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3rd quarter booklist - The inexplicable charisma of the rival [entries|archive|friends|userinfo]
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3rd quarter booklist [Oct. 4th, 2005|11:52 pm]
Just me.
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[mood |literate]

Fiction

1) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K Rowling (audio) What, you expect a review? Spoiler: Trevor the Toad dies horribly.

2)The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon (audio) -High-functioning autistic boy tries to solve the neighborhood mystery of who killed the neighbor's dog by stabbing it with a fork. funny. Recommended.

3)The Maltese Falcon- Dashiell Hammett (audio) Better than the other Hammett I read (The Dain Curse) but still not as good as Chandler. Audiobook tries to imitate characters as played in the movie, which was irritating.

4) Farewell, My Lovely - Raymond Chandler (audio) Liked it. I'll probably read some more Chandler later.

5) In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead - James L. Burke (audio) Mystery set in South Louisiana. This one falls in the middle of a series that I'd never read, but I followed it fine. Moved a little slow but well-drawn characters.

6)The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
7)The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
8) Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
9) So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams - re-read all these because I'd never read the last book "Mostly Harmless" and thought it'd be nice to refresh my memory. "Mostly harmless" is still in progress and will be on next quarters list. Series gets less good as you go on, I've re-discovered.

10) The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (audio) The murder of a 13 year-old girl and its aftermath told from the point of view of the murdered girl. Started out great, didn't like the ending. Peter Jackson is making the movie. 

non fiction:

1) Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything -- by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner- Fascinating. Partially responsible for Bill Bennett's recent foot-in-mouth quote about aborting black babies to reduce crime (reminder to Bill: the theory is that it's ANY low-class/impoverished birth prevented that reduces crime, not just black ones)

2) Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester (audio) - Interesting part of history made boring by wordy book. Pass.

3) Hollywood Talks Turkey: The Screen's Greatest Flops by Doug McClelland - anecdotes from Hollywood players about the flops they were part of. Nice schadenfreude read.

4) Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson (audio) American expat humorist tours England. Funny, light.

5) This is burning man by Brian Doherty- first cohesive attempt to write a "warts and all"  history by long-time participant. Largely succeeds. recommended.

6) The Mother Tongue: English & How it Got That Way by Bill Bryson (audio) Humorous explanation of how we got from Beowulf English to American. Lots of fun facts about Shakepeare's inventiveness and puns without actually having to read Shakespeare scholars.

7) Lonely Planet Guide To Experimental Travel (Lonely Planet) -- by Rachael Antony - situationist/fluxus travel experiments. My favorite, which I might yet do, now that I have a 1983 Birnbaum's Guide to US Cities: Get an outdated guidebook and go to the places it suggests. Contrast what's supposed to be there with what is there today.
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Comments:
[User Picture]From: jtemperance
2005-10-05 02:13 pm (UTC)
The Freakonomics blog is a lot of fun as well. My favorite part of the book is LemonJello and Shithead.

I didn't know about the Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel... gotta get that.

"Notes from a Small Island" I read when I was living in England. I found that every time I visited a new location I was thinking of a way to write about it that sounded like him.

Agreed about Douglas Adams declining over time. I stopped reading after Thanks for all the Fish.
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: holyoutlaw
2005-10-05 02:59 pm (UTC)
Getting an old travel guide and going to the places it suggests would have made a fun Cacophony event back in the day. Yeah!

And I had a burning man dream last night, where I want back after a few years and hated the changes.
(Reply) (Thread)
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