Stories for a winter's night

Once again I have hjoined the 50 book challenge. Maybe this time I'll be a little less picky about what I condsider to be a book and include comics and magazines ... well maybe full issues of National Geographic and Archaeology and comics once the story runs are complete. I don't know, it still feels like cheating to me.

Anyway, once again I present ( The List - in no particular order: )

I've only read three books from the list so far, but with everything else going on, I guess that's no a bad start ... hmmm ... maybe I'll start including fanfiction in my list ...?


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On to what I've read so far:

3 / 50 words. 6% done!

1) Eats Shoots and Leaves, by Lynn Truss
( From the Publisher )

I can honestly say I really enjoyed this book. Sure, it looks just like a book about dry punctuation, but not only was it informative, it was also quite funny! And not only was it an entertaining read, it has helped me with my own writing. Every time I'm about to do something wrong, I just think of the handy dandy "punctuation repair kit" that was included with the book. Unfortunately, the book has made me a bit of a punctuation nazi and I'm seeing problems where I never saw them before.


2. Time Bomb, by Jonathan Kellerman
( From the Publisher )

I adore Kellerman's work and this was no exception. It's exciting, intriguin, and full of suspense, and it kept me guessing right up to the end. I love a good myustery and this was just that. I especially love that Kellerman has helped me love and care for the charactrers of Dr. Delaware and Detective Sturgis. I was not in any way disappointed by this instalment of the Alex Delaware Mysteries.


3. Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn
( From the Publisher )

This was a re-read for me and I liked it just as much this time as last time. It really is a pity that this series is no longer considered canon because Zahn had some fantastic ideas of where the story was going. Well, Lucas may not consider it canon, but for me, Zahn's trillogy always will be.

50 books in a year isn't going to happen unless I swallow my academic pride and start counting my comics and magazines as books. The challenge claims that you can read anything at all. I wonder if I can include fanfic in my list. After all Adapt and Redemption may as well have been novellas ... Anyway, on to the list ....

Book 5. Utopia - Lincoln Child
I found this novel very interesting. I adore the works of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child when they work together, and this book read just like one of their combined pieces, in terms of style. But somehow, this piece was missing something the tandem books have. That being said, it was still quite good. It's reminiscent of Dream Park by Larry Niven.


Book 6. The Book of the Dead - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
This is the last in the Pendergast Trilogy by Preston and Child. As with all their work, I loved it. The story was fast paced and kept you guessing.


Book 7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
What can I say about this? It's Harry Potter. I've always felt that her appeal is in the mythos she's created, and not in the writing itself, because, honestly, she writes like she's new to this (which she is). I enjoyed it. It wasn't my favourite book, but I'm glad that she didn't cop out and made it war, not sunshine and roses.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've joined the 50 book challenge. I'm having a certain amount of difficulty staying focused however, so I'm making my intended list here and posting my thoughts on the books in my journal for future reference.

Fiction:
1. The Bobby Gold Stories - Anthony Bourdain
2. Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday - Alan Dean Foster
3. Transformers (movie adaptation) - Alan Dean Foster
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
5. Utopia - Lincoln Child
6. Silent Partner - Jonothan Kellerman
7. The Codex - Douglas Preston
8. Neuromancer - William Gibson
9. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
10. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kensey
11. Sandman: Book of Dreams - Various Authors, edited by Neil Gaiman
12. Saving Solace: Champions Volume 1 - Douglas W. Clark
13. The Echo - Minette Walters
14. A Morbid Taste for Bones - Ellis Peters
15. Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident - Eoin Colfer
16. In A Glass Darkly - Sheridan leFanu
17. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
18. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke
19. King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard
20. Metropolis: a novel - Elizabeth Gaffney
21. One Lonely Night - Mickey Spillane
22. Tess of the D'Ubervilles - Thomas Hardy
23. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
24. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck
25. The Book of the Dead - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child


Non-Fiction
1. In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon - Joan Druett
2. The Devil in Babylon: Fear of Progress and the Birth of Modern Life - Allan Levine
3. Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Requires a Pagan Ethos - Robert D. Kaplan
4. The Pirate Hunter: The True Story Of Captain Kidd - Richard Zacks
5. The Children's Blizzard - David Laskin
6. Elmer McCurdy: The Life and Afterlife of An American Outlaw - Marc Svenvold
7. Warriors of God
8. Walking the Bible: A journey by land through the Five Books of Moses - Bruce Fieler
9. The Devil's Picnic: Around the World in Pursuit of Forbidden Fruit - Tara Grescoe
10. The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World - Jack Zipes
11. The Great Influenza - John Barry
12. Tea - Roy Moxham
13. A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire - Amy Butler Greenfield
14. Stalemate!: Great Trench Warfare Battles - J.H. Johnson
15. Triangle: the Fire that Changed America - David von Drehle
16. The Great Starvation Experiment: The Heroic Men Who Starved so That Millions Could Live - Todd Tucker
17. Fasting Girl - Michelle Stacey
18. Demon in the Waters - Gregory Gibson
19. Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Explosion, 1917 - Laura Macdonald
20. Boy Soldiers of the Great War - Richard Van Emden
21. Treachery at Sharpnose Point: Unraveling the Mystery of the Caledonia's Final Voyage - Jeremy Seal
22. A Hanging Offense - Buckner Melton
23. The Men Who Stare at Goats - Jon Ronson
24. Out of Harm's Way - Jessica Mann
25. Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy - Diane Preston

I want to get these books read by the end of the year. It won't happen, but I'll make a good effort.