Books I've Read Recently

Starting December 2000, at least

Uh, when I remember to note them.

• The Position, (1/3/2007-1/5/2007)
• Sharpe's Trafalgar (11/25-12/9/2006)
  Started this by listening to the audiobook, but it was all punked out. This series is like romance novels for Anglophile war buffs. Still, entertaining enough to read through the peaks and troughs of good and terrible writing. Heh.
• Cell, Stephen King (11/25/2006)
• Sharpe's Tiger, Bernard Cornwall (unabridged audiobook) (11/22-25/2006)
• The United States of Arugula (11/23-)
• Nightwatch, Sergei Lukyanenko (11/2006)
  (I know I'm missing some books in here.)
• Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer (8/2006)
  I found this to be pretty lazily written. Seriously, 3/4 of the pages have footnotes.
• Drama City, George Pelecanos (8/18/06)
  Pretty much what I expected from a guy who writes for The Wire, which is to say, pretty good! I read this (all but about 40 pages) in 3 hrs.
• Comfort Me with Apples, Ruth Reichl (7/19-22)
• Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl (7/16-18)
• The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 3), Lemony Snicket (6/29)
• Embroideries, Marjane Satrapi (6/26)
• Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl (6/23-25)
• The Hostile Hospital (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 8), Lemony Snicket (6/23)
• The Night Watch, Sarah Waters (6/2006)
• Persepolis and Persepolis II, Marjane Satrapi (6/2006)
• Life of Pi, Yann Martel (unabridged audiobook) (5/23-26) Listened to while on the trip from CO to GA with AM and Jake, hee.
  (missing some)
• Spook, Mary Roach (3/8-12)
• The Three Incestuous Sisters, Audrey Niffenegger (3/8/06)
• The Climb, Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston Dewalt (2/27-3/6/06)
• Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (2/18-20/2006)
  I am very interested in reading the alternate accounts by Boukreev, Brashears, etc. Thanks, local library!
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach (2/6-14/06)
• Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer (2/4/06)
  Very quick read, some of the seams show where this was expanded from a 9000 word article. Still, compelling.
• Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson (1/19-23/2006)
  I kind of wished it didn't have the present-day story line, but oh well.
• The Inferno, Dante (1/2006) (unabridged audiobook) Huh, I'm sure a gap in here.
• Take the Cannoli, Sarah Vowell (6/2005)
• Horse Heaven, Jane Smiley (unabridged audiobook)
• Frost on my Mustache, (unabridged audiobook)
• Darwin's Radio, (unabridged audiobook)
  Whoa, kind of awful.
• Green Mars, (unabridged audiobook)
• Marvel 1602, Neil Gaiman (2/26/05-3/13/05)
• The Lovely Bones, (unabridged audiobook) Alice Siebolt (2/28/05-3/11/05)
• My Life as a Fake, (unabridged audiobook)
• Red Mars, (unabridged audiobook) Kim Stanley Robinson
• Half a Life, (unabridged audiobook) (1/15/05-1/25?/05)
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol 2, Alan Moore (1/9/05)
• The Invisibles, TPB 4-6 (1/7/05-1/9/05)
• Y: The Last Man, TPB 1&2 (1/6/05)
• Dry, (audiobook read by the author) Augustin Burroughs (12/30/04-1/8/05)
• Prodigal Summer, (audiobook read by the author) Barbara Kingsolver (12/04)
• All Over Creation, (audiobook) Ruth Ozeki (11/04)
• How to be Alone, (audiobook of essays) Jonathan Franzen (10/27/04-11/4/04)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, (unabridged audiobook), J.K. Rowling (9/27/04-10/22(?)/04)
• microserfs, Douglas Coupland (9/23-28/04)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, (unabridged audiobook), J.K. Rowling (8/31/04-9/?/04)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (unabridged audiobook), J.K. Rowling (8/23/04-8/30/04)
• The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman (8/23/04-10/12/04)
• Marvels, Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross (8/11/04)
• American Gods (unabridged audiobook), Neil Gaiman (8/6/04-8/19/04)
• Feel this Audiobook, Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo (8/4/04- 8/5/04)
• The Left Hand of Darknes (unabridged audiobook), Ursula K. LeGuin (7/22/04-7/30/04)
• The Forever War (unabridged audiobook), Joe Haldeman (7/15/04-7/22/04)
  Surprisingly undated, considering it's from 1974. Unless there were revisions made later (there is a 1997 copyright, but that might just be technical--I have to find out. Also, almost entirely free of tedious faux future abbreviations. How I hate them (Nari Spay AD!). What is interesting is that I didn't notice how crummy the female characters were -- that I've gotten used to crummy female characters in sf. Kind of sad.
• Dhalgren, Samuel Delany (7/13/04-)
• How to Read a French Fry, Russ Parsons (7/12/04-7/13/04)
  Like Alton Brown, except the bullet points before the recipe sections of all chapters recap everything of note in the preceeding chapter. And the chapters repeat themselves a lot. Nice-looking recipes, though.
