Grant's Fantastic Fiddy

1. Blink - by Malcolm Gladwell. Rating: 7.5/10
2. Rickenbacker - by Eddie Rickenbacker. Rating 7/10
3. Snake Oil Science - by Barker Bausell. Rating: 10/10
4. Outliers - by Malcolm Gladwell. Rating: 10/10
5. The Last Lecture - by Randy Pausch. Rating: 7/10
6. The Tender Bar - by J.R. Moehringer. Rating: 6/10
7. Trick or Treatment - by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst. Rating: 8.5/10
8. Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich - by Mark Kriegel. Rating: 7.5/10

I read all these chapter books!

1. David Sedaris-- Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (7)
2. Salman Rushdie-- Shalimar the Clown (9)
3. Khaled Hosseini-- The Kite Runner (5)
4. Brian Moore-- The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (7)
5. Cormac McCarthy-- All The Pretty Horses (9.5)
6. Cormac McCarthy-- Blood Meridian (10)
7. Hunter S. Thompson-- The Rum Diary (8)
8. Mark Twain-- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (6.5)
9. John Hodgman-- More Information Than You Require (8)
10. Lemony Snicket-- A Series of Unfortunate Events, vol 1: The Bad Beginning (10)
11. David Foster Wallace-- A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (9.5)
12. R. Barker Bausell-- Snake Oil Science (6.5)
13. Jane Smiley-- 10 Days in the Hills (5.5)
14. Brooke Berman-- A Perfect Couple (3)
15. Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs-- And The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (7)
16. Virginia Woolf-- Mrs. Dalloway (2)
17. Don Delillo-- White Noise (7.5)
18. Philip Gourevitch-- We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families (10)
19. Kathrine Kressman Taylor-- Address Unknown (7)
20. George Saunders-- Pastoralia (8)
21. David Mitchell-- Black Swan Green (9)
22. Thomas Pynchon-- The Crying of Lot 49 (5)
23. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons-- Watchmen (5)
24. Sarah Vowell-- The Partly Cloudy Patriot (6.5)
25. David Foster Wallace-- Consider the Lobster (9)
    

Josh Gave a Hoot!

(and read these books)

1. The Eye of the World- Robert Jordan
2. In Persuasion Nation- George Saunders
3. The Great Hunt- Robert Jordan
4. The Best American Non-Required Reading 2007- Various Authors, Edited by Dave Eggers
5. The Crying of Lot 49- Thomas Pynchon
6. The Dragon Reborn- Robert Jordan
7. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time- Mark Haddon
8. The Shadow Rising- Robert Jordan
9. The Tales of Beedle the Bard- J.K. Rowling
10. Then We Came to the End- Joshua Ferris
11. Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas- Chuck Klosterman
12. The Fires of Heaven- Robert Jordan
13. Bel Canto- Ann Patchett
14. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs- Chuck Klosterman
15. Dragonflight- Anne McCaffrey
16. When We Were Orphans- Kazuo Ishiguro
17. Lord Of Chaos- Robert Jordan
18. Heat- Bill Buford
19. A Crown of Swords- Robert Jordan
20. Black Swan Green- David Mitchell
21. The Path of Daggers- Robert Jordan
22. Clockers- Richard Price
23. Physics of the Impossible- Michio Kaku
24. Winter's Heart- Robert Jordan
25. Atmospheric Disturbances- Rivka Galchen
26. Around the World in 80 Days- Jules Verne
27. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz- L. Frank Baum
28. Little, Big- John Crowley
29. Shakespeare Wrote For Money- Nick Hornby
30. Songbook- Nick Hornby
31. Crossroads of Twilight- Robert Jordon
32. Skellig- David Almond
33. Sharp Teeth- Toby Barlow
34. Eats, Shoots & Leaves- Lynn Truss
35. The McSweeney's Book of Poets Picking Poets
36. Nights of Passed Over- Mark Kozelek
37. The Wind in the Willows- Kenneth Grahame
38. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men- David Foster Wallace
39. Knife of Dreams- Robert Jordan

Pat Claims To Have Read These Books, But Changes The Subject When Questioned In Detail

1. Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
2. More Information Than You Require, John Hodgman
3. Better Off, Eric Brende
4. After the Quake, Haruki Murakami
5. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (Vol. 1-10)
6. Shakespeare: The World As A Stage, Bill Bryson
7. The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, George Saunders
8. A Cook's Tour, Anthony Bourdain
9. Blindness, Jose Saramago
10. Born Standing Up, Steve Martin

11. The Nasty Bits, Anthony Bourdain

12. Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain

13. Boy, Roald Dahl

14. Creative Destruction, Tyler Cowen
15. Summerland, Michael Chabon
16. Very Good, Jeeves, PG Wodehouse
17. Fry in America, Stephen Fry
18. Chuck Klosterman IV, Chuck Klosterman
19. Mere Anarchy, Woody Allen
20. The Eight, Katherine Neville

21. The Nine, Jeffrey Toobin
22. The Devil's Candy, Julie Salamon
23. Nixonland, Rick Perlstein
24. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
25. Be True To Your School, Bob Greene
26. Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli
27. Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
28. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
29. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin

30. Without Feathers, Woody Allen

31. Pure Drivel, Steve Martin
32. Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Julie's Books-A-Poppin'

1. Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
2. Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
3. Letter to a Christian Nation - Sam Harris
4. The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell
5. Positive Discipline - Jane Nelsen, Ed. D.
6. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer - James L. Swanson
7. The Willoughbys - Lois Lowry
8. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
9. Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
10. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
11. The Final Solution - Michael Chabon
12. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer - Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin
13. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
14. Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
15. Animal Farm - George Orwell
16. The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros
17. Spilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself - Sabrina Ward Harrison
18. Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne
19. The House at Pooh Corner - A.A. Milne
20. Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer
21. A Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare
22. The Reptile Room - Lemony Snicket
23. Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
24. Pastoralia - George Saunders
25. What Is The What - Dave Eggers
26. The Book of Daniel - E.L. Doctorow

27. Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke

28. Don't Get Too Comfortable - David Rakoff

29. Measure for Measure - William Shakespeare

30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

31. Through the Looking-glass - Lewis Carroll

32. Equus - Peter Shaffer

33. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sacks

34. Viewpoints - Anne Bogart and Tina Landau

35. Mastering Shakespeare - Scott Kaiser

36. Games for Actors and Non-Actors - Augusto Boal

37. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma - Trenton Lee Stewart

38. Heartbeat - Sharon Creech

39. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle

40. The Artist's Way - Julia Cameron

Julie's Books, Round Three

1. The Professor and the Madman ~ Simon Winchester
2. Angela's Ashes ~ Frank McCourt

3. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ~ Rebecca Skloot

4. The Glass Castle ~ Jeannette Walls

5. Alias Grace ~ Margaret Atwood

6. The Penelopiad ~ Margaret Atwood

Started but not finished.

(Jitterbug Perfume ~ Tom Robbins)

(Fever 1792 ~ Laurie Halse Anderson)

ROUND TWO: I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED

1. Blood Siblings: Joel and Ethan Coen (compilation)
2. The Big Sleep (Raymond Chandler)
3. Woody Allen: Interviews (ed. Robert Kapsis)
4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera)

Zeke's Books

1. Bright Lights, Big City ~ Jay McInerney

2. Maus ~ Art Spiegelman

3. The Road ~ Cormac McCarthy

4. Wonder Boys ~ Michael Chabon

5. Diary of a Drug Fiend ~ Aleister Crowley

6. At The Mountains of Madness ~ H.P. Lovecraft

7. Maakies ~ Tony Millionaire

8. The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst ~ Nicholas Tomalin & Ron Hall

9. Mister B. Gone ~ Clive Barker

10. Needful Things ~ Stephen King

11. The Glass Castle ~ Jeannette Walls

12. The Great and Secret Show ~ Clive Barker

13. Misery ~ Stephen King

14. The Boy Detective Fails ~ Joe Meno

15. Helter Skelter ~ Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry

16. The Little Prince ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

17. The Magic Christian ~ Terry Southern

18. Postcards from the Edge ~ Carrie Fisher

19. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead ~ Crystal Zevon

20. One Train Later ~ Andy Summers

21. The Phish Book ~ Richard Gehr & Phish

22. The Chris Farley Show ~ Tom Farley, Jr. and Tanner Colby

23. Night Shift ~ Stephen King

24. Gonzo ~ Jann S. Wenner & Corey Seymour

25. In the Shadow of No Towers ~ Art Spiegelman

26. The Sandman ~ Neil Gaiman

27. Inherent Vice ~ Thomas Pynchon

28. Treasure Island ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

29. Salem's Lot ~ Stephen King

30. Maus II ~ Art Spiegelman

31. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said ~ Philip K. Dick

The First Fifty.

