Books Read in 2008

[JohnathanStrange]

JANUARY
Hamlet* Wm. Shakespeare
Macbeth* Wm. Shakespeare
Hamlet Poem Unlimited Harold Bloom
Thomas Paine's Right of Man (Books That Changed the World titles) Christopher Hitchens
Off Armageddon Reef* David Weber
Space Boy Orson Scott Card
Freedomnomics Why The Free Market Works & Other Half-Baked Theories Don't John R. Lott
King's Gambit A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game Paul Hoffman
Eternals A Graphic Novel Neil Gaiman
Day of Empire How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance and Why They Fall Amy Chua
The Rejection Collection Vol. 2 MORE Cartoons You've Never Seen, and Never Will See, in the New Yorker M. Diffee
Double Cross* (Alex Cross Series) James Patterson
The Darkest Evening of the Year Dean Koontz
The War of the Rats A Novel of Stalingrad* David L. Robbins
Slan Hunter A Science Fiction Novel A.E. Van Vogt
Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe A Memoir of Life on the Run Mike O'Connor

FEBRUARY
A Midsummer's Night's Dream* Wm. Shakespeare
Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is And Islam Isn't Robert Spencer
What Went Wrong?*Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response Bernard Lewis
The Suicide of Reason Radical Islam's Threat to the West Lee Harris
The Truth About History How New Evidence is Transforming the Story of the Past Reader's Digest Association
Slaves of the Shinar An Epic Fantasy of the Ancient World Justin Allen
The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1)* Bernard Cornwell
The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Chronicles Series #2)* Bernard Cornwell
Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain! Scott Adams (The Dilbert Guy)
Fleet of Worlds 200 Years Before the Discovery of the Ringworld Larry Niven
Day of Reckoning How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart Patrick J. Buchanan
Another Bullshit Night In Suck City: A Memoir Nick Flynn
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince* (Book 6) J. K. Rowling
The Center Cannot Hold My Journey Through Madness Elyn R. Saks

MARCH
Othello* Wm. Shakespeare
Henry V* Wm. Shakespeare
A World Undone The Story of the Great War 1914 to 1918 G. J. Meyer
Shadow Warriors The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party of Surrender Kenneth Timmerman
The Economic Naturalist In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas Robert H. Frank
Lords of the North (The Saxon Chronicles Series #3)* Bernard Cornwell

APRIL
Sword Song (The Saxon Chronicles Series #4) Bernard Cornwell
The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5)* J.K. Rowling
Courageous:The Lost Fleet, Book 3 Jack Campbell
Emperor Time's Tapestry Stephen Baxter
House to House An Epic Memoir of War in Iraq David Bellavia
Gangleader For A Day A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets Venkatesh, Sudhir
A Way With Words II: Approaches to Literature*Drout, Michael
Roma The Novel of Ancient Rome*Saylor, Steve

MAY
The Canterbury Tales* Chaucer, Geoffrey
Duma Key King, Stephen
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)* Rowling, J.K.
Matter A Culture Novel Banks, Iain
Genghis: Lords of the Bow Iggulden, Conn
Heart Shaped Box* Hill, Joe

JUNE
Odyssey of the West A Classic Education through the Great Books: The Medieval World* Timothy B. Shutt, Ed.
Dante A Life* R.W. B. Lewis
Sailing From Byzantium: How A Lost Empire Shaped the World* Wells,Colin
Altered Carbon* Morgan, Richard
What is Intelligence? Beyond the Flynn Effect Flynn, James
IQ A Smart History of a Failed Idea Murdoch, Stephen
Irreligion A Mathematician Explains Why The Arguments For God Don't Add Up Paulos, John Allen
Heroes Saving Charlie A Novel Wallington, Aury
Wrath of a Mad God Book Three of the Darkwar Saga Feist, Raymond E.
The Man Who Loved China The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Joseph Needham Winchester, Simon

JULY
The Return of History And the End of Dreams Robert Kagan
The Age of American Unreason Susan Jacoby
Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism Philip Kitcher
The Sword of Shannara Terry Brooks
Odd Hours A Novel Koontz, Dean
The Last Days of Europe Epitaph For An Old Continent Walter Laqueur
The Solitary Vice Against Reading Mikita Brottman
Moment of Truth In Iraq Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope Michael Yon
The Second Plane September 11: Terror and Boredom Martin Amis
Proust and the Squid The Story and Science of the Reading Brain Maryanne Wolf
The Mind of the Market Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, And Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics Michael Shermer
Rutka's Notebook A Voice From the Holocaust Rutka Laskier

AUGUST
The Logic of Life Rational Economics of an Irrational World Tim Harford
The Ten-Cent Plague The Great Comic-Book Scare How It Changed America David Hajdu
How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read Pierre Bayard
Cities In Flight Science Fiction James Blish
American Nerd The Story of My People Benjamin Nugent
Deadfall A Novel Robert Liparulo
The Woman Who Can't Forget The Most Remarkable Memory Known Jill Price
Worlds At War The 2,500 Year Struggle Between East & West Anthony Pagden
God's Crucible Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 David Levering Lewis

[whiteboyskim]

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning by Jonathan Mahler

Terrific read that chronicles the hellhole that was New York during 1970s up to the literal tipping point of 1977. It follows Reggie Jackson as he joins the Yankees, segues into the mayoral race between Ed Koch, Mario Cuomo, and Bella Abzug, then goes step by step through the New York blackout, tracks the Son of Sam alongside the NYPD detectives who worked around the clock to crack the case, and more. Having just been to New York City, which I affectionately refer to as Disneyland North, it blows my mind to think of Times Square as a cesspool of porn, drugs, and worse. Mahler may have some stilted prose every now and then, but he keeps the pace moving and it's a fascinating glimpse at what lead New York City into its darkest hours and how it managed to climb back one inch at a time. Fascinating stuff.