• The Gates of Heaven (audiobook), Ethan Coen (7/12/04-7/15/04)
• Ultimate X-Men #7: Blockbuster, Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch (7/3/04)
  Nice! Mr. Bendis in Ultimate, which I'd kind of written off after reading the first TPB.
• JLA: Earth 2, Grant Morrisson (7/3/04)
• The Gift of Fear, Gavin de Becker (6/28/04-8/22/04)
• The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science, Steven Mithen (6/26/04-)
• How to be President, Stephen P. Willams (6/17-18/04)
• A Million Little Pieces, James Frey (6/12/04-6/15/04)
• Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child, Noel Riley Fitch (6/02/04-)
  This has been hard going. I love Julia Child, but still. The NY Post even pillories this biography, so, I guess I feel a little better with my struggle. I figured this would be a hard to put down kind of read, but it is not. Sadly. I wish it were an autobiography. Dang.
• Arkham Asylum, Morrison (6/02/04)
• Perdido Street Station, China Mieville (5/04-)
• New X-Men TPB 3-7 (1/04-6/04)
• Running with Scissors, (sometime in march?)
• The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester (12/22/03-12/23/03)
• The Long Halloween (12/22/03)
• In the Devil's Garden (12/16/03-12/22/03)
• A Wind in the Door, (10/29/03)
• A Wrinkle in Time, (10/29/03)
• New X-Men Volume 2: Imperial (10/12/03)
  Damn fine!
• Band of Brothers, Stephen Ambrose (10/5/03-10/12/03)
• The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester (9/26/03)
• The Essential X-Men, vol 1-4 (7/03-8/03)
• Selected Poems, William Carlos Williams(6/25/03)
• The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller (6/24/03)
• Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks (4/8/03-5/18/03)
• Trading Spaces (4/8/03)
  Trey bought it, but I did read it
• ...a few in here I probably missed while not being able to ssh, but probably mostly graphic novels
• A Few Corrections, Brad Leithauser (2/16/03-3/1/03)
  Recommended.
• Futurama-o-rama, Matt Groening (2/4/03)
• Martha Washington Goes to War, Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons (2/4/03)
• Leave it to Chance, James Robinson and Paul Smith with Jeromy Cox (2/4/03)
• Powers: Little Deaths, Brian Michael Bendis & Mike Avon Oeming (2/4/03)
• Powers: Roleplay, Brian Michael Bendis & Mike Avon Oeming (2/4/03)
• Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl?, Brian Michael Bendis & Mike Avon Oeming
• V for Vendetta, Alan Moore and David Lloyd (1/14/03-)
• A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge (12/23/02-1/13/03)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J. K. Rowling (12/17/02-12/22/02)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J. K. Rowling (12/17/02)
  Finally getting around to this. Sheesh.
• Grendel: Black White and Red, Matt Wagner, et al. (12/16/2002)
  I think there's something to be said about my attention span here, but -- hey! Look! A thing!
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan Moore, etc (12/3/2002)
  There's going to be a fight? I'm going to take off my clothes.
• Savage Love, Dan Savage (11/19/02)
• 12 Monkeys, Elizabeth Hand (11/16/02)
  Yep, that was a novelization, all right.
• The Kid, Dan Savage (11/4/02-11/9/02)
  Dan Savage. If that alone doesn't make you want to read it, well. Ok.
• My War With Brian, Ted Rall (10/29/02)
  I'm glad the bullying in parochial schools I went to never got to this level.
• The Perfect Vehicle, Melissa Holbrook Pierson (9/21/02-9/28/02)
  This was pretty dang good.
• The Ice Storm, Rick Moody (8/25-27/2002)
  I really liked this. The movie was also quite good. I saw the movie first.
• Good in Bed, Jennifer Weiner (8/23-25/2002)
  on the whole, eh.
• The Replacement God, Zander Cannon (8/7/2002)
  Hee! I got this a while ago and just got motivated to read it. First graphic novel in a series. Ben Edlund endorses it! WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?? I mean, really.
• Identity, Milan Kundera (6/10/2002 and 8/6/2002)
• The End of the Road, John Barth (8/1/02-8/5/02)
• The Floating Opera, John Barth (7/30/02-7/31/02)
• Consider Phlebas, Iain M. Banks (7/20-something-7/30-02)
  Good stuff.
• The Runaway Brain, Christopher Wills (7/14/02-7/18/02)
  More Austrolopithilicious than getting into a lot of stuff about brains. Though one of the chapters is called "Escape from Stupidworld", which wins.
• Black Light, Elizabeth Hand (6/2002-7/13/02)
  Goofy occult plot, but, good writing. Also, she keeps setting novels in places I like. This one's in upstate NY.
• The Virgin Suicides, Jeffery Eugenedies (7/4-7/5/02)
  I saw the movie when it came out; it's pretty faithful to the book. By the end I was kind of annoyed at the narrator(s). But, uh, yeah. Interesting, and a lot quicker to read than I expected. Also, the movie is even more impressive in its capture of the book, now that I've, uh, read the book.
