goddess of clarity: a blog about politics, culture, and serenity
Books Read :: 2006
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
After the non-fiction treatment, I wanted a good novel to be reading around the fifth anniversary of 9/11. About half-way through, I discovered Messud never met a paranthetical phrase or compound-complex sentence she didn't like. The premise was promising, but the style is slightly annoying. And ultimately, the story was unsatisfying. All the characters -- every single one -- were fundamentally unlikeable. Maybe that was part of the point, but it did make it a challenge to care about what happened next.
The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon
I wanted to re-read the the 9/11 Commission Report at the five year anniversary, but it's a really big book. The graphic adaptation is very good, and in some ways makes for a more effective and affecting presentation of the material.
Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
I enjoyed Great Expectations so much that I forgot that the main reason I read it was so that I could read this Fforde book with a bit more literary insight. Liking it very much so far.
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
I like Gaiman, but I have never read anything by Pratchett. I figured this would be good airplane reading, and I was right. Very funny, Douglas Adams-esque spoof on the end of days and the nature of good and evil.
London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd
I've spent exactly one day in London. Mr. Goddess and I will be going to London on vacation this month, and my first instinct when confronted with something I know nothing about is to buy a book. This one has proved fascinating, but how could it not be given its subject. I just wish it wasn't 800 pages long, since I'm hoping to finish it before we head off.
Still More Bushisms by Jacob Weisberg
Something felt right about reading this thin volume of malapropisms after reading the classic book on style.
Illustrated Elements of Style by Strunk and White
I had a paperback version of Strunk and White on my bookshelf in college, but I never sat down and read it cover to cover like a narrative text. Turns out it's a crackling, tight, often funny little ode to clarity and a love letter to the well written word.
Talk to the Hand by Lynne Truss
I loved Truss' Eats, Shoots & Leaves and have been wanting to read her follow up on the decline of manners and public civility. I let out a silent burst of glee when one of the first examples of rude behaviour she mentioned was people who talk in the cinema.
The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle
It's kinda neat reading a history book about a time and place you were involved with. Is this how old people feel when they read books about World War II? According to Battelle, in the near future we'll have an almost personalized version of the entire Internet at our disposal on our cell phones and when we search for "baseball scores" our phone will magically know that we mean yesterday's Phillies score. This is truly a convenience that we has a people have lived without for long enough.
Our Endagered Values: America's Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter.
Just a quick little depressing read to remind me that America could be such a better place than it is. The chapters on our woeful foreign aid spending and our even more woeful global environmental policies are particularly demoralizing.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
File this under "blindingly obvious," but that Charles Dickens can write! Apart from The Christmas Carol I haven't read any Dickens, and I was thinking this would feel like homework. (The book I really want to read is Jasper Fforde's Lost in a Good Book but I felt I had to read this one first.) Turns out this is a real page-turner, with some of the most crackling use of the English language I've ever read.
Books Read :: 2005
I didn't archive my little books musings last year, but I'm going to start fresh in 2006. That way if anyone ever wants to know that I found Great Expectations to be "a real page turner," they'll know where to look.
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The World is Flat by Tom Friedman
The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Tom Friedman
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explains the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
The Road to Middle-Earth: How JRR Tolkien Created a New Mythology by Tom Shippey
The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
Return of the King by JRR Tolkien
The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
Life, The Universe, and Everything by Douglas Adams
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Stereo Views: An Illustrated History and Price Guide by John Waldsmith