- Read it so long ago I can't rate it now until I do a re-read.I love to read. I love many different topics. My love for reading started early, and continues to this day.
In Jr. High School, I was one of those kids who couldn't wait to order books at school (via that Scholastic Book Service). I remember they used to pass out those order forms and I would pour over the thing. The excitement of new books was one of the thrills of life. I would order 20 books at a time; my parents, bless them, never put a limit on the number of books I could order. When the order came into the school it was like Christmas several times a year. They would call out your name and you would get your package of books. I always had a big stack of these to take home. Even the smell of all those books waiting to be read was something I looked forward to. I loved everything about books. The way they felt. The way they smelled. How insanely handy they were to have around.
Some where in High School I fell in love with Science Fiction (click here to see what SciFi I've read)... Arthur C. Clarke was how I got started... first it was short story collections.. then his novels.. then Asimov .. then Heinlein. Back then you could literally read all the science fiction available. Very few new books were published in a year. I can't recall how many hours I spent in bookstores checking to see if anything new had come out since the last time I had checked. A new book was a find and was devoured instantly as if by a starving man. In the mean time you fed your hunger for more Science Fiction with terrible B-movies; and fanzines. But there is a whole other page to talk about Science Fiction...
Over the years, I've read books in many areas of interest. Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, True Crime, History, Psychology, Physics, Biography, Travel, Humor, Biology, Philosophy, et al. The list below contains those that I can remember reading, and my opinions on them. In addition to a small review I've added links to Wikipedia for the authors and the books in case you want to read more detailed information on either. If you want to read the reviews of other people, click on the AMAZON links to the right and read the reviews there.
Finally, I have some other pages about books that I have created. The first is a list of the top books of all time - consolidated from several sources.
The second is a list of banned or challenged books - there are links to this next to each book that was banned. The entire page can be found here:
The Banned Books Page - A listing of the books below that have been banned.
To go along with that, I have a list of books banned by the OPUS DEI arm of the Catholic church that is interesting to look at:
The other page contains information that I found surprising when I started to read "classic literature" so I decided to track it. The use of the "N-word" in books I have read. I was surprised at how often it cropped up and where. You may be too.
A small note on books that COULD be BANNED and would be if politically correct people had their way.
Today, as a rule, I have 2 - 5 books going on at any one time. Generally one non-fiction and one fiction book at least. By doing this I
I always try to take a book with me where ever I go. Heading to the doctor's office - take a book. Getting on a plane - take 2. Business trip - take 2. DMV? Definately take a book. Any place where I am likely to end up with 5 minutes on my hands alone and undisturbed is a perfect place to whip out a book. I don't understand people who say they have no time to read... there are so many under utilized minutes in a day, and books make a great way to fill them.
The rating system is as follows:
- Read it so long ago I can't rate it now until I do a re-read.
-
Don't bother reading this one. It was not worth the time.
-
Okay. If you like this author, you may like this book.
- A
good read. You may or may not enjoy it, but I liked it.
- I
recommend this book. I enjoyed it, and feel that others will too.
-
Among my favorites of all time. I heartily recommend this book to any and all.
(unless otherwise noted in the paragraph)
- And
this little symbol next to a book means that at some point in time it was
BANNED by someone, somewhere!! Click on the symbol to find out who banned or
challenged it when.
-
And this little symbol means that there are more of my notes on the book on
another page. Interesting tid-bits I learned about the book, or from the book,
or around the book, that I found made the thing more interesting to read. You
might like to know some of these facts as well.
- This means I've seen the movie version of this book as well. It is also a
link to the IMDB description of the movie.
The links provided will lead you to Wikipedia for more information on the author, or the particular book. If you want to see what other people thought - click on the Amazon link and read the reviews.
