The Book Challenge discussion

I'm aiming to read 25 in 2009. That's probably rather low for most folks around here, but I read a lot of non-fiction and a lot of it takes me a lot longer to read than it does to read fiction. That's a book roughly every other week and I doubt I've read that much in a long time since I was in grad school the last couple of years.

Hey Joel,

good luck with your challenge. 25 is no small feat, especially for heavy non-fiction books! It is a great feeling though to be able to read anything other than what is required for grad school. I know how that feels, and am happy it's over for me :)

It is quite nice indeed to be done with required readings. I'm looking forward to being able to read anything I want this year.

Since I've seen them on so many other people's threads, I'm going to start a master list:

01. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
02. Taoism by Jennifer Oldstone-Moore
03. Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander
04. Nonviolent Soldier of Islam by Eknath Easwaran
05. A Short History of the Georgian Church by P. Ioseliani
06. The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuściński
07. Soccer Against the Enemy by Simon Kuper
08. Alabama's Canyons by Charles Seifried
09. The Life and Music of Nick Cave by Maximilian Dax
10. The Art of Persian Music by Jean During
11. ESPN Guide to Psychotic Fan Behavior by Warren St. John
12. Acts of Worship by Yukio Mishima
13. Outcasts United by Warren St. John
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
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25.

Despite mentioning reading a lot of non-fiction, my first completed book of '09 is a novel...

01. Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer

I am a fan of the band Gogol Bordello, whose frontman (Eugene Hutz) plays one of the main characters (Alex) in the film version of Everything Is Illuminated . I likely wouldn't have read this novel if it weren't for the film. I enjoyed it, but I think it's often difficult to take both separately and that comparisons are constantly popping up. The film imagery was already in my mind while reading the book and in the parts omitted from the film, I found myself hoping to get back to the parts from the film. That's certainly no fault of Foer's and I think I would've enjoyed it more had I read it before seeing the film. I look forward to reading his other novel soon.

Hi Joel! I was interested to see what you had to say about this book because I recently read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which I really liked a lot. Once you have a picture in your head, it's so hard not to imagine only that so I can see where you're coming from! I do recommend Extremely Loud though, especially if you liked his writing style. Good luck with the rest of your challenge!

I'm moving along at a much quicker pace than anticipated so far. I'm sure that'll slow down at some point. Anyway, finished another...

02. Taoism by Jennifer Oldstone-Moore

A brief overview of Taoism by a professor of Religion and East Asian Studies at Wittenberg University. It was interesting, but felt a bit repetitive at times. Still, I'm glad I read it as my understanding of Taoism is greater than it was before.

Still ahead of schedule, but not nearly as far ahead as I was after the second book...

03. Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander

This is basically just the print version of the website. I didn't realize I'd read so much of it before. Still, it's pretty funny.

04. Nonviolent Soldier of Islam by Eknath Easwaran

Incredible story of Badshah Khan, a devout Muslim and practitioner of nonviolence during the Indian independence struggle. He worked closely with Gandhi and his story is inspiring and deserves a much wider audience.

05. A Short History of the Georgian Church by P. Ioseliani

History of the Georgian Orthodox Church written about 150 years ago. I didn't realize it was that old when I bought it several years ago (it's a reprint.) Definitely could've skipped this one.

06. The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuściński

Writings about Kapuściński's various adventures of cover wars in Africa, Central America, Cyprus and the Middle East. Great stuff.

I've fallen way behind on updating this challenge, but I'm still making pretty good progress. Half way finished just 4.5 months into the year.

07. Soccer Against the Enemy How the World's Most Popular Sport Starts and Fuels Revolutions and Keeps Dictators in Power by Simon Kuper

08. Alabama's Canyons The Bankhead National Forest by Charles Seifried

09. The Life And Music Of Nick Cave by Maximilian Dax

10. The Art of Persian Music by Jean During

11. ESPN Guide to Psychotic Fan Behavior by Warren St. John

12. Acts of Worship Seven Stories by Yukio Mishima

13. Outcasts United A Refugee Team, an American Town by Warren St. John