Attack of the hairballs!
Tuesday, 7 April 2009 11:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yatiAgonising over listing books! Just my thing. And then I realised that I had something else to agonise over.
I like a lot of things, but I especially like books. Imagine my surprise when trying to choose five books for the Herding Cats II challenge (but it's more of a list than a challenge, really) I came up with four books I loved that I read from 2007–2009 but found myself stuck at book number five. I realised that I had four books I loved, and a lot of books I really liked, so how do I choose the last book now? I found this really, really disconcerting. Surely there was one I liked better than the rest? It made me wonder: Didn't I read enough? Am I being too picky? Is my memory really that bad?
I went through the list of books read during those years and I still had trouble picking the last book. I spent the rest of the night looking at my bookshelf feeling betrayed. :(
Eventually, though, I came up with this:
1. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
I. Uh. I love this book. I love Sophie and Howl and Calcifer and Michael and the seven league boots and cranky old women and the dialogue ("Is your name really Lettie too?" still cracks me up) and the weird puzzles I still can't figure out. I wrote about it once here and a shorter version here.
YA fantasy. And some romance. And a moving castle. And a fire demon. And wizards who throw tantrums.
Still my favourite book in the list. I thought of putting something else by DWJ here instead (Fire and Hemlock crossed my mind, as well as one of the Chrestomanci books -- I was thinking The Lives of Christopher Chant) but, well. It's Sophie and Howl! So here they are again.
2. The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
Actually, part of my problem of completing this list is I'd list almost all of Dunnett's books here if I could, but there's no point listing the other books in the series if I can't get people to read the first one.
It's historical fiction, set in 1547 Scotland. I have a rather incoherent write-up here, and another one covering the series as a whole, with no spoilers. This is the first book in a series of six known collectively as The Lymond Chronicles. But fear not! It stands on its own! It concludes beautifully without putting any pressure on you to read the next book. You can read just this one and forget the rest of the series if you wanted to. (How badly do I want you to read this book? Very.)
I'll try dangling this in front of those of you who are primarily science fiction and fantasy readers: it was recommended in a list of "non-genre books for genre readers" in SF Signal ("genre" in this case being SF&F). The other books in the list are interesting as well, but never mind them! Read this book. :D
3. number9dream by David Mitchell
This one got shortlisted for the Booker prize! Nineteen-year-old Eiji Miyake goes to Tokyo in search of the father he's never met. Weird things happen.
This was the first book by Mitchell that I read, and after being startled at how I was being led around by him in the first few scenes (I was seriously thinking "Huh cyberpunk thriller. I wasn't expecting this," when he takes a sharp turn somewhere else. I was rather indignant at the end of that first chapter), I decided that Eiji was rather adorable, in a dorky sort of way.
I've read all four of Mitchell's books, and I've decided that he could do no wrong. It was a coin toss between this and Cloud Atlas. I thought about it (and thought about it again, and then again) and decided I really like number9dream better, and besides, Cloud Atlas already has all the literary hype it needs. (But you can always read both, you know.)
4. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
This is probably the best fantasy book I've read in years. Ilu Locke, but I love Kvothe just a little bit more XD. Also Mr Lynch has two recs already. This is one of those books that start in an inn in the middle of absolutely nowhere (if it were on a map of the fantasy world I bet it would be at the very edge of the page) and then goes into flashback in the first person, something that I'd normally hate, but this time it worked very well. Here's your young protagonist, gifted and too bright for his own good, travelling with his loving family, etc. Somewhere along the way tragedy inevitably strikes. And so on.
I finished it feeling sad and hopeful and rather jumbled up, and knowing there would be a long wait for the next books. Speaking of long waits, don't send authors nasty emails demanding for the next books -- it makes me sad. It makes them sad too!
5. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
This is actually the second book in The Dark is Rising sequence, but I'm willing to put it here because you can skip the first book, Over Sea, Under Stone, without losing anything when it comes to plot. (You'll need it later before reading Greenwitch, but never mind that.)
I liked this book because of the characters, especially Will, and I adored his family as well. Also most things related to Arthurian legend are bound to catch my attention.
If you've watched the movie and ended up being not impressed, I beg of you, forget the movie ever existed. It is vile and . . . spirally. And nothing like the book. Do yourself a favour and read the book to scrub out the horribleness of the movie from your mind. :D
There are overlaps with last year's list since quite a few of the books I listed last year were from my recent reads (see: my awful memory, referenced above) and I reread Howl's Moving Castle way too often anyway so it will probably always be in this list (until Nay makes new rules or bans it or something).
Happy reading!
