Star Wars: Convergence (Star Wars: The High Republic) by Zoraida Córdova

 

I guess Star Wars: Convergence was okay. I'll say B-. It was kind of a small scale story for the first main book in a new Star Wars arc. Not really much to say, we'll have to see how the next book builds on this.

Path of Deceit (Star Wars: The High Republic) by Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland

 

Maybe I should have been reading the YA High Republic books after all. I gave this one a chance since it is the start of a new arc and I was pleasently surprised. The story is more focused than then adult novels (even if playing to YA tropes about forbidden romances) and had an ending that I didn't see coming. It also tied in fairly nicely to the previous High Republic books. So, um. B+

This Census-Taker by China Miéville

 

I could have sworn until two minutes ago that the name of the book I read was The Census-Taker. But it seemingly isn't. It is This Census-Taker. How did I miss that? Weird. Anyway, like anything by Mieville, This Census-Taker is weird. The setting is a bit uncertain. It seems like some kind of fantasy-type society but also not. Again - Mieville is weird. But I still felt like I had a good idea of it in my head. So kudos. Overall I enjoyed it, maybe because it was short and incredibly vague at points. A-

Horror Book # 30 - The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

 

Well, the collection The Lottery and Other Stories wasn't quite what I was expecting. It seems weird that this would be classified as horror. Except for the main story I don't think any of them could really be horror. I did enjoy most of the stories though. They envoke a sense of uneasieness and anxiety by presenting some fairly mundane everyday events. A

The Dead Zone by Stephen King

 I'm pretty sure that The Dead Zone was the first Stephen King I ever read, probably when I was 14 or so. That being some time ago I remembered very little about it - and I quite enjoyed it. Probably more than most King novels I've read lately. It isn't overly long, there aren't too many unnecessary digressions and King nails the ending. A 

Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. by Jeff Tweedy

 I almost forgot to write an entry for this one! So Jeff Tweedy's autobiography is pretty much what you'd expect. I enjoyed it, Tweedy comes off as a pretty decent guy that almost acknowledges all of his faults and doesn't seem to hold grudges (so yeah - the exact opposite of Morrissey's autobiography). So if you like Wilco you'd probably like the book too. B

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

I enjoyed Station Eleven, but I feel like maybe I'm missing something about it. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mindset while reading it to fully get what it is trying to say. Or maybe reading about a planet-wide pandemic just didn't fit my mood. Maybe I'll give the show a chance. Maybe not. B

A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut

 A Man Without a Country is a pleasant if a bit slight book of short essays. The Vonnegut humor is present but it all seems a bit tossed off. B

The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower Book # 7) by Stephen King

 After six years or so I finally reached the end of The Dark Tower.  Was it worth reading the whole series? I guess, but while reading this book the narrative very explicitly says that I should have also read Insomnia because it is important to the story. And also apparently Hearts in Atlantis and Everything's Eventual should have been read also. And the book itself is fairly ridiculous. One of the characters dies saving Stephen King's life. Also loudly announced is the appearance of the deus ex machina which seems to crop up frequently in the ending of King's novels. So you kind of have to just go with it. It at times was a bit tedious but the slow dissolution of the ka-tet was emotional. And as for that controversial ending, I didn't mind it. B

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

 Have I read The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut before? I really don't know. It is possible that I read it as a teenager but I didn't really recall any of it. Though the name of the main character was already in my memory from somewhere. Hmmm...

