(no subject)
Feb. 6th, 2009 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arishaSo if I start making a list of all the books I read in 2009, do you think I'll actually get through the year without forgetting I was making it?
LET'S FIND OUT!!
1. The Girls in the Back of the Class, LouAnne Johnson
I don't think I read anything in January besides travel guides, so the book I finished today gets to be first on the list. It's the sequel to the book that became the movie Dangerous Minds - basically a fictionalized (though I'm not sure to what extent) account of one of the years the author spent teaching English in a California high school for underprivileged kids. Despite the author's insistance that she would pay more attention to her female students this time, I feel like the title doesn't fit the book; most of the stories still focus on the guys. Because their stories are more exciting? (Two of them get shot at, for example. D: ) My other complaint is that the author spends like four pages describing her and a student's attempts to kill a spider, and I thought that was rather unnecessary. Other than that, it was a really interesting book (and a surprisingly quick read) covering a bunch of different issues. I'd like to read the prequel if I come across it (haha, I came across this one just browsing the shelves in the public library), although I don't think I'll actively seek it out, at least not until my pile of books to read has considerably shrunk. D:
Starting around the middle of last summer, I started keeping track of the books I read using Facebook's Visual Bookshelf application, although I fudged that list a bit more than I intend to fudge this one. ^^; If anyone cares, the books I read legitimately last year include:
1. Scarlett's Women: Gone With the Wind and its Female Fans, Helen Taylor
THIS BOOK WAS AWESOME, except for the part where she tried to justify the rape scene. Yes, I consider it a rape scene, making me a very conflicted fan of Rhett Butler. >:/
2. Imagineering Field Guide to Epcot, the Imagineers
I imagine I would've gotten more out of this book had I previously been to Epcot. They kept talking about stuff that I really couldn't picture.
3. The Disney Mountains: Imagineering at its Peak, Jason Surrell
After I read this book, I went to YouTube and watched all the Expedition Everest videos I could find. And then was bitter about how Surrell consistently dedicates ten pages to each of the U.S. park attractions, and then shoves all of the non-U.S. parks into about three paragraphs.
4. He's a Stud, She's a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know, Jessica Valenti
I think![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_wykydtron and I agree that this book was awesome but could definitely have been longer!
5. Scarlett, Rhett, and a Cast of Thousands: The Filming of Gone With the Wind, Roland Flamini
Basically a collection of anecdotes that might or might not be true, but super interesting anyway!!
5.5. Scarlett Fever: The Ultimate Pictorial Treasury of Gone With the Wind, William Pratt
My favourite photos were the ones that were taken for the costume department. I really hadn't realized that the dress Scarlett wears during and after the return to Tara changes so much! Anyway, I look forward to borrowing this book again and actually reading the text this time. xD;
6.5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A Biography, Piero Melograni
I really enjoyed this book but even so I thought it rather lacked in organization. Also, they totally should've kept the book's original title: "WAM." AMAZING!! xD
7.5. Rediscovering Homer: Inside the Origins of the Epic, Andrew Dalby
Okay, I confess I didn't completely finish this thing. And parts of it went rather over my head. But I read most of it! Enough to get to Dalby's theory that the poet of the Homeric epics was a woman. I kind of love this theory in such a way that I don't even care whether it's true or not.
8.5. The Iliad, Homer
STILL AWESOME. Here, have a song I always intended to link to and never did: Alesana's "The Third Temptation of Paris." Yeah, some of the lyrics are a little too obvious but that doesn't stop me from loving it!!
9.5. The Odyssey, Homer
Okay yeah I get that this is the more sophisticated poem or whatever, and I do love the way that it and the Iliad overlap without overlapping, but ... I still like the Iliad SO much better. SORRY GUYS D:
10.5. Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey, Farley Mowat
What's this a Canadian author!?! I LOVED this book and I loved that it lasted me more than three days. Parts of it were kind of intense, but I would definitely recommend it.
11.5. On Safari, Armand Denis
I found this book because it was in the same section as Virunga, haha. Apparently this Denis guy was pretty well-known at one point but I'd never heard of him. Also I believed approximately 15% of what he wrote in this book, but it was still a really interesting read. I loved that I was constantly being weirded out by his techniques of animal conservation. This book is only like forty years old, crazy how things like that change!
12.5. CultureShock! Japan, P. Sean Bramble
I read this book in one sitting and my main complaint about it is the complaint I have about all Japan travel guides: the author goes out of his way to insult J-pop. "OH MAN THAT GUY FROM SMAP HE REALLY CAN'T SING!!" Dude, everyone knows that. It's not a secret.
13.5. The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan, Ivan Morris
Oh, Heian. You're my favourite era. <3
From when I started to read up until about eighth grade (when the time I spent on the Internet began to go from an okay amount to Way Too Much), I basically read a book a day. While I don't feel a need to go back to that, I'm definitely happy that my attempts to read books for fun again seem to be working! :D
LET'S FIND OUT!!
