they be forever falling like that? Ugh... Also, 12/13-year-old kids who fall so deeply in love? In my world view, there's something very odd and unbelievable about that.
13. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
One of my flisties recommended this (based on a BBC adaptation, I believe) and it really was a charming read - something of episodes from a small set-in-its-way village from Victorian England.
14. Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell
Teenage heart-sick melodrama, Victorian style. Do people ever seriously get "brain fever" from being disappointed in love? Man alive... The best part of the book came at the end when the maid pretty much told Phillis to get over her moping and to get on with her life. LOL!
15. Persuasion by Jane Austen
I actually read this puppy 2 times (and watched the 1995 movie version with Amanda Root and Cieran Hinds about 5 times) over the past two weeks. I've read all of Austen's novels several times and I tend to find myself re-reading Pride and Prejudice every winter, but this year it was Persuasion. The love story in this is just so grand, and this particular video adaptation is worth owning. The question is, why don't I own it yet?
So what about you guys. What did you read this year? And should I challenge myself to read 50 books in 2008?
I started off the year impressed by reading about people who'd made a vow to read 50 to 100 books in 2007. For a brief while, I toyed with the notion of giving myself the same challenge, but I figured (what with planning a wedding, collecting and analyzing my data, writing up my dissertation, going on the job search and potentially moving across country) I already had a lot on my plate.
In any case, I did manage to squeak through a few novels and self-help books, and I think the year is far enough along at this point that it highly unlikely that I finish another book between now and the 31st (especially since the next book I've set my mind to read is Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit). In any case, I thought I'd revisit the books I read this year and reflect a little on what I did and didn't like about each.
1. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
Some of the dialog in this reminded me of the many late-night conversations I used to have as an undergraduate with my then (pro-communist, pacifist, existentialist, card-carrying environmentalist German) boyfriend. Definitely not a keeper (the book I mean - the boyfriend also had issues).
2. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
This book lasted me through through two transatlantic flights, one trip from Sweden to Germany, and a month of data-collection in Sweden. It needed to be savored and read carefully - but boy what a great read. I hated reading Great Expectations in high school and was wary of revisiting Dickens, but this completely changed my opinion. I can only hope that Martin Chuzzlewit is half as entertaining.
3. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
I fear I haven't done right by the Bronte sisters, Anne in particular, so I decided to give this fic a spin. It's saving grace was that it was rather short, but I can't really remember much else. I think there was a governess in it and she ended up falling in love and marrying someone, but I could be confusing that with another book by a different Bronte.
4. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
I think I was on something of a Bronte kick for a week back in March or something, and I happened to find an old hard-bound version of Villette. I enjoyed it far more than Agnes Grey but aside from vague impressions of the town, the school-mistress, and a stoic but plucky heroine, it really didn't leave nearly the impression that Bleak House did.
5. Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag
Ugh! Least favorite book I read all year. I broke down and bought this after facing the prospect of being stranded in the Cleveland airport for about 8 hours. As usual, a really deviant serial killer (or something) had left a mess and the hard boiled female detective (or coroner or PI or something) almost gets her ass killed tracking the bad guy down. There might have been some sex too, but I'm not sure. If there was a "love scene" it was completely unremarkable and unsatisfying (particularly as compared to the stuff the HP fandom produces).
6. Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Philips
Another airport buy. I think I was so disgusted by Hoag's thriller, that I picked this one up on my way out of the Trenton airport to read on the train back to Philly. I absolutely love SEP, though I haven't been as enamored of some of her more recent books. This, however, was laugh-out-loud fun - a keeper as far as romance novels are concerned. Speaking of SEP, seeing as she always writes about Texas, does she happen to live down here?
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Of course I read this puppy. THE book of the year! Never have I celebrated the release of a book before. Good fun. A somewhat dissatisfying read since to turn the last page meant it was OVER! *sob* (And the fandom hasn't been the same since.) However, I think it's bound to get better with time. I haven't given it a second go-round yet, but I have revisited certain scenes for the purpose of working on a piece of fanart, and I have enjoyed these moments more upon second viewing.
8. Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki & Sharon T. Lechter
An easy read, and something that has gotten me thinking about the way I approach money and live my life working for money. I think I've put my big life altering investment plans on hold (at least until the current cashflow after the wedding and big move evens out), but I expect I shall be revisiting this in the new year.
9. The Bilingual Edge: Why, When, and How to Teach Your Child a Second Language by Kendall King & Alison Mackey
Though I don't have kids, I'm still interested in reading about strategies for parents in the US trying to raise their children to speak more than one language. As I personally know these two scholars (both Assoc. Professors of Linguistics at Georgetown), I was very curious to get a feel for how they managed to package research in our field in a way that is accessible and interesting for non-experts.
10. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
I really liked the atmosphere of this book and the incorporation of this philosophical struggle in a children's tale. It was my first experience reading a book with something of a Steampunk atmosphere, and I found I liked it a great deal.
11. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
So once I read the first of the trilogy, I had to continue. I initially found it off-putting to begin with a new character and a new set of circumstances around a boy from our own world, but I was happy to see the characters from so many parallel world's meet up.
12. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
And I tore through this one to get to the end. My favorite part had to be the idea that we here in this universe have daemons too, even if we cannot see them. I wonder what kind of animal mine would be. (Gawd, I hope it's not a giant-ass spider!) What bothered me the most was the demise of Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel. Since they fell into that abyss with metatron, will their souls never make it to the underworld? Will they be forever falling like that? Ugh... Also, 12/13-year-old kids who fall so deeply in love? In my world view, there's something very odd and unbelievable about that.
13. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
One of my flisties recommended this (based on a BBC adaptation, I believe) and it really was a charming read - something of episodes from a small set-in-its-way village from Victorian England.
14. Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell
Teenage heart-sick melodrama, Victorian style. Do people ever seriously get "brain fever" from being disappointed in love? Man alive... The best part of the book came at the end when the maid pretty much told Phillis to get over her moping and to get on with her life. LOL!
15. Persuasion by Jane Austen
I actually read this puppy 2 times (and watched the 1995 movie version with Amanda Root and Cieran Hinds about 5 times) over the past two weeks. I've read all of Austen's novels several times and I tend to find myself re-reading Pride and Prejudice every winter, but this year it was Persuasion. The love story in this is just so grand, and this particular video adaptation is worth owning. The question is, why don't I own it yet?
So what about you guys. What did you read this year? And should I challenge myself to read 50 books in 2008?