Anyway I enjoyed it. Maybe not Vonnegut's very best but still enjoyable. A nice diversion while taking a break from reading another super long book. A-

Old reading list

 So while reading Breakfast of Champions I was trying to remember the last time I had read it. I'd guess somewhere between 15 and 25 years ago. If only I had kept track of what I read... wait I totally did for a few years. I hadn't thought of that old list of books I'd read in years. I wasn't as exact with keeping track as I am with movies- I didn't even always record the date or even month, or the author either. Anyway starting sometime in 2001 this is what I read

2001

Preserver by William Shatner

Hitchhiker's Guide 

ST:DS9 Avatar 1  (note ST is short for Star Trek - and yeah I read a lot of Star Trek books back then)

ST:DS9 Avatar 2

Planet of the Apes

Shoeless Joe

ST: Cloak

On the Road

Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

ST: New Frontier: Restoration

Cat's Cradle

The Magician's Nephew

2002

ST:DS9: Section 31 Abyss

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

The Catcher in the Rye

ST:DS9 Demons of Air and Darkness

White Noise

Hardboiled Wonderland and The End of the World

Sir Apropos of Nothing

ST:DS9 Twilight

ST: New Frontier: Cold War

Curious Case of Sidd Finch

The Spy Who Loved Me

ST:DS9: Cathedral

ST:DS9: Lesser Evil

ST: New Frontier: Being Human

An Anthropologist on Mars

2003

Ball Four

Breakfast of Champions 

1984

Brave New World

The Big Sleep

From Russia with Love

ST:DS9 Rising Son

The Quiet American

Cannery Row

The Power and the Glory

Live and Let Die

God Emperor of Dune

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

Howling Mad

ST:DS9 Left Hand of Destiny Book 1

Libra

Heretics of Dune

The Boys of Summer

Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde

The Invisble Man

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Demian

Post Office

Homicide

Pulp

Tortilla Flat

The Sun Also Rises

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Our Man in Havana

ST:DS9 Left Hand of Destiny Book 2

Fahrenheit 451

Player Piano

ST:NF Gods Above

ST:NF Stone and Anvil

Moonraker

War of the Worlds

The Lord of the Rings

Welcome to the Monkey House

2004

Fast Food Nation

Master and Commander

The Long Goodbye

ST:TNG A Time to be Born

Diamonds are Forever

The Grapes of Wrath

Rosemary's Baby

ST:NF No Limits

ST: Captain's Peril

ST:DS9 Unity

Wild Sheep Chase

Dr. No

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Life, The Universe and Everything

So Long and Thanks for all the Fish

Mostly Harmless

ST: DS9 World of DS9 1

Cosmopolis

Goldfinger

The Metamorphosis

Siddhartha

The End of the Affair

Thunderball

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

You Only Live Twice

American Gods

The Plague

For Your Eyes Only

The Man with the Golden Gun

Choke

Octopussy and the Living Daylights

Brighton Rock

Bob Dylan Chronicles 1

Captain's Blood

2005

ST:NF After the Fall

Kafka on the Shore

Star Wars: The Cestus Deception

Star Wars: Yoda

Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil

Take the Canoli

Killing Yourself to Live

Interview with the Vampire

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Assassination Vacation

Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs

Indecision

2006

The Vampire Lestat

Queen of the Damned

I Am Legend

Slaughterhouse Five

The Black Dhalia

Chuck Klosterman IV

2007

Harry Potter 7

The Prestige

God Bless You Mr. Goldwater

The Maltese Falcon

Songs of the Doomed

Stardust

So at this point I stopped keeping track for some reason. I probably just forgot since it seemed like I wasn't reading as much in 2006/2007. So what do I recall reading between 2007-2012? Lemme think....

The Hunger Games trilogy

a bunch of Michael Connelly books

The Road

The Left Hand of Darkness

Puppet Masters

Under the Dome

11/22/63

Gone Girl

Princess of Mars

Ready Player One

Starship Troopers

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy

most of the Ender's Game/Bean books

a whole lot of YA titles for a library school class including:

    -Twilight

    -Speak

    -Looking for Alaska

    -Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

    -Monster

    -Feed

    -The Chocolate War

Angels and Demons

and according to my Amazon Purchase history

    -ST:NF Blind Man's Bluff

   -1Q84

    -World War Z

    -Captain's Glory

    -The Stranger

    -The His Dark Materials trilogy

    -Lolita

    -Dreams from my Father

    -ST:NF Missing in Action

    -In Cold Blood

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

I could totally understand if someone said they hated Breakfast of Champions. But also.. I love it. It is that type of book. It has a very thin plot. The plot isn't the point. And it meanders around about everything in life and society but isn't really much about anything either. This is maybe the third time I've read it and I probably enjoyed it now more than I did as a teenager or a twenty-something. It is just there trying to make sense out of life and all of creation and not really succeeding because that's an impossible task. Not for everyone, but for me A.

