Albert's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 09 May 2025 00:55:31 -0700 60 Albert's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Immortality 28634
'It will make you cleverer, maybe even a better lover. Not many novels can do that.' Nicholas Lezard, GQ]]>
400 Milan Kundera 057114456X Albert 5 4.16 1990 Immortality
author: Milan Kundera
name: Albert
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/05/09
shelves: owned-books, currently-reading
review:

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The Hours 214169680
Exiled in Richmond in the 1920s, taken from her beloved Bloomsbury and watched by her husband Leonard, Virginia Woolf struggles to tame her rebellious mind and make a start on her new novel.

In the brooding heat of 1940s Los Angeles, a young wife and mother yearns to escape the claustrophobia of suburban domesticity and read her precious copy of ‘Mrs Dalloway�.

And in New York in the 1990s, Clarissa Vaughan steps out of her smart Greenwich Village apartment and goes shopping for flowers for the party she is giving in honour of her life-long friend Richard, an award-winning poet whose mind and body are being ravaged by AIDS.

Michael Cunningham’s exquisite and deeply moving novel is a meditation on artistic behaviour, failure, love and madness. Moving effortlessly across the decades and between England and America, Cunningham’s elegant, haunting prose explores the pain and trauma of creativity and the immutable relationship between writer and reader.]]>
240 Michael Cunningham 0008706123 Albert 5 Cunningham captures the angsty, descriptive language-use of Woolf so brilliantly and has this similar
ability as Michael Ondaatje to use the environment and details of the surroundings to tell the story as much as the actual narrative does. A rare and incredible talent.
A tender and emotionally complex novel, but refreshingly free of cheap sentimentality. ]]>
4.14 1998 The Hours
author: Michael Cunningham
name: Albert
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/08
date added: 2025/05/08
shelves:
review:
Beautiful.
Cunningham captures the angsty, descriptive language-use of Woolf so brilliantly and has this similar
ability as Michael Ondaatje to use the environment and details of the surroundings to tell the story as much as the actual narrative does. A rare and incredible talent.
A tender and emotionally complex novel, but refreshingly free of cheap sentimentality.
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<![CDATA[The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea]]> 202099164 A beautiful hardback edition of a great Japanese classic, beautiful, lyrical and deeply ominous.

A band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic.

They regard this disillusionment as an act of betrayal on his part - and the retribution is deliberate and horrifying.

'Mishima's greatest novel, and one of the greatest of the past century' The Times]]>
144 Yukio Mishima 178487972X Albert 5 In a disappointing world of literature where easy reads and instant gratification rule supreme this little book has charmed me into grappling with its content and I think it will swill around in my head for quite some time.]]> 3.86 1963 The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea
author: Yukio Mishima
name: Albert
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/06
date added: 2025/05/06
shelves:
review:
There is something deeply disturbing about this book, an uncomfortable read, and ultimately a work of untethered genius. It is a 'Lord of the Flies' kind of prodding into the unconscious of man, driven by Oedipal desires and disgust.
In a disappointing world of literature where easy reads and instant gratification rule supreme this little book has charmed me into grappling with its content and I think it will swill around in my head for quite some time.
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<![CDATA[Winnie-the-Pooh: The Complete Collection of Stories and Poems]]> 1177615 432 A.A. Milne 0416188435 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 4.54 Winnie-the-Pooh: The Complete Collection of Stories and Poems
author: A.A. Milne
name: Albert
average rating: 4.54
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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Easy Guide to Piano 2822347 0 Chris Coetzee 1845171969 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 0.0 2004 Easy Guide to Piano
author: Chris Coetzee
name: Albert
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read, owned-books
review:

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Momo 45858708
--penguin.com.au]]>
240 Michael Ende 0140317538 Albert 5 4.31 1973 Momo
author: Michael Ende
name: Albert
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1973
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
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Lord of the Flies 527021 9780571191475

A plane crashes on an uninhabited island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast.]]>
225 William Golding Albert 5 3.69 1954 Lord of the Flies
author: William Golding
name: Albert
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1954
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
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Lord of the Flies 6434567 313 William Golding 0399533370 Albert 5 owned-books 3.50 1954 Lord of the Flies
author: William Golding
name: Albert
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1954
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: owned-books
review:

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Bridge to Terabithia 26028181
Jesse Aarons wants to be the fastest boy in the class, but when Leslie Burke moves into the neighbouring farm his life changes forever. Even though she runs faster than him, Jesse thinks Leslie is all right- she's clever, funny and has good ideas. It is Leslie who invents Terabithia, the secret magical kingdom on an island across the creek where Jesse can escape his troublesome family. But one day tragedy strikes and Jess needs to find the courage to overcome his fears...]]>
178 Katherine Paterson 0141359781 Albert 5 4.05 1977 Bridge to Terabithia
author: Katherine Paterson
name: Albert
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1977
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/04/08
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<![CDATA[Von Bek (Eternal Champion, #2)]]> 18683073
This is the story of Ulrich von Bek, a cynical mercenary who sells his skills as a soldier in the wars taking place all over Europe. After the particularly horrific destruction of a city in which he played a role, von Bek decides to desert the military company he was working for and travel alone for awhile before seeking further employment.

On his solo journey, he happens upon a castle where he takes refuge with - and then falls in love with - the keeper of the castle, the beautiful Sabrina. It is in this castle that he meets Lucifer, the master of Hell, and finds out that his soul is already destined for Hell. And so, in exchange for his soul, von Bek agrees to go on a quest for Lucifer, namely to find the Cure for the World's Pain. This quest is also known as the Search for the Holy Grail.

As von Bek travels around Europe on his impossible quest, he will find himself caught up in wars, politics, intrigue and romance. But he can never forget his purpose - or the terrible bargain he has made with the devil...

Contains THE WARHOUND AND THE WORLD'S PAIN and THE CITY IN THE AUTUMN STARS.

Other details

ISBN: 9780575092457
Publication date: 10 Oct 2013
Page count: 608

Biographical Notes

Born in London in 1939, Michael Moorcock is the legendary editor of the influential NEW WORLDS magazine and a prolific and award-winning writer with more than 80 works of fiction and non-fiction to his name. He is the creator of Elric, Hawkmoon, Jerry Cornelius and Colonel Pyat, amongst many other memorable characters.
The greatest writer of post-Tolkien British fantasy.

A supreme example of the fantasy genre and more � TIME OUT

Scenes of beauty and power, and serious ruminations on humankind's capacity for great dreams and profound horrors � LOCUS]]>
586 Michael Moorcock 0575092459 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 4.05 1992 Von Bek (Eternal Champion, #2)
author: Michael Moorcock
name: Albert
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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Graphic Classics Oliver Twist 444777 48 John Malam 0764134906 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.81 1990 Graphic Classics Oliver Twist
author: John Malam
name: Albert
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read, owned-books
review:

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A Monster Calls 25480342 The bestselling novel about love, loss and hope from the twice Carnegie Medal-winning Patrick Ness.

Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don't quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there's a visitor at his window. It's ancient, elemental, a force of nature. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.

Patrick Ness takes the final idea of the late, award-winning writer Siobhan Dowd and weaves an extraordinary and heartbreaking tale of mischief, healing and above all, the courage it takes to survive.]]>
237 Patrick Ness 1406361801 Albert 5 4.28 2011 A Monster Calls
author: Patrick Ness
name: Albert
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/03/25
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I am the Messenger 22957136
He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence - until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That's when the first ace arrives in the mail.

That's when Ed becomes The Messenger.

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (where necessary) until only one question remains: who's behind Ed's mission?]]>
459 Markus Zusak 1909531367 Albert 5
In many ways I enjoyed it more than 'The Book Thief' however it could just be because being in the mind of Ed throughout the book was nothing but nostalgic recognition to me. I felt so at home within this mental struggle of a young man: the self-doubt which is sometimes countered by just pure impulsive and sometimes dangerous behaviour; the first realisation in one's life that acceptance of unwanted circumstances in one's life is sometimes and strangely necessary before change can actually happen; and ironically sometimes intervening is the only chance for change; and how these paradoxes in life can actually comfortably co-exist. And so much more.