|
The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul Okay, you probably already know this but Douglas Adams is a lunatic, and it comes out in his books. This, like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is another of his lunatic creations, but less well known. All I distinctly recall is the mystery of the couch in the stair case. How it managed to get stuck there and how they were going to get it out. When it is revealed how it first got stuck, you almost miss it, but if you catch it, you will roll over laughing. |
||
|
|
If you enjoyed 1984 or Brave New World then this will be right up your alley. A vision of a terrible future in which women have become infertile, and those that are fertile are forced to become "handmaids" - referencing the bible story where a handmaid is given to the husband to bear a child. It's a pretty chilling little environment with the wives hating the handmaids, and the husbands secretly desiring them. And it's revealed to be a hypocritical society too, with sex available freely to those in the upper stratums while morality is preached to everyone else. Though they preach morality... they are completely morally bankrupt. And the end is a complete shock.. |
|
|
|
After seeing the movie with Kira Knightley I wanted to read the book to see how well the characters were represented by the movie. I loved the movie, and I loved this book. The characters in the book were perfectly played in the movie. What I loved MOST about the book was its glimpse into how life was lived at the time of the novel. How people entertained themselves before mass entertainments took hold. The character of Mr. Bennet (Lizzie’s father) is just as Donald Sutherland played him in the movie. So to was the character of Mr. Darcy (played by Mathew McFayden – who was also fantastic in Death At A Funeral). I would recommend this book to anyone with even a slight interest in this time in history, or romance in general.
|
|
|
|
The Island Another thriller by the author of JAWS. This time a society of pirates is still living the life on an isolated island, and making things miserable for a family that comes within their reach. Not a bad read, but not great. |
|
|
|
A short but powerful book about censorship and desperation. I've read plenty of Bradbury in the context of Science Fiction, but I think this is the best book of his I have ever read. The edition I read contains an afterword by Bradbury talking about what has happened to the novel in the years since it was first published - how, in fact, a book about strict censorship has itself been slowly censored over the years, and how requests have been made for him to revise it to cope with various people's offended feelings. Unbelieveable!!! (NOTE: The amazon edition on the side is not the edition with the epilogue by Bradbury - as soon as I find that I will change the link. I recommend this to everyone for it's distopian veiw of the future, and one man's look into his sudden dissatisfaction with his world. If we all don't feel that way once in life, I don't know what makes us more human. |
|
|
|
Not as good at The DaVinci Code but still a fine thriller using artistic and architectural landmarks to move the plot along. If you enjoyed The DaVinci Code, you will like this one. |
|
|
|
The premise is far fetched, but the plot moves along nicely. There are some twists and turns in the government conspiracy that are surprising. But still the premise is so far fetched that you it's really a stretch. A so-so thriller. |
|
|
|
I would not recommend this to anyone who knows anything about computers. But to those who don’t, again, this is a so-so thriller. If you don't know how computers really work, then I imagine this could be a pretty exciting book. |
|
|
|
I really enjoyed this book. Not so much because of the hype, but because I have followed the Grail story for much of my life, and this presents a nice rendering of a modern Grail quest. And a thriller to boot. It reminded me of when I read Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. If you liked this book you will like that one as well. More of the Grail mythology is woven into that book than this one, but this one is the easier read. |
|
|
|
When published in the U.S. they left off the last chapter. Chapter 21 – 21 being symbolic of maturity where the character ALEX finally “grows up”. The implication of the movie, and the book without this chapter, is completely different than it is with this chapter. The book is much more horrifying that the movie, in that the ages of the victims and the criminals is so much younger than represented on screen. (For example, the girl in the rape scene in the movie was an adult, while in the book she was twelve.) The cruelty is more pronounced. (I remember hearing a story that Stanley Kubrick expected people to be horrified when they saw A Clockwork Orange in the movies - and was surprised to find that people were not shocked at all. Course I think Sam Peckinpah was really getting started at this time too. Given that lions eating Christians used to be entertainment, I don't think we can ever underestimate the human capacity for violence.) And yes, it takes a while to get through the special vocabulary of Alex and his droogs, but after a while you begin to swing with it, and your brain takes in what is being said quiet readily. This was an interesting attempt at a new slang language and worth reading for that, and the moral dilemma it poses. |
|
|
|