1. The Yiddish Policemen's Union ~ Michael Chabon

2. Bottomless Belly Button ~ Dash Shaw

3. Black Swan Green ~ David Mitchell

4. Cat's Cradle ~ Kurt Vonnegut

5. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men ~ David Foster Wallace

6. Watchmen ~ Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

7. A Good War is Hard to Find ~ Dave Griffith

8. Hiroshima ~ John Hersey

9. I Love You, Beth Cooper ~ Larry Doyle

10. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth ~ Chris Ware

11. Girl in Landscape ~ Jonathan Lethem

12. Revolutionary Road ~ Richard Yates

13. Sideways Stories from Wayside School ~ Louis Sachar

14. Stuff White People Like ~ Christian Lander

15. What's Not To Love? ~ Jonathan Ames

16. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ~ Junot Diaz

17. Zen in the Art of Writing ~ Ray Bradbury

18. White Noise ~ Don DeLillo

19. The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes ~ Neil Gaiman

20. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close ~ Jonathan Safran Foer

21. A Wild Sheep Chase ~ Haruki Murakami

22. No One Belongs Here More Than You ~ Miranda July

23. The Crying of Lot 49 ~ Thomas Pynchon

24. Airframe ~ Michael Crichton

25. The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God ~ Etgar Keret
26. B is for Beer ~ Tom Robbins

27. Beat the Reaper ~ Josh Bazell

28. The Girl on the Fridge ~ Etgar Keret

29. Falling Man ~ Don DeLillo

30. City of Thieves ~ David Benioff

31. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly ~ Jean-Dominique Bauby

32. Of Mice and Men ~ John Steinbeck

33. The Sandman: The Doll's House ~ Neil Gaiman

34. The Little Prince ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

35. Bird by Bird ~ Anne Lamott

36. The Magic Christian ~ Terry Southern

37. Persepolis ~ Marjane Satrapi

38. The Road ~ Cormac McCarthy

39. Snuff ~ Chuck Palahniuk

40. Portnoy's Complaint ~ Philip Roth

41. Lunar Park ~ Bret Easton Ellis

42. Less Than Zero ~ Bret Easton Ellis

43. How We Are Hungry ~ Dave Eggers

44. Master of Space and Time ~ Rudy Rucker

45. The Informers ~ Bret Easton Ellis

46. After Dark ~ Haruki Murakami

47. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ~ Hunter S. Thompson

48. A Clockwork Orange ~ Anthony Burgess

49. Inherent Vice ~ Thomas Pynchon

50. Infinite Jest ~ David Foster Wallace

Back For More? What, Am I Crazy?!?

Or "Julie's (Hopefully) Fifty Books for 2009-2010."

1. Shakespeare: The World as Stage ~ Bill Bryson
2. Man On Wire ~ Philippe Petit
3. American Psycho ~ Bret Easton Ellis
4. In Defense of Food ~ Michael Pollan

5. Eating Animals ~ Jonathan Safran Foer

6. SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement... ~ Steve Salerno

7. A Gate at the Stairs ~ Lorrie Moore
8. Consider the Lobster ~ David Foster Wallace
9. The Clean House and Other Plays ~ Sarah Ruhl
10. Benjy ~ Edwin O'Connor
11. Fast Food Nation ~ Eric Schlosser
12. The Hunger Games ~ Suzanne Collins
13. Catching Fire ~ Suzanne Collins
14. The Boy Who Would Be A Helicopter ~ Vivian Gussin Paley
15. The Umbrella Man and Other Stories ~ Roald Dahl
16. Water Evacuation ~ Andrew J. Lampl
17. The Wanderer ~ Sharon Creech
18. The Taming of the Shrew ~ William Shakespeare
19. The Handmaid's Tale ~ Margaret Atwood