[CrayolaSmoker]

How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read Pierre Bayard

Looking at the sheer volume of texts you read, I LOLled when I noticed this one.

[JohnathanStrange]

How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read Pierre Bayard

Looking at the sheer volume of texts you read, I LOLled when I noticed this one.

Heh.

If I had read this one first, I wouldn't have had to read the others!

[LoneStarSpur]

My reading list is not nearly as...serious as the OP's, but 

I've been re-reading some old Heinlein (some 50-60 years old). Pretty interesting stuff.

Herbert's "The Jesus Incident" and its sequel. Very good...just organized by 300+ books last night and just discovered that this is a trilogy. Sweet.

Finally got around to finishing "Neuromancer"...glad I did.

Baxter. Card (Worthing Saga). Robert Charles Wilson.

Currently reading Silverberg's "Son of Man"

Like I wrote...nothing too deep.

[BEEFHAMMA]

All the fans at Lincoln Financial Field today (and fans at home for that matter) who cheered when Kevin Kolb came in to play when McNabb and Westbrook came out need to be castrated. What does McNabb have to do to impress fans in Philadelphia? I guess 297 yards and three touchdowns and 0 interceptions BEFORE HALFTIME isn't enough. And oh by the way his top 2 wideouts were out with injuries. I mean, seriously...sometimes I'm embarrassed to call myself an Eagles fan because I don't want to be lumped in with those morons.

Don't get me wrong...Kevin Kolb looks like a very capable successor to McNabb. But that's what he is, a successor...as long as McNabb's right arm and both legs are functional...I'll take him over most other QBs, except maybe Koy Detmer. But I think he shaved his neckbeard and is therefore dead to me.

[BEEFHAMMA]

sorry for the above post...somehow i ended up in the wrong thread...

[Eco-Logic]

Currently Reading:  Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)

Next: Not Sure

Read in 2008
The Stand (King)
American God - Neil Gaiman
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

Wink & Grow Rich - Roger Hamilton
The 4-Hour Workweek - Timothy Ferriss
The Slight Edge - Jeff Olson
The Seven Minute Difference - Allyson Lewis
A Gentleman Pens a Note: A Concise, Contemporary Guide to Personal Correspondence
The Excellent Investment Advisor

The War of Flowers - Tad Williams
Black - Ted Dekker
Red - Ted Dekker
White - Ted Dekker
Three - Ted Dekker


[/quote]

[ATB]

The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien
Up Front - Bill Mauldin

[Isgrimnur]

Will be moving on to Volume 2 shortly.

[CrayolaSmoker]

Something about "The Complete..." having multiple volumes amuses me.

[Pong]

In Progress: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Such a great book.

Man, I was so excited for that one but it absolutely bored me to tears.  Ugh, and the footnotes....the only footnotes that I enjoy in fiction are done by Terry Pratchett. 

Really? You didn't like the footnotes? I found them quircky and gave more life to the story and its history.

I love the foodnotes. But other than Insomnia by Stephen King I don't think I've read so many pages that didn't really go anywhere. I'm at page 750 and it still feels like the introduction.

[Scuzz]

Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley

A great book about the men who raised the second flag on Iwo Jima. This book ranks with Band of Brothers and Goodbye Darkness as excellent WW2 books with real stories about real soldiers.

[metallicorphan]

this year hasnt been a busy reading year for me(compared to others)

this year:
Skeleton Crew by Stephen King(includes The Mist)
Tommyknockers by Stephen King
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Northern Lights By Philip Pullman(maybe known as The Golden Compass in the states)
The Subtle Knife By Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass By Philip Pullman
Misery By Stephen King
State Of Fear By Michael Crichton

[Moliere]

Bush Is a Book Lover

The President is up to 40 books so far in 2008 including:

David Halberstam's "The Coldest Winter"
Rick Atkinson's "Day of Battle"
Hugh Thomas's "Spanish Civil War"
Stephen W. Sears's "Gettysburg"
David King's "Vienna 1814"
U.S. Grant's "Personal Memoirs"
Jon Meacham's "American Lion"
James M. McPherson's "Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief"
Jacobo Timerman's "Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number"

Either Karl Rove is lying or Bush is not the moron people make him out to be.

[CeeKay]

After reading one whole book last year (not counting comic book related stuff) my goal this year is to get back to serious reading.

Finished
Empire by Orson Scott Card
Dragons of a Fallen Sun by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman

Reading
Chinatown Death Cloud Peril (currently misplaced)

wow... New Years resolution #1: read more books other than comic books.

[Moliere]

wow... New Years resolution #1: read more books other than comic books.

You can read books about comics.   

I highly recommend "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon

Like the comic books that animate and inspire it, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is both larger than life and of it too. Complete with golems and magic and miraculous escapes and evil nemeses and even hand-to-hand Antarctic battle, it pursues the most important questions of love and war, dreams and art, across pages brimming with longing and hope. Samuel Klayman--self-described little man, city boy, and Jew--first meets Josef Kavalier when his mother shoves him aside in his own bed, telling him to make room for their cousin, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Prague. It's the beginning, however unlikely, of a beautiful friendship. In short order, Sam's talent for pulp plotting meets Joe's faultless, academy-trained line, and a comic-book superhero is born. A sort of lantern-jawed equalizer clad in dark blue long underwear, the Escapist "roams the globe, performing amazing feats and coming to the aid of those who languish in tyranny's chains!" Before they know it, Kavalier and Clay (as Sam Klayman has come to be known) find themselves at the epicenter of comics' golden age.