Sci-Fi Book # 29 - Ringworld by Larry Niven

I feel like the last few books I've read from this list (Foundation's Edge, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress) have been a bit sexist. And unfortunately I'd probably say the same about Ringworld.  The only female characters here only exist to sleep with the main character. Putting that aside, this book was still a disappointment. The idea and mystery of what created the ringworld is full of potential. Sadly that potential is wasted. I don't even care enough to look up the plot of the numerous sequels. And the whole concept of breeding for "luck" seems out of place here. C+

Matilda by Roald Dahl

 What to say about Matilda....? Well, for a children's book I enjoyed it. My daughter didn't seem too engaged in it though (but she did like the movie). A-

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

I've always been curious about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and since I needed to find something to read to my daughter at night I finally got around to it. Overall I really enjoyed it. Maybe the plotting isn't as tight as in the movie but it was quite charming and I'm glad that I now know the origin story of the Tin Woodman. A

Book # 91 - The Call of the Wild by Jack London

 

I'm not really sure what I expected from The Call of the Wild... but I was pleasantly surprised. Just the fact that the main character is a dog makes it memorable. Yeah... I really liked it. Now only two more books to go... A

Horror Book # 28 - Books of Blood (Volume 6) by Clive Barker

 

As a bit of an experiment I mostly read this book on my phone whenever I was stuck somewhere and had to wait around and kill some time. So my conclusion is that isn't really a good way to enjoy a good book. Still I did enjoy this final volume and found it to live up to the scariness that I expect from Clive Barker. B+

Book # 45 - Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

 

Thoughts on Madame Bovary.... yeah it was pretty good though I feel like maybe I'm missing something. The main character really isn't likable, right? Her whole downfall is sad but she isn't the kind of character that generates a lot of sympathy. I know that she encounters a few bad actors that help her towards her fate but still... A-

Book # 111 - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

 
After five years away from the 101-200 list I finally cross one of of this list. I think the last one I read was Infinite Jest sometime before my daughter was born, and now finally she's old enough to appreciate me reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory aloud to her. Really we both enjoyed it, it is the perfect type of book to read to a five year old that loves candy. A

Book # 95 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Part of my point of reading books off of a list is to discover books that I normally wouldn't read... but should. And Birdsong is one of those.  I had never heard of it before and really, even if I did I probably wouldn't have picked it up. But, wow, I quite enjoyed it. And since I doubt anyone actually reads these posts I can admit that, maybe, some passages brought a tear or two to my eyes. The bulk of the story is about a guy named Stephen and his experiences in WW1. Just so good. Highly recommended - A

Sci-Fi Book # 44 - Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov

 The problem with the Sci-Fi list I'm using is that it is ever changing. When I read the Foundation trilogy some years ago the fourth book wasn't on the list. But now it is. Sigh.... So Foundation's Edge continues the storyline from the original trilogy. I forgot that Asimov books can be kind of boring at times - especially when the thin story is spread out over 400 pages. Just a whole lot of talking about space politics and somehow the entirety of millions of planets is influenced by just a handful of people that are all being controlled by an even smaller group of people.  I know there is a tv series coming out soon and I can't imagine that this series is a good idea for a show. I'm not sure if it is even a good idea for a book series. C+

Book # 84 - The Stranger by Albert Camus

Just now as I was about to enter on Goodreads that I'd read The Stranger it showed that I already read it. I have no memory of that.... and never once while reading it did I think "this seems familiar".  Sure it is a very short book but still... I'm pretty sure I already owned the book way before we started this project, so it makes sense that I would have read it before. Anyway, I enjoyed it. A

Progress Report

 A little over six years ago I tracked my progress on these various readings as such:

My progress on each of the lists:
Best Novels 1-100: 50 read
Best Novels 101-200: 4 read
Best Mysteries 1-101: 18 read
Best Science Fiction 1-50: 16 read
Best Horror 1-50: 14 read

The updated numbers are:

Best Novels 1-100: 94 read
Best Novels 101-200: 8 read
Best Mysteries 1-101: 37 read
Best Science Fiction 1-50: 30 read
Best Horror 1-50: 27 read

Book # 74 - As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

 I think this book may have put me in a weird headspace for the few days it took to read. Anyway, I'm glad I read it. After reading three Faulkner titles for this project I feel like I definitely appreciate his work even though it is difficult to get through sometimes for a variety of reasons. For such a short book, As I Lay Dying sure has a lot to unpack and think about. A 

Star Wars: The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott

I guess Star Wars: The Rising Storm was okay. The first 250 pages or so were nothing special - just a ton of new characters with weird Star Wars names that needed to be memorized. The ending though set up the next book nicely. So B-.