• Time's Witness, Michael Malone (6/30-7/4/02)
• Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire (6/19-24/02)
  Interesting, but revisionist. But interesting. I mean, who's to say she wasn't good? Who's to say she wasn't wicked? I liked the book, but don't like the idea of explaining away badness to circumstances alone. On the other hand, there's the whole "history belongs to the victors" thing, and this was interesting in the contrast to The Wizard of Oz. He never struck me as very good, anyway.
• How to be Good, Nick Hornby (6/17-18/02)
• Foolscap, Michael Malone (6/8-6/10/02)
• Immortality, Milan Kundera (6/4-6/6/02)
  I really liked parts of this book, but I started to get tired of the constant male Kundera characters and their getting laid all over the place, and that being one of their main characteristics and main topic of thought. Though, that might be the point of said characters. Hee.
• Handling Sin, Michael Malone (last week of May)
• The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera (5/2002)
• Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC (4/15/02)
  Kinda interesting. BUT NOT FOR THE REASONS THAT YOU THINK.
• On Writing, Stephen King (3/9/2002)
• Tales of the City, Maupin (2/2002)
• Bringing Out the Dead, Joe Connelley (1/19/02)
  Maybe now I should see the movie.
• Mondo Boxo, Roz Chast (1/6/02)
  Cartoons, etc
• An Anthropologist on Mars, Oliver Sacks (12/19)
• Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
• Pure Drivel, Steve Martin (11/22)
  Hee.
• Shopgirl, Steve Martin
  Interesting. I kept hearing it, as if Steve Martin was reading it. Only in my head. Out of my head, Steve Martin!
• Tao Te Ching, trans. Stephen Mitchell(10/2001)
  I really, really like the way Stephen Mitchell translates.
• I am Legend, Richard Matheson (10/14?/2001)
  I had wanted to read this for a long time, and saw a copy in the bookstore when I went for something else entirely.
• Language and Thought, Noam Chomsky (9/20/2001)
  Mmm, language and thought, thought and language.
• Naked, David Sedaris (8/27/2001)
  Pretty good; sadly, no essays about the French. Dang.
• Tell Me About It, Carolyn Hax (8/24/2001)
• Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris(8/4/2001)
• The Big U, Neil Stephenson (7/2001)
  I will have to try Cryptonomicon again. Seeing as how I had luck with Grendel earlier this year, and I really do like Stephenson's style. Just couldn't get into it earlier.
• Driving Mister Albert, (7/2001)
  Fun read, but unevenly paced. Though that may have something to do with how it took me almost all month to finally finish it. Huh.
• Box Office Poison, Alex Robinson (7/10/2001)
  This spoiled me. It was 600 pages, and I couldn't stop until I was done. Dammit! All short (and what isn't, next to 600 pages?) graphic novels are going to be vaguely disappointing now, I bet.
• To Read Literature, Donald Hall (6/2001)
  Mmm, English textbooks.
• Geisha, Andi Watson (5/2001)
  Can a created thing make something original, etc etc. Actually much more interesting than i make it sound, and much less pretentious.
• The Winged Seed, Li Young Lee (5/2001)
  Interesting. Kinda all over the place.
• National Geographic Guide to Field Photography (5/2001)
• Use of Weapons, Iain Banks (4/2001)
  The guy who made the models killed me.
• Grendel, John Gardner (4/2001)
  Which I finally got around to reading. Rather, I was finally able to get past like the first chapter. I have no idea why I had such a hard time getting into the book the first couple of times I tried to read it.
• Groom Falconer, Norman Dubie (3/2001)
• Collected W.B. Yeats, W.B. Yeats (3/2001)
• Cats and Dogs, Andi Watson (2/2001)
  And to think, I didn't like this series, after reading the first book. Actually, it was the art I didn't like. It was too busy and crowded. Hee! I like the total move away from clutter in, like, the very next book. Anyway.
• The Triggering Town, Richard Hugo, (2/2001)
• Style, 10 Lessons in Clarity And Grace, (2/2001)
• The City in Which I Love You, Li Young Lee (1/2001)
• Rose, Li Young Lee (1/2001)
• High Fidelity (1/2001)
• The Big Book of Martyrs (1/2001)
  Hee! But, no, it's really about martyrs.
• Cisco LAN Switch Configuration, Todd Lammle and Robert Padjen (12/2000)
• The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler (12/2000)
• Angels and Insects, A. S. Byatt (12/2000)
  Um. Eek.
• Farewell, My Lovely, Raymond Chandler (12/2000)
• The Pillow Book, Sei Shonagon (11/2000)
• The Thin Man, Dashiel Hammet (11/2000)
• The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler (11/2000) Books I'm Constantly Reading and Rereading
  1. The Collected Rilke, Stephen Mitchel, trans.
  2. Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot
  3. Winterlong, Elizabeth Hand
  4. Room With A View, E.M. Forester
  5. Robert Bently Repair Manual for Saab 900S

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