While She Knits--In 2008
Jan. 4th, 2008 10:30 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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queensthiefGot a "Best of Last Year" reading list you want to share?
Need to put your reading into shape and want to declare your goal here as a start?
New genres, new authors, new approaches to studying literature...let's talk new beginnings in the fast-passing count-down to whatever Megan has awaiting, shall we?
Need to put your reading into shape and want to declare your goal here as a start?
New genres, new authors, new approaches to studying literature...let's talk new beginnings in the fast-passing count-down to whatever Megan has awaiting, shall we?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Date: 1/4/08 05:17 pm (UTC)~ Get my classics reading programme in order!
I read one whole true classic last year. The Count of Monte Christo, which I finished in January for the adult reading program. (I have a nice library bag now.)
~ Get more knowledgeable about anime and comics.
I've been doing good on this, since I resolved, but I have a new friend lending me anime series I can't get at the library. Working through Witch Hunter Robin now!
~ Read up on Japan.
I lived there, and have quite a bit of real-life knowledge from that time, but I want to have some sort of scholarship behind me. Someone here asked me what I plan to do (in my Emperor's Birthday post.)
I plan to read. What else?
I also may take higher-level language, instead of just watching Miyazaki films in their native language.
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Date: 1/4/08 07:23 pm (UTC)Not overwhelming. Paced. But much more than I did this year.
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Date: 1/4/08 05:47 pm (UTC)My reading goals...hmm, continue to:
-read during all parts of the day
-forsake housework on behalf of reading books
-otherwise use spare time to talk ABOUT books
-continue to defend the right of readers to not finish recreational books they don't enjoy!
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Date: 1/4/08 07:19 pm (UTC)Like that one.
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Date: 1/4/08 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 1/5/08 09:27 am (UTC)However, this is a reason I'm never sure how much I read a year. I know how many I get from the library etc but the amount read from that varies!
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Date: 1/5/08 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 1/4/08 06:04 pm (UTC)Through the class however, I discovered Kurt Vonnegut; through some gross error, I'd never read him before.
2007 was, however, the year I really started reading manga. I'd left it alone before because in the past the ink aggrivated my migrains. The older I get, the more my triggers change, and it seems that this one has (in most cases...sometimes reading a lot of manga will still cause a massive migrain). So my manga list includes:
Hellsing
Demon Diary
Boy Princess
Trinity Blood (though the novels are better)
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle
Tetragrammaton Labrynth
I'm not done with all of these (in some cases, the series isn't done), but right now, they've all captured my interest. Boy Princess, in particular, is something that holds academic interest for me.
As for my reading goals for 2008...the top priority is to finish all of the works for my comprehensive exams by mid-Feb. I'd like to finish the His Dark Materials series. But more importantly, I need to read the LOTR trilogy as a matter of research for a book that must be written. Most of '08 reading after comps will be devoted to that (reading as research...not LOTR).
And I shall continue to await the latest from Turner. :)
I've been rambling. I'll stop now.
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Date: 1/4/08 06:15 pm (UTC)Others I especially enjoyed: The Land of the Silver Apples, by Nancy Farmer. The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan.
Cheating a bit because they've been out a while but I just got around to them last year: Bucking the Sarge, by Christopher Paul Curtis. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale.
Classics I ended up loving: Middlemarch, by George Eliot. The Master and Margarita, by Bulgakov (...did I spell that right?)
Next on my extremely long list: Currently reading the "new" Alexandre Dumas, The Last Cavalier. Next up: Elijah of Buxton, by Christopher Paul Curtis. In grownup books, looking forward to Under the Glacier by Halldor Laxness.
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Date: 1/4/08 07:22 pm (UTC)Middlemarch is one of my favorites, ever, actually. Yay!
The only other Eliot I've read is Silas Marner. I have Adam Bede awaiting me. I will not read Mill on the Floss...
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Date: 1/4/08 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 1/4/08 09:23 pm (UTC)Goals for this year:
Read alot AND get good grades (some of you can do this easily, but it is the bane of my education. *sigh*)
Paint/draw more. I always want to do this. Gah.
Make time to write, EVEN IF IT'S AWFUL. Which it usually is.
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Date: 1/4/08 11:11 pm (UTC)This year I'm going to read The Game of Kings, and right now I'm reading Atonement by Ian McEwan.
