Reading Updates

QUOT LIBROS, QUAM BREVE TEMPUS.

I read 60 books in 2011!

January to March 2011

1. The Spellman Files - Lisa Lutz

2. House Rules – Jodi Picoult

3. Revenge of the Spellmans – Lisa Lutz

4. The Main Attraction – Jayne Ann Krentz

5. Fred and Anthony Meet the Demented Super De-Germ-o Zombie – Elise Primavera

6. Fred and Anthony Meet the Heinie Goblins from the Black Lagoon – Elise Primavera

7. Someday Angeline – Louis Sachar

8. The Romanov Prophecy – Steve Berry

9. This Time Love – Elizabeth Lowell

10. Boomsday - Christopher Buckley

11. The Monster of Florence – Douglas Preston / Mario Spezi

12. The Long (and Short) of It: The Madcap History of the Skirt – Ali Basye

~ * ~ * ~* ~

For those interested in joining this challenge, visit this page for instructions.

My goal for 2010 is to read thirty (30) books from my pile.

1. Audition (Barbara Walters)
2.The Accomplices (Simenon)
3. Spare Change (Robert B. Parker)
4. The Cabinet of Curiosities (Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child)
5. By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (Paulo Coelho)
6. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
7.My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands (Chelsea Handler)
8. The Book of A wesome (Neil Pasricha)
9. Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea (Chelsea Handler)
10. Mr. Cavendish, I Presume (Julia Quinn)
11. The Lost Duke of Wyndham (Julia Quinn)
12. The Duke and I (Julia Quinn)
13. The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
14.Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
15. The Last Apprentice Book 1: Revenge of the Witch (Joseph Delaney)
16. The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown)
17. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)
18. The Strain (Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan)
19. The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Mary Pearson)
20. Big Stone Gap (Adriana Trigiani)
21. First Family (David Baldacci)
22. Blue Italian (Rita Ciresi)
23. The Noah Confessions (Barbara Hall)
24. Holes (Louis Sachar)
25. The Luxe Book 3: Envy (Anna Godbersen)
26. The Girl Who Played With Fire (Stieg Larsson)
27. Evil Genius (Catherine Jinks)
28. 20th Century Ghosts (Joe Hill)
29. Beat the Reaper (Josh Bazell)
30. The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Carrie Ryan)
31. The Curse of the Spellmans (Lisa Lutz)

◊ —— ◊

January 2, 2010: I was, in the words of my fellow bibliophile Christian, an epic failure in the RYOB challenge. I barely inched a little more than half of my self-set number of books. No excuses, just little to no time, and yes, tons of other distractions kept me from reading. I plan to read more than 28 books this year. This is a promise which I hope will be fulfilled. So, see you again when I update my first book read in 2010!

My personal goal for 2009 is 50 books. (yeah, right)

1. Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates)
2. A Stranger In The Mirror (Sidney Sheldon)
3. Coffee & Kung Fu (Karen Brichoux)
4. Para Kay B [O Kung Paano Dinevastate Ng Pag-ibig Ang 4 Out Of 5 Sa Atin] (Ricky Lee)
5. The Gun Seller (Hugh Laurie)
6. History Strikes Back: How States, Nations and Conflicts Are Shaping The Twenty-First Century (Hubert Védrine)
7. Child 44 (Tom Rob Smith)
8. Roxie and the Hooligans (Phyllis Reynolds Naylor)
9. Summer of Fear (Lois Duncan)
10. The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg)
11. Death Dance (Linda Fairstein)
12. Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell)
14. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) – re-read
15. Death: The Time of Your Life (Neil Gaiman)
16. Heart-Shaped Box (Joe Hill)
17. The Sandman Volume 2: The Doll’s House (Neil Gaiman)
18. The Luxe Book 2: Rumors (Anna Godbersen)
19. How To Lose Friends And Alienate People (Toby Young)
20. The Bromeliad Trilogy Book 1: Truckers (Terry Pratchett)
21. Just Once (Jill Marie Landis)
22. Four to Score (Janet Evanovich)
23. Gone But Not Forgotten (Phillip Margolin)
24. Sammy’s Hill (Kristin Gore)
25. The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 1 (Rick Riordan)
26. The Sea of Monsters: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 2 (Rick Riordan)
27. Kiss My Book (Jamie Michaels)
28. The Titan’s Curse: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 3 (Rick Riordan)
29. City of Bones (Cassandra Clare)

◊ —— ◊

2008 in books!

