The 2005 bookshelf in review

[triadruid]

It seemed like I read a few more this year than last year, but the numbers are almost equal. If you count the LOTR trilogy as three books instead of one (I read a bound copy) then maybe I did beat it, barely. Still nowhere near the 50-book challenge...

Legend:
bold means I've finished it
italics means I'm still working on it
Strikethrough text means I abandoned it.
* means I've read it before.

For fun, I put rankings after them in parentheses, 1-10 with 10 being highest.

1. William Goldman, The Princess Bride (9, it's an excellent romp)
   
2. Max Barry, Jennifer Government (8.25 - very good story, a little trite in places)
   
3. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion* (7.75 - unlike most, I like this rambling fantasy Bible)
   
4. Larry Niven, A World Out of Time* (6.5 - this hasn't aged well against my memory)
   
5. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings* (8.5 - a little rambly, but still well constructed and immersive)
   
6. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five (8.5 - a good start on Vonnegut, who I've never read before)
   
7. Clive Barker, The Hellbound Heart (7 - okay, but frankly it was too short for my tastes)
   
8. Harry Turtledove, The Guns of the South (7.5 - interesting speculative fiction)
   
9. Clive Barker, Cabal* (7.5 - still an excellent short story, wish he'd done more with it later)
   
10. Alan Moore, The Watchmen (7.5 - fairly good graphic novel, but then I started Sandman...)
    
11. Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens* (8.25 - somewhat less funny the 3rd or 4th time through, but still good clean apocalyptic fun)
    
12. C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (6 - I wanted to like this, I really did, but the main character's motivations struck me as terribly trite and forced, especially at the end)
    
13. David Seltzer, The Omen (6.5 - very obviously a screenplay novel, a little thin on the ground. Expanded on some things the movie left vague, though)
    
14. Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane (3 - I gave up on this, a totally non-sympathetic main character put me off, and the clichés were already flying)
    
15. Harry Turtledove, How Few Remain (8 - he's still impressive to me, probably moreso when he leaves time-travel behind)
    
16. Harry Turtledove, Great War: American Front (7.75 - a good start to the series, although he bogs down a bit in places... characterization keeps it going though)
    
17. Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World* (7 - drew a LOT from Tolkien, but there was more setup for later plot threads here than I remembered)
    
18. Robert Jordan, New Spring* (8.5 - prequel novel fleshed a lot of things out, and was much better than the short story version of it)
    
19. Robert Jordan, The Great Hunt* (7.5 - he's still finding a direction for the storyline, but new characters and the ending make this a good sequel)
    
20. Robert Jordan, The Dragon Reborn* (8.5 - this one's very sharp, watching the main character's reluctant march toward his destiny)
    
21. Robert Jordan, The Shadow Rising* (7.75 - starts with a bang, ends with a bang, wanders just a bit in the middle)
    
22. Robert Jordan, The Fires of Heaven* (7.25 - too much happens for him to cover effectively here)
    
23. Robert Jordan, Lord of Chaos* (9 - still one of my favorites of the series, if just because of the end chapters)
    
24. Robert Jordan, A Crown of Swords* (7.5 - some interesting things happen, but mostly it's just noodling)
    
25. Robert Jordan, The Path of Daggers* (6.5 - my least favorite so far, saved only by characterization)
    
26. Robert Jordan, Crossroads of Twilight* (7.5 - big things happen, but he's still expanding the series' scope at book 9!?!)
    
27. Robert Jordan, Winter's Heart* (8 - for some reason I like this better than the last one, even though it takes place largely in the same time frame and is just the other half of the perspective of events)
    
28. Robert Jordan, Knife of Dreams (9 - a return to form, largely, and he starts tying things up for the end)
    (started that series on Labor Day weekend, during the trip to Dragon*Con I believe, and it took me until late December. Phew! One more to go...)
    
29. Isaac Asimov, The Naked Sun (7.5 - picked this one up off the bedside table, enjoyable fluff)

• Various Artists, Isaac Asimov's Faeries (7 so far, only got a few more stories into this one)
  
• Alexi Kondratiev, The Apple Branch (again, no progress - you'd think I was avoiding my DP or something)
  
• Piers Anthony, On a Pale Horse* (7 so far - picked up on a lark at the Sacramento library)
  
• Harry Turtledove, Great War: Walk in Hell (7.5 so far)
  
• Neil Gaiman, The Sandman series (8.5 - just Book 10 left, when I can find it...)
  
• Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, Saturn's Race (6.5 so far, your basic sci-fi... and I've already figured out who Saturn is)
  

Also, the ongoing to-be-read list...

Comments

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I can summarize The Apple Branch for you:

- If you don't speak at least one variant of a Celtic language, the entire study of their religion will be useless to you. Learn Manx immediately!

- Look! I can totally bridge the gap between wicca and CR practices! We'll still do the four elements in the circle thing, and have a god of the light half, and a god of the dark half, but we'll make it all about the four treasures of Ireland, and we'll do the rituals in Manx! Learn Manx immediately!

- Lugh will transcend and assimilate all other gods! But he'll do it in Manx!

There you go :) The rest of it is just about the themes of the 8 neopagan high holidays, which you already know.
(Actually, I liked this one a lot.)

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

*snort* You should totally do the DP, just to watch MJD's head explode when he reads your book reviews.

snark, snark, snark

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Heh. I think about it from time to time, but then I usually remember that I already have ties to a religious movement with a tenuous grasp on historical accuracy, and I know all the words for theirs already. Also, MJD would probably reject my stuff on general principles, and if he wouldn't, he probably should. The world has already met its Erisian druid quota. :)

I'd like to get hold of the reading list, though, for recommendations purposes.

Re: snark, snark, snark

[lexpendragon.livejournal.com]

The world has already met its Erisian druid quota.

Is That Why I Felt No Desire To Join Our Local ADF Chapter With My Girlfriend...

It All Makes Sense, Now!

[lysana.livejournal.com]

The irony is that Kondratiev hadn't had anything to do with Wicca until after he came up with those rituals.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. I had heard that he had a background in Alexandrian Wicca. I suppose I'll have to go look it up now, somehow.

I actually like his stuff a great deal, despite the mockery.

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

50 books a year? That's about one every week. Far too ambitious for me. Maybe when I'm retired or kidless, but even then, it would require not having an overload of other hobbies.

I'm doing good to read one non-fiction a year.

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

Er, onr fiction a year. Non-fictions come easier to me, but it's more of a study than read as they are usually reference manuals.