Read this year.

Yup, I know the year's not over yet, but it will be by the time I finish the last couple that I'm working on, so I thought I'd post the obligatory list for everything I've read this year, I'll mark them in bold if I read them for school.



1. Gardens of the Moon - Malazan: Book of the Fallen #1 - Steven Erikson *****


2. Tree of Smoke - Denis Johnson ****
3. Beyond Good and Evil - Friedrich Neitzsche ***
4. The Maker of Universes - World of Tiers #1 - Phillip Jose Farmer ***
5. The King and the Cowboy - David Fromkin **
6. The Gates of Creation - World of Tiers #2 -Phillip Jose Farmer ***
7. Pigeon Feathers - John Updike ***
8. Quag Keep - Andre Norton ***
9. A Private Cosmos - World of Tiers #3 - Phillip Jose Farmer ***
10. Deadhouse Gates - Malazan: Book of the Fallen #2 - Steven Erikson ***
11. The Things they Carried - Tim O'brien ***
12. Beyond the Walls of Terra - World of Tiers #4 - Phillip Jose Farmer **
13. The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan **
14. The Rise of the West - William Hardy Mcneil ****
15. The lavalite World - World of Tiers #5 -Phillip Jose Farmer **
16. In Love and Trouble - Alice Walker **
17. The Oracle Betrayed - Oracle #1 - Catherine Fisher ****
18. World War One British Poets - Candace Ward ***
19. 1421: The Year China Discovered America - Gavin Menzies *
20. A Vocation and a Voice - Kate Chopin ***
21. Magician: Apprentice - Riftwar #1 - Raymond E. Feist ****
22. Red Orc's Rage - World of Tiers #6 - Phillip Jose Farmer *
23. Memories of Ice - Malazan: Book of the Fallen #3 - Steven Erikson ****
24. More than Fire - World of Tiers #7 - Phillip Jose Farmer **
25. Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones ****
26. Tolkien and the Great War - John Garth ****
27. House of Chains - Malazan: Book of the Fallen #4 - Steven Erikson ***
28. Landscape and Memory - Simon Schama *****
29. Carnage and Culture - Victor Hansen ***
30. Conan the Relentless - Roland Green **
31. Mr. Midshipmen Hornblower - Horatio Hornblower #1 - C.S. Forester ****
32. Midnight Tides - Malazan: Book of the Fallen #5 - Steven Erikson ***
33. Magician: Master - Riftwar #2 - Raymond E. Feist **
34. Cannibal Culture - Deborah Root **
35. Blood Follows - Bauchulain and Korbel Broach #1 - Steven Erikson **
36. The Lees of Laughter's End - Bauchulain and Korbel Broach #2 - Steven Erikson **
37. The Healthy Dead - Bauchulain and Korbel Broach #3 - Steven Erikson **
38. Crack'd Pot Trail - Bauchulain and Korbel Broach #4 - Steven Erikson **
39. Night of Knives - Tales of the Malazan Empire #1 - Ian Cameron Esselmont ****
40. Youth in Revolt - C.D. Payne ***
41. Lieutenant Hornblower - Horatio Hornblower #2 - C.S. Forester ****
42. The House of the Wolfings - William Morris ****
43. The Bonehunters - Malazan: Book of the Fallen #6 - Steven Erikson ****
44. Conan the Savage - Leonard Carpenter **
45. Hornblower and the Hotspur - Horatio Hornblower #3 - C.S. Forester ****
46. Imaro - Imaro #1 - Charles Saunders ****
47. Hornblower during the Crisis - Horatio Hornblower #4 - C.S. Forester ****
48. Hornblower and the Atropos - Horatio Hornblower #5 - C.S. Forester ****
49. Conan the Defender - Robert Jordan ***
50. Beat to Quarters - Horatio Hornblower #6 - C.S. Forester ****
51. Conan the Triumphant - Robert Jordan ***
52. Ship of the Line - Horatio Hornblower #7 - C.S. Forester ****
53. Return of the Crimson Guard - Tales of the Malazan Empire #2 - Ian Cameron Esslemont ****
54. Flying Colours - Horatio Hornblower #8 - C.S. Forester ****
55. The Polysylabic Spree - Nick Hornby ***
56. A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan ***
57. Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional life of boys - Dan Kindlon ****
58. Conan the Gaurdian - Roland Green **
59. Shadowdale - Avatar #1 - Richard Awlinson **
60. Conan at the Demon's Gate - Roland Green **
61. Manhood for Amatuers - Michael Chabon ****
62. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Steven Chobsky (See Insert)
63. Maps and Legends - Michael Chabon ****
64. King Dork - Frank Portman ***
65. Reaper's Gale - malazan Book of the Fallen #7 - Steven Erikson ***
66. The Passion of the Western Mind - Richard Tarnas ****
67. Albert of Adelaide - Robert L. Anderson ****
68. Me: The People - Kevin Bleyer ***
69. The Essential Rumi - Rumi ***
70. Bongwater - Michael Hornburg ***
71. The Persian Book of Kings - Ferdewsi ****
72. A History of the Ostrogoths - thomas S. Burns ****
73. Tantras - Avatar #2 - Richard Awlinson **
74. Doctor Faustus - Christoper Marlowe ***
75. I'm Proud of You - Tim Madigan ***
76. The Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson ***
77. Conan The Gladiator - Leonard Carpenter **