WOW. Just wow. This book is difficult to read sometimes because you feel for the victim’s of this seemingly random cold blooded crime. Capote is so good at painting their life; putting the picture in your mind of how simply normal these victims were, that you want to turn away before the crime and freeze them as they lived, and should have lived. The perpetrators also shine in Capote’s light; but it’s so hard to have sympathy for them. I can’t imagine how much work he must have done; how many people he talked to; how much time he spent; to create this amazing book. But WOW. |
|
|
|
Another good one by Conrad, though much more muddled (I think) than Lord Jim. Some of the prose in here will carry you away, but the overall sense of the book is ... well.. strange. A journey into a dark and forbidding land.. a land that is untamed and untameable. With the moral descent of the characters as they move further into more primitive areas, its no wonder this book inspired the movie "Apocalypse Now" with Marlon Brando being the evil at the end. I believe Lord Jim is the better book, but this one has some powerful imagery - and some pretty accurate descriptions of the treatment of colonial natives. |
|
|
|
Conrad can write. At first I had difficulty feeling sorry for Jim since he seemed inclined to constantly blame forces outside himself for his failure. But then, as he stands to take responsibility when no one else will; and as he takes on the task of bringing better lives to the people he finds himself among; you begin to feel that he has more than redeemed himself. So in the end, when he once again takes responsibility for things over which he had little control, his first failing does not seem so much a character flaw, and he has more than atoned for his error. Conrad was a psychologist long before the science existed. His insight into the minds of people is sometimes startling. Every now and then in the text you come across an insight that stands the test of time so well that you think to yourself, Yes, I know people like that, or I have to remember that when trying to read people. |
|
|
|
I started this one, and could not finish it. After 250 pages I saw no point. When Don Quixote would help someone, they would fall back into their misery as soon as he rode off. It just seemed to go on and on, the story of a crazy man, doing crazy things. to no point. I did not finish this one. If someone who has finished it would tell me that this eventually had a point, then I might be inclined to continue as it is not difficult to read. | |
|
|
Before reading this I was always under the impression that it was a history of one person's view of the civil war. Well, it is that, but most of the action takes place in one two-day battle. The range of emotions and reactions that Crane wanted to explore took no more than this. Our young protagonist goes through hell in 2 days - and most of it of his own making. The battle scenes are full of chaos, and rarely is the enemy even seen, though his presence is always imminent. At only one point is he clearly seen, and by then our hero has determined to face his demon's and devil take the hindmost. And easy short and entertaining read. |
|
|
|
This is a great book. Crusoe's reflections on his life before and God - how God seems to have at first mistreated him by casting him away on an island, but then coming to terms with and finding faith in God are interesting for any christian to read. It's also fun to read how he survives on the island, and how he makes his escape. How he treats the character Friday - whom he views as a savage at first, good for nothing but a slave, but then develops a real liking and respect for his companion is interesting as well, given the morality at the time the book was written. (Still, you can see that DeFoe had serious issues with anyone other than his fellow Britains. No country on the planet embodies civilization other than his home. Even the Spanish are cast in a very poor life, and left to fend for themselves in the end - even after he began to make an alliance with them.) As always, the look into the author's own mind is perhaps the most interesting of all. I may have to check out some more Defoe. |
|
|
|
I've read some strange fiction in my time. And this is one of the strangest. It's Science Fiction, but half-way through you are scratching your head and thinking, what the hell is going on. By the end you start to feel like you are on good footing again, and in the last page, Dick knocks the supports out again. I enjoyed this. It had themes in it unlike any sci-fi novel I've read before. There is a time-travel aspect to it, but time travel accomplished by the decay of things into their previous forms. A reference to Plato's cave of ideals is even mentioned in the text when one of the characters notices how things revert to earlier versions of themselves. Strange and entertaining. Go for it if you like Sci-Fi or psycho-thrillers; because this is both. |
|
|
|
The book with perhaps the most memorable opening and closing lines in all of literature (beyond David Copperfield’s “I am born.”) A little hard to follow at the start, you are soon swept up into the action that leads everyone to the awful conclusion in the blood lust of the French Revolution. I rate this one as a better read than Oliver Twist. |
|
|
|
