Books Read '10

Books I read in 2010 (in the order seen in the above image):

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
Chocky by John Wyndham
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession by Julie Powell
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Funny Misshapen Body by Jeffrey Brown
Jamilti and other Stories by Rutu Modan
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Ladies and Gentleman, The Bible! By Jonathan Goldstein

Out of all of these books, if you need something to read, I’d say: No Country For Old Men (Texas Noir, aka, such a badass book) by Cormac Mccarthy, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (especially if you want to cry), Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, Jamilti by Rutu Modan, and man, I read a lot of Haruki Murakami books, which were all enjoyable, but I’d say, Dance Dance Dance takes the cake. Ha, all my recommendations, you’ve probably read them anyways, but they’re good books aren’t they?!

I didn’t like Tales of the City so much, as detailed here, and I was pretty disappointed with The Kraken Wakes and the Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham, mostly because I thought they would be so good (as some of his other books are), but they were just so disappointingly boring.

BOOOOOOOOOKS!!

No Country For Old Men

A few sentences from the first couple of pages of "No Country For Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy. Those pages absolutely kill. I read it like 50 times, it is so well done, time stops, it is just so good.

If you haven't read it, read it. If you've seen the movie, enjoyed it, read the book, the movie is missing so many things that make it so much better. 

BADASS.

Books Read 09:

Books I read in 2009 (in the order seen in the above image):

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto
The New Kings of Nonfiction selected by Ira Glass
Shenzhen: A Travelogue by Guy Delisle
Good-bye by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell
Where I am Calling From by Raymond Carver
A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From my Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
Comfort Me With Apples by Ruth Reichl
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
C by Josh Barsky
The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle
French Milk by Lucy Knisley
Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine
Lamb by Christopher Moore
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Out of all the books, the ones that I enjoyed the most and would tell you to take a gander at if you were in search of something to read: The New Kings of Nonfiction selected by Ira Glass, Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami, The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank (especially if you are a girl! One that is in love with romance! And don't worry this isn't a cloyingly cheesy book either), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind, Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine (best graphic novel I read this year), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (I recommend reading anything by this author...science fiction at it's best, totally awesome).

And hrm, out of all the books, the ones I would tell you to kind of stay away from (I only say kind of, because we probably have different tastes, and really none of the books I read were terrible, but I just didn't really enjoy these ones): Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell (really hard to get through, the author is slightly boring), French Milk by Lucy Knisley (a kind of blah graphic novel, the drawings are alright, and at times the observations were interesting, but for the most part, passable), ha hrm that's it.

Yeaaaah books!

#17

Excerpt wridrawn (written+drawn) by myself from the book, History of Love by Nicole Krauss.

If you can't read it (I know people have a bit of hard time with my handwriting), here's what it says:

My brother and I used to play a game. I'd point to a chair. "THIS IS NOT A CHAIR," I'd say. Bird would point to the table. "THIS IS NOT A TABLE." "THIS IS NOT A WALL," I'd say. "THAT IS NOT A CEILING." We'd go on like that. "IT IS NOT RAINING OUT." "MY SHOE IS NOT UNTIED!" Bird would yell. I'd point to my elbow. "THIS IS NOT A SCRAPE." Bird would lift his knee. "THIS IS ALSO NOT A SCRAPE!" "THAT IS NOT A KETTLE!" "NOT A CUP!" "NOT A SPOON" "NOT DIRTY DISHES!" We deneid whole rooms, years, weathers. Once at the peak of our shouting, Bird took a deep breath. At the top of his lungs, he shrieked, "I! HAVE NOT! BEEN! UNHAPPY! MY WHOLE! LIFE!" "But you're only seven," I said.

And man this cough of mine is giving my upper abs or stomach a work out, COUGH OUT!

BOOKS READ.

I started a Tumblr that keeps a record of all the books I have been reading. Having buttloads of time at the book store has increased the amount of books I am reading, and I have all this information, and I feel like I need to do something with it. Hence, I present with excitement:

BOOKS READ.

I just post what books I read, sometimes do an accompanying illustration with my favorite sentence/passage from that book and the story of how I got to the book. It was inspired completely by Ken Tsui's tumblr, Habitual Viewer, where he documents what films he is watching. Seeing all the film stills in one place, it looked so beautiful, so important, even though it is so small and brief, it is so loaded! And most importantly, it made me want to see all the films he was watching. I wanted to do the same thing, just post the cover of the book I read and my then write my favorite sentence and leave it at that and let the viewer think whether or not the book seems interesting or not. But gah! I just couldn't! I feel this incredible need to tell people why I chose the book, how I got to the book, because I like knowing that kind of stuff, and I like telling that kind of stuff. I will kind of draw the line (even though I think I already kinda crossed it) at telling you whether or not the book is good and worthwhile. You can decide that for yourself because I did when I found all of these books.

Um, so unless kind of otherwise noted, the illustrations that accompany the book covers are done by myself. Um yep!

And we start Books Read with the lovely Dorothy Parker and Ms. Judith Jones.