2013 Resolution #1: The Impossible Booklist

Well then, i FINALLY managed to finish 'The Storm of Swords' after grueling weeks of readings and having disappointments after disappointments being presented to me in all 1128 pages of the book.

Which brings me to one of my 2013 resolutions, which is the impossible booklist. Well apart from other nearly impossible resolutions this year (going swimming at least once a week, keep updating my blog, re-learn my french bla bla bla), i have this idea to finish a number of books this year. I don't know whether i can do it... i didnt manage to maintain ANY resolutions in 2012, and my reading list had hit its all time low with only 3 books read in 2012, so i had this crazy notion to write a booklist and make sure i finish all of the books I've listed this year. Let's see all the books;

(in a list with random order)

1. A Storm of Swords (George R.R. Martin)

I have been complaining too much while reading this book, but I managed to finish it. I got the craze for the series BECAUSE of the TV show. Well, from what I have been complaining about the book, the series have a lot to do to make me still watch the show. Don't get me wrong, R.R. Martin is a good writer, only this time in this book, his plot is a little bit wonky with too much unnecessary details and disappointments.

2. A Feast for Crows and 3. A Dance with Dragons

Oh well, maybe i will complain about these ones too, I know that R.R. Martin is crazy and was mistreated as a a child somehow to create all this good guys in his books and have them butchered and mutilated and killed, but somewhere in i have this silly, childish hopes that the good guys (who still survives the butchery) might proved to be victorious in the end.

4. Life of Pi (Yann Martell)

Well, I think it was years ago when a friend asked me to buy this book for him, and i never did. Now I watched the movie and i could hit myself that i have never read the book. So this is it. I am reading this now...

5. Beatrice and Virgil (Yann Martell)

Oh well, for somebody who wrote something which had inspired a movie as good as 'Life of Pi' must be really good, right? I read the reviews for this book, most reviewers gave 'Beatrice and Virgil' 2 stars... but i thought this is Yann Martell talking about Holocaust through taxidermy monkey and and donkey. This is from a guy who created a tiger and named it Richard Parker... cant be that bad right? Well looking forward to read this one, to hell with reviewers, they gave Storm of Swords five stars anyway... so they could be wrong on this one too...

6. The Case of the Man who Died Laughing (Tarquin Hall)

I dont know who is Tarquin Hall until I took this book up at the Big Bad Wolf Sale. Well, i read the back and it says that the man died laughing after being stabbed by the hindu goddess Kali. Well, how absurd is that? and i like absurd. So, cant wait to start on this, will take this after i finish 'Life of Pi'.

7. Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell)

Well, I'm not actually a big fan of sic-fi. But i LOVED Chricton's Jurassic Park and The Lost World. I do believe that books being adapted to movies have huge merits, and even huger when the movies have A-list actors stars in it, this one has Tom Hanks, the starriest of the stars. So, definitely goes into my list.

8. A Wizard of Earthsea and 9. The Dispossessed (Ursula K. Le Guin)

Let me confess; I watched that movie - The Jane Austen Book Club (Because I love Emily Blunt and Maggie Grace) and that Hugh Dancy character kept on harping about the Le Guin books. So I saw these two in the Big Bad Wolf sale and said 'Why not?'

10. The Dog Who Came in from the Cold and 11. A Conspiracy of Friends (Alexander McCall Smith)

Well, you can understand why I love McCall Smith, it is because of that dry, British wit. I bought one of these books last year, never had the time to read it, so here's hoping to finish the trilogy in 2013.

12. Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad (May Witwit & Bee Rowlatt)

 Well, i do love to read about the Iraqi war from an educated Iraqi perspective. This doesnt really count as a book, more to a collection of emails sent and read by these two individuals. Well, here's hoping that their conversation is more interesting than Kim Kardashian's growing spawn in her belly.

13. The Casual Vacancy (J.K. Rowling)

four words; IT'S JOANNE KATHLEEN ROWLING!

14. Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter (A.E. Moorat)

I am an English Monarchy nut, do I like the parody made from it? no... Do i like something absurd? Yes. I want to read this book might be because of the fact that i had to wrestle it out from the grasping talons of another book nut at a small book sale in KL Sentral last April. Why did she wanted the book? I cannot say, why I wanted it? I cannot say... better I open it up and read and find out.

15. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (Ben H. Winters)

Like number 14, I dont like parodied version of something I love, but I dont know, just like number 14, this book calls to me to have them read. So et voila, there it is on my shelf and on my list.

16. The Red Queen (Philippa Gregory)

 I love almost all of Gregory's book; The Other Boleyn Girl was simply amazing, amazing that I couldnt put it down. (The movie was garbage however).  The Boleyn Inheritance and The Constant Princess was equally amazing. You may see how much I love it. I read the first installment of the series, The White Queen, 3 years ago and now they are making a TV Show out of it. Before they make a TV show out of this one, better i read it first.

17. The Captive Queen (Alison Weir)

Well, this book had received too many negative reviews. I read two of Weir's books before, the first one was Innocent Traitor, the story about Lady Jane Grey, it was dead boring. And then I read The Lady Elizabeth, the account of Queen Elizabeth's life before she became queen, and it was good. Well, i hope this one could be somewhat like the latter, but i doubt it. But since I have the love of Historical Fiction, i think i can survive this.

Well, there you have it. My 2013 Resolution number 1, the Impossible book list, hope that my job won't be in a way this time. Wish me luck!