28 books in 2008

I decided to join Crystal’s challenge 28 books in 2008. After taking out a calculator I realized that implies that I have an average of 13 days to read each book. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it with all the work from my classes, my job and my lame excuses, but I will certainly try!

If you’ve read any of these books, please do comment and let me know what you thought of it :)

Status: 12 of 28

1. 1984 by George Orwell
   Started: December 2007
   Finished: n/a
   Comments: I don’t think I’m ever going to finish this. It’s interesting, but everything else seems more interesting by comparison.
2. Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega
   Started: January 24th, 2008
   Finished: January 26th, 2008
   Comments: I can’t believe I hadn’t read this before. Relatively short, nice story.
3. All that is solid melts into air by Marshall Bermann
   Started: January 26th, 2008
   Finished: January 28th, 2008
   Comments: Marx here and Marx there. Exposes interesting ideas about modernism.
4. La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
   Started: February 2nd, 2008
   Finished: February 8th, 2008
   Comments: This books is absolutely beautiful from start to end. The characters speak in melodious verse and the concept of life being nothing but a dream leaves a lot to think about. Plus it has a happy ending!
5. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
   Started: February 11th, 208
   Finished: February 28th, 2008
   Comments: This was really long… It exposes interesting theories about, well, what the title says. Weber makes some connections that leave you thinking “Who would have thought?”.
6. Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes
   Started: February 9th, 2008
   Finished: Febrary 25th, 2008
   Comments: This book is better than I expected, it truly deserves its fame and more. I laughed like crazy all the time, and cried like crazy at the end.
7. L’Avare by Moliere
   Started: February 14th, 2008
   Finished: February 28th, 2008
   Comments: (I read the Spanish translation “El Avaro”) Very easy to read, very funny and has a happy ending :)
8. El sí de las niñas by Leandro Fernández Moratín
   Started: March 13th, 2008
   Finished: March 14th, 2008
   Comments: The last pages made me cry, but I think that’s in me and not in the book. The story is very similar to those in other books I’ve read recently. It presents and refreshing view on arranged marriage though.
9. The art of war by Sun Tzu
   Started: March 28th, 2008
   Finished: n/a
   Comments: n/a
10. Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorilla
    Started: April 4th, 2008
    Finished: April 4th, 2008
    Comments: This is one of the strangest things I’ve ever read. The most horrible and yet most beautiful. Spanish Romanticism at its finest!
11. Les Mains Sales by Jean-Paul Sartre
    Started: April 22nd, 2008
    Finished: April 22nd, 2008
    Comments: (I read the Spanish translation “Las manos sucias”) I thought this book was going to be horrible. It was just… wow. A lot more than I expected. I made me think a lot.
12. Leyendas by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
    Started: April 24th, 2008
    Finished: April 25th, 2008
    Comments: Nice but… meh.
13. Luces de Bohemia by Ramón del Valle-Inclán
    Started: May 1st, 2008
    Finished: May 1st, 2008
    Comments: Interesting and very sad story.
14. La familia de Pascual Duarte by Camilo José Cela
    Started: May 8th, 2008
    Finished: May 9th, 2008
    Comments: It’s so oddly formatted that I didn’t know where to start reading! It’s interesting once you get used to its… “oddness”. It’s a sad story. Wait, no. It’s not sad. It’s tragic to the point of almost pathetic. It’s a ball of bad events, death and despair, all one after the other. It’s a disaster of a story. It’s sick. It’s post-war literature, after all. A sidenote: this is my last assigned novel for my Spanish literature class. Woo!