2019 50 Book Challenge

[javyn]

Dude. Let’s be friends!

Is that a new or old translation of Maldoror? I think Lykiard’s is the best version I’ve read (and the coolest book design as well)...though there seems to be a new one released around 2012.

TBH I just found that pic on the net so I dunno. Lykiard's translation is the one I've read.

 

[javyn]

I remember reading this back in 1982 and then in 95 it was mentioned in a lecture at Uni. The lecturer then started to recite the first page verbatim. Such a warped book, fantastic read.

Your handle is the main from the best novel I've ever read in my life.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

Your handle is the main from the best novel I've ever read in my life.

Still have my copy from 81.

 

[Fueco]

83. The Monarchy Of Fear: A Philosopher Looks At Our Political Crisis, by Martha C. Nussbaum

A broad overview of many of the crises facing American (and the rest of the world to some extent) politics in this present moment in time. She has many ideas on what can be done different, but perhaps the one I find the most urgent is her idea of a national service program for youths. I first encountered this idea in the campaign of Pete Buttigieg for President, but Nussbaum goes into why it would be beneficial in a rather convincing way. Hint: it's basically because most of us live isolated from people who look and think differently than we do.

 

[Fueco]

84. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

In post-apocalyptic America, a man and his son travel the road, looking for food and supplies and hiding from the bad guys, while seeking the elusive good guys.

I got sucked into this one, reading it in the past 30 hours. This is definitely among the best books I’ve read this year.

 

[samtalkstyle]

8: Pitch Invasion: Adidas, Puma and the Making of Modern Sport - Barbara Smit

A retelling of the story of the Dassler family and the shaping of two of the world's biggest sports giants. Of particular interest within this book was the story of Horst, son of Adi. A gripping business tale.

 

[LonerMatt]

Spoiler: List

1. The Broken Kingdoms
2. The Kingdom of Gods
3. Semiosis
4. Bridge of Clay
5. Blackwater City
6. Bullshit Jobs: a Theory
7. Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire
8. The People vs Tech
9. The Outrun
10 Ancillary Justice
11. Words without Music
12. Digital Minimalism
13. When Rivers Run Dry
14. The Uninhabitable Earth
15. Do we need inequality?
16. Carbon Ideologies: No Immediate Danger
17. The Secret Life of Trees
18. Educated
19. River of Doubt
20. Holy Sister
21. A War in Crimson Embers
22. Ancillary Sword
23. Ancillary Mercy
24. One Way
25. The Raven's Tower
26. Dark Emu
27. A Memory Called Empire
28. A Forest of Wood and Steel
29. Makers
30. Pink Mountain on Locust Island
31. The Summon Stone
32. Fallen Gate
33. Senlin Ascends
34. Howling Dark
35. Arm of the Sphinx
36. Fall, or Dodge in Hell

35. Arm of the Sphinx

2nd in the series after Senlin Ascends. So good.

36. Fall, or Dodge in Hell

Neal Stephenson is one of my favourite writers and the first 200 pages or so are great, the novel then splits into two - a saga unfolding in the real world and one unfolding as the first digitally recorded brain invents a world that it can make sense of. Hugely interesting topic, exceedingly dull execution.

The brain came from a former game designer so the world he creates is this hodge podge of fantasy video game tropes and a nerd's love of overly formal and florid speech and naming. Totally unappealing and very un-Neal Stephenson.

Really let down, ended up skipping huge sections because they were so boring. Then get back to 'real life' and it's super great again.

Stick to your strengths Stephenson!

 

[Fueco]

85. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche

I admit that I've never read Nietzsche before. In fact, I only knew his philosophy from random quotes gleaned from bathroom stalls and "intellectual" conversations with friends who were smoking copious quantities of weed. This book felt about that deep as well. I'll read more of his stuff, to try to understand what made him tick. Perhaps though this philosophy is best left on university campuses.

