What were the best books you read in 2009? Here are mine:
What were yours?
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Gwenny: Absolutely not! The world has plenty of people having kids. A child consumes HUGE amounts of resources, which from both a... QotD: Kids?
Siberia: Or maybe they know they have neither patience nor inclination to deal with the fruit of their loins and thus, rather than be... QotD: Kids? Siberia: Well, it wasn’t exactly my (or anyone’s) choice, was it? I didn’t exactly ask to be born. It was my... QotD: Kids?
DDM: Repubs and Dems. He’s saying they only take first impressions and... Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” Rally – Interviews With Participants
CM: Good point, most religions encourage having a lot of children. From an evolutionary standpoint you sort of owe it to your... QotD: Kids?
Jasowah: “They don’t go beyond those emotions, and that’s the... Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” Rally – Interviews With Participants
DarkMatter: And funny that most of them are huge in size in the vid. Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” Rally – Interviews With Participants DarkMatter: Who is trying to convince you that responsible, intelligent, etc. people aren’t more likely to raise responsible,... QotD: Kids?
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Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely
It’s about why people continually make irrational decisions
http://www.predictablyirrational.com/?page_id=6
The Life you were Born to Give/David Mckinley
A Vision of the Deep/Susan Sutton
The Rest of the Gospel/Dan Stone
The New Man/Thomas Merton
Creation in Christ/George MacDonald
Happy New Year to all!
The Scar by China Meiville
Brave New World by Aldus Huxley
Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
…can’t think of others I’ve read
Starting with adult and working child-wards and all rated 4 out of 5 stars (I don’t give 5 stars easily … or 4 for that matter):
Mistakes were made (but not by me): why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts by Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson
Supersense: why we believe the unbelievable by Bruce Hood
Pride and prejudice and zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and, er, Jane Austen
Your inner fish: a journey into the 3.5 billion-year history of the human body by Neil Shubin
Jesus, interrupted: revealing the hidden contradictions in the Bible and why we don’t know them by Bart D. Ehrman
The graveyard book by Neil Gaiman
This is just to say: poems of apology and forgiveness by Joyce Sidman
The three silly girls Grubb by Ann Hassett
Frogs by Nic Bishop
Twenty-six princesses by Dave Horowitz
I’m with ya on A Feast of Crows. An entire book dedicated to secondary characters doing mundane things, and still no sequel in sight.
The Jesus Mysteries, Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God? Freke/Gandy
The Selfish Gene, Dawkins
Einstein, Walter Isaacson
Factotum, Charles Bukowski
My Friend Leonard, James Frey
How was My Friend Leonard? I read Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning and have been debating whether or not I should give that one a shot. Is it worth moving up my list?
It’s one of my favorite books. Much better than Mil Little Pieces, in my opinion.
Thanks. I will most likely pick it up soon then.
In English:
Caveman Logic, The persistence of primitive thinking in a modern world, by Hank Davis
In Spanish:
La Puta de Babilonia by Fernando Vallejo
Porque No Podemos Ser Cristianos by Piergiorgio Odifreddi.
I’d been reading The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher at the suggestion of a few members here, and while they were all good, Summer Knight and Dead Beat were exceptional in their excellence.
The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake. Needs to be read. Just amazing.
I read books 1 and 2 this year too. Awesome. But I abandonned book 3 not far in, as I believe do a lot of people!
You have to understand that Titus Alone was never originally published because Peake was dying at the time it was written, and was both losing his mind and high on opium too. It took a great deal of work from his surviving ancestors to put it into any kind of shape to be published. The latest version of it, while not nearly as good as Titus Groan and Gormenghast, is worth reading nevertheless. I love that it is completely different to the first two, though – it shows that Peake’s imagination hadn’t just encompassed this huge, fantastical castle in which they were set, but also a whole insanely imaginative world. I do recomend reading it through – the ending will suprise and delight you :-)
The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge MD
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Endymion by Dan Simmons
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
All fantastic reads. There were other books I read this year, but these were the notable ones.
I’ll second the vote for The Brain that Changes Itself; I’ve learned more from it than from Oliver Sacks’ books. This book solidified for me my growing conviction that there truly is no permanent core of personal being, let alone anything that might be called a soul. I wouldn’t want to spend eternity with the over-emotional personality of my youth, let alone the rather damaged brain/consciousness I am likely to die with.
I’ve been sitting here staring at this blinking cursor for half an hour trying to make up my mind… in vain… well, let’s say I will cordially hate you for the rest of the year.
the Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin
The Disappearance of the Outside: a Manifesto for Escape by Andrei Codrescu
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman
I really liked The Lathe of Heaven.
Flat Earth news by Nick Davies – an insider´s guide to how the media really works. you´ll be surprised what he says about Murdock.
Death from the skies by Phil Plait – a fun look at Gamma Ray Bursts, black holes etc.
Granny made me an anarchist by Stuart Christie – how an 18 year old Scotsman tried to blow up (Spanish dictator) Franco.
Moorish Spain by Richard Fletcher – how Islam got a footfold in Europe that lasted for several hundreds of years and how we´ve all benefited.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams
The Evolution of God – Robert Wright
The Brain That Changes Itself – Norman Doidge
Why Evolution is True – Jerry Coyne
Also, reread The Promise by Chaim Potok and it was as good as the first time.
Haven’t finished it yet, but so far Why I Became an Atheist by John Loftus is a good read.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams
The sequel is better, amazingly.
I also agree about Feast for Crows, and I’m fairly fed up with George R.R. are you ever going to freaking finish your book Martin and his glacial writing speed. That’s what I get for starting a series before it’s finished.
The Greatest Show on Earth, Richard Dawkins. I like the audio version of this and the God delusion, as it’s he and his wife reading them.
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss. Excellent book. Couldn’t put it down.
The Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson.
I need to read more nonfiction this year.
A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter Miller, Jr.
God is Not Great – Christopher Hitchens
The Greatest Show On Earth – Richard Dawkins
By Heresies Distressed – David Weber
His Share of Glory – Cyril M. Kornbluth
France in the Age of Louis XIII and Richelieu – Victor L. Tapie
Nova – Samuel R. Delaney
The Broken Sword – Poul Anderson
Like many others above, this is a selective list out of the many books I have read this year. The Weber book is part of an ongoing series, and I have to wait until July for the next one. Luckily I have a vast collection of unread books to go through in the meantime.
Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvuist
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Flight (any volume they’re all great)
I’m not big on reading novels so my choice would have to be
George Carlin – Last words. a what he described as a sortabiography. Not as fun as his three other more humor orientated books but it still delivered both laughs and certainly interest. Could’ve been longer though.
And I miss that old fuck (<–this is a reference to his last show btw)
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – Barbara Kingsolver
Blessed Unrest – Paul Hawken
I’m glad some one listed China Miellvile on here. I read his Iron Council last year, but I didn’t like it as much as his other two Bas Lag novels or Looking for Jake (shorts). I am just got City and the City, and I am trying to get ahold of King Rat and Leviathan (although, it may have only been published in German.) I think I need to add some Le Guin to my Goodreads list, too.
*I just got … Ooops. Stupid iPhone auto correct. Got me again.
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