I’d seen OLIVER the play, and OLIVER the movie. But reading this, I can’t seem to find where either of these grew out of this book. This is a dark tale of a poor boy that is used and abused by everyone he meets in life.. and all through no fault of his own. (Granted he's a bit stupidly innocent throughout - perhaps, Dickens way of saying that true Christian character will always shine even in the worst of circumstances.) Once again, Dickens is talking about the social ills of the time; but if it was indeed this awful, then it must have been frightful indeed. |
|
|
|
Doctorow uses language almost as well as Nabikov, but more straight forward. A brilliant look at the early 20th Century American scene before we plunged into WWI. A tragedy wherein a black man seeks justice and what happens when he can't find it. Like Dumas, Doctorow took actual history and weaved a set of fictional characters into it. I love how Charlie Chaplin appears in the book, though you don't know it is him. It's almost like reading newspapers of the time, but with a tragic story line woven in. A good read. |
|
|
|
An interesting novel. I had a hard time starting it, but after a bit, what with all the twists and character interconnections I have to say I started to enjoy the ride. The main character, Raskolnikov, commits a murder which he thinks is justified because he is one of those rare people that is allowed to ignore the law for personal and greater good. I't obvious that he is not in possession of all his faculties as he does this, and realizes soon afterward that he was mistaken in his special status. The agonies he goes through from that point onward, and how the other people in his life are affected is fascinating. As the reader sometimes you want him to get away with it, and sometimes you realize that it's murder and he needs to be punished. You don't know right up to the end whether he will or will not get away with it, and wether or not the greater good was indeed served by his act. A moral dilemma all the way round with a somewhat satisfying ending. (Note: The novel contains some anti-semitic stereotypical references.) |
|
|
|
A fun read with another glimpse into a historical time of the British Empire. Sherlock Holmes putting together clues while Dr. Watson assists (even without knowing it). The stuff of many a movie past, and I am sure, future. It's fun. You'll like it. |
|
|
|
Fun… From beginning to end. One could say that what Dumas was writing was non-fiction. He takes actual history, and weaves his characters into it so seamlessly that you would think this was a true story. The Musketeers are as fun as you have seen them portrayed in various movies (the 1973 version being my favorite, and very close to the book). The book is an adventure for all time. |
|
|
|
An excellent thriller that weaves much of the Grail myth history into a story about a man who learns too much. You learn about the Knight’s of the Rosy Cross, and how they are protectors of the Grail secret to this day. You learn what the Grail really is (the same as Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code). So well written that you begin to believe it yourself… and who’s to say it’s not all true. |
|
|
|
A fun little mystery set in a middle ages monastery where monks are dropping dead for some reason or other. Made into a fun little movie by the same name. |
|
|
|
Not to be confused with the HG Wells novel, this great book is the story of a black man who learns that he is invisible because no one can really see him. Oh they all see a person and they all see someone they can use, but the don't see him. By the end he begins to revel in his invisibility realizing that, as an invisible man, he has a freedom he never realized. This book, along the lines of E.L. Doctorow's RAGTIME is about racial injustice and racial relations. It's a big book, but I found to be a page turner. Once I started it, I didn't want to put it down. I wanted to see where our man was going next, what would befall him and how he would learn from it. His dream of a letter in the beginning that said, "Keep this nigger-boy running." presaged much of what happened in the book. Big time recommended. |
|
|
|
I had a difficult time starting this book. The imagery is written such that I could not tell what was real, and what was in the mind of the character at the time. What looked like a dream turned out to be real. As the book progressed, however, and the characters became more finely etched, I found myself enjoying this book more and more. And by the end, when I felt I had finally gotten the hang of how to read this, it ended with a twist that I am still trying to understand. |
|
|
|
This is rated as one of the best novels of all time – though I cannot understand why. The characters are shallow people. The plot is thin, and a little obvious. The whole mess is a tragedy from beginning to end (you can feel it throughout the book, even if you don’t know what is coming). I never felt strongly for or against any of the people I read about here. And at the end I felt no sympathy for Gatsby or anyone else. |
|
|
|
This was the first of the Bond books. Honestly, his character is not very likeable. His hate for Communism is jingoistic. He's completely sexist - women are only be used for one thing. And he's not a very good spy either - he falls into an obvious trap and only luck gets him out. I read some of these when I was a teenager, but re-read this one recently just to reform my impression. It's interesting how they updated the story for the movies - what they took from the book and what they made up. For that reason alone you might want to read these, but other than that... stick to the movies. |
|
