All About Books discussion

2015 GOALS

(Just a sketch, I'll be updating...)


SERIES: Mystery

-Finish Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle. FINISHED 06/14/15

-Start Agatha Christie's Poirot series. STARTED 06/15/15

-Continue reading some more Carter Dickson's series (not in order, I'm afraid, because I've already started with #7).


CHALLENGES:

-Finish "What's in my name?" challenge. (10/10) FINISHED

-Continue "It's elemental, my dear!" challenge. (39/50)

-Continue the Winter challenge and see if I can join another season challenge during the year. (With points) FINISHED. I read 20 books. 225 pts of 1045.

-Bingo challenge (THIS GROUP) (25/25) FINISHED


AUTHORS: Try to focus on:

- Isaac Asimov

- Agatha Christie

- Charles Dickens


NON-FICTION:

-Psychology

-Sociology

-A bit of History

- Some about serial killers

Books that I've been "procrastinating":

✔ It by Stephen King 06/11/15. ★★★★
- The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
- The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
- The Complete Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
✔ Rage by Stephen King 03/09/15. ★★★
- Joyland by Stephen King
✔ Animal Farm by George Orwell 06/20/15. ★★★★★
✔ Lord of the Flies by William Golding 06/30/15. ★★★★★
✔ Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 05/18/15. ★★★★
✔ Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 06/13/15. ★★★
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- 1Q84 series by Haruki Murakami

I've accomplished many of the challenges I had for this year, so I'm happy with it. However, I had to leave some reads for the next one. That's all for me this year!! 12/28/15.

Good luck Paula. The books in your Books that I've been "procrastinating" sound really interesting.

I generally enjoy all three authors you plan to focus on in 2015! Do you know which specific books yet?

I've read several by Christie, but some of my favorites were Sad Cypress, Murder on the Orient Express, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and And Then There Were None.

For Asimov, I enjoyed The Foundation Trilogy and found I, Robot fascinating. If you've seen the horrible movie with Will Smith, don't hold it against the book. The movie had nothing whatsoever to do with the book; I don't even know why they bothered to use the same title. One of those 'inspired by' as opposed to 'based on' things.

I like Dickens too - I'm reading A Christmas Carol now in fact.

When you get around to The Decameron, post in the Readalongs folder. Maybe I'll read it with you. It's been on my to-read list for ages. :)

Among the other 'procrastinating' titles, I thought Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, and Lord of the Flies were all great.

Paula wrote: "2015 GOALS

(Just a sketch, I'll be updating...)


SERIES: Mystery

-Finish Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle.

-Start Agatha Christie's Poirot series.

-Co..."
Good luck Paula...great list!

Thank you Alannah, Greg and Paula (my namesake!) for your support!! I really, really appreciate it. :-) I hope that you all have a fantastic 2015 and that you achieve what you have on mind and deeply desire (not only with books but with life!). ♥

Greg: I've already read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and And Then There Were None several years ago (when I was 18 or 19 I guess) but I reread them from time to time. I really love Christie's works (I love mistery books, in fact) but for some reason (I think it's because I like to leave the best for the end, haha), I've never read more. I've seen many of the Poirot's movies, however.

I'm planning to start reading the first books of the series: The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Links, and Poirot Investigates. And of course I'll be rereading The murder of Roger Ackroyd. I don't think I'll be able to finish the series at all in just one year but my point is to get into them. I'm happy with that.

About Asimov, I read A Short History of Chemistry for a challenge a few days ago, and as I liked so much the way he explains complicated topics in such an easy way so everybody can understand them, I decided to read more non fiction books by him. The truth is that I'm not really into science fiction but maybe, I'm not sure yet, I'll give a chance Foundation (so many people can't be wrong!).

I'll leave Charles Dickens for the second half of the year but I can't wait to read A Tale of Two Cities and Oliver Twist. I read A Christmas Carol last week for Christmas and it made me cry :'-). Such a lovely book. I hope you are enjoying it too!

I'll definitely post The Decameron in the readalong, thanks for the idea! I've never done one yet and it sounds fantastic to share opinions.

Sorry if in this looong comment I made some grammatical or spelling mistakes. English is not my first language and I read it much better than I write it, haha! Thanks for your response!

Great Paula - hope you have a fantastic and fulfilling New Year as well!!

Funny that you mention Asimov's non-fiction. I wasn't even aware of it until I was searching on Goodreads to link the books for my post. But it looks like he wrote quite lot of non-fiction, including books on the planets. Looking forward to hearing which of his non-fiction books you like best. Maybe I'll try one too! :)

I've seen a great many of the Poirot movies also - so enjoyable! Your plan to work though some of the Poirot mysteries sounds fun.

And as far as A Christmas Carol goes, I've read it many times (at least 6) at this time of year, and it always makes me cry. :) It's my favorite Dickens book, though I've read and enjoyed several.

Your long message is wonderful, and I think you write in English very well! No need for apologies at all!

Yes Greg! And his non fiction is not only about science (what I first thought) but history too! The Greeks: A Great Adventure, Roman Republic and The Roman Empire are on my mind for this year.

Oh, that sounds really good! I love Greek & Roman history! I had no idea Asimov was so multi-talented!