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Date: 1/5/08 01:08 am (UTC)The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Thud! by Terry Pratchett
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Resolutions:
1. Finish those fanarts I promised you guys a bajillion years ago.
2. Have my portfolio for college done BEFORE the day of.
3. Read all those books I bought that are sitting solemnly on my shelf, unread.
4. Learn to draw animals. And feets. And hair. And hands. And everything else, too.
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Date: 1/5/08 01:34 am (UTC)Best YA: The Kin by Peter Dickinson, Bridge of Dirds by Barry Hughart, Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones (runner up: The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley)
Best Adult: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner, Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Best Romance: The Weaver Takes a Wife by Sherri Cobb South, The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer
Best SF: Miles Vorkosigan adventures by Lois McMaster Bujold
Best NF: Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet, The Peabody Sisters by Megan Marshall
Book I felt the worst about not finishing: The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnet
Book I most wanted to pitch across the room while reading: She by H. Rider Haggard, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Big project for this year (so far): War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (trans. Pevear and Volonkhovsky)
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Date: 1/5/08 01:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 1/5/08 01:53 am (UTC)Wow, I've got to find this.
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Date: 1/5/08 05:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 1/5/08 09:33 am (UTC)But wow, you're about one of the only people I know who like Hardy. As I told the meet-up I liked him as a kid but find him insufferable the last time I tried reading him!
*notes down book titles and authors for future reading*
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Date: 1/5/08 02:41 am (UTC)Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
Riddlemaster of Hed series
A True and Faithful Narrative
The White Darkness
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Keturah and Lord Death
Game of Kings
An Abundance of Katherines
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
The Dark is Rising series
Austenland
In 2008 I hope to read lots more Discworld.
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Date: 1/5/08 04:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 1/6/08 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 1/7/08 03:25 am (UTC)Best Book: Strange and Norrell. Hear, hear.
Although I did enjoy Deathly Hallows an awful lot, once it got off its feet and started to run.
Most surprisingly, sneakingly good even though I would never have picked it up myself: East Lynne or Cantarella. I'm sort of disappointed I can't find Volumes 9 or 10 to guiltily browse in a bookstore.
Most disappointing: Dragonhaven. Curses, Robin McKinley, why are you doing this to me? Us, I suppose. I really hope it's not personal.
Runner up here is Making Money, which was just a bit silly.
Most satisfying re-read: Gaudy Night in tandem with an all-nighter on lit crit.
Super-Awesome Hero Award goes to: The Duke of Avon, These Old Shades.
Super-Awesome Villain Award goes to: Attolia. In perpetuity, quite possibly.
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Date: 1/7/08 03:35 pm (UTC)Shoot, that one is sitting on my shelf looking at me.
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Date: 1/9/08 05:53 pm (UTC)Berry, Erick. SEVEN BEAVER SKINS: A STORY OF THE DUTCH IN NEW AMSTERDAM
Best, Herbert. WATERGATE: A STORY OF THE IRISH ON THE ERIE CANAL
Blackford, Charles Minor. DEEP TREASURE: A STORY OF THE GREEK SPONGE FISHERS OF FLORIDA
Coatsworth, Elizabeth. THE LAST FORT: A STORY OF THE FRENCH VOYAGEURS
Gage, Joseph H. THE BECKONING HILLS: A STORY OF THE ITALIANS IN CALIFORNIA
Havighurst, Walter. SONG OF THE PINES: A STORY OF NORWEGIAN LUMBERING IN WISCONSIN
Havighurst, Marion and Walter. CLIMB A LOFTY LADDER: A STORY OF SWEDISH SETTLEMENT IN MINNESOTA
Lundy, Jo Evaline. TIDEWATER VALLEY: A STORY OF THE SWISS IN OREGON
SEEK THE DARK GOLD: A STORY OF THE SCOTS FUR TRADERS
McNickle, D'Arcy. RUNNER IN THE SUN: A STORY OF INDIAN MAIZE
Means, Florence Crannell and Carl. THE SILVER FLEECE: A STORY OF THE SPANISH IN NEW MEXICO
Ziegler, Elsie R. THE BLOWING-WAND: A STORY OF BOHEMIAN GLASSMAKING IN OHIO
Those are the ones I've read. I need to go buy more and read them, because goodness knows I don't have enough books staring at me waiting to be read.