The Last Wish (The Witcher # 1) by Andrzej Sapkowski

 After spending the summer being bogged down by books that were either excessively long, way too dark, or just plain disappointing The Last Wish was an enjoyable read. Will I continue on with the series? Maybe, maybe not. But yeah - it wasn't bad. I was surprised at how closely the television series stuck to the book. B+

Horror Book # 34 Jaws by Peter Benchley

 

The film Jaws is an all time classic. The book not so much. Literally all the best scenes from the film aren't even in the novel. And then the book has subplots not in the movie that 1) make some of the characters quite unlikable and 2) aren't even resolved in the end! They aren't even about the shark. I think a novelization of the film done afterwards would be better than the actual book. C+

Book # 157 - Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Well it has now been 10 years since we started this blog and this will be the 312th book that I've read in that time. I've finished the initial task of reading 100 of the greatest novels of all time but there are still so many books out there! Anyway....

So yeah, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I was looking forward to reading this since I enjoyed The Road so long ago, but this book is pretty brutal. When I had read that it was considered "unfilmable" because it was so violent I thought "really, is that possible?" and now I see that yeah, it kind of is. I see the merit in the book and what I'm guessing is a commentary on America's past but at some point it is all just too much. B

Horror Book # 3 - It by Stephen King

 Somehow I had never gotten around to reading It. Probably because it is such a long book. So long. And so heavy too. Probably the best way to sum it up is that it is pretty much the ultimate Stephen King book. It is the most "Stephen King" of Stephen King books. Most every element in the book has appeared in other King works. A group of kids on a mission, neighborhood bullies, people possessed, an otherworldly entity, lots of movie/music/literature references, way too long for its own good, small town setting, a main character that is a novelist, etc... Still I enjoyed it. My main complaint is the length. It could easily have been 600 pages shorter. It got a bit repetitive with seven main characters all having a similar story - they each individually encounter It/Pennywise, get scared, and run away and escape. With this repeating again with them as adults. A-

Also I'll mention that maybe some enjoyment of the book was tempered by recent current events. When what's going on in the world is worse than the events in a horror novel it probably says something about America. Yeah Pennywise gets a dozen kids but in real life anyone can easily get a gun and do far worse. And when the evil in the world is visibly worse than the evil in a fantasy horror book it is quite sad.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino

You know, I enjoyed reading Once Upon a Time in Hollywood more than I thought I would. I'm not sure if there's another example of a movie director writing the novelization of his own movie. It follows the broad story from the movie but takes some interesting detours and mixes up how the story is presented. In fact, the events from the ending of the movie are just mentioned off hand early on in the novel and never shown in any detail. It kind of changes what the story is really about.... less Manson family stuff and more about Rick Dalton turning his life around. A-

The Marvelous Land of Oz (Oz #2) by L. Frank Baum

 It literally took a few months of semi-regular nightly readings for me to read The Marvelous Land of Oz to Becky. I don't think either of us was really into it. We should have stopped after the first one. C+

Gwendy's Final Task (The Button Box #3) by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar

 

You know, for a Stephen King book that is never particularly scary Gwendy's Final Task is pretty decent.  It doesn't over stay its welcome and nicely wraps up the trilogy while bringing in some story elements from The Dark Tower series and It. Maybe it doesn't offer much if you aren't already a King fan but I enjoyed it. B+

Mystery Book # 92- Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley

 Devil in a Blue Dress gets right in that perfect spot of being a familiar type of story that I enjoy (a typical detective noir story complete with femme fatales, shady businessmen, a Los Angeles setting, etc) with enough of a twist to inject some new life into the genre. For what it is, I'll give it an A.

