My Thoughts: Microserfs - Douglas Coupland

This has always been one of those books that I felt that I should read but never fancied it, when I saw it offered as a Bookring on Bookcrossing I thought I'd have a go. AND I really enjoyed it!

I don't like computers, wouldn't know how to prgram one and wouldn't know Star Trek from Doctor Who, but despite all the techiness of this novel I got sucked into their little world. Ultimately, this is a novel about twenty-somethings striving for promotion and getting lost in the world of work. They strive for the 'life' others have but never seem to escape their circular lives, then things start to change...

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

Reading Around the World

Reading Around the World is a personal challenge to try and ensure that I read a wide range of literature and potentially learn some Geography and History at the same time. I'm counting books written by authors from that country or the book is set predominantly in that country.
There is no target date as I expect this is going to be a hard one.
I've set up my own virtual bookbox to help people trying to complete this type of challenge at Bookcrossing.com
Countries:
A
Afghanistan – The Kite Runner, Hosseini
Albania –
Algeria – The Plague, Camus
American Samoa –
Andorra –
Angola –
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina – (Place of Birth) Che Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries
Armenia –
Aruba
Australia – Mister Pip, Jones
Austria –
Azerbaijan –

B
Bahamas, The –
Bahrain –
Bangladesh –
Barbados
Belarus –
Belgium –
Belize
Benin –
Bermuda
Bhutan –
Bolivia –
Bosnia and Herzegovina[13]
Botswana –
Brazil – The Devil and Miss Prym, Coelho
Brunei –
Bulgaria –
Burkina Faso
Burundi –

C
Cambodia –
Cameroon –
Canada[14] Microserfs, Coupland
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic[15]
Chad –
Chile – Daughter of Fortune, Allende
China – Empire of the Sun, J.G Ballard
Christmas Island –
Colombia –
Comoros –
Congo –
Cook Islands
Costa Rica –
Côte d'Ivoire –
Croatia –
Cuba –
Cyprus –
Czech Republic[20]

D
Denmark – Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, Hoeg
Djibouti –
Dominica –
Dominican Republic
E
East Timor –
Ecuador –
Egypt – In the Eye of The Sun, Souief
El Salvador –
Equatorial Guinea –
Eritrea –
Estonia –
Ethiopia – The Garbage King, Laird

F
Falkland Islands
Faroe Islands
Fiji –
Finland –
France –
French Polynesia
G
Gabon –
Gambia, The –
Georgia
Germany – Siddartha, Hesse (authors birthplace)
Ghana –
Gibraltar
Greece –
Greenland
Grenada
Guam –
Guatemala –
Guernsey –
Guinea –
Guinea-Bissau –
Guyana –
H
Haiti –
Honduras –
Hong Kong –
Hungary –
I
Iceland –
India – The Space Between Us,
Indonesia –
Iran – Persian Brides, Rabinyan
Iraq –
Ireland -
Isle of Man
Israel –
Italy –
J
Jamaica
Japan - The Sound of Waves, Mishima
Jersey –
Jordan –