20. The Lost City of Z ~ David Grann
21. Freakonomics ~ Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt
22. The Tipping Point ~ Malcolm Gladwell
23. Nickel and Dimed ~ Barbara Ehrenreich
24. To Kill a Mockingbird ~ Harper Lee
25. Still Alice ~ Lisa Genova
26. A Clockwork Orange ~ Anthony Burgess
27. The Story of Stuff ~ Annie Leonard

28. Little House in the Big Woods ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

29. Mockingjay ~ Suzanne Collins

30. The View from Saturday ~ E.L. Konigsburg
31. Push ~ Sapphire
32. Bird by Bird ~ Anne Lamott
33. The Drawer Boy ~ Michael Healey
34. New Kings of Nonfiction ~ Various Authors (Ira Glass, ed.)
35. The Tent ~ Margaret Atwood
36. The Stranger ~ Albert Camus
37. Hope Beneath Our Feet ~ Various Authors (Martin Keogh, ed.)
38. No One Belongs Here More Than You ~ Miranda July
39. Tao Te Ching ~ Lao Tzu
40. The Tale of Despereaux ~ Kate DiCamillo

41. Bloody Crimes ~ James Swanson

42. The Tiger Rising ~ Kate DiCamillo

43. Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle ~ Betty MacDonald

44. Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker ~ Lydia Jones
45. The Last Lecture ~ Randy Pausch
46. Backwards & Forwards ~ David Ball
47. The Elegance of the Hedgehog ~ Muriel Barbery

48. Hector and the Search for Happiness ~ Francois LeLord

49. The Trouble with Poetry ~ Billy Collins

50. The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil ~ George Saunders

Erika's Books:

1. The Johnstown Flood ~ David McCullough

2. Let The Right One In ~ John Ajvide Lindqvist

3. 1776 ~ David McCullough

4. Zeitoun ~ Dave Eggers

5. Anne of the Island ~ L.M. Montgomery

6. Anne of Windy Poplars ~ L.M. Montgomery

7. Anne's House of Dreams ~ L.M. Montgomery

8. Anne of Ingleside ~ L.M. Montgomery

9. Rainbow Valley ~ L.M. Montgomery

10. Rilla of Ingleside ~ L.M. Montgomery

11. The Corrections ~ Jonathan Franzen
12. A Changed Man ~ Francine Prose
(Freakonomics ~ Steven D Levitt, Stephen J Dubner)
13. South of the Border, West of the Sun ~ Haruki Murakami
14. Playback ~ Raymond Chandler

15. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ~ J.K. Rowling
16. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ~ J.K. Rowling
17. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ~ J.K. Rowling
18. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ~ J.K. Rowling
19. Band of Brothers ~ Stephen E. Ambrose
20. The Sun Also Rises ~ Ernest Hemingway
21. To Kill a Mockingbird ~ Harper Lee
22. The New Yorker (Fiction Issue 2010) ~ various authors, all under forty
22. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo ~ Stieg Larsson
23. The Girl Who Played With Fire ~ Stieg Larsson
24. Little Bee ~ Chris Cleave
25. A Hundred Or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli ~ Mark Griffin
26. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ~ J.K. Rowling
27. Running With Scissors ~ Augusten Burroughs
28. Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn ~ William J. Mann
29. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest ~ Steig Larsson
30. Me ~ Katharine Hepburn
31. The House on Mango Street ~ Sandra Cisneros
32. Show Boat ~ Edna Ferber
33. Freedom ~ Jonathan Franzen
34. Matterhorn ~ Karl Marlantes
35. Rebecca ~ Daphne du Maurier
36. Never Let Me Go ~ Kazuo Ishiguro

plays i read thru in 2010:

[some are screenplays]