'I am the Messenger' is a highly underrated gem of a novel.
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3.92 2002 I am the Messenger
author: Markus Zusak
name: Albert
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves:
review:
Markus Zusak has the incredible ability to write a story that is thematically subtle and complex while still maintaining a simple and witty writing-style and I really think that is a rare skill amongst writers. That is probably one of the reasons why it is so easy to shelf his books in the young adult/teen section. A young person can read it and be exposed to some of the sad and harsh realities of life without being completely traumatised by it.

In many ways I enjoyed it more than 'The Book Thief' however it could just be because being in the mind of Ed throughout the book was nothing but nostalgic recognition to me. I felt so at home within this mental struggle of a young man: the self-doubt which is sometimes countered by just pure impulsive and sometimes dangerous behaviour; the first realisation in one's life that acceptance of unwanted circumstances in one's life is sometimes and strangely necessary before change can actually happen; and ironically sometimes intervening is the only chance for change; and how these paradoxes in life can actually comfortably co-exist. And so much more.

'I am the Messenger' is a highly underrated gem of a novel.

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The Inkheart Trilogy 8138797 1146 Cornelia Funke 1906427283 Albert 0 to-read 4.15 2008 The Inkheart Trilogy
author: Cornelia Funke
name: Albert
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Earl Aubec (Tale of the Eternal Champion, #13)]]> 757194 Michael Moorcock 0752809121 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.77 1993 Earl Aubec (Tale of the Eternal Champion, #13)
author: Michael Moorcock
name: Albert
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: to-read, owned-books
review:

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<![CDATA[Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon #1)]]> 10362658 867 China Miéville 0330534238 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 4.09 2000 Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon #1)
author: China Miéville
name: Albert
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[The Nano Flower (Greg Mandel #3)]]> 12184599 599 Peter F. Hamilton 0330537814 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.84 1995 The Nano Flower (Greg Mandel #3)
author: Peter F. Hamilton
name: Albert
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read, owned-books
review:

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<![CDATA[The Book of the Dead: The Hieroglyphic Transcript and Translation into English of the Ancient Egyptian Papyrus of Ani]]> 845001 704 E.A. Wallis Budge 0517122839 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.81 -1500 The Book of the Dead: The Hieroglyphic Transcript and Translation into English of the Ancient Egyptian Papyrus of Ani
author: E.A. Wallis Budge
name: Albert
average rating: 3.81
book published: -1500
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[If on a Winter's Night a Traveller]]> 52513609 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino. You like it. But there's a printer's error in your copy. You take it back to the shop and get a replacement. But the replacement seems to be a totally different story. You try to track down the original book you were reading but end up with a different narrative again. This remarkable novel leads you through many different books including a detective adventure, a romance, a satire, an erotic story, a diary and a quest. But the hero of them all is you, the reader.]]> 260 Italo Calvino Albert 5 3.83 1979 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
author: Italo Calvino
name: Albert
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at: 2018/10/23
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves:
review:

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Take Back Plenty 12137436
Winner of both the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel of the year and the British Science Fiction Association Award for best novel of the year--the only book ever to win both prestigious British awards.]]>
496 Colin Greenland 0575119527 Albert 0 to-read, sf-masterworks 3.44 1990 Take Back Plenty
author: Colin Greenland
name: Albert
average rating: 3.44
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/29
shelves: to-read, sf-masterworks
review:

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<![CDATA[Elric: The Revenge of the Rose (Elric Chronological Order, #5)]]> 18467574 The Michael Moorcock Collection presents for the first time, definitive editions of Moorcock's most influential work, fully revised and updated by the author.

Feared by enemies and friends alike, Elric of Melniboné walks a lonely path among the worlds of the multiverse. The destroyer of his own cruel and ancient race, as well as its final ruler, Elric is the bearer of a destiny as dark and cursed as the vampiric sword he carries - the sentient black blade known as Stormbringer.

The soul of Elric's father is tortured and suffering. To free it, Elric must face the princes of hell, and put all of his trust in one woman - the Rose.

With an introduction by Holly Black, and containing THE REVENGE OF THE ROSE as well as associated short stories, this collection presents Moorcock's greatest creation in a revised and approved order.]]>
464 Michael Moorcock 057511410X Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.79 Elric: The Revenge of the Rose (Elric Chronological Order, #5)
author: Michael Moorcock
name: Albert
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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The Portrait of a Lady 137270
An American heiress newly arrived in Europe, Isabel does not look to a man to furnish her with her destiny; instead she desires, with grace and courage, to find it herself. Two eligible suitors approach her and are refused. She then becomes utterly captivated by the languid charms of Gilbert Osmond. To him, she represents a superior prize worth at least seventy thousand pounds; through him, she faces a tragic choice.

Numerous critics regard The Portrait of a Lady (1882) as James's masterpiece. F.R. Leavis declared that 'we can't ask for a finer exhibition of James's peculiar gifts', and placed it with The Bostonians as one of 'the two most brilliant novels in the language'.]]>
649 Henry James 014043223X Albert 0 owned-books, to-read 3.74 1881 The Portrait of a Lady
author: Henry James
name: Albert
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1881
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/14
shelves: owned-books, to-read
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Coraline 3589589
When Coraline steps through a door in her family's new house, she finds another house strangely similar to her own (only better). But there's another mother there and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to "change" her and never let her go.

Acclaimed artist P. Craig Russell brings Neil Gaiman's enchanting, nationally bestselling children's book "Coraline" to new life in this gorgeously illustrated graphic novel adaptation.]]>
186 P. Craig Russell 0747594066 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.92 2008 Coraline
author: P. Craig Russell
name: Albert
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/05
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]> 6660228 158 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 0297858912 Albert 4 owned-books 4.28 1962 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Albert
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2018/07/27
date added: 2023/11/24
shelves: owned-books
review:

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Collins Good Writing Guide 1432574 Graham King 0007208685 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 4.29 2003 Collins Good Writing Guide
author: Graham King
name: Albert
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[Doctor Faustus and Other Plays (The ^AWorld's Classics)]]> 2418321 Tamburlaine Part One and Part Two deal with the rise to world prominence of the great Scythian shepherd-robber; The Jew of Malta is a drama of villainy and revenge; Edward II was to influence Shakespeare's Richard II . Doctor Faustus , perhaps the first drama taken from the medieval legend of a man
who sells his soul to the devil, is here in both its A- and its B- text, showing the enormous and fascinating differences between the two.
Under the General Editorship of Dr. Michael Cordner of the University of York, the texts of the plays have been newly edited and are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation. In addition, there is a scholarly introduction and detailed annotation.]]>
538 Christopher Marlowe 0192827375 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.89 1589 Doctor Faustus and Other Plays (The ^AWorld's Classics)
author: Christopher Marlowe
name: Albert
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1589
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/03
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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A Fish Dinner in Memison 274065 A Fish Dinner in Memison amuse themselves with the creation of a sadly flawed world � and in an instant spend a lifetime in it.]]> 318 E.R. Eddison 0345278534 Albert 0 to-read 3.69 1941 A Fish Dinner in Memison
author: E.R. Eddison
name: Albert
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1941
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/21
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The London Scene: Six Essays on London Life]]> 18841
The essays cover London Docks, Oxford Street Tide, Great Men's Houses, Abbeys and Cathedrals, "This is the House of Commons", and Portrait of a Londoner. The essays were first published in the 'Good Housekeeping' magazine, beginning in the spring of 1931 and then bi-monthly through to December 1932.

There is also a chapter on 'The History of The London Scene', which when first published in America was entitled 'The London Scene: Five Essays.' 'The Portrait of a Londoner' was the essay not included and, indeed, this edition has that essay included in the collection for the first time.]]>
96 Virginia Woolf 0060881283 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.87 2004 The London Scene: Six Essays on London Life
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Albert
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/27
shelves: to-read, owned-books
review:

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The War Amongst The Angels 21111757 Scaramouche meets Douglas Adams as Rose and her friends fight the War in Heaven against the Dark Angel Lucifer.]]> 448 Michael Moorcock 0575092734 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 4.33 1996 The War Amongst The Angels
author: Michael Moorcock
name: Albert
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/12
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[Elric: The Sleeping Sorceress (Elric Chronological Order, #4)]]> 18467588 Moorcock's Multiverse presents for the first time definitive editions of Michael Moorcock's most influential work, fully revised and updated by the author.

