Copypastad from Facebook, because I keep forgetting to look at it there...

[nobara]

I'ma try and keep track of all the books I read and post them online, mostly to hold myself accountable for actually finishing them. I mean, a few years ago I stopped reading Vanity Fair less than 50 pages shy of the end for like no reason (oh wait, I remember the reason. It was because Lost in Blue 2 came out). Plays and epic poems are included, even though when people say things like "Hamlet is a really good book!" it makes me want to stab them in the face. To the best of my knowledge, these are all (minus one or two that I can't remember) of the books I've read since the beginning of 2011 (minus any comics or graphic novels, because I read those so fast and reread them so many, many times that it's too hard to keep track).



* marks a reread
~ is for something read for school


The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan
*Spellbound, Vivian Vande Velde
*Cut to the Quick, Kate Ross
*A Broken Vessel, Kate Ross
*Whom the Gods Love, Kate Ross
*The Devil in Music, Kate Ross
*I Drink for a Reason, David Cross (the most horribly edited book I've ever seen. It bummed me out to learn that neither David Cross nor his editors knows the difference between 'accept' and 'except' [no, that's not the only grammatical mistake in the book])
*Naked, David Sedaris
*Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris
*When You are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris
*Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, David Sedaris
Half Empty, David Rakoff
*A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway
*The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan
*The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan
*The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan
*The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Demigod Files, Rick Riordan
*Colors Insulting to Nature, Cintra Wilson
~*Odyssey, Homer
~*Medea, Euripides
~*Oedipus Tyrannus, Sophocles
~The Darker Face of the Earth, Rita Dove
~Antigone, Sophocles
~The Island, Athol Fugard (holy shit, Athol Fugard is the. best.)
~*Philoctetes, Sophocles
~Electra, Euripides
~Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl (good god I hated this so very much. How did someone who writes such twee nonsense become a MacArthur Fellow?)
*Iliad, Homer
*The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander (read this book. Read it RIGHT NOW!)
The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan
The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
Sleepwalk With Me, Mike Birbiglia
You Might Be a Zombie (And Other Bad News), the editors of Cracked.com
Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell
~*Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
~Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell
~Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper -- Case Closed, Patricia Cornwell (ugh)
~City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London, Judith R. Walkowitz (While writing my paper for this book, I realized that during my career at OSU I have used the word "foucaldian" in at least three different papers for three different classes. Scholarship = assholery)
The Throne of Fire, Rick Riordan
~The Chicago Conspiracy Trial, John Schultz
John Dies at the End, David Wong


CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS:

The Paris Wife, Paula McLain
The Book of General Ignorance, John Lloyd & John Mitchinson


IN THE QUEUE:

*Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton (time for my yearly re-read!)
The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece, Paul Cartledge (I <3 Paul Cartledge so bad)
*Metamorphoses, Ovid (the Charles Martin translation, but if I am bored/un-busy enough after this quarter I will probably read the Lombardo translation too, just to remind myself and everyone around me what a nerdy nerd nerderson I am)
*Bulfinch’s Mythology, Thomas Bulfinch (I plan on reading it all at once this summer [all 857 pages of the MLC edition, yikes], because I’ve only ever read it in pieces. Also because nerdy nerd nerderson)
*The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan (gotta refresh before The Son of Neptune comes out!)

I am such a shameless re-reader, sheesh.

Also: plz to be giving me book recommendations! I like Classics nerdery, Shakespeare criticism (unless the critic doesn't like my boy Sir John, in which case they can fuck right the hell off), and, um, fantasy books written for children.

Comments

[meej]

I MADE DOUGLAS READ IT, AND NOW YOU WILL TOO:

The Company by KJ Parker. Different kind of classics nerdery.

ha ha foucaldian <3 <3 <3 dorkbutt.

[nobara]

Reserved from the library! Yay!

...Ugh. Fucking Michel Foucault. I hate him so much. -_-

[meej]

OKAY WELL THE OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: Cal loathed it and Douglas is apparently still thinking bout it, and yes: rocks fall, everyone dies, I'm not even going to front on it.

... But AIDI. I wish I'd written Aidi. And Dorun.

That guy is a jerk and I don't like him and his entire theory is SHAKY. Shaky, I say!!!!

[caltastic]

OMG did you ever read Heart-Shaped Box?

Because if you did and you liked it Horns is even better. It is beautiful and terrible and absolutely perfect.

Also I was not kidding about Time Travelers Never Die, more people need to read that.

[caltastic]

SO I SEE MANY BOOKS I HAVE LOANED TO MOM ON THAT LIST

(God, Julian Kestrel is so awesome. SO AWESOME.)

SO SINCE YOU ARE PLUCKING OFF HER SHELF, MAKE HER GIVE YOU TIME TRAVELERS NEVER DIE

Also, everyone I know is reading the Hunger Games but I am scared of it because I cannot emotionally deal with Battle Royale crap. PLS HELPS, WILL I BE OKAY TO READ IT? I DO NOT TRUST MEEJ.

What did you think of the Benedict Society? Only people we have given this book to have ever heard of it, and I loooooooooove talking about it.

[nobara]

I've read the Julian Kestrel books three times each now! I love them and even though they're mysteries and you'd think knowing the end would make them not so much fun, it turns out that THEY NEVER STOP BEING GOOD. Like, I am seriously considering reading/writing fanfic because I need more Julian Kestrel in my life that badly.

OH MAN Hunger Games. I don't know if you would be emotionally okay with it, honestly! I wasn't. They totally wrecked me--BUT, not for a very long time, if that helps. Like, I couldn't put these books down, I read all three of them in like three and a half days, and there were parts in each book that REALLY UPSET ME, but I didn't stay upset for long I guess, so...yeah. I don't know if yours is the same emotional problem I have, but I have very serious problems with children committing horrifically violent acts on other children (except in Battle Royale, ironically. I think because I was stoned the first time I saw it, and thought it was about a guy with a bandana trying to fight Robert Smith, lol). The Wire has literally made me throw up before because of that (so let me tell you how fun it is to be watching season 4 right now, which follows a group a school children. I am filled with dread every second). So I think what I'm saying is if I could recover from reading Hunger Games, you probably can too! They're worth reading, especially because they're young adult books with--brace yourself--a capable heroine! She still does dumb stuff, as teenage girls are wont to do, but she could literally break Bella Swan in half with her bare hands, and that makes me happy. Also, there's a Falstaffian character, which is all a book needs to sell me, basically.

[meej]

Yes, I have purposely not said anything about The Hunger Games because I AM AWARE I HAVE FORFEITED MY RECOMMEND RIGHTS. I like them and I think Katniss is a realistically drawn and well-rounded strong capable heroine.

Also the naming conventions are Roman.

That is all I will say about it, except EPOR: Haymitch's name is some version of Hamish HA HA HE'S SCOTS.

[caltastic]

Yes, that is exactly my problem, though it is a slightly more general "horrific acts performed on children". And it has gotten progressively worse since gupmas, I can't even read the news now.