1. The Girls in the Back of the Class, LouAnne Johnson
I don't think I read anything in January besides travel guides, so the book I finished today gets to be first on the list. It's the sequel to the book that became the movie Dangerous Minds - basically a fictionalized (though I'm not sure to what extent) account of one of the years the author spent teaching English in a California high school for underprivileged kids. Despite the author's insistance that she would pay more attention to her female students this time, I feel like the title doesn't fit the book; most of the stories still focus on the guys. Because their stories are more exciting? (Two of them get shot at, for example. D: ) My other complaint is that the author spends like four pages describing her and a student's attempts to kill a spider, and I thought that was rather unnecessary. Other than that, it was a really interesting book (and a surprisingly quick read) covering a bunch of different issues. I'd like to read the prequel if I come across it (haha, I came across this one just browsing the shelves in the public library), although I don't think I'll actively seek it out, at least not until my pile of books to read has considerably shrunk. D:
Starting around the middle of last summer, I started keeping track of the books I read using Facebook's Visual Bookshelf application, although I fudged that list a bit more than I intend to fudge this one. ^^; If anyone cares, the books I read legitimately last year include:
1. Scarlett's Women: Gone With the Wind and its Female Fans, Helen Taylor
THIS BOOK WAS AWESOME, except for the part where she tried to justify the rape scene. Yes, I consider it a rape scene, making me a very conflicted fan of Rhett Butler. >:/
2. Imagineering Field Guide to Epcot, the Imagineers
I imagine I would've gotten more out of this book had I previously been to Epcot. They kept talking about stuff that I really couldn't picture.
3. The Disney Mountains: Imagineering at its Peak, Jason Surrell
After I read this book, I went to YouTube and watched all the Expedition Everest videos I could find. And then was bitter about how Surrell consistently dedicates ten pages to each of the U.S. park attractions, and then shoves all of the non-U.S. parks into about three paragraphs.
4. He's a Stud, She's a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know, Jessica Valenti
I think
the_wykydtron and I agree that this book was awesome but could definitely have been longer!5. Scarlett, Rhett, and a Cast of Thousands: The Filming of Gone With the Wind, Roland Flamini
Basically a collection of anecdotes that might or might not be true, but super interesting anyway!!
5.5. Scarlett Fever: The Ultimate Pictorial Treasury of Gone With the Wind, William Pratt
My favourite photos were the ones that were taken for the costume department. I really hadn't realized that the dress Scarlett wears during and after the return to Tara changes so much! Anyway, I look forward to borrowing this book again and actually reading the text this time. xD;
6.5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A Biography, Piero Melograni
I really enjoyed this book but even so I thought it rather lacked in organization. Also, they totally should've kept the book's original title: "WAM." AMAZING!! xD
7.5. Rediscovering Homer: Inside the Origins of the Epic, Andrew Dalby
Okay, I confess I didn't completely finish this thing. And parts of it went rather over my head. But I read most of it! Enough to get to Dalby's theory that the poet of the Homeric epics was a woman. I kind of love this theory in such a way that I don't even care whether it's true or not.
8.5. The Iliad, Homer
STILL AWESOME. Here, have a song I always intended to link to and never did: Alesana's "The Third Temptation of Paris." Yeah, some of the lyrics are a little too obvious but that doesn't stop me from loving it!!
9.5. The Odyssey, Homer
Okay yeah I get that this is the more sophisticated poem or whatever, and I do love the way that it and the Iliad overlap without overlapping, but ... I still like the Iliad SO much better. SORRY GUYS D:
10.5. Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey, Farley Mowat
What's this a Canadian author!?! I LOVED this book and I loved that it lasted me more than three days. Parts of it were kind of intense, but I would definitely recommend it.
11.5. On Safari, Armand Denis
I found this book because it was in the same section as Virunga, haha. Apparently this Denis guy was pretty well-known at one point but I'd never heard of him. Also I believed approximately 15% of what he wrote in this book, but it was still a really interesting read. I loved that I was constantly being weirded out by his techniques of animal conservation. This book is only like forty years old, crazy how things like that change!
12.5. CultureShock! Japan, P. Sean Bramble
I read this book in one sitting and my main complaint about it is the complaint I have about all Japan travel guides: the author goes out of his way to insult J-pop. "OH MAN THAT GUY FROM SMAP HE REALLY CAN'T SING!!" Dude, everyone knows that. It's not a secret.
13.5. The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan, Ivan Morris
Oh, Heian. You're my favourite era. <3
From when I started to read up until about eighth grade (when the time I spent on the Internet began to go from an okay amount to Way Too Much), I basically read a book a day. While I don't feel a need to go back to that, I'm definitely happy that my attempts to read books for fun again seem to be working! :D
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-07 02:08 am (UTC)Stuff by Terry Pratchett
Stuff by Dorothy Sayers
Stuff by Agatha Christie
Stuff by Conan Doyle
Stuff I hadn't read before: 0!
Good on you for reading new stuff!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-07 08:33 am (UTC)Man, I watch movies over and over and over but I seriously think there's only maybe like three novels I've read more than once. Weird! :P
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-07 08:35 am (UTC)^^;;
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-07 08:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-07 09:07 am (UTC)Who Was that Masked Man Anyway?, Avi; this is the book I sometimes mention that's written using nothing but dialogue and I LOVE IT. xD
Gone With the Wind which should count for two because it is eight hundred pages long.
Catcher in the Rye NOT BY CHOICE, I MUST EMPHASIZE!
Pratchett's The Bromeliad (three books in one!) but only because I decided to do a book report on it a couple years after I read it the first time.
AND OH MAN I just remembered - I read Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret twice, which is a fact we shall never speak of again. :X
Okay actually now I am remembering quite a number of books I read more than once. I guess I am a LIAR.