Books I finished in 2010

This list started out as an experiment of some sort. A teacher asked us, just for fun, how many books we approximately read during a year. I guessed 12, one book per month. Then I went home and wondered how true that was. So I made a list to find out. This year I‘ve read 16 books. And I decided to make a post about it for later personal reference. And by adding tiny reviews to the books I think deserve special attention, it might be somewhat interesting for others as well?

- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is truly a great book. I’m not particularly fond of war-literature. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important that that sort of literature exists; I just personally don’t like reading it. This book however, tells the story of World War 2 with a very different perspective from what I’m used to. I loved it.

- Heart-shaped Box by Joe Hill

- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

- Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

- Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

- Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan

- The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland. This is the second book I’ve read from this author and it’s enough for me to put her on my list of favorite writers. There’s something about the way she describes this dark and dirty yet civilized age, the medieval times. Accurate depicturing of human life at that time mixed with supernatural happenings based on superstitions from old lore. (I can’t wait for her next book due out in spring 2011! I’ll be patient and wait for the right paperback-version to match my other two books though.)

- The Sound of Butterflies by Rachel King

- Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing With Fire by Derek Landy

- A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a magical book about believing in the power of imagination and positive thinking, as well as an adorable story of a little girl making it through unfair challenges. It’s a great read!

- The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is the coolest adventure I’ve experienced in a long time. And yes, it’s the sort of book you don’t read, but experience. The world and the characters are described so well that you really feel like you’re running through the streets of Camorr right by the side of The Gentlemen Bastards, your old comrades. The whole thing is put together in a fantastic way with so much detail it’s hard to remember that it’s fiction and not an actual tale from another existing world. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. You’ll get mad and you’ll get relieved. I had so much fun from start to end. And thank God; it continues! It’s said to become seven books in total.

- The Witch’s Trinity by Erika Mailman

- Dissolution by C. J. Sansom

- Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw. It’s a comedy and it’s actually really funny. It’s funny in the relaxed and sort of natural way. No one’s jumping up and down trying desperately to make you laugh, it just is funny. And it gets MMORPGs (or MOGs) so well, it was all so familiar and oh so parodical in a comfortable reserved way. I couldn’t help feeling sympathy for the protagonist and the characters were all so loveable in their own bizarre way. Even Thaddeus who I think went on my nerves just as much as he did to the subject, James.

Let's go to the moon~

So, thanks to The Cinema Snob and his loyal watcher (my boyfriend) I discovered this song ("The Jet Set" by Alphaville). And for the time being I can't get enough of it. It's brilliant. I don't know why I haven't noticed this song sooner.



And the best part of it all is this part of the lyrics:
"...
we dance the streets , feeling well
if she's a liar , I'm her lover
if she's a priestess , I'm her cover
if she's a lady , I'm her man
if she's a man , I'll do what I can
..."

And I love the whole arrangement. Let's listen to it again! =D