Books Read in 2004 (Keep it Updated)

[Godzilla Blitz]

A continuation of the original thread from the apparently defunct Gone Gold...

Along the lines of the "Games Completed in 2004", this is a "Books Read in 2004" thread. Claim a spot and list up the books you finish in 2004. Be sure to update your list when you finish a new book.

In order to get as many lists on the first few pages as possible, let's keep general discussion out of the thread until 10/18. That will give former Gone Golders and others who would like to join a week to recompile lists and post them here. So for the time being, please just post your lists of books read in 2004 here.

This isn't really a competition to see who reads the most books in a year, but rather as a way to learn a bit more about other forum members, as a way to spark discussion about books, and as a resource for forum members to find books they might be interested in reading.

It's up to each member to decide on their own what constitutes "reading a book". For me, I have two very little kids, so I probably read a dozen books a day, none of which is longer than 100 words. I won't be counting those. However, I will be counting some easy Japanese novels that I work through occasionally; I feel like I've "read a book" after I finish one of those.

Lastly, I'm very much making all this up as I go along. If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve things, please feel free to post them here or email me.

Happy reading!

My (partial) list:

* Shadow of the Hegemon - Orson Scott Card (1/19) (B-)
* Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling (1/21) (A+)
* Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett (1/24) (B)
* Guilty Pleasures - L.K. Hamilton (2/15) (B)
* D-Day - Stephen Ambrose (3/7 (B+)
* Stars Shine Down - Sidney Sheldon (3/9) (C)
* Angels & Demons - Dan Brown (3/13) (A+)
* Reversible Errors - Scott Turow (3/17) (B)
* The Lost World – Michael Crichton (3/22) (A)
* Seabiscuit – Laura Hillenbrand (3/25) (A+)
* Guide to Rational Living – Albert Ellis & Robert Harper (3/27 (B+)
* Hominids – Robert J. Sawyer (4/1)(A-)
* Futebol: Soccer, The Brazilian Way – Alex Bellos (4/5)(C+)
* Damn, Why Didn’t I Write That! – Marc McCutcheon (4/7 (B)


Currently reading:

• The Self-Publishers' Guide – David Poynter

On deck:
Shadow Puppets?

[Biyobi]

GB,

'Guilty Pleasures' by L.K. Hamilton is one of the Anita Blake novels, right?  Has she given up on the idea of Blake being a worker with the undead and just writing goth porn now?  I really liked the first several novels but they've become little more than a background to Anita getting her rocks off in different combinations of participants.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Biyobi,

One thing I just realized is that when I started this thread over at Gone Gold, I gave people a few days to get their lists of books posted, so that the first few pages of the thread would be a resource of all the books that forum members had read. Along those lines, could you edit your post to make it into your list of books read this year? I realize my first post didn't say that (until I edited it), but I think it'll be best if the thread starts with everyone's lists so that they are easy to browse through. We'll open the thread up for discussion in a week. Thanks!

(And along those lines, I'll delete this post in a couple of days.)

To answer your question, though...

GB,

'Guilty Pleasures' by L.K. Hamilton is one of the Anita Blake novels, right?  Has she given up on the idea of Blake being a worker with the undead and just writing goth porn now?  I really liked the first several novels but they've become little more than a background to Anita getting her rocks off in different combinations of participants.

I've read the first four/five books in the series now (I have to update my list). The first one was passable, but weak in a lot of places. The next few were entertaining and original, I thought. The last one I read was a step down: it involved a lot of romance, and that really watered the book down. Her strengths are her innovative characters, her unique world, and her good storytelling. She should stick to those things. I've heard that there is a lot more sex in the later books, but I haven't gotten to them yet. I'll probably read one or two more in the series, then bag them if they head in the direction you mention.

