Travel reading update...

Books I've had the opportunity to read during our travels and my brief thoughts:

18. The Art of Power (Thich Nhat Hanh; in progress... my fav non-fiction author, I've read about 30 of his books and love all of them)

17. A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson; in progress... great so far; 1000x times better than The Lost Continent)

16. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad; in progress... prose is fantastic)

15. The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath; some really great turns of phrase, but I couldn't connect with the main character. I feel about this book the way I feel about really good modern art - I get why people like it, but just don't really find that it moves me personally.)

14. Rendezvous with Rama (Arthur C. Clarke; solid piece of 70's sci-fi, interesting questions posed but left unanswered)

13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke; could have been a great novel - only I could not manage to care about any of the characters and found the clever annotations and footnotes maddening - I don't recommend it unless you have exhausted Asimov, Anthony, Heinlein, Brooks, Pratchett, etc...)

12. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Steig Laarson; all three in the trilogy are fast-paced and enjoyable to read)

11. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck; this novel, as mom my says, "you can read at almost anytime in your life and find something that speaks to you". Winner of the 1932 Pulitzer Prize, this novel was one of the first to attempt to demystify life in China to the western world.)

10. The Cider House Rules (John Irving; even better than the movie - of course - and really interesting and enjoyable to read),

9. Under the Banner of Heaven (Jon Krakauer; disturbing, but well written and a fascinating look at Mormon history to someone with little knowledge on this subject, such as myself)...

8. The Gemini Contenders (Robert Ludlum; really enjoyed this)

7. The Matlock Paper (Robert Ludlum; pretty good)

6. The Osterman Weekend (Robert Ludlum; good ending but his more recent novels are better)

5. The Scarlatti Inheritance (Robert Ludlum; decent, but not very exciting)

4. The Apocalypse Watch (Robert Ludlum; great)

3. What to Eat (Marion Nestle; informative - so much I didn't know about food, how it's made, what's healthy, etc... courtesy of Emily)

2. The Lost Continent (Bill Bryson; entertaining but gets old very quickly - his first book and it shows - too much making fun of things in an attempt to be funny than actually being witty)

1. The Girl Who Played With Fire (Steig Laarson; all three in the trilogy are fast-paced and enjoyable to read)