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[i2amroy]

And the first book of my great re-read finishes. The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan is the first book in the Wheel of Time series, and the first of the many that I need to reread before I read the final one.

Spoiler: Books Finished 27/52 (click to show/hide)

Valentine's Exile - E.E. Knight
Valentine's Resolve - E.E. Knight
Fall With Honor - E.E. Knight
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
When Darkness Falls - Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
Lear's Daughters - Marjorie Kellogg with William Rossow
Rhapsody: Child of Blood - Elizabeth Haydon
An Artificial Night - Seanan McGuire
Late Eclipses - Seanan McGuire
The Redemption of Althalus - David and Leigh Eddings
Ghost Story - Jim Butcher
Cold Days - Jim Butcher
Prophecy: Child of Earth - Elizabeth Haydon
Destiny: Child of Sky - Elizabeth Hadon
Into the Storm - Taylor Anderson
Crusade - Taylor Anderson
Maelstrom - Taylor Anderson
Small Gods - Terry Pratchett
Pyramids - Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
Sourcery - Terry Pratchett
The Color of Magic -Terry Pratchett
The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett
Mort - Terry Pratchett
The Rithmatist - Brandon Sanderson
World War Z - Max Brooks
The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan

Total Pages: 12,135
Two more books in my reread also go down, The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn, books 2 and 3 of the Wheel of Time series are now finished.

Spoiler: Books Finished 29/52 (click to show/hide)

Valentine's Exile - E.E. Knight
Valentine's Resolve - E.E. Knight
Fall With Honor - E.E. Knight
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
When Darkness Falls - Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
Lear's Daughters - Marjorie Kellogg with William Rossow
Rhapsody: Child of Blood - Elizabeth Haydon
An Artificial Night - Seanan McGuire
Late Eclipses - Seanan McGuire
The Redemption of Althalus - David and Leigh Eddings
Ghost Story - Jim Butcher
Cold Days - Jim Butcher
Prophecy: Child of Earth - Elizabeth Haydon
Destiny: Child of Sky - Elizabeth Hadon
Into the Storm - Taylor Anderson
Crusade - Taylor Anderson
Maelstrom - Taylor Anderson
Small Gods - Terry Pratchett
Pyramids - Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
Sourcery - Terry Pratchett
The Color of Magic -Terry Pratchett
The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett
Mort - Terry Pratchett
The Rithmatist - Brandon Sanderson
World War Z - Max Brooks
The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan
The Great Hunt - Robert Jordan
The Dragon Reborn - Robert Jordan

Total Pages: 13,489

[Lectorog]

I finished The Forest of Hands and Teeth a bit ago. Its reading was entirely validated by the line "I was already dead." If not for that, I would have questioned its worth. An easy read, at any rate.

Finished Looking for Alaska today. Read over half of it immediately after waking up. Threw it across the room when I finished it.

Spoiler: 9 (click to show/hide)

Twilight
Grotesque
Crime and Punishment
The Hunger Games
Battle Royale
Fablehaven
the perks of being a wallflower
The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Looking for Alaska

Shorter:
  Anthem
  Lovecraft (1)
  Dubliners

I feel like I'm forgetting books, but I - of course - don't recall doing so.
9 is miserably behind schedule, but better than I expected.

[Sappho]

Spoiler: 1 through 23 (click to show/hide)

Junky - William S. Burroughs
Sourcery - Terry Pratchett
The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm - Nancy Farmer
American Gods (Author's Preferred Ed) - Neil Gaiman
Hell - Robert Olen Butler
Seven Emus - Xavier Herbert
Jamestown - Matthew Sharpe
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - John Boyne
A Child Called 'It' - David Pelzer
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
The Giver - Lois Lowry
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
Diary - Chuck Palahniuk
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
The Lemurian Stone - Stephen F. Hickman
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
Dune - Frank Herbert
Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert

24: Children of Dune (Frank Herbert)

I know it's not generally the most popular Dune book, but I have to say I think I liked this one even more than the first book. Probably something to do with identifying with the characters (the twins) more than I identified with Paul in the first one. A few parts near the end seemed a bit sudden and rushed (after most of the book was fairly slow-moving) but I'm satisfied with the ending. I vaguely remember what happens next, in God Emperor of Dune, and I'm actually looking forward to reading it.

In fact, I'm curious why most people only like the first book. For sure the much later books lost something and became quite repetitive, but I don't think that's the case in Children. I suppose some people might not like how the story becomes more fantastic with time - more mystical, I suppose. But these new elements are all given what seem to me to be realistic "scientific" explanations in the context of the story, so it doesn't bother me.

Total pages read: 7285

By the way, how many weeks in are we? I feel like I'm falling behind... Reading Children of Dune took forever because it was the last few weeks of the school year and it was really stressful and hectic. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pace now.