[Juntei]

Finished:
The Knight - Gene Wolfe
The King of Foxes - Raymond E. Feist
Prentice Alvin - Orson Scott Card
Alvin Journeyman - Orson Scott Card
Heartfire - Orson Scott Card
The Crystal City - Orson Scott Card
Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb (reread)
Royal Assassin - Robin Hobb (reread)
Assassin's Quest - Robin Hobb (reread)
Fool's Errand - Robin Hobb
Golden Fool - Robin Hobb
Fool's Fate - Robin Hobb
Angels & Demons -Dan Brown
The Dead Zone - Stephen King
Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
The Lost World - Michael Crichton
Edenborn - Nick Sagan
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
The Catcher in the Rye
Chronicles (Volume 1) - Bob Dylan

Currently reading:
The Plot Against America - Philip Roth

Queued:
Fahrenheit 451
1984
The Last Unicorn
War of the Worlds
Dune

Breakfast at Tiffany's

[Guy Incognito]

I'm keep adding to this list.  I'm busy with school (graduating in May) so I probably won't get around to even buying some of these books for a while.

Recently read:
All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque

To read (no particular order, a lot of these ideas came from hearing my ethics Prof talk about them):
Lying by Sissela Bok
The Trouble with Christmas by Tom Flynn
The Religion War by Scott Adams
America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy by writers of The Daily Show
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

[Tscott]

By Stephen King:
Wolves of the Calla
Hearts in Atlantis
Bag of Bones
On Writing
From a Buick 8
Black House (with Peter Straub)
Everything's Eventual
Song of Susanna
Regulators (as Richard Bachman)
The Gunslinger (revised)
Dreamcatcher
The Dark Tower (Book 7)

By others:
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
1984 - George Orwell
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
Watchmen - Alan Moore
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
The Bad Beginning (SUE1) - Lemony Snicket
The Reptile Room (SUE2) - Lemony Snicket
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut
Shopgirl - Steve Martin
Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron - Daniel Clowes
Memoirs of a Shy Pornographer - Kenneth Patchen

Current:
The Journal of Albion Moonlight - Kenneth Patchen

Backlog:
Light - M. John Harrison,
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Slapstick - Kurt Vonnegut
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

At one point in my life I was more or less caught up with Stephen King.  Spurred on by his finishing the Dark Tower series, it's been a marathon year for my reading habits and now a dozen of his books later I am caught up with his work again.

[Smoove_B]

Smoove Reading List: 2004 (as best as I can remember)

Bad Medicine : Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Distance Healing to Vitamin O
The Mists of Avalon
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul
The Salmon of Doubt
The Logic of Failure
The Da Vinci Code
The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
The Man Who Was Thursday
The Science of Good and Evil : Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule
How We Believe : Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God
Neuromancer
Prey
Lovecraft (Hans Rodionoff)
Neverwhere
Sophie's World
Into Thin Air
Snow Crash
Inviting Disaster
At the Water's Edge : Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs, and How Life Came Ashore but Then Went Back to Sea
Parasite Rex
Dark Tower Book 6: The Song of Susanna
The Black Company
The Black Company: Shadows Linger
The Black Company: The White Rose
I am Legend
The Writer's Journey (2nd ed.)
Dark Tower Book 7: The Dark Tower

[tswright]

Just securing some prime real estate while I reconstruct my list.

[moghedian]

Ahh...page one....had been 1st on page 2 for a while...I'll update soon

[Raug]

Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank
The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Candide - Voltaire
William Shakespeare: The Complete Works (Not finished yet, actually. About halfway.)
There are Doors - Gene Wolfe
Strange Travelers - Gene Wolfe
Latro in the Mist - Gene Wolfe
Innocents Aboard - Gene Wolfe
The Summer Tree - Guy Gavriel Kay
The Wandering Fire - Guy Gavriel Kay
The Darkest Road - Guy Gavriel Kay
The Demolished Man - Alred Bester
The Golden Transcendence - John C Wright
Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson
Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson
Deadhouse Gates - Steven Erikson
House of Chains - Steven Erikson
Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War - Mark Bowden
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
Broken Angels - Richard Morgan
Gridlinked - Neal Asher
Redemption Ark - Alastair Reynolds
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days - Alastair Reynolds
Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds
Chasm City - Alastair Reynolds
Absolution Gap - Alastair Reynolds
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Disposessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Farthest Shore - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Tombs of Atuan - Ursula K. Le Guin
Tehanu - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Reality Dysfunction Part I: Emergence - Peter F. Hamilton
The Reality Dysfunction Part 2: Expansion - Peter F. Hamilton
The Neutronium Alchemist Part I: Consolidation - Peter F. Hamilton
The Neutronium Alchemist Part 2: Conflict - Peter F. Hamilton
The Naked God Part 1 : Flight - Peter F. Hamilton
The Naked God Part 2: Faith - Peter F. Hamilton
Stone - Adam Roberts
A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II - Gerhard L. Weinberg
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
Beyond Good and Evil - Friedrich Nietzscheby
Ventus - Karl Schroeder
The Elric Saga: Part III - Michael Moorcock
The High House - James Stoddard
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Shogun - James Clavell
Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Force Heretic - Sean Williams and Shane Dix
Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: The Final Prophecy - Greg Keyes
Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force - James Luceno