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

Hummingbird Salamander started out well enough and got me hooked... but by the end I just didn't really care. C+

Book # 61 - Nostromo by Joseph Conrad

Well I didn't think Nostromo would be my kind of book and I was right about that. I wouldn't say that it was bad but it also wasn't very enjoyable and I probably didn't get much out of it. The only thing that really kind of interests me about it is finding the parallels between the book and the movie Alien (in which the name of the ship is Nostromo). Hint... transporting valuable metals (or alien creatures) for a large company may not be beneficial to the health of the workers involved. B-

Horror Book # 21 The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft

 

Even though this collection had considerable overlap with the previous Lovecraft collection I read, I still enjoyed it. Maybe not as much though... I'm starting to see that he's basically telling variations of the same few stories over and over. And yeah, I see now that some of the stories are problematic in other ways.

Book # 11 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

 

Except for one ridiculous coincidence near the end of the story I really enjoyed Jane Eyre. I mean come on... what are really the chances that the total strangers that take in Jane just happen to be her cousins that she never knew about? Ummm- there's no chance. Also I guess you could say that some parts of the story are kind of problematic. I mean Mr. Rochester totally lies to Jane about his wife. And also that's no way to treat a person with mental problems. I'd like to see his wife's side of the story... Still though it was an enjoyable read. A.

The Collector by John Fowles

 I'm starting to think that it is better to not plan out so far in advance which books I'm going to read. I had never heard of The Collector until a few days before reading it and I really enjoyed it. Maybe I'll start alternating one "planned" book and then one "unplanned" book. As to how I happened upon it - I was reading about The Catcher in the Rye and saw that this book makes mention of it as a plot point (it also mentions Emma). It sounded interesting and so I put off staring Jane Eyre for another week.  A-

Book # 1 - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

There probably isn't anything original I can say about The Catcher in the Rye. It was one of my favorite book before and rereading it was great. I can't put my finger on it, but this book just gets it. Something about the difficulty in connecting with people on a real genuine level or about how small trivial details can bring on random emotions and memories. A+

Also it mentions a few other list books.... David Copperfield, A Farewell to Arms and The Great Gatsby.

Book # 38- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

 

Did you know that Evelyn Waugh was a man? And that his first wife's name was also Evelyn? I didn't until I started reading about Brideshead Revisited. And I know I saw the movie version some twelve years ago but I remember nothing about it. It has Emma Thompson right? Anyway, the book was enjoyable enough. It is in the A- range. Mostly I found it strange that one of the main characters from the first half of the book completely disappears in the second half and we only get a third hand account of his fate. Oh yeah, it also mentions Alice in Wonderland.

Later by Stephen King

The other week I realized that I've read at least one Stephen King book every year that I've done this blog. Well the streak continues in 2021. Later isn't his best work but for a shorter casual read you could do a lot worse. Will I remember the details in a few years? No... but I did enjoy reading it. Let's say it gets a B.

Book # 23 - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

 Somehow The Brothers Karamazov wasn't quite what I was expecting. For such a long book I expected a huge epic story and that really isn't what it is. Anyway, I still enjoyed it, maybe because I had no idea what it was about before I started. I'll say it gets an A but I'm not sure if I've really processed the book enough in my mind after finishing it yet. It was nice to finally take the book off the shelf and read it too - way back when we first started this blog my mom got me a really nice copy of the book for Christmas and it had just been sitting on the shelf for eight years. She was probably the only person that ever read this blog so I'm sure she's probably up in heaven somewhere glad that I finally got around to reading the book she gave me.

Book # 53 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

 
Yep, I still have my copy of Heart of Darkness that I had to read multiple times in both high school and college. This particular copy has all of my notes from studying it - so I guess it was worth keeping all these years. A

Star Wars: The High Republic- Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule

 
Not really much to say about Light of the Jedi. I liked it well enough that I'll probably read the next book in the series, but not so much that I'd go out and recommend it to anyone that isn't a Star Wars die-hard fan. Let's say a B.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

 

First off I enjoyed this book... let's say an A-. But it makes me think about what an author does between book releases. This is only Clarke's second novel and it comes 15 years after her previous (and quite excellent and very long) one. So I'm sure that the previous book was successful enough so that she could be a full time author... but if this book is the result of all that time what does she do most days? I'm genuinely curious. Hopefully her third book comes soon.