book list, August 2006
Sep. 1st, 2006 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI made three resolutions this year. First, get a job. (Done!) Second, exercise more regularly and lose weight. (Done!) Third, keep a list of the books I read.
These are the books I read in August, 2006 (also known as THE MONTH MANGA ATE MY SOUL, OMG):
New: 47
---Unexpected Magic, Diana Wynne Jones (short story collection & a short YA novel: several stories were kind of 'eh, whatever,' but some were lovely. The novel, Everard's Ride, was fun, though a bit abrupt in places.)
---War and Peace and War: The Life Cycles of Imperial Nations, Peter Turchin (nonfiction: fascinating theory about patterns in human history, marred by minor, persistent grammar oddities: awkward prepositions, the insertion of 'the' where it's not needed, and the lack of 'the' where it IS needed. I suspect Turchin may not be a native English speaker, but his copy editor should still have caught those!)
---The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (autobiography: in the vein of Angela's Ashes. What's heartbreaking is the way that, despite being totally unsuitable parents, her father and mother got some of the most important and intangible things right anyway; the love was palpable, despite the confusion, bitterness, and pain/anger. Beautifully clean narrative style.)
---A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr. (science fiction: a classic apocalyptic post-nuclear-war novel, which deals with humanity's inability to learn from our past mistakes, and our faith that things can change. Very much of a time and place -- the American southwest, around 1960, pre-Vatican II -- with the attendant strengths and failings. Wonderful story, really makes you think.)
---Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner (fantasy: well, I call it fantasy, but 'historical fiction in an imaginary world' is more accurate. In a country something like an oligarchic 16th century Britain, hired swordsmen and scheming nobles clash and swirl. Also, there's a romance -- which happens to be between two men -- but that's really not the point. I liked this a lot.)
---Trigun Maximum, vol. 8, Yasuhiro Nightow (manga: cracked-out sci-fi, gunfights, and more angst than you can shake a stick at. Knives continues his plan to eliminate humanity, Wolfwood's past is revealed, and Meryl and Millie reappear. Still needs to be read at least twice to make sense.)
---Samurai Deeper Kyo, vols. 1, 5-14, Akimine Kamijyo (manga: um... this is... weird. I wince at the mangled Japanese history, I laugh at the blatant fanservice, and I have no idea what I think of the story overall, though I'm a sucker for 'two personalities in one body' things, and I like swordsmen. I reserve judgment until I read more. And yes, I do want to read more; take that as you will.)
---D.N.Angel, vols. 1-5, Yukiru Sugisaki (manga: very shojo, very cute, a bit incoherent. Also, for a story focused on heterosexual love -- Daisuke's transformations into Dark are supposedly controlled by his love for Harada Risa, and then for Harada Riku -- a suspicious amount of time is devoted to Daisuke's relationship with Hiwatari Satoshi. *grin*)
---Bleach, vols. 1-25, Tite Kubo (manga: great stuff! I hear this gets compared to Naruto, often unfavorably to one series or the other. I don't get that. Yes, they're both variations on standard shonen fight series, but Bleach is a more unitary story and less of an exercise in world-building. It extends back in time from the main story, but it gives me a feeling that all the history is aimed toward this one small slice of narrative time. Naruto sprawls more, and feels more like any given five or ten years of its history could have made a good story. Anyway, I like Bleach. I like the themes, and I like the characters. But I don't itch to write fic for it.)
Old: 23
---Angel Sanctuary, vols. 1-20, Kaori Yuki (manga: this series ate my brain. It is fucked-up and brilliant. See this post for more details, if you don't mind spoilers.)
---Trigun Maximum, vol. 7, Yasuhiro Nightow (manga: cracked-out sci-fi, gunfights, and more angst than you can shake a stick at.)
---Fruits Basket, vol. 10, Natsuki Takaya (manga: very shojo. Somehow manages to include slapstick humor, crack fantasy, high school travails, martial arts fighting, and pull-your-heartstrings drama/romance/tragedy, without seeming to have multiple personality disorder.)
---Too Many Magicians, Randall Garrett (fantasy/mystery: in an alternate world where the Plantagenet family rules western Europe and the Americas, and magic takes the place of science, a locked-room murder gets entangled with political espionage. Great fun, though the exposition can get clunky.)