Up next:
Dreams of the Sea - Elizabeth Vonarburg
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation - Joseph Ellis
The Knight and The Wizard - Gene Wolfe (Waiting for The Wizard to release so I can read them both at once. )

The Star Wars books might seem slightly out of place in the list, but I started reading the series when I was ~11 and wow, heh, does it ever have inertia.  :oops:

[Nth Power]

The only book I've finished this year was The DaVinci Code.  Decently interesting, but I found it to be somewhat shallow.

I've just started Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.  It may be awhile until I finish that.

[koanicriddle]

Reconstructing the list...

Books Read

• Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
  
• The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases edited by Mark Roberts and Jeff Vandermeer
  
• This Symbiotic Fascination by Charlee Jacob
  
• Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
  
• Veniss Underground by Jeff Vandermeer
  
• Secret Life by Jeff Vandermeer
  
• Lies & Ugliness by Biran Hodge
  
• Light by M. John Harrison
  
• Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
  
• Ghosts of Tomorrow by Jack Cady
  
• Miss Molly's Manners: A Book of Etiquette for Dogs by Jack Cady
  
• Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
  
• Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
  
• Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison
  
• The Dark Country by Dennis Etchison

Currently Reading

• The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan
  
• Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance by Lennard Zinn

Queued

• All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
  
• Gloriana by Michael Moorcock

[CSL]

::UPDATED!!!::

Read:

100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to Present(***)
Paris, 1919 by Margaret MacMillan(***)
World War One by John Keegan(*****)
An Army At Dawn by Rick Atkinson(*****)
The Count of Monte Cristo by Andre Dumas(*****)
Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy(****)
The Bear and The Dragon by Tom Clancy(***)
No Logo by Naomi Watt(*****)
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond(****)
Marching as To War: Canada's Turbulant Years by Pierre Burton(****)
Krakatoa by Simon Winchester(***)
A Brief History of the Crusades by Geoffory Hindley(***)
The Columbian Exchange by Alfred Crosby(****)

Reading:

Moby Dick by Hermin Melville (Currently stalled as I read the next book for school)
The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World by Charles Freeman

Need to Finish:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom by Conrad Black
The British Isles by Norman Davis

Coming Up:

Nuremburg by Joseph Persico
The Hapsburg Monarchy by Robin Okey
The Three Muskateers by Andre Dumas

==================================

And its only October, school has definetly put a crimp on my reading though.

[ElijahPrice]

Read:

Siddartha, Herman Hesse
His Dark Materials Trilogy, Philip Pullman

Reading:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susana Clarke
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (2 years and counting)

EP

[wanderingoutlaw]

[Placeholder while I retrieve my list and post it from home]

Currently Reading:

Turning the Mind Into an Ally by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

[Earsofsteel]

finished:
From a Buic 8 by steven king
Runaway Jury By John Grisman
Bleachers by ""
The Kite runner : cant remember the author
The world unseen: ''
The Emperor of Ocean Park: Stevphen L Carter
A game of Thrones: GRR marten
storm of sowards : ""
bird eye view: JF FReedmon
On writing: Steven King
SOme other books I cant remember the name of.

Reading:

Iron Weed: William Kennedy!