Sci-Fi Book # 39- Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

I first read Rendezvous with Rama when I was probably 14 or 15 and I'm now realizing that I probably have the thought "why can't this book/film be more like Rendezvous with Rama" fairly often when I'm consuming some type of science fiction. Some 30+ years later I still enjoyed it, and I know I'll be wishing more science fiction was like it. Maybe this all explains why Ringworld was such a disappointment for me. It was a similar idea with a totally different approach that just didn't work for me. Do I need to read the sequels now? Maybe, but there are a lot of them. It is a bit of a Catch-22 - I want to know some answers about Rama but I have the feeling that any answers will feel anti-climactic. And if I read three more books to get some answers and there aren't any, I'll be a tad frustrated. Anyway, this one gets an A.

Mystery Book # 31 - The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

 Well after the last month of reading mystery books that itch has definitely been scratched for a while. I started out liking The Thin Man, but maybe it took just a tad too long to get where it was going (which really wasn't even that far).  Maybe I just didn't feel that invested in the murder mystery but still it was enjoyable. B+

Mystery Book # 48 - The Third Man by Graham Greene

 

Maybe 15-20 years ago I was reading a lot of Graham Greene books. At the time I'd probably say he was one of my favorites. But you know, I haven't read anything of his in well over a decade now. Somehow I never read The Third Man either. Anyway, I enjoyed it but I made the mistake of reading it in several short sittings instead of the maybe one or two that would have been optimal. And like the movie, I feel like I'm missing something here. So, B.

Sci-Fi Book # 24 - Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

 Robert Heinlein has some opinions, very 1950's opinions, and he's going to share quite a few of them in Starship Troopers. I was kind of "meh" when I first read it  maybe 15 years ago and have pretty much the same opinion now. The first half is pretty decent while it details the main character's training but after a while I don't really need to read a whole speech about why kids should be spanked or know the minutiae of military rankings in a fictional universe. And there's not much plot either. I think the film version took the right angle by presenting the material in an ironic light. B-

The High Window (Philip Marlowe #3) by Raymond Chandler

The other Marlowe books I've read have all been better than The High Window. That's not saying it is a bad book or anything - the trademark Chandler style and dialogue is there - but the story isn't the most compelling and is pretty by the numbers. Still I enjoyed it but it is hardly a classic. B

Gwendy's Magic Feather (The Button Box #2) by Richard Chizmar

 

Maybe in the end I was a bit disappointed, but while I was reading it I did enjoy Gwendy's Magic Feather. I was probably just waiting for some twist that never really came about. Unlike the first book nothing really bad actually happens to Gwendy and she never seems particularly tempted to push the buttons on the magic box. Basically she just gets super stressed out when the box reappears and helps solve a missing child case through some type of magical means that isn't fully explained. Maybe all will make a bit more sense in the next book. Since it was short and there's still a chance that this was all a set up for the final book in the series I'll go easy on the grade and say B.

The Fallen Star (Star Wars: The High Republic) by Claudia Gray

If I counted correctly, The Fallen Star is the 300th book I've read since starting this blog. Really that means nothing but hey, just figured I'd mention it. Anyway - these Star Wars High Republic books keep coming out and I keep reading them. Are they great? No, not really but now I'm somewhat invested in them. My qualms are the same... just too many random Jedis and aliens with weird names and it is difficult to keep track of them. And how are there not more workers or engineers on their space station? Did they hire a staff for this place? And the lack of a linear reading path somewhat bothers me. I'm supposed to know these characters that only appeared previously in a children's book? ARGH. I guess it is a B

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

 I'm not exactly sure how a short story that takes maybe half an hour to read (and has little to no plot) is transformed into a three hour film... as is the case of the story "Drive My Car" in the collection of stories by Haruki Murakami, Men Without Women. I guess I'll have to watch the movie now. Overall I enjoyed all of the stories. Since they're written by Murakami there are of course disappearing women, mysterious cats that seem to know more than they let on and numerous mentions of jazz albums. Ask me in a year if I recall any of these stories and I probably wouldn't be able to, but still it was a nice read. B