Isaac Asimov:


Science
✔ Great Ideas of Science 03/14/15. ★★★★
✔ Hundred Basic Questions About Science 04/10/15. ★★★
✔ Breakthroughs In Science 11/16/15. ★★★
- Viaje a la ciencia
- Asimov's New Guide To Science

History
✔ The Near East: 10,000 Years of History 06/07/15. ★★★★★
✔ The Land of Canaan 09/23/15. ★★★★
✔ The Egyptians 12/26/15. ★★★★★
- The Greeks: A Great Adventure
- Roman Republic
- The Roman Empire
- Constantinople: The Forgotten Empire
- The Dark Ages
- The Shaping of England
- The Shaping of France
- The Shaping of North America from Earliest Times to 1763
- The Birth Of The United States, 1763 1816
- Our Federal Union: The United States from 1816-1865
- The Golden Door: The United States From 1865 To 1918

Misc
- How Did We Find Out about Oil?
- Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space
- Words from the Myths

Agatha Christie:


Hercule Poirot
✔ 1-The Mysterious Affair at Styles 06/30/15 ★★★
✔ 2-The Murder on the Links 07/24/15 ★★★★
✔ 3-Poirot Investigates 08/24/15 ★★★
✔ 4-The Murder of Roger Ackroyd 09/10/15 ★★★★
✔ 5-The Big Four 10/23/15 ★★★★
✔ 6-The Mystery of the Blue Train 11/20/15 ★★★★
✔ 7-Black Coffee 12/05/15 ★★★★
8-Peril at End House
9-Lord Edgware Dies
10-Murder on the Orient Express
11-Three Act Tragedy
12-Death in the Clouds
13-The A.B.C. Murders
14-Murder in Mesopotamia
15-Cards on the Table
16-Dumb Witness
17-Death on the Nile
18-Murder in the Mews
19-Appointment with Death
20-Hercule Poirot's Christmas
21-Sad Cypress
22-One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
23-Evil Under the Sun
24-Five Little Pigs
25-The Hollow
26-The Labors of Hercules
27-Taken at the Flood
28-Mrs. McGinty's Dead
29-After the Funeral
30-Hickory Dickory Dock
31-Dead Man's Folly
32-Cat Among the Pigeons
33-The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
34-The Clocks
35-Third Girl
36-Hallowe'en Party
37-Elephants Can Remember
38-Poirot's Early Cases
39-Curtain
40-Problem at Pollensa Bay
41-While the Light Lasts

Love Dame Agatha! I have never read Black Coffee though, so will be interested in hearing how you like it. How did you select these titles? I ask because I see you have The Big Four on the list -- I didn't think that one was so great.

Leslie wrote: "Love Dame Agatha! I have never read Black Coffee though, so will be interested in hearing how you like it. How did you select these titles? I ask because I see you have..."

Thank you Leslie. I thought Poirot's cases were good to start reading Agatha Christie. I have already read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and And Then There Were None several years ago but these were the only ones. I liked both and I've always said to myself that I had to continue reading Agatha Christie. I think she's the queen of mystery haha!
So, I decided to start from the begining and read Poirot's cases first. They're in order of publication. I have the first four and I'll be buying the rest (they're pretty cheap, at least here where I live and considering they're a lot, it's a good deal!).
I know some will be not so good but I'll take the chance.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to start with Miss Marple this year but at least I want to read all Poirot (what a challenge!).
Thanks for your interest. :-)

Have fun! I am currently reading the Hercule Poirot short stories -- almost done now. Although I hadn't read most of them before, they are familiar to me from the TV adaptations with David Suchet :)

Leslie wrote: "Have fun! I am currently reading the Hercule Poirot short stories -- almost done now. Although I hadn't read most of them before, they are familiar to me from the TV adaptations with David Suchet :)"

Yes, sometimea you realise you've already "met" certain stories. With Christie's books it's quite common

I agree with both of you, Leslie and Laura. But I think that if you like the style of an author, it's hard that you get tired of it.
By the way, I've also seen many of the movies and I loved them! So I can say that I know some of the stories BEFORE reading the books. Shame on me! XD

Psychology:

-The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks. ★★★★★ 01/12/15
-Cognitive Therapy of Depression by Aaron T. Beck ★★★★★ 04/07/15
-Los anormales. Curso en el Collège de France 1974-1975 by Michel Foucault ★★★★★ 04/22/15
-Arquetipos e inconsciente colectivo by C.G. Jung ★★★★★ 06/03/15
-The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm ★★★★★ 08/06/15
-Conflictos del alma infantil by C.G. Jung ★★★★ 10/03/15
-Las Relaciones Entre el Yo y el Inconsciente by C.G. Jung ★★★★★ 12/20/15

I love Sacks books. Thet remind me of my father

LauraT wrote: "I love Sacks books. Thet remind me of my father"

Really? Why?
I loved "The man who mistook...", this was my first one by him and I have An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales waiting for me. I think he makes mental or neurological disorders easy to understand and how hard is to live with people who suffer from them. He passed away a few months ago and I was very sorry for that, a big loss for the scientific community.

Paula wrote: "LauraT wrote: "I love Sacks books. Thet remind me of my father"

Really? Why?
I loved "The man who mistook...", this was my first one by him and I have [book:An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Parad..."

He was a neurologist and he introduced him to me. I loved them and appreciated how he "exlained" neurological illnesses to non insiders. I understood what aphasia really is after having read him!

Yeah!! That's what I appreciate and admire the most from authors who write non fiction (especially when it comes to subjects so complex), they way they explain them. Because maybe they're so good in their profession but when it's time to write about what they do or about what they deal with, well... they're no sooo good at all.
Very smart your dad and generous to share with you his knowledge and favorites authors :-)
Saluti! (This is one of the two or three words I know in italian, the others are insults XD)

History:

-At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson. ★★★★ 02/27/15
-The Near East: 10,000 Years of History by Isaac Asimov. ★★★★★ 06/07/15
- The Land of Canaan by Isaac Asimov. ★★★★ 09/23/15
- The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody: Great Figures of History Hilariously Humbled by Will Cuppy. ★★★★ 11/14/15
- The Egyptians by Isaac Asimov. ★★★★★ 12/26/15