[Realmfighter]

Spoiler: 23/52 completed (click to show/hide)

• Poké Wars: The Subsistence
  118,768 words
  Decent concept and interesting actions scenes, but the typos are fairly obvious even if you're not looking for them.
• Practical Ethics
  359 pages of content, 395 with notes and index
  Philosophy is fun, especially when you're a awkward introspective seventeen year old!
• Poké Wars: The Coalescence
  72,269 words
  It's definately readable, I'll give it that.
• The Last Dragon Slayer
  289 pages
  Jasper Fforde is one of my favorite authors, and this book is a good example why. Witty, fun and with amazing world building.
• The Emotion Machine
  346 pages, 387 with index
  While probably more relevant to my dream of working on AI, a lot less interesting than Practical Ethics. Good thing I just got Animal Liberation by Peter Singer from the library.
  
• Animal Liberation
  248 pages, 324 with everything else
  Animal Liberation is amazing, and will make you look at the world completely differently.
  
• The Saga of Tuck:Tuck Season
  ~250,000 words
  I read weird things on the internet. Sometimes I reread them.
• Flatland
  100 pages plus introductions
  Social Commentary on Victorian culture using a 2d world of shape-people.
• Blue Remembered Earth
  505 Pages
  I really needed some Sci-Fi to unfry my brain. Consider it uncooked.
• Catch-22
  561 Pages
  Just so good. Witty and painful at the same time.
• Rethinking Life and Death
  222 Pages
  Because books on ethics are fun to read.
• Interworld
  239 Pages
  Gotta read fast.
• Harry Potter and the Natural 20
  156,141 words
  Because Binge reading fan fic is the best possible way to spend a Sunday.
• Plato The Republic
  358 pages
  Because why not.
• The Sirens of Titan
  Kurt Vonnegut
  219 pages
  That was.... not the happiest book I've read.
• The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
  Robert A. Heinlein
  382 pages
  That was actually a really good book, although I wouldn't really classify it as Sci-Fi
• Abusing Science:The Case Against Creationism
  Philip Kitcher
  202 pages
  A good book arguing against Scientific creationist claims, instead of the more prolific "IF WE CAME FROM MONKEYS WHY ARE THERE STILL MONKEYS CHECKMATE ATHEISTS"
• YOU
  Austin Grossman
  383 pages
  A book on the game industry, and growing up.
• The Monkey Wrench Gang
  Edward Abbey
  421 pages
  Eco-terrorism in the midwest
• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
  Eliezer Yudkowsky
  505,040 words
  Just read it.
• The Pleasure of Finding things out
  Richard Feynman
  257 pages
  Bleh
• The Silver Dream
  Micheal Reaves
  240 pages
  Blurg
• Look To Windward
  Iain M Banks
  369 words
  Hrk

[Dutchling]

Look To Windward
Iain M Banks
369 words
Hrk

:v

I need to read some of those book, to keep up with the rest of you again

[Vector]

Spoiler: 25/52 (click to show/hide)

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
What Maisie Knew - Henry James
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - JK Rowling
Night Watch - Pratchett
Daemon - Daniel Suarez
Freedom TM - Daniel Suarez
Longitude - Dava Sobel
Songs of Innocence and Experience - William Blake
The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa - Robert Hass
Joan of Arc - Mark Twain
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights - John Steinbeck
Awake - Sufi Master Hazrat Salaheddin Ali Nader Angha
Sufism: A bridge between religions
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
Harry Potter and the Natural 20 (156,141 words)
Manifestations of Truth
The Story of the Stone vol. 1-5 - Cao Xueqin
Concordia Theological Quarterly from Jan. 2004 (long essay, about 90 pages of dense theological reasoning)
Denial (214,081-word Hermione + Snape fanfiction, absolutely horrid)
A Place for Warriors (114,507--psychological portraiture, enjoyed this one rather a lot)
Getting the Hang of Thursdays (I don't even know, it's a Groundhog Day style thing, it was okay but not fab)

If you're wondering why I read 215k words of something terrible, it's because I started it late at night and didn't realize how much I hated it until I was about 8 chapters from the end, and then I decided that I might as well finish and get another entry up in here.

Anyway, I should have some more here soon.  I've really fallen behind.

[Dutchling]

Started reading Heart of Darkness. I kinda want to catch up on books this holiday, which means I need to read 2.75 books a week for the next seven weeks :v

At least I'll get my creditcard soon so I can order books from Amazon.

[Dutchling]

Finished Heart of Darkness. book #15.

I thought the Darkness was going to be the horrors of colonialism in the Kongo, but it ended up being the soul of a single man. It was still a very good book, just not what I expected it to be.

5/5

edit: I have to wait a while to get some more books I really want to read, so I'll have to do with whatever my mom has for now :/. Started reading The Red Room, by Nicci French.

