Monday, August 25, 2014

Twelve Novels in 2014

Mobile bookstore at a Tokyo swap meet.

This seems anticlimactic after having just read Lag Liv's post about her awesome family adventure to Palo Duro Canyon, a Texas State Park, (if you are into hiking you must check out her post and pictures!), but I've reached my goal of reading twelve novels in 2014 and so it's time to post the list. Here they are, in the order they were read:
  1. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  2. Persuasion by Jane Austen
  3. White Fang by Jack London
  4. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
  5. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
  6. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
  7. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
  8. Divergent by Veronica Roth
  9. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
  10. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
  11. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
  12. The Giver by Louis Lowry
(Thanks to Daisy's book club for suggesting books 5-7 and 11, which was also recommended by MC.)

I'm partial to non-fiction, but, when I set my 33x33 goals at the beginning of the year, I thought I should make room for novels too. Good call. It was a sweet relief to get lost in a book every now and again as my personal life turned into a nightmare over the summer.


I'm glad I brought my Kindle with me to Tokyo. You can log on to Amazon's US site from Japan and whispernet will deliver the title you've purchased to your Kindle just as if you're back home. Brick and mortar bookstores are alive and well in Tokyo and they do carry books written in English, but the selection is limited.

3 comments:

Cecilia said...

what was your fave? am listening to goldfinch now on audible and really liking it.

LL said...

Hey there! Thanks for the shout out :). What did you think of Divergent? I liked the first book quite a bit, in no small part I'm sure because I enjoyed wandering around a dystopian Chicago. I disliked the second book, but held out hope for the third, but then I found the third to be so TERRIBLE I was mad I'd ever read it. I still recommend book 1 though.

Reading anything else good now that you've finished your 12?

Paragon2Pieces said...

@Cecilia: Goldfinch was good! Some of the vignettes were better than others, but I think it gets off to a really great start and like that it's nice and long. I like the opportunity to see the main character grow up.

The Rosie Project was probably my favorite because it made me laugh and smile a lot. I was in just the right place to really appreciate a light-hearted, there's someone for everyone story. If you're fond of Sheldon's character on Big Bang Theory, I think you'd like this one.

@LL: YES! The third book was such a bummer... I spent most of it trying to remember who was narrating the current chapter. I wish she never took us outside the fence because the first book was a lot more fun. Have you seen the Honest Trailer? It's good for a chuckle (I embedded it a couple posts back).