books read (1998-2003)

[fitfool]

Trying to remember the books I read in the 5 years after I graduated from college. Many of my fondest memories of Michael involve lazy Saturdays reading in bed with him. We'd occasionally interrupt each other to read a bit from whatever book or magazine or newspaper we were reading which frequently led to discussions and sometimes arguments. Reading, napping, getting something to eat, and then reading some more. He had taught college-level English and Freshman Writing. Had I mentioned that before? I enjoyed trying to pull this list together since it reminds me of so many times together. Michael used to say he felt like he read a lot more than he did because he would hear a lot of whatever I was reading since I liked to read aloud to him. Even towards the end, when he was in the Surgery Recovery Room after his brain biopsy, I read my notes on Light in August to him and we retraced what we remembered of that book. When he was in the hospital he asked that I read to him from the New Yorker and Harry Potter. I miss my reading buddy.

Fiction

1. Waiting: A Novel -By Ha Jin ("Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu.")
   
2. Beloved -By Toni Morrison
   
3. Sula -by Toni Morrison
   
4. Song of Solomon -by Toni Morrison
   
5. Because They Wanted To -By Mary Gaitskill
   
6. Cathedral -by Raymond Carver
   
7. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love -by Ramond Carver
   
8. Vox -by Nicholson Baker
   
9. Fermata -by Nicholson Baker
   
10. The Mezzanine -by Nicholson Baker
    
11. July, July -by Tim O'Brien
    
12. Lolita -by Vladimir Nabokov
    
13. Light in August -by William Faulkner
    
14. American Psycho -by Bret Easton Ellis
    
15. Happy All the Time -by Laurie Colvin
    
16. The Kitchen God's Wife -by Amy Tan
    
17. Brazil -by John Updike
    
18. The Quality of Life Report -by Meghan Daum ("No biggie, Boots")
    
19. Eating Chinese Food Naked -by Mei Ng
    
20. Typical American -by Gish Gen
    
21. Balzac and the Little Seamstress -by Dai Sijie
    
22. Oracle Night -by Paul Auster
    
23. City of Glass -by Paul Auster
    
24. Fat City -by Leonard Gardner
    
25. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -by Dave Eggers
    
26. About a Boy -by Nick Hornby
    
27. Speaking with the Angel -Edited by Nick Hornby
    
28. Shopgirl -by Steve Martin
    
29. The Prince and the Pauper -by Mark Twain
    
30. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -by Mark Twain
    
31. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -by Mark Twain
    
32. The Sun Also Rises -By Ernest Hemingway
    
33. Soup's Drum -by Robert Newton Peck
    
34. Roxana Slade -by Reynolds Price
    
35. A Private State: Stories -by Charlotte Bacon
    
36. Bargains in the Real World: Thirteen Stories -by Elizabeth Cox
    
37. The True Account: A Novel of the Lewis & Clark & Kinneson Expeditions -by Howard Frank Mosher
    
38. 2182 Kilohertz -by David Masiel
    
39. Martin Quinn -by Anthony Lee
    
40. The Book of Salt -by Monique Truong
    
41. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime: a novel -by Mark Haddon
    
42. The Bobby Gold Stories: a novel -by Anthony Bourdain
    
43. Chinese Takeout: A Novel -by Arthur Nersesian
    
44. The Wapshot Chronicle -by John Cheever
    
45. The Wapshot Scandal -by John Cheever
    
46. Back When We Were Grownups -by Anne Tyler
    
47. The Accidental Tourist -by Anne Tyler
    
48. Catcher in the Rye -by J.D. Salinger
    
49. Yonnondio From the Thirties -by Tillie Olsen
    
    
    Science Fiction / Fantasy / Children's
    
50. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
    
51. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    
52. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
    
53. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    
54. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
    