I like a lot of things, but I especially like books. Imagine my surprise when trying to choose five books for the Herding Cats II challenge (but it's more of a list than a challenge, really) I came up with four books I loved that I read from 2007–2009 but found myself stuck at book number five. I realised that I had four books I loved, and a lot of books I really liked, so how do I choose the last book now? I found this really, really disconcerting. Surely there was one I liked better than the rest? It made me wonder: Didn't I read enough? Am I being too picky? Is my memory really that bad?
I went through the list of books read during those years and I still had trouble picking the last book. I spent the rest of the night looking at my bookshelf feeling betrayed. :(
Eventually, though, I came up with this:
1. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
I. Uh. I love this book. I love Sophie and Howl and Calcifer and Michael and the seven league boots and cranky old women and the dialogue ("Is your name really Lettie too?" still cracks me up) and the weird puzzles I still can't figure out. I wrote about it once here and a shorter version here.
YA fantasy. And some romance. And a moving castle. And a fire demon. And wizards who throw tantrums.
Still my favourite book in the list. I thought of putting something else by DWJ here instead (Fire and Hemlock crossed my mind, as well as one of the Chrestomanci books -- I was thinking The Lives of Christopher Chant) but, well. It's Sophie and Howl! So here they are again.
2. The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
Actually, part of my problem of completing this list is I'd list almost all of Dunnett's books here if I could, but there's no point listing the other books in the series if I can't get people to read the first one.
It's historical fiction, set in 1547 Scotland. I have a rather incoherent write-up here, and another one covering the series as a whole, with no spoilers. This is the first book in a series of six known collectively as The Lymond Chronicles. But fear not! It stands on its own! It concludes beautifully without putting any pressure on you to read the next book. You can read just this one and forget the rest of the series if you wanted to. (How badly do I want you to read this book? Very.)
I'll try dangling this in front of those of you who are primarily science fiction and fantasy readers: it was recommended in a list of "non-genre books for genre readers" in SF Signal ("genre" in this case being SF&F). The other books in the list are interesting as well, but never mind them! Read this book. :D
3. number9dream by David Mitchell
This one got shortlisted for the Booker prize! Nineteen-year-old Eiji Miyake goes to Tokyo in search of the father he's never met. Weird things happen.
This was the first book by Mitchell that I read, and after being startled at how I was being led around by him in the first few scenes (I was seriously thinking "Huh cyberpunk thriller. I wasn't expecting this," when he takes a sharp turn somewhere else. I was rather indignant at the end of that first chapter), I decided that Eiji was rather adorable, in a dorky sort of way.
I've read all four of Mitchell's books, and I've decided that he could do no wrong. It was a coin toss between this and Cloud Atlas. I thought about it (and thought about it again, and then again) and decided I really like number9dream better, and besides, Cloud Atlas already has all the literary hype it needs. (But you can always read both, you know.)
4. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
This is probably the best fantasy book I've read in years. Ilu Locke, but I love Kvothe just a little bit more XD. Also Mr Lynch has two recs already. This is one of those books that start in an inn in the middle of absolutely nowhere (if it were on a map of the fantasy world I bet it would be at the very edge of the page) and then goes into flashback in the first person, something that I'd normally hate, but this time it worked very well. Here's your young protagonist, gifted and too bright for his own good, travelling with his loving family, etc. Somewhere along the way tragedy inevitably strikes. And so on.
I finished it feeling sad and hopeful and rather jumbled up, and knowing there would be a long wait for the next books. Speaking of long waits, don't send authors nasty emails demanding for the next books -- it makes me sad. It makes them sad too!
5. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
This is actually the second book in The Dark is Rising sequence, but I'm willing to put it here because you can skip the first book, Over Sea, Under Stone, without losing anything when it comes to plot. (You'll need it later before reading Greenwitch, but never mind that.)
I liked this book because of the characters, especially Will, and I adored his family as well. Also most things related to Arthurian legend are bound to catch my attention.
If you've watched the movie and ended up being not impressed, I beg of you, forget the movie ever existed. It is vile and . . . spirally. And nothing like the book. Do yourself a favour and read the book to scrub out the horribleness of the movie from your mind. :D
There are overlaps with last year's list since quite a few of the books I listed last year were from my recent reads (see: my awful memory, referenced above) and I reread Howl's Moving Castle way too often anyway so it will probably always be in this list (until Nay makes new rules or bans it or something).
Happy reading!
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Date: 8 April 2009 06:40 pm (UTC)(I will never ban Howl's Moving Castle.)
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Date: 9 April 2009 05:23 am (UTC)As for The Game of Kings, go for it! Dunnett's influenced quite a few fantasy writers, Guy Gavriel Kay among them. (I have a sneaking suspicion that Scott Lynch must have at least read some of her books, but I am too shy to email and ask.)