Gollancz is very proud to present the author's definitive editions of the saga of Elric, the last emperor of Melniboné. Michael Moorcock and his long-time friend and bibliographer John Davey have collaborated to produce the most consistent and coherent narrative from the disparate novels, novellas, short stories and non-fiction about Elric. From his early life in Melniboné all the way through to his final days, these seven volumes will be the definitive telling of the albino prince's story.

Elric is one of the great creations of modern fantasy, and has inspired legions of imitators. If you know his story already, then this definitive edition will finally let you read the entire saga in the author's preferred order. If you've never experienced the chronicles of the albino with the soul-sucking sword, then this is the perfect place to start.

Containing stories, novellas, supplementary material and commentary, these editions of ELRIC are the finest yet.]]>
404 Michael Moorcock 057511388X Albert 4 owned-books
Thus his stories are not always comforting and nostalgic and clear-cut bites to consume. Yet they are still fascinating and endlessly enchanting in a way I can still not articulate. There is a beautiful paradox in his writing and in his stories and I love it. ]]>
3.90 1971 Elric: The Sleeping Sorceress (Elric Chronological Order, #4)
author: Michael Moorcock
name: Albert
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1971
rating: 4
read at: 2017/03/10
date added: 2022/11/23
shelves: owned-books
review:
I think I will always read and reread Moorcock novels for as long as I am able to read. He is a special kind of author who has always and is still in the business of trying to focus on evolving literature and genres beyond what it is and what it used to be, rather than falling into the trap of merely rewriting fables for adults.

Thus his stories are not always comforting and nostalgic and clear-cut bites to consume. Yet they are still fascinating and endlessly enchanting in a way I can still not articulate. There is a beautiful paradox in his writing and in his stories and I love it.
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The Outsider 690153 'The sky seemed to rip apart from end to end to pour fire down upon me'

Meursault will not conform. When his mother dies, he refuses to show his emotions simply to satisfy the expectations of others. And when he commits a random act of violence on a sun-drenched beach, his lack of remorse only compounds his guilt in the eyes of society and law.

Albert Camus' portrayal of a man confronting the absurdity of human life became an existentialist classic. Yet it is also a book filled with quiet joy in the "tender indifference" of the physical world, and Sandra Smith's new translation based on listening to a recording of Camus reading aloud, sensitively renders the subtleties and dreamlike atmosphere of The Outsider.]]>
116 Albert Camus 1857151399 Albert 5 owned-books 4.01 1942 The Outsider
author: Albert Camus
name: Albert
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1942
rating: 5
read at: 2018/08/07
date added: 2022/10/17
shelves: owned-books
review:

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<![CDATA[Metamorphosis and Other Stories]]> 1677233
This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he thought worthy of publication. It includes "Metamorphosis", his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation; "Meditation", a collection of his earlier studies; "The Judgement", written in a single night of frenzied creativity; "The Stoker", the first chapter of a novel set in America and a fascinating occasional piece, and "The Aeroplanes at Brescia", Kafka's eyewitness account of an air display in 1909. Together, these stories reveal the breadth of Kafka's literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought.]]>
299 Franz Kafka 0143105248 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 4.03 1915 Metamorphosis and Other Stories
author: Franz Kafka
name: Albert
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1915
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/24
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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Heart of Darkness 420031 Heart of Darkness (1899) explores the limits of human experience as well as the nighmarish realities of imperialism.]]> 136 Joseph Conrad 0141441674 Albert 5 owned-books 3.29 1899 Heart of Darkness
author: Joseph Conrad
name: Albert
average rating: 3.29
book published: 1899
rating: 5
read at: 2019/03/14
date added: 2022/04/16
shelves: owned-books
review:

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<![CDATA[Elric: Stormbringer! (Elric Chronological Order, #6)]]> 19308810
Feared by enemies and friends alike, Elric of Melnibone walks a lonely path among the worlds of the multiverse. The destroyer of his own cruel and ancient race, as well as its final ruler, Elric is the bearer of a destiny as dark and cursed as the vampiric sword he carries - the sentient black blade known as Stormbringer.

Containing the novel which perhaps did the most to propel Elric to the forefront of the fantasy genre, along with associated short stories and other material, this volume is a vital part of any fantasy reader's library. With an introduction by Tad Williams, this collection presents Moorcock's greatest creation in a revised and approved order.]]>
336 Michael Moorcock 057511438X Albert 0 owned-books, to-read 4.31 1965 Elric: Stormbringer! (Elric Chronological Order, #6)
author: Michael Moorcock
name: Albert
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/09
shelves: owned-books, to-read
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<![CDATA[The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation]]> 836526 The most graceful English translation of this masterpiece of world literature - prepared with the participation of the Dalai Lama and eminent contemporary masters of this tradition appointed by the Dalai Lama

One of the greatest works created by any culture and one of the most influential of all Tibetan Buddhist texts in the West, The Tibetan Book of the Dead has had a number of distinguished translations, but strangely all of these have been partial abridgements. Now the entire text has not only been made available in English but in a translation of quite remarkable clarity and beauty. A comprehensive guide to living and dying, The Tibetan Book of the Dead contains exquisitely written guidance and practices related to transforming our experience in daily life, on the processes of dying and the after-death state, and on how to help those who are dying. As originally intended this is as much a work for the living, as it is for those who wish to think beyond a mere conventional lifetime to a vastly greater and grander cycle.

'Extraordinary ... this work will be a source of inspiration and support to many' His Holiness the Dalai Lama

About the authors:

Commentary by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Thupten Jinpa is the senior translator to the Dalai Lama and President of the Institute of Tibetan Classics. Graham Coleman is founder of the Orient Foundation for Arts and Culture, a major Tibetan cultural conservancy organization, and writer-director of the acclaimed feature documentary Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy. Gyurme Dorje is a leading scholar of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, from which the Tibetan Book of the Dead literature derives.]]>
535 Padmasambhava 0140455299 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 4.01 1350 The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation
author: Padmasambhava
name: Albert
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1350
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/11/27
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<![CDATA[Boating for beginners (A Methuen paperback)]]> 81606 160 Jeanette Winterson 0413590208 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.59 1985 Boating for beginners (A Methuen paperback)
author: Jeanette Winterson
name: Albert
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/22
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[Readers Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory]]> 1623508 This edition of the bestselling guide retains the strong features of the original book; offering a comprehensive coverage of the main literary theories, further readings and bibliographies. At the same time, the new edition adds material on contemporary literary theories, such as: cultural materialism, post-colonial theory, feminist theory, black British, Afro-American, Asian, Caribbean theory, and gay, lesbian and queer theory. The book can be used in conjunction with Practising Theory and Reading Literature.

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Raman Selden 0745013635 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 4.00 1985 Readers Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory
author: Raman Selden
name: Albert
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/03
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[Stephen Hawking: His Life and Work]]> 16179884
Twenty years ago, Kitty Ferguson's Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything became a Sunday Times bestseller and took the world by storm. She now returns to the subject to transform that short book into a hugely expanded, carefully researched, up-to-the-minute biography.]]>
524 Kitty Ferguson 0857500740 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.80 Stephen Hawking: His Life and Work
author: Kitty Ferguson
name: Albert
average rating: 3.80
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/13
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter, #1)]]> 55212185
Sexual hunger; demonic violence; sinister logic � the lethal components of a deadly formula driving a psychopath in the grip of an unimaginable delusion; a boastful killer who sends the police tormenting notes; a tortured, torturing monster who finds ultimate pleasure in viciously murdering happy families, and calls himself... The Red Dragon.]]>
421 Thomas Harris 009953293X Albert 4 4.07 1981 Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter, #1)
author: Thomas Harris
name: Albert
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1981
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/27
date added: 2021/08/27
shelves:
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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell 76852
But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.

All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative -- the very opposite of Mr Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that eight hundred pages leave readers longing for more.

Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition with ISBN 1582344167 ahref="/book/show/3...]]>
782 Susanna Clarke 1582344167 Albert 5 3.98 2004 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Albert
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2021/08/20
date added: 2021/08/27
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)]]> 22844208 'Give me Harry Potter,' said Voldemort's voice, 'and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded.'

