Sunday, April 3, 2016

One hundred books since summer





I finally have read one hundred books.  When I started out it was as a book-buying fast.  I wasn't going to buy one more book until I had read a hundred that I already owned.  Bwa-ha-ha-ha.  How naive I was.  I made it to about fifty when I broke down and went berserk.  I may be the first bulimic book buyer.  

Still, since I have read the hundred I thought I would list them.  Not all of them have been reviewed but I will create a link for those I have.  I divided them up by the months in which I read them to make the list a little more readable. 

Understand that I did not start and finish each set of books during that month.  I usually read about five or six books concurrently and finish them at different times.  Some take a week to read, others take a month or more.  I am only listing the books in the month I finished them. Modesty compels me to be honest about that.  I wouldn't want anyone out there thinking, "Gee whiz!  Sharon "the Super-duper Nerd Girl" reads fifteen books a month! I wish I was like her.  I feel so inadequate now!"  No, no. Only five, maybe six at any given time.

You'll notice in October I read quite a few folk tales from many countries.  These were very interesting and I need to take the time to review them.  They were, however, not as long as a novel so they puffed my numbers a bit.  On the other hand I did count the Lord of the Rings Trilogy as one book as well as the complete works of Flannery O'Connor so I guess it evens out.

 Please let me know if I read any of your favorites.  Or if you would like a review of one that I did not review.