[Kirbypowered]

That certainly did not need to take three weeks. Finished Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes, and I think I'll have to check out some of his other writing sometimes. Really good work, depicting medieval-type warfare in a fantasy world. Basically, there are no heroes in war, and victory brings very little to either side. Unless you're a wizard.

Oh, and I have a new favourite character now. Pretty sure some anime accidentally dropped him into the novel without realizing it.

Spoiler: 5/40 (click to show/hide)

The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved and Why Numbers Are Like Gossip - Keith Devlin (328 pages)
Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake (398 pages)
The Reality Dysfuntion - Peter F. Hamilton (1108 pages)
Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake (511 pages)
The Heroes - Joe Abercrombie (610 pages)
Total pages: 2955

On to...I dunno. I suppose I never did finish the Warriors series...

[Sappho]

Spoiler: 1 through 24 (click to show/hide)

Junky - William S. Burroughs
Sourcery - Terry Pratchett
The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm - Nancy Farmer
American Gods (Author's Preferred Ed) - Neil Gaiman
Hell - Robert Olen Butler
Seven Emus - Xavier Herbert
Jamestown - Matthew Sharpe
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - John Boyne
A Child Called 'It' - David Pelzer
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
The Giver - Lois Lowry
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
Diary - Chuck Palahniuk
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
The Lemurian Stone - Stephen F. Hickman
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
Dune - Frank Herbert
Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert
Children of Dune - Frank Herbert

Book 25: God Emperor of Dune
I really don't understand why people don't like the later books in the Dune series. This one might be my favorite.

Spoiler: Review does not contain spoilers of this book, but does contain spoilers for previous books in the series. (click to show/hide)

I was particularly impressed by the portrayal of the God Emperor. We saw Leto as a "child" in Children of Dune, and now we see him 3,500 years later. In previous books, all of the characters tended to be fairly flat, nearly interchangeable. In this one, however, Leto is a very deep and complex character. I also enjoy seeing how the planet has changed over the millenia. I really like books and series that show change over a very long period of time (A Canticle for Liebowitz is another good example, as is the Foundation series).

Overall I rate this book very highly.

Total pages: 7708

[Sappho]

Spoiler: 1 through 25 (click to show/hide)

Junky - William S. Burroughs
Sourcery - Terry Pratchett
The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm - Nancy Farmer
American Gods (Author's Preferred Ed) - Neil Gaiman
Hell - Robert Olen Butler
Seven Emus - Xavier Herbert
Jamestown - Matthew Sharpe
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - John Boyne
A Child Called 'It' - David Pelzer
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
The Giver - Lois Lowry
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
Diary - Chuck Palahniuk
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
The Lemurian Stone - Stephen F. Hickman
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
Dune - Frank Herbert
Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert
Children of Dune - Frank Herbert
God Emperor of Dune - Frank Herbert

Book 26: Little Brother (Cory Doctorow)

I got this book as part of the Humble Ebook Bundle (still going on). I don't have an e-reading device so I  had to read it on the computer, but that turned out not to be a big problem because I flew through it pretty quickly.

I don't want to spoil this one. I do recommend it, particularly to anyone interested in the current state of American government, security, and freedom. It's set in the near future where privacy is going out of style and some teenagers just want to take back their country. Some parts of it were painful for me to read because they rang so true, but I enjoyed reading it anyway. I think the Humble Bundle is worth getting just for this book. (We'll see how the others hold up once I get around to them.)

It's definitely a quick read. At this rate I might catch back up and manage the 52 books after all...

Total pages read: 8090

[Lectorog]

I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Nihilism: The Space Adventure.
It was worth reading, but I wasn't crazy about it.

Spoiler: 10 (click to show/hide)

Twilight
Grotesque
Crime and Punishment
The Hunger Games
Battle Royale
Fablehaven
the perks of being a wallflower
The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Looking for Alaska
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Shorter:
  Anthem
  Lovecraft (1)
  Dubliners

[Dutchling]

Stopped reading Five Weeks in a Balloon, as it felt like reading the little brother of Around the World in Eighty Days. This would be a good thing if I were still twelve years old, but I'm not and I realized reading Jules Verne is a chore rather than something I actually enjoy doing :/.

Finished book #16, The Red Room (unless the translator changed the title). It was okayish. Lame main character, stupid plot, but a very enjoyably way of writing. 3/5

Started reading The Lord of the Rings, which seems to consist of six book, not three. This makes catching up in books a lot easier

[miauw62]

I don't know how many I have anymore. Either way, I finished the color of magic and I can't wait to get my hands on another discworld book. First English book too.

I've started Lord of the Rings, which will probably take me a while.

[Lectorog]

Technically, The Lord of the Rings is one book that's usually broken up.