K
Kazakhstan –
Kenya –
Kiribati –
Korea,
Kosovo –
Kuwait –
Kyrgyzstan –
L
Laos –
Latvia –
Lebanon –
Lesotho –
Liberia –
Libya –
Liechtenstein –
Lithuania –
Luxembourg –
M
Macao –
Macedonia –
Madagascar –
Malawi –
Malaysia
Maldives –
Mali –
Malta –
Marshall Islands –
Mauritania –
Mauritius –
Mayotte –
Mexico – Like Water for Chocolate, Esquivel
Micronesia –
Moldova –
Monaco –
Mongolia -
Montenegro –
Montserrat
Morocco – A Woman of My Age, Bawden
Mozambique –
Myanmar –
N
Nagorno-Karabakh –
Namibia –
Nauru –
Nepal –
Netherlands –
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia –
New Zealand
Nicaragua –
Niger –
Nigeria –
Niue
Norfolk Island –
Northern Cyprus –
Northern Mariana Islands –
Norway – The Ringmaster's Daughter, Jostein Gaarder
O
Oman –
P
Pakistan –
Palau –
Palestine –
Panama –
Papua New Guinea –
Paraguay –
Peru –
Philippines –
Pitcairn Islands –
Poland –
Portugal – Yossel, Kubert
Puerto Rico –
Q
Qatar –
R
Romania
Russia –
Rwanda –
S
Saint Barthélemy –
Saint Helena
Saint Kitts and Nevis –
Saint Lucia
Saint Martin –
Saint Pierre and Miquelon –
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa –
San Marino –
São Tomé and Príncipe –
Saudi Arabia –
Senegal –
Serbia –
Seychelles –
Sierra Leone –
Singapore –
Slovakia –
Slovenia –
Solomon Islands
Somalia[36]
Somaliland –
South Africa- Elizabeth Costello, Coetzee
– South Ossetia –
Spain –
Sri Lanka –
Sudan –
Suriname –
Svalbard
Swaziland –
Sweden –
Switzerland –
Syria –
T
Taiwan –
Tajikistan –
Tanzania –
Thailand –
Togo –
Tokelau
Tonga –
Transnistria –
Trinidad and Tobago –
Tunisia –
Turkey – Snow, Orphan Pamuk
Turkmenistan
Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu

U
Uganda –
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom – The Years, Virginia Woolf
United States – (See bootom of page) A Walk in the Woods, Bryson
Uruguay –
Uzbekistan –
Vanuatu –
Vatican City –
Venezuela –
Vietnam –
Virgin Islands, British –
Virgin Islands, United States –
W
Wallis and Futuna –
Western Sahara[40]
Y
Yemen –
Z
Zambia
Zimbabwe

USA I will split into the States as this is where a lot of my reading comes from:

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
DC
Delaware
Florida
Georgia - Gone With the Wind, Mitchell
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi - Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Taylor
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska - The Echo Maker, Richard Powers
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York - Breakfast at Tiffany's, Capote
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington - Twilight, Meyer
West Virginia
Wisconsin Blankets, Thompson
Wyoming

MLA 30 Books Every Adult Should Read and Orange Prizes 50 Best Contemporary Reads

United Kingdom - "a World Book Day poll conducted by the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), in which librarians around the country were asked the question, 'Which book should every adult read before they die?' "
I've completed 58% of these and I reckon that I could easily finish the rest of the list in the next couple of years, BUT I doubt I'll quite make 100% as I'm not sure about reading the Bible. I aim to complete the list by 2010.
The Orange Prize have also list 50 Contemporary Great Reads of which I have read 40%, many of these books fit into the MLA or the 1001 list so I'm also tackling this!

Update June 5th, 60% complete (MLA)

My Thoughts: The Motorcycle Diaries - Che Guevara

My problem with this book was I had such high expectations, I thought it'd make me want to grab a backpack and take myself off to explore the beauty and culture of South America. The film had.

However I felt that I never got to 'see' South America or to 'know' the two travellers. As the book moved so fast from one area to another there was very little detailed description, the scenarios which were played out so well in the film were mentioned but also not given a lot of attention.

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

My Thoughts: The Book of Dave - Will Self

This book covers two worlds in alternate chapters, one is the world of Dave, a London Cabbie struggling to cope with his divorce and the lack of time he is able to spend with his child. In a state he writes The Book of Dave, a book of rules about how the world should be run. The second world is a dystopian London, The Book of Dave has been found and they live strictly by his misogynistic rules, women treated as baby incubabtors and the week divided equally into Mummytime and Daddytime.

I loved this book, the first chapter was bloody hard work as I had no idea what was going on and the phonetically spelt Cockney was torturous, but I perservered, things started coming together and the dialect become so familiar that I could read it with no problem.

The novel is filled with many messages about the way that family life is disintegrating in our multi-racial societies.

