Busy reading


A selection of what I recently finished reading:

<ul>
<li> Bill Bryson -- A walk in the woods
<li> Carson McCullers -- The heart is a lonely hunter
<li> Jonathan Safran Foer -- Everything is illuminated
<li> Neal Gaiman and Terry Pratchett -- Good Omens.  Yawn - another unfinishable
<li> V.S. Naipaul -- A house for Mr. Biswas
<li> Truman Capote -- Breakfast at Tiffany's
<li> Hugo Ubaldo Ribeiro -- Viva o Povo Brasileiro
<li> Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- O Amor em tempos de Colera.
<li> F Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby
<li> Arnon Grunberg -- Tirza
<li> Jack Kerouac -- The town and the city
<li> Marcelo Rubens Paiva -- Feliz ano velho
<li> Carlos Heitor Cony -- Antes, o verão
<li> Hugo Ubaldo Ribeiro -- A casa dos Budas ditosos
<p> Muitas palavras que a Berlitz não ensina
<li> Neal Stephenson -- Snowcrash
<li> Machado de Assis -- Dom Casmurro
<li> Philip K. Dick --  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep /  The man 
  in the high castle.
		   
  <li> Jose Saramago -- Ensaio sobre a cegueira
<li> Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

<li> Neal Stephenson -- Cryptonomicon

<li> Paulo Coelho -- A Bruxa de portobello <p>
    what an incredibly
    boring book. I didn't manage to finish it.

<li> Khalid Hosseini --  De vliegeraar
  Mooie sfeertekening van Afghanistan; later brokkelt het verhaal
  wat af, en het einde is net te zoet om te geloven.
  
<li> Herodotus -- histori&euml;n.
    
<li> Howard McGee -- On Food and cooking ;  The science and lore of the
kitchen.

<li> Arnold Jonk -- Jonk's liefdesgids 

<li> Rik van Lunsen -- Seks moet je leren; alles over de lichamelijke
en psychologische aspecten van seks 

<li> Johannes van Dam -- De Dikke Van Dam

<p>

Een boek met achterinformatie over eten.  Aardig leesmateriaal als je
je over de etymologische preoccupaties van de schrijver heen kan
zetten.

<li> Michel Houellebecq -- Elementaire Deeltjes

<p>

One of the worst books I can recall reading. Houellebecq tries to
rewrite history by making his characters supposed scientific and
social celebrities.  Utterly boring.  I found no reason to read this
book to the end.

<li>Willem Elsschot -- Kaas

<li>Kate Fox -- Watching the English

<li>Ronald Giphart -- Troost

<li>Louis Couperus -- De stille kracht

<li>Bill Bryson -- A short history of nearly everything

<li>Young &amp; Simon -- iCon, Steve Jobs the greatest act in the history of business

<li>Ilja Leonard Pfeiffer -- Het Grote Baggerboek.
<p>
Weergaloos grappig taalgebruik van een ranzige baggeraar. Flinterdun
verhaal.

<li> Salman Rushdie -- Shalimar the Clown.
<p>
I love Rushdie's virtuoso use of language, and the semi-mystical
touches of India that he mixes it with. This story was thrilling (and
the ending, it's sublime) but I doubt whether I will read it again.
<p>
Rushdie makes his characters much larger than life, which prevents the
reader (me, that is) from identifying with them.

<li> William Styron -- The confessions of Nat Turner.

<li> William Dalrymple -- White Mughals.
<p>
Notwithstanding the exalted praise quoted in the book, I was a little
disappointed. Dalrymple tries to be historically accurate, which is
laudable, but it leaves his characters a bit  in the dark, his talents
as a writer notwithstanding. 

<li> J.K. Rowling --  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

<li> Gabriel Marcia Marquez -- 100 Jaar Eenzaamheid. (100 years of
loneliness)
<p>
South american soap in a sauce of surrealism.

<li> Gabriel Marcia Marquez -- Erendira

<li> Donald Knuth -- Things a computer scientist rarely talks about. 

<li> Arnon Grunberg -- De joodse messias. Een goed begin met verknipte
types die elkaar niet begrijpen, en smakelijk bijtende humor. Op de
helft brokkelt het verhaal af naar onduidelijk gezemel over de
essentie van communicatie, kunst en liefde. Het einde (hoofdpersoon
valt omhoog tot president van Israel) is een buitengewoon slechte Deus
ex Machina.

<li> Outlaws of the Marsh. A classical Chinese story about a bunch of
robbers that pillage and fight. The sub-stories are rather formulaic,
and seem to revolve around eating meat, drinking wine, sword-buckling,
and veneration of Confucian values (honoring both the state and family
hierarchy)

<li> Armande Gobry-Valle -- Iblis, ou la defroque du serpent. J'ai
commenc&eacute; lire ce roman, parce que je voulait ameliorer mon
Francais. J'ai reussi partiellement, mais pourtant je n'ai pas compris
le theme de cette livre. Peut-etre il faut recommencer un autre fois?

<li> William Sutcliffe -- Are you experienced. An account of a young
man venturing into India hoping to shag his female travel companion.
Wonderfully sarcastic view of people traveling to the east, thinking
they will find either themselves or other mystic aberrances, while the
reality of traveling turns out to revolve around drugs, sex and
run-of-the-mill struggles like diarrhea and home sickness.

<li>
Mark Z. Danielewski -- House of Leaves (Dutch translation).  This book
is a big pile of pretentious pseudo-artistic awful typography,
purporting to flourish a "Literary" novel. The lack of content is
worse than Umberto Eco's <em>Pendulum of Foucault</em>, which would
not be so bad if Danielewsky could write a compelling story. I think
it is the worst book I can recall reading.

<li> William Dalrymple -- From the Holy Mountain.  <p> Travel stories
combined with religious and historical information. This book is the
story of a pilgrimage following Christianity in the Middle East. A
beautiful story, but the tales of religious intolerance in Israel and
Turkey are especially depressing.

<li>
John Stevens -- Three Zenmasters (Dutch translation). Accounts of the
lives of japanese Zen masters Ikkyu, Hakuin and Ryokan. Especially,
the story of the iconoclast Ikkyu is touching.  If only I had his wit.

<li> 
Rascha Peper -- Rood.

<p>
Wat valt er te zeggen? Rood is de kleur van geluk, dat geldt ook voor
appels.

<li>J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
<p>
A must-read. I found the plot rather weak, though.

<li> Herman Brusselmans -- De Terugkeer van Bonanza, Guggenheimer wast
witter.
<p>
Leuk, maar na 2 delen heb ik het wel gezien. Geen puf meer voor deel
3.

<li> Jakob Nielsen - Designing Web Usability.
<li> Donna Tartt -- The Secret History.
<li> Primo Levi - collected stories. (Dutch Translation)
<li> John Irving - A son of the circus (Dutch Translation)
<li> De wetenschap van Harry Potter  (The Science of Harry Potter,
Dutch translation).
<li> Primo Levi - is dit een mens?  (Dutch Translation)
</ul>

<hr>

Actually, this list is very incomplete. Maintaining stuff like this is
more planning than I can cope with :-)