My best book of 2008 was:
The Pilo Family Circus
Top marks for originality and being such an engrossing read - totally recommend it
Feev, I bought Fevre Dream last week because you enjoyed it so much
My best book of 2008 was:
The Pilo Family Circus
Top marks for originality and being such an engrossing read - totally recommend it
Feev, I bought Fevre Dream last week because you enjoyed it so much
I have to say Pilo Family Circus was best for the year for me also.
And Feev is right; Fevre Dream is a great book.
For 2008, it was Clinton Heylin's The Act You've Known for All These Years: A Year in the Life of Sgt. Pepper and Friends.
This was a very interesting look into an album many know inside and out. More than that, it put the whole thing in context. The Sgt. Pepper mythos is huge, but I think this book reigned in the superlatives and gave an honest assessment of the music and culture of the time and where the album fit in.
Though I despise much of what could be labeled "musical criticism" I like Heylin's style. He has enough of a sensibility for history as he does music. I've read most of his work, much of it on aspects of music or the music business in which I am very interested. It helps that he seems to enjoy a lot of the same music I do. His Dylan biography is by far the most accurate and honest appraisal of Dylan I've ever read, as well as being an entertaining read. If I remember correctly without checking the history of this thread, I'm pretty sure I picked his From the Velvets to the Voidoids: A Pre-Punk History for a Post-Punk World as my very best book I read in 2007. There are still a few of his books I've yet to read and they are all on the radar for this year's reading so he could get the 3-peat. Stay tuned...
The very best book I read last year was also the most heartbreaking for me.
It's titled Ghost Rider by Neil Peart, the drummer of the band Rush.
It's his bio basically about how he survived the most horrific thing to ever happen to him. In the course of a year his daughter died in a car accident, then his wife died of cancer. The book is about how he packed up his motorcycle and rode along "the healing road" as he called it, trying to make sense out of it all. He rode through Canada (where he lives), the US and Mexico.
Amazing, amazing story, one that literally breaks your heart.
Peart has other books out, The Masked Rider, about a bicycle tour he took through Africa, and two others, which I haven't read yet.
My favorite book of 2008 is gonna have to be American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”-Mark Twain
Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me....Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.
-Shel Silverstein
I have to agree with Jean: Duma Key. I loved it!
"People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard
"You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain
My favorite book from 08' was Speaker For The Dead - another excellent entry in the Ender series.
For me it was "Miranda" by John Little. An unexpected gem.
bump for year 2009
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My best book of 2009 was probably Tim Powers Fisher King trilogy, which comprises of Last Call, Expiration Date and Earthquake Weather. Really unique and powerful writing.
Best book of 2009 was Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Sloth Love Chunk
Lovecraft Collection. It competed in my heart with 20th Century Ghosts, and won.
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Best Book that I read in 2009 was The Pillars of the Earth. It came out several years ago and has been on my bookshelf for a long time. I finally got to reading it and loved it. Recommended.
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Lalalalaaaa, lalalalaaa
sugarpop <3
My vote has to go to World War Z by Max Brooks. A close second is his The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead . Both were great.
"People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard
"You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain
I have to say it was The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I had real trouble getting into it, but it was definitely worth the effort.
John
i read DT7 this year so ill bow out ......but i think between duma key and wolves of calla ...its a tough call
I'm nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But when you drop that violence on me, then you've made me go INSANE, and I'm not responsible for what I do
Malcolm X
Oh this was tough. It would probably be The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, but a very close runner up would be The Terror by Dan Simmons. It's hard for me to choose one over the other as I absolutely loved both of them.
Only the gentle are ever really strong.
I was racking my brain. Then I realized that I read The Dark Tower this year. Duh.
Also, I got excited because I saw jayson's post and thought it was from this year. How sad is that.
Flowers for Algernon
Roland would have understood.
best book i read in 09' was probably world war Z.