Reading in 2005
A list of the books I read in 2005 (approx April - December).
The Piano Teacher - Elfriede Jelinek
Comment: The book is weird to say the least. Erika is a piano teacher that lives with a controlling mother and does not have any opportunity for a normal life with friends or lovers. She visits the red light districts and peeps on lovers out in nature to fulfill her kinks. The books is well written but towards the end the weirdness spawns out of control when she starts "dating" her student. What I liked the best about the book was that it did a good job of describing people and their imperfections (even though I thought the weirdness went too far in the end).
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling
Comment: It facinates me how much imagination the author has and that is what I like the most about the book. I would have loved the book when I was younger but now it qualifies as a good entertainment read. Ultimately, it is just a children's book.
Bridget Jones's Diary: A Novel - Helen Fielding
Comment: A book that depicts a real person and all her flaws. I found this to be one of the better books I have read in a long time. I felt I could identify with Bridget and even though the book might not be a literary masterpiece it did a much better job of depicting the real world than many of them.
Rainbow Valley - L.M. Montgomery
Comment: Montgomery's books have a sweet charm to them. Her writing always makes me feel like I am looking at roses and trees is flower. This particular book wasn't that intriguing since it wasn't able Anne but her children and some neighbouring children. It however gave me a good feeling even though its storyline was poor.
Fortune's Hand - Belva Plain (no)
Comment: Boring, shallow book. On the level of a bad soap opera. Enough plot to make you read through the entire book but you were dead bored while doing it.
The Buffalo Soldier - Chris Bohjalian
The worst book I have read this year. The characters felt as exciting as a white sheet of paper. The emotions they showed were unrealistic and the whole book was dead boring.
The Hundred Secret Senses - Amy Tan
Comment: Amy Tan has a knack for making colorful entertaining stories. It also has the nice addition of teaching you a little bit about Chinese culture. This story was like her other stories, nice entertainment without too much depht. Comfort reading at its best!
IOU: The Story of the Debt - Noreena Hertz
Train to Pakistan - Khushwant SinghComment: The book is very interesting if you want to learn a little history about the conflict between Pakistan and India in 1947. The books is not a masterpiece but the ending makes up for some of the less elegant parts of the book.
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Comment: The first part of the book was very good. The author did a great job of depicting the geisha while she was a child. He didn't quite succeed in portraying her as a grown-up women and she became flat, boring, and without much emotions. The descriptions of the life of a geisha and the culture in Japan were very interesting.
Here on earth - Alice Hoffman
Mediocre book. You read it without much pain but forget about it quickly afterwards.
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
Comment: Jhumpa Lahiri is an extremely talented writer. Her first novel isn't quite as spectacular as her short stories but it is really good. She does a great job of explaining Gogol's life in the US as a second generation immigrant. I could identify with him very well especially when it came to his relationship with his family. Recommended book!
Riddarar Hringstigans - Einar Már Guðmundsson
Comment: A bit of a disappointment. It is a cute story and the language used is beautiful and creative. The problem is that the main character is only a kid but things like a long lived creative grown-up. It makes the story extremely unrealistic and it looses its spark.
The Cave - Jose Saramago (no)
Comment: A stretched out story of a father and daughter struggling to maintain their living of making things out of clay. Their entire life is controlled by a big center where the daughter's husband is working. The book tries to make a point out of the allegory of Plato's Cave but since it is so long and stretched out that you are bored and annoyed when the book reaches its climax. It is also written in a strange style where commas are used extensively instead of dots which makes it difficult to read.
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
Comment: Fantastic short stores! Best short stories I have read so far. Simplistic but contain a little sparkle which makes you feel like it is Christmas night and you are reading a special beautiful story. I forced myself to read it slow to make it last longer.
Skugga-Baldur - Sjón (is)
Comment: Disappointing book! Simplistic and silly. Overrated book that seems to have won the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2005 for few artistics sentences splattered in odd places. Thankfully it was a very short book.
Angels of the Universe - Einar Már Guðmundsson (is)
Comment: My favorite Icelandic book. This is an extremely beautiful story of a man with psychological problems. It is a wonderful mixture of humor and extreme sadness. The author is said to be writing about his brother in the book, which adds an extra sparkle to the story (and some tears while reading the book).
Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity - Jakob Nielsen
Anne of Ingleside - L.M. Montgomery
The Shadow of the Sun: My African Life - Ryszard Kapuscinski
Salka Valka - Halldór Laxness (is)
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Killiansfólkið - Einar Kárason (is)
