There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.
Christopher Morley, 1890 - 1957
Christopher Morley at WikipediaRead, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
Christopher Morley, Ibid
Into 2008: What Did You Read Last Year?
What did you read last year that you really enjoyed and would recommend to others to read and why ( a paragraph or two). Who is your favorite author and why? What book would you recommend that others don't read and why.
What was the last movie that you saw that prompted you to read the book that it was based on? Which was better, the book or the movie?
What recommendations to you have for authors/ illustrators of childrens' books? Please specify age of intended audiences for specific titles
I would like to get your opinions and share them with others in this blog. Please write to me at hoff_bob2003@yahoo.com I reserve the right to only publish only opinions that support reading since that is the purpose of this blog.
If you want to attack reading and put it down, teach yourself HTML computer language and start our own blog. So there.
New York Times, Best Sellers, Jan 13th
ThisWeek--Paperback Trade Fiction
1
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH, by Ken Follett. (New American Library, $24.95 and $20.) Murder, arson and lust surround the building of a 12th-century cathedral.
2
THE KITE RUNNER, by Khaled Hosseini. (Riverhead, $15.95 and $14.) An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared.
3
ATONEMENT, by Ian McEwan. (Anchor, $14.95.) A chronicle of the disintegration of an English family’s idyllic life.
4
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA, by Gabriel García Márquez. (Vintage International, $14.95.) A Colombian poet’s love for a woman is tested.
5
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, by Sara Gruen. (Algonquin, $13.95.) A young man — and an elephant — save a Depression-era circus.
6
I AM LEGEND, by Richard Matheson. (Tor/Tom Doherty, $14.95.) In this reissued horror novel, plague survivors, turned into vampires, seek to destroy the one man who appears immune to the disease.
7
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, by Cormac McCarthy. (Vintage, $14.) Mayhem ensues in this reissued novel after a West Texas man stumbles upon $2 million in drug money — and decides to keep it.
8THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER, by Kim Edwards. (Penguin, $14.) A doctor’s decision to secretly send his newborn daughter, who has Down syndrome, to an institution haunts everyone involved.
9
THE ROAD, by Cormac McCarthy. (Vintage, $14.95.) A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.
10
THE ALCHEMIST, by Paulo Coelho. (HarperSanFrancisco, $13.95 and $13.) A Spanish shepherd boy travels to Egypt in search of treasure.
11
PS, I LOVE YOU, by Cecelia Ahern. (Hyperion, $13.95.) A young widow performs a series of tasks laid out in a package of letters written by her husband.
12
WORLD WAR Z, by Max Brooks. (Three Rivers, $14.95.) An “oral history” of an imagined Zombie War that nearly destroys civilization.
13
THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN, by Mitch Albom. (Hyperion, $12.) An old man who died trying to rescue a girl finds all is explained in the afterlife.
14
SUITE FRANÇAISE, by Irène Némirovsky. (Vintage, $14.95.) Two novellas, which came to light more than 50 years after the author’s death at Auschwitz.
15
THE EMPEROR’S CHILDREN, by Claire Messud. (Vintage, $14.95.) Privileged 30-somethings try to make their way in literary New York just before 9/11.
16
THE THIRTEENTH TALE, by Diane Setterfield. (Washington Square, $15.) A biographer struggles to discover the truth about an aging writer who has mythologized her past.
17
MIDDLESEX, by Jeffrey Eugenides. (Picador, $15.) An epic story about three generations of Greek-Americans, told by a hermaphrodite.
18
DEAR JOHN, by Nicholas Sparks. (Warner, $13.99.) An unlikely romance between a soldier and an idealistic young woman is tested in the aftermath of 9/11.
19
WHAT IS THE WHAT, by Dave Eggers. (Vintage, $15.95.) The fictionalized autobiography of one of Sudan’s “Lost Boys,” refugees from its civil war.
20
HALO: CONTACT HARVEST, by Joseph Staten. (Tom Doherty Associates, $14.95.) A squad of marines and militia trainees is called to save a farming colony threatened by an aggressive alien empire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/books/bestseller/0113bestpapertradefiction.html?_r=1&oref=sloginPaperback Trade Non-Fiction
1
EAT, PRAY, LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert. (Penguin, $15.) A writer’s yearlong journey in search of self takes her to Italy, India and Indonesia.
2 THE INNOCENT MAN, by John Grisham. (Delta, $16; Dell, $7.99.) Grisham’s first nonfiction book concerns a man wrongly sentenced to death.
3 THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. (Penguin, $15.) A former climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
4
INTO THE WILD, by Jon Krakauer. (Anchor, $12.95.) A man’s obsession with the wilderness ends in tragedy.
5
CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR, by George Crile. (Grove, $14.95; $14.) A chronicle
6
90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN, by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey. (Revell, $12.99.) A minister on the otherworldly experience he had after an accident.
7
THE GLASS CASTLE, by Jeannette Walls. (Scrib ner, $15.) The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she and her siblings moved constantly.
8
THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA, by Michael Pollan. (Penguin, $16.) Tracking dinner from the soil to the plate, a journalist juggles appetite and conscience.
9
THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, by Barack Obama. (Three Rivers, $14.95.) The Illinois senator proposes that Americans move beyond their political divisions.
10
TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, by Mitch Albom. (Broadway, $13.95; Anchor, $6.99.) The author tells of his visits to his old college mentor. (†)11
THE WORLD IS FLAT, by Thomas L. Friedman. (Picador, $16.) A new edition of the Times columnist’s analysis of 21st-century economics and foreign policy.
12
THE TIPPING POINT, by Malcolm Gladwell. (Back Bay/Little, Brown, $14.95.) A study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
13
SMOKE, MIRRORS, AND MURDER: AND OTHER TRUE CASES, by Ann Rule. (Pocket, $7.99.) Tales of true crime.
14
BLINK, by Malcolm Gladwell. (Back Bay/Little, Brown, $15.99.) The importance of instinct.
15
I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL, by Tucker Max. (Citadel, $12.95.) Reflections of a self-absorbed, drunken womanizer.
16
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC, by Daniel J. Levitin. (Plume, $15.) A rocker-turned-neuroscientist on the connection between music and human nature.
17
THE PORTABLE ATHEIST, edited by Christopher Hitchens. (Da Capo, $17.50.) Dozens of readings for nonbelievers
18
THIS I BELIEVE, edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with John Gregory and Viki Merrick. (Holt, $14.) Eighty essayists complete the thought begun in the book’s title; based on the NPR series.19
KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL, by Deborah Rodriguez with Kristin Ohlson. (Random House, $14.95.) An American sets out to help Afghan women.
20
TOO LATE TO SAY GOODBYE, by Ann Rule. (Pocket, $7.99.) A tale of jealous rage emerges in the inquiry into the apparent suicide of a dentist’s wife.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/books/bestseller/0113bestpapernonfiction.html
He who lends a book is an idiot. He who returns the book is more of an idiot.Anonymous, Arabic Proverb
http://www.ifla.org/I/humour/author.htm
© Bob Hoff, 2008
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