Archive for the 'books' Category

Queued

Published on 25 October 2008 in reading and books. 3 Comments

Kimbofo’s recently posted about her large reading queue. My reading queue’s pretty large too, and growing. I refuse to feel like I’m drowning in books, though - I prefer to think that I’m spoilt for choice!

In the pile:

The classical world by Robin Lane Fox

Empress by Shan Sa (an impulse buy last time I was in the campus bookshop)

In Europe by Geert Mak (birthday gift from TFP; thanks, TFP! I keep dipping into this one, and want to sit and read it all at once)

Summer sisters by Judy Blume (did you grow up reading Judy Blume, too? Impulse loan from MPOW. I walked past the new books display, it was there, I borrowed it. Hazards of working in a library)

Growing up Asian in Australia, edited by Alice Pung (another purchase from the campus bookshop. I couldn’t resist this one because there are so many stories in it. Yes, I’m weak)

The shock doctrine by Naomi Klein (bought this using a book voucher for my birthday, from my mum-in-law)

Collapse by Jared Diamond (another book voucher purchase)

Code: version 2.0 by Lawrence Lessig (Prof Lessig is going to be speaking at LIANZA and I had this vague idea of being able to ask him some erudite question if I read some of his work. Hah!)

Born digital by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser

Chinese lexicography: A History From 1046 Bc To Ad 1911 by Heming Yong and Jing Peng (the OUP page says this book cost AU$460! What!!)

Leaning against the main pile: The fabric of the cosmos by Brian Greene and Congo journey by Redmond O’Hanlon. Yes, three in this pile are Popular Penguins. I really love the series (great titles! great price! the books feel good in my hands!) and have been buying one a week for a month now. (The fourth one I have is Bill Bryson’s Mother tongue, which I have thoroughly enjoyed.) I hope Penguin releases more titles in the series.

Currently reading: The inheritance of loss by Kiran Desai (birthday gift from jadedlotus - cheers!) and At winter’s end by Robert Silverberg.

The question is, what shall I read when I’m in New Zealand? I can’t bring any of the library books with me, as that’s against library rules, and besides, they’re all a bit big and bulky. I have about a week to decide.

Angus and Robertson Top 100 Books

Published on 7 October 2008 in reading and books. 7 Comments

Indulging my love of lists.

Here is this year’s Angus and Robertson Top 100 Book List.  I’ve bolded the ones I’ve read.

1 Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
2 Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
3 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
4 The Obernewtyn Chronicles - Isobelle Carmody
5 My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult
6 To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
7 The Book Thief - Markus Zusak. I couldn’t get into this. Lots of people have raved about it; maybe I should try again.
8 Breath - Tim Winton
9 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
10 Break No Bones - Kathy Reichs
11 The Power Of One - Bryce Courtenay
12 Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
13 Magician - Raymond E. Feist
14 The Bronze Horseman - Paullina Simons
15 Mao’s Last Dancer - Li Cunxin. This one’s never in the library when I want to read it.
16 Memoirs Of A Geisha - Arthur Golden. Seen the movie, though.
17 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
18 Cross - James Patterson
19 Persuasion - Jane Austen
20 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
21 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
22 The Secret - Rhonda Byrne
23 Marley and Me - John Grogan
24 Antony and Cleopatra - Colleen McCullough
25 April Fools Day - Bryce Courtney
26 North & South - Elizabeth Gaskell
27 In My Skin - Kate Holden
28 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
29 A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
30 The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory
31 Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult
32 Atonement - Ian McEwan. Another one for which I’ve seen the movie.
33 Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
34 Pillars Of The Earth - Ken Follett
35 The Pact - Jodi Picoult
36 Ice Station - Matthew Reilly
37 Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
38 Jessica - Bryce Courtenay
39 A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle
40 The Princess Bride - William Goldman
41 Running With Scissors - Augusten Burroughs
42 Anybody Out There? - Marian Keyes
43 Life Of Pi - Yann Martel
44 Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly
45 People Of The Book - Geraldine Brooks
46 Six Sacred Stones - Matthew Reilly
47 Memory Keeper’s Daughter - Kim Edwards
48 Brother Odd - Dean Koontz
49 Tully - Paullina Simons
50 Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
51 The Catcher in the Rye - J.D Salinger
52 Eragon - Christopher Paolini
53 Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
54 It’s Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong
55 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
56 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry. Really enjoyed this one.
57 The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
58 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
59 A Fortunate Life - A.B. Facey
60 The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
61 The Notebook -Nicholas Sparks
62 Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen
63 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
64 The Host - Stephenie Meyer
65 Dirt Music - Tim Winton
66 Eldest - Christopher Paolini
67 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
68 It - Stephen King
69 World Without End - Ken Follett
70 Emma - Jane Austen
71 Temple - Matthew Reilly
72 Little Women - Alcott Louisa May
73 Lean Mean Thirteen - Janet Evanovich
74 Scarecrow - Matthew Reilly
75 American Gods - Neil Gaiman
76 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
77 P.S, I Love You - Cecelia Ahern
78 All That Remains - Patricia Cornwell
79 The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch. Would the book be as compelling as the lecture itself?
80 Past Secrets - Cathy Kelly
81 The Persimmon Tree - Bryce Courtenay
82 Husband - Dean Koontz
83 Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult
84 Wicked - Gregory Maguire
85 Spot Of Bother - Mark Haddon
86 Always And Forever - Cathy Kelly
87 The Road - Cormac McCarthy
88 Cents & Sensibility - Maggie Alderson
89 Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
90 The Shifting Fog - Kate Morton
91 We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
92 Everyone Worth Knowing - Lauren Weisberger
93 Hour Game - David Baldacci
94 Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay. Found the tv series creepy, so am not particularly interested in reading this.
95 The Woods - Harlan Coben
96 Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
97 Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
98 Scar Tissue - Anthony Kiedis
99 Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali
100 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

21 out of 100. Not very good going. It’s a very popular list, and I don’t think I read a lot of the super popular authors. Which ones have you read?

Bibliophibian

Published on 25 September 2008 in reading and books. 3 Comments

A new word, courtesy of Sharon Bakar:

Bibliophibians (n.pl) - those who are drowning in books to the extent they develop special gills.

Cartoon is from David Malki. (Thanks Sharon, I like the word, too!)

Sharon also asks: what are you reading now?

Me, I’m reading A fine balance by Rohinton Mistry and Slowly down the Ganges by Eric Newby, and enjoying both immensely. Not sure how I ended up reading two books with Indian themes at the same time - an accident.

What about you, what are you reading?