read 25 books in 2008

16. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J. K. Rowling

My, these books are quick reads. Very useful for de-stressing after a week full of tests and the like.

15. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J. K. Rowling

So… you know, 10 years after it was published, I figured I might as well finally get around to reading this series. I boycotted it on purpose when it came out, because, you know, I don’t really trust popular opinion when it comes to literature. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I mean, the beginning was pretty poorly-written, but it significantly improved after that. I already knew I’d like the story, since I’ve seen all the movies that have come out so far, I just wasn’t sure about the writing. Quick to read, and it was actually pretty engaging.

14. Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave Revolt – Mark Smith (ed.)

Well, it was for class, but hey, it’s still a book.

13. The Star Fraction – Ken Macleod

This book sat on my shelf for a really long time before I read it, and I am glad that I finally got a chance to read it. It was really, really good. A little confusing at times, but like nothing else I’ve ever read. I’m not sure if I want to read the other books in the sequence or not.
I’d say buying this book just to look at the page where the chapter titles are listed would be worth it. They include such gems as “not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity” and “what I do when they shove Chinese writing under the door.”

12. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave – Frederick Douglass

11. A Farwell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

Well of course I love Hemingway. It took me a few pages to get into this book but it was gold from there on out. So sad though! I really didn’t see the ending coming at all. I should have, though.

10. Animal Farm – George Orwell

Classic.

9. The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn – Robin Maxwell

I liked it. Maxwell did a good job of blending Anne’s life with that of her daughter Elizabeth.

8. Before the Beginning – Martin Rees

Well, I thought it was fascinating, but if you’re not that into physics & cosmology, then maybe you wouldn’t like it so much.

7. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories – Robert Louis Stevenson

The other stories in this were “A Lodging for the Night,” “The Suicide Club,” “Thrawn Janet,” “The Body-Snatcher,” and “Markheim.”

First: “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
Not bad. I think it easily could have been fleshed out into a full-length novel, as there are just huge jumps of the “suddenly it’s a year later” type.

“A Lodging for the Night”
Not a bad story, but kind of pointless.

“The Suicide Club”
By far the best one in this collection. It is itself composed of three shorter stories with a few recurring characters, and it is actually slightly longer than Jekyll & Hyde. I would have loved for this to have been extended into a longer series.

“Thrawn Janet”
I actually didn’t read this one. Stevenson chose to write it in a way that echoed a Scot dialect, which made it virtually impossible to read. I gave up after a page or two. Stuff like, “About the end o’ July there cam’ a spell o’ weather, the like o’t never was in that country-side; it was lown an’ het an’ hearless; the herds couldnae win up the Black Hill, the bairns were ower weariet to play; an’ yet it was gousty too, wi’ claps o’ het wund that rummled in the glens, and bits o’ shouers that slockened naething.” See the problem?

“The Body-Snatcher”
Another good short story, though not very sophisticated. Kind of like a horror story for a 12-year-old audience.

“Markheim”
One of the better short stories with actual meaning behind it.

I think Stevenson had good potential, but didn’t really realize it in most cases. It always vexes me when an writer’s most famous works are not his best by any means.