Currently reading
The Paperboy
The Dinosauria
The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History (Revised and Updated Edition)
Luka and the Fire of Life: A Novel
Haroun and the Sea of Stories was my very first Rushdie book, and I have come to fall in love with his work. Haroun is very different from his other novels though, and Luka continues in the same vein as Haroun. I think nobody expected Luka to be as great as Haroun, so the end result is a very entertaining wordplay-filled book for children. What I liked most about the novel is all the mythological gods that Rushdie managed to cram in, it's great when the world is reminded of old stories. That being said, I much much more strongly recommend Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
Warbreaker
I would have given it four stars, but the ending was really abrupt and less polished than the rest of the book, which sort of ruined the experience for me.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Upon rereading this novel, I have discovered that it is one of the most beautiful books ever written.
Principia Discordia, Or, How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her: The Magnum Opiate of Malaclypse the Younger
Warning: Do not read this book unless you're drunk or very open-minded.
The Eye of Argon
We've all seen movies that are "so bad it's good." I never thought a book could accomplish that same level of horrible wonderfulness, until I read this work. I fell into the dilemma everyone else had in what rating to give it. On one hand, it is just worst book ever in the world. The worst writing ever. The worst typos ever. The worst use of a thesaurus ever. I am convinced that people who are learning to write should read this work at some point in order to learn what NOT to do. But on the other hand, it is just so entertaining, so ambitious, so wonderful. After all, any book that has a chapter 3 1/2 and 7 1/2 deserves all the praise in the world. I would never recommend this book to anyone ever. But seriously, I recommend it.
1
This Is How You Lose Her
Just as everyone who loves this book says, the writing in this work is really quite good. It's an interesting mix of Dominican slang and English and helps to contribute to the rawness of the narration. However, the characters were all flat, Yunior was pretty much unreadable as a somewhat main character, and nobody ever learned anything from the mistakes they made.
Daniel Deronda (Modern Library Classics)
I ended up liking the book more than I thought I would. Gwendolen Harleth is really a fantastic character, and Eliot has a superb mastery of the consciousness of people from many different backgrounds. A word to the wise: parsing through the language is a little like trying to kill yourself with a feather.
Dreams Underfoot: A Newford Collection
Dreams Underfoot is a collection of short stories about a group of interconnected people. Charles de Lint uses fantasy to talk about love, loss, hurt, life, cities, anything you can think about. I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, but what kept me from loving it was inconsistent quality of writing. Most of the time it was good, but there were times when it fell short. Hopefully I'll return to the Newford series one day when I have more time and discover that his writing improved over time.
1
After Dark
With my abortive attempt at 1Q84 and my lukewarm feelings towards this book, I think it's clear that perhaps Murakami isn't for me.
Between Shades of Grey Signed Edition
I would have really liked this book, but the ending was very abrupt and left a lot to desire
The Hard Goodbye (Sin City, Book 1)
After reading The Watchmen, this somehow fails for me on an emotional, analytical, psychological level. Maybe I'll come back one day and reread it... not after The Watchmen. Hopefully it'll be better then.
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)
Pros: Political intrigue, fantastical mysteries that are hinted at, potentially interesting charactersCons: Poor character development, vague hints at a past that is actually somewhat important, reads like a dry history book for most of it
I can see why people would like this book, I really can. But there are so many flaws to it that I cannot overlook: by the end of it, I still don't understand the motivations and thoughts of any of the main characters, I still don't understand basic aspects of the world George R.R. Martin has built, I still haven't achieved an understanding of a past that seems relatively important to understanding the allies, enemies, and mistrust of the current world (and talking to people who have read all of the books, the past is never really explained in full and the reader must rely on extensive forums to supplement the knowledge), and I still haven't worked out in my head who a lot of people are. It's a shame really, it's an interesting premise, a good story, but executed poorly. I hope the Game of Thrones turns out well for the less than handful of characters I managed to somewhat like in the first book, I just don't care enough about all of them as a whole to continue with the series.
Dream Country (Sandman, Book 3)
I have to admit, I was definitely thinking that the volume would be a solid four stars until I reached the fourth star. I have an incurable weakness for Shakespeare, and Neil Gaiman was incredibly clever in his use of the characters within the play within the comic... It was all incredibly clever.
The Doll's House (Sandman, Book 2)
This volume was much more polished than the first, and it's very clear that Neil Gaiman found his sea legs with serial work. The volume ran the gamut of beautiful and wistful to ominous and dark.I'm a little sad to say that there was less mythology in this volume than the last, but in its place Gaiman threw in a very interesting slew of history references. He never fails to spice his works in interesting ways.
I do highly recommend this, it's much more accessible than the first volume, but the reader will also understand less without the first volume.
For my money, I still like the first volume a little bit more. But not by much.