Since last July I have read:
  1. July: The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkien
  2.  A Maigret Trio by Georges Simenon
  3.   The Emperor of All Maladies:  A Biography of Cancer by Siddartha Mukherjee 
  4.  Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce
  5.  Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
  6.  The Golem by Gustave Meyrink
  7.   Inventing the Truth:  The Art and Craft of Memoir by William Zinsser
  8. The Centurians by Jean Larteguy
  9.  Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
  10. August:  The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
  11. Francis Schaeffer collection Volume One
  12. Ben Carson autobiography:  Gifted Hands
  13. A Practical View of Christianity by William Wilberforce
  14. The Last Crusader:  The untold story of Christopher Columbus by George Grant
  15. The Annotated Brothers Grimm by Maria Tatar
  16. Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R. Tolkien (yes, I counted all six books as one)
  17. Flannery O Conner:  Collected Works (Complete Short Stories, Novels, Essays and Letters)
  18. Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper
  19. The True Furqan by Al Safee and Al Mahdy
  20. The Signet Classic Book of Southern Short Stories edited by Dorothy Abbott
  21. Kingdom of the Occult by Walter Martin
  22. September:  Collected Poems of Emily Dickenson:  Complete and Unabridged
  23. Dorothy L. Sayers:  The Complete Stories
  24. Diary of a Mad Man and Other Stories by Nikolai Gogol
  25. The Surprising Imagination of C.S. Lewis by Jerry Root
  26. Robert Frost Selected Poems
  27. English Country House Murders edited by Thomas Godfrey
  28. The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories edited by Patricia Craig
  29. The Arabian Nights:  Tales from A Thousand and One Nights Translated by Sir Richard Burton
  30. SteamPunk:  Extraordinary Tales of Victorian Futurism  edited by Mike Ashley
  31. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
  32.  October:  Why the Jackal Won't Talk to the Hedge Hog a Tunisian fold tale retold and illustrataed by Harold Berson
  33. Of Beasts, Birds and Men Fables from Three Lands retold by Anne Terry White
  34. Princess September by W. Somerset Maugham
  35. The Piece of Fire and other Haitian Tales by Harold Courlander
  36. Terrapin's Pot of Sense by Harold Courlander
  37. Folk Tales from China adapted by Lee Wyndham
  38. Two Russian Tales : Czar of the Water; The Little Humpbacked Horse
  39. The Three Wishes:  Collection of Puerto Rican Folktales by Ricardo E. Alegria
  40. The Fables of India by Joseph Gaer
  41. Shadows from the Singing House:  Eskimo Folk Tales retold by Helen Caswell
  42. Emblems of the Passing World:  Photographs by August Sander, Poems by Adam Kirsch
  43. Les Tres Riches Heures:  the Medieval Seasons Commentaries by Millard Meiss
  44. November:  Medieval Cats by Kathleen Walker-Meikle
  45. Black Cats and Evil Eyes:  A book of old-fashioned superstitions by Chloe Rhodes
  46. Medieval Dogs by Kathleen Walker-Meikle
  47. When They Come for Us We'll Be Gone:  The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry by Gal Becker
  48. The Deluxe Transitive Vampire by Karen Elizabeth Gordon
  49. John Dalton and the Atomic Theory by Elizabeth Chambers Patterson
  50. The Luminous Landscape: Chinese Art and Poetry by Richard Lewis
  51. Who Moved My Cheese?  by Spencer Johnson
  52. December:  The Last Jihad by Joel Rosenberg
  53. Life and Opinions of TomCat Muir by E.T.A. Hoffman
  54. Nadar: Gaspard-Felix Tournachon
  55. Maigrett and the Informer by Georges Simenon
  56. Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates by Brian Kilmeade
  57. Washington's Secret Six:  The Spy Ring that Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade
  58. Metaphysical Poetry: An Anthology edited by Paul Negri
  59. Who Made the Moon by Sigmund Brower 
  60. The Story of Prince Ivan, The Firebird, and the Gray Wolf Translated by Thomas P. Whitney
  61. The American Short Story:  Washington Irving to Saul Bellow edited by Thomas Parkes
  62. Treasury of Christmas Stories
  63. January:  St. Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton
  64. Chinese Art:  Masterpieces in Painting, Sculpture and Architecture by Filippo Salviati and Sergio Basso
  65. Japanese Painting:  A Brief History by Kenji Toda
  66. Folk Tales of China
  67. Haiku, Japanese Art and Poetry by Judith Plastt
  68. The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
  69. The Emperor's Big Gift:  A Chinese Folk Tale by Dell Gritt
  70. My God and My All:  The Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Elizabeth Goudge
  71. Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway
  72. The Guns of Navarone by Alistair Maclean 
  73. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  74. God is in the Manger by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  75. Flatland by Edwin Abbott
  76. February:  Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin
  77. Rube Goldberg:  His Life and Work by Peter Marzio
  78. What is the Holy Spirit? by R.C. Sproul
  79. TinTin El Tesoro de Rackham El Rojo by  Herge
  80. The Mystery of the Holy Spirit by R.C. Sproul
  81. Poor Richard's Almanac by Benjamin Franklin
  82. Thursday the Rabbi Walked Out
  83. Charles Chesnutt:  Stories, Novels and Essays
  84. Tacitus on Germany
  85. The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber
  86. Pia Desideria by Philip Jacob Spener
  87. The Splendid Century by Warren H. Lewis
  88. Andre Kertesz:  Photographs (and biography)
  89. Letters of Mozart translated by Mersmann, Hans, Bozman
  90. H.P. Lovecraft:  Tales of Horror
  91. March:  Masterplots Volume One
  92. The Tattooed Jesus: What Would the Real Jesus Do With Pop Culture by Kevin Swanson
  93. Arcimboldi:  A collection of his art, analysis and biography by Pieyre De Mandiargues, Andre
  94. Sources of Chinese Tradition Volume One by William Theodor de Bary
  95. Robin Hood by Howard Pyle 
  96. The Christmas Story The New York Public Library
  97. Vampire Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
  98. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler 
  99. Woman in the Dark by Dashiell Hammett 
  100.  Masterpieces of Chinese Art by Rhonda and Jeffery Cooper 
  101.  
     

    8 comments:

    Cleo said...

    I AM SO IMPRESSED! JUST WOW! I can't even imagine reading that many books in that amount of time. In fact, the thought of having the time to read that many books in that amount of time almost makes me cry. ;-) Congratulations!

    I do have a few questions for you:

    1. Was Don't Waste Your Life a worthwhile read? I own it and I've wondered if I should keep it. Usually I avoid modern Christian books but I did buy this one although now I can't remember why. :-Z

    2. I love Dorothy Sayers! Was her complete stories only her Peter Wimsey novels, or was it something else?

    3. Did you like St. Francis of Assisi by Chesterton? I was thinking of trying to read it this year.

    4. Did you read the complete Arabian Nights? I've heard that it's looooong. What are your thoughts?

    Brava again to you! I always love to see what you're reading because you have such wonderfully eclectic tastes. I can't wait to see your next list! :-)

    Sharon Wilfong said...

