Darius Bacon ([info]darius) wrote,
@ 2008-01-16 13:44:00
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2007 books
Susan CooperThe Grey King
Susan CooperGreenwitch
Larry Niven & Edward LernerFleet of Worlds
Frederick Winsor & Marian ParryThe Space Child's Mother Goose
Ursula LeGuinJane On Her Own
Susan CooperOver Sea, Under Stone
Roald DahlThe BFG
Ursula VernonIt Made Sense at the Time...
Susan CooperThe Dark is Rising
Roald DahlThe Witches
Darby ConleyGet Fuzzy 2: Fuzzy Logic
Tanya HuffSummon the Keeper
Vernor VingeA Deepness in the Sky [reread]
John M. FordThe Scholars of Night
Jerry Scott & Jim BorgmanZits
Berke BreathedBilly and the Boingers Bootleg
Vernor VingeA Fire Upon the Deep [reread]
Olivia JudsonDr. Tatiana's Sex Advice To All Creation
Steven BrustDragon [reread]
Scott LynchThe Lies of Locke Lamora
Lois McMaster BujoldDiplomatic Immunity [reread]
Joe HaldemanThe Accidental Time Machine
Douglas CouplandThe Gum Thief
Francesca Lia BlockThe Hanged Man
Tony Auth et al.The Gang of Eight
Poul AndersonA Midsummer Tempest
Dominic WiddowsGeometry and Meaning
Elizabeth BarberThe Mummies of Ürümchi
Jo WaltonHa'penny
Charles StrossHalting State
Rafael SabatiniScaramouche
Dozois & Strahan [eds.]The New Space Opera
C. J. DateDatabase in Depth
Ken MacleodThe Execution Channel
Linus Torvalds and David DiamondJust For Fun
Scott LynchRed Seas Under Red Skies
Ben MezrichBringing Down the House
Stanley KieselThe War Between the Pitiful Teachers and the Splendid Kids
Scott RosenbergDreaming in Code
Connie WillisD.A.
Gregory ClarkA Farewell To Alms
William ShunnAn Alternate History of the 21st Century
Lois McMaster BujoldThe Sharing Knife: Legacy
Italo Calvino [ed.]Italian Folktales [unfinished]
John BarnesOne For the Morning Glory [reread]
Robert BakkerRaptor Red [reread]
Benjamin FranklinPoor Richard's Almanack
Poul AndersonTrader to the Stars
Edward CastronovaSynthetic Worlds
Poul AndersonTime Patrolman
John M. FordGrowing Up Weightless [reread]
Francois Martin MaiDiagnosing Genius: The Life & Death of Beethoven
Elizabeth BearNew Amsterdam
Donald WestlakeWhat's So Funny?
J. K. RowlingHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Neil GaimanDeath: The Time of Your Life
Carolyn StevermerA College of Magics [reread]
Robert HeinleinBetween Planets [reread]
Elizabeth BearCarnival
J. R. R. TolkienThe Children of Húrin
Barrington BayleyStar Winds [reread]
Elizabeth MoonThe Speed of Dark
Pamela DeanTam Lin [reread]
B. KlibanThe Biggest Tongue in Tunisia
Elizabeth WilleyThe Well-Favored Man [reread]
Carla Speed McNeilThe Rescuers
Carla Speed McNeilMystery Date
Roger ZelaznyA Night in the Lonesome October [reread]
Robert HeinleinThe Moon is a Harsh Mistress [reread]
Dan PiraroToo Bizarro
Pamela DeanThe Dubious Hills [reread]
Robert HeinleinThe Rolling Stones [reread]
Douglas HofstadterI Am A Strange Loop
Beatrix PotterSquirrel Nutkin
Carla Speed McNeilTalisman [reread]
Dave DuncanThe Reluctant Swordsman
C. CollodiPinocchio
Paul Reps [compiler]Zen Flesh, Zen Bones
Magnusson & Palsson [translators]Njal's Saga
Joe ArmstrongProgramming Erlang
Jack VanceThe Best of Jack Vance
Joan D. VingeHeaven Chronicles
Aubrey BeardsleyCollected Drawings
Jeff SmithBone vol. 9: Crown of Horns
Jeff SmithBone vol. 7: Ghost Circles
Jeff SmithBone vol. 5: Rock Jaw
Carl SaganThe Demon-Haunted World
H. G. WellsWhen the Sleeper Wakes
Michael FlynnEifelheim
Julie PhillipsJames Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
Rudy RuckerMad Professor
Peter WattsBlindsight
Marvin MinskyThe Emotion Machine
Ted ChiangStories of Your Life and Others
Tom ShippeyThe Road to Middle-Earth
Diana Wynne JonesDark Lord of Derkholm
Diana Wynne JonesA Sudden Wild Magic
S. M. StirlingThe Sky People
J.R.R. TolkienThe Return of the King [reread]
J.R.R. TolkienThe Two Towers [reread]
J.R.R. TolkienThe Fellowship of the Ring [reread]
Gerald PollackCells, Gels, and the Engines of Life
Felicitas TobienArt Nouveau Paintings
E. Ennion and N. TinbergenTracks
Walter Jon WilliamsKnight Moves [reread]
Gardner Dozois [ed.]The Year's Best Science Fiction, 14th Annual Edition [unfinished]
Doug Clapp [ed.]The Macintosh Reader
D.H. CannonScream For Jeeves
Sherman SteinArchimedes: What Did He Do Besides Cry Eureka? [unfinished]
Sarah SusankaThe Not So Big House [unfinished]
Lois McMaster BujoldKomarr [reread]
Freeman DysonThe Scientist as Rebel
Art SpiegelmanIn the Shadow of No Towers
Robert HarrisImperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome
Steven VogelPrime Mover: A Natural History of Muscle
Seth RobertsThe Shangri-La Diet
Bill WattersonYukon Ho!
Peter WardOut of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere
Octavia ButlerMind of My Mind
Steven JohnsonThe Ghost Map
Charles StrossToast
Michael LightFull Moon
Neil GaimanFragile Things
Lee SmolinThe Trouble With Physics
Berkeley BreathedOpus