|
|
Oh boy. Ian Fleming is a racist. Who knew. Well, at least Bond is not so down on women in this novel. No, he has a totally different group of people to cast aspersions on. Negro's. The Negro race is this... The Negro race is that... Ugh. If you are a real Bond junky then you might want to see how the original story went (it had nothing to do with drugs... gold was the motive and Communism was behind it). And Bond is bent on nothing but revenge. |
|
|
|
A fun book with adventure, mystery, comedy and literature all wrapped in a tidy, fast paced little package. Presents an alternate world in which the boundry between fiction and reality is permeable and needs to be watched in case nefarious characters should use this permiability for evil purposes. The character Thursday Next will be fun to follow into future books. The title has to do with the Charlotte Bronte book Jane Eyre. An evil criminal threatens to change the plot by kidnapping the main character. Thursday Next is the only person who can challenge this master criminal, both in reality and inside the fictional novel itself. If you like Chris Moore, you will love this! |
|
|
|
Thursday Next in her second book, and the rabbit hole that started in the first just gets deeper and deeper as the boundray between reality and fiction simply disappears. I love this character (Thursday). The jaundiced view of reality and fiction she gives is a really fun time. I totally recommend this book. |
|
|
|
Thursday Next's world just keeps getting stranger and stranger. The fact that this book in the series takes place almost completely inside the world of fiction, just makes it that much easier to get very strange very fast. Jasper Fforde has a really vivid imagination for what happens behind the scenes of all the books ever written. If you love literature, and you love comedy... read on!!! |
|
|
The next of the Thursday Next books. Thursday has left the world of fiction for the ever stranger real world. The book is slower and less glib than the others in the series, but ties up many loose ends nicely with an interesting ending. You don't have to be a literature buff to read this one. In fact, other works of fiction (other than Hamlet) are barely mentioned. But it won't mean a thing unless you'ver read the others, so go back to the begining. |
||
|
A really great novel about the people, politics and way of life in the middle ages from the years 1123 to 1174 revolving around a cast of characters whose lives and ambitions you get to know intimately. A long book, but a very easy read. You will learn about monastic life, courtly politics, and the building of cathedrals. (And if you have never been in a real medieval cathedral.. well, you are missing the experience of a lifetime.) I couldn't put it down and spent several late nights wrapped with these characters and their situations. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a little history, a little learning, and some romance with their fiction. |
||
|
A novel that tries to understand, explain, and make clear the impossiblity of the British domination of Inda. The British occupation is seen through both sets of eyes, Indian and British; the misunderstandings and problems looked at from both points of view - each of which is flawed. The only conclusion that can be reached is that British and Indian can never be friends until the are seperate. |
||
|
|
I have to guess that this is on the "top book list" because it was a first of it's kind. An exploration into a future of cyberspace before the word really existed - and the potential of AI. Well, I didn't think this was very good. And I've read a lot of science fiction. Feel free to skip by this one, unless you are interested in story developmental history and how we got to where we are today. |
|
|
|
I read this in high school, and again a few years ago. I scary look at how thin the veneer of civilization is, but then, as the years go by, and we see beheadings and mass slaughter on our TV screens, perhaps that lesson should be more obvious. |
|
|
|
This is the novel that created the whole "hard-boiled" detective genre - both books and movies. It's tightly written, and centered in San Francisco (which made it extra fun for me). The story stands the test of time, though police work has changed over the years. Not entirely admirable, Sam Spade, the detective, is a character you find you can like in the end. One of the good guys, if certainly no angel A good read |
|
|
|
This is the story that came BEFORE Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal Lecter doing his thing before he ended up in prison for Clarrise Starling to interview. A great read if you like this kind of thriller. |
|
|
|
This book was fun to read though in the early part is was stragne getting into. Once you start to believe in the insanity, then it all starts to make a twisted sense, and becomes entertaining. Not having served in the military it’s hard to believe what you read here, but somehow, the insanity all seems just about right. Poor Yossarian, trying to make sense of the crazy around him; then learning that one of the most crazy people actually had a plan !!! It’s fun. |
|
|
|
Not really a novel. More of a short story and parable. Could be a bedtime story. It's a simple story, well told. But it also seems to have deeper meanings and references to religion - and paganism, if you will in the brotherly connection between the old man and the fish. I leave to other people to explore the depths of all this. It's a nice read of itself. |
