Open Books Chicago discussion
General Book Discussion
>
Best Books You Read In 2012?
date
newest »
newest »
2012 was one of the best reading years I've ever had...I discovered some really amazing stories!in no particular order...
the blind assassin by margaret atwood,
the manual of detection by jedediah berry,
abraham lincoln: vampire hunter by seth grahame-smith,
snow flower and the secret fan by lisa see,
and the devil in the white city by erik larsen
Erin wrote: "2012 was one of the best reading years I've ever had...I discovered some really amazing stories!
in no particular order...
the blind assassin by margaret atwood,
the manual of detection by jededia..."
Erin: I can't agree more that Snow Flower is a great book. I admit I put it off for a long time because it was so popular and just didn't seem like my kind of book, but the pace and patience of See's writing really hooked me.
Have you read any of her mystery books that she wrote before Snow Flower?
in no particular order...
the blind assassin by margaret atwood,
the manual of detection by jededia..."
Erin: I can't agree more that Snow Flower is a great book. I admit I put it off for a long time because it was so popular and just didn't seem like my kind of book, but the pace and patience of See's writing really hooked me.
Have you read any of her mystery books that she wrote before Snow Flower?
Hmmm . . . I only read 18 books last year. In reverse order, the 5 best would be:Absurdistan
The ZigZag Kid
Moby Dick
The Case of Comrade Tuyalev
INFINITE JEST!!!!!
dejamo wrote: "Hmmm . . . I only read 18 books last year. In reverse order, the 5 best would be:
Absurdistan
The ZigZag Kid
Moby Dick
The Case of Comrade Tuyalev
INFINITE JEST!!!!!"
@dejamo: I don't know if I'll ever finish Infinite Jest. I always come back to it, and i like the plot set forth by the book, but I've always preferred Wallace's essays to his fiction. Not sure why or what. I think the humor of his writing comes through in his wry observations of a reality he can only interpret, but not change where his created worlds become far too laden with seriousness sans perspective. Does that make any sense at all?
Moby Dick... need to actually finish it. I'm a huge fan of Melville, but for some reason or another have only made it halfway through Moby Dick before other things side-swiped me.
Absurdistan
The ZigZag Kid
Moby Dick
The Case of Comrade Tuyalev
INFINITE JEST!!!!!"
@dejamo: I don't know if I'll ever finish Infinite Jest. I always come back to it, and i like the plot set forth by the book, but I've always preferred Wallace's essays to his fiction. Not sure why or what. I think the humor of his writing comes through in his wry observations of a reality he can only interpret, but not change where his created worlds become far too laden with seriousness sans perspective. Does that make any sense at all?
Moby Dick... need to actually finish it. I'm a huge fan of Melville, but for some reason or another have only made it halfway through Moby Dick before other things side-swiped me.
That makes total sense, Kevin, and I feel the same way. Generally, I do prefer Wallace's nonfiction to his fiction but Infinite Jest transcended all of that for me by its sheer . . . magnitude for lack of a better word. A friend and I decided to read Infinite Jest at the same time and that gave me the impetus I needed to keep going and not put it down. The minute I finished it I wanted to turn it right over and start again, but I decided to wait and let it sink in first. I do plan to read it again, though - I fell like there's so much I missed!I never wanted to read Moby Dick because all I heard was that you had to wade through a bunch of boring whaling history. I didn't find it boring it all. In some ways it's more interesting than the story of Ahab and the whale. The only other thing of his I read is Billy Budd, and I did like that a lot.
We'd love to see your lists!