August Total = 70 books (plus a lot of fanfiction, a few newspapers, and several magazines)
Year to Date = 250 books (179 new, 71 old)
These are the books I read in August, 2006 (also known as THE MONTH MANGA ATE MY SOUL, OMG):
New: 47
---Unexpected Magic, Diana Wynne Jones (short story collection & a short YA novel: several stories were kind of 'eh, whatever,' but some were lovely. The novel, Everard's Ride, was fun, though a bit abrupt in places.)
---War and Peace and War: The Life Cycles of Imperial Nations, Peter Turchin (nonfiction: fascinating theory about patterns in human history, marred by minor, persistent grammar oddities: awkward prepositions, the insertion of 'the' where it's not needed, and the lack of 'the' where it IS needed. I suspect Turchin may not be a native English speaker, but his copy editor should still have caught those!)
---The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (autobiography: in the vein of Angela's Ashes. What's heartbreaking is the way that, despite being totally unsuitable parents, her father and mother got some of the most important and intangible things right anyway; the love was palpable, despite the confusion, bitterness, and pain/anger. Beautifully clean narrative style.)
---A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr. (science fiction: a classic apocalyptic post-nuclear-war novel, which deals with humanity's inability to learn from our past mistakes, and our faith that things can change. Very much of a time and place -- the American southwest, around 1960, pre-Vatican II -- with the attendant strengths and failings. Wonderful story, really makes you think.)
---Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner (fantasy: well, I call it fantasy, but 'historical fiction in an imaginary world' is more accurate. In a country something like an oligarchic 16th century Britain, hired swordsmen and scheming nobles clash and swirl. Also, there's a romance -- which happens to be between two men -- but that's really not the point. I liked this a lot.)
---Trigun Maximum, vol. 8, Yasuhiro Nightow (manga: cracked-out sci-fi, gunfights, and more angst than you can shake a stick at. Knives continues his plan to eliminate humanity, Wolfwood's past is revealed, and Meryl and Millie reappear. Still needs to be read at least twice to make sense.)
---Samurai Deeper Kyo, vols. 1, 5-14, Akimine Kamijyo (manga: um... this is... weird. I wince at the mangled Japanese history, I laugh at the blatant fanservice, and I have no idea what I think of the story overall, though I'm a sucker for 'two personalities in one body' things, and I like swordsmen. I reserve judgment until I read more. And yes, I do want to read more; take that as you will.)
---D.N.Angel, vols. 1-5, Yukiru Sugisaki (manga: very shojo, very cute, a bit incoherent. Also, for a story focused on heterosexual love -- Daisuke's transformations into Dark are supposedly controlled by his love for Harada Risa, and then for Harada Riku -- a suspicious amount of time is devoted to Daisuke's relationship with Hiwatari Satoshi. *grin*)
---Bleach, vols. 1-25, Tite Kubo (manga: great stuff! I hear this gets compared to Naruto, often unfavorably to one series or the other. I don't get that. Yes, they're both variations on standard shonen fight series, but Bleach is a more unitary story and less of an exercise in world-building. It extends back in time from the main story, but it gives me a feeling that all the history is aimed toward this one small slice of narrative time. Naruto sprawls more, and feels more like any given five or ten years of its history could have made a good story. Anyway, I like Bleach. I like the themes, and I like the characters. But I don't itch to write fic for it.)
Old: 23
---Angel Sanctuary, vols. 1-20, Kaori Yuki (manga: this series ate my brain. It is fucked-up and brilliant. See this post for more details, if you don't mind spoilers.)
---Trigun Maximum, vol. 7, Yasuhiro Nightow (manga: cracked-out sci-fi, gunfights, and more angst than you can shake a stick at.)
---Fruits Basket, vol. 10, Natsuki Takaya (manga: very shojo. Somehow manages to include slapstick humor, crack fantasy, high school travails, martial arts fighting, and pull-your-heartstrings drama/romance/tragedy, without seeming to have multiple personality disorder.)
---Too Many Magicians, Randall Garrett (fantasy/mystery: in an alternate world where the Plantagenet family rules western Europe and the Americas, and magic takes the place of science, a locked-room murder gets entangled with political espionage. Great fun, though the exposition can get clunky.)
August Total = 70 books (plus a lot of fanfiction, a few newspapers, and several magazines)
Year to Date = 250 books (179 new, 71 old)
