The Pink Shoe

This is the post I'll be updating all year... Please remember to leave book suggestion comments!

Rules: New books will be at the top. The date I finished them and very small details of the books or how I found them. They have to be, you know, not vapid shitty books. I welcome suggestions for new books and comments about what I have read.

40. The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester. May 31. The Professor and the Madman was about 15 times better. And for someone who writes books about the Oxford English Dictionary, he should get a thesaurus. He used the word "niggardly" three times in the first 150 pages. I would suggest "close-fisted" or "miserly" to replace two of those instances.
39. The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy. May 28. Two autobiographical books in a row. That was a bad choice.
38. The Peking Man is Missing by Claire Taschdjian. May 27. The author herself is a possible suspect in the Peking Man mystery - fascinating topic, bad writer.
37. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. May 25. A novel written through letters. I learned a lot about the German occupation of the Channel Islands - very very interesting.
36. Lush Life by Richard Price. May 23. Murder set in the Lower East Side. Enthralling, fast pased.
35. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. May 23. Much more of a traditional novel that man of Murakami's others. Apparently a huge classic in Japan. Good, but not my favorite.
34. The Woman who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle. May 19. I feel like I have an idea of what it would be like to be in an abusive relationship after reading this. Heartwrenching, well written.
33. Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. May 17. Tom Robbins is full of himself.
32. South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami. May 11. Not as interesting/magical as the other Murakami I have read this year.
31. Cathedral by Raymond Carver. May 9. I liked it more than other collections of Raymond Carver stories. More multi-faceted.
30. A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter. May 6. Not about baseball.
29. The Nick Adams Stories by Earnest Hemingway. May 3. I've always said I like Hemingway's short stories better than his novels, and reading these short stories only confirmed that.
28. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. Apr 29. If this represents Publishing and the West Village in the 80s, dear god how things have changed. Because it's nothing like that now.
27. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. Apr 27. More narrative and follow-able than The Stars My Destination. A futuristic murder mystery that I fully enjoyed. And the winner of the first-ever Hugo award.
26. Oracle Night by Paul Auster. Apr 23. Written in Auster's more personal (or, as I call it, less good) voice, the same one he wrote Brooklyn Follies in, with a lot of the action right on front of my house in the West Village. Good, but not run out and read it good, like the New York Trilogy is.
25. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World by Haruki Murakami. Apr 20. Two narratives in alternating chapters that do not converge until the very end. I am in love with Murakami.
24. Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson. Apr 15. I have always loved Jeanette Winterson's writing, and this book is very lyrical and magical and I want to read it again.
23. Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore. Apr 11. The New Testament, as told by Jesus' childhood friend. A perfect light read for Holy Saturday.
22. Oil! by Upton Sinclair. Apr 10. The movie, There Will be Blood, follows the book through the oil-rig explosion. From there, the movie remains awesome, while the book becomes an anti-communist/socialist screed. For 400 pages.
21. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. Apr 5. Not just about running, but about writing.
20. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. Apr 5. This book is so good, this might turn from the DFW year to the HM year. Why do I keep reading 600 pg books when I'm trying to read 100 books this year??
19. Netherland by Joseph O'Neill. Mar 25. Post 9/11 NYC, marriage, and cricket. After 200 pages on cricket, I still have no idea how to play it.
18. Best American Essays, 2007 ed. DFW. Mar 17. Lots of Iraq. I know it's topical, but damn.
17. The World Doesn't End by Charles Simic. Mar 12. Poetry, thought provoking without seeming to try. I read it twice in a row. Won the Pulitzer for Poetry in 1990.
16. The Art of Raising a Puppy by the Monks of New Skete. Mar 9. My friend Jeff sent this to me when he found out we got Maddie. It's the only "puppy book" I'm putting on this list (and I've read at least 10 since Maddie). It gives real insight into why puppies do what they do.
15. Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Mar 7. Gladwell is brilliant. And works out at my gym. This book is very interesting, especially at the beginning of each case that he presents, but at times the points he is trying to make can become repetitive.
14. Consider the Lobster by DFW. Mar 3. I love DFW. He can do no wrong. These essays are very good, especially Authority and American Usage, about language in America, Up, Simba, about McCain's 2000 campaign, and well, all of them.
13. Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik. Mar 1. My little sister gave it to Matt for Christmas. Essays about living in Paris from 1995 to 2000. I loved it because of Matt's recent experience there. Good writer. I think I'm going to pick up his next book, about returning to NYC just before 9/11.
12. Baudlino by Umberto Eco. Feb 27. Not my favorite Umberto, but very very readable. Kind of a Gulliver's Travels in the Crusades.
11. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Feb 8. Really fun read. Very informative and interesting.
10. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Feb 6. A little misogynistic, but really interesting.
9. White Tiger by Aravid Adiga. Feb 2. Really compelling, fast read. Well written.
8. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver. Jan 30. I liked this more than Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? There was slightly less alcoholism. And I thought the later stories in the book were better than the early ones.
7. Oblivion by David Foster Wallace. Jan 25. I love DFW, I love short fiction. He's brilliant.
6. The Age of Wire and String by Ben Marcus. Jan 19. I was completely enthralled by this surrealist fiction. I couldn't put it down, and I wanted to immediately re-read, but... onward and upward.
5. The Great American Novel by Philip Roth. Jan 16. Matt got it, and I had previously read The Plot Against America, and loved it. It's funny and cleverly written, but gets old fast and there's too much baseball for me.
4. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. Jan 12. A coworker lent it to Matt when he was working on a case involving Russia. Great descriptions, funny situations, and the author died before completing the second volume, so it a) is more interesting as the plot isn't finished, and b) it doesn't fall into the trap of a lot of Russian novels by being horrendously long.
3. The Sound of Butterflies by Rachael King. Jan 5. Susan gave it to my sister Elizabeth for Christmas and I grabbed it. It ended quickly - the beginning was so detailed and it was like the author ran out of steam.
2. Away by Amy Bloom. Jan 3. Susan gave it to me for Christmas. HIGHLY recommend. I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed the NYC history part of it.
1. Mr Dixon Disappears by Ian Sansom. Jan 1. My mom brought it with her to my house for Christmas, it's a mystery about a man who runs a mobile library. Eh.