Mystery Book # 12- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

 Well I wasn't able to guess "who did it" by the end of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. And yet all the clues were there and in the end it made complete sense. So without doing any research this book seems to be like the standard English murder story set in the countryside with a houseful of suspects that the odd detective has to investigate and in the end sits all the suspects down and says "I know the murderer is in this room"... but was this book the first like that? Or just one of the best? It all felt very cliche (yet entertaining) but these things have to start somewhere and this book is fairly old. So let's say an A.

The Christmas Pig by J.K. Rowling

 Well this took forever....I started reading The Christmas Pig to my daughter sometime before Christmas, and only am just now finishing it. I can't say I really recommend it. First off - it is way too long. The story is aimed at small children but is like 350 pages long. And the story is way too padded out and repetitive and there isn't much to interest or charm adults either. Harry Potter this is not. C

The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah by Stephen King

I read the first six Dark Tower books within the space of a year. And now almost five years later I finally picked up the next installment. I'm not sure what took so long. And for a book that's 400+ pages not really that much happens. Roland has a long conversation with the author of the book and Susannah finally has her baby. I enjoyed it but it seemed to mostly be setting up the final volume. B

100 Greatest Novels - A Recap

 So it only took 10 years, but I got through the whole list of 100 novels. Here are a few final thoughts and my highly subjective ranking of the books -

-If you asked before I started this project to list my four favorite books they would be the same as the top 4 books my final ranking. I think it is hard to have a new "favorite" something after a certain age. Plus, a book can't really be one of your all time favorites if you've only read it once. So maybe if I ever reread A Farewell to Arms it'll become one of my all time favorites then.

-Some books from the list that I'd consider rereading again - Les Miserables, Invisible Man, Don Quixote, A Farewell to Arms, The Magic Mountain and Pale Fire.

- Books that I was surprised that I really enjoyed - Birdsong, Tom Jones and Don Quixote.

- Book that I least understand the appeal of - Ulysses.

- Books that I already forgot most of what they were about - Tristram Shandy, Sons and Lovers, The Ambassadors.

- Biggest slog - the final four volumes of Remembrance of Things Past.

- Books I had previously read that disappointed me both on the first and second go - On The Road, the 3rd volume of His Dark Materials.

- Biggest disappointment - The Count of Monte Cristo.

- Don Quixote is mentioned in at least 6 of the books. And that's not including Don Quixote itself which in a meta way references itself as a book (or at least that's how I remember it).

-Overall I really enjoyed 80 of the books on the list, 10 were maybe just not my thing and 10 of them I'd probably advise people to avoid. Life is short, don't spend time reading Atlas Shrugged. I'm sure that I'd be even more infuriated by it now if I had to read it again.