1) Bug ~ Tracy Letts

2) Rag & Bone ~ Noah Haidle

3) Killer Joe ~ Tracy Letts

4) bobrauschenbergamerica ~ Charles Mee

5) The Brothers Size ~ Tarell Alvin McCraney

6) The Homecoming ~ Harold Pinter

7) Rabbit Hole ~ David Lindsay-Abaire

8) The Zoo Story ~ Edward Albee

9) August: Osage County ~ Tracy Letts

10) Essential Self-Defense ~ Adam Rapp

11) Kitty Kitty Kitty ~ Noah Haidle

12) The Violet Hour ~ Richard Greenberg

13) God's Ear ~ Jenny Schwartz

14) Matt & Ben ~ Mindy Kaling & Brenda Withers

15) The Room ~ Harold Pinter

16) 4.48 Psychosis ~ Sarah Kane

17) The Beauty Queen of Leenane ~ Martin McDonagh

18) In Bruges ~ Martin McDonagh

19) Y2K ~ Arthur Kopit

20) Man from Nebraska ~ Tracy Letts

21) Endgame ~ Samuel Beckett

22) Valparaiso ~ Don DeLillo

23) Wonder of the World ~ David Lindsay-Abaire

24) The Day Room ~ Don DeLillo

25) The Pillowman ~ Martin McDonagh

26) Pulp Fiction ~ Quentin Tarantino & Roger Avary

27) Marisol ~ Jose Rivera

28) I Heart Huckabees ~ David O. Russell & Jeff Baena

29) The Truman Show ~ Andrew Niccol

30) Cleansed ~ Sarah Kane

31) Red Light Winter ~ Adam Rapp

32) What The Butler Saw ~ Joe Orton

33) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune ~ Terrence McNally

34) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ~ Charlie Kaufman

Reggie Gowland [reads]

1. Infinite Jest ~ David Foster Wallace

2. American Psycho ~ Bret Easton Ellis

3. Jesus' Son ~ Denis Johnson

4. A Confederacy of Dunces ~ John Kennedy Toole

5. The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil ~ George Saunders

6. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ~ Philip K. Dick

7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ~ Ken Kesey

8. The Pillowman ~ Martin McDonagh

9. Where I'm Calling From ~ Raymond Carver

10.

Chris Hejl [reads]

1. Pattern Recognition ~ William Gibson

2. The Demolished Man ~ Alfred Bester

3. James and the Giant Peach ~ Roald Dahl

4. Snow Crash ~ Neal Stephenson

5. The Name of the Wind ~ Patrick Rothfuss

6. Good Omens ~ Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

[and we can count these too, if you want]

The Hollow Earth ~ Rudy Rucker

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ~ Douglas Adams

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ~ Douglas Adams

Life, the Universe and Everything ~ Douglas Adams

I Read Real Nice And Persistent-Like:

1. The Broom of the System ~ David Foster Wallace

2. Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives ~ David Eagleman

3. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle ~ Haruki Murakami

4. Asterios Polyp ~ David Mazzucchelli

5. Mao II ~ Don DeLillo

6. Einstein's Dreams ~ Alan Lightman

7. Food Rules ~ Michael Pollan

8. The Dead Father ~ Donald Barthelme

9. V. ~ Thomas Pynchon

10. The Corrections ~ Jonathan Franzen

11. Outliers ~ Malcolm Gladwell

12. Cloud Atlas ~ David Mitchell

13. Free-Range Chickens ~ Simon Rich

14. My Stroke of Insight ~ Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.

15. Wilson ~ Daniel Clowes

16. Chronic City ~ Jonathan Lethem

17. 2666 ~ Roberto Bolaño

18. The War of Art ~ Steven Pressfield

19. The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead ~ David Shields

20. Play The Piano Drunk Like A Percussion Instrument Until The Fingers Begin To Bleed A Bit ~ Charles Bukowski

21. Atmospheric Disturbances ~ Rivka Galchen

22. Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself ~ David Lipsky

23. God is Dead ~ Ron Currie, Jr.

24. Skippy Dies ~ Paul Murray

25. The Romantic Dogs ~ Roberto Bolaño

26. American Splendor ~ Harvey Pekar

27. Picnic, Lightning ~ Billy Collins

28. I Am A Strange Loop ~ Douglas Hofstadter

Plays.

1. Barfly ~ Henry Chinaski

2. The Visit ~ Friedrich Durrenmatt

4. The Three Sisters ~ Anton Chekhov

5. Middletown ~ Will Eno

5. Superior Donuts ~ Tracy Letts

6. The Skin of Our Teeth ~ Thornton Wilder

7. The Flu Season ~ Will Eno

8. Intermission ~ Will Eno

9. Tragedy: a tragedy ~ Will Eno

10. Our Town ~ Thornton Wilder

11. Thom Pain ~ Will Eno

12. The Squid and the Whale ~ Noah Baumbach

Stories.