Still in Progress
78. Waterdeep - Avatar #3 - Richard Awlinson
79. Cosmos - Carl Sagan
80. Toll The Hounds - Malazan Book of the Fallen #8 - Steven Erikson

This year I didn't get nearly as many books finished as I would have liked. This is due to it being my first "Full" year of school, taking classes all 3 semesters, and 2 of those being English Classes. My World Lit class during Fall had far more than just The Essential Rumi, but basically I had already read all the rest of them and didn't see any reason to include them. Among those that I re-read during my World Lit class were:

The Enuma Elish
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Orestia by Asychleus
Plato's The Apology and Allegory of the Cave
The Song of Roland
Einhard's Life of Charlegemage
Dante's Divine Comedy
Machievelli's The Prince

As you can see I nearly made it to the end of the Malazan series, but the later books in the series have simply gotten so bogged down in Minutae as the series crawls to a conclusion that it's taking me longer and longer to get through it, I also started and nearly finished the Hornblower series, the only thing holding me back is that I just don't have the money to buy the remaining few in the series since they are 15$ a piece. I need to check my local Library. I read the first Imaro book, which I bought when Night Shade was having a sale, but haven't yet gotten the remaining 3 in the series from Mr. Saunders. I also started reading the Riftwar Series by Raymond E. Feist, and as interesting as Samurais riding giant insects are as villains.. I'm just not sure I will be continuing to read the series.. It didn't grab hold of me the way it does some people.. i didn't even finish the first "Trilogy" of 4 volumes. And lastly I've now made it to just shy of the halfway point in my massive Conan Read. Next year I plan to finish up Malazan, and get a start on two big series, Michael Moorcock's The Eternal Champion (Which I've read a few of, so will include some re-reads) and Arnold J. Toynbee's " A Study of History" which clocks in at about 11 or 12 volumes.. but which I found my local Library had copies of just recently, Once I've finished that I can safely say i will have read both the Pesimistic view of Historical Theory (Spengler) and the Optimistic View of Historical Theory (Toynbee). Between Moorcock and Toynbee and the remains of Erickson, it works out to be nearly 60 books just there.. add in I don't know how many I will have to read for school, and it sounds as if I have a busy year ahead of me.


Insert: Essentially I cannot rate this book due to the fact that it is so tied up in my current problems revolving around a person who had become an extremely important part of my life and then chose to extricate herself from it entirely. She had me read the book, and we went to see the film together, and the book was massively important to both of us as a result due to our similar experiences growing up, and due to the fact that we used it as something of a letter back and forth, both taking turns underlining passages before giving it back to the other. The Book itself is phenomenal, and if you want to actually taste what it is like to be alienated and alone in your most formative period, and see what it's like to absolutely hit rock bottom due to emotional trauma, regardless of the fact that you have friends and family to help you through it.. then the book is for you. I absolutely am glad I read it, I just don't think it would be fair on my part to rate the book in my current mental state. If you have children, I cannot recommend reading it enough because it hits all the warning signs of what to look out for to make sure your child doesn't hit the lows that Charlie does in the book.