1. Slaughterhouse-Five

2. The Catcher in the Rye

3. The Lord of the Rings

4. Dune

5. Les Miserables

6. Invisible Man

7. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

8. Don Quixote

9. The Hobbit

10. A Farewell to Arms

11. The Grapes of Wrath

12. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

13. The Trial

14. The Magic Mountain

15. 1984

16. David Copperfield

17. Great Expectations

18. Love in the Time of Cholera

19. Lolita

20. Birdsong

21. Moby Dick

22. The Harry Potter series

23. Tom Jones

24. A Clockwork Orange

25. The Stand

26. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

27. Pale Fire

28. The Handmaid's Tale

29. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

30. The Chronicles of Narnia

31. The Name of the Rose

32. The Great Gatsby

33. The Sound and the Fury

34. Frankenstein

35. Pride and Prejudice

36. The Call of the Wild

37. As I Lay Dying

38. Lord of the Flies

39. Tess of the D'Ubervilles

40. The Brothers Karamazov

41. The Old Man and the Sea

42. The Color Purple

43. Of Mice and Men

44. Jane Eyre

45. To Kill a Mockingbird

46. Things Fall Apart

47. Tristram Shandy

48. Heart of Darkness

49. Midnight's Children

50. Wind in the Willows

51. Anne of Green Gables

52. Rebecca

53. The Stranger

54. Brave New World

55. Atonement

56. One Hundred Years of Solitude

57. Native Son

58. Anna Karenina

59. Sons and Lovers

60. War and Peace

61. A Passage to India

62. Beloved

63. A Tale of Two Cities

64. Animal Farm

65. Vanity Fair

66. An American Tragedy

67. I, Claudius

68. A Prayer for Owen Meany

69. Middlemarch

70. Watership Down

71. Madame Bovary

72 Brideshead Revisited

73. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

74. The Count of Monte Cristo

75. The Scarlet Letter

76. Winnie-the-Pooh

77. Crime and Punishment

78. Emma

79. Catch-22

80. Persuasion

81. The Age of Innocence

82. The Portrait of a Lady

83 Charlotte's Web

84. Wuthering Heights

85. For Whom the Bell Tolls

86. On the Road

87. Remembrance of Things Past

88. Possession

89. Bleak House

90. Little Women

91. The Sun Also Rises

92. Nostromo

93. His Dark Materials

94. Absalom, Absalom

95. The Ambassadors

96. To the Lighthouse

97. Mrs. Dalloway

98. Gone with the Wind

99. Ulysses

100. Atlas Shrugged

So what now? I'm still working on reading the ever changing top 50 Science Fiction books at   https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-greatest-science-fiction-novels-of-all-time  and the top 50 horror books at https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-greatest-horror-books-of-all-time. It is only "slightly" frustrating that these lists keep changing. There's also the 100 mystery books list, https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/The+Top+100+Mystery+Novels+of+All+Time+Mystery+Writers+of+America. Somehow even though I haven't touched anything on there for two years I've managed to read over a third of the books. So maybe I'll continue with those? Just a lot of the books on the list seem to be somewhat "disposable" types of books. In a hundred years no one will be reading or talking about Wobble to Death or The Steam Pig. And then of course there's the continuation of the original list that goes from 101-200. It is tempting to continue... but there are 8 books that are 1000+ pages! A Dance to the Music of Time is 3000+! 

Book # 9 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

 

I ended up purposely saving To Kill a Mockingbird for last on the list - mostly because it is probably the most widely read and respected book that I hadn't previously read. So I was expecting it to be phenomenal. And well I'll give it an A, but overall it is about in the middle of the pack for me out of the 100 books. No doubt I enjoyed it but it was a bit heavy handed and preachy at times. And really the main character, Scout, doesn't ever do much to move the story along. She's just observing really what's going on around her. A book more focused on either Boo Radley, Atticus Finch or Tom Robinson would probably have interested me more. And a couple other things... I don't know why but it bugged me that the kids always called Atticus by his first name. And not really many mentions of what happened to their mother either. And the faith Atticus has in people is just annoying... and in the end it almost gets his kids killed. And for all the care he has for everyone in the town maybe he should check on Boo? The guy is basically held captive in his home and no one helps him. He's probably got some mental problem and his family is basically abusing him and no one cares? So I enjoyed it but have some reservations.

Book # 96 - Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

Getting near the end of the list now... Overall I really enjoyed reading Love in the Time of Cholera.  There's a lot to digest and think about here. It is beautifully written and and really makes one think about life and all of its various stages. Anyway, I'm close to giving it an A+ but just the subplot about America Vicuna bothers me a bit. It seems to be in there to make the reader not like Florentino but why? Throughout the book I though he was a pretty weird guy and I don't know if I really sympathized with him but I didn't actively dislike him. It doesn't seem important to the overall story either - and I feel like it casts a shadow over the ending. What if Fermina found out about her? How would she react? So "only" an A.