You may have noticed, Gentle Readers, that I keep a list of books read in the side bar. I have decided it is getting too long, so I am going to make a permanent listing here at around this time each year. So below you will find the books I read in 2008. ANd a list will appear after the first of the year with all the books from 2009. That will keep my side bar more manageable. And I can't just delete them. There is something so satisfying about having a list of ideas accomplished.
I am very heavy on fiction. That is because it is so easy. I do make myself read some hard fiction, but still. I need to add some other genres in there in the coming year. I do all right with theology. Time to add history and biography at least.
What have you been reading? What do you suggest I add to my long list?
Books read in 2008
The Lord God Made Them All by James Herriot (completed 12-08)
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (completed 12-08)
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith (completed 11-08)
Suffering and the Sovereignty of God ed. by Justin Taylor and John Piper (completed 10-08)
The Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith (Completed 10-16-08)
Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince by J. K. Rowlings (Completed 10-08)
The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot (completed 9-08)
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (completed 9-08)
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (completed 9-08)
The Night Journal by Elizabeth Crook (Completed 9-08)
Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers (Completed 8-08)
Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card (Completed 8-08)
Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card (Completed 8-08)
Martin Luther in His Own Words (Completed 7-08)
The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton (complete 6-08)
Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie (completed 6-08)
Paradise Lost by John Milton (completed 5-08)
A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin (completed 4-08)
The Cross-Centered Life by C. J. Mahaney (completed 4-08)
5 comments:
Thanks for posting this list. I read your blog on a reader and don't always see the sidebar. The timing was perfect and I got some great ideas for my Christmas break reading. I now have a stack of library books and, as usual, my eyes are bigger than my stomach--you might say--and I probably won't get them all read in just two weeks!
Yes, Amy- So many books, so little time!
Have a relaxing holiday. When does the next baby Edwards come along?
Chris
Thanks, Chris. Our baby is due the first week in May; we expect it to be born by c-section the last week in April.
Last night I gave in and skimmed most of Reading Lolita in Tehran rather than reading it all, word for word. I just looked up your Dec. 6, 2008 post about the book to remind myself what you thought of it. I think partly I couldn't stick with the book because I have not read Nabokov, haven't read Gatsby in years, and know precious little about James's novels. I have, however, read a lot of Austen, so engaged a little better with the final section of the book.
I just finished reading the memoir Enemies of the People, which chronicles Kati Marton's experience growing up in Hungary in the '50s, about the time of Stalin's death,when her parents were arrested and imprisoned as spies. I found it shocking to realize that even with this childhood (they did escape to America when Marton was a pre-teen), she is now presumably a liberal. My feeling is that modern liberalism capitulates far to easily, both in reality and in rhetoric, to totalitarian ideals. How is it that victims of totalitarianism are attracted to liberal politics?
I had the same feeling with Reading Lolita....
Also, what is the deal with the rebellion against quotation marks? Just when I adjusted to the fact that Nafisi wasn't using them, she started using them again! I didn't have the energy to try to find the pattern or message there and just felt annoyed by this gimmicky modern writing style.
I didn't really set out to read books along a theme of totalitarianism this break, but I did read Solzenhitsyn's Cancer Ward last week. After reading that I just can't believe that anyone can idealize Marxism. It is too bad that Dr. Nafisi and her group of ladies didn't read Solzenhitsyn rather than Nabokov!
Dear Amy-
Seem like you got the same things from Reading Lolita that I did. I was irritated by the same things, and by her feminist take on Austen. Bt the worst was her continual idealizing of Marxism, and failing to see how that led directly to the totalitarianism she despised.
I'm impressed with your reading for "holiday week" !! Solzenhitzen is tough going anytime!
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