1. Mr. Squishy ~ David Foster Wallace

2. Good Old Neon ~ David Foster Wallace

3. Getting Closer ~ Steven Millhauser

4. The Dome ~ Steven Millhauser

Karen's Books:

1. The Imperfectionists - Tom Rachman

2. Following Polly - Karen Bergreen

Dorothy's Books.....Here we go:

1. Olive Kitteridge ~ Elizabeth Strout

2. Push ~ Sapphire

3. Invisible ~ Paul Auster

4. Too Much Happiness ~ Alice Munro

5. The Humbling ~ Philip Roth

6. A Gate at the Stairs ~ Lorrie Moore

7. A Friend of the Family ~ Lauren Grodstein

8. A Disorder Peculiar to the Country ~ Ken Kalfus

9. The Women ~ T.C. Boyle

10. Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal ~ Julie Metz

11. The Corrections ~ Jonathan Franzen

12. Shutter Island ~ Dennis Lehane

13. The Reader ~ Bernhard Schlink

14. Shadow Tag ~ Louise Erdrich

15. Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption ~ Jennifer Thompson Cannino and Ronald Cotton

16. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo ~ Stieg Larsson

17. Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea ~ Chelsea Handler

18. Every Last One ~ Anna Quindlen

19. Nothing But Blue Skies ~ Thomas McGuane

20. Little Bee ~ Chris Cleave

21. The Swimming Pool ~ Holly LeCraw

22. When Will There Be Good News? ~ Kate Atkinson

23. The Irresistible Henry House ~ Lisa Grunwald

24. The Girl Who Played With Fire ~ Stieg Larsson

25. So Much For That ~ Lionel Shriver

26. One Day ~ David Nicholls

27. This Is Where I Leave You ~ Jonathan Tropper

28. Child 44 ~ Tom Rob Smith

29. Still Missing ~ Chevy Stevens

30. Never Look Away ~ Linwood Barclay

31. A Dog's Purpose ~ W. Bruce Cameron

32. Cutting For Stone ~ Abraham Verghese

33. Room ~ Emma Donoghue

34. How To Talk To A Widower ~ Jonathan Tropper

35. No One Belongs Here More Than You ~ Miranda July

36. Freedom ~ Jonathan Franzen

37. I'd Know You Anywhere ~ Laura Lippman

Next Round's On Me:

1. Let the Great World Spin ~ Colum McCann

2. Lolita ~ Vladimir Nabokov

3. Unbroken ~ Laura Hillenbrand

4. The Museum of Innocence ~ Orhan Pamuk

5. Moonlight Mile ~ Dennis Lehane

2013 - 2014

1) The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
2) Aleph - Paulo Coelho
3) State of Wonder - Ann Patchett
4) Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn



