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Three-year anniversary and Top 5 List (2003-2004) Last September 2004 marked the three-year anniversary of this book-reviews page. In the past year I've read only 37 books (compared to 50 in 2002-2003, and 73 in 2001-2002) and written 32 reviews. That I Read 5. Dan Simmons's Ilium Super fun science fiction. First of a two-part series; Olympos comes out in a few months. I can't emphasize how huge and exciting this book was. 4. Daniel Keys Moran's The Long Run Another big, fun science fiction novel. Not big as in length--it's only a fraction the size of Ilium--but it's packed with ideas. Moran writes great books. Too bad he's basically stopped. 3. Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair Another fun book. I think you can see a pattern here. I'm not a fan of the depressing stuff, clearly. This is a book (and a series) for book lovers. 2. Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Ok, never mind, so I do sort of like some depressing novels. This was both an exuberant and deeply saddening novel. It's happy when the protagonists are young; not so happy when they're older. I guess that's supposed to mean something. 1. Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle I still don't know what the hell this book is about. And I'm not sure it was meant to have any logic, on a global level. Each individual storyline, however, is exquisitely and engagingly crafted. Last Year's Top 10: My Picks for the Best Books of 2002-2003. |
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