    Hi Cleopatra, I was just going back to comment on your Villete post again.

    I don't know what that says about me that I have the time to read so many books. My son has gone off to college and other than the time I spend with my husband, my day job as musician and church-related activities, I guess I do pretty much read. It wasn't always like this in my life. I guess it's the season I'm currently living in.

    To answer your questions in order:

    1. Don't Waste Your Life was my first John Piper. It was valuable for the insight and information it offered. Like you, I don't read a lot of that genre, but it's worth your while. You'll get through it fast.

    2. The Complete Sayers are not her Wimsey novels but her short stories of Wimsey and Montague Egg who is a wine salesman who finds himself solving murders. The first half the stories are of Wimsey and the second half of Egg.

    3. I liked St. Francis of Assisi because it was by Chesterton and written in his incomparable style. I think one learns more about the author than the Saint in this case.

    4. I read one volume (the Barnes and Noble faux leather edition) of Arabian Nights, not the complete which is several volumes. Really it was still too long. It's better to read a smaller volume with the highlights. Many of the stories were tedious, in my opinion. It was sheer determination that motivated me to finish and, frankly, it still took me a year.

    Thanks for the compliment. I can say the same for your book reviews. Take care!

    Brian Joseph said...

    Wow. That is an impressive list. I am kind of jealous of you :)

    Plus you even counted Lord of the Rings as one book.

    Washington's Secret Six looks really good. I had read Washington's Spies s by Alexander Rose on a similar subject. It was excellent.

    Sharon Wilfong said...

    Secret Spies is very interesting, although to me not as well written as the author's The Tripoli Pirates. He focused so much on the spies you aren't aware that much else happened. His information on Benedict Arnold was good. I didn't know much about him before.

    I haven't read Rose's book. I'll look it up.

    Unknown said...

    Very impressive! Congratulations on 100 books!

    How was Vampire Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I recently finished all the Sherlock Holmes stories. The Hound of the Baskervilles is probably one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes. I also read Bram Stoker's Dracula this past October. How does Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's vampire stores compare to Bram Stoker's Dracula?

    I have still not tried Josh's recommendations about reading H.P. Lovecraft. Did you enjoy H.P. Lovecraft?

    Thank you and congratulations again!

    Ruth @ with freedom and books said...

    Yay for you!

    Did you like #14 and #24?

    How long was your copy of Arabian Nights? I have a four book set, but I don't know when I will get to it. It's very intimidating.

    Sharon Wilfong said...

    Hi Chris: I did not think that Vampire Stories was as good as Doyle's Holmes stories. For one thing Sherlock always wins out in the end. In the Vampire stories it seems the evil person wins. They aren't traditional Vampire stories; mostly they are about predatory people that seem to have preternatural ability to overpower others.

    Of course, Stoker's novel is the ultimate Vampire story. Doyle's are short stories so they don't have the development Stoker's novel does. Still they probably hold up the same. Both are written around the same time period and come from a Victorian culture. The men bravely save the women and the women are emblems of purity but also strength.

    I would say, however, that Doyle has some pretty evil women in a couple of his stories.

    Sharon Wilfong said...

    Hi Ruth. I did like the Grant's book on Columbus. I believe it offered information that you don't get anywhere else about the man. It seems today it's politically correct to vilify him.

    Diary of a Mad Man was the first Gogol I'd read. It's typically depressing Russian literature, everybody's going hungry and when they get a little money they drink it away.

    Still, it was interesting and I enjoyed reading it for all that.

    My Arabian Nights has 21 stories in it and it still took me over a year to read it because Burton's translation is soooooo verbose. It takes forever to say anything. It's told in that long, flowery, speech making style. I think it would be better to read an updated version.

    Also, a lot of the tales are not kid-friendly at all. They're racist and some are outright anti-woman.

    Your four book set is probably the complete tales. Don't read it to finish it. That's what I did. Every now and then, pick it up, read a story and put it down again.