 

[California Dreamer]

Spoiler: Previously Read

1. Andy Kaufman: The Truth, Finally, by Bob Zmuda and Lynne Margulies
2. Illustrado, by Miguel Syjuco
3. Kill 'Em All, by John Niven[
4. The Black Monday Murders, volume 1: All Hail God Mammon, by Jonathon Hickman
5. Bad News, by Edward St. Aubyn
6. Education, by Tara Westover
7. Europe: A Natural History, by Tim Flannery
8. No Tomorrow, by Luke Jennings
9. Scrublands, by Chris Hammer
10. The Kingdom, by Fuminori Nakamura
11. The White Darkness, by David Grann
12. Sacred Cesium Ground and Isa's Deluge, by Yusuke Kimura
13. The Black Monday Murders, Volume 2: The Scales, by Jonathon Hickman
14. Dark Echoes of the Past, by Roman Diaz Eterovic
15. Acute Misfortune, by Erik Jensen
16. The Low Road, by Chris Womersley
17. Steve Smith's Men: Behind Australian Cricket's Fall, by Geoff Lemon
18. River of Salt, by Dave Warner
19. City of a Million Dreams, by Jason Berry
20. Nagaland, by Ben Doherty
21. Queen of Kenosha, by Howard Shapiro
22. Daisy Jones and the Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
23. Saga, Volume One (Eps 1-3), by Brian
24. The Forest of Wool and Steel, by Natsu Miyashita
25. The Waiter, by Matias Faldbakken
26. Manchester Happened, by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
27. This body's Not Big Enough For Both of Us, by Edgar Cantero
28. The Erratics, by Vicki Laveau-Harvie
29. Saga Book 2, by Brian Vaughan
30. Murder in the Crooked House, by Soji Shimada
31. The Brewer of Preston, by Andrea Camilleri
32. Eight Lives, by Susan Hurley
33. Fu Ping, by Wang Anyi
34. N, by John A. Scott
35. Adele, by Leila Slimani
36. Gretchen, by Shannon Kirk
37. An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
38. The White Girl, by Tony Birch
39. The Trauma Cleaner, by Sarah Krasnostein
40. The Ballad of Captain Kelly, by Jonathan Wicken
41. Grief is the Thing With Feathers, by Max Porter
42. Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe
43. A Keeper, by Graham Norton
44. Saudade, by Suneeta Peres da Costa

45. The Murder Farm, by Andrea Maria Schenkel

This is a cold-eyed study of a gruesome murder. In a scenario very reminiscent of Capote's In Cold Blood, an entire family are found dead on their remote farm, along with the maid. Due to the remoteness of both the far and its inhabitants, many days pass before neighbours look in and make the grisly discovery. There are no clues and no suspects.

The novel proceeds as a mix of eyewitness narration and the record of conversations held with villagers connected with the crime; ostensibly by a former local returning to satisfy their curiosity. The plot is inexorable and contains few twists; the point of this story is more to gradually reveal the characters involved, and the motives that led to the deed.

 

[Fueco]

86. Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov

The story a Russian professor at an American university. Nabokov has a way of drawing the reader’s attention and holding it. This novel is wonderfully vivid. This was the second book by Nabokov that I’ve read (I read Lolita when I was in school).

 

[Journeyman]

^Loved Pnin - he was a well-drawn, hilarious character. My favourite Nabokov book is Pale Fire. You can race through it all in a sitting, or dip into different parts of it from time to time as the mood suits, and it rewards re-reading.

 

[Fueco]

87. Beyond Charlottesville: Taking A Stand Against White Nationalism, by former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

38.After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Murakami has woven a children of the night sonata. Where chance encounters impact upon a small ensemble who go about their lives with moments of determined interactivity with others mixed with an underlying metaphysical weirdness which unfolds in the seedy bowels of Tokyo night life. Throughly enjoyable.

 

[Fueco]

88. Lead From The Outside: How To Build Your Future and Make Real Change, by Stacey Abrams

Ms. Abrams was the runner-up for governor in the 2018 election, and former Minority Leader in the Georgia House Of Representatives. This book is part how-to book and part memoir.

 

[Fueco]

89. Empty Hearts, by Juli Zeh

In a slightly dystopian Germany in the near future, a couple of people make scads of money connecting those who wish to off themselves with organizations who need their services as suicide bombers. But there seems to be a new competitor in their field.