Books Ive Read 2006 v.1
Explore my curated list of books read in 2006—discover top picks, hidden gems, and must-read titles from my personal reading journey.
Item Not Found
ID: 0760762775
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: B000HVW4G0
(Type: books)

Book
Sandman
by Neil Gaiman
There is a dark king who rules our dreams from a place of shadows and fantastic things. He is Morpheus, the lord of story. Older than humankind itself, he inhabits -- along with Destiny, Death, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium, his Endless sisters and brothers -- the realm of human consciousness. His powers are myth and nightmare -- inspirations, pleasures, and punishments manifested beneath the blanketing mist of sleep. Surrender to him now. A stunning collection of visions, wonders, horrors, hallucinations, and revelations from Clive Barker, Barbara Hambly, Tad Williams, Gene Wolfe, Nancy A. Collins, and sixteen other incomparable dreamers -- inspired by the groundbreaking, bestselling graphic novel phenomenon by Neil Gaiman.


Book
The Pirates!
by Gideon Defoe
Following their misadventures with Charles Darwin and the evil Bishop of Oxford, the Pirates set sail in a new ship, purchased on credit, and embark on a quest to capture the Dastardly White Whale, hoping to gain the reward promised by Captain Ahab, but first they must deal with buried treasure, the lascivious Cutlass Liz, a Las Vegas singing contest, and other trials. 25,000 first printing.
Item Not Found
ID: 0743267265
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0743477545
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0553573136
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0688179096
(Type: books)

Book
The Crying of Lot 49
by Thomas Pynchon
The highly original satire about Oedipa Maas, a woman who finds herself enmeshed in a worldwide conspiracy, meets some extremely interesting characters, and attains a not inconsiderable amount of self knowledge.

Item Not Found
ID: 0743485041
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0863161928
(Type: books)

Book
Still Life with Woodpecker
by Tom Robbins
“Robbins’s comic philosophical musings reveal a flamboyant genius.”—People Still Life with Woodpecker is a sort of a love story that takes place inside a pack of Camel cigarettes. It reveals the purpose of the moon, explains the difference between criminals and outlaws, examines the conflict between social activism and romantic individualism, and paints a portrait of contemporary society that includes powerful Arabs, exiled royalty, and pregnant cheerleaders. It also deals with the problem of redheads.
Item Not Found
ID: 0340694041
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0380728729
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0413475204
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 1400047587
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 1932416161
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: B0006BMAT2
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0060114169
(Type: books)

Book
Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust
by Nathanael West
Two classic short stories, one about a male reporter who writes an advice column, and the other, about people who have migrated to California in expectation of health and ease.

Book
Grief Observed
by C. S. Lewis
Written after his wife's tragic death as a way of surviving the "mad midnight moment," A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis's honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains his concise, genuine reflections on that period: "Nothing will shake a man -- or at any rate a man like me -- out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself." This is a beautiful and unflinchingly homest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings.

Book
Life, the Universe and Everything
by Douglas Adams
Now celebrating the 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, soon to be a Hulu original series! “Wild satire . . . The feckless protagonist, Arthur Dent, is reminiscent of Vonnegut heroes.”—Chicago Tribune The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads—so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total annihilation. They are Arthur Dent, a mild-mannered space and time traveler who tries to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing; Ford Prefect, his best friend, who decides to go insane to see if he likes it; Slartibartfast, the indomitable vice president of the Campaign for Real Time, who travels in a ship powered by irrational behavior; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-president of the galaxy; and Trillian, the sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thunder God and a very depressed Beeblebrox. How will it all end? Will it end? Only this stalwart crew knows as they try to avert “universal” Armageddon and save life as we know it—and don’t know it! “Adams is one of those rare treasures: an author who, one senses, has as much fun writing as one has reading.”—Arizona Daily Star
Item Not Found
ID: 0877843899
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0679776222
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 067972723X
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0226470571
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0440504708
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0740751093
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0140284087
(Type: books)

Book
Very Short Stories Flash Fiction
by James Thomas
"These stories are not merely flashes in the pan; there's pay dirt here!" ―DeWitt Henry, editor of Ploughshares
Item Not Found
ID: 0898707455
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0670855340
(Type: books)

Book
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
by Douglas Adams
Now celebrating the 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, soon to be a Hulu original series! “A madcap adventure . . . Adams’s writing teeters on the fringe of inspired lunacy.”—United Press International Back on Earth with nothing more to show for his long, strange trip through time and space than a ratty towel and a plastic shopping bag, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription, the mysterious disappearance of Earth’s dolphins, and the discovery of his battered copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy all conspire to give Arthur the sneaking suspicion that something otherworldly is indeed going on. God only knows what it all means. Fortunately, He left behind a Final Message of explanation. But since it’s light-years away from Earth, on a star surrounded by souvenir booths, finding out what it is will mean hitching a ride to the far reaches of space aboard a UFO with a giant robot. What else is new? “The most ridiculously exaggerated situation comedy known to created beings . . . Adams is irresistible.”—The Boston Globe

Book
Junior
by Macaulay Culkin
Junior would like to get a few things off his chest. He does not know how to write a book. (Except [maybe] for this one.) He does not like books with introductions. (So this book has six of them.) His therapist says he has issues with closure. (Granted, this book has seven endings.) This is not a novel. (Everything in it is entirely true -- except for the large portions that are completely fictional.) And finally, Junior has no issues with his father. (Nope, really, not a single one.) In a dizzying kaleidoscope of words and images, actor and writer Macauley Culkin takes readers on a twisted tour to the darkest corners of his fertile imagination. Part memoir, part rant, part comedic tour de force, Junior is full of the hard-won wisdom of Culkin's quest to come to terms with the awesome pressures of childhood mega-stardom and family dysfunction. He understands that "having fun and being happy are two totally different things," yet at the same time he warns, "the end of the world is coming -- and I'm going to have unfinished business." Searingly honest and brain-teasingly inventive, Junior is breathtaking proof that Culkin has found his own utterly original voice.
Item Not Found
ID: 0525155627
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0802150241
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0394512456
(Type: books)

Book
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
Dark allegory describes the narrator's journey up the Congo River and his meeting with, and fascination by, Mr. Kurtz, a mysterious personage who dominates the unruly inhabitants of the region. Masterly blend of adventure, character development, psychological penetration. Considered by many Conrad's finest, most enigmatic story.