As he climbs into the sidecar of Hagrid's motorbike and takes to the skies, LEAVING Privet Drive for the last time, Harry Potter knows that LORD VOLDEMORT and the Death Eaters are not far behind. The protective CHARM that has kept Harry safe until now is BROKEN, but he cannot keep hiding. The Dark Lord is breathing FEAR into everything Harry LOVES, and to stop him Harry will have to find and destroy the remaining HORCRUXES. The final BATTLE must begin � Harry must stand and face his enemy ...]]>
620 J.K. Rowling 1408855712 Albert 5 4.74 2007 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Albert
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/28
date added: 2021/08/27
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)]]> 22844202
When DUMBLEDORE arrives at Privet Drive one summer night to collect Harry Potter, his wand hand is BLACKENED and shrivelled, but he does not reveal why. Secrets and SUSPICION are spreading through the wizarding world, and Hogwarts itself is not safe. Harry is convinced that Malfoy bears the DARK MARK: there is a Death Eater amongst them. Harry will need POWERFUL magic and true friends as he explores VOLDEMORT’S darkest secrets, and Dumbledore prepares him to face his DESTINY...


Jonny Duddle (Cover Illustration), Tomislav Tomić (Map Illustration).]]>
560 J.K. Rowling Albert 5 4.68 2005 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Albert
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/17
date added: 2021/08/27
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Don Quixote, Part One 975465 528 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 0140448209 Albert 0 3.75 1605 Don Quixote, Part One
author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
name: Albert
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1605
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/25
shelves: owned-books, to-read, classics
review:

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<![CDATA[The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Selected Short Fiction]]> 219498 242 Robert Louis Stevenson 1593083505 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.71 1886 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Selected Short Fiction
author: Robert Louis Stevenson
name: Albert
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1886
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/19
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)]]> 22844196 'You are sharing the Dark Lord's thoughts and emotions. The Headmaster thinks it inadvisable for this to continue. He wishes me to teach you how to close your mind to the Dark Lord.'

DARK TIMES have come to Hogwarts. After the Dementors' ATTACK on his cousin Dudley, Harry Potter knows that Voldemort will stop at NOTHING to find him. There are many who deny the Dark Lord's return, but Harry is not alone: a SECRET ORDER gathers at Grimmauld Place to fight against the Dark forces. Harry must allow Professor Snape to teach him how to PROTECT himself from Voldemort's savage assaults on his mind. But they are growing STRONGER by the day and Harry is running out of time ...]]>
800 J.K. Rowling 1408855690 Albert 5 4.56 2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Albert
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/22
date added: 2021/03/24
shelves:
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Oryx & Crake (MaddAddam #1) 18479697 436 Margaret Atwood 0349004064 Albert 5 4.04 2003 Oryx & Crake (MaddAddam #1)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Albert
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/06
date added: 2021/02/09
shelves:
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The Arabian Nights 3312298 518 Anonymous 0393331660 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.89 800 The Arabian Nights
author: Anonymous
name: Albert
average rating: 3.89
book published: 800
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/23
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire � Gryffindor Edition]]> 52735907 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire celebrates the noble character of the Hogwarts house famed for its courage, bravery and determination. Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts is packed with more great Gryffindor moments and characters, including Harry's unexpected selection as champion in the Triwizard Tournament � not to mention Hagrid's misadventures with Blast-Ended Skrewts!

Each Gryffindor House Edition features vibrant sprayed edges and intricate gold foiling. The Goblet of Fire blazes at the very centre of the front cover, framed by stunning iconography that draws on themes and moments from this much-loved story. In addition to a bespoke introduction and exclusive insights into the magical paintings of Hogwarts, the book also boasts new illustrations by Kate Greenaway winner Levi Pinfold, including a spectacular portrait of Hogwarts' gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid. All seven books in the series will be issued in these highly collectable, beautifully crafted House Editions, designed to be treasured and read for years to come.

A must-have for anyone who has ever imagined sitting under the Sorting Hat in the Great Hall at Hogwarts waiting to hear the words, 'Better be GRYFFINDOR!']]>
640 J.K. Rowling 1526610272 Albert 5 4.71 2000 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Gryffindor Edition
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Albert
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/02
date added: 2021/01/15
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban]]> 43879190 480 J.K. Rowling 1526606224 Albert 5 4.72 1999 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Albert
average rating: 4.72
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/21
date added: 2020/12/22
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<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)]]> 37912974
And strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny. But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone, or something, starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects: Harry Potter himself?]]>
360 J.K. Rowling 1408898098 Albert 5 4.59 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Albert
average rating: 4.59
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/16
date added: 2020/12/16
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<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]> 31836443
Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw � Twenty years ago these magical words and many more flowed from a young writer’s pen, an orphan called Harry Potter was freed from the cupboard under the stairs � and a global phenomenon started. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has been read and loved by every new generation since. To mark the 20th anniversary of first publication, Bloomsbury is publishing four House Editions of J.K. Rowling’s modern classic. These stunning editions will each feature the individual house crest on the jacket and sprayed edges in the house colours. Exciting new extra content will include fact files, profiles of favourite characters and line illustrations exclusive to that house. Available for a limited period only, these highly collectable editions will be a must-have for all Harry Potter fans in 2017.]]>
368 J.K. Rowling Albert 5 4.72 1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Albert
average rating: 4.72
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/07
date added: 2020/12/08
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Utopia Avenue 52315696 Utopia Avenue might be the most curious British band you've never heard of.

Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967, folksinger Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss, guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet and jazz drummer Griff Griffin together created a unique sound, with lyrics that captured their turbulent times. The band produced only two albums in two years, yet their musical legacy lives on.

This is the story of Utopia Avenue's brief, blazing journey from Soho clubs and draughty ballrooms to the promised land of America, just when the Summer of Love was receding into something much darker - a multi-faceted tale of dreams, drugs, love, sexuality, madness and grief; of stardom's wobbly ladder and fame's Faustian pact; and of the collision between youthful idealism and jaded reality as the Sixties drew to a close.

Above all, this bewitching novel celebrates the power of music to connect across divides, define an era and thrill the soul.]]>
561 David Mitchell 1444799436 Albert 5 4.04 2020 Utopia Avenue
author: David Mitchell
name: Albert
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/09/28
date added: 2020/12/08
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Tales of the Dying Earth 757040 Dying Earth saga inspired writers like Michael Moorcock and Gene Wolfe, who freely acknowledges his debt to Vance in his own Book of the New Sun.

Here, in one volume, is Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning author Jack Vance's classic Dying Earth saga comprising The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga and Rhialto the Marvellous. Travel to a far distant future, when the sun bleeds red in a dark sky, where magic and science is one, and the Earth has but a few short decades to live...

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741 Jack Vance 1857989945 Albert 0 owned-books, to-read 3.94 1998 Tales of the Dying Earth
author: Jack Vance
name: Albert
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/15
shelves: owned-books, to-read
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<![CDATA[The Real Story and Forbidden Knowledge (Gap, #1-2)]]> 4307702
Ensign Morn Hyland works for the United Mining Company, which is in charge of law enforcement throughout known space. She lives aboard a police ship, together with most of her family; their job is to chase down pirates and other illegals who prey on the weak, or smuggle goods into forbidden space. Her life is nothing out of the ordinary - until she falls in with the pirate Captain Nick Succorso. All of a sudden, the young, strong, beautiful police officer appears to be falling in love - well, lust at least - with the murdering pirate, or so it appears to the folk at the space station's bar.

But the real story was quite different ...]]>
544 Stephen R. Donaldson 0575083344 Albert 0 owned-books, to-read 4.09 The Real Story and Forbidden Knowledge (Gap, #1-2)
author: Stephen R. Donaldson
name: Albert
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/09/15
shelves: owned-books, to-read
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Ilium (Ilium, #1) 967477 642 Dan Simmons 0575075600 Albert 0 to-read 3.97 2003 Ilium (Ilium, #1)
author: Dan Simmons
name: Albert
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/15
shelves: to-read
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Catch-22 4610 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

With a new preface by the author

Explosive, subversive, wild and funny, 50 years on the novel's strength is undiminished. Reading Joseph Heller's classic satire is nothing less than a rite of passage.

