I've started. Finished the book I started last year and started a new one.

1. Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science by Michael Nielsen ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

7) Hitch 22, Christopher Hitchens.
17.5 hours Audio. 10/2/12

Fascinating. A life well lived!

1. The House Next Door - Anne Rivers Siddons
2. The Bhagavad Gita - Anonymous
3. The Moral Interpretation of Religion - Peter Byrne

4. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

8) From Democrats To Kings, The Downfall Of Athens To the epic Rise Of Alexander The Great. Michael Scott.
256 pgs. 12/2/12
Just great. Fascinating, informative and entertaining.

1: Magnus Mills: Screwtop Thompson. 2/5. My favourite author has let me down.

Spinozasgalt wrote:1. The House Next Door - Anne Rivers Siddons
2. The Bhagavad Gita - Anonymous
3. The Moral Interpretation of Religion - Peter Byrne

4. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

The Gita? Ouch. I can't believe I made my way through the whole thing.

Paul G wrote:

Spinozasgalt wrote:1. The House Next Door - Anne Rivers Siddons
2. The Bhagavad Gita - Anonymous
3. The Moral Interpretation of Religion - Peter Byrne

4. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

The Gita? Ouch. I can't believe I made my way through the whole thing.

The company I order through online sent it out to me by mistake and let me keep it when they fixed up the order, so I figured I'd read it and see what the fuss was about. Big mistake! I expected to like it for the poetry or that there would be little bits of wisdom attached to the religious messages, but I didn't like any of it. I had every intention of liking it and picking out my own favourite lines, but none of it happened.

9) Last Argument of Kings, final part of The First Law trilogy, Joe Abercrombie.
670pgs. 17/2/12

Great!

Doubtdispelled wrote:9 World without End, Ken Follett - All 45 hours of it! I'm listening again straight away as there are so many characters to keep up with.

10 World without End, Ken Follett again.

Now I'm tempted to give Phillip K Dick's Exegesis a whirl but am undecided.

Exegesis is a little like a year’s supply of pub dates with some crazy dude in Klingon getup whose rants verge just a bit too close to brilliance to let you write him off completely. Every night out is a crapshoot, depending on the mix of meds and alcohol: compelling, rambling, provocative, boring, and batshit crazy by turns

1 The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
2 River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams (part II of the Otherland series)
3 Just One Look - Harlan Coben (Utter tripe, but I got sort of hooked and had to know how it would end.... predictably, the end was disappointing as well....)

Beatrice wrote:3 Just One Look - Harlan Coben (Utter tripe, but I got sort of hooked and had to know how it would end.... predictably, the end was disappointing as well....)

My mum's been reading one of his. She's not a very picky reader, but she's still disappointed .

1) George R.R. Martin - A Dance with Dragons [1016 pages]
2) Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy [180 pages]
3) Douglas Adams - The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe [180 pages]
4) Victor J. Stenger - God: The Failed Hypothesis [293 pages]
5) Douglas Adams - Life, The Universe, And Everything [190 pages]
6) Homayun Gharavi-Nouri - Emergency Room live: 81 Case Reports [254 pages]
7) Diether Nuhr - The Ultimate Guide To Everything (German: Der ultimative Ratgeber für alles) [302 pages]
8) Ferdinand von Schirach - Guilt (German: Schuld) [200 pages]

In last year's challenge, I gave a short (very short in fact) review of the books I read. This time, I decided against it, because I didn't really have the time, and let's face it, who cares?
But I feel like I have to say something about that last one. It is the second book by Ferdinand von Schirach, a German lawyer who uses his professional experiences to write short stories about crime, law and justice. It's basically short case reports that begin with a narrative description of the persons involved and the crime itself, and it usually ends in a court room, or at least with a recap of the court decision. It's written in a very cold, analytic matter-of-fact style.
Now I have to say that I think of myself as a fairly hard guy, dumb as this sounds. I don't get emotional about anything, really, and things usually don't get to me at all, only in very rare cases. This book, however, did. Mostly the first case, about a girl being raped by 8 man in a fucking horrible manner, redundant as that may sound, hit me in the face with a sledgehammer. I had to put the book down for a week before I could start again. The other stories are not as bad, sometime even a bit funny, in a grotesque way. Some are even boring, and I finished the book in less than two days, since it was fairly short. The hardest part was really that first chapter. Apparently it is based on a true story, which didn't happen exactly like the author described it, but it was a kick in the crotch nonetheless.
If you feel like being shocked and having your sense of justice shaken a little, I recommend you read that book. If anyone does, I'd be interested in hearing their opinion.

11 Four Fires, Bryce Courtney 29 hours audio

1. The House Next Door - Anne Rivers Siddons
2. The Bhagavad Gita - Anonymous
3. The Moral Interpretation of Religion - Peter Byrne
4. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

5. Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Lynne Truss
6. Reasonable Atheism: A Moral Case for Respectful Disbelief - Scott F. Aikin & Robert B. Talisse

1. The House Next Door - Anne Rivers Siddons
2. The Bhagavad Gita - Anonymous
3. The Moral Interpretation of Religion - Peter Byrne
4. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson
5. Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Lynne Truss
6. Reasonable Atheism: A Moral Case for Respectful Disbelief - Scott F. Aikin & Robert B. Talisse

7. I Capture The Castle - Dodie Smith

1. The House Next Door - Anne Rivers Siddons
2. The Bhagavad Gita - Anonymous
3. The Moral Interpretation of Religion - Peter Byrne
4. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson
5. Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Lynne Truss
6. Reasonable Atheism: A Moral Case for Respectful Disbelief - Scott F. Aikin & Robert B. Talisse
7. I Capture The Castle - Dodie Smith

8. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage - Alice Munro

11) Here On Earth, Tim Flannery.
19/3/12