Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 16, 2009

Dave rated it:

Horrible. To be fair, I stopped a little short of halfway through. Seriously, this reads like a marginally talented junior-high student's rough draft of a story. Lot's of good ideas that go nowhere and a complete inability to properly characterize the participants that I'd chalk up to a lack of maturity and life experience except (I assume) Mr. Fasman is an adult.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2007

Marisa rated it:

I thought this book would be an intellectual thriller, but it turned out not to be much of either. The interesting part of the narrative are the short descriptions of the 15 objects that make up the geographer's library. These brief but vivid stand-alone chapters kept me reading this book through the first 200 pages where nothing much happens. I kept waiting for someone in the frame narrative to discover one of the objects, or to make some connection to the library, but that didn't happen until More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2009

Chewtastic rated it:

When this was returned to me, I had forgotten I read this already. Partly because I read rather quite a bit of it when drunk, and partly because despite the semiplausible magical realism of the alchemy theme, it was still sort of forgettable. And weird in an ordinary way.

So it's a do-over.

If you're looking for magical realism, try A Trip to the Stars, by Nicholas Christopher (I think; can't be bothered to fact-check). That one is pretty darn awesome despite its near-equa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 12, 2009

bookczuk rated it:

I had such high hopes for this initially. History, mystery, age old sects, alchemy, a little modern day love...oh it sounded so cool! And the device the author used of alternating the modern day story, of Paul Tomm, a young reporter in a small town setting out to write what should be a routine obituary and discovering instead a plot and tale that goes back centuries, with bits and baubbles of that old tale itself, was at first fun. But it got tiresome for me, and the story bogged down a bit. But More...

0 comments like

Dec 10, 2008

Alison rated it:

I need to read something else, not a mystery, by this author. I was pleasantly surprised when bits of his writing were clever and slyly funny, especially in the main character's first person assessment of himself. But the mystery aspects of this book were not great. The first couple hundred pages are slow going, though interspersed with interesting vignettes about various alchemy-related antiquities. At first, these side stories are the most engaging part of the book, but the early stages of More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 15, 2011

Lisa rated it:

Just out of a prestigious (and fictional) New England college, but without a girlfriend or a life plan, Paul takes a job as a writer for a biweekly paper in a sleepy Connecticut town. When a reclusive professor from his alma mater dies, Paul is assigned his obituary and soon discovers that the professor's life--and the manner of his death--were not as ordinary as they seemed.

The chapters alternate between telling the story of Paul's investigation and recounting the history of artifa More...

0 comments like

Aug 01, 2011

Michael rated it:

A very ordinary history-based mystery that's a feeble attempt to garner some appreciation after the success of Dan Brown's Robert Langdon novels. While the history part of the novel is well researched/imagined (chapters of the story alternate between what is currently happening and an accounting of the provenance of a series of historical alchemical items missing from a dead professor's display case) the other half of the work is sadly lacking. The main character is a journalist for a small-to More...

0 comments like

Jul 11, 2010

Ty rated it:

Very disappointing. The pace of the book was fine, and the prose acceptable. These things, coupled with it's relative short length meant that I was able to finish it. But halfway through I started to realize that all of the building up it was doing with the historical objects, (terrible idea to have that parallel book) would not lead to anything that would make up for the books weaknesses. There simply wasn't going to be enough real estate left to turn in a fantastic ending that made it all wort More...

0 comments like

Apr 15, 2009

John rated it:

This is a book I salivated over before reading. In the event I enjoyed it quite a lot, though it didn't fully live up to my probably somewhat overinflated expectations. Paul Tomm is a junior reporter for and in fact almost the entire reportorial staff of a small-town Connecticut newspaper. He's told to do an obituary when reclusive and distinctly odd local university professor Jaan Puhapaev dies, and his nascent journalistic antenna goes into overdrive -- or whatever it is journalistic antennae More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 10, 2009

Istop4books rated it:

Smart, laid-back,, almost to the point of lazy recent college grad reporter, Paul Tomm, meets Russian/Albanian/Estonian jewel thieves, keepers of a secret, alchemy magicians, thugs and murderers. Not the kind of book that I usually read, but the title drew me in, I thought for sure it was some sort of book about a guy's library. Not quite. Paul is a self-deprecating anti-hero who gets curious after a professor at his old college shows up dead. He's supposed to write an obituary, but when he can More...

0 comments like

Dec 22, 2011

Ankur rated it:

hmm, this is definitely a tough one to review.