Set in the closing months of World War II in an American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, Catch-22 is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he has never even met keep trying to kill him. Joseph Heller's bestselling novel is a hilarious and tragic satire on military madness, and the tale of one man's efforts to survive it.]]>
570 Joseph Heller 0099477319 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.97 1961 Catch-22
author: Joseph Heller
name: Albert
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1961
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/09
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[Darwin's Most Wonderful Plants: Darwin's Botany Today]]> 43782377 Ken Thompson sees Darwin as a brilliant and revolutionary botanist, whose observations and theories were far ahead of his time - and are often only now being confirmed and extended by high-tech modern research. Like Darwin, he is fascinated and amazed by the powers of plants - particularly their Triffid-like aspects of movement, hunting and 'plant intelligence'.
This is a much needed book that re-establishes Darwin as a pioneering botanist, whose close observations of plants were crucial to his theories of evolution.]]>
256 Ken Thompson 1788160290 Albert 0 to-read 3.89 Darwin's Most Wonderful Plants: Darwin's Botany Today
author: Ken Thompson
name: Albert
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/05/06
shelves: to-read
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Grass (Arbai, #1) 104342
Now, a deadly plague is spreading across the stars. No world save Grass has been left untouched. Marjorie Westriding Yrarier has been sent from Earth to discover the secret of the planet’s immunity. Amid the alien social structure and strange life-forms of Grass, Lady Westriding unravels the planet’s mysteries to find a truth so shattering it could mean the end of life itself.]]>
544 Sheri S. Tepper Albert 5 owned-books, sf-masterworks 4.03 1989 Grass (Arbai, #1)
author: Sheri S. Tepper
name: Albert
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2020/05/05
date added: 2020/05/05
shelves: owned-books, sf-masterworks
review:

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The Goldfinch 18692995 867 Donna Tartt Albert 5 4.02 2013 The Goldfinch
author: Donna Tartt
name: Albert
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2020/04/20
date added: 2020/05/05
shelves:
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The Supernova Era 52000304 From Cixin Liu, the New York Times bestselling and Hugo award-winning author of The Three Body Problem, comes a new science fiction masterpiece.

In those days, Earth was a planet in space.
In those days, Beijing was a city on Earth.
On this night, history as known to humanity came to an end.

Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of thirteen will die.

And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge they'll need to keep the world running.

But the last generation may not want to carry the legacy of their parents� world. And though they imagine a better, brighter world, they may bring about a future so dark humanity won't survive.]]>
352 Liu Cixin 1788542398 Albert 4 2.90 2003 The Supernova Era
author: Liu Cixin
name: Albert
average rating: 2.90
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/17
date added: 2020/03/02
shelves:
review:

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The Fireman 35092748 Book of Revelation. CNN reported both sides. While every TV station debated the cause, the world burnt.

Pregnant school nurse Harper Grayson had seen lots of people burn on TV, but the first person she saw burn for real was in the playground behind her school. Now she is infected and has only one goal - to survive long enough to give birth. But the fire is spreading...

With epic scope and emotional impact, this is one woman's story of survival at the end of the world.]]>
768 Joe Hill 0575130733 Albert 4 3.96 2016 The Fireman
author: Joe Hill
name: Albert
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2020/02/23
date added: 2020/02/27
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<![CDATA[The Complete Works (Vols 1 - 4)]]> 3050544 Two Gentlemen of Verona
Merry Wives of Windsor
Measure for Measure
Comedy of Errors
Much Ado About Nothing
Love's Labour's Lost
Midsummer Night's Dream
Merchant of Venice
As You Like It
Taming of the Shrew
All's Well That Ends Well
Twelfth Night
Winter's Tale
King John
King Richard II
King Henry IV. Part 1
King Henry IV. Part 2
King Henry V
King Henry VI. Part 1
King Henry VI. Part 2
King Henry VI. Part 3
King Richard III
King Henry VIII
Troilus and Cressida
Coriolanus
Titus Andronicus
Romeo and Juliet
Timon of Athens
Julius Caesar
Macbeth
Hamlet
King Lear
Othello
Anthony and Cleopatra
Cymbeline
Pericles
Venus and Adonis
Rape of Lucrece
Sonnets
Lover's Complaint
Passionate Pilgrim
Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music
Phoenix and the Turtle]]>
0 William Shakespeare 1579126510 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 4.60 1623 The Complete Works (Vols 1 - 4)
author: William Shakespeare
name: Albert
average rating: 4.60
book published: 1623
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/02/23
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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My Seditious Heart 41728463 Twenty years, a thousand pages, and now a single beautiful edition of Arundhati Roy's complete non-fiction.

My Seditious Heart collects the work of a two-decade period when Arundhati Roy devoted herself to the political essay as a way of opening up space for justice, rights and freedoms in an increasingly hostile environment. Taken together, these essays trace her twenty year journey from the Booker Prize-winning The God of Small Things to the extraordinary The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: a journey marked by compassion, clarity and courage. Radical and readable, they speak always in defence of the collective, of the individual and of the land, in the face of the destructive logic of financial, social, religious, military and governmental elites.

In constant conversation with the themes and settings of her novels, the essays form a near-unbroken memoir of Arundhati Roy's journey as both a writer and a citizen, of both India and the world, from 'The End of Imagination', which begins this book, to 'My Seditious Heart', with which it ends.]]>
1040 Arundhati Roy 0241366518 Albert 0 to-read 4.73 2019 My Seditious Heart
author: Arundhati Roy
name: Albert
average rating: 4.73
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/31
shelves: to-read
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Enlightenment Now 39669805 'My new favourite book of all time' Bill Gates
TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Is modernity really failing? Or have we failed to appreciate progress and the ideals that make it possible?

If you follow the headlines, the world in the 21st century appears to be sinking into chaos, hatred, and irrationality. Yet Steven Pinker shows that this is an illusion - a symptom of historical amnesia and statistical fallacies. If you follow the trendlines rather than the headlines, you discover that our lives have become longer, healthier, safer, happier, more peaceful, more stimulating and more prosperous - not just in the West, but worldwide. Such progress is no accident: it's the gift of a coherent and inspiring value system that many of us embrace without even realizing it. These are the values of the Enlightenment: of reason, science, humanism and progress.

The challenges we face today are formidable, including inequality, climate change, Artificial Intelligence and nuclear weapons. But the way to deal with them is not to sink into despair or try to lurch back to a mythical idyllic past; it's to treat them as problems we can solve, as we have solved other problems in the past. In making the case for an Enlightenment newly recharged for the 21st century, Pinker shows how we can use our faculties of reason and sympathy to solve the problems that inevitably come with being products of evolution in an indifferent universe. We will never have a perfect world, but - defying the chorus of fatalism and reaction - we can continue to make it a better one.]]>
576 Steven Pinker 0141979097 Albert 0 to-read 4.10 2018 Enlightenment Now
author: Steven Pinker
name: Albert
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/31
shelves: to-read
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Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1) 7480034
John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers, and Arkady Bogdanov lead a mission whose ultimate goal is the terraforming of Mars. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness; for others it offers and opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. And for the genetic "alchemists, " Mars presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life... and death.

The colonists place giant satellite mirrors in Martian orbit to reflect light to the planets surface. black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth and melt the ice. And massive tunnels, kilometers in depth, will be drilled into the Martian mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves, and friendships will form and fall to pieces--for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.

Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope and ingenuity, "Red Mars" is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in human evolution and creating a world in its entirety. "Red Mars" shows us a future, with both glory and tarnish, that awes with complexity and inspires with vision.

"The best tale of space colonization--a lyrical, beautiful, accurate legend of the future by one of the best writers of our time." -- David Brin]]>
672 Kim Stanley Robinson 0007310161 Albert 5 I was sad to finish it but am grateful that there are two more to go. ]]> 3.90 1992 Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1)
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: Albert
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/30
date added: 2020/01/30
shelves:
review:
Pure genius! Weaving together hard science, politics, capitalism and culture in a complex and convincing way Kim Stanley Robinson has managed to write a brilliant speculative fiction book. Add to that the depth and well-rounded individual character arcs and "Red Mars" is easily the best book on Mars colonization ever written.
I was sad to finish it but am grateful that there are two more to go.
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Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 869716 Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
--From the "Rubaiyat"
The best-selling poem of all time, Omar Khayaam's Rubaiyat ("Quatrains"), was first published in the West in 1859 by translator Edward FitzGerald. Excerpts from his well-loved version appear here, accompanied by Bird Parliament, a delightful work by Khayyam's contemporary, the influential mystic poet Farrid Ud-Din Attar.
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176 Omar Khayyám 0753817438 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.96 1120 Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
author: Omar Khayyám
name: Albert
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1120
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/14
shelves: to-read, owned-books
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<![CDATA[Elric: The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (Elric Chronological Order, #3)]]> 18467559 Moorcock's Multiverse presents for the first time definitive editions of Michael Moorcock's most influential work, fully revised and updated by the author.