2011 - 2012

1. The Savage Detectives ~ Roberto Bolaño

2. Freedom ~ Jonathan Franzen

3. Point Omega ~ Don DeLillo

4. Hollywood ~ Charles Bukowski

5. Riding Toward Everywhere ~ William T. Vollmann

6. Siddhartha ~ Herman Hesse

7. Blood Meridian ~ Cormac McCarthy

8. White Noise ~ Don DeLillo

9. Screwjack ~ Hunter S. Thompson

10. The Sirens of Titan ~ Kurt Vonnegut

11. Love is a Dog from Hell ~ Charles Bukowski

12. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ~ Douglas Adams

13. Species of Spaces ~ Georges Perec

14. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth ~ Chris Ware

15. This is It ~ Alan Watts

16. Be Here Now ~ Hanuman Foundation

17. The Prophet ~ Kahlil Gibran

18. Letters to a Young Poet ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

19. Bottomless Belly Button ~ Dash Shaw

20. Jesus' Son ~ Denis Johnson

21. Super Sad True Love Story ~ Gary Shteyngart

22. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe ~ Charles Yu

23. The Doors of Perception ~ Aldous Huxley

24. Sum: 40 Tales from the Afterlives ~ David Eagleman

25. On the Road: The Original Scroll ~ Jack Kerouac

26. A Visit from the Goon Squad ~ Jennifer Egan

27. And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks ~ Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs

28. You Get So Alone Sometimes That It Just Makes Sense ~ Charles Bukowski

Mikey's Booklets

1. Gravity's Rainbow ~ Thomas Pynchon

2. Under the Banner of Heaven ~ Jon Krakauer

3. The God of Small Things ~ Arundhati Roy

4. Beat the Reaper ~ Josh Bazell

5. The Tortilla Curtain ~ T.C. Boyle
6. City of Tiny Lights ~ Patrick Neate
7. Zeitoun ~ Dave Eggers
8. Boomsday ~ Christopher Buckley
9. Twelve Bar Blues ~ Patrick Neate
10. Black Water ~ Joyce Carol Oates
11. PopCo ~ Scarlett Thomas
12. The Brooklyn Follies ~ Paul Auster
13. The Code Book ~ Simon Singh
14. Big Bang ~ Simon Singh
15. Breakfast on Pluto ~ Patrick McCabe
16. Bad Things Happen ~ Harry Dolan
17. The Thieves of Manhattan ~ Adam Langer
18. The Ask ~ Sam Lipsyte
19. Then We Came to the End ~ Joshua Ferris
20. Musungu Jim and the Great Chief Tuloko ~ Patrick Neate
21. Sunnyside ~ Glen David Gold

I'm Sorry This Is Somewhat Late, But It's My First Blog Entry EVER and I Just Had To Summon Up The Courage To Embrace The Unknown!

My Top Ten Books, in no particular order:

1) Everything is Illuminated ~ Jonathan Safran Foer

2) The Road ~ Cormac McCarthy

3) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay ~ Michael Chabon

4) Hocus Pocus ~ Kurt Vonnegut

5) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius ~ Dave Eggers

6) Sixty Stories ~ Donald Barthelme

7) Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close ~ Jonathan Safran Foer

8) Something Happened ~ Joseph Heller

9) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar ~ Roald Dahl

10) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ~ Douglas Adams

I'm sorry for the repeats, as several of these books have already been mentioned. But, they're my favorite books, too! Also, I have to admit that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (book 7) was terribly close to making this list. But for fear of ridicule and eventual banishment from the blog, I chose to abstain from making that move, and instead only mention it in passing, as though I didn't cry alone in my room while reading the last hundred pages. 

Popping your book cherry

OK Fiddy Freaks, what will your first book be? I have decided upon a long one - some 671 pages - because: a) I am a masochist, b) I want to spend 51 weeks reading this book and the last week reading 49 more, and c) it's sitting on my nightstand and I'm too lazy to search for another. So, I present to you the late Dr. Stephen Jay Gould:

BOOKer T. Washington

Man-BOOKer Prize?

here are 10 books i liked to read!*

1. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
2. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
3. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
4. What is the What by Dave Eggers
5. The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
6. Snow by Orhan Pamuk
7. Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (R.I.P.)
8. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
9. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
10. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke**

*I have a tendency to stick to a small group of authors and read as much of them as i can find, so while i limited myself to one book per, I can pretty safely recommend the entire oeuvres of Mssrs. Murakami, Hornby, Mitchell, and Eggers, but making a list of only those authors seemed counterproductive

**This is actually a placeholder for all the fantasy I secretly (though it will be clear from this blog going forward) love. This is a fantasy novel that people who don't like fantasy novels will enjoy, but if you really wanted to read fantasy novels, it would be something from Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan or Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. Dork!

I can't wait. Though i do have a practical question...I am going to finish my current book before nov 4, but i wont finish the next one in the interim. what should i do?

j

Grant's Top Ten

Apart from The Tarvunty, which is everyone in Universe B's favorite book, my top ten must-read books are as follows:

1. Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
If I were King, I'd make this mandatory reading.

2. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan
If I were King, you'd better be reading this as soon as you're finished with Frankl. Learn how to say no to pseudo-scientific BS and other forms of woo-woo.

3. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
Best adventure story ever. Who needs fiction when you have this chestnut?

4. Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkein
OK, I was a geeked out D&D nerd in the '70's. Sue me.

5. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Sure, Objectivism is a lame worldview, and sure this is a 200 page book stretched interminably to about 4600 pages + or - a grand, but it is a useful guide to self-reliance, the role of value in daily interactions, and how not to be a victim. Plus, Dagne is HOT!

6. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Obligatory classic to make me appear learned.

7. Ascent of Man - Jacob Bronowski
One of the best History and Philosophy of Science books ever written. His BBC documentary from which the book was derived was a landmark in television history and in my life. <Excerpt>

8. Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
I'm a sucker for adventure, especially when someone dies (and that someone isn't me).