A historical/fantasy/ suspense novel in the vein of Historian or The rule of Four. this is the 1st effort of Jon Fasman. The novel intertwines 2 different narratives - 1 of a small town reporter Paul Tomm who is trying to write the obituary for a Professor who died mysteriously, and while trying to get some material for the same how he gets more than he can handle, and the story/ history of 15 historical items which were stolen in the 12th More...

0 comments like

Jun 29, 2011

Keeley rated it:

As mystery novels with medieval back-stories go, this one is pretty inept. I picked it up because, well, I like mystery novels with medieval back-stories (Eco nut, not going to waste my time on Dan Brown), and the author is a blogger for The Economist. As is appropriate for an Economist writer, Fasman's English is articulate and pretty interesting, but the plausibility of his characters is highly variable. He spends a lot of time in the plot showing off his (journalist's) knowledge of obscure More...

0 comments like

Aug 11, 2011

Aravind rated it:

Yet another addition to the list of occult/arcane fiction, Geographer’s library, tells the story of 15 arcane objects strewn across the globe, that carries the key to the science of transformation, made by a 12th century arab geographer in his library. Some sect, or vested parties are desperately trying to trace those objects which over the ravage of time has been passed over, stolen, abandoned across the world.

A fresher , Paul Tomm, after doing some course in journalism lands in a lai More...

0 comments like

May 08, 2010

Brent rated it:

This book had potential to be great. I totally dig the premise: Small-town journalist, an underachiever, sets out to write the obituary for a reclusive college professor, but is caught up in a centuries-old hunt for and protection over 15 artifacts (the "library") used by a 12th century Islamic court scientist/geographer/alchemist (who happens to know the secret to immortality). Sounds pretty good so far, yes?

Here's what I liked: The geographer sets out from Sicily (how More...

0 comments like

Mar 23, 2010

Hilary rated it:

This book was, unfortunately, a real disappointment.

The premise was fascinating, and the alternating chapters that focused on the objects stolen from the Geographer's Library were pretty good, but the frame story, about a cub reporter investigating the death of a local faculty member, was predictable and dull.

Things I particularly disliked:
1. The heavy-handed foreshadowing.
2. The excruciating detail used in the frame story chapters (did I really need a charac More...

0 comments like

Nov 20, 2009

Melissa rated it:

This is a story of a young reporter who, while writing an obituary for an elderly professor, stumbles on to something bigger. In the course of investigating, of course a beautiful woman becomes involved, vague threats are made, and creepy mobster-types lurk all over the place. Every other chapter leaves the main narrative and tells the history of an object once belonging to an Arabian geographer in the service of a king.

This is a really interesting premise but I think the book on the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 12, 2011

Judith rated it:

When a book is being compared to say… the Da Vinci Code, Rule of Four, and even the Secret History, there's usually a reason for that: It needs an extra boost (rather than being extra good). Well, for just 2 Euros at my thrift store, I felt like giving it a shot anyway.

It is the story of a young reporter who stumbles upon a dead university Professor. Doing research to write his obituary, he learns more and more strange details about the guy and naturally he meets the obligatory gorg More...

0 comments like

Jul 21, 2011

Keith rated it:

The Geographer's Library is a conspiracy novel whose primary subject is alchemy. In other words, one of a million such titles. I've read a few of them before, and they are all rather similar, and this one does nothing much to stand out from the rest. What I found odd about the whole thing is that throughout the novel we are introduced to these artifacts that ostensibly come from the library of a famous geographer/alchemist, and we are led to believe that there is some importance attached to them More...

0 comments like

Jan 01, 2012

Amanda rated it:

One of the best da vinci esque books I've read in a long time: the narrative switches between a main, current story and sections that deal with different characters, times, locales, and an investigative list, that all supplement the story's mystery. Some pretty interesting characters, but the main attraction was attempting to piece together where the author was going with the nonsequential portions in relation to the narrator's investigating. Although the mysteries are solved in a decently clima More...

0 comments like

Feb 21, 2009

Marisa rated it:

Very interesting book. I really liked the main character-he just seemed completely real somehow. The dialog was very down to earth and smart w/ a little sarcasm thrown in-very much my taste. I know that some readers would probably find these parts a little boring, but I actually really enjoyed reading about the different and strange objects listed throughout the book. Even though the plot line was slowed a little by the many little storylines connected with these objects, I found it fascinating. More...

