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