|
|
|
I read this when I was probably too young to appreciate it. I just kept thinking that Hemingway committed suicide, so why should I pay attention. I won’t rate this til I re-read it. |
|
|
A great book. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in reading about someone's discovery of life. Hurston is a black author, and the dialoge is deep southern black of the last century, and sometimes hard to read because of that. But after a while you begin to get used to it and the characters shine through. |
||
|
|
After Many a Summer Dies the Swan I read this ages ago, but I still carry the impression of enjoyment, and tragedy with me. If you know something about Buddhism, you might want to read this book – since some of it seems to be talking about Buddhist philosophy. I read this when I was studying comparative religions – which are naturally giant discussions of how to live life, death and the odds of immortality. |
|
|
|
Okay, I have to say that I find the world that Huxley created as a distopia to be really not so bad. People are happy. They are free to do as they please within their social class and conditioning. (Are we any freer or less conditioned?) The people in control are not blind to the lack of stimulation and variety, but they have come to the decision that the greatest good comes from less of this - less conflict. The people who are "free" - the native - are miserable the entire time they live. Perhaps misery is a natural condition, but I imagine much of the human population on the planet would not mind living in Huxley's Brave New World. You read it an you decide. |
|
|
|
What a nice novel. Well, actually, what a terrible novel. So many things happen that are terrible, and yet, you want to keep reading to see how life is going to turn out for these great characters. John Irving has a way of putting the fear of doom in you, before anything even happens; and when it does you go "so now I know what I was afraid of...". Later in the book he even manages to create a tool to give you that sense of impending doominess - the Under Toad - who, whenever it is mentioned instantly fills you, the reader, with that "Uh oh... I can see it coming again." And still it's kind of a happy book about family, friends, creativity, and how life can be strange no matter who you are - eccentric or not - it's well worth the time invested in reading. |
|
|
|
Histories I must have been a weird teenager. Josephus (37-100+ A.D.) was a Roman Jew who wrote a Jewish history, including the destruction of Jeruselem in 70 A.D. Now, I picked this up because in it he actually did an interview with Pontius Pilate - the Roman govenor who had Jesus Christ crucified. By the time he wrote, various followers of Jesus where making waves in Rome. So Josephus goes and asks Pilate if her remembers the Jew he had crucified back when. "No. Nope. Can say as I recall him." says Pilate (translated into the modern by me.. grin). Anyway. That is a tiny part of the book, but I picked it up for that and then started reading large portions of it. It's worth a peek. I'm clueless on how to rate this.. I will give it 2 stars because, I imagine, the interst level on this would be pretty durn narrow. And, I put this in the fiction section because much of the book is Old Testament history... which may as well be fiction. |
|
|
|
Poltergeist I read this book while sitting in a house in the middle of the mountains – with no radio, TV or even private phone line.I’ll never forget sitting there in bed at 3 a.m. when my wife wakes up and I say, “If the movie is half as good as the book, it’s going to be great.” … and Lo… it was. |
|
|
|
"It is often considered a defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was inspired by jazz, poetry, and drug experiences." So says Wikipedia. I don't know. Maybe if I had read this book as a teenager I would have enjoyed the irrepressable freedom of the characters. But reading this in my 50's I found the people in this book totally despicable. They stole constantly. Stole food, stole cars. stole anything they could easily get away with stealing. They used people - One character marries a gal for her money to fuel a trip across country, and then abandons her in Texas when the money runs out. One character father's children left and right, and could care less. They talk about how they are going to "dig" a place and how fantastic it is; and in a week are bored with it, and want to be on the road again. If this book defines a generation, I'm glad I didn't grow up in it. There was a scene near the end of the book, where they are wandering the jazz joints in San Francisco. The descriptions of the music and the players is real art. Kerouac shines in small sections like this. But overall the book gets to be tedious as we follow one character who relentlessly sinks into mania. I barely finished this, and only because I promised myself I would finish it. |
I'll put the link here, even though I didn't much like the book. Who knows, maybe you will have a different opinion. |
|
|
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest This book is an easy read on one level, and a harder read on another. As a story it's easy; none of the deep literary references or symbolic imagery that makes other books a tough read. But on another level the more you learn about the patients, and the control by Nurse Ratched, the more you start to think they are not the crazy ones. Big Cheif sure sounds crazy in the |