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Old 01-12-2011, 09:22 AM   #40
maianhvk
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Posts: 2,779
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: in darkness
Device: current: PPW 4. brick: K3 & Voyage.
Post Books finished in 2011

my list so far: I'll update it everytime I finish a book.

color indication:
- navy: bad/normal book.
- red: worth reading.


1/ Deception Point *: re-read.
author: Dan Brown
* paperback edtion.

2/ The Lost Symbol
author: Dan Brown
rate it 2/5.

3/ Demon Girl
author: Penelope Fletcher
rate it 1/5.

4/ La prochaine fois (in Vietnamese)
author: Marc Levy

5/ Casino Royale: book no. 1
author: Ian Fleming

6/ Live and Let Die: book no. 2
author: Ian Fleming
rate it 3/5.

7/ After the Kiss (in Vietnamese)
author: Karen Ranney
rate it 3/5.

8/ L'encyclopédie des cancres : Des rebelles et autres génies ** (in Vietnamese)
author: Jean-Bernard Pouy, Serge Bloch, Anne Blanchard
rate it 2/5.
** hardback, special edition.

9/ My beloved (in Vietnamese)
author: Karen Ranney

10/ A stranger in the mirror (in Vietnamese)
author: Sidney Sheldon

11/ Toutes ces choses qu'on ne s'est pas dites (All those things we never said)
author: Marc Levy

12/ Tuck Everlasting
author: Natalie Babbitt
Rate it 5/5 for an easy-to-read children book.

13/ S@motność w Sieci (Lonliness on the Net)
author: Janusz Leon Wiśniewski
I wasn't seriously reading this, so can't say anything about it.

14/ Godfather * (translation)
author: Mario Puzo
* a paperback edition.

15 - 18/ His Dark Materials series, including:
  1. the Golden Compass
  2. the Subtle Knife
  3. the Amber Spyglass
  4. Lyra's Oxford
author: Philip Pullman

19 -> 21/ Immortal Sheikh series trilogy
including: Lord of the desert, Vampire Sheikh and Shadow of the Sheikh.
author: Nina Bruhns

22/ Beastly
author: Alex Flinn
3/5.

23 -> 27/ the Riyria Revelations series, including:
  1. the Crown conspiracy
  2. Avempartha
  3. Nyphron Rising
  4. Emerald Storm
  5. Wintertide
  6. Percepliquis (coming in 2012)
author: Michael J. Sullivan

28/ A kiss in time
author: Alex Flinn
Rate it 2/5.

29/ The Princess Bride
author: William Goldman
The book is hilarious. Wonderful. I LOVE IT. I'll be generous on this: I give it 5/5.

30/ Three nights of sin
author: Anne Mallory
What a waste of time. 1/5.

31/ Không bao giờ là cuối * (roughly translated: "Never the last")
author: Xuân Quỳnh
This is a poetry, including many poems all well-known and un-known ones by Xuân Quỳnh, a favorite Vietnamese poet of mine. I rate this 3.5/5.
* this is a paperback edition.

32/ The Name of The Wind
author: Patrick Rothfuss

33-35/ Hunger Games series, containing:
  1. Hunger Games
  2. Catching Fire
  3. Mockingjay
author: Suzanne Collins

36/ The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles, #1)
author: Rick Riordan
I'm not impressed.

37/ The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus, #1)
author: Rick Riordan.

38/ The Book Thief
author: Markus Zusak
It's a terrific book.

39/ The Wise Man's Fear
author: Patrick Rothfuss
The series does improve, I think this book is better than its prequel.

40-43/ The Mortal Instruments series, including:
  1. City of Bones
  2. City of Ash
  3. City of Glass
  4. City of Fallen Angels

On "City of Fallen Angels": I read this just because I'd read the 3 books before it. Boring plots, but supported by a touch of humor now and then, it wasn't too bad.

44-50/ The Chronicles of Narnia, including:
  1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 4/5
  2. Prince Caspian 4/5
  3. Dawn Treader 3/5
  4. Silver Chair 2/5
  5. The Horse and His Boy
  6. Magician's Nephew 2/5
  7. The Last Battle

On "The Voyage of Dawn Treader":
Spoiler:
So this was the last book in which the Pevensies had major roles. I've moved on to "The Silver Chair" (haven't finished it yet) but I think I enjoy the Pevensies' adventures most. I like Edmund best though he was bad at the beginning, and when time comes he has a sharp tongue. Then, Lucy with her pure heart and Peter, the one who's protective and caring and brave. It's Susan whom I like least, she's vaguely built in the whole story.

Eustace came later and made an appearance in this book, and he'll come back in some books later on with his friend Jill (I must say I don't like them very much). And it's all for now, I'll update the review if some ideas strike my mind.