30. Sloppy Firsts, Megan McCafferty
A young adult book to end 2008, what say you? I enjoyed this book, the first in a volume of five books from McCafferty’s bestsellers. This is a typical angst-ridden story of a teenager trying to escape the absurdities of high school and the people in it. What made it stood out from gazillions of books of the same plot is McCafferty’s very witty, punch-in-the-gut takes on how the protagonist, Jessica Darling, sees and feels things around her.

29. The Luxe, Anna Godbersen
Your turn of the 20th century version of Gossip Girl! Goody-goody, prim and proper Elizabeth Holland’s funeral opened the story and the events leading to her “death” (I gave something away there, didn’t I?) were the focus of this first of three installments. There were many characters whom you will root for, hate, like, sympathize with and feel sorry for. Sometimes, all at the same time. I am getting the next two books in the series. It is not astoundingly outstanding but I had fun with it way more than the Twilight series. =)

28. Special Delivery, Danielle Steel
A very fast read because its a thin book in the first place. Your typical middle-aged widow and widower falling in love and you can pretty much guess what the ‘special delivery’ is halfway through the book. It’s too much saccharine involving groovy people. =)

27. Grotesque, Natsuo Kirino
Amazing. Perhaps the best book I’ve read this year. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, no writer comes close to framing my insecurities very accurately than Japanese novelists. It is a great story of pride, insecurity, incest, prostitution, vanity, betrayal and Japanese social issues. There are some character developments that were not throughly fleshed out but it did not affect the promise of the novel as a whole. I highly recommend this piece of work.

26. Wish You Were Here, Philippa Ashley
This is one of those airport mass paperbacks published in London. I bought it in a bookshop in Kota Kinabalu for fear of going insane from not bringing a book during the trip. It is your typical chick book which became a very worthy companion while resting on the beach with its dose of romance, lust, self-deprecation and stupidity. I enjoyed it, actually.

25. Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, Helen Fielding
A lame accidental spy story which I just finished for the sake of finishing it. It has its moments but not enough to sustain the plot. It’s just fine. It became ridiculously unbelievable towards the end and I particularly found it so when Brad Pitt, Raquel Welch, Anthony Minghella and Tim Burton were suddenly willing accomplices in the story. I guess I just cannot believe that this is from the same author who started all this chick flick cult through Bridget Jones’ Diary.

24. A-List: Blonde Ambition, Zoey Dean
Hooray for YA books! I got this one for 90 cents one lazy Saturday afternoon in the mall. This book isn’t great [imagine a whole book about whiny rich Hollywood kids in high school!] but you know what, it won’t hurt to include it in my guilty pleasure list, so I might still get the other volumes. Oh, you will love these teens and how self-centered they are. Let’s fill the world with all these spoiled rotten people ala-Gossip Girl. I have to admit, I sometimes live vicariously through them. Yeah.

23. Eternals, Neil Gaiman
It is good but too Marvel-y. You might not appreciate its promise when you flip through it after a Sandman mini-read-a-thon.

22. Nancy Drew Case Files #1: The Secret of the Old Clock, Carolyn Keene (reread)

21. The History of Love, Nicole Krauss
If you think this is another Message in a Bottle story, it is not. The middle part was dragging but you will feel satisfied when you turn to the last page. It was okay.

20. Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
Way better than New Moon but still not as good as Twilight. I am not that much into the series, I’m only going with the superhype, so my favorite part of this book is only Edward’s letter to Jacob towards the end of the installment.

19. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search For Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, Elizabeth Gilbert

I think that Ms. Gilbert appeared too self-serving, even while writing about her flaws and life mishaps, but I loved this book if only for its words that struck too many familiar chords in my eccentric heart. This post can tell you more about it.

18. The Sandman Volume I: Nocturnes & Preludes, Neil Gaiman
It did not disappoint. I had cannibalistic dreams because of it.

17. You Can’t Say Boobs On Sunday, Jan Eliot
16. Always Postpone Meetings With Time-Wasting Morons, Scott Adams
15. She Loves Me Not, Wendy Corsi Staub
14. New Moon, Stephenie Meyer
13. Three To Get Deadly, Janet Evanovich
12. Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories, Chuck Palahniuk
11. The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
10. Lullaby and Goodnight, Wendy Corsi Staub
9. Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albom
8. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
7. My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult
6. Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
5. Confessions of an Economic Hitman, John Perkins

4. Twilight c/o Barnes & Noble Twilight, Stephenie Meyer

3. Lipstick Jungle, Candace Bushnell

2. The Last Book In The Universe, Rodman Philbrink

1. Inkheart, Cornelia Funke

_______________________________________________

Books read in 2007

28. Political Parties: Their Organization and Activity in the Modern State, Maurice Duverger

27. Power and Interdependence: World Politics in Transition, Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye (review later)

26. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (review later)

25. Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl

When I was on the first hundred pages I told myself I should have steered clear of 700-page novels after I Am Charlotte Simmons. However, I think it’s worth it. I was not totally impressed by it but, yeah, it’s worth finishing. You can only wish that you’d be like Blue Van Meer who has read an insane number of books for such a young age. She’s a freak I so wanted to be like her. The twist in the end, of the truth about Hannah Schneider, would make the last 200 hundred pages very absorbing. I loved how the loose ends, my unanswered questions, my unconfirmed suspicions, were presented. I’ve written down 4 pages of quotes from the book. Quotes about life, love, growing up and humanity – they all struck too close to the bone. I give this book an 8/10 rating.

24. Two For The Dough, Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum is lovable. And you have to give props to her grandmother. And her eccentric family as a whole. Another fast read. I will give this 6/10 .

23. One For The Money, Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum has her funny moments. I observed that in most novels, a self-deprecating woman is that “IT” woman. This is a fast read – you can do it in one sitting. I cannot compare this to the other Stephanie Plums novels but taking it alone, I would give this 6.5/10.

22. Haunted Haunted, Chuck Palahniuk

I thought no writer other than Stephen King can do it to me. Until I read Palahniuk. This book is creepy and disturbing. Twisted and yeah, haunting. Don’t start reading the first few chapters while you’re eating noodles. I will give this 9/10. I love Chuck.

21. HP 6 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

Dumbledore died! And reading this after outing him actually added to my sore feeling. I am loving Snape more – and it’s partially influenced by the fact that I picture Alan Rickman while reading.

20. HP 5 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling

Too many events. Too many people. I lost track but I enjoyed it.
19. Mary Mary, James Patterson

A fast read although I did not foresee the twist. It was good but not better than other Alex Cross mysteries.

18. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling

My favorite in the Harry Potter series. i can’t explain more. Thinking of the barrage of HP info all over the web, I can’t contribute more.

17. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling

Enjoyable and enjoyable.

16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling

My second most favorite in the HP series. The very first book would always have a special place in my bookworm thought cloud.

15. The Way The Crow Flies, Ann-Marie Macdonald

It’s a long read which could tire you towards the end especially when you discover that no twist is going to present itself. However, it stirred a lot of emotions in me that made 800 pages very worth it. I give it 7.5/10.

14. The Tesseract, Alex Garland