0 comments like

Dec 06, 2009

Heather rated it:

On our train trip back from Paris :) I finished reading _The Geographer's Library_. The concept was promising--a young, small town reporter is researching the death of a secretive professor who appears to have had access to large quantities of money and to have been remarkably well-preserved. Investigation chapters alternate with chapters about different alchemical objects from a collection amassed several centuries before and how they've traveled to their present known location/owner (a lot of More...

0 comments like

Mar 20, 2011

Kw rated it:

I think nearly anything is better than The DaVinci Code, to which this was compared. I enjoyed the protagonist, but found myself bogged down a bit by the wealth of characters and so many names and situations, alternating as we did from present day back a thousand years, or to the 80s, and back, chapter by chapter. (Messy sentence, but I'm no writer!)

The antiquities were interesting, but I didn't really want to know quite so much about them.

One might say the syllable to More...

0 comments like

Jan 25, 2009

Bonnie Jeanne rated it:

Certainly a much better read than the insipid Da Vinci Code, but not as interesting as I hoped it would be. Very predictable, and though packed full of historic (at least I think historic, not sure if this is as well researched as The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova, a much more interesting historic intrigue) information and exotic locales the story is just another detective story, with a protagonist, Paul Tomm, who isn't really a detective. Tomm is ordinary, too ordinary. I didn't believe someo More...

0 comments like

Jan 31, 2012

Carol rated it:

This book had an interesting premise: the artifacts from the library of an ancient geographer are stolen and as time progresses are bought and sold around the world for a purpose of which we never really learn. Then therein lies the problem: the culmination of the mystery which is trying to be solved by a young reporter, has no apparent link with the artifacts described at length in the book. We only learn that some or one of these valuable pieces affects the people who own them - I'm trying not More...

0 comments like

May 22, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

I'm done, I can't finish it, actually, I won't. If I didn't have so many books piled up waiting for me, I might, but I do. I take so little time to read, I want to be dazzled, and I have been; lots. Just not by this book.
It is witty, but very dry. I feel like it could have been two books, because the different parts didn't connect for me. I don't have the patience right now to get to connection. I'm sure it's there, I'm just not that interested.
The current day story is good and More...

1 comment like

Jul 20, 2009

Toni rated it:

Another excellent Goodwill purchase on my part. This is a first novel--very ambitious, makes up in chutzpah what it lacks in skill, could use a little more character development, fewer cliches and more care taken with figurative language. Ah, the sins of youth are easily forgiven in such a likable first novel. This is about a rookie reporter's surprisingly unviolent encounters with very violent characters who are somehow connected to alchemy somehow or other. The author is well-educated and t More...

0 comments like

Aug 16, 2011

Micha rated it:

I could see this book being a real treasure for some readers. It has all the elements any thriller should and parts of it I loved so dearly that I locked them away in a heart-shaped box inside my chest.

I read this book such a long time ago. So long that I can't even remember what year it was when I first read it, but some of it's pieces really stuck with me and I think it's a worthy read for those of us like like a little mystery and a little gadgetry.

Sometimes ti More...

0 comments like

Jun 30, 2011

Kathy rated it:

Paul Tomm is an intelligent but directionless college graduate who accepts a job as a reporter at a weekly newspaper in the small town of Lincoln, Connecticut. When a professor from his college dies, he is assigned to write the obituary, but soon finds that the professor is not as quiet and calm as he seemed. Soon Paul is involved in an extraordinary account of murder. The story itself was a very pleasurable read, what really drew me in was my understanding of Paul because his observations and r More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 23, 2011

Maria rated it:

Lots of interesting info in this book if you've ever been interested in finding more out about alchemy. But another book of very convenient coincidences. Yes, it was on the best sellers list. Yes it's a penguin book. But it's still only mediocre, even if it does have moments of enjoyability. I just can't help think that some day soon, authors will have to stop writing books about main characters who work in newspaper jobs, at least at the small-town level. And when that day comes, I will b More...

0 comments like

Nov 08, 2011

Maria João rated it:

Neste livro, um jornalista de uma pequeno jornal regional, absorto numa existência tão exígua quanto a dimensão da cidade de província Norte-Americana onde reside e trabalha, é sugado para uma espiral de segredos e conspirações, quando escreve o obituário de um misterioso professor universitário local.
O livro estrutura-se inteligentemente em capítulos que descrevem o presente, alternados com flashbacks temporal e geograficamente tão díspares como a Europa no século XII ou a URSS do princíp More...

0 comments like

reviews