Gollancz is very proud to present the author's definitive editions of the saga of Elric, the last emperor of Melniboné. Michael Moorcock and his long-time friend and bibliographer John Davey have collaborated to produce the most consistent and coherent narrative from the disparate novels, novellas, short stories and non-fiction about Elric. From his early life in Melniboné all the way through to his final days, these seven volumes will be the definitive telling of the albino prince's story.

Elric is one of the great creations of modern fantasy, and has inspired legions of imitators. If you know his story already, then this definitive edition will finally let you read the entire saga in the author's preferred order. If you've never experienced the chronicles of the albino with the soul-sucking sword, then this is the perfect place to start.

Containing stories, novellas, supplementary material and commentary, these editions of Elric are the finest yet.]]>
352 Michael Moorcock 057511360X Albert 4 owned-books
At first glance it is hard to believe that these were written in the sixties, but once you have read the two articles at the end of the novel it becomes refreshingly clear how Moorcock has built his novels progressively on an age old development of the Gothic tale and especially the Faust-like character as seen in one form or another in a range of great Gothic classics.

It is a great piece of literature which illustrates how the Christian idea of clear-cut good and evil is not as convincing to us anymore. ]]>
3.95 1976 Elric: The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (Elric Chronological Order, #3)
author: Michael Moorcock
name: Albert
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1976
rating: 4
read at: 2015/06/24
date added: 2020/01/07
shelves: owned-books
review:
What a fascinating character. Novellas and short stories which blend beautifully together as an introduction and exploration of the modern Faustian hero-villain, Elric.

At first glance it is hard to believe that these were written in the sixties, but once you have read the two articles at the end of the novel it becomes refreshingly clear how Moorcock has built his novels progressively on an age old development of the Gothic tale and especially the Faust-like character as seen in one form or another in a range of great Gothic classics.

It is a great piece of literature which illustrates how the Christian idea of clear-cut good and evil is not as convincing to us anymore.
]]>
The Institute 49919128
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King's gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good versus evil in a world where the good guys don't always win.
--front flap]]>
496 Stephen King 1529355400 Albert 4 4.09 2019 The Institute
author: Stephen King
name: Albert
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/14
date added: 2019/12/25
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Tower of the Swallow (The Witcher, #4)]]> 32485838 An alternate cover edition exists here.

The world has fallen into war. Ciri, the child of prophecy, has vanished. Hunted by friends and foes alike, she has taken on the guise of a petty bandit and lives free for the first time in her life.
But the net around her is closing. Geralt, the Witcher, has assembled a group of allies determined to rescue her. Both sides of the war have sent brutal mercenaries to hunt her down. Her crimes have made her famous.

There is only one place left to run. The tower of the swallow is waiting...]]>
436 Andrzej Sapkowski 1473211573 Albert 3 4.14 1997 The Tower of the Swallow (The Witcher, #4)
author: Andrzej Sapkowski
name: Albert
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2019/11/09
date added: 2019/12/17
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Six Impossible Things: The ‘Quanta of Solace� and the Mysteries of the Subatomic World]]> 44797293 A concise and engaging investigation of six interpretations of quantum physics.

Rules of the quantum world seem to say that a cat can be both alive and dead at the same time and a particle can be in two places at once. And that particle is also a wave; everything in the quantum world can be described in terms of waves—or entirely in terms of particles. These interpretations were all established by the end of the 1920s, by Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, and others. But no one has yet come up with a common sense explanation of what is going on. In this concise and engaging book, astrophysicist John Gribbin offers an overview of six of the leading interpretations of quantum mechanics.

Gribbin calls his account “agnostic,� explaining that none of these interpretations is any better—or any worse—than any of the others. Gribbin presents the Copenhagen Interpretation, promoted by Niels Bohr and named by Heisenberg; the Pilot-Wave Interpretation, developed by Louis de Broglie; the Many Worlds Interpretation (termed “excess baggage� by Gribbin); the Decoherence Interpretation (“incoherent�); the Ensemble “Non-Interpretation�; and the Timeless Transactional Interpretation (which theorized waves going both forward and backward in time). All of these interpretations are crazy, Gribbin warns, and some are more crazy than others—but in the quantum world, being more crazy does not necessarily mean more wrong.]]>
112 John Gribbin 1785784994 Albert 5 4.00 2019 Six Impossible Things: The ‘Quanta of Solace’ and the Mysteries of the Subatomic World
author: John Gribbin
name: Albert
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/11
date added: 2019/11/11
shelves:
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<![CDATA[A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes]]> 738248
These are just some of the questions considered in the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by the world renowned physicist - generally considered to have been one of the world's greatest thinkers. It begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos from Newton to Einstein, before delving into the secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time, from the Big Bang to black holes, via spiral galaxies and strong theory. To this day A Brief History of Time remains a staple of the scientific canon, and its succinct and clear language continues to introduce millions to the universe and its wonders.]]>
211 Stephen Hawking Albert 4 owned-books 4.12 1988 A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
author: Stephen Hawking
name: Albert
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/28
date added: 2019/10/28
shelves: owned-books
review:

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<![CDATA[Sartre Explained: From Bad Faith to Authenticity (Ideas Explained)]]> 3711965 224 David Detmer 081269631X Albert 5 owned-books 4.25 2008 Sartre Explained: From Bad Faith to Authenticity (Ideas Explained)
author: David Detmer
name: Albert
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/26
date added: 2019/10/26
shelves: owned-books
review:

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Seasons Come to Pass 2826251 290 Helen Moffett 0195709551 Albert 0 to-read, owned-books 3.92 2002 Seasons Come to Pass
author: Helen Moffett
name: Albert
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/11
shelves: to-read, owned-books
review:

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<![CDATA[In Search of Schrödinger's Cat]]> 100005
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat tells the complete story of quantum mechanics, a truth stranger than any fiction. John Gribbin takes us step by step into an even more bizarre and fascinating place, requiring only that we approach it with an open mind. He introduces the scientists who developed quantum theory. He investigates the atom, radiation, time travel, the birth of the universe, super conductors and life itself. And in a world full of its own delights, mysteries and surprises, he searches for Schrodinger's Cat - a search for quantum reality - as he brings every reader to a clear understanding of the most important area of scientific study today - quantum physics.

In Search of Schrodinger's Cat is a fascinating and delightful introduction to the strange world of the quantum - an essential element in understanding today's world.]]>
302 John Gribbin 0552125555 Albert 0 science, to-read 3.94 1984 In Search of Schrödinger's Cat
author: John Gribbin
name: Albert
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/11
shelves: science, to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality]]> 19005287
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat tells the complete story of quantum mechanics, a truth stranger than any fiction. John Gribbin takes us step by step into an even more bizarre and fascinating place, requiring only that we approach it with an open mind. He introduces the scientists who developed quantum theory. He investigates the atom, radiation, time travel, the birth of the universe, super conductors and life itself. And in a world full of its own delights, mysteries and surprises, he searches for Schrodinger's Cat - a search for quantum reality - as he brings every reader to a clear understanding of the most important area of scientific study today - quantum physics.

In Search of Schrodinger's Cat is a fascinating and delightful introduction to the strange world of the quantum - an essential element in understanding today's world.]]>
387 John Gribbin Albert 5 It is by far the best science book I have read to date and not just because of the exciting and mind-altering subject matter. John Gribbin is a great writer and one of the few people who can explain an extremely complicated concept in layman terms without watering it down so much that its original significance and its true meaning becomes muddled in stupid analogy and plain absurdity. Except for understanding his subject matter very well he also seems to be a semiotician at heart and I have a sincere respect for that.
Just like all my favourite fiction this science book will have a lasting effect in my life.]]>
4.21 1984 In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality
author: John Gribbin
name: Albert
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/11
date added: 2019/10/11
shelves:
review:
Just a friendly warning: if you decide to read this book you will have induced a wave function collapse. However, by destroying the superposition of states you will have become an observer which in this case is a really good thing.
It is by far the best science book I have read to date and not just because of the exciting and mind-altering subject matter. John Gribbin is a great writer and one of the few people who can explain an extremely complicated concept in layman terms without watering it down so much that its original significance and its true meaning becomes muddled in stupid analogy and plain absurdity. Except for understanding his subject matter very well he also seems to be a semiotician at heart and I have a sincere respect for that.
Just like all my favourite fiction this science book will have a lasting effect in my life.
]]>
<![CDATA[A Brief History Of Time: From the Big Bang To Black Holes]]> 818560 Was there a beginning of time?

