read 24 books in 2007

Read about 7 books – need to read more

Just never made enough time to read each day. I’m going to try again in 2008. If I’d finished the many books I’ve half read I’d have got a lot closer to completing the goal – which at least gives me a head start on 2008.

Pulp thriller fiction at its page turning best.

Good rollicking read with ridiculous plot “twists” and character names.

Books read in 2007:
1. The Secret Lives of Men and Women
2. Into Thin Air
3. Hannibal Rising
4. The Gunslinger
5. The Drawing of the Three
6. The Wastelands
7. Wizard and Glass
8. Wolves of the Calla
9. Song of Susannah
10. The Dark Tower
11. Nickel and Dimed
12. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
13. The Plot Against America
14. Harry Potter School Books: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages
15. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
16. The Know-It-All
17. The Glass Castle
18. IT
19. The Kite Runner
20. A Lifetime of Secrets
21. What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day
22. Paradise Regained
23. On Writing
24. The Mist
25. Next

Books that I can remember re-reading in 2007:
1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
4. Into Thin Air
5. The Drawing of the Three
6. The Wastelands
7. Wizard and Glass
8. Wolves of the Calla
9. Song of Susannah
10. Nickel and Dimed
11. The Plot Against America

Books started but not finished in 2007:
1. You: On a Diet
2. Harry Potter y la piedra filosifal
3. On the Road
4. Lolita
5. Giving
6. Paradise Lost
7. Slaughterhouse Five

by Marjorie Holmes

by Paul & Dan Monaghan

by Diane Setterfield

Who Let the Blogs Out?: A Hyperconnected Peek at the World of Weblogs

Biz Stone is the chap behind Twitter and was “head of blogging” or some such at Google/Blogger via Xanger.

I was distinctly unimpressed by the book. With his credentials I expected a great deal more than a whats-a-blog book, having errors in a simple HTML list didn’t help matters – and frankly HTML education is hardly useful in this sort of book when it’s reduced to half a dozen pages.

In the book Stone also discusses that blogging regularly will improve ones writing, it was therefore ironic to find that this book required a heavier hand than was used in its editing – it read as a series of blog entries and I expect more from books. Blogs can get away with unnecessary repetition becuase you can’t honestly expect everyone to arrive at your page to have read the relevant sections before, and there has to be a larger degree of forgiveness when reading something that is “typed” rather than carefully considered and edited as a book should be.

I was also confused as to why a book published in 2003 didn’t mention wordpress which started in 2001 and must be bloggers biggest rival whilst the book mentioned several other competitors. Frankly this felt like a book that was written in the last century, when “web logs” first started to become popular.

I had hoped to get something new from this book, perhaps further arguments to use on clients for why they should blog and nothing new was gained here.

Whilst I appreciate my disaffection with this book is largely because of my preconceptions of reading a book about blogging by a influential blogger and developer, I really do think he’s traded on that reputation getting this book published.

1. All That You Love Will Be Carried Away by Stephen King
2. The Death of Jack Hamilton by Stephen King
3. In the Deathroom by Stephen King
4.The Little Sisters of Eluria by Stephen King
5.Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King
6. L. T.’s Theory of Pets by Stephen King
7.The Road Virus Heads North by Stephen King
8.Lunch at the Gotham Cafe by Stephen King
9.That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French by Stephen King
10.1408 by Stephen King
11.Riding the Bullet by Stephen King
12.Luckey Quarter by Stephen King
13.Autopsy Room 4 by Stephen King
14.The Man in the Black Suit by Stephen King
15.The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero by Stephen Skelton
16.Eyes of Elisha by Brandilyn Collins
17.Dread Champion by Brandilyn Collins
18.Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer by Daniel Josephs
19.Spider-man 3: by Peter David
20.The Condemned By Kara A. Medalis
21.Ghost Rider by Greg Cox
22.WonkaMania by Kris Rasmussen
23. C.S.I Snake Eyes by Max Allan Collins
24. C.S.I Killing Games by Max Allan Collins

Ok, so 14 of the books are short stories from One book by Stephen King, so maybe in a way I cheated? if you want to think that I thought that as I was going to post this but all the stories were more then 20 pages and it’s not like they were picture book lol. ;)

(Southern Vampire Series) #2 by Charlaine Harris