9. The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity - Hyam Maccoby
A critical look at Paul's role in the establishment and propagation of Christianity, and how it in no way resembled the religion of Jesus and his disciples.

10. Key to the Treasure - Peggy Parish
A staple in our household for over 40 years.

Has Pat Even Ever READ Ten Books?

Hey gang!
Wow, fifty books! This is going to go to some really dark places really quickly, especially if I follow through on my threat to Josh that I would start with Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest right out the gate. As the person most likely to flunk out of the experiment (predicted excuse: "But I have to read all of these mediocre plays I always complain about!") I figured I'd be prompt and a little bit predictable on the Ten Books Worth Reading game. Here they be, largely ripped off from my Favorite Books authors on Facebook, scrubbed of scripts and comic books and (shudder) poetry:

1. CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (George Saunders) Hey, my favorite current author!
2. American Tabloid (James Ellroy) Frenetically stylized mobland novel that veers into JFK! Great!
3. Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie) Isn't his ex-wife on Top Chef??
4. The Master and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov) Satan comes to Moscow! Wackiness ensues! Finally, somebody's willing to satirize the USSR!
5. Gates of Eden (Ethan Coen) A desperate attempt to buy this list some offbeat cred!
6. Then We Came To The End (Joshua Ferris) Chicago! Um, recent novels?
7. Right Ho, Jeeves (P.G. Wodehouse) It's the silliest writing possible!
8. The Crying of Lot 49 (Thomas Pynchon) Superb Pynchon, at a fraction of the investment of Gravity's Rainbow!
9. Amusing Ourselves to Death (Neil Postman) Hey, an anti-TV screed! THAT should amuse this (presumably) pro-book crowd!
10. Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov) OK, OK, it's maybe the most cliched thing I could put here, but c'mon, guys, it's still a Pretty Great Book!

Also, before I sign off, I'd like to point out that the Modern Library's Top 100 lists (which I checked to see if there was anything I [a] should have listed, and [b] wouldn't have felt overly pretentious or annoying about listing) have a "voted by our readers" list that is JAM-PACKED with Scientology books. All I'm saying is, it'd be a pretty easy way to blow through two or three months of this project, EASY!

My books!

Hey everyone! Here are my ten seed-books. they may be a little run-of-the -mill, but I really love all of them and they're all stupendous.
1. Slaughterhouse 5
2. Brave New World
3. 1984
4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
5. The God Delusion (non-fiction, really, really non fiction)
6. The Road
7. A Clockwork Orange
8. Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren’t as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn’t Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out.
9. Everything Bad is Good for You (non-fiction, a book about how video games and too-much TV are actually making us smarter.)
10. Farenheit 451

In writing this, I'm realizing that I'm destined to be a Jr. High English teacher.... hope these help! let the madness begin!!!

Baby's First Blog Entry

Welcome, Fiddy-Bookers!

The blog has arrived, and it only took a little bit of internet wrestling for me to figure it out. So there. I must admit, though, that as a newcomer to the world of blogging this is a little overwhelming. At least I have a year of posting book reviews to get just-regular-whelmed.

With nine days remaining until our Fifty Book Challenge actually begins, I'm moving forward with Reggie's suggestion to start with a post of 10 books that I love, in the event that you find yourself strapped for ideas. Without further ado, and in no particular order, I bring you Ten Books Worth Reading.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster
Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer
Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Passing by Nella Larsen
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie


See you November 1st!

poop.

1. The Fortress of Solitude ~ Jonathan Lethem
2. The Yiddish Policemen's Union ~ Michael Chabon
3. All the Pretty Horses ~ Cormac McCarthy
4. Chronic City ~ Jonathan Lethem
5. The Intuitionist ~ Colson Whitehead
6. Netherland ~ Joseph O'Neill
7. The Big Machine ~ Victor Lavalle
8. Atmospheric Disturbances ~ Rivka Galchen
9. White Tiger ~ Aravind Adiga
10. The Russian Debutante's Handbook ~ Gary Shtyengart
11. The Crying of Lot 49 ~ Thomas Pynchon
12. Everything Matters ~ Ron Currie, Jr.
13. Libra ~ Don DeLillo
14. The Fountainhead ~ Ayn Rand