Topic: Books for 2013 list thread

[Theomanic]

My goal is 52, one a week on average.

Nice goal.

Well... I'm counting even the lightest of light reading, so it's not as decent as it sounds.

[pandamonium]

My goal is 52, one a week on average.

Nice goal.

Well... I'm counting even the lightest of light reading, so it's not as decent as it sounds.

I've done that in years past. As long as it's a book, and you read it, it's fair game.

[Dionysus]

I don't like speeding through books and I tend to make notes on non-fiction books I find particularly informative, so I can spend a long time on a book. Still, I'm hoping to reach my age in books for the year (26).

Reading:

Napoleon: A Biography by Frank McLynn
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

Read:

The Viral Storm: The Dawn of the Pandemic Age by Nathan Wolfe
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph Ellis
The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins (finished December 2012; including it because it's damn good and I've already loaned it out to someone who questions the fact of evolution)

To Read:

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (guilty pleasure)
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

Haven't decided what books I'll read beyond that.

[petrolpetal]

OK

So we list our aspirations, and then edit our posts as we go, and evaluate the result at the end ? And any discussion goes in a different thread ? Did I understand that right ?

If so, I am in.

[Sawyer]

Dionysus, what did you think of American Sphinx?  I'm trying to find a good biography of Jefferson and can't decide where to start.

[pandamonium]

OK

So we list our aspirations, and then edit our posts as we go, and evaluate the result at the end ? And any discussion goes in a different thread ? Did I understand that right ?

If so, I am in.

You can make your list any which way you want. I usually just list the books I've finished reading, and sometimes the ones that I'm currently reading. There's usually a discussion thread, just to keep this thread less cluttered.

eta: Since we already have a book discussion thread, I'm not going to create another one--please use this thread for future discussions, to keep this space decluttered. Thanks.

[Dionysus]

Dionysus, what did you think of American Sphinx?  I'm trying to find a good biography of Jefferson and can't decide where to start.

It's an excellent unbiased look at Thomas Jefferson. I had a lot of false impressions about Thomas Jefferson floating around in my head before I read this book and it straightened me out. The guy was hypocritical in a lot of ways (especially on the slavery issue), but was also a radical revolutionary beyond what many of the other founding fathers would have approved. In a lot of ways it made me respect the man even more as he remained consistent in his ideas of revolution and the power of the mob to dictate policy and create a government with limited powers that worked to protect individual liberty. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Thomas Jefferson and the American Revolution in general.

Edit - Maybe I should read the moderator posts first. I'll respond in the appropriate thread next time.

[Parrot]

My goal is 52, one a week on average.

Nice goal.

Well... I'm counting even the lightest of light reading, so it's not as decent as it sounds.

I've done that in years past. As long as it's a book, and you read it, it's fair game.

It also depends on what you count as a "book". That's often a judgment call. I've included some really short entries as well, but then again a number of my entries have also been long slogs the size of 3 or 4 regular books.

EDIT: Should have read ahead. Forgot which thread I was in. I've posted this to the comment thread.

[spawnstar]

To Read

Fiction

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Under The Dome by Stephen King

Non-Fiction

Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer
Flim-Flam by James Randi
Paranomality: Why we see what isn't there by Professor Richard Wiseman
The Indian Scientist from Vedic to Modern Times by Jayant Nar


Reading

Fiction

Last Summer of Kings by Joe Abercrombie
A Dance With Dragons By George R.R. Martin (very hard going, too much time has passed since I read the previous book)

Non-Fiction

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold


Finished Reading

Fiction

A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
Before They are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie

Non-Fiction

[moj]

ops never mind, I goofed when trying to edit my first post.