reading log

2012
Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex
Spectacularly well written family drama
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Beautiful and Damned
Gorgeous story, very poetic and engrossing
W. E. B. Griffin - By Order of the President
Quite entertaining military-politico thriller
Jonas Jonasson - The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Fun, silly and light-hearted
Rudyard Kipling - The Jungle Book
Entertaining story-telling and fun characters
Smith Journal - Issue 4
Good travel read, some good stories
Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore
So amazing. Stunning
Cormac McCarthy - The Road
Powerful, bleak and emotive
David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
An amazing piece of literature. Inventive and wondrous
Cabinet - Issue 45 Games
Consistently good articles
Miranda July - No One Belongs Here More Than You
Wonderfully observed moments in life
Craig Cliff - A Man Melting
Brilliant collection of short stories, highly recommended
James Joyce - Dubliners
Pretty good short stories, minimal and melancholic
Gabriel García Márquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Amazing. An incredible read - highly recommended
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
A great read
David Foster Wallace - Girl with Curious Hair
Incredible. His first and best collection
Bill Bryson - The Mother Tongue
Pretty good look at language, but a touch repetitive and pedantic
David Foster Wallace - Oblivion: Stories
Really great stories. Continually amazing
David Foster Wallace - The Pale King
Ambitious and engrossing
Cabinet - Issue 44 24 Hours
Brilliant. Some incredible articles
Cabinet - Issue 43 Forensics
A couple of good articles, but very dry overall
Sherman Alexie - War Dances
Really good. It feels more 'grown up', but still very autobiographical
David Foster Wallace - Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
Part way through this, I changed my Religious Beliefs on Facebook to DFW. Staggeringly good.
Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Dr Norrell
A 1000-page magician fantasy recommendation from a friend. Loved it, funny and compelling
Richard Yates - Revolutionary Road
Brilliant. Some of the most complete characters I've ever read
Salman Rushdie - The Wizard of Oz
A semi-critical review of one of my fav films by a fav author. Funny and insightful

May - Dec 2011
David Foster Wallace - The Broom of the System
An incredible read, very funny, though I did wish for a full conclusion
David Foster Wallace - Everything and More
DFW + infinity = the best. Educational, entertaining and mind-expanding
Sherman Alexie - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Great writing, an amazing, entertaining story
David Foster Wallace - Consider the Lobster
Easily the best nonfiction I read in '11. Stunning writing on a great range of topics
Chuck Palahniuk - Snuff
Interesting story, but the author seems so formulaic
Chuck Palahniuk - Tell-All
The first two thirds were not so great, but there were some good twists
Richard Yates - Eleven Kinds of Loneliness
Really solemn stories, very rich characters
Salman Rushdie - Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Rushdie is such an incredible writer. Beautiful magical realism
Dave Eggers - How We Are Hungry
Some fantastic stories. The author has such a distinctive voice
H. G. Wells - The Time Machine
A really engrossing classic. Loved it
Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The first half was average, but the second really made this a great read
Reif Larsen - The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
A really wonderful book about a 12 year old mapmaker. The margins are filled with maps and illustrations!
Italo Calvino - If on a winter's night a traveller
Stunningly inventive, a fascinating read
David Foster Wallace - This is Water
Really good commencement speech Wallace gave in '05
Sherman Alexie - The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Astonishing. Some of the best stories I've ever read
Bret Easton Ellis - Less Than Zero
A well written account of apathy
Bret Easton Ellis - The Informers
A good read, hilarious, unsettling. Tragic beauty
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince
Criminally, I'd never read this before. It was wonderful
Cabinet - Issue 41, Infrastructure
Really fantastic, a great issue
Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Fascinating and beautiful, I liked how so many ideas were weaved together
Haruki Murakami - South of the Border, West of the Sun
Honest and melancholic
Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle
I've read and enjoyed most of his stuff, but this one was kind of average
Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
The first Murakami I've read - amazing. So beautifully written
Anton Chekhov - Five Great Short Stories
I really enjoyed two of the five, the others were a little dull
Kurt Vonnegut - Sirens of Titan
Outstanding. Most probably my favourite book. Beautiful, funny, sad, poignant.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
A good short read; made me appreciate the relative warmth of Melbourne weather (cf Russian gulag)
Granta - Issue 98, The Deep End
A very good mix of stories, both the fiction and non- were very honest
Joe Dunnithorne - Submarine
Very funny, and having been a teenage boy, relatable
Cabinet - Issue 39, Learning
Always brilliant, this issue was great, but had a few articles which were a bit dry
Danny Wallace - Yes Man
A really fun read, and rather inspiring

Are there any books you'd suggest I read? Comment below...