55. The Golden Compass -by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials trilogy)
    
56. The Subtle Knife -by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials trilogy)
    
57. Ender's Game -By Orson Scott Card
    
58. Speaker for the Dead -By Orson Scott Card
    
59. Xenocide -By Orson Scott Card
    
60. Children of the Mind -By Orson Scott Card
    
61. Ender's Shadow -By Orson Scott Card
    
62. Seventh Son (part of the Tales of Alvin Maker) - By Orson Scott Card
    
63. Alvin Journeyman -by Orson Scott Card
    
64. The Worthing Saga -by Orson Scott Card
    
65. Memories of Earth -by Orson Scott Card
    
66. The Running Man -by Stephen King (Richard Bachman)
    
67. Bridge of Birds: A Novel of An Ancient China That Never Was -by Barry Hughart
    
    NonFiction
    
68. Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point -By David Lipsky
    
69. The Things They Carried -by Tim O'Brien
    
70. How Children Learn -by John Holt
    
71. How Children Fail -by John Holt
    
72. The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager -by Thomas Hine
    
73. The Case Against Standardized Testing -by Alfie Kohn
    
74. High-Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections of a Computer Contrarian -by Clifford Stoll
    
75. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers -by Mary Roach
    
76. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America -by Barbara Ehrenreich
    
77. The Big Bang: Nerve's Guide to the New Sexual Universe -by Emma Taylor and Lorelei Sharkey
    
78. Blackhawk Down -by Mark Bowden
    
79. Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw -by Mark Bowden
    
80. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing -by Ted Conover
    
81. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal -by Eric Schlosser
    
82. In Cold Blood -by Truman Capote
    
83. The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self -by Alice Miller
    
84. Compassion and Self-Hate: An Alternative to Despair -by Theodore Rubin, MD
    
85. Leaving a Trace: On Keeping a Journal -by Alexandra Johnson
    
86. The Ethical Slut -by Dossie Easton and Catherine A. Liszt
    
87. The Complete Book of Running -by James Fixx
    
88. The Runner's Sourcebook -by Ellen E. Sampson
    
89. The Craft of the Cocktail -by Dale Degroff
    
90. How to Cook Without a Book -by Pam Anderson
    
91. Couplehood -by Paul Reiser
    
92. Babyhood -by Paul Reiser
    
93. On Fire -by Larry Brown
    
94. Naked -by David Sedaris
    
95. Me Talk Pretty One Day -by David Sedaris
    
96. Holidays on Ice -by David Sedaris
    
97. Fraud -by David Rakoff
    
98. Kitchen Confidential -by Anthony Bourdain
    
99. Drinking: A Love Story -by Caroline Knapp
    
100. Swingin' At the Savoy -by Norma Miller
     
101. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas -by Hunter S. Thompson
     
102. Persepolis -by Marjane Satrapi (graphic novel)
     
103. The Strategy of Conflict -by Thomas C. Schelling
     
104. The Average Family's Guide to Financial Freedom -by Bill and Mary Toohey
     
105. All About Credit: Questions (and Answers) About the Most Common Credit Problems -by Deborah McNaughton
     
106. The Art of Spelling: The Madness and the Method -by Marilyn vos Savant
     
107. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II -by Iris Chang
     
108. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art -by Scott McCloud
     
109. Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything -by James Gleick
     
     
     
     Self-Help
     
110. The Road Less Traveled -By M. Scott Peck
     
111. Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus -By John Gray
     
112. How To Win Friends and Influence People -By Dale Carnegie
     
113. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People -By Stephen R. Covey
     

Lists of Books Read
2008
2007 (36 books)
2006 (30 books)
2005 (13 books)
2004 (35 books)
1998 to 2003 (113 books over 6 years)

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Comments

[jessacord.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a great list! I often read based on recommendation....I think that I am going to try to read some of these. Thanks for sharing!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Cool...hope you find some titles you like.

[americanxtragic.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, excellent list! I've actually read alot of those same books recently. Dave Eggers is one of my all time favorite authors (if you like him try out Jonathan Safran Foer and Michael Chabon). It sounds really nice to have had a reading buddy. My parents used to read the same book at once so that they had someone to talk to it about. They both had the same kind of nightmares once because they were both in the middle of Pet Cemetery, lol. I hope that if I start dating again I can find someone who enjoys reading the same books.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

I hadn't really liked the Dave Eggers book. Well I started out liking it but by the time I finished I was kind of indifferent. I've been meaning to read Jonathan Safran Foer but haven't yet. And I didn't recognize Michael Chabon's name but looking him up on Amazon, I see he wrote Wonder Boys and I had liked that movie. Your parents had the right idea (funny about have the same nightmares). Michael and I kept meaning to read the same book together but we both tended to 'graze' as far as reading a couple of books concurrently so we never hit matching moods to read the same book at the same time. But often we would read a book the other had recommended and then be able to discuss it. Or we'd just read excerpts and discuss those.

