log(book)

The 16 books I read in 2002 year in books

Cover of Lord Peter Views the Body.

Lord Peter Views the Body

by Dorothy L. Sayers · published 1928 · last read 2020-01-05
★★★☆☆
This collection is a very nice mix of Lord Peter Wimsey stories. I particularly liked the ones where he's an under-cover spy, and the one where he and his nephew go on a treasuer hunt. While the plot quality varies a bit, the writing and character building are delightful.

Cover of The Night of Wishes.

The Night of Wishes

by Michael Ende · published 1989 · read 2002-11-01
★★★☆☆
This is the Michael Ende book that I'm most meh about – I think I may have read it a bit late for its intended audence group? Or maybe it's just that his other books tend to be so profound that this one looks trivial next to them.

Cover of Prince Caspian.

Prince Caspian

by C.S. Lewis · published 1951 · read 2002-10-01
★☆☆☆☆
After the first Narnia book, I thought that things might get better, or that this was a series that just had an unfortunate first book.

Cover of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

by Mark Twain · published 1875 · read 2002-10-01
★★★★☆
Probably my first trickster book – I reveled in how clever and witty Tom was. All his tricks, all his deals and feelings felt real and like something to aspire to. I even took his frequent bartering of small items and introduced it at school. It was great fun.

Cover of Around the World in Eighty Days.

Around the World in Eighty Days

by Jules Verne · published 1873 · read 2002-09-01
★★★☆☆
Not quite sci-fi, but the inner geek of Verne makes a strong showing. The research and vividness of his descriptions is impeccable, and makes the characters tolerable (and the final twist, of course, is delightful).

Cover of Dick Sands the Boy Captain.

Dick Sands the Boy Captain

by Jules Verne · published 1878 · read 2002-08-01
★★★★☆
Verne could write pure adventure stories, too, and didn't need to put in scifi to make them work. I read this book multiple times as a kid and was utterly captivated by it. The vivid nature descriptions of Africa and South America, the young protagonist responsible for the crew, the strong and brutal depiction and condemnation of slavery … This book flinches away from very little. I still can tell you about the characters and the plot today, and it's been nearly twenty years since I've read the book.

Cover of King Matt the First.

King Matt the First

by Janusz Korczak · published 1923 · read 2002-07-01
★★★☆☆
MaciuÅ› (as he is called in the original and in the German translation) becomes the king at a very young age. Despite his advisors, he enacts a set of bold reforms, trying to improve people's lives. It all goes wrong after a while, because ruling is complex, as it turns out, and also people are not exactly cooperative.

Cover of Momo.

Momo

by Michael Ende · published 1973 · read 2002-07-01
★★★★☆
Momo is a weird book: It clearly has the potential to be and to feel very profound. But it was never quite that for me. Maybe it's that the capitalism criticism is just too open and too jarring when mixed with the magical elements? Maybe it's that Momo herself, as a character, always kept her distance to me. I don't know. It's a good book, but it never quite reached "great" for me.

Cover of The Complete Fairy Tales.

The Complete Fairy Tales

by Hans Christian Andersen · published 1913 · read 2002-07-01
★★★★★
Andersen's fairy tales were the first ones I actually owned, and this alone made them special to me. They tend to be brutal and gruesome, but I was nine and loved them for it. The original Snow Queen is terrifying, the original Little Mermaid heart-breaking. Others have not changed much in public perception: The Ugly Duckling, the Princess and the Pea, the Little Match-Seller (😢).

Cover of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

by C.S. Lewis · published 1950 · read 2002-06-01
★☆☆☆☆
Confession: I hated the Narnia books when I first read them, and I don't care enough to update my opinion. I hated the transparent religion shilling going on, I hated everything about the dour moralising, and I felt personally offended at Lion Jesus. Man.

Cover of Der Weg in die Verbannung.

Der Weg in die Verbannung

by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich · published 1962 · read 2002-05-01
★★★☆☆
Our beloved hero is banished (well, his father is and he follows). The mood is predictably bad, but seeing Harka stand on his own and living through all the shit life throws at him was inspiring.

Cover of The Castle of the Carpathians.

The Castle of the Carpathians

by Jules Verne · published 1892 · read 2002-04-01
★★☆☆☆
Published five whole years before Stoker's Dracula, this is the story of a creepy castle in the Carpathians, where unexplained lights and other unnatural occurrences terrify the surrounding villages. It's unusual for Verne, in that it's barely sci-fi (or at least, the sci-fi enters very late and is nearly invisible for most of the book, getting pushed to the sidelines by the atmosphere). But his flair for proper research shows and is admirable as always – Stoker didn't come nearly as close to vivid and correct images of Transsylvania.

Cover of The Little Prince.

The Little Prince

by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry · published 1943 · read 2002-04-01
★★★☆☆
The adorable faux-philosophical book with delightfully whimsical moments was something I enjoyed a lot as a kid. I would imagine that much of its charm is due to my age when reading it though, and if I had read it for the first time now, I wouldn't be nearly as enchanted by the rose and the sheep and so on.

Cover of The Neverending Story.

The Neverending Story

by Michael Ende · published 1979 · read 2002-03-01
★★★★★
Neverending – oh, if only! I loved this book as a kid, and there are infinite possibilities for tie-ins (though arguably the book is better off without them).

Cover of Mary Poppins.

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers · published 1934 · read 2002-02-01
★★★☆☆
Without Julie Andrews, who is Mary Poppins? The governess of Disney Musical fame is a bit less charming and much stricter in the books. I encountered her first here, and did enjoy the books, a bit. But they are terribly repetetive (not object level repetetive, but the story is always the same), so I dropped them soon.

Cover of Mostly Harmless.

Mostly Harmless

by Douglas Adams · published 1992 · read 2002-01-01
★★★☆☆
I honestly don't have real memories of reading this book. I only completed it out of a sense of duty – wouldn't have done so today.