Books I've read so far this year...

[nekosensei]

1. The human Christ: the search for the historical Jesus by Charlotte Allen.
2. Lisey's Story by Stephen King
3. Orientalism by Edward Said
4. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
5. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
6. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
7. Language death: The Life Cycle of a Scottish Gaelic Dialect by Nancy C. Dorian
8. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
9. The Inferno by Dante Alighieri. Tranlated by Robert Pinsky.
10. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
11. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
12. Fray by Joss Whedon
13. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
14. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
15. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
16. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
17. The Bone People by Keri Hulme
18. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
19. The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
20. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
21. The Doll's House, Dream Country, and Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman
22. Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama
23. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
24. A Game of You and Fables & Reflections by Neil Gaiman
25. Brief Lives, Worlds' End, The Kindly Ones, and The Wake by Neil Gaiman
26. Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
27. Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman
28. The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki
29. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
30. The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride
31. Beauty by Sheri Tepper

32. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole -- This was really a very interesting book. Maybe I have a twisted sense of humor, but I must admit that I got quite a few laughs out of this tragicomedy. It's title was based on a quote by Jonathon Swift that says, "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." And indeed, the protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly, an eccentric man who describes himself as a medievalist, gains himself quite a few enemies with his bizarre world view and outlandish behavior. The story behind the author of the book, John Kennedy Toole, is also very sad. He wrote the novel in the 1960s and sent it to Simon and Schuster in an attempt to get it published. His novel was rejected and, eventually, Toole sank into a depression. He killed himself in 1969. After his death, his mother encouraged a professor at Loyola University in New Orleans to read the book. The professor promoted the book, which was later published in 1980. Then, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981. That's quite a story. The author ended his life after not being able to publish his book, only to be published and awarded the Pulitzer Prize after his death...

Comments

[pjordha.livejournal.com]

I've started "A confederacy of dunces" a few times over the years and have it on my list of books to read in 2008. I don't know why I never could get into it before, but it's been sitting in my bookshelf for 15 years.