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

That's funny -- I had the opposite reaction to AHWOSG. I kept seeing it on hipster kids' lists of favorite books, so when I read it, I started with that prejudice. However, it started to win me over about halfway through, when it started to be more about the genre of memoir itself.

[jester5.livejournal.com]

The Sun Also Rises -By Ernest Hemingway

one of my all time favorite books.!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Cool. That reminds me of another book whose title I've forgotten. But it talked about bullfighting and I can't remember if it was by Hemingway or if they just referred to Hemingway often. By the end of the book I almost wanted to go see a real bullfight myself even though I feel sorry for the bulls.

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

So wait -- you haven't read Half-Blood Prince?!!?!?!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Oh I have read Half-Blood Prince (though I didn't get to it until this spring) But this post is just up until 2003. In 2004 I started writing down the titles of books as I finished reading them so they have their own separate posts (linked to at the bottom of this post).

[dikubu.livejournal.com]

How did you manage to remember all this? I have trouble remembering what I read 2 books ago, let alone 5 years ago!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

I had been going back through old journals covering 1998-2003 reading about the early years of going out with Michael. And since we both read a lot, sometimes the titles would get mentioned in those journal entries and then that would remind me of another title... Plus we talked so often about things we read that for many of these books, I do remember specific conversations with him about them or that one of us had recommended the book to the other and so on. I think I need to go find a new book club to join now.

[lies.livejournal.com]

That's a great idea.. Right now I'm trying to keep a log of books I read (which has kind of paused at the moment). I love your taste in books.. I've never read that first one on your list, but I'm taking Ha Jin's class this September so I might go take a look at it..

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Cool...are you at B.U.?

[lies.livejournal.com]

yup!

[mforbes321.livejournal.com]

Those are awesome lists. I wish I kept track.

Very inspiring.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Yes...I wish I had kept track back then too though I think I've managed to recreate a pretty comprehensive list. Start keeping track now! just jot down titles of books as they resurface in your memory. I like revisiting books I've enjoyed.

[mforbes321.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea. I have a tendency to be perfectionistic and when that's impossible it doesn't get done.

But better done than perfect! Start now. What a concept! :)

[cwhf.livejournal.com]

Oh how I love Orson Scott Card. I've read everything he has ever written at least once and much of it twice (actually recent reread the original Ender's series (ender's game, speaker of the mind and xenocide; didn't reread children of the mind but I might). SOTM and Xenocide were so much better with some maturity (acquired by me) upon rereading. Also a big Anthony Bourdain fan---don't tell C, but he's probably the only man who could steal me away from him (j/k).

I am so saving this list. I may be the last person of my generation to not yet read Dave Eggers *hangs head in shame*.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

SOTM or Speaker for the Dead? I just recently re-read Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. I haven't read the rest of the Shadow series but I think I will. I like reading them alongside the original book. Anthony Bourdain went to the same college as Michael and was just a few years older so they might've been on campus at the same time. That used to bug Michael though since he though Bourdain was a big macho jerk even if he admired his food skills. I didn't really like "A Heartbreaking Work..." much so I didn't read more Eggers.

[cwhf.livejournal.com]

Whoops, Speaker for the Dead.

Bourdain does seem like a big jerk, but for some reason jerks who cook seem to bug me alot less than those that don't (see also Gordon Ramsay).

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Heh...men who cook and men who dance have such an advantage over guys who don't. :)

[c-maxx.livejournal.com]

A reading buddy, and good friend, and any else, is worth a lot.

Sorry you lost him.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

His death was a huge loss. Thanks for your sympathy.
Even now though, when I read a well-phrased sentence or a clever insight, I still smile and think, "Man...Michael would've loved that," and I smile (or cry...depends on the day)