Could time run backwards?

Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries?

These are just some of the questions considered in an internationally acclaimed masterpiece which begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos from Newton to Einstein, before delving into the secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time.]]>
220 Stephen Hawking 0553175211 Albert 0 to-read, science, owned-books 4.12 1988 A Brief History Of Time: From the Big Bang To Black Holes
author: Stephen Hawking
name: Albert
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/09
shelves: to-read, science, owned-books
review:

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<![CDATA[The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World]]> 2006163 496 David Deutsch 0140278168 Albert 0 to-read, science 4.25 2011 The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World
author: David Deutsch
name: Albert
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/09
shelves: to-read, science
review:

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<![CDATA[The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing (Oxford Landmark Science)]]> 6840802
Edited by best-selling author and renowned scientist Richard Dawkins, this sterling collection brings together exhilarating pieces by a who's who of scientists and science writers, including Stephen Pinker, Stephen Jay Gould, Martin Gardner, Albert Einstein, Julian Huxley, and many dozens more. Readers will find excerpts from bestsellers such as Douglas R. Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach , Francis Crick's Life Itself , Loren Eiseley's The Immense Journey , Daniel Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea , and Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us . There are classic essays ranging from J.B.S. Haldane's "On Being the Right Size" and Garrett Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons" to Alan Turing's "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" and Albert Einstein's famed New York Times article on "Relativity." And readers will also discover lesser-known but engaging pieces such as Lewis Thomas's "Seven Wonders of Science," J. Robert Oppenheimer on "War and Physicists," and Freeman Dyson's memoir of studying
under Hans Bethe.

A must-read volume for all science buffs, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing is a rich and vibrant anthology that captures the poetry and excitement of scientific thought and discovery.]]>
448 Richard Dawkins 0199216819 Albert 0 to-read, science 4.07 2008 The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing (Oxford Landmark Science)
author: Richard Dawkins
name: Albert
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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shelves: to-read, science
review:

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<![CDATA[Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel]]> 6359462 From cyborgs, starships, UFOs, aliens and antimatter to telepathy, invisibility, psychokinesis and precognition, Michio Kaku's Physics of the Impossible is an exciting look at how science fiction could soon become science fact.

Albert Einstein said, 'If at first an idea does not sound absurd, there is no hope for it.' Physics of the Impossible shows how our most far-fetched ideas today - from Star Trek's phasers and teleportation to time travel as envisioned by Back to the Future - are destined to become tomorrow's reality.

Michio Kaku, bestselling science author and one of the world's most acclaimed physicists, looks at the technologies of the future and explains what's just around the corner, what we might have to wait a few millennia to get our hands on and how surprisingly little of it is truly impossible.

'A brilliant, provocative, freewheeling tour around the exotic shores of physics'
Independent

'A rich compendium of jaw-dropping reality checks'
The Times

'One of the world's most distinguished physicists ... takes the reader on a journey to the frontiers of science and beyond'
Guardian

'After reading Kaku's boundless enthusiasm for the future, what you wouldn't give for a real-life time machine to travel forwards and see just how accurate his predictions are'
Sunday Telegraph

Michio Kaku is a leading theoretical physicist and one of the founders of string theory, widely regarded as the strongest candidate for the 'theory of everything'. He is also one of the most gifted popularizers of science of his generation. His books published by Penguin include Parallel Worlds, The Physics of the Future and The Physics of the Impossible. He holds the Henry Semat Professorship in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York, where he has taught for over twenty-five years.]]>
329 Michio Kaku 0141030909 Albert 0 to-read, science 4.05 2008 Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel
author: Michio Kaku
name: Albert
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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shelves: to-read, science
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<![CDATA[The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (Oxford Landmark Science)]]> 28602908 Oxford Landmark Science books are 'must-read' classics of modern science writing which have crystallized big ideas, and shaped the way we think.
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640 Roger Penrose 0198784929 Albert 0 to-read, science 4.22 1989 The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (Oxford Landmark Science)
author: Roger Penrose
name: Albert
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/09
shelves: to-read, science
review:

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<![CDATA[Cosmos: The Story of Cosmic Evolution, Science and Civilisation]]> 995795
The book also explores spacecraft missions of discovery of the nearby planets, the research in the Library of ancient Alexandria, the human brain, Egyptian hieroglyphics, the origin of life, the death of the Sun, the evolution of galaxies and the origins of matter, suns and worlds.

Sagan retraces the fifteen billion years of cos-mic evolution that have transformed matter into life and consciousness, enabling the Cosmos to wonder about itself. He considers the latest findings on life elsewhere and how we might communicate with the beings of other worlds.

Cosmos is the story of our long journey of discovery and the forces and individuals who helped to shape modern science, including Democritus, Hypatia, Kepler, Newton, Huy-gens, Champollion, Lowell and Humason. Sagan looks at our planet from an extra-terrestrial vantage point and sees a blue jewel-like world, inhabited by a lifeform that is just beginning to discover its own unity and to ven-ture into the vast ocean of space.]]>
413 Carl Sagan 0349107033 Albert 0 owned-books, to-read, science 4.57 1980 Cosmos: The Story of Cosmic Evolution, Science and Civilisation
author: Carl Sagan
name: Albert
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/09
shelves: owned-books, to-read, science
review:

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The Order of Time 45427805
With his extraordinary charm and sense of wonder, bringing together science, art and philosophy, Carlo Rovelli unravels this mystery, inviting us to imagine a world where time is in us and we are not in time.]]>
182 Carlo Rovelli 0141984961 Albert 0 to-read, science 4.06 2017 The Order of Time
author: Carlo Rovelli
name: Albert
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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shelves: to-read, science
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<![CDATA[Schrödinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries]]> 100006 Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality illuminates the world's most intriguing and enigmatic scientific phenomenon - and shows how the "impossible dreams" of such legendary scientists as Bohr, Feynman, and Einstein may soon become reality.

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261 John Gribbin 0316328197 Albert 0 to-read, science 4.08 1984 Schrödinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries
author: John Gribbin
name: Albert
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/09
shelves: to-read, science
review:

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<![CDATA[The World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy]]> 2109 880 Timothy Ferris 0316281336 Albert 0 to-read, science 4.15 1991 The World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy
author: Timothy Ferris
name: Albert
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/09
shelves: to-read, science
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<![CDATA[The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes--and Its Implications]]> 177068 390 David Deutsch 014027541X Albert 0 to-read, science 4.12 1996 The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes--and Its Implications
author: David Deutsch
name: Albert
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/09
shelves: to-read, science
review:

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<![CDATA[QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter]]> 5552
The focus, as the title suggests, is quantum electrodynamics (QED), the part of the quantum theory of fields that describes the interactions of the quanta of the electromagnetic field-light, X rays, gamma rays--with matter and those of charged particles with one another. By extending the formalism developed by Dirac in 1933, which related quantum and classical descriptions of the motion of particles, Feynman revolutionized the quantum mechanical understanding of the nature of particles and waves. And, by incorporating his own readily visualizable formulation of quantum mechanics, Feynman created a diagrammatic version of QED that made calculations much simpler and also provided visual insights into the mechanisms of quantum electrodynamic processes.

In this book, using everyday language, spatial concepts, visualizations, and his renowned "Feynman diagrams" instead of advanced mathematics, Feynman successfully provides a definitive introduction to QED for a lay readership without any distortion of the basic science. Characterized by Feynman's famously original clarity and humor, this popular book on QED has not been equaled since its publication.]]>
176 Richard P. Feynman 0691024170 Albert 0 science, to-read 4.26 1985 QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
author: Richard P. Feynman
name: Albert
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/09
shelves: science, to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Does God Play Dice?: The New Mathematics of Chaos]]> 445129 416 Ian Stewart 0631232516 Albert 0 science, to-read 4.06 1989 Does God Play Dice?: The New Mathematics of Chaos
author: Ian Stewart
name: Albert
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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shelves: science, to-read
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<![CDATA[The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)]]> 42973319 alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.

Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.

As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.

