Monday, December 31, 2007

Year in Review: Brent

Making this list was really difficult. On another day, Huck Finn, Vernon God Little, Of Human Bondage, or Lolita might have made it, but I guess it really just means that this was a great year for reading. Here's hoping 2008 is as good.

Best of the Year
1. War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy

2. Don Quixote
Miguel Cervantes

3. East of Eden
John Steinbeck

4. Underworld
Don DeLillo

5. The Screwtape Letters
C.S. Lewis

6. Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton

7. The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen

8. As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner

9. Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides

10. Watership Down
Richard Adams


Books I Hated:


Invisible Monsters
Chuck Palaniuk

Song of Susannah
Stephen King


Books I just didn't care for:


]Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
J. K. Rowling

Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen


Books that were bad but still a lot better than Invisible Monsters:


Scavenger Hunt
Christopher Pike

10 comments:

Carlton Farmer said...

I can't believe that you like The Corrections better than Lolita...or Watership Down for that matter.
Here's to another good year!

Christopher said...

Yeah, I have to agree with Carlton. I liked The Corrections, but Lolita is a masterpiece. Watership Down isn't, really, but for some reason it's immensely likeable. The Corrections didn't stand out enough for me.

Brooke said...

I want read Don Quixote this year. It was motivating to see that on the better part of your list, though, as I had a bad experience reciting several pages from memory in Spanish for a class during exams.

Christopher said...

Well, anything you have to recite from memory is automatically going to be a negative experience.

Carlton Farmer said...

I have been reading Don Quixote for about a year and a half now. I really like it, so I am not for sure why I don't read it more often. I don't know what is wrong with me.

Brent and Christopher:
Year End Reviews are up over at the Ometer. Feel free to add yours to the feature...email it to me if you want to.
carltonfarmer@yahoo.com

Brent Waggoner said...

I know that Lolita is more of a classic and a better overall book, but I just connected with The Corrections more.

I'm not sure I have anything to contribute to the year end celebrations.

Brooke, the Edith Grossman translation of DQ is the most readable I've found.

Christopher said...

No, Brooke, you have to read it in Spanish. No excuses.

Carlton Farmer said...

I am reading DQ in Russian. That's probably why it is taking me so long.

Brooke said...

Edith Grossman it is, then. Thank you for the suggestion. Christopher, I think the only thing I could read entirely in Spanish right now is See Jane Run. On a good day. Maybe next year. :op
Russian! I can't imagine.

Christopher said...

Carlton is not reading anything in Russian. Carlton is a liar.