Friday, March 2, 2012

The List: Books Read from January 1-31, 2012

1. The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg

2. The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem

3. The Sword of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett

4. Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekov

5. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

6. Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

7. The Big Kerplop! by Bertrand Brindley

8. The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard

9. The Golden Gizmo by Jim Thompson

10. The Digger's Game by George V. Higgins

11. Woodcuts of Women by Dagoberto Gilb

12. Playboy of the Western World and Riders to the Sea by J.M. Synge

13. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

14. Srendi Vashtar and Other Stories by Saki

15. Ray by Barry Hannah

16. The Moonlit Road and Other Stories by Ambrose Bierce

17. Monarch Notes: David Copperfield (It is so a book, shut up!)

18. The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling

19. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

20. The Overcoat and Other Stories by Nikolai Gogol

21. Selections from the Journals by Henry David Thoreau

22. Empathy by Sarah Schulman

23. The Open Door by Floyd Skloot (It's his name.  Good book, too.)

24. Early Poems by Ezra Pound

25. Poems and Songs by Robert Burns

26. Selections from Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire

27. An Empty Room by Talitha Stevenson (bad Brit pretentious crap about screwing--boo!)

28. The Elephant's Child and Others by Rudyard Kipling

29. How the Leopard Got Its Spots and Others by Rudyard Kipling (needed these after #27)

30. Contemporary Short Stories edited by Somebody MacDougal

31. Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

32. You Know Me, Al by Ring Lardner

33. Classic Mystery Stoeis edited by Somebody Green (this must've been my Dover sweep)

34. Recognition of Salantala by Kalidasa (oh yeah, I wouldn't have paid more'n a buck for that--Dover)

35. Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus  (A lotta talking about how hard it is to be chained to a rock)

36. Lysistrata by Aristophenes

37. Beowulf--can't believe no one's taken credit for this, this was pretty good!

38. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

39. 1985 World's Best SF edited by Donald Wolheim

40. Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas DeQuincy (sure gets the gabbiness right)

41. Crampton by Thomas Ligotti (first time Ligotti's let me down, bad X-Files-ish nothing)

42. All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman (bummer ending!  Very 70's SF)

43. At Home in Milford by Jan Karon (just don't ask, okay?)

44. 8 Plus 1 by Robert Cormier

45. Overexposed by David Thomson

46. Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston (Lifetime movies about cowboys are your weakness)

47. The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks (heard how weird this was for years, but kind of a letdown)

48. Impossible Things by Connie Willis (have been a fan of her stories for years, novels not so much)

49. Another Marvelous Thing by Lorrie Colwin

50. Vanity of Duluoz by Jack Kerouac (not a big finish for Jack's career, but not bad)

51. Adrift in a Vanishing City by Vincent Czyz (Czyz...Czyz...Czyz...Not as much fun as Anthony Weiner)

52. Sturgeon is Alive and Well by Theodore Sturgeon ("Crate" is one of the best short stories ever)

53. Long After Midnight by Ray Bradbury (beginning a held-over series of Bradbury)

54. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (fucked up in a good way--and I think I even understood it)

55. The Hot Rock by Donald Westlake (one of the few writers who never disappoints)

56. That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo (awful sitcom-level humor)

57. Dancing After Hours by Andre Dubus (Dubus short stories never disappoint, either)

58. Ghosts by John Banville

59. Asa, As I Knew Him by Sussanna Kaysen (would have been OK if it didn't get artsy retarded)

60. The Night (Alone) by Richard Meltzer (absolutely friggin awful)

61. I Knew A Phoenix by May Sarton  (not as much fun as when she's older and a shut-in)

62. The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth by Roger Zelazny (always good in short story form)

63. Holy Christ only on 63? 

63. The Muller-Fokker Effect by John Sladek (post/sub-Vonnegut/Dick weirdness, clever but no fun)

64. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell (you can feel the dirt in those Brit restaurants)

65. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

66. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

67. R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury (I meant the dining areas, not just the kitchens...ah forget it)

68. On an Odd Note by Gerald Kersh (odd stories)

69. The Stars in Shroud by Gregory Benford (aliens use weapon that makes humans into pack rats)

70.Wooden Star by William Tenn (my arms are killing me, I gotta break at 75)

71. The Wonderful World of Robert Sheckley (course everyone breaks at 75, why not be original?)

72. All the Traps of Earth by Clifford D. Simak

73. The Best of Clifford D. Simak

74. The Green Hills of Earth by Robert Heinlein (haven't read much of  his but will read more this year)

75. The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories by Gene Wolfe (not a typo)

76. Earth is Room Enough by Isaac Asimov (one of the first books I ever owned, given to me by my father)

77. If the River Was Whiskey by T. C. Boyle (I might as well do all of January at least)

78. House of Heroes by Mary LaChapelle

79. Airships by Barry Hannah

80. Don't Look Now by Daphne DuMaurier

81. The Coast of Chicage by Stuart Dybeck (recommended by a woman who didn't give me a second date)

82. Scholars and Soldiers by Mary Gentle (blech!  What garbage, can't anyone write a good fantasy story?)

83. Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers (awesome title story, but others are good, too)

84. Budrys Inferno by Algis Budrys (not so good shorts by a master)

85. The Year's Best Fantasy #3 edited by David Hartwell (must've been a lame year)

86. Magical Beginnings edited by Martin H. Greenberg (I ran into her again a month or so later, was weird)

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