‘Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in.�
--Margaret Atwood]]>
419 Margaret Atwood 1784742325 Albert 4 4.15 2019 The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Albert
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/01
date added: 2019/10/08
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After the Banquet 62823 288 Yukio Mishima 009928278X Albert 4 owned-books 3.73 1960 After the Banquet
author: Yukio Mishima
name: Albert
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1960
rating: 4
read at: 2019/09/17
date added: 2019/09/17
shelves: owned-books
review:

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<![CDATA[The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)]]> 38447
Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.]]>
311 Margaret Atwood 038549081X Albert 5 4.15 1985 The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Albert
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2019/09/13
date added: 2019/09/14
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Seeing Further 42415909 From the Royal Society, a peerless collection of all-new science writing

Bill Bryson, who explored all - or at least a great deal of - current scientific knowledge in A Short History of Nearly Everything, now turns his attention to the history of that knowledge. As editor of Seeing Further, he has rounded up an extraordinary roster of scientists who write and writers who know science in order to celebrate 350 years of the Royal Society, Britain's scientific national academy. The result is an encyclopedic survey of the history, philosophy and current state of science, written in an accessible and inspiring style by some of today's most important writers.

The contributors include Margaret Atwood, Steve Jones, Richard Dawkins, James Gleick, Richard Holmes, and Neal Stephenson, among many others, on subjects ranging from metaphysics to nuclear physics, from the threatened endtimes of flu and climate change to our evolving ideas about the nature of time itself, from the hidden mathematics that rule the universe to the cosmological principle that guides Star Trek.

The collection begins with a brilliant introduction from Bryson himself, who says: "It is impossible to list all the ways that the Royal Society has influenced the world, but you can get some idea by typing in 'Royal Society' as a word search in the electronic version of the Dictionary of National Biography. That produces 218 pages of results � 4,355 entries, nearly as many as for the Church of England (at 4,500) and considerably more than for the House of Commons (3,124) or House of Lords (2,503)."

As this book shows, the Royal Society not only produces the best scientists and science, it also produces and inspires the very best science writing.


From the Hardcover edition.]]>
464 Bill Bryson 000830162X Albert 5 3.64 2010 Seeing Further
author: Bill Bryson
name: Albert
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2019/09/11
date added: 2019/09/11
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<![CDATA[The Colorado Kid (Hard Case Crime, 013-I)]]> 42648090
On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There's no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues, and it's more than a year before the man is identified. And that's just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still...? No one but Stephen King could tell this story about the darkness at the heart of the unknown and our compulsion to investigate the unexplained. With echoes of Dashiell Hammett's THE MALTESE FALCON and the work of Graham Greene, one of the world's great storytellers presents a moving and surprising tale whose subject is nothing less than the nature of mystery itself.]]>
205 Stephen King 1789091551 Albert 3 3.42 2005 The Colorado Kid (Hard Case Crime, 013-I)
author: Stephen King
name: Albert
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2019/08/28
date added: 2019/08/28
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Ragnarok 45171154 192 A.S. Byatt 1786894521 Albert 4
It differs from all the other contributions to the mythology rewrite series of novels I have read before. Byatt did not want to humanise the story of Asgard and the Gods. For her that is not the point of mythological stories and I found myself agreeing with her and being quite grateful for the clear way in which she explains her argument.

So instead she circumvents this by offering a child’s mind as it grapples with the world around her and with mythology in order to to navigate the overbearing chaos of existence. She does so fiercely and beautifully.]]>
3.44 2011 Ragnarok
author: A.S. Byatt
name: Albert
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/20
date added: 2019/08/27
shelves:
review:
A thin girl’s experience with mythology and how she incorporates it consciously and unconsciously into her existence in the country during the war and in the city afterwards, Ragnarok is an intimate and nostalgic semi-autobiographical gem of a story.

It differs from all the other contributions to the mythology rewrite series of novels I have read before. Byatt did not want to humanise the story of Asgard and the Gods. For her that is not the point of mythological stories and I found myself agreeing with her and being quite grateful for the clear way in which she explains her argument.

So instead she circumvents this by offering a child’s mind as it grapples with the world around her and with mythology in order to to navigate the overbearing chaos of existence. She does so fiercely and beautifully.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Word for World Is Forest (Hainish Cycle, #5)]]> 24933757
Desperation causes the Athsheans, led by Selver, to retaliate against their captors, abandoning their strictures against violence. But in defending their lives, they have endangered the very foundations of their society. For every blow against the invaders is a blow to the humanity of the Athsheans. And once the killing starts, there is no turning back.]]>
128 Ursula K. Le Guin 1473205786 Albert 4 4.04 1972 The Word for World Is Forest (Hainish Cycle, #5)
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Albert
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1972
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/19
date added: 2019/08/19
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Robinson Crusoe 832554
First published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has been praised by such writers as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Samuel Johnson as one of the greatest novels in the English language.]]>
298 Daniel Defoe 014062015X Albert 4 classics 3.30 1719 Robinson Crusoe
author: Daniel Defoe
name: Albert
average rating: 3.30
book published: 1719
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/15
date added: 2019/08/19
shelves: classics
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The Double 22283216
Moscow-born Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) served time in a convict prison in Siberia for his political alliances, and in his later years his passion for gambling led him deeply into debt. His many brilliant novels include Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov.

Ronald Wilks has translated numerous Russian volumes for Penguin Classics, including works by Chekhov, Sologub, Tolstoy and Gogol. If you enjoy this novel, you may want to read more by Dostoyevsky - his major novels and stories are all available in Penguin Classics, including Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Gambler and Other Stories, The Idiot, Demons, Netochka Nezvanova, The Brothers Karamazov, Poor Folk and Other Stories, The House of the Dead and The Village of Stepanchikovo.

An official tie-in edition to accompany Richard Ayoade's brilliant new film based on Dostoyevsky's deliciously dark and slyly funny novel. The Double stars Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) and Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre) with support from Chris O'Dowd, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine, Tim Key and Chris Morris.]]>
176 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0141396180 Albert 4 3.31 1846 The Double
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Albert
average rating: 3.31
book published: 1846
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/01
date added: 2019/08/01
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Needful Things 10493548
Leland Gaunt opens a new shop in Castle Rock called Needful Things. Anyone who enters his store finds the object of his or her lifelong dreams and desires: a prized baseball card, a healing amulet. In addition to a token payment, Gaunt requests that each person perform a little "deed," usually a seemingly innocent prank played on someone else from town. These practical jokes cascade out of control and soon the entire town is doing battle with itself. Only Sheriff Alan Pangborn suspects that Gaunt is behind the population's increasingly violent behavior.]]>
933 Stephen King Albert 3 3.97 1991 Needful Things
author: Stephen King
name: Albert
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 2019/07/29
date added: 2019/07/29
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Saints and Strangers 81035 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

Black Venus (also published as Saints and Strangers), is an anthology of short fiction. Angela Carter takes real people and literary legends - most often women - who have been mythologized or marginalized and recasts them in a new light. In a style that is sensual, cerebral, almost hypnotic, "The Fall River Axe-Murders" portrays the last hours before Lizzie Borden's infamous act: the sweltering heat, the weight of flannel and corsets, the clanging of the factory bells, the food reheated and reserved despite the lack of adequate refrigeration, the house "full of locked doors that open only into other rooms with other locked doors." In "Our Lady of the Massacre" the no-nonsense voice of an eighteenth-century prostitute/runaway slave questions who is civilized - the Indians or the white men? "Black Venus" gives voice to Charles Baudelaire's Creole mistress, Jeanne Duval: "you could say, not so much that Jeanne did not understand the lapidary, troubled serenity of her lover's poetry but, that it was a perpetual affront to her. He recited it to her by the hour and she ached, raged and chafed under it because his eloquence denied her language." "The Kiss" takes the traditional story of Tamburlaine's wife and gives it a new and refreshing ending. Sometimes disquieting, sometimes funny, always thought-provoking, Angela Carter's stories offer a feminist revision of images that lie deep in the public psyche.]]>
126 Angela Carter 014008973X Albert 5 owned-books 3.92 1985 Saints and Strangers
author: Angela Carter
name: Albert
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2019/06/29
date added: 2019/06/30
shelves: owned-books
review:

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<![CDATA[Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing]]> 17647 198 Margaret Atwood 1844080277 Albert 5 owned-books 3.94 2002 Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Albert
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2019/06/26
date added: 2019/06/30
shelves: owned-books
review:

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