Reverse chronological order; more notable books that weren't rereads are bolded. It turns out my wishlist looks rather weightier than my actual reading habits, fancy that. I think I should be reading less and writing more. I considered starting by writing notes on each book, but that would take effort, and through lazy evaluation you can get the same result for books you're interested in, by forcing the thunk in the comments.

The table was generated by an awk script.

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[info]graydon
2008-01-16 11:12 pm UTC (link)
Holy crap! I mean ... sure I mostly read nonfiction and stuff, but I'm doing well if I get through a dozen books in a year.

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[info]darius
2008-01-17 12:47 am UTC (link)
You're probably using your time better. :-) Though a lot of them are quickies -- children's books and picture books.

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[info]fictualities
2008-01-17 03:52 am UTC (link)
Wow! That's a lot. *admires*

I'm a really slow reader and have to read a lot for work. In an effort to extract myself from various soul-killing and time-wasting activities, this year I'm doing the Fifty Book Challenge, and even that will be stretching it. So far I've only done four! Then again I have this incredibly elaborate chart for evaluating them afterwards, and the chart tends to grow to about three pages per book -- mostly whining, in the case of the last book, which was awful. Perhaps if my read to whine proportion improved, I'd do more actual reading.

Hmmm, this is a really cool list *downloads for ideas* What is Scream for Jeeves? And The Space Child's Mother Goose sounds intriguing.

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[info]darius
2008-01-17 05:36 am UTC (link)
Thanks! You triggered quite a few of the entries one way or another, actually -- the LotR reread (those have no links because they're the old paperbacks with the cheesy colorful covers and no ISBN), Road to Middle-Earth and Njal's Saga following up on that, rereading Vinge, the Dark Is Rising books.

So far I've only done four!

That's well over a 50-book pace... I'm not a fast reader either and it comes out of things like socializing and sleep -- I'm hoping this year, feeling healthier, I'll feel like doing more and reading a bit less.

The chart sounds interesting -- is it homegrown? Writing about your books must help to get more out of them, anyway.

Scream For Jeeves is a Lovecraft/Wodehouse parody I mentioned once in a comment. I'd type in a delicious quote from the first page or two if my copy would come out of hiding. The style combined the two hilariously well, but the stories seemed to depend on a lot of in-jokes for impact and I've only read one book each of the source authors. I'd have got most of the benefit, personally, from reading just the first few pages of this.

Space Child's Mother Goose is charming and fun, especially if you've read much Golden Age SF -- the verse style and illustrations go together well -- in a handsome-looking book. OTOH there's not a lot to it -- I was expecting more depth somehow from the reviews I'd read. You can find some samplings from it in the first page of google search.

The Ted Chiang collection has a story about meeting aliens with a completely different experience of time, as I think you've wondered about. ("The Story of Your Life")

Oh, you maybe might especially enjoy another book by Jo Walton not in this year's list, Tooth and Claw -- it's a Victorian novel inspired by Trollope, only the characters are dragons for whom Victorian social conventions are biological facts. (The author is [info]papersky.)

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Odd Coincidence
[info]lexical_closure
2008-01-17 04:31 am UTC (link)
I was thinking today about how I still have the copy of Schelling's The Strategy Of Conflict you gave me.

I should give that a reread, it's been a while.

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Re: Odd Coincidence
[info]darius
2008-01-17 05:38 am UTC (link)
Maybe they'll have some other book by him at the library? He got a Nobel in economics since I gave you that. (Or did I sell it? Not that it matters...)

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Re: Odd Coincidence
[info]lexical_closure
2008-01-17 03:43 pm UTC (link)
I bought Micromotives and Macrobehavior a year or so after, I think. I probably should grab something of his I haven't read yet.

It was around the time I did that tiny bit of code for Vapour - you and I had met up in SF, you brought the Strategy Of Conflict, I had meant to bring Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum but I couldn't find it before I had to go get on BART to meet up with you. I think I was asking you on IRC about how to get it back to you, and you told me not to worry about it or something along those lines (although I could be remembering wrong).

As far as I'm concerned, it's still your book, so if you ever want it back just yell at me :)

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Re: Odd Coincidence
[info]darius
2008-01-17 08:50 pm UTC (link)
Oh, right. I still haven't read the Eco, you know. Someday!

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Re: Odd Coincidence
[info]lexical_closure
2008-09-11 03:37 pm UTC (link)
I actually just found out I have two copies of it - the 1960 paperpack is, if I'm not mistaken, yours. :)

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=anomie&deepsearch=Schelling

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Re: Odd Coincidence
[info]darius
2008-09-12 04:35 pm UTC (link)
I actually ran across a copy at a library booksale or something, a day or two after we discussed it -- I figured it was fate and picked it up. Still haven't read.

Fun to look over what you've got. :)

So I saw Zhivago last week... will post sometime.

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