log(book)

The 22 books I read in 2010 year in books

Cover of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

by Patrick Süskind · published 1985 · read 2010-12-01
★☆☆☆☆
Gross. Seriously, gross. I don't even know which book to connect to this one.

Cover of Lassen Sie es mich so sagen: Dombrowski deutet die Zeichen der Zeit.

Lassen Sie es mich so sagen: Dombrowski deutet die Zeichen der Zeit

by Georg Schramm · published 2007 · read 2010-12-01
★★★★☆
Schramm is much better on screen than his writing, but his writing is decent and readable.

Cover of The Plague.

The Plague

by Albert Camus · published 1947 · read 2010-11-01
★★★★☆
The curious mood of The Plague is easy to recall even years after reading it. It's got a curious sense of detachment and numbness that I enjoyed reading, as much as I hate symbolic storytelling normally. I'm still a bit annoyed by the plain moralistic nonsense, though.

Cover of Nathan der Weise.

Nathan der Weise

by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing · published 1779 · read 2010-11-01
★★☆☆☆
Lessing was a good critic, but at best a middling author. His theatre is nearly Brecht-ian in its desire to hit you repeatedly over the head with the metaphor until you're sure to get it.

Cover of Smilla's Sense of Snow.

Smilla’s Sense of Snow

by Peter Høeg · published 1992 · read 2010-10-01
★★★★☆
For years I've been meaning to re-read this book, because it has made a lasting impression – but like a dream, I can only talk about the feelings and some snapshots I remember. I still look back to these scenes, but I lack both the context and the will to re-read it.

Cover of Lolita.

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov · published 1955 · read 2010-09-01
★★★★☆
Lolita was an interesting book to read when I was 18: I was used to reading classics with a critical distance, and Lolita never fit either my analytic access nor my "god this is really good" access. It's a tough read, but it's always skillful, never cheap (though often blatant). I think I'm better for having read it, but I can't say why.

Cover of Faust. Der Tragödie erster und zweiter Teil.

Faust. Der Tragödie erster und zweiter Teil

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · published 1832 · read 2010-09-01
★★★☆☆
Single biggest source of (faux-)intellectual quotes in the German language. As most people, I enjoyed part one and was baffled by part two. As most people, I expect this will change over the years.

Cover of Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen.

Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen

by Heinrich Heine · published 1844 · read 2010-08-01
★★★☆☆
Heine snarking and showing off. Delightful, fun, inspirational. How little has changed in some ways since 1844! I like this book/poem/work of snark so much that I tried my hand at "translating" its beginning into a travel log.

Cover of Johnny and the Bomb.

Johnny and the Bomb

by Terry Pratchett · published 1996 · read 2010-08-01
★★★★☆
Johnny, after fixing video games and dead people, now gets to travel back in time with his friends and experience the Blitz. To be honest, I found this less memorable but at least as fun as the other Johnny Maxwell books.

Cover of The Wee Free Men.

The Wee Free Men

by Terry Pratchett · published 2003 · read 2010-07-01
★★★★★
This may well be the high point of the series, at least looking at it chronologically: Wee Free Men (introducing Tiffany) and Night Watch (hands-down the best Watch book) were released back-to-back, and mark a departure from jokes-first Pratchett to the writer who will hurt you and incidentally also make you laugh.

Cover of Just So Stories.

Just So Stories

by Rudyard Kipling · published 1902 · read 2010-06-01
★★★☆☆
Pretty language expressing some sweet stories and some racism and other bullshit. If you want to read these to a child, go through them first and look at what you want to edit (except if you're good enough to do that on the fly, of course).

Cover of The Book Thief.

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak · published 2005 · read 2010-06-01
★★★★☆
Sensitive, but oddly distant take on childhood in Nazi Germany.

Cover of The Sorrows of Young Werther.

The Sorrows of Young Werther

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · published 1774 · read 2010-05-01
★★★☆☆
Prototypical moping guy kills himself. Very tragic.

Cover of Krokodil im Nacken.

Krokodil im Nacken

by Klaus Kordon · published 2002 · read 2010-05-01
★★★★☆
Literary introduction to the horrors of the GDR and the Stasi. I don't remember the book well enough to say anything about its accuracy. Kordon usually tells well-researched stories that support the current narrative about past events, so that's what I'd expect. It's uncharacteristically long, and I don't remember much to justify the length.

Cover of Waiting for Godot.

Waiting for Godot

by Samuel Beckett · published 1952 · last read 2010-04-07
★★★☆☆
Waiting for Godot showed me how free literature was, and the things a determined author can do with and through (and arguably to) a group of actors. I like it for this learning impact, a lot.

Cover of The Magic Mountain.

The Magic Mountain

by Thomas Mann · published 1924 · read 2010-04-01
★☆☆☆☆
Nothing happens. People are sick and nothing happens. Then, nothing happens some more but in unspeakably long sentences. The protagonist stays in a sanatorium for seven years without ever being really sick. There are a lot of lectures.

Cover of Hogfather.

Hogfather

by Terry Pratchett · published 1996 · read 2010-03-01
★★★★☆
Hogfather is not quite peak Pratchett, but it's getting there. And, of course, even so it is better than most genre fiction by a margin. Hogfather beats you over the head with uncomfortable truths, while also having you giggle at Death trying to be jolly Father Christmas, because the cosmic bureaucrats sent out assassins against him. This is a slight problem because Hogfather is responsible for making the sun rise, naturally.

Cover of Wintersmith.

Wintersmith

by Terry Pratchett · published 2006 · read 2010-03-01
★★★★★
Like all Tiffany book, this one lives in a special place in my heart. Tiffany is growing up, and she's doing so well. … generally. She's learning, though! And let me I note that this is the book that has an entire Steeleye Span album devoted to it!

Cover of 1984.

1984

by George Orwell · published 1949 · read 2010-02-01
★★★★☆
Story time: My mother read 1984 as a teenager, in the German Democratic Republic. It was, of course, forbidden there, so it was passed around illegally, in hand-typed copies. You usually only had one chapter at a time, and not necessarily in the correct order. When I read it for the first time, she told me all that, and added as an aside: "You know, I've never quite understood why people in the free West liked this book so much. It couldn't speak to them as it did to us!"

Cover of Going Postal.

Going Postal

by Terry Pratchett · published 2004 · read 2010-02-01
★★★★☆
The post office story about innovation and all sorts of things was too on-the-nose allegorical for my tastes (though I liked Thud!, so I really shouldn't complain I suppose). As an ardent Miles Vorkosigan fan, I loved the momentum, but didn't get on with the protagonist. This might've been a three-star book, but was saved by Vetinari.

Cover of Night Watch.

Night Watch

by Sergei Lukyanenko · published 1998 · read 2010-01-01
★★★★☆
Russian Urban Fantasy. Amazing – the characters were alright, but the world building was excellent and the plot was at least above average. I enjoyed the whole series a lot, and the 90s Russia vibes were impressive.

Cover of Effi Briest.

Effi Briest

by Theodor Fontane · published 1894 · read 2010-01-01
★★☆☆☆
Dramatic, sad, but also overdone and decidedly not something you should force on school children.