51-55/ Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, including:
  1. How to train your dragon
  2. How to be a pirate
  3. How to speak Dragonese
  4. How to cheat a dragon's curse
  5. How to twist a dragon's tale

56/ Red Riding Hood
authors: Sarah Blakely-Cartwright (and someone else whose name I forget)

Spoiler:
I enjoyed it at the beginning when small Valerie came out to the goat's place and saw the Wolf. From that on, reading was just for the sake of hoping things would get more exciting. Especially after the older sister died, I don't even remember her name, things got unbearable.

I couldn't understand why the authors lingered that much on such a nonsense detail of the death by one supporting character? Valerie's family and village agonized for what looked like a century for me. Pages after pages the authors went on describing how the living people missed that dead one. Sure losing someone you loved was overwhelming, that I knew, but by inserting "and Valerie thought of her poor sister who has that smile she loved" everywhere since her death, the authors were getting on my nerves. By talking so much about agony, they gave me the impression that what Valerie felt about her sister was fake. I was saying out loud, "PLEASE let's talk about other stuffs like the wolf and that mysterious Peter, whatever! STOP that nonsense!"

And there's something else. At the end of the book, they said something like, "if you want to know how this (crap) ends, go watch the movie". Now THAT caught me off guard. It's irritating, isn't it, when you pay for the book and in the end, figure out that you have to pay for the movie too if you wanna know the ending??

It's not neccessary to mention the fact that when it asked me to rate the book after finishing it, I gave it 1 star without second thought.


57/ Water for Elephants
author: Sarah Gruen

58/ A Game of Thrones
author: George R. R. Martin
It's a very complicated series, which hasn't been finished, by the way. 2/5. More info on the whole series in the "talk to me about Game of Thrones" thread.

59/ From Russia with Love, book no. 3
author: Ian Fleming
An interesting book I'm not into espionage but it's readable, almost as good as Casino Royale. 3/5.

60/ Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
author: Robert Louis Stevenson
No I didn't like it enough to finish it, and I'm sure I'll never come back to give it another go. Can't understand why it's considered classic. 1/5.

61/ Storm Front
author: Jim Butcher
The first book wasn't impressive as its praises. I'm reluctant to continue with Dresden Files. 1/5.

62/ Monster Hunter International
author: Larry Correia
After several boring ones I finally picked up MHI and was very satisfied. 4/5.

63/ Monster Hunter Vendetta
author: Larry Correia
After MHI, I simply had to read MHV. A great book for leisure reading.

64 - 66/ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory + Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator + Fantastic Mr. Fox
author: Roald Dahl, illustrator: Quentin Blake

67/ The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
author: Douglas Adams

68/ The Restaurant At The End of The Universe
author: Douglas Adams

69/ Life, The Universe and Everything
author: Douglas Adams

70/ The Color of Magic (Discworld 1)
author: Terry Pratchett
I finished this book but knew next to nothing about the inside jokes, which made up 90% of its success. I think I would reread when I finish Jordan's books.

71/ Stardust
author: Neil Gaiman

72/ The Alchemist
author: Paulo Coelho

73/ Night Watch
author: Sergei Lukyanenko

74/ The Shadow of the Wind
author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón

75/ Lịch sử thế giới cận đại * (roughly translated as, "Modern History of the world")
author: Vũ Dương Ninh, Nguyễn Văn Hồng
* paperback

76/ The Picture of Dorian Gray
author: Oscar Wilde

77/ I, Robot
author: Isaac Asimov

78/ Monster Hunter Alpha
author: Larry Correia

79/ To Kill A Mockingbird
author: Harper Lee

80/ City of Ember
author: Jeanne DuPrau

81/ Vang bóng một thời* (in Vietnamese)
author: Nguyễn Tuân
It has 18 short stories written in 1940 (that was before we gained Independence from France, so the author wasn't influenced by the revolution's ideology as he was later on), by one of the biggest names in Vietnamese literature. He was famous for his unique and impressive wording, and his various inventions of extraordinary new words.
* paperback

82/ Inkheart*
author: Cornelia Funke
* borrowed from Blues.

83/ Lord of the Flies*
author: William Golding
* library, hardback

84/ Breakfast at Tiffany's*
author: Truman Capote
* library, hardback

85/ The Gargoyle*
author: Andrew Davidson
* paperback, translation.

86/ The Hobbit
author: J. R. R. Tolkien

87/ The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus, #2)
author: Rick Riordan

88/ Seriously...I'm Kidding
author: Ellen DeGeneres

89/ A Christmas Carol
author: Charles Dickens

90/ Principles of Economics *
author: N. Gregory Mankiw
* paperback translation

91/ One Day
author: David Nicholls

HALT:
So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish by Douglas Adams (just begun)
Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie
Émile, ou de l'Éducation by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (hardback, translation.)

STILL READING BY THE END OF 2011:
A Tale of 2 Cities by Charles Dickens; and
Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville.

Final words: So it was 91/100. But I'm satisfied, because we had to read likecrazy at school, so 91% is acceptable.

Last edited by maianhvk; 01-01-2012 at 12:31 PM. Reason: The final list!
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