Definately well worth the effort and I'll be adding novels by Will Self to my mental TBR list.

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

My Thoughts: 44 Scotland Street - Alexander McCall Smith

I hear so much praise for this author but I have decided that he definately isn't for me. I read The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency and thought it was ok, but nothing special. So I thought I'd give another one of the books a go. This one has put me off for life. I dragged myself through the first 100 pages then abandoned it, I have far too much on my TBR pile to be reading books I don't enjoy.
The characters were flat, the situation mundane and I just thought kind of pointless.


If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

The Complete Booker

I have also joined The Complete Booker Challenge and the 2008 Booker Challenge to help me complete the first one.

So far I have read 16 Booker winners (I knew my degree would come in handy somewhere!). I have now signed up to try and read all of the Booker winners. The 2008 challenge, challenges participants to read 6 books which have won, been shortlisted or longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, they can be from any year.

I'm planning on reading:

1. The Gathering (winner)

2. The Famished Road (winner)

3. Sour Sweet (Short listed 1982)

4. Moon Tiger (winner 1986)

5. Mister Pip (Short listed 2007)

6. The Orchard on Fire (Short listed 1996)

Extra: Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh (2008 nominee)

My Booker Read's So Far and What I Still Need To Read:

1969 Something to Answer for
by P.H. Newby

1970 Elected Member
by B. Rubens

1971 In a Free State: A Novel
by V.S. Naipaul
1972 G.: A Novel
by John Berger
1973 The siege of Krishnapur;
by J. G Farrell
1974 Holiday
by Stanley Middleton
1974 The Conservationist
by Nadine Gordimer
1975 Heat and Dust
by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
1976 Saville
by David Storey
1977 Staying On: A Novel (Phoenix Fiction Series)
by Paul Scott
1978 The Sea, The Sea (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
by Iris Murdoch
1979 Offshore
by Penelope Fitzgerald
1980 Rites of Passage
by William Golding
1981 Midnight's Children (Everyman's Library)
by Salman Rushdie ***** (Really struggled with it, but definately worth perservering)
1982 Schindler's Ark (Coronet Books)
by Thomas Keneally
1983 Life and Times of Michael K: A Novel
by J. M. Coetzee
1984 Hotel Du Lac
by Anita Brookner ***** (Not my type of thing)
1985 The Bone People: A Novel
by Keri Hulme ***** (A fav of mine)
1986 The Old Devils
by Kingsley Amis
1987 Moon Tiger
by Penelope Lively ***** (ok but not outstanding)
1988 Oscar and Lucinda: movie tie-in edition
by Peter Carey ***** (Ok, but didn't live up to my expectations for it)
1989 The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro ***** (A really good read)
1990 Possession: A Romance
by A.S. Byatt ***** (One of my all time favs)
1991 The Famished Road *****
by Ben Okri
1992 The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje ***** (A modern classic)
1992 Sacred Hunger (Norton Paperback Fiction)
by Barry Unsworth
1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
by Roddy Doyle ***** ? (Read for Uni, I can't remember it at all)
1994 How Late It Was, How Late
by James Kelman
1995 The Ghost Road
by Pat Barker
1996 Last Orders
by Graham Swift
1997 The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy ***** (A really good read)
1998 Amsterdam: A Novel
by Ian McEwan ***** (He's written a lot better material)
1999 Disgrace
by J. M. Coetzee ***** (I wasn't impressed)
2000 The Blind Assassin: A Novel
by Margaret Atwood ***** (A great read as expected from Margaret Atwood)
2001 True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel
by Peter Carey
2002 Life of Pi
by Yann Martel ***** (A really great read)
2003 Vernon God Little
by DBC Pierre ***** (One of my all time most hated reads)
2004 The Line of Beauty: A Novel
by Alan Hollinghurst ***** (A good read)
2005 The Sea (Man Booker Prize)
by John Banville
2006 The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai ***** (I thought this book was trying to be too clever)
2007 The Gathering
by Anne Enright