First there was the spreadsheet, now there’s the app.

Well, pretty soon there will be…

http://1001booksapp.com/

As promised… in fact, even more than I promised…

Version 4 is packed full of new features and it blows anything released before out of the water. Don’t believe me? Well, see the feature list and if that doesn’t grab you, check out a few screenshots. If you’re still not convinced, there are four screencasts too.

And if you trust me enough to ignore all that, and just want to get your hands on it right now:

Choose your flavour…

oh… yeah, I almost forgot. Check out Arukiyomi’s Affiliate Club to find out how you can get paid for, frankly, doing nothing.

Context: As I was finishing this, a huge box of Christmas goodies was on its way to us from friends in Korea. Thanks guys!

REVIEW

Another constipation-inducing Thomas Mann digested. This was even harder to get through than The Magic Mountain but at least it was half the length. If you’re into the philosophy of musical theory, this is the book for you. I can’t think it’s the book for many though. Granted, Mann has pulled of an astonishing achievement here with his research, his attention to detail and his command of metaphor and allegory. But people in comas are more interesting than long stretches of this.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Was reading this when I visited the National Orchid Garden of PNG outside Port Moresby. Amazing variety of the weirdest-looking flowers I’ve ever seen.

REVIEW

I don’t think I’ve ever read any Naipaul before. Can’t think why. This was an excellent series of short stories wandering through themes of empire, colonialism and identity and is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago, if not more so.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Found this at a friend’s house as I visited Port Moresby and enjoyed the pool after work each day.

REVIEW

This book sits right at the top of the 2010 edition of the 1001 books list. It’s exactly the kind of philosophical realism that my experience of French literature has led me to expect. The tradition seems alive and well in the 21st century.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Was reading this from the front seat as we came in to land at Jackson Field, Port Moresby’s airport.

REVIEW

My, my, what a sad novel. At the start of it, we have a bunch of characters, a setting, a family, a life going on. And by the end of it, we have A Handful of Dust.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Hosted an event where we projected a film on a sheet we rigged up on the wall of the living room while I read this.

REVIEW

Another great novel(la) from Coetzee. This guy has such a way with words. He just sucks you in. His novels are never uplifting but they describe the human condition with such vivid clarity that it almost makes you feel embarrassed to be a member of the species.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Was reading this on the balcony and a huge moth had decided to take up residence on our tablecloth.

REVIEW

As far as US detective novels that I’ve read so far go, this is by far the most all-rounded novel of its genre. Two things in particular made it stand out for me: the style of writing and the quality of the characters that Hammett created.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: The morning I finished this, a friend came over and we went and played a round of frisbee golf.

REVIEW

Reading Blue Like Jazz, earlier this year was something of a watershed for me. For a long, long time, I’d been feeling like a misfit in the church. It’s not that I stopped feeling out of place, it’s that I found Donald Miller was there with me; I felt I knew why I was actually a misfit and that it was perfectly okay. Searching isn’t nearly as good as Blue, but it continued the narrative in a very helpful direction.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Poor old Mrs Arukiyomi had to have 5 stitches in her finger while I was reading this.

REVIEW

Fiiiiinally read this. I say that because, when I was a teenager, I bought an illustrated copy of this and never finished it. I’m glad I waited though as I think I appreciated it far more than I would have done had I finished it back then. There’s something about writing set in Africa that has some weight of pathos I can’t put my finger on. Out of Africa has it, in spades.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Our acoustic band had its debut as I was reading this. Great to be playing live music again!

REVIEW

Wow, where did this come from? Never heard of Rebecca West in my life. The 1001 books list has paid off again and delivered a jewel into my reading lap. This was the first novel by a female about WW1 and it is one of the best I’ve read despite it being only novella length really.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Got some nice chairs to relax on for the veranda while reading this.

REVIEW

Not read any Hammett before but as soon as I hit the first line, I recognised the inspiration for Raymond Chandler. Although Chandler was good, Hammett was even better.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Just after I finished this off, a 7.3 earthquake with more explosive force than an atomic bomb smashed a pot in our living room from 100 miles away.

REVIEW

Mrs Arukiyomi bought me this for Christmas… Christmas 2005 that is. Thought I should finish it off before this Christmas at least although I should be forgiven seeing as how that was in Korea and we moved back to the UK and then out to Papua New Guinea in that time leaving this in storage with a shipping company for years.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Attended a Cultural Self-Discovery Workshop while I read this… fascinating… both the book and the workshop!

REVIEW

Boy this woman can write. With every book that I pick up of hers I feel like I’m in the presence of a writer the skill of which I can barely appreciate. I thank God that I’m not an aspiring novelist. Woolf would do for my literary ambitions what Flamenco has done for  my guitar playing! Jacob’s Room is not, for me, up there with The Waves which I still rank as the best prose I’ve ever read. But it is up there nonetheless.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Got myself a brand new crash helmet sent over from the US while I was reading this one.

REVIEW

Oh this was so much better than the mauling Disney puts the story through. So much better. There was so much more death and sadness and unrequited love and none of the baddies spoke with a British accent.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Finished burning off our piles of old paperwork as I finished reading this.

REVIEW

Right off the bat I’ll say that this is one of the most disappointing Booker winners that I’ve read. Usually, I can settle down into a chair with a Booker and within 20 pages I’m deep into some amazing literature. This book never quite took me there.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Our jacaranda tree was in full bloom as I finished this one off.

REVIEW

This is the third book on the psychology of love which I picked up when I was back in the UK April-June earlier this year. For the others, see my reviews of The Art of Loving and Conditions of Love. I have to say that this was the book I was looking forward to getting into most but which, in the end, delivered least. Nevertheless, it was a worthwhile read. It just had a high standard to live up to set by the other two.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Began the mammoth task of scanning all our unscanned office documentation while reading this.

REVIEW

This is a short story about a king abducted from his tribe in Surinam into slavery, about the his character and the tragic events of his demise. It differs from much else published at the time: three notable ways.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Spent over 2 hours burning unbelievable amounts of old paperwork from our office while I was reading this. Very satisfying!

REVIEW

Coetzee is turning into one of my favourite novelists. This guy didn’t win a Nobel Prize for nothing. I have, in the past, struggled with Nobel laureate writers: Pamuk, Hesse, Mann, García Márquez – all have written stuff that is mind-bogglingly dull and inaccessible. But with every novel I read of Coetzee’s, I find myself learning a different perspective on humanity. That’s got to be valuable.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Involved in final rehearsals for Cinderella while I finished this off.

REVIEW

After having had one of the strangest experiences of my life attending meetings of a group of men who follow the Lo-Bos movement in a village in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea, this was a must read. It helped me sort out some of what I’d heard and gave me more understanding as to why I’d heard it.

(Click to read my review…)

Context: Starting a run of exhausting rehearsals for Cinderella. And, before you ask, no, I’m not an ugly sister.

REVIEW

Haven’t read any Lawrence for quite a while. Actually, not since Lady Chatterley’s Lover back in September 2007. Missed him. This was a good novella, packed with the deep analysis of personality